It’s nice to see a restaurant web site with a sense of humour instead of the usual cookie-cutter stuff you find with most non-web businesses that try to establish an online presence.

Image taken from Monsoon Poon. (Click to enlarge)

The rest of the site very much keeps the theme alive.

There has been a pretty dramatic outcry following Vodafone’s iPhone announcement yesterday, and the Vodafone-bashing appears to be becoming a bit of a bandwagon with people suggesting protests, boycotts and so on.

I was too disappointed with the plans, not because comparitively they are genuine “rip offs”, but because there is no entry-level option whatsoever for people like me who really just want to cross-breed an iPod Touch and a cell phone without ruling out the possibility of wanting to use the data features occasionally.

People are complaining that 250MB is not enough for an $80 per month plan because it doesn’t sound like much, but in cell phone terms it should be plenty for anyone who utilises a wifi network whenever possible instead of using the mobile data.

I would have liked to have seen a plan with 100MB of data or less, with the 16GB phone at $699 purchase price plus a contract of $30-40 per month. Then I would’ve been on board.

The sheer hotness-factor of Apple’s iPhone is enough to build up a certain amount of hype for the device’s Friday launch on its own, but Vodafone too has played its part over the last week, teasing the public with promises of “exciting iPhone 3G plans” and going on to say that the phone would start at just $199. Too good to be true, right?

Right. Today the plans were finally announced as follows:

So the promised $199 option is there, but unfortunately you will be paying $250 per month for 24 months for that privilege. The more realistic option is paying $699 for the 16GB phone and then $80 per month; but even that is astronomical for someone like myself who currently spends about $20 per month on prepay.

I was very very eager for an iPhone… no longer. I have no doubt that the iPhone will sell well – it’s not like this is the first time an Apple device has been overpriced – but personally I’m not prepared to spend such a large sum of money and tie myself into a phone contract I don’t need just to keep up with the Joneses.

Bring on the prepay option.

On a side note, Vodafone’s web site took a hammering and was completely inaccessible from 10am through to around 12pm as people flocked to see the pricing. Considering that Vodafone is the largest mobile telecommunications company in the world, this is pretty poor.

What’s more, as of 6pm Vodafone hasn’t emailed me anything about the new plans. Glad I registered my interest early!

EA has announced that it will be collaborating once again with MTV on Rock Band 2, scheduled for release on Xbox 360 in the U.S. this September with other platforms (PS3, probably) to follow.

Meanwhile little old New Zealand and big old Australia are still waiting for a release date and pricing for the original Rock Band, which released in the States last year.

Back when EA announced that it had decided to rip off U.K. gamers with Rock Band, I hinted that the game might never make it to our shores… and that is seeming even more likely now. With Rock Band about to be superseded, why bother? And why will Rock Band 2 be worthy of release if Rock Band wasn’t?

Activision might well find an exclusive market for its upcoming band game Guitar Hero: World Tour if EA continues to neglect the Australasian market.