Online censorship, it would seem, is no longer the preserve of governments bandying around acronyms like SOPA, PIPA, and ACTA. Google and Twitter both recently announced censorship measures that are going to be put in place on Blogger and Twitter respectively and one isn’t wrong in thinking that the days of the internet being an open and free place to find and share information are over. Twitter’s censorship of its tweets is in accordance with the laws of the countries in ...

Through Google Apps for Business, Google is quickly building a new business model and new revenue stream. But for the time being, Google still makes the bulk of its money, as in more than 90% of its revenue, from advertising. Its business model can be described as: build products that people want use, keep the products free by selling advertising, and attract millions of users. It’s a model that works, is resilient, and helped Google survive what is now ...

The small Western Cape student town of Stellenbosch is perhaps best known for the wineries that surround it. But now it’s looking to become one of the most connected places in South Africa by offering free, universal Wi-Fi internet access. The initiative is reportedly a partnership between Stellenbosch, the University of Stellenbosch, and popular instant messaging platform MXit. According to MyBroadband, the service will be available to anyone without registration. The only activity prohibited on the network will be large ...

The first time I jailbroke my iPhone, I almost vomited from sheer joy. After endless reboots and black screens, a pineapple with a loading bar popped up on my screen, signifying that RedSn0w had done its job. RedSn0w, for the uninitiated, is one of the countless iOS jailbreak methods which frees iDevices from the Cupertino shackles. It’s Jailbreaking, and I'm its ambivalent fan. Why I did it: the case for Jailbreaking I’m not ashamed to admit it, I used to be very ...

Thanks to better spam filtering techniques, most of us probably don’t see too many ads for “herbal Viagra” and similar concoctions in our inboxes these days, but that doesn’t mean spam isn’t still big business. According to the latest Threats Report by Intel’s online security firm McAfee (PDF), the overall amount of spam went down in the last quarter of 2011. One of the reasons for this, though, is that spammers have gotten a bit smarter and now use a ...

Apps are important. Hell we think they're the future of the internet. It seems Vodacom is increasingly recognising their importance too. The mobile operator has announced the winners of its App Star Challenge -- a competition aimed at providing developers with the opportunity to develop apps designed specifically for the South African market. The competition is an initiative of it own app store, which has been operational since September 2011, and its Developer Programme. Vodacom claims that the store, which ...

Photo sharing website Flickr is scheduled to receive a much-needed makeover according to senior project manager Markus Spiering. In an interview with BetaBeat, Spiering revealed the new user interface would minimize the excessive white space and information currently found on the site – gravitating towards the grid-like photo layouts found on sites like Pinterest and 500px. The update, which is scheduled for 28 February, will hopefully give Flickr the boost it needs to compete with newer photography websites like Instagram. ...

Twitter has announced a series of updates for its iPhone and Android apps. The social network claims the updates “introduce new design and functionality improvements” but also “bring back high-demand features”. One of the features making a Lazarus-esque return from the grave is the swipe shortcut. This feature allows users to swipe a tweet in their timeline to “to reply to, retweet, favorite or share it, or view the Twitter user’s profile”, without leaving their own timeline. iPhone users meanwhile ...

The iPhone 5 is launching in the Northern hemisphere's autumn according to an “Asian reliable source”. The website can be added to the long list of rumour sites which fuel fans' fires, but the leak does at least follow the pattern of Apple's new launch cycle it began with the iPhone 4S. iPhones are known for launching in the early Summer, State-side. The iPhone 4S however, launched October 2011, so the Cupertino giant has proved it can buck its own trend. ...

This is interesting. Take the field of online reputation management, the practice of managing a person's or company's brand across the web and social networks, then add a bit of crowd source sauce using ranking techniques better known in chess grandmaster circles... and what do you get? Well, you should get improved accuracy in measuring what people are saying (and thinking) about you or your company online -- and you get to pay a whole lot of people to help you ...