Again, café-cum-retailer Tchibo is selling its prepaid starter package including a SIM card and an UMTS surf stick for just EUR 29.95 to netbook and notebook users. The prepaid starter package does also include the flat rate tariff “Internet-Tages-Flatrate” for three single days. Usually, this flat rate tariff costs EUR 2.95 for every day the Tchibo customer is accessing the internet via GPRS or UMTS over the network of O2 Germany. This is quite a bargain for netbook or notebook users looking for a new UMTS surf stick in order to access the internet on their way.

Samsung seems to be pretty successful with low-cost smartphones such as the Samsung Corby S3650 or the Samsung B3410. Such smartphones cost a little more than EUR 100.00 without contract and offer a touchscreen, mobile internet access for instant messaging and social networking services such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter and sometimes even a real QWERTZ keyboard which makes typing messages and status updates easier. The Nokia 6760 slide is another example of this phone line. With purchase prices beginning above EUR 200.00 without contract at German web stores it is more expensive than the Samsung B3410, but it offers a broad range of features as you can read in this review.

Discoplus is a new discount provider in the Geman market that offers a prepaid price plan mobile phone calls within Germany at low rates. For calls to home phone and other mobiles in Germany Discoplus subscribers are charged EUR 0.08 per minute, for sending SMS they pay EUR 0.08 per message. The prepaid starter package of Discoplus includes a SIM card and calling credit of EUR 5.00 and is available at www.discoplus.de for EUR 9.95. Currently, new customers of Discoplus receive a bonus of 50 free calling minutes.

Aldi is selling an UMTS surf stick to netbook and notebook users for EUR 49.99. The Medion Mobile Web Stick S4011 supports GPRS, EDGE, UMTS and HSDPA for mobile data transmission over a mobile network with up to 3.6 mbps (download) as well as SMS. The UMTS surf stick comes without a SIM lock and there is no SIM card included in the package. Aldi is also offering a prepaid SIM card for the network of operator E-Plus with EUR 10.00 credit for EUR 12.99.

Dirt, mud, rain, dust or shocks – these are things you want to protect your Puma Phone with its cheap plastic body against. And just because this mobile has been designed by the same company that is famous for its sportswear, this does not mean that the Puma Phone should be used when doing track and field or cross country. It sports a run and bike tracker with assisted GPS, a pedometer, a stop watch, a speed meter a yachting compass, but that’s about as sportive as it gets. Rather regard the Puma Phone as a nice and extravagant accessory to take with you when hanging out with friends. The operating system has been developed by Puma itself and it looks nothing like other mobile OS.

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.

In the past few years German network operator E-Plus has been successful with several low-cost brands for mobile phone calls and messaging such as Ay Yildiz or Simyo and not so much with own tariffs. Now, the operator takes it to the next level and does not distribute any price plans by itself anymore but just under its different brands instead. People looking for a postpaid price plan or flat rate tariff now have to look at the Base brand plans. Since the beginning of this month Base is offering two different price plans: a postpaid price plan with a two-year minimum term and with several tariff options and a prepaid price plan.

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.

The Samsung B7620 Giorgio Armani is the third fashion cell phone made by the Korean manufacturer. Supposedly, it is designed by Giorgio Armani himself. True or not, at least the smartphone bears the fashion designer’s name in big letters on the front. With the Fashion Weeks in Milan, Berlin and Paris in mind, I have been taking a closer look at the Samsung B7620 Giorgio Armani. My conclusion: This is definitely not a phone for a bag of bones on the catwalk, but rather for a techie or a show-off who likes to spend his money before it burns holes in his pocket. The Samsung B7620 Giorgio Armani is almost as expensive as the Apple iPhone 3G S – and it is even more powerful.

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.