It’s a turn-based strategy game that offers multiple levels of war strategy scenarios, plays very well on the iPhone and has some very nice features.  Agile Forces is from Agile Mobile - the same folks who just brought out what I think is the best IM client for the iPhone - Agile Messenger - a couple days back.

Here’ some of what I like about Agile Forces:

• Bite-sized and useful tutorials that get you up to speed on using different types of units (from artillery to mechanics and medics), making good use of terrain, and general game strategy
• You get to blow stuff up with tanks and rocket launchers and such
• Simple but good graphics - nothing super flashy or spectacular, but fun and good for the sort of game this is
• Playability is great - as in, everything works well, runs fast, and getting up and running with it is quick
• You’ve got artillery and tanks and you can blow stuff up
• The game strikes a good balance between being easy to play and still being challenging - in terms of difficulty posed by each battle scenario
• And … tanks and blowing stuff up

The current ‘demo’ version of the game offers 5 single player missions.  There are plans for more missions (up to 100) and an online (play against others) capabilities coming in (probably paid-for) versions of Agile Forces.  That sounds very promising - I’d love to see the online multiplayer version come along soon.

Agile Mobile has also recently announced that both Agile Messenger and Agile Forces will be coming to the iPhone App Store.

Big splash from Agile Mobile this week - two very nice apps that are well worth trying.  Agile Forces is available on Installer now, in the Games section

They did the math, and they figure that it would still be cheaper to buy a 16GB this way than a contract-free 8GB.

Here’s what you’ll pay to cancel the service: (Plus $199 or $299 for the iPhone 3G)
$36 - Activation
$175 - Early Termination Fee
$70 - One month of service

If their calculations are correct, this would mean:
8GB iPhone Canceled: $480
16GB iPhone Canceled: $580

That is quite a bit of savings from $599 and $699. My only concern is, will it actually work?

The pre-paid price for the iPhone is $729 (8GB) and $849 (16GB) and allows you to sign up as needed without need for a long term contract. Pricing appears to start at $30 per “recharge” but without data service. 50MB is included in the $40 Turbo Cap pricing. Full details are available at Optus.

The post-paid pricing appears slightly more confusing (to this U.S. resident), with no upfront phone charge, but a monthly “handset repayment” which ranges from $0/month to $59/month depending on the plan and model of iPhone you get.

“Cap” plans start at $19/month with 100MB of internet data and “$50 of calls and text”. Prices go up from there, with the highest price priced at $179/month with 1GB of data and “$1500 of calls and text”. Full details are available at Optus.

Vodafone and Telstra are also providing iPhone service in Australia but have not yet announced their pricing plans.

Update: Telstra announced their plans today:

iPhone 3G will be available from Telstra on July 11 with a range of specially designed Next G iPhone 3G plans that meet the needs of any customer. The Next G iPhone 3G plans start at $30 per month with an upfront cost of $279 for the 8GB model and $399 for the 16GB model. Customers will receive the 8GB iPhone 3G model at no cost with the $80 plan and either the 8GB or the 16GB model at no cost with plans starting at $100 per month. All plans include free Wi-Fi access at Telstra hotspots and require a 24-month contract.

via http://www.macrumors.com/2008/07/03/optus-announces-iphone-3g-pricing-in-australia/

eWallet is one of the apps I am most looking forward to in the upcoming iPhone App Store.  It’s an award-winning, leading password manager / digital wallet application from Ilium Software, and one that I’ve used for many years on the desktop and on Palm and Windows Mobile devices.

Today Ilium have provided us with a sneak peek of what the iPhone version of this stellar program is going to look like, as well as a little more information on how ready the iPhone version is. 

The screenshots look great, and the news on how close to ready to go eWallet is, is also very good …

Here’s part of what Marc Tassin, the Ilium Product Manager for eWallet, has to say in his Sneak Peak blog post today:

I am extremely excited about this application. It looks great, it’s easy to  use, and while we’ve captured the iPhone feel it is in every way the eWallet software you’ve come to know and love.

I think it’s safe to say a lot of past, current, and future eWallet for iPhone users are going to feel the same way.

Marc’s blog post also talk about when we can expect to see eWallet for iPhone appear in the App Store.  The bad news on that subject - Ilium are not sure yet.  Like all iPhone developers, they are waiting on Apple’s approvals and processes and there is not a whole lot of information or confirmations flowing out from Apple just yet on exactly which titles are making it into the App Store on its launch day.

There’s some very good news on this subject though:

What I can tell you is that we have a finished product (I’ve been using it on my own iPhone for some time now) and we’re ready to roll as soon as Apple gives us the go ahead!

Excellent to hear that.  Having used Ilium products - and eWallet in particular - for many years, I know that when they say a program is ready to go, it has been beta tested to the Nth degree and will be rock solid right out of the gate.

Here’s hoping Apple gets a move on and makes sure eWallet is in the App Store from Day 1.

For more details and lots more lovely screencaps, check out Ilium’s blog post at:

http://blog.iliumsoft.com/?p=388

via http://justanotheriphoneblog.com/wordpress/2008/07/01/ewallet-for-iphone-sneak-peek-screenshots/#more-3676

2. Data costs more. On the original iPhone plans, unlimited data cost $20/month. The new iPhone 3G plans cost $30/month.

3. Exchange costs $15/month more beyond that. The normal 3G iPhone data plan costs $30/month. Enterprise data costs $45/month. This buys you access to all the standard Exchange features. If you need to get Exchange mail, or access data inside your firewall, you’re an enterprise user. AT&T isn’t saying they’ll disable ActiveSync and Exchange on normal iPhone plans for non-corporate users so we’re unsure how they’ll police this policy. Our Christina speculates that the enterprise plan sets up the server to accept exchange support; you could do IMAP from your exchange account but if you want non-MobileMe push, you gotta be on the enterprise tier plan.

Follow the jumps for more plan pricing details.

  4. SMS isn’t included. 200 Text Messages a month start at $5 and go up to $15 for 1500 and $20 for unlimited SMS messages.

5. You can buy SMS a la cart. SMS messages cost $0.20 each if you aren’t on one of the monthly plans. This is a bit pricey. Late last year, I was still paying $0.05 for AT&T SMS a la carte. Then they jumped to $0.15, and now $0.20.

6. Voice minutes still start at $40/month. There are no prepaid contract free Pay as You Go plans available for the 3G iPhone. $40/month buys you 450 minutes. Price plans go up from there to $200/month for 6000 minutes.

7. International plans are available. You must activate International Roaming before leaving the US and set up a plan. Call 866-331-0500 to find out more about international roaming and long distance. Keep in mind this consideration is true of nearly all smartphones from AT&T and not just the iPhone.

8. There are no 3G-less discounts. If you live in an area that doesn’t have 3G service, you’re still going to pay at least $30/month for data. AT&T no longer offers the original $20/month data plan. Many people consider the $20/month plan an incredible bargain.

via http://www.tuaw.com/2008/07/01/iphone-101-eight-3g-iphone-plan-pricing-details-you-need-to-kno/

Prior testing of iPhone OS 1.x’s JavaScript performance using Celtic Kane’s benchmarks revealed performance 30 times slower than that of a 1.83 GHz MacBook Pro, with iPhone-generated test times in excess of 9000 ms on average. Subsequent builds of iPhone OS 2.0 completed the benchmarks routine in just over 6000 ms. The latest build of iPhone OS 2.0, which thought to be near-final, turns in times of just under 4500 ms — double the performance of iPhone OS 1.x.

iPhone OS 2.0 uses an updated version of WebKit, numbered 525.18, to render pages in MobileSafari.

via http://www.iphoneatlas.com/2008/06/30/iphone-os-20-twice-as-fast-at-javascript/

via http://blogs.zdnet.com/Apple/?p=1907

According to Dutch blog Bright, PaperFoam CEO Hans Arentsen said that Apple ordered “millions of PaperFoam packages” for the new iPhone. PaperFoam also makes carton components for Motorola.

The PaperFoam tray will be inside a coated cardboard box, both of which are fully recyclable. Apple committed to reducing its environmental impact in an open letter from Steve Jobs released in May 2007

1. Create a new email message.
2. In the To: box, type 10digitnumber@teleflip.com. (1235551234@teleflip.com)
3. Type a message and click send.
4. The message will be sent to the cell phone with the number in the To: box
5. All recieved text messages will be sent to you as an email.
They use the free service Teleflip.com to route your email messages to SMS and back. The service is free, but only works in U.S. and Canada.

This means you won’t be getting instant notifications of these SMS->email messages since you have to wait until your email updates. This will be far less of an issue once MobileMe is deployed as you will be able to get Push email sent to your iPhone