A new study says South Africans and Kenyans are Africa’s most active Twitter users and that the social networking site is rapidly becoming a key information tool across the continent.

Researchers analyzed more than 11.5 million tweets from specific locations in Africa during the last three months of 2011.

A new report from ABI Research says the trend towards ‘freemium’ pricing on mobile apps will continue next year. The term refers to a product that’s offered free with a chargeable option for customers who want additional features or enhanced functionality.

Apple enabled in-app purchasing for free apps just over two years ago.

Not content with its efforts to put television on mobile phones, Vodafone has now launched a plug-in keyboard that turns your TV into a mobile phone.

The ‘Webbox’ is aimed at emerging markets rather than the UK, with Vodacom in South Africa preparing to start selling the Webbox next week.

A new report from Pyramid Research says more than 200 million mHealth applications are in use today, with the number expected to increase threefold by 2012.

Browser company Opera has taken a look at ‘gender equality on the mobile web’ in its latest State of the Mobile Web report. It notes that the percentage of women on the mobile web has risen 575% in the last two years. South Africa currently has the world’s highest proportion of mobile internet users – 43.5% - followed by the USA with 35.6%, Russia at 32.4% and the United Kingdom with 31.5%. At the other end of the scale, India has the fewest female users (4.0%), followed by Nigeria (5.4%), China (11.6%) and Vietnam (17.9%).

Mark Windle, head of marketing at OpenCloud, predicts that this year’s reduction in the number of traditional telecoms operators in some countries will provide an opportunity for other operators to innovate and capture market share in 2016.

He says next year will be a year of rapid change for telecoms… whether it’s MVNO disruption, competitive tariff pricing or simply defence from the ‘dark art’ of hacking.

Mark Bridge writes:

The most memorable moments in life often go unrecorded. You don't have your camera in your hands. Your finger is still hovering over the 'pause' button on your audio recorder. Or you were simply too busy experiencing whatever was happening. It's all about the one that got away.

That's where Kapture can help.

Mark Bridge writes:

James Rosewell shows me a colourful roll of paper that's the width of an iPhone but well over three metres long. When I look closer, I can see it's a printed copy of the Wall Street Journal's mobile website. That's a lot of scrolling to do... and a pretty unfriendly user experience for anyone reading the news online. Why does it work so badly?

We start this week's podcast with Ofcom's announcement that it's clarifying the rules for fixed-term mobile phone contracts.

There's also a new curved smartphone from LG, accusations about a mobile security company, information about mobile phone thefts, a report into the UK's communications infrastructure and some quarterly results figures.

M-commerce and mobile payments are terms that can mean several different things.

In this special podcast we learn more about the subject by talking to Tim Green, editor-in-chief of Mobile Money Revolution.

HTML5 is often described as the shape of things to come; sometimes as the future of the web and sometimes as the nemesis of native mobile applications.

But exactly what is 'HTML 5' - and what does it mean to the mobile industry?

There's plenty of product news in this week's podcast, with a new Apple iPad and new tablets from Nokia and Argos as well.

We also talk about HMV's battle with the Apple App Store, new 4G tariffs from Tesco Mobile, Samsung's patent proposals and a complaint about coverage maps.

If you've created a mobile application, you'll want people to download it, use it and tell their friends. But how can you ensure that as many people as possible know about your app?

Today's podcast is designed to help with some of the answers. It was recorded in London at the very first App Promotion Summit earlier this year.