Freemium is a business model that works by offering a product, such as software, at no cost while charging a rate for advanced features and services. Though ideas about the value of free offerings have been the source of much debate, it's important to brush past the trivia and look deeper and more critically at why some internet companies are successful at employing the Freemium model while others are not.There are different types of free strategies, but a key ...

South African cellular network Vodacom will now throttle the speeds of Blackberry users in a bid to curb the behaviour of those it claims "are abusing the service".According to Vodacom, such users will now face their connections being downgraded from 3G to 2G (GPRS or EDGE) once they hit 100MB or more. There is currently no known date of when the speed cap will come under effect. Users of Blackberry Enterprise Services will remain unaffected.A statement from Vodacom's official ...

A recent report from Bloomberg claims that AOL and Yahoo! are in early merger talks just a week after the firing of former Yahoo! CEO Carol Bartz.The report claims that AOL CEO Tim Armstrong approached former Yahoo! CEO Carol Bartz about a merger of the two companies last but year but was rejected. Carol Bartz's firing seems, however, to have opened the door for AOL to make a second attempt.According to Bloomberg, "Yahoo! is unlikely to be interested in ...

Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba was recently questioned regarding the future of Yahoo's stake in his firm. He gave no insight as to what may happen down the line. One point that he is adamant about is that Alibaba was in no way responsible for the very recent dismissal of Yahoo! chief Carol Bartz.Speculation has been rife that Yahoo! is now planning to dissociate itself from its Asian acquisitions, which include companies such as Alibaba. This may be part of ...

American politicos both Republican and Democrat agreed that something had to be done about patents, and the costly, innovation-choking mess they were making of American success. The new America Invents Act represents the most sweeping changes to the US' law in decades, but the bill is not expected to end the courtroom wrangling between technology giants. Experts rated it as pretty good tinkering, but not game-changing."My feeling is that it won't change the dynamics much of the ongoing patent wars," ...

Hackers very briefly gained control of the official NBC News Twitter feed over the weekend. Their aim: To send false messages preceding the 9/11 anniversary.The hacking group Script Kiddies released these messages during Friday evening on Twitter:NBC quickly moved in to quell any concerns and instantly condemned the attack. The tweets were sent in quick succession before any action could be taken. On Saturday morning, the account was back in the control of NBC news and Vivian Schiller, NBC's ...

Laptops can be divided into three rough and ready categories: casual, business and gaming. Casual laptops are often fragile and sometimes barely as powerful as a tablet. Business models are often tough and fast, but lack the meatier graphics processors to satisfy the hungry gaming market. So the niche of gaming laptops was born -- and is taking off.Buyers are starting to cotton on to the potential of gaming laptops, and bigger markets means less expensive models are emerging. Today ...

The latest call to intercept messages on the Blackberry Messenger (BBM) platform, by South African Deputy-Communications minister, Obed Bapela, threw the veritable cat amongst the pigeons with regard to freedom of speech and privacy. This call resonated globally, with TechCrunch and other media houses worldwide commenting on the statement.South Africa's own level-headed communications minister Roy Padayachie was quick to clear the air. He has stated categorically that there is no current plan to intercept or regulate BBM specifically, but ...

With the recent departure of the foul-mouthed, gun-slinging Yahoo! CEO Carol Bartz, the resignation of ex Google CEO Eric Schmidt and the stepping down of Apple's CEO Steve Jobs -- a new era in Silicon Valley has dawned.Apart from the old guard at Microsoft, all of the Valley's major technology companies are under 'new' management.Seasoned veteran Bartz, who had a distinguished career including being the CEO of Autodesk and being on the boards of both Cisco and Intel, ...

When it was revealed that South African DJ Darren Scott had used the "K-word" after losing his temper with a colleague, it became a globally trending topic on Twitter. A large portion of the anger on the social network was, however, directed at the wrong Darren Scott.According to South African news site, News 24, much of the venom surrounding the incident was directed at @darren_scott, a British citizen and editor of Gay Times magazine.According to the report, Scott ...