Yahoo! Messenger for iOS has been updated to version 2.1. The chat client is now optimized for tablets screens, and Yahoo! has added support for video chat on the iPad 2, including the ability to place video chat calls to the iPhone, a Mac, or a PC. Yahoo! says it has also added improved spam management tools, and users will now be able to block one or all friend requests from a single screen. If you’ve been using the previous version, the update should also eliminate any unexpected sign-out issues. Yahoo! Messenger 2.1 is available for free from iTunes now.

[Via 9to5 Mac]

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While a new update to the Yahoo Messenger app on the iPhone would be eventful in and of itself, the latest version brings a very special gift — video calling over 3G, and not just phone to phone, but phone to computer or vice versa. Unfortunately in our quick tests, video calling seems to be buggy, not reliable, and above all, pretty low in the quality department when we do manage to get it working. In addition to video calls, the newly updated Yahoo Messenger brings free voice calls to other Yahoo Messenger friends, supports background multitasking, and more. Let us know if you’re feeling the new update, though we’ll be waiting for real FaceTime calling over 3G.

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This morning, Yahoo! announced the release of Yahoo! Mail and Yahoo! Messenger app for Android. Available for download in the Market, the Yahoo! apps provide a tad more functionality to those Android users who aren’t “with Google” like their phone’s OS may be. Hit the jump for the full press release.

Yahoo! Launches Yahoo!(R) Mail and Yahoo! Messenger Apps for Android

Also Debuts New Yahoo! Mail and Yahoo! News HTML5 Mobile Websites for iPhone; Yahoo! Search Widget for Android

SUNNYVALE, Calif., Jul 01, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) — In continuing to develop leading mobile products and services that reach a broad audience across multiple platforms, Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) today expanded the reach of its industry-leading services with the immediate availability of Yahoo! Mail and Yahoo! Messenger apps for Android as well as a Yahoo! Search Widget for Android.

Leveraging the latest HTML5 technology, Yahoo! is also debuting faster and richer Yahoo! Mail and Yahoo! News sites for iPhone and iPod Touch. These new mobile products will provide the hundreds of millions of loyal consumers who rely on Yahoo! Mail, Messenger, Search, and News with seamless, integrated experiences on their mobile devices.

“Yahoo! keeps more than 600 million consumers around the world connected to the people and things that matter to them most – wherever and whenever they want,” said David Ko, senior vice president, Americas, Audience, Mobile, and Local for Yahoo!. “With the availability of our world-class Yahoo! Mail and Yahoo! Messenger apps for Android and by harnessing the latest in HTML5, we’re making it easier than ever for consumers to access fast, reliable, and feature-rich Yahoo! experiences across some of the fastest growing platforms in the market.”

Easy Access to Yahoo! Mail and Yahoo! Messenger on Android

With a visually stunning interface as well as new functionality and other enhancements optimized for the Android platform, the Yahoo! apps for Android provide more than 300 million Yahoo! Mail and Yahoo! Messenger users with the best communication experience for easily accessing and sharing information on Android phones.

The Yahoo! Mail and Yahoo! Messenger Android apps are available globally as free downloads available in the Android Market, supporting OS 2.0 or newer.

With the new Yahoo! Mail App for Android, consumers can:

• Receive push notification of new email messages
• Send emails to contacts from the Yahoo! Address Book as well as to contacts in the native phone address book
• Search email messages by sender, recipient, subject and keywords
• Upload photos as attachments directly from the phone’s camera or the photo gallery
• View and download attachments
• Insert emoticons and rich text formatting into emails
• Effectively manage and organize their Yahoo! Mail messages, folders, and spam
• Easily toggle between the Yahoo! Mail and Yahoo! Messenger apps
• In addition to providing a robust consumer experience, the Yahoo! Mail app for Android offers advertisers an opportunity to reach a highly engaged mobile audience. Samsung is the inaugural advertiser with a rich media display advertising unit.

With the new Yahoo! Messenger App for Android, consumers can:

• Easily message friends, check friends’ status updates and availability and update their personal status and availability
• Send instant messages to friends via SMS text message1
• Multitask and stay connected with the app working in the background; with push notifications, consumers can easily catch new messages and friend requests
• Get full use of emoticons and rich text formatting
• Send photos to friends directly from the phone’s camera or the photo gallery

Also available today, the Yahoo! Search Widget for Android provides consumers with convenient one-click access to Yahoo! Search. After the Widget is installed, a Yahoo! Search box is easily accessible on the home screen. With voice search for easier input, Search Assist for quick suggestions and recommendations, and auto-locate technology to deliver locally relevant results, the Yahoo! Search Widget quickly provides the answers a consumer needs.

The Yahoo! Search Widget is currently available in the U.S. only for free. It is available for download in the Android Market and supports OS 2.0 or newer.

Upgraded Yahoo! Mail and Yahoo! News for iPhone and iPod Touch

Harnessing the latest technology, Yahoo! Mail and Yahoo! News are now built on HTML5 to give consumers a faster and more sophisticated mobile browsing experience.

The upgraded Yahoo! Mail offers consumers a webmail experience that is fast and reliable and that easily surfaces rich content. Now available globally in 28 languages across 200 countries, Yahoo! Mail is optimized for iPhone and iPod Touch and is expected to be available across other Webkit-enabled browsers in the future.

With HTML5 Yahoo! Mail consumers can:

• View HTML messages; compose rich text messages, reply, search emails, and access folders while offline
• Manage folders and create smart folders with messages from key contacts
• Surface photos and video attachments directly within the mail preview
• Enjoy a seamless experience with Yahoo! Mail across mobile and desktop

Additionally, now Yahoo! News includes an all-new layout with animated visual effects and navigation that uses touch gestures to deliver a compelling news experience. Yahoo! brings the news to life with photos, slideshows, and video features, and provides consumers with an option to explore related articles. Currently available in the U.S. on the iPhone or iPod Touch browser, the product is expected to become available in additional countries and on additional devices.

For more information about the products and services, visit Yahoo.com and search for: “Yahoo! and Mobile”

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Open up your iTunes and get this app now! Fring is a pre-release app free on iTunes which allows you to contact your friends on AIM, MSN, Yahoo, Twitter, Skype, and more. VoIP is available over WiFi and the availability of your friends are displayed in real time. The only thing is, and this is hardly a downside, they would like for you to offer your feedback, hence the pre-release offer and test. We just had some friends call and while you can tell you’re on VoIP, the call quality is amazing! It’s pretty much just as good as the Fring call quality is on any other platform. Though a little “tinny,” we had no problems whatsoever understanding each other – even outdoors where the traffic noise was substantial. Also, logging onto the instant messaging clients was a breeze and they work perfectly. You don’t need Skype in order to make VoIP calls either if your friends also have Fring. All you have to do is exchange your Fring usernames and call them through GoogleTalk or any of the other messaging clients that don’t say “Chat Only”! The one thing you may want to take note of is that Apple has been just weird lately with what apps they decide to pull from the app store, so you might want to jump on this one while you can.

Thanks, Steph and Gil!

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