On Friday, May 28th, the Apple iPad will be launched in Germany and several other countries. People will be able to buy the tablet PC at Apple stores in Munich, Hamburg or Frankfort as well as at Apple shops in selected – not in every store – consumer electronics retailers such as Saturn, Media Markt and Medimax. I am pretty sure that Gravis will sell the Apple iPad, too, since Gravis stores will open at 8:00 a.m. in the morning – just like the three German Apple stores. It is also possible to order the Apple iPad at the German Apple web store, but then the tablet will not be delivered before June. I have summarized the latest developments regarding points of sale as well as micro SIM cards and price plans for the Apple iPad in Germany. Please read on.

You want to get a DSL internet connection. You don’t want to get in three or four weeks, which is the usual time it takes providers in Germany to set up the broadband internet connection, you want to get it today. One way to access the internet immediately is to buy a prepaid SIM card and an UMTS surf stick and to access the internet over the mobile network until the DSL connection is activated. Another way is to order a DSL bundle of a provider that offers an UMTS surf stick to new customers itself. Unfortunately, at the moment there is only one provider offering DSL with a short minimum term commitment and with such an UMTS surf stick in the German market: Hansenet with its Alice brand.

Finding out where the next party is, how to get to the next shopping center or what the old building in front of you is – with a smartphone at hand you always have access to information you need on your way. All you need is an adequate mobile data plan and the right apps installed on your handheld. We present ten apps for the Apple iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad that help Berliners and Berlin visitors to get around. At the end of this article you will find recommendations to free WiFi hotspots in Berlin and to cheap mobile data plans (prepaid and postpaid) with a short minimum term commitment of German providers.

With 1&1 there is another Internet service provider in the German market offering DSL with home phone service plans with a short minimum term. Now new subscribers can choose between DSL plans with a long term commitment of 24 months and DSL plans with a short term commitment. Officially there is no term commitment required for the new DSL plans, but since there is a notice period of three months, one might as well speak of a minimum term of three months. Monthly fees of the DSL plans range from EUR 19.99 (DSL 6000, home phone service and flat rate tariff for accessing the internet) to EUR 44.99 (VDSL 50000, home phone service and flat rate tariffs for accessing the internet and for home phone calls to German landlines).

Apps expand the range of functions of smartphones: They run on the Internet or on the phone and deliver news, weather or status updates of social networking contacts, offer direct access to web pages and online services, open documents and email attachments or help in another way. Such applications can be downloaded from web portals to the mobile for free or at cost. The most well-known app store is the App Store service for the iPhone, the iPod Touch and the iPad which is part of the Apple iTunes Store. Here users can find applications developed with the iPhone Software Developer Kit (SDK). But there are several other app stores by different operators around. The problem with all these different download and mobile device platforms is: They are not fully compatible. In fact, most systems are rather walled gardens with apps especially developed for their mobile systems and with specific download platforms pegged to.

DSL provider Hansenet (Alice) is offering more favorable conditions to landline and DSL subscribers who have also booked the mobile internet tariff “Mobile Surf-Flat”. While before this tariff option held just 300 MB data volume per month in store for notebook, netbook or smartphone users, the “Mobile Surf-Flat” has now become a real flat rate tariff with unlimited data volume for transmissions over the network of O2 Germany. However, there is a data volume limit of 300 MB per month for transfers with EDGE, UMTS or HSPA speed of up to 7.2 mbps (download). Once this limit has been exceeded, the maximum transfer speed will be reduced to GPRS level for the remaining days of that specific month.

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.

Germany and the internet? Any associations? Suspicion. Anxiety. Prohibition. Frank Schirrmacher, a journalist with some most-hated-man-potential. And a red-haired guy named Sascha Lobo (By the way, who is that again? Why did he happen to be famous?). In his recent book, Schirrmacher, the (old and) wise intellectual identifies dangers of the evil evil internet, which will someday – as “Wash Echte” on his quite famous blog “Ich werde ein Berliner” (“I am becoming a Berliner”) puts it – turn our brains “into elephant poo”. Villains like Google will hunt you down by knowing everything about your filthy interests. And last but not least, all the new communication techniques will make you unable to concentrate, which will accelerate the whole process of getting mentally incompetent.

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…