With more and more people having a netbook or a smartphone with WiFi support and more and more people taking their mobiles on their trips to other countries, WiFi hotspots become hot again. For example, by using a free WiFi hotspot in Berlin mobile phone or netbook users from other countries save high data roaming expenses – all it might take to access the internet for free is to get a password at the counter and order one or two coffees during the online session. We have updated our overview of cafes, bars and hotels in Berlin that offer free WiFi to their guests.

Helene Hegemann, 17 years old, has written a very successful novel debut: “Axolotl Roadkill”. She received rave reviews, critics were fascinated about her rich language. “Axolotl Roadkill” even got nominated for the price of the Leipzig Book Fair. But after Hegemann’s copyright misdoings became public, critics tried to take their positive judgements about the spectatcular novel debut back. Again, this new discussion points out the need for an innovative copyright law facing digital demands. Hegemann is right when she defends herself referring to today’s media consumption habits. The handling of information, of texts has changed in a radical way during the last couple of years.

There are just about 150 brands in the German mobile phone market. With Simsay, another one is offering a prepaid price plan with low rates for national as well some international calls. Over the network of operator E-Plus, users of the prepaid SIM card of Simsay can make phone calls to other home phones or mobile phones and check their voice mail within Germany for EUR 0.089 per minute. Mobile phone calls to other subscibers of the Simsay tariff cost only EUR 0.059 per minute. For sending SMS messages within Germany Simsay charges EUR 0.089 as well, for accessing the internet via GPRS or UMTS EUR 0.29 per megabyte. The prepaid starter package including a SIM card and calling credit of EUR 5.00 is available at www.simsay.de for EUR 4.95.

At first glance, you wouldn’t expect so much power under the hood: The new design cell phone Sony Ericsson Xperia Pureness sports UMTS and HSPA support for fast mobile data transmissions, a web browser and an email client with Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync support, a media player for music and videos, and up to 8.5 hours speaking time. But actually, this new phone is all about the liquid crystal display: The small 1.8-inch monochrome and scratch-resistant TFT screen is transparent so that you can look through. At rest the screen appears like a translucent frosted glass window. Thus, the Sony Ericsson Xperia Pureness is at least a real eye-catcher. It is now available at selected stores in Berlin and Munich.

Sunday, classic hangover day, one might say. But of course, not only New York is a city that never sleeps. There are parties worth going to every day of the week without an exception. But where to go? During the last couple of years, Berlin got famous especially for its electronic music partys. Some tourists only consider visiting Berlin, because they want to see the huge, factory-like seeming halls of “Berghain” – or maybe just the legendary face-tattoo-bouncer, whose communication skills appear to be limited to minimalistic nods. To find interesting events, the websites of city magazines like zitty, tip or – especially recommendable – 030 are always reliable options. A little bit more thrilling is certainly “restrealitaet”, which means “rest of reality” in English…

Nokia has launched a new version of Ovi Maps that includes high-end car and pedestrian navigation features such as detailed maps for more than 180 countries, voice-guided turn-by-turn navigation for 74 countries and traffic information for more than ten countries. Both navigation and maps are free of charge and will be installed on any A-GPS smartphone with Symbian S60 sold from March on, updates of maps and additional Ovi Maps services will be carried out automatically over the air.

Berlin will not get a city-wide WiFi network. The Berlin Senate has decided that there are not enough street lights in town to which WiFi antennas could be attached. Thus, setting up such a WiFi network will be too expensive for any network operator or investor, the Berlin Senate says. The Phone Guide Germany tells you at which locations in Berlin you will find free WiFi connections to the web and offers an overview of cheap prepaid price plans for accessing the internet via GPRS or UMTS.

Tonight millions of people welcoming the new year will use their mobile phone in order to contact loved ones and friends and to wish them a Happy New Year. The German industry association Bitkom estimates that about 290 millions of SMS messages will be sent at midnight. Even though mobile networks are constantly expanded and upgraded by the operators T-Mobile, Vodafone, E-Plus and O2 Germany, it is likely that they will not be able to handle all the traffic and to forward every SMS messages sent immediately. In some cases, it could even take two or three hours until Happy New Year wishes will arrive at their destination when the SMS messages has been sent at midnight or a few minutes later. But there are ways to avoid this.

It might take years until Berlin will get its free WiFi network throughout the city such as other cities like Austin or San Francisco. However, there are still a lot of locations with free WiFi (or WLAN) access to the web such as bars, cafes, hostels, hotels or even certain points of interest. With more and more people having a netbook or a smartphone with WiFi support and more and more people taking their mobiles on their trips to other countries, WiFi hotspots become hot again. For example, by using a free WiFi hotspot in Berlin mobile phone or netbook users from other countries save high data roaming expenses – all it might take to access the internet for free is to get a password at the counter and order one or two coffees during the online session. The Phone Guide Germany tells you at which locations in Berlin you will find free WiFi connections to the web.