I know I have something of a bias against touch-screen phones, but even allowing for that, it has to be said: the BlackBerry Storm is not going to be any use to you at all if you hope to actually get some work done on the road.

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You can tell the last-minute Christmas sales have started (and the January tech discounts are looming) when all the telcos begin discounting their plans. Between now and February, Vodafone is offering three free months on its 24-month contracts for a range of plans, including its $40 3G broadband bundle and a bunch of its $79 caps, which include iPhone and BlackBerry Storm options. Oddly, the discounts kick in during months five, six and seven of the plans. That's not quite as much of a markdown as 3's current deal, but still worth looking at if you're in the market. Having already sold out of two batches of Storms, Vodafone also says a third shipment will be available early next week.

If you're a fan of social music service Last.fm and you have a Vodafone mobile, you could be in luck. Vodafone Scrobbler lets you access Last.fm on a small group of Nokia handsets with Vodafone accounts, including the N95, N96, N78 and 6210. Vodafone is promising more models and the ability to purchase music through the service (an option already available in Germany) in the future. Vodafone Scrobbler is a free download for select Nokia handsets (currently).

Vodafone is now allowing its prepaid customers to top up their accounts via PayPal, a service which will be accessible via its Vodafone live! on-phone Internet access. The account has to be pre-activated for use, and a password is still needed when purchasing to minimise security stresses. Not much help for the segment of the prepaid market which can only pay in cash (read: teenagers), but a useful extra option for everyone else. If you're still a bit nervous about using PayPal, consider adding SMS authentication for payments.

Seems like the combination of a touch-screen interface, reliable push email (take note, Apple) and more or less unlimited browsing is making the BlackBerry Storm a pretty appealing choice. Having originally planned a December 1 launch, Vodafone (which has exclusive local rights to the smart phone) has now pushed back the on-sale date to December 5 after being flooded with "thousands" of queries. Customers who have pre-registered for the phone will be sent an email on November 27 and given the option of ordering online, with the promise that those phones will be couriered out on December 4. (But if you didn't pre-register, tough luck -- the option has now been removed.)

When Vodafone starts selling the touch-screen BlackBerry Storm on December 1, the plans will include a feature that's common overseas but rare down under: unlimited access to email and Web browsing on the devices, with monthly plans starting from $69. There are still a couple of limitations: you have to use the built-in BlackBerry browser (so no Opera options), streaming video isn't included, and you can't download individual files bigger than 3M without incurring excess usage charges. Nonetheless, it's a nice change from the complex range of data plans that have characterised the iPhone and other smart phones. Now if only they'd roll the same plan onto the more productive BlackBerry Bold . . .

Vodafone has expanded its wireless broadband range with a new USB Internet Stick, which lets you access 3G broadband without the hassle of an external modem hanging from your notebook PC. (Rival 3 launched a similar offering back in May.) Vodafone says that the stick (available in black or white) will self-install using software stored on its 4GB of resident memory, which is a claim I'll be interested in testing, having just spent the better part of a fortnight trying to get an existing Vodafone USB modem working on a Vista machine. (It also suggests that the unit might not work on a Linux box such as the Eee PC, unlike its predecessor.) Standalone pricing starts from $29.95 a month on a 24-month contract with a 1GB monthly download limit; given Vodafone's famously elastic approach to contracts, make sure that you get any conditions that are important to you specifically noted in writing before signing up. [Vodafone Mobile Broadband]

Existing iPhone owners are now queuing to update their software, but some prospective iPhone buyers  are unhappy they haven't got the device yet. Mitchell Bingemann at AustralianIT reports that several Optus customers are unhappy they were persuaded to sign up for a plan even though phones weren't delivered, and now face getting a monthly bill even though there's no phone in sight. Other carriers also have problems (most notably Vodafone and its no-end-in-sight plan confusion). How was your iPhone buying experience? Would it put you off buying one again? Share your thoughts in the comments.
Billed for iPhone but no device [AustralianIT]

As expected, Virgin Mobile has officially launched its iPhone plans in Australia -- and they look like a relative bargain. With 3 also launching iPhone data plans (even though it can't sell the phones), Optus updating its plans soon after launch and Telstra dropping its data charges yesterday, the plan landscape is now looking rather different than it did on iPhone launch day just three weeks ago. Click the jump for our analysis of where the best deals are now (assuming you can find someone with a phone in stock).

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The ludicrous rates charged for using mobiles overseas have long been a subject of complaint amongst Aussie travellers: the best budget approach is to only use text messages and to minimise those, lest you cop a ridiculous bill at the end of your trip. Vodafone today launched new roaming plans under the Vodafone Traveller brand for post-paid users which (depending on your usage patterns) could make life a little cheaper.
If you sign up for the service (a no-charge option you can switch on and off at will), then you get charged a connection charge for making calls (between $1 and $4 depending on location). The call is then charged at the standard call rate for your plan, and can be included in standard call credits if you're on a cap plan. Call receipt incurs a $1 each time charge.
Calling this way still isn't super-cheap -- even at $1 a pop, the costs will mount up -- and at 75 cents, texting is cheaper on some existing overseas deals. And to be honest, we'd find it easier to recommend these plans if Vodafone wasn't being so evasive, mendacious and confused about its current iPhone data plans: it's hard to take a company seriously when it can't sort out what its own policy is. But if you're already a Vodafone post-paid customer and looking to travel, this is probably worth a look. (Vodafone is also jumping on the Olympic discount bandwagon by cutting roaming rates for visitors to China during August.)