This morning Rovio announced the news that the full version their long awaited Android game is finally available; and on top of that they also announced that the game is completely free of charge (but contains adverts).

Anyone running a rooted phone with adblock enabled obviously won’t even get the ads, but if you want to support Rovio then you will be able to buy an ad-free version in the near future.
Rumour has it that the ad-free version will be released on the Android Market after they’ve pushed 10,000 free copies (I’d be surprised if that number isn’t already reached) but only time will tell.

Download

They’ve currently submitted the free version to the Android Market, so it will be available on there within 24 hours.  In the meantime, they’ve also published a copy of it on GetJar but unfortunately their servers are currently down due to the overwhelming demand of this game!

Just to make things easier for readers, I’ve uploaded the game and you can download it from here

UPDATE: It’s now in the Android Market, here’s the QR code (click it if you’re browsing on your phone):

Yesterday I received the letter below from O2, it comes only a week after receiving a text message saying:

You’ve gone over your data allowance on your mobile.  You need to cut down or get a bigger Bolt On to keep using the internet.

To be totally honest, I can’t remember even using so much data in the past couple of months.  The most data usage on my phone is emails which definitely don’t require a huge data allowance.  I can’t even remember last time I used YouTube on it, none of the apps I’ve installed have been that big, and I tend to use WiFi for browsing because 3G is sluggishly slow at work anyway.

As they wrote in the letter, they could just completely disable my mobile Internet if I happen to go over my data allowance again (supposed to be “unlimited*”), which I guess is better than getting a huge bill, but is still quite ridiculous when I can’t even seem to recall using that much data in the first place.

On top of that, from what I’m told by readers on Twitter, the O2 data allowance limit should only apply to new customers whereas I’m 10 months into my contract.

Either way, I think that O2 have really taken the Boris with this.  When Vodafone introduced their 500MB limit there was an outcry, but O2s policy seems to be even worse.
With Vodafone you can receive up to 3 warnings, and then have to pay £5 for an extra 500MB, with O2 they can decide whenever they want to cut your data connection and that’s it.  The only alternative is to pay £15 extra for 3GB – not gonna happen!

I’ve spoke to O2 this evening, and they definitely haven’t been able to increase my data allowance so I’ve requested my PAC.  I’m switching to GiffGaff, who are a subsidiary network owned by O2, but they promise unlimited data – they just don’t want people using it for tethering so don’t use it as a WiFi Hotspot!  One of the advantages of GiffGaff is that you’re not tied into a contract. You could try their service, and if they aren’t up to scratch, or if they unfairly change their terms like O2 or Vodafone then it should be pretty easy to move on to another network provider.

Unlimited – At giffgaff ‘unlimited’ means ‘unlimited’, so play fair and play nice, so it stays that way.

Here’s the letter from O2: