Today, the 50th edition of the consumer electronics show IFA in Berlin is starting. Until coming Wednesday, September 8th, more than 1,423 exhibitors are showing consumer electronics and home appliances on the exhibition site. Key themes on display at the IFA 2010 include HDTV, 3D TV, the networked home, TV/internet convergence and mobile media. One of the highlights is the new Android tablet Samsung Galaxy Tab which the manufacturer presented on Wednesday at the SoHo house in Berlin. In the home appliances sector, the focus is on design, ease-of-use and ergonomics. Other important trends cutting across market segments and discussed in conference sessions are digital lifestyles, smart homes, and energy efficiency. Here is some more information for visitors of the IFA 2010 show.

German broadband Internet provider Hansenet (Alice) takes a second shot at marketing highspeed VDSL lines a second shot. This week the ISP will start offering VDSL lines with flat rate tariffs for surfing the web and home phone calls to other landlines in Germany and with data transfer speeds of up to 50 mbps (download) and 10 mbps (upload). New subscribers ordering the new VDSL package “Alice Speed” of Hansenet until the end of October will have to pay just € 29.90 per month for it. New subscribers ordering “Alice Speed” later than that will probably have to pay a monthly fee of € 39.90.

German mobile phone provider Bildmobil is launching a new mobile data tariff option for smart-phone users. According to Computerbild, the new tariff option costs € 9.99 for a 30-day period and offers mobile Internet access over the Vodafone network via GPRS, EDGE, UMTS or HSDPA for data transfers with up to 7.2 mbps (download). There is a traffic limit of 250 MB for faster mobile data transfers via EDGE, UMTS or HSDPA per billing cycle. As soon as the smart-phone user has reached this data volume limit, the bandwidth will be reduced to GPRS speed for the remaining days of that specific billing cycle. Without this tariff option Bildmobil customers pay € 0.35 per megabyte when surfing the web via cell phone or smart-phone.

The Starbucks Coffee Company offers free WiFi in 140 coffee houses in Germany. Smartphone, netbook and notebook users can access the Internet for up to two hours without being charged for it - accept for the coffee or cake they order at Starbucks. Starbucks guests need only bring a mobile, wireless-enabled device and connect to the BT Openzone hotspot at the Starbucks coffee house. Customers of British Telecom can use the BT MobileXpress clients to establish a secure connection to their corporate network and access their e-mails, files and applications as if they were in their office. BT MobileXpress does also provide them with hassle-free access to more than 100,000 public hotspots throughout Germany, e.g. in hotels, restaurants or shops.

I am not sure whether you can really count on what the German tablet PC manufacturer Neofonie has announced recently. We still have in mind the Neofonie press conference in April when journalists could only watch but not touch the WeTab because the tablet PC being introduced was not working at that time. However, Neofonie has now confirmed that first WeTab devices have been handed out to developers for testing. The official launch of the WeTab in Germany should happen in the middle of September (probably on September 19th). Interested users can already pre-order the Neofonie tablet PC at the Amazon web store or at the Media Markt website. Amazon and Media Markt are both offering the WeTab for € 449.00 and the WeTab 3G for € 569.00.

The new micro SIM card of discount provider Maxxim is a good alternative to the Apple iPad micro SIM card offers of Telekom Deutschland (T-Mobile). The Maxxim mobile data flat rate tariff “maxxim data” costs € 19.95 per month over a period of 24 months. After that two-year period the monthly charge will rise to € 29.95. There is no long minimum term commitment, though, the subscriber can withdraw from the mobile data plan contract within four weeks. In addition to the monthly fees, Maxxim charges new subscribers an one-time set-up fee of € 24.95. iPad users can order the micro SIM card with the mobile data price plan “maxxim data” at the Maxxim web store at www.maxxim.de.

German mobile phone provider O2 Germany is offering a new prepaid 3G surf stick to netbook and notebook users which supports HSPA for mobile data downloads with up to 7.2 mbps and uploads of up to 5.76 mbps. A prepaid starter package including the new UMTS surf stick Huawei E1750 and a SIM card with O2o price plan can be bought at O2 Germany stores or ordered at the O2 Germany web store for € 29.99 plus € 3.95 for delivery. Before, prepaid customers of O2 Germany got 3G surf sticks that support download speeds of just up to 3.6 mbps.

Discount provider Bildmobil has launched a new mobile data price plan for netbook and notebook users in Germany. The new prepaid plan offers 3 GB of data traffic over a period of 90 days for a monthly fee of € 39.99. As soon as the notebook user reaches the traffic limit, the mobile Internet access via GPRS or UMTS will be cut off for the remaining days or weeks of the three months period. The prepaid starter package of Bildmobil including a prepaid SIM card and a starting balance of € 10.00 is available at www.bildmobil.de for € 14.95.

With 1&1 there is one more provider in Germany offering micro SIM cards with postpaid price plans for voice and mobile data services to users of the smart-phone iPhone 4 or the tablet PC iPad. New customers can choose between a voice and mobile Internet flat rate for the new Apple smart-phone and two mobile data flat rate tariffs for the Apple tablet PC. In each case the subscriber can decide on a long term commitment of 24 months or a short term commitment of just three months. New customers agreeing to a long term commitment will benefit from a discount. The SIM cards and voice and mobile data price plans of 1&1 are available at www.1und1.de, during the ordering process the user can select the desired micro SIM card format for iPhone 4 and iPad.

German operator Vodafone has launched a new prepaid price plan that offers low rates for mobile phone calls within Germany and for international calls from Germany to other countries. With the prepaid price plan “CallYa International” Vodafone customers can make mobile phone calls from Germany to 80 other countries for rates as low as € 0.04 per minute. The “Callya International” prepaid starter package including the SIM card and credit of € 11.99 is available at Vodafone stores. There is a monthly fee of € 1.99.