Further into the game you have different types of ninja stars – some that explode after a certain time into lots of smaller stars, some that almost disappear as ghosts and others that I’ve yet to unlock. You also get steel bars on the edge of the wood that you cannot slice through. Cutting off certain larger chunks of wood gives you bonuses such as extra lives, slow-motion for a few seconds and a random star that gets removed from play via a nice little explosion.

The looks, sounds and feel of the game are very very slick. It’s a joy to play, it’s perfect for simply picking up and playing while waiting for the wife to come out of Morrisons (you know, when they just ‘pop in for one or two things…). It’s just the right difficulty – not too easy that you complete it in no time but also not so hard that you get fed up and give up. There are also a good number of Game Center challenges and achievements to try to beat too. I’ve had this game for a few months now and it’s one that I still keep coming back to. At 59p (99c) it’s a bargain!

iSlash iPhone Game Trailer from Duello Games on Vimeo.

Vodafone iPhone 4 pricing confirmed

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.

Buying the iPhone on a 24 month contract does not change the handset price, but does drop the monthly charge to £25, making it cheaper than the O2 24 month iPhone 4 contract.

Click here to view the official UK Vodafone iPhone 4 pricing page.

iPhone 4 in short supply

With this in mind I was beginning to wonder if the Apple Stores will actually have any stock. I phoned round a few stores and managed to get the same reply fro all the stores I tried: “We will have stock, but it will be very limited. We will have to keep most of our stock for the people who have reserved their iPhones”.

The other wireless carriers have been a little quiet so we don’t really know what is happening there, indeed Vodafone, T-Mobile and Three have not declared pricing yet. No doubt things will become a little more clear next week.

It certainly seems to be leading up to the biggest Apple launch so far. So if you really must have the latest iPhone 4 then it looks as if choosing the right location may pay dividends. The best bet would probably be to try a smaller shop, but then again they will have less stock. It really will be a gamble if you haven’t pre-ordered.

Quote from the O2 site.

iPhone 4 will only be available for existing O2 customers at launch

iPhone stock will be extremely limited in the UK at launch and not everybody who wants one will be able to get one straight away. We want to make sure that our existing customers get priority so until at least the end of July, only existing O2 customers will be able to get an iPhone 4 from us.

Whether you’re an existing O2 mobile customer looking to upgrade, or one of our broadband customers looking to move your mobile to O2, our iPhone stock is reserved exclusively for you.

FaceTime: Video Calls reborn

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.

The restriction though is that you can only call iPhone 4 to iPhone 4. Why not iPhone 4 to Mac? Or iPhone to anything? Is restricting it to iPhone 4 going to cause it to fail? Does the fact that Apple has developed FaceTime mean that they will block the far more useful Skype from releasing video calling in their app? I certainly hope not, but even so the wireless carriers will be reluctant to allow this video calling over their networks as they will be struggling to provide the bandwidth that they have difficulty obtaining extra revenue from.

Maybe the recent withdrawal of “unlimited” data tariffs is more to do with gaining extra revenue from users wanting to use their devices in new and innovative ways, than punishing the tiny minority who have taken the networks at their word and “abuse” the “unlimited data”.

Lets face it with the cost of data fixed and falling the wireless carriers have to find a way to get the finances they need to invest in newer and faster networks. They have missed out badly on controlling what connects to their network so now they need to capitalise on the only “real” asset they have: the network and it’s airtime.

I am all for paying a fair price for a product to enable further development and innovation, and indeed for the company to make money, but being draconian and restrictive may very well stifle mobile innovation and effectively restrict what we can do with our mobile devices to static WiFi networks.

FaceTime: Video Calls reborn