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.

Simfy is a new free music streaming service for web users in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. When connected to the web, registered PC users can listen to music and create playlists without buying or downloading songs. The Simfy music streaming service offers a basic membership that is free of charge and a premium membership for € 9.99 per month. Premium members can use the music streaming service ad-free, can listen to the music when being on-line or off-line and download the desktop and the mobile applications for the Apple iPhone or Android smartphones. Premium members pay via direct debit (with German banking account) or via credit card. Social networking features like the integration of Facebook Connect have also been added: Signing up for this service allows registered Facebook users to use their profiles on Simfy.

The Apple iPhone 4 is now available in Germany. Unlike in most other countries, there is one mobile phone provider in Germany having the exclusive rights for selling the iPhone 4. This means, in this country users can actually buy an iPhone 4 with Net-lock at the shops of operator Telekom (T-Mobile) when they also enter into an agreement with an initial term of two years only. However, there are some other ways to get an Apple iPhone 4 in Germany.

The FIFA World Cup 2010 in South Africa has finally kicked off. Soccer fans in Germany can watch the games on TV at home, on big screen in a pub or via live stream on the web. In this overview you will find all the information you need to watch the World Cup matches live in Germany: Public and commercial broadcasting stations covering the tournament, providers selling web and TV sticks to PC and laptop users, web radio stations with live coverage and podcasts as well as locations of public showings in Berlin and Hamburg.

The iPhone App by Berlin recommendation platform Townster is available for free and does two things for users: It helps them find the good places to eat and drink in Berlin, and it includes a game that should make going out even more fun. Via GPS, the app lists restaurants, cafés, fast food joints, bars, and pubs in the users’ immediate surroundings and shows them on a map, including location details and user reviews.

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.

There it is: Apple has started selling the iPad in the United States. Again, people were waiting in line to be one of the first buyers of the mobile internet device, even though it seems as if there haven’t been such crowds as on the day the iPhone came out more than three years ago. Apple fans in Germany will have to wait until the end of this month until they will be able to buy the iPad here. While first apps for the new device are already available in the German iTunes App Store, there are only hints that Apple is planning to release the iPad globally on April 24th. Buyers in Germany will probably have to pay higher purchase prices for the iPad than in the US.

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.

While movie fans have traveled to Berlin this week, the mobile industry met in Barcelona. At the Mobile World Congress 2010 show manufacturers, providers and network suppliers presented latest devices and upcoming trends. Some of it – like eye-controlled earphones by Japanese operator NTT Docomo – seems weird, other things like higher data transmission rates over 4G networks or efforts to introduce standards to the world of smartphone apps sound rather promising. And, of course, handset manufacturers showed lots of new devices with new features. Here is a short wrap up of the most interesting phones and platforms of the show.

Yes, it is the Apple iPhone again, still object of heated discussions among smartphone users. In Germany, only operator T-Mobile may sell the iPhone with contract (and SIM lock), devices available on the open market (and without SIM lock) are imported. Whichever way buyers choose in order to become part of the iPhone community, compared to most other smartphones the Apple phone is very expensive. At German stores, purchase prices for an imported iPhone 3G S without SIM lock begin at EUR 645.00. Still, it is one of the most popular mobile phones in the country. Now, it is also possible to get the iPhone 3G 8GB with a prepaid starter package of T-Mobile by finance purchase.