I've never been comfortable with so-called predictions, and would rather stick to analysing concrete developments to pave the way for the future. Nobody ever said that email was an easy game. Keeping up with new trends in this very dynamic field can be tough and 2011 certainly delivered its own share of challenges that might well re-define the act of emailing, even for the everyday non-commercial sender. 1. The rise of the Priority Inbox The battle for the inbox is something ...

Another day, and another Groupon clone bites the dust. After a whirlwind gold-rush to emulate the incredible success of Groupon, there has been nothing but bad news in a recession-hit economy for the hundreds of thousands of group-buying clones out there. (Yes, we know there are exceptions). Emerging markets media and internet giant, Naspers is going to shut down Dealify, its late entry into the group-buying space, after just a few months in existence. "MIH has decided shut down Dealify, that ...

Memeburn and Gearburn have been refreshed, improved and relaunched, with a slicker user experience across multiple devices, a streamlined back-end for faster page loads, and better tools for readers to share stories with their social media contacts. Support for the growing army of readers hitting the sites from tablets and smartphones has been improved with new mobile and web apps. We've given the sites a bit of a restructure to give readers a better, cleaner and more intuitive interface. Memeburn is ...

Nando’s has decided to pull its massively popular “Last Dictator Standing” advert from television. The ad attracted global attention and has been pulled because of “perceived threats against Nando’s Zimbabwe’s management, staff, and customers”. The ad, which featured a man bearing an uncanny resemblance to long-standing Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe reminiscing about days gone by with now deceased dictatorial leaders such as Idi Amin, Chairman Mao and Saddam Hussein, quickly became a viral sensation upon its release. A Zimbabwean youth militia ...

Americans are currently up in arms over the Stop Online Piracy Act, making its way through the United States’ government. And if you’re not in the US and think SOPA is something that's happening far away and won't affect you, think again. If passed into law, our lives online will be very different. In short, SOPA is attracting attention due to its broad nature. As the internet is so vast, there’s no knowing where the line is. If passed, ...

The news is not good, and in fact has not been good for a while. South Africa’s largest telecommunications provider, Telkom, is in trouble. Of that there is no doubt. The depth of this trouble is what should concern us all. The billion dollar question is whether or not Telkom can dig itself out of the ever-deepening hole it’s slipping into. Or will the long-suffering taxpayer have to bail it out, which seems to be becoming the usual course for ...

Version 4 of Google’s industry-shaking mobile operating system has hit the streets in the form of the Galaxy Nexus, just shipping now in the US. This has given us the first good looksee at Ice Cream Sandwich in its finished form. Gearburn pulls out the nine biggest user interface changes in ICS that’ll have you begging your handset manufacturer for the upgrade for your handset. Your 24 month contract up yet?

Black Friday is a day that has permeated global media through a number of avenues. While it has very little direct bearing on our own lives it still forms a significant part of our local news content. For the uninitiated, Black Friday occurs the day after Thanksgiving and is supposedly when the Christmas shopping season officially begins. Stores mark this auspicious occasion by offering massive discounts and extended shopping hours. The figures recorded on this day, in both cash ...

Music streaming service Spotify has opened up its platform to third-party app developers. "Today Spotify becomes a musical platform," the company's chief executive and co-founder Daniel Ek said at a New York press conference. The Swedish-founded company says it already has 16 partner apps, with 12 available from launch. According to the company, its app partners include the likes of “Billboard, Fuse, The Guardian, Last.fm, Moodagent, Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, Songkick, Soundrop, TuneWiki and We Are Hunted, with Top10 and ShareMyPlaylists apps ...

In his first official announcement since Groupon went public, the company’s CEO Andrew Mason has rubbished comparisons between his site and the countless copycats which have sprung up in the wake of Groupon’s initial success. For the many critics of Groupon (some who have gone so far as to refer to the business as a “Ponzi scheme,”) the relative ease with which one can duplicate the Groupon business model has been one of the primary critiques of the company. Mason took ...