Great news from Apple … the next release of the UNIX based Mac OS X version 10.5 - codename Leopard - will be available on Oct. 26th. I cannot wait to get a hands on experience on that piece of software. For now, the “stacks” on the desktop is one of my favorites.

There are moments, you have to pause for a moment, look up from your daily work and let the incidents get close to you.
Bloggers from Italy started a campaign to turn the attention of us all to the freedom movement in Burma. Form their first idea, a worldwide campaign started:

• One day, jointly only one posting for the Free Burma! Movement in every blog - and then silence.
• One day, jointly taking our hat off to the victimes of the resistance against the military dictatorship.
• One day, jointly buoy up the suppressed and point out our solidarity.
• One day, jointly exert pressure on the governments of this world to take a firm stand against the murdering military regime and take action for freedom and democracy. For example by resolving a clear and strong resolution in the United Nations Security Council.
• One day, jointly recognize us as a global political power and giving the cry for freedom, for democracy and self-determination in Burma a strong voice.

All of us, as freedom- and democracy-loving citizen of the world, we should see this as a push to get engaged: Against suppression, against violence, against dictatorships. And for the people - far beyond this day. And even far beyond Burma.

A very warm thank you to all of you out there, who made this campaign happen. Especially Robert Basic.

More information on http://www.free-burma.org
… and a touching Free-Burma-Cut-Together on Youtube
… and a shocking report at Spiegel-Online "They Come at Night and Murder the Monks"

Great news from David Heinemeier Hansson (DHH), the whole Rails team and the Rails community: The brand new Rails 2.0 Preview Release can be downloaded NOW. Ruby on Rails uses the young and very smart programming language Ruby and offers a sophisticated framework for web application development. So if you are a web developer and do not know what I am talking about - it’s time to look at the open source framework Ruby on Rails
As David pointed out at his keynote at the RailsConf Europe two weeks ago, it is less of an revolution - but it is more of innovation in detail. So, go through the new features and improvements - it’s the next step to elegance and beauty in web programming.

Source: weblog.rubyonrails.org

Finally, rumors have come to an end: The Apple iPhone will be distributed in Germany by T-Mobile at a price of 399 EUR including a contract from November 9th 2007. The crucial question about the iPhone rates at T-Mobile is still left open.
Steve Jobs traveled to Berlin personally to present the new gadget with Deutsche Telekom CEO René Obermann.
From November 9th the iPhone will also be available in Great Britain and France. O2 (GB) will sell them for 269 GBP and Orange (FR) also for 399 EUR. In Great Britain the secret of the O2-iPhone rates was disclosed. O2 will charge a 35, 45 or 55 GBP per month rate for a data traffic flat rate an 200, 600 or 1,200 free minutes.
Accoding to FTD, the Deutsche Telekom is planning to sell one Million iPhones in the last quarter. That’s a quite remarkable number, especially because the missing UMTS support of the iPhone will probably may deter potential customers. Some probably will wait for the UMTS / 3G version of the iPhone which should be available next year. Also the market entry of the iPod-touch as a WiFi capable mobile Internet terminal at the end of this month will more likely lower the needs for iPhones than boost it.
For Apple as a company, for mobile application developers and for the endusers this isn’t bad news at all. Far from it: Because of the availability of a critical mass of standardized mobile web terminals (same screen-size, same usability, same web browser Safari 3) an innovative, viral and worldwide mobile business market may develop!
And this would also make the Deutsche Telekom happy, at the end

Sources: O2.co.uk, Ftd-reuters Video , Ftd.de, Apple.com

T-Mobile supposed to bet he big winner of the Apple iPhone Poker in Europe - according to the Financial Times Deutschland (FTD). Besides Germany, the Apple iPhone should also be distributed by the local Deutsche-Telekom-subsidiaries in Austria, the Netherlands, Hungary and Croatia. On Wednesday, Sep. 19th 2007 the Deutsche Telekom will hold a press conference in Berlin, Germany. Maybe this is the point to publish their negotiation achievements. The bitter pill T-Mobile had to swallow was substantial: According to the FTD, the network operator has to pay 10% of the voice- and data-revenues to Apple. A real novelty in the hotly contested mobile communication market - where only revenue-sharing in the sales field was common. Apple opens up a new market of constant revenues

Source: ftd.de (only German)