What's that? You love using Skype to connect with friends and family you would otherwise have to call? And you love doing it for free, with no ads interrupting you? Sorry pal, you didn't think that was going to last forever did you? The Voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP) service today announced that it would begin displaying in conversation ads. These new display ad units will appear within the calling window of users who do not have Skype Credit or subscriptions when ...

Snapplify, a service that transform PDFs into company branded mobile applications, has signed a deal with Kotobarabia, an online e-book store that specialises in Arabic content. The deal with the South African-based startup has apparently been signed in a bid to make Kotobarabia's content available to a wider audience. In part this is because it's easier to make Snapplify's mobile apps available to a wide range of devices and also because conventional e-publishing forms such as EPUB don't deal well with ...

It's reveal day: the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has released the list of the top level domains (TLDs) and the names of the applicants who wanted more than .com. ICANN closed applications for new TDLs on 30 May, but we didn't know exactly which domains companies around the world had asked for (except for .lol, of course) until now. Previously, if you wanted to buy a domain name, you could only choose from a (pretty boring) list ...

When it comes to social media campaigns, LinkedIn isn't always at the top of people’s minds. Using LinkedIn for business is quite different to all the other popular social media channels such as Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. It is, however, worthwhile. The professional social network boasts more than 150-million members and it gains two new members every second. Unlike most of the social media marketing channels available, LinkedIn can help you achieve your business objectives and goals quite effectively in a professional ...

In the third and final extract from his book "Mobinomics", South African entrepreneur Alan Knott-Craig Jr details how he took World of Avatar from concept to company. As was the case with some of his previous ventures, there were speedbumps along the way. At one point Knott-Craig had less than R2 000 to his name and kept the business afloat with emergency loans. Slowly though, things began to turn around, until he was ready to make another play for Mxit: ...

In today's market of mobile-friendly websites, mobi-sites and mobile device apps, it can often be difficult to choose the best medium to showcase a website's content on a mobile device. Enter the concept of responsive design, where a website can be restyled and adjusted to suit varying screen sizes, from large cinema displays down to the smallest of mobile device screens. While responsive design is not always desired by a website owner or by a client, what are the other ...

Facebook has announced a new plugin for WordPress that will allow bloggers to tap into Facebook features, such as social publishing and mentions directly from their WordPress dashboards. According to Facebook engineer Matt Kelly: “Once the plugin is installed, you can cross-post content published to WordPress to your Facebook Timeline and the Facebook Pages you manage. You can also mention the names of Pages and friends as you post to further distribute your content.” According to WordPress, the plugin will allow bloggers ...

South Korea is a leading player in the global tech industry with Korean brands leaving their mark in various sectors. Thing is, you don't usually hear all that much about the country's startup ecosystem. If BeLaunch, which calls itself "South Korea’s first and biggest global startup-tech conference", has its way all that could soon change. The conference aims to connect the emerging startup ecosystem in Korea with global players through a two-day event taking place over 13 and 14 June. ...

It's a crowded marketplace for startups, but there are quite a few companies who are doing something interesting. Hopeful startups battled it out in pitch sessions at the recent Echelon 2012 event in Singapore, hoping to walk away with the title of the top startup and a smattering of prizes. Builk, a niche social network for construction industry professionals, eventually came out on top, but some of the other finalists are just as innovative. Here are three startups working in ...

Gamification. Stop thinking twelve year olds with an Xbox and start thinking about how you can incorporate leaderboards and reward systems into your business strategies. According to the annual Tech Trends report from Deloitte, gamification is one of the key disruptors that will have a major effect on companies in the not-so-distant future. Along with social media, enterprise mobility, user empowerment and cloud technology, it is one of the five main forces changing the way people do business. The increasing popularity ...