Mobile phone provider Klarmobil has launched a new postpaid price plan for cell phone users that comes without monthly charge and without long minimum term commitment. The cell phone plan “Freenet.de Mobiltarif” is available at , the starter package (SIM card and credit of € 10.00) costs € 9.95. With this Klarmobil price plan, subscribers can call landlines and other cell phones in Germany for € 0.08 per minute and send text messages (SMS) within Germany for € 0.08 per message.

With the Blackberry Pearl 3G 9105, Canadian manufacturer Research in Motion (RIM) is trying the balancing act between a classical push email handset and a mass market device. The smartphone looks like a typical candybar cell phone because it is slim and because it does not have a full QWERTZ keyboard. To make the Blackberry Pearl 3G 9105 appeal to more cell phone users, RIM has given it UMTS and HSDPA 3.6 support because today consumers want a phone with UMTS support. Actually there is no need for that because of the data compression of the Blackberry server. On the other hand: In order to become a mainstream consumer device the Blackberry Pearl 3G 9105 did not get a full physical QWERTZ keyboard or – like previous Pearl phones – a compact QWERTZ keyboard with two letters on each button. In Germany, the Blackberry Pearl 3G will be available at Vodafone stores soon.

This is an overview of mobile data price plans on a prepaid basis that are available for mobile phone or smartphone users in Germany. Subscribers can choose between different offers in the networks of Deutsche Telekom (T-Mobile), Vodafone, E-Plus, and O2 Germany and between different pricing models (per megabyte, per day or per month). Prepaid starter packages include a SIM card for voice and mobile data services and sometimes include a small amount of credit for calls, text messages and/or mobile access to the internet.

German operator Vodafone has launched a new prepaid price plan called “Callya OpenEnd Internet” that offers flat rate tariffs for mobile phone calls, for text messaging (SMS) and for accessing the internet via GPRS or UMTS. Mobile phone calls to landlines and to other Vodafone cell phones in Germany can be made for EUR 0.29 per call. Users of the prepaid SIM card can also send up to 100 text messages for EUR 0.29 per day. And for accessing the internet over the German Vodafone network (APN “wap.vodafone.de” or “web.vodafone.de”) users pay EUR 0.99 per day. As long as the subscribers to the prepaid price plan do not make phone calls, send text massages or access the web via GPRS or UMTS, they don’t have to pay for these services. However, there is a monthly charge of EUR 2.49 for these flat rate tariff options of “CallYa OpenEnd Internet”.

The Samsung B5722 is now available at E-Plus and Base stores. E-Plus sells the touch screen dual SIM phone for EUR 199.00 only to its existing customers, while other German web stores offer the Samsung B5722 for purchase prices beginning at EUR 170.00 without contract. That’s quite a lot of money for a mobile phone that does neither support UMTS or HSPA for faster mobile data transmissions nor WiFi for accessing the web at hotspots. The Samsung B5722 also lacks a built-in GPS receiver for the use of location based services and it is not equipped with business software that goes beyond mere organizer features. What, on the other hand, the dual SIM phone Samsung B5722 does offer, shows this review.

German network operator O2 Germany has launched a new prepaid price plan that offers mobile phone calls, text messages or mobile internet access for free. In return, subscribers to this prepaid price plan under the brand Netzclub will receive up to 30 advertising messages per month on their phone and will have to answer at least once by text message or click on one advertising link. However, there is no obligation for Netzclub subscribers to buy or order anything. Competitor E-Plus is also offering credit to customers who agree to receive advertisement messages on their cell phone under the Gettings brand.

We have spotted two interesting cell phones at German operators’ stores: Vodafone is selling the lifestyle smartphone Puma Phone manufactured by Sagem Wireless. E-Plus is offering the dual SIM phone Samsung B5722 to its customers. The Puma Phone costs EUR 369.90 without contract and between EUR 29.90 and EUR 139.90 with 24 months contract at Vodafone stores. E-Plus offers the touch screen dual SIM phone Samsung B5722 for EUR 199.00 only to its customers who have to agree to an extension of their term commitment for another 24 months when buying this phone.

Discount provider Simsay has launched a new mobile phone price plan called “Global Card” for low-rate international calls from Germany to other countries. Initially, customers can make international calls to landlines in Poland, Russia and the Ukraine for EUR 0.029 per minute or to landlines in China, Vietnam, Pakistan and India for EUR 0.049 per minute. Mobile phone calls from Germany to home phones in Nigeria and Ghana cost EUR 0.079 per minute with the Simsay “Global Card” price plan. However, these low rates for international mobile phone calls are only valid until July 31st. And: There is an additional connection fee of – depending on the country – EUR 0.15 or EUR 0.19 per international call. Simsay uses the network of operator E-Plus.

Operator O2 Germany provides the personal navigation and mapping service Telmap to its customers. Effective immediately, the application is preinstalled on many new GPS-enabled mobile phones such as Motorola Milestone, HTC Touch HD2, Samsung Galaxy or Sony Ericsson W995. Customers who are already using GPS-enabled smartphones can download the Telmap client directly to their phones at http://wap.telmap.com/o2de/. O2 Germany offers the Telmap navigation service to its customers for free, regardless of whether they have a prepaid price plan or a fixed-term agreement. The only fees are for the mobile data transmission.

The X10 of the Xperia series is Sony Ericsson’s debut Android smartphone. The list of features is rather impressive, even though it shows that the Sony Ericsson X10 is no high-flyer: 1 GHz Snapdragon processor by Qualcomm, 8.1-megapixel camera with HD video capture, HSPA and WiFi connectivity, and A-GPS. On the other hand, it runs on Android 1.6 - an older version of the operating system geared towards the easy use of Google services such as Google Search, Google Mail, Google Maps or Google Talk by mobile. This is why Sony Ericsson has put its own user interface User Experience with its Timescape and Mediascape views on top of the Android OS. How older software and up-to-date hardware work together will this review of the Sony Ericsson X10 show.