Right then, Unlimited Drinks, the world's only truly unlimited drink event with a fair-usage policy, is cominatcha. In just under three weeks time.

I'm working on the venue. There are a few possibilities I've settled on:

- TechHub -- Mike Butcher reminded me of this venue and I think it would be a good idea to do something there. I need to go and have a look around though. I think this would require a lot of logistics on our part in terms of shipping in drinks. Highly doable and good-for-the-silicon-roundabout. I think we'd need to get a job lot of Dominos or Papa Johns. Again, doable.

- Dishoom -- a restaurant in Covent Garden owned by the brother of Raam Thrakar, founder of Touchnote. I think it will do 50 people but that's all. So perhaps we'll go to Dishoom for the MIR Meals I've been planning.

- The 'Whatsit' Bar -- I can't remember the name of it, but the place we did the last events just off Regent Street. They do food, too.

I will settle on a location shortly and then, boom, we'll have a date and time.

I activated my Abroadband SIM yesterday. It was very simple indeed. I placed the SIM in my MiFi unit, switched it on, configured the APN details and connected on my laptop.

I was immediately redirected to abroadband.com and asked to activate my SIM. I did that, confirmed my account details (remembered from when I placed my order online) and added in my PayPal details. And that was me. Done!

Now I have roaming mobile data anywhere in the 50+ supported countries for just €0.59 per meg. Absolutely ideal when you just want to check email or look something up without paying through the nose. Since I'm using the MiFi, my laptop, iPhone and other devices automatically use it. Very simple indeed.

The Abroadband rate is half the price of the standard Vodafone roaming cost -- and paying by PayPal (or credit card if you prefer) seems... Cheaper. I think because it's not on the same bill, it *feels* cheaper. I reckon it will feel cheaper next month too. I like the fact this will work in the States too.

Thank you Vodafone. Thank you for the £2/day-for-25mb deal. It's good enough to make posts like this possible. The photo I've attached here (snapped on-the-go from the taxi window) is 1.6mb. Sending this to the web would normally cost me £2-3 once you take into account the surrounding data overhead.

Thanks to Vodafone's opt-in European data policy, I can use my BlackBerry without having to panic. I'm just billed a simple £2 each day. Manageable. Reasonable. I'm content.

If you travel often to Europe and you're a Vodafone customer, phone up and check you've got this option added. You need to opt-in otherwise you'll pay the quid-a-meg rates.

The big arse of course -- there is an arse -- is that once you go over 25mb per day, you start racking up the quid-a-meg rates.

This is because some bright spark at Vodafone thought it was a good idea to almost get it right. It's like the company has a built-in fuck-it-up register to guarantee no matter how smart and how exciting the original concept, some committee, somewhere, votes to hamstring it.

I've already opted-in, right? By doing this, I've told you I'm live to your stupid standard data rates. I've told you I care. I've made it clear I will pay -- but not the crazy rates. Ergo, why not change the price to £2 for 25mb blocks? So if I use an arbitrary 42mb in a day, you'll charge me £4.

Sounds like a good idea? No? Yeah. I know. Those executives and those committees don't like it. They don't like the 'revenue limitation'. You can practically guarantee that at one of these price plan setting meetings, a chap called Colin with a company supplied Nokia 3310 has actually voiced the words, "25mb for £2! That should be enough for anybody going abroad!"

Keep ramming the Vodafone fist up the proverbial enterprise arse to extract silly roaming rates. Those guys have factored the roaming-arse-extraction into their 5-year budget forecasts.

But for everyone else? Why not do a bit of delighting? £2 for 25mb blocks? Go on.

The team at Mugen Power Batteries are sending me an array of batteries for the iPhone 4 to test. My iPhone's power is a chronic issue so anything that can help will, I suspect, be hugely valuable.

The batteries should arrive in the next few days. I will let you know how I get on.

On the very same evening I was moved to write about the rubbish Eurostar WiFi in London St. Pancras, I was approached on board by a researcher working on behalf of the company. She asked if I would like to give some feedback. I was only too happy to do so. Interestingly she then handed me a Windows Mobile device from yesteryear and a stylus with which to tap-tap-tap on. I kid ye not. That's what I used to fill out my answers. It did work reasonably well once you allowed for the annoying and all too familiar user interface limitations. It felt rather strange to be back with Windows Mobile '5' (felt like 5, could have been 6.5h devices again. How far we have come. I took a few photos along the way. Here's the first, complete with my direct feedback. I should point out that although the WiFi sucks in the terminal and there is no on-board WiFi, I gave the rest of the service top marks.

I am a big, big, BIG fan of the British Airways mobile applications. I use the app on both my BlackBerry and the iPhone. I simply love flying without arsing around with paper boarding passes.

I can just about manage those almost-cardboard style ones that you get from the check-in desks. But print-at-home? Stupid. Highly stupid. Why should I have to print a piece of paper when everything else is electronic? And don't get me started on those flimsy rubbish boarding passes that come out of the check-in machines. I can't stand those.

Using your phone makes so much sense. And I particularly enjoy swanning into the airport with my handset at the read, boarding pass already generated, while the great unwashed do the passport-and-confirmation-code dance at the machines. Suckers!

The one slight let down is that when I'm sitting in Wagamamas in Terminal 5 (as the paper-laggards are only just getting through security), I can't tell from the phone what gate the flight departs from.

I know this actually only requires a glance at the screens around the airport. But wouldn't it be so much better if your British Airways app told you? Yup. That's just one of the features I spied in the upgrade notes of the BlackBerry version. I can't wait to check it out in action. Faaaantastic.

You won't need to wait long if you're keen to get your hands on the all new iPad 2. Not at all. Everything Everywhere (that's Orange/T-Mobile in the UK) has contacted me to confirm the iPad 2 will hit their shelves later this month.

Although judging by the frothing-at-the-mouth attitude we all have for the iPad, I doubt the devices will even touch the shelves. Pricing information will be announced in due course.

Nice!