German web store Getgoods.de is offering the LG X3 smartphone which hasn’t been announced by the manufacturer yet. Customers can pre-order the LG X3 for € 699 without plan at Getgoods.de but will probably have to wait until March for actually getting the Android smartphone.

The LG P990 Optimus Speed (aka 2X) has been the first smart-phone in the market being powered by a dual core processor. In more specific terms, the LG Optimus Speed is powered by the Nvidia dual core processor Tegra 2 with 1 GHz and with a separate graphics unit that should arrange for smoothly running programs and applications even when these require a lot of processing power. Here is a short review of the LG Optimus Speed.

Here we go: The next wave of tablets rivaling the Apple iPad and iPad 2 hits stores. These new devices such as the Motorola Xoom, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, the HTC Flyer, the LG Optimus Pad and others come with different touch-screen sizes of 7 inches, 9 inches or 10 inches and are running on Android 2.0 at first and will get an update to Android 3.0 Honeycomb as soon as this Android version is officially released. Here is a short overview of four tablets are now or soon available at stores in Germany.

HTC Flyer, LG Optimus Speed and Samsung Nexus S - Vodafone Germany is showcasing new smart-phones, tablets as well as LTE surf sticks and applications at CeBIT 2011 in Hanover. Here is short overview of what devices and services you can see at the Vodafone pavilion 32 at the CeBIT fair.

German network operator Vodafone is offering three new Android smart-phones to prepaid customers. Buyers of a “CallYa OpenEnd Internet” prepaid starter package can choose between the LG GT540 for € 149.90, the HTC Wildfire for € 199.90 and the Sony Ericsson X10 Mini Pro for € 249.90. While the LG GT540 and the Sony Ericsson X10 Mini Pro are available for similar retail prices at other stores in Germany, the HTC Wildfire offer of Vodafone is quite attractive. However, at the moment interested mobile phone users can only pre-order the HTC Wildfire at the Vodafone website and will have to wait until the end of November for the new phone being delivered by Vodafone. The LG GT540 and the Sony Ericsson X10 Mini Pro are in stock at Vodafone stores.

In Germany, five different smart-phones running the new Microsoft operating system Windows Phone 7 will be launched at the end of October (probably October 21st). While smart-phones from the device-makers HTC (HD7, 7 Mozart and 7 Trophy), LG (7 Optimus) and Samsung (Omnia 7) will be available at stores of the mobile operators Telekom (T-Mobile), Vodafone, O2 Germany and E-Plus, Windows Phone 7 handsets from Dell will not appear in stores in Germany. Select models of HTC, LG and Samsung will also be available at Microsoft Store locations and from Amazon. This article gives you an overview of the features and retail prices of the first Windows Phone 7 smart-phones in Germany.

Android smart-phones are becoming hot stuff for the common cell phone user. They are easy to use and offer several online services of Google, they always come with a touch-screen, and – that’s very important for many mobile phone users – they are cheaper than the Apple iPhone. HTC, LG, Motorola, Samsung and Sony Ericsson are just the well-known handset manufacturer building Android smart-phones, there are several others such as Acer, Garmin-Asus, General Mobile or Huawei. Which means: People looking for a new Android smart-phone have many options. This overview shows the Android smart-phone available at stores in Germany with the Android OS version running on these phones and the purchase prices buyers should expect currently.

German Internet service provider 1&1 has launched a new flat rate tariff for mobile phone calls within Germany and mobile Internet access via smartphone as well as two new flat rate tariffs for surfing the web via Notebook or netbook.

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.