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.

Good news: German mobile phone users can spare themselves the trip to an Apple store in Milan or other Italian cities in order to buy an Apple iPhone 3G S. In Germany, purchase prices for the iPhone have dropped to less than EUR 650.00: EUR 649.00 is how much customers pay for the iPhone 3G S with 16 GB memory at the web store RetailKeyShop, which in turn is approximately only 50 bucks more than they would have to pay at Italian Apple stores. The iPhone 3G S with 32 GB memory is available at the Retail Key Shop store for EUR 749.00. The Retail Key Shop web store can be found on the websites of the two German low-cost mobile phone providers Blau and Simyo.

The new RIM smartphone Blackberry Storm2 9520 is now available in Germany at T-Mobile and Vodafone stores. The Blackberry Storm2 sports a 3.25-inch touch screen display with a resolution of 480 x 360 pixels, EDGE and UMTS support, WiFi, integrated GPS and several multi media features such as a music player, a video player and 3.2-megapixel camera. The camera comes with autofocus, flash, image stabilizer and a digital zoom. Videos can be shot with a resolution of 480 x 352 pixels. At the moment, I am testing the Storm2 and this weekend I compared the video capture of the Blackberry smartphone and the Apple iPhone 3G S. The following two videos were shot at Berlin Cathedral and at the river Spree around 4 p.m.

NimbuzzOut is a new telephone service by Nimbuzz. Registered mobile phone users can download the Nimbuzz voice over IP client on their cell phone and buy credit for phone calls to other mobiles or landlines. For this purpose, NimbuzzOut sets up a VoIP connection via a UMTS or HSPA or via a WiFi network. Thus, NimbuzzOut can offer cheap rates for some mobile phone calls to other mobile phones or for international calls. In order to top up credit NimbuzzOut users need to pay by Visa or Mastercard.

German operator T-Mobile now offers the smartphone Apple iPhone 3G 8GB for 449.95 euros in a prepaid package. In addition to the iPhone 3G the prepaid starter package includes a T-Mobile SIM card with “Xtra Nonstop” price plan and 30 euros credit. There are neither additional costs for delivery nor a one-time set-up fee. However, T-Mobile charges 1.49 euros for the preset tariff option Xtra Nonstop Plus with which users can make phone calls to other T-Mobile customers and to home phones in Germany for 29 cents per call. Xtra Nonstop Plus also includes a package of 100 SMS messages for sending to other T-Mobile customers in Germany for just 29 cents.