Pinball is fun. It’s the simple premise that makes it fun – press some buttons to make some flippers flip with the aim of not losing the ball. Oh, there are lots of fun things that can happen in between to rack up your points too!

Pinball, as a game, is something I feel transfers well to the iPhone (and iPad) – the screen is the right shape and you only need two ‘buttons’ to play the whole thing. GameProm already have a handful of other Pinball games which look good and work well and have teamed up with the metal band Slayer for the theme of this release.

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The iPad is a great device, but it is not very convenient for phone calls. Although it does not have cellphone capabilities it still supports Skype and other VOIP apps. Holding the iPad to your face is not a practicality. This it where the Native Union Moshi Moshi 02 handset comes to the fore.

The Moshi Moshi 02 is a traditional style telephone handset that connects to various devices providing a convenient way to chat using your iPad or iPhone. With an additional USB adapter the Moshi Moshi 02 can connect to your computer as well making it a versatile audio handset.

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The long awaited launch day for the iPhone 4 has arrived, and it is way bigger than previous iPhone launches. We were up at 5am to get up to get to the Apple UK flagship store in Regent St, London. Arriving at 7am we joined the end of a long, long queue of about 3000 fellow Appleites waiting to get their hands on the new iPhone 4.

Just before 8:00 a huge cheer went up round the corner at the front of the store…

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The long awaited upgrade for the Apple iPhone is now ready to be downloaded and installed from iTunes. Names iOS 4 the OS upgrade is free to all iPhone users and will install automatically when you connect your iPhone to iTunes and press the update button.

In a slightly unusual move Apple have released the iPhone OS update before the new devices hit the stores. Normally it is the other way round.

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Well Vodafone have now announced their pricing for the new iPhone 4 handset and contracts. It would appear that the original leaked pricing structures were way off mark. We have updated our iPhone 4 price comparison post to reflect the confirmed pricing.

The iPhone 4 handset will cost £219 and there will be 18 and 24 month contracts. The 18 month contract will cost £30 per month with 75 minutes of calls, 250 text messages, and 1Gb of data. Although this works out at £10 more than the equivalent O2 contract with less calls and texts it does offer double the data. If you do go over the O2 500Mb limit just once then the Vodafone contract becomes cheaper.

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It is interesting that when the wireless carriers created the 3G networks there was no mention of data, it was all about Video Calling. Now I had one of the early 3G Motorola V3 flip phones and I used video calling once. And then it failed.

But that was way back in time, and things have changed since then. Video Calling which was the big selling point of upgrading to 3G died a death and was replaced by WAP and Mobile Internet. So why has Apple re-introduced video calling in the guise of Face Time?

Well some of the social media and new generation communications platforms have done very well with text, voice, and video messaging. So maybe it is time for mobile video calling to make a comeback. As far as bandwidth is concerned there shouldn’t be a problem (unless you are in San Francisco and your name is Steve Jobs at WWDC) and of course I think that is will be great for families and friends who are apart.

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Each time Apple releases a new iPhone I ask myself is buying it on contract the wise thing to do? If you are in the USA you have no choice it is AT&T signing your life away for 2 years: End Of!

It used to be like that in the UK too, but with the iPhone 3GS PAYG was introduced and that changed the game. Still on O2 and the iPhone was locked to the O2 network. But then O2 lost its monopoly and other carriers got in on the act. The result is that with the launch of the iPhone 4 we will have 4 carriers available and the iPhone will be available both on contract and SIM free.

So with all these options available what is the best way to own an iPhone 4? Read on to find out…

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In a surprising turn of events we have calculated that the total cost of ownership of an iPhone 4 is far cheaper in the UK than it is in the USA. Although Orange are the only UK Carrier to have currently published their pricing it is reasonable to assume that O2, Vodafone and 3 will have similar pricing options.

So if you want a new 16Gb iPhone 4 with no existing contract it will cost you £169 from Orange on a 24 month contract. From AT&T it will cost $199+tax = $211.94 (approx £143) so it is £26 or so cheaper in the USA. But here is the real cost… the airtime. For Orange the cheapest airtime contract is £30 a month ($44) from AT&T it is $70+tax = $74.55 (£50.32) a difference of $30 (£20.32) a month.

So adding all this up together it looks like it would cost $2,001 (£1,355) to own an iPhone 4 in the US for 2 years, and just £889 ($1,312) in the UK a saving of £466 or $689.

On the assumption that in 12 months time you will be wanting to upgrade to the latest iPhone 5 )or whatever) you have more options in the UK. Again with Orange you can get the same iPhone 4 on an 18 month contract costing £229 and £35 a month for a total of £859 or $1286 making an even bigger saving of £496 or $715.

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Well just over a day since Apple announced the SIM Free pricing for the new iPhone 4 Orange become the first UK carrier to announce their pricing structure.

Starting at £169 and £30 a month for a 24 month contract and rising to £229 and £35 a month for a 18 month contract based on a 16Gb iPhone 4. This compares to $199 plus tax for a 24 month AT&T contract at $70 a month in the USA.

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As California wakes up and anyone wanting an upgrade of their existing iPhone in the USA goes online to request an upgrade the AT&T servers seem unable to cope. We have been getting reports from across the USA for some time that users are unable to process upgrade requests with AT&T.

One of our US readers attempting to upgrade sent us the following error he received:
There was a problem with your request.
P1015: We’re sorry, but we are experiencing a system error that prevents us from completing your request. For non iPhone related upgrades, please call Customer Care at 1-888-867-4384 and provide the error number at the beginning of this message.

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