Browsing: Opinion

Subscription-based news applications and pay walls are regarded by some people as a denial of the fundamentally open nature of the Internet. But is it really practical or in our best interests to assume everything online should be free? Free content carries no guarantee of quality whereas paid-for content implicitly does

Broadcasting regulator Icasa is expected to furnish its reasons within the next week for barring TopTV from launching adult channels on its satellite pay-TV platform. However it tries to justify the decision, Icasa deserves to be challenged all the way to the constitutional court

Most publishers are struggling to monetise their online operations in a world where advertising revenues are under pressure and audiences remain reluctant to pay for content. Their biggest hope of making money lies in unlocking the value of the reams of data they collect about their audience

Apple is introducing new features to its Mac OS X operating system that sometimes appear somewhat counterintuitive and are slowly driving this writer to consider alternatives. I admit I was a reluctant convert to Apple, but switched to the Mac platform with the release of Mac OS X 10.5

It’s no secret that Nokia is in trouble. It lost close to US$1,5bn in 2011, its market share, particularly in the profitable smartphone market, continues to plunge and its big bet — a partnership with Microsoft — has yet to produce significant revenues. So when I received a review model of Nokia’s newest phone, the Lumia 800

Telkom came out guns blazing at Competition Tribunal hearings this week, warning that if it were fined the maximum allowed for alleged anticompetitive behaviour last decade, its business could be put in jeopardy. Does the fixed-line operator have a point or is it all just grandstanding? In its closing

Corporate IT departments have a big challenge on their hands. Their users are bringing all sorts of newfangled devices like smartphones and tablets into the work environment and expecting them to interact seamlessly with their companies’ IT systems. Employees love these gadgets and

MTN SA’s newly launched “smartphone Internet services” have created a storm of protest from consumers. The operator says they’re aimed at entry-level smartphone users and are positioned as an equivalent to BlackBerry’s immensely popular BlackBerry Internet Service (BIS). There’s

Jeffrey Hedberg’s short-lived tenure as chief operating officer of Altech and CEO Craig Venter’s very public reaction to his resignation appear to reflect deep underlying tensions in the Venter family empire. Can Altron founder Bill Venter, now 77, hold the family-run

Last week, Facebook took the first step to becoming a public company by filing its S-1 documents with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Enormous figures are being bandied about but, as with Google, which listed the year Facebook was founded, the question investors