Author: Serkadis

BRADLEY, Ill.  — The deaths of an elderly couple found dead in their far south suburban home Sunday have been confirmed to be a murder-suicide.

At 10:21 a.m. Sunday, police in Bradley, which is about halfway between Bourbonnais and Kankakee, were dispatched to 644 Juniper Lane for a well-being check of an elderly resident, police said.

Police made contact with both elderly occupants of the home and spoke with them concerning any medical issues or if they needed assistance.

A Bradley Fire Department ambulance was dispatched to the scene, because one of the residents complained of back pain.

Both residents of the home — Bobbie B. Karr, 86, and his wife Dorothy J. Karr, 84, were in the living room, one on the couch and the other in a chair, according to police.

The police officer on scene met with ambulance personnel outside the home to advise them of the situation, when the officer heard shots from inside the home.

Upon entering the home, the officer discovered that the person on the couch had been shot and the other resident was found lying in the bathroom, and had a gunshot wound to the head.

Dorothy Karr had been murdered and Bobbie Karr committed suicide, Bradley Police Chief Steven Coy said. Autopsies Wednesday confirmed this.

Dorothy Karr’s death was from a gunshot to the head, and her death was ruled a homicide, and Bobbie Karr’s death was also from a gunshot to the head and his death was ruled a suicide, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office.

A handgun was recovered at the scene, police said.

Both Bobbie and Dorothy Karr had suffered numerous health problems and a note was found on the scene, but it wasn’t a suicide note, Coy said.

The two were taken to local hospitals, then flown to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where Bobbie Karr was pronounced dead at 5:32 p.m. Monday and Dorothy Karr was pronounced dead at 7:25 p.m. Monday, according to the medical examiner’s office.

The two had been married 64 years, Coy said.

Read the original article from WBBM News Radio.

As most of the third quarter of 2009 to which the financial report posted by Japanese carmaker Toyota refers to has somewhat escaped the negative publicity of the recent recall frenzy, the carmaker was able to register a 10.2 percent increase in net revenues compared to the same period last fiscal year.

Toyota managed to earn 5.3 trillion yen ($58 billion), with operating income increasing from a loss of 360.6 billion yen ($3.9 billion) to 189.1 billion yen ($2 billion). Income before taxes,… (read more)

So when’s that Hulu Premium service that we heard about last fall going to show up?

If Disney EVP Kevin Mayer knows, he’s not telling. But for the record, he says, “no decisions have been made” about what kind of pay models and services the video site is going to use, or when they’ll roll out.

In short, the only concrete thing that the Disney (DIS) executive, speaking at the DeSilva+Phillips Dealmakers conference this morning, would allow is that the video site will indeed be asking some consumers to pay for something at some point.

That could come in the form of subscriptions, a la carte downloads, streaming rentals or all of the above, Mayer said. That would in addition to the free ad-supported stuff that Hulu is already offering. “I think we ultimately should and will have a hybrid approach,” said Mayer.

Mayer was one of the key Disney executives pushing the company to join News Corp.’s Fox (NWS) and GE’s NBC (GE) in the joint venture last year, instead of accepting a competing offer from Google (GOOG) and YouTube. YouTube, meanwhile, is still working on paid services of its own.

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A whole bunch of you sent over yet another story of copyright law gone wrong. An artist named Jack Mackie, who created a piece of artwork made up of bronze shoeprints buried in a sidewalk in Seattle (I’d post a picture, but we’d probably get sued) apparently got upset that a photographer took some photos of it. Remember, it’s on a sidewalk. In a public place. And it’s a piece of artwork, so people are going to take photos. In this case, the photographer, Mike Hipple, took a photo that was a clear transformative work, rather than a straight copy. The photo, which you can see here, featured someone’s feet standing on the art installation — something you would imagine makes a lot of sense as a commentary on the artwork (since the work itself is of of shoeprints). Cool, right? Not according to Mackie. Hipple posted the photo to a stock photo website — which does no damage whatsoever to Mackie’s work — and should only call more attention to it. No matter, Mackie sent a legal nastygram. But here’s the thing: Hipple complied. He took down the photo and erased it. He no longer has a copy of it. So he complied with the nastygram.

And Mackie sued anyway. He actually waited a year, and then sued, even though the photo had been gone since just a few days after the nastygram was sent. It seems like this should be a clear transformative use. It wasn’t just a photo of the artwork, but added a different element that acted as a bit of commentary on the work itself. It’s hard to see how this would have even the slightest negative impact on the actual work or the artist. This is just the sort of ridiculous situation that arises when people are told that they “own” something that cannot be owned.

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The United States is disappointed with Japan’s modifications to the latter’s cash for clunkers program. The Japanese scrappage scheme now allows U.S. cars but limits their number, according to a U.S. trade official quoted by Reuters.

"This is particularly unfortunate in light of its recent announcement to open opportunities for U.S. autos to qualify for its program, which was a welcome step," U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk said in a statement demanding further changes to Japan’s… (read more)

Article Tags: Front Page News, Matt Ridley

Matt Ridley salutes the bloggers who changed the climate debate. While most of Fleet Street kowtowed to the green lobby, online amateurs uncovered the spin and deception that finally cracked the consensus

Journalists are wont to moan that the slow death of newspapers will mean a disastrous loss of investigative reporting. The web is all very well, they say, but who will pay for the tenacious sniffing newshounds to flush out the real story? ‘Climategate’ proves the opposite to be true. It was amateur bloggers who scented the exaggerations, distortions and corruptions in the climate establishment; whereas newspaper reporters, even after the scandal broke, played poodle to their sources.

It was not Private Eye, or the BBC or the News of the World, but a retired electrical engineer in Northampton, David Holland, whose freedom-of-information requests caused the Climategate scientists to break the law, according to the Information Commissioner. By contrast, it has so far attracted little attention that the leaked emails of Climategate include messages from reporters obsequiously seeking ammunition against the sceptics. Other emails have shown reporters meekly changing headlines to suit green activists, or being threatened with ostracism for even reporting the existence of a sceptical angle: ‘Your reportage is very worrisome to most climate scientists,’ one normally alarmist reporter was told last year when he slipped briefly off message. ‘I sense that you are about to experience the “Big Cutoff” from those of us who believe we can no longer trust you, me included.’

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Source: spectator.co.uk

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When the inevitable police report is filled out, expect all the old cliches. “She seemed so harmless,” the neighbors will say. “We never thought so much evil could be hiding under such a cute little bow.” But we knew better.

The provenance of this Hello Kitty chainsaw, complete with a splatter pattern of purple hearts on the blade, is unknown, and maybe it’s better that way. The less we know, the less likely we are to be dragged in as material witnesses. [Hello Kitty Hell via Make]

In the networking ring, there is no dispute — Cisco is the champ. It’s been dominant in all types of networking devices for more than two decades, so its move over the past few years into adjacent markets in order to expand its footprint beyond networking — into blade servers, consumer products, video servers and services (such as via its acquisitions of Webex and ScanSafe, respectively) — made perfect sense. What’s been surprising, however, is how flat-footed and weak the counterattacks from the competition have been.

I’ve observed three distinct approaches being taken by Cisco’s competitors: One, trying to match the company punch for punch; two, teaming up with a common enemy; and three, jabbing repeatedly at a perceived weak spot.

Punch for Punch

In the match-punch-for-punch camp, we have three companies: Hewlett-Packard, Juniper Networks and Huawei. Hewlett-Packard, with its recent acquisition of 3Com, is trying to wail away at Cisco’s core – the enterprise networking market — with a formidable set of networking product lines, which can nearly match Cisco when it comes to routing, switching, wireless LAN and security appliances. But without a coherent end-to-end marketing strategy aimed at the enterprise customer, and some near-perfect sales execution, HP-3Com will stumble.

Same goes for Cisco’s traditional competitor in the service provider market, Juniper Networks, which bolstered its lineup of enterprise offerings last May with an eye to Cisco, and Chinese networking giant Huawei, which is trying to match Cisco’s offerings after selling its share in its failed Huawei-3Com joint venture back to 3Com. The enterprise isn’t looking for lower-priced point solutions, but a long-term strategic networking plan — a plan that has traditionally come from Cisco.

Teaming Up

Meanwhile, Cisco’s foray into the blade server market has prompted two principal incumbents — IBM and Dell — to join forces and ink deals with Juniper. And last week, another traditional enterprise networking vendor, Polycom, also teamed up with Juniper in the wake of Cisco’s acquisitions of ones of its rivals, Tandberg.

But fighting as a team can be difficult to do, especially when one member is trying to play on multiple teams. There can be divergent marketing messages, channel partner conflicts and much finger-pointing when solutions fail to perform or interoperate as expected.  Can the teams of Juniper-IBM, Juniper-Dell and Juniper-Polycom beat up on Cisco?  Juniper’s involvement in all three will make that a challenge.

Repeated Jabs

The last strategy, that of jabbing repeatedly at a perceived weak spot, isn’t intended to take Cisco down, but rather to weaken it further, loosening its grip on a specific market and hopefully capturing the attention of an even bigger Cisco competitor at the same time. Two specific areas of weakness for Cisco are application acceleration and next-generation 10Gigabit ethernet LAN switching.  In the fight for application acceleration there is Riverbed, F5 Networks and Zeus Systems, while two next-generation LAN switching companies to watch are Force10 Networks and Arista Networks.  None of them will single-handedly overtake Cisco in these arenas, but they have and will continue to cause Cisco pain by luring over its enterprise customers with the promise of high performance and features. If one of these companies were to be bought by a larger Cisco competitor, the fight could get more interesting, but it would take more than one acquisition to make that happen.

While a decade or so ago, Cisco would have been the winner by a knockout in the second round of any of these fights, today, it might just take the company until round four. All of its challengers — new and old — need new ringside coaches.  Their current fight plans cannot match Cisco punch for punch, team fighting will be difficult and clumsy, and you don’t win a heavyweight fight with jabs. As evidenced by its latest quarterly results, at least for now, Cisco continues to reign as champ.

The most popular BitTorrent client in the world has just gotten a big update which means it’s upgrade time for a lot of people. It’s well worth the upgrade too, as uTorrent 2.0 is a big step forward. The biggest update is support for µTP, which should help with network congestion and could result in improved download speeds. There is also a new setup dialog des… (read more)

Sonic fans have been eagerly anticipating the grand reveal for Sega’s Project Needlemouse, and today the company finally pulled the curtains off their mysterious Sonic project. Sonic’s next adventure is now official known as Sonic the

Many of you probably thought that the Saab saga will end once the Swedish car manufacturer will be sold or closed down. And in the spirit of honesty, there have been times when no one was sure any more what was going to happen, as GM acted somehow confused on the matter.

Things are looking better now that Saab and its new owner Spyker formed a new entity called Saab Spyker Automobiles, "which will carry the Saab brand forward." And indeed they are leaving the past behind as the Saab… (read more)

CHICAGO — The apparent Democratic nominee for Illinois lieutenant governor, Scott Lee Cohen, was accused of swinging a knife and scarring a woman in 2005 – a woman who had previously been arrested on prostitution charges.

The spokesman says five years ago, Cohen was in the middle of a divorce and “he got involved with the wrong kind of people.”

The charge against Scott Lee Cohen in October of 2005: domestic battery.

He was accused of holding a knife to the neck of a 24-year-old woman and causing a “minor scar” – and pushing her head against the wall.

Cohen was arrested and $7,500 bail was set.

The case was dropped because the woman wasn’t in court.

The misdemeanor complaint says the woman was “a household member,” but she gave an address in Lake County, Illinois.

The woman had previously been charged with prostitution.

A spokesman for Scott Lee Cohen says Cohen had the woman arrested for destruction of property.

Steve Miller reporting

Read the original article from WBBM News Radio.

Living in Europe and looking for an electric sports car? Lucky for you Tesla has announced production of the right-hand-drive version of its iconic electric, Lotus based Roadster.

“The right-hand-drive model is our response to growing demand from high-performance car buyers in the UK who are also interested in their impact on the environment.” said Cristiano Carlutti, Tesla’s Vice President for European Sales and Operations. “Tesla is dramatically expanding its retail footprint in Europe, we look forward to building our community of owners and fans throughout the continent.”

Pricing for the Tesla Roadster in the UK starts at £86,950 ($137,622 USD). Prospective customers can head down Tesla’s showroom on 49-51 Cheval Place in London’s Knightsbridge district.

Click through to check out the high-res image gallery and the press release.

Tesla Roadster S (RHD):

Press Release:

Tesla launches right-hand-drive Roadster in London showroom

LONDON — Tesla Motors has announced production of the right-hand-drive version of its iconic Roadster sports car, the only highway-capable electric vehicle for sale worldwide.

Prospective customers and media may test-drive right-hand-drive cars available at Tesla’s showroom, 49-51 Cheval Place in London’s Knightsbridge district (SW7 1EW). The 2010 right-hand-drive Roadster includes a suite of unique noise-reduction materials, an upgraded sound system and other enhancements that make it ideal for daily commuting or weekend drives.

The Roadster accelerates faster than virtually any other car on the road, making it the only production car faster than a Porsche and twice as energy efficient as a Prius. It is quickly becoming the choice amongst discerning drivers who demand performance with a clean conscience.

The Roadster easily travels more than 200 miles per charge in mixed driving conditions, consumes no petroleum and plugs into conventional 220-volt sockets throughout Europe. It can be fully or partially recharged by solar or wind power. A customer’s Roadster recently set a world distance record for EVs with 313 miles on a single charge.

UK companies that purchase a Roadster benefit from a 100 percent Writing Down Allowance, meaning they can deduct the price of the car from their taxable profits. The Roadster is the only sports car that has ever qualified for a such a tax incentive in the UK.

The Roadster starts at £86,950 and costs about 1.5p per mile, compared to as much as 32p per mile for petrol-powered sports cars. Roadster drivers do not have to pay the London congestion charge, saving up to nearly £1,700 annually. They can park for free and without time limits in various London boroughs, they get four hours of free charging at certain parking sites, and they are exempt from the forthcoming Showroom Tax of £950.

A Wadsworth man who police said opened fire on three people he had lured to his house was sentenced to 12 years in prison Wednesday in Lake County Circuit Court.

Joseph Hunter, 30, pleaded guilty to unlawful use of a weapon during a hearing before Circuit Judge Fred Foreman.

Assistant State’s Attorney James Newman said Hunter had a female friend call a Zion man and tell him she wanted to meet with him in the early morning hours of June 6.

That man, along with another Zion man and a Waukegan man who was driving, followed the woman’s directions to Hunter’s house in the 1300 block of Wadsworth Road.

As the car pulled into the driveway, Hunter fired a rifle five to six times at the vehicle and struck the driver in the pelvic area.

Newman said the man was hospitalized for several days after the shooting, but is recovering and had approved the plea agreement finalized Wednesday.

Additional charges of attempted murder, aggravated battery with a firearm and aggravated discharge of a firearm were dropped in exchange for Hunter’s plea.

Newman said Hunter was convicted of drug possession in 2001, 2002 and 2004, and was sentenced to a total of 11 years in prison.

Read the original article on DailyHerald.com.

Bill found negotiating with the dealership to be a little one-sided. [Craigslist via Failblog]

Steve Jobs says the iPad is better than a laptop, tacitly implying that the notebook’s days are numbered.

Well, maybe.

No Laptop Substitute for Serious Users

Or not. I really like the iPad. I want one, but it doesn’t come within a country mile of being even a halfway-adequate substitute for a real laptop, at least for folks who use their computers as serious work tools. Laptops are going to be around for a long time to come. However, with the iPad’s price of entry at $500, the netbook folks may have plenty to worry about.

Then again, Jobs probably has a point, at least in that while web workers and other power or semi-power users who require multitasking capability, flexible input options, graphics and video editing power, and so forth will be buying laptops (and desktops) for many years to come, for the average consumer shopping at Best Buy or Wal-Mart, their laptop or netbook money may now be spent on an iPad. And if these folks discover that the iPad is all they needed in the first place (plausible in many instances) they may never buy a laptop again, which is probably what Jobs and Apple imagine to be the harbinger of the laptop’s future.

PowerBook Duo Redivivus?

For me, the deal breaker would’ve been lack of support for a real, electromechanical keyboard — I detest and revile touchscreen keyboards — but happily Apple covered that base nicely with Bluetooth support and an optional iPad Dock for the Apple Bluetooth keyboard. I’m a longtime fan of the old PowerBook Duo concept from the 90’s with its various dockable expansion options, and the iPad with dock seems to be a contemporary update of that motif. Reportedly, any Bluetooth keyboard will work — not just Apple’s — so those of us who don’t like living without a numerical keypad will be covered as well.

Pointing Device Driver Still a Question Mark

A remaining caveat is that unfortunately, as of yet there’s been no confirmation one way or the other as to whether there will be mouse driver support for Bluetooth external pointing devices. I’m inclined to think that the absence of mention in Apple’s tech specs means there likely isn’t, at least so far, which means there is no precision pointing device, and even when using an external keyboard with the iPad mounted on its dock, it will still be necessary to navigate and click using the touchscreen interface — really inconvenient for folks like myself who like to sit well back from the screen when working at a desktop with external keyboards and pointing devices.

Still Some Deficiencies

The lack of multitasking support is another major shortcoming, but scuttlebutt has it that iPhone OS 4.0 may add multitasking to its repertoire of features, so that may be addressed by the time the iPad ships.

Another deficiency of the iPad as a laptop replacement is its lack of provision for memory upgrades. Of course we’ve already gone through that with the MacBook Air, but at least it comes with 2GB of soldered-in RAM compared to the iPad’s 1GB.

The iPad a Work in Progress

Accentuating the positive, however, I prefer to look at the iPad as a work in progress, and hopefully some or all of these objections, plus the absence of Flash support, and tabbed browsing in the iPad version of Safari, HDMI or MiniDisplay Port output, an SD Card reader, and any sort of non-wireless data transfer connectivity, will be remedied in subsequent versions.

In the meantime, that surprisingly friendly $500 price of entry to the iPad club should make it a formidable force to be reckoned with in the marketplace right out of the blocks, although I’m personally inclined to keep my powder dry until the Revision B models hit the Apple Certified Refurbished channels in eight or 10 months time and any teething problems get ironed out.

How about you? Eager early adopter or content to wait? And can you envision the iPad ever replacing your laptop?

Related GigaOM Pro Research:

• Web Tablet Survey: Apple’s iPad Hits Right Notes
• 5 Tips for Developers Targeting the iPad
• How AT&T Will Deal with iPad Data Traffic

Filed under: Car Buying, Performance, Ferrari

A couple of years back, Ferrari was widely rumored to be working on an “entry-level” model to slot in below the F430 (since replaced by the 458 Italia). The result was the California. And all the while they were working on it – with test mules lapping Fiorano like an F1 driver recovering from a head injury – company spokesmen declared that the true entry level for new Ferrari owners was a pre-owned Ferrari. Now the famed automaker from Maranello is putting its money where its mouth is with the new “Power Warranty”.

In order to entice prospective owners and counteract the notorious unreliability of older Prancing Horses – its part of their character, say the faithful – Ferrari has launched a 24-month warranty on a wide range of certified pre-owned models in the 360, F430, 550/575, 599 and 612 ranges, including all variants: coupes, roadsters and lightweight models, no more than eight years old and with no more than 90,000 kilometers on the odometer.

The warranty is optional, includes roadside assistance, and can be purchased by current owners to extend their existing warranties. Details in the press release after the jump.

[Source: Ferrari]

Continue reading Ferrari offers 24-month Certified Pre-Owned warranty

Ferrari offers 24-month Certified Pre-Owned warranty originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 04 Feb 2010 08:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Hybrid, Government/Legal, Recalls, Safety, Toyota

Toyota has received a lot of negative publicity for its sticking accelerator pedal and floormat recalls, and now brake problems with the Prius can be officially added to the list. While there were reports of some serious concern about the brakes in the best-selling hybrid, Toyota has now admitted that there are indeed known problems with the car’s anti-lock braking system.

A Toyota spokesperson said on Thursday that Prius models sold before the end of January have this brake system design problem, but that the problem has been corrected on models sold since then, according to the Associated Press. The announcement follows Japanese and U.S. officials ordering the company yesterday to investigate around 180 claims of braking problems in the 2010 Prius.

The Japanese automaker’s explanation for what causes the braking issue seems right in line with the possible explanation we posited yesterday. Long story short, the Prius has both a regenerative and friction braking system, and can apparently experience a short, temporary loss of braking during the transition between the two on slick or bumpy surfaces. Toyota calls it a “slight unresponsiveness” and it usually lasts under a second.

While 2004-2009 Prius models are included in Toyota’s floormat recall and none are affected by the sticking accelerator pedal recall, the new third-generation model had remained above the fray completely until yesterday. And while a recall to fix the brake issue on these models has not been announced yet, it is being considered.

[Source: The New York Times]

Toyota admits Prius had a braking problem originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 04 Feb 2010 08:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Motorsports, Racing

Assuming for a moment that you won’t be watching any stages live, what could possibly be better than strapping into the living room recliner and watching World Rally Championship coverage here in the United States? How about watching that very same coverage in glorious high definition? You’re in luck, as Discovery’s HD Theater plans to air the entire 2010 season, the start of which is coming up fast.

The action will begin on Thursday, February 25th at 10 PM Eastern with the Rally Sweden event. Racing will continue on Friday and a follow-up episode will be aired the following Sunday night from 10-11 PM ET. The second race, the Corona Rally Mexico, will follow the same schedule from Thursday, March 18th through Sunday, March 21st.

In case you’re wondering, Ken Block will indeed be taking part in the 2010 Rally Sweden behind the wheel of his brand new Ford Focus RS, giving American viewers a hometown hero to pull for. Air dates for the remainder of the 2010 WRC season will be announced later.

[Source: Discovery’s HD Theater]

Discovery’s HD Theater outlines the start of WRC coverage for 2010 originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 04 Feb 2010 08:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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(Editor’s note: Answers OnStartups is a Q&A site for entrepreneurs founded and moderated by Dharmesh Shah and Jason Cohen. This semimonthly feature highlights popular discussion topics on the forum and gives a sampling of answers from site members.)

You’re heard of “fremium” pricing models for web-based applications, but what about desktop applications? Even worse: What about desktop applications that retail at $1,000 or more?

Long before the fremium fad swept the browser-based world, traditional desktop software makers had two primary ways to provide a low-friction way for customers to subtly get addicted to their product:

Free Trial — a timed-limited trial in which you can use the entire product for only a few weeks, or a feature-limited trial in which you can use a subset of the software, just enough to see how it works but not do anything vital, e.g. you can’t save, you can’t print, or you can’t export without a hideous watermark.

Lite Version — a lower-cost edition of the software where many features are missing or hobbled. This is fully-functional software which many people can use as-is.

Which path is wisest? Ferrua Mavituna raised the question recently on Answers OnStartups.

The answer is more complicated than it may seem – and it often depends on the type of customers you’re seeking and the nature of your software. The debate (which is ongoing) has been intense – and brought out proponents of both sides of the issue.

Here’s a summary of some of the advice he got:

• A “Lite” version can cannibalize sales. Customers who would have paid for the $1,000 version might be satisfied with the $500 – you’ve lost $500 for nothing.
• A “Lite” version can increase sales. Many people will balk at $1,000 but will sniff around a cheaper version. If you make those sales, that’s revenue you wouldn’t have had, and since the Lite version is simpler, tech support is cheaper, which means it might be just as profitable.
• A “Lite” version can help manage competition. If you’re expensive, you probably have a lot of cheaper competition. Sure they do less or it’s lower quality, but money is money. This way you can still compete if price is the primary factor for the customer. Better they buy a cheaper version from you than buy anything from anyone else.
• A “Lite” version can cheapen your image. If you want to command a high price tag, you need to exude “luxury and value ” everywhere from the website design to customer support to price. Under-cutting yourself just makes you look like “Shareware with a stretch.”
• A “Lite” version can segment the market. Often there are several distinct market segments that don’t require the same features and cannot bear the same price tag. For example, photo-editing software might have an inexpensive, simple version so that amateur photographers can do common tasks like cropping and red-eye-removal, but also have an expensive edition for things like creating bound photo albums or DVD slideshows – supporting services professional photographers offer their clients.
• People steal software, so Lite versions are unnecessary. If your software is over $1,000, someone is going to hack it and post a version that doesn’t require a license code. People who really don’t want to pay for software aren’t going to pay you anyway. If you embrace that fact, you’ll find Lite versions aren’t worth the effort. Better to make a good profit off of honest people and have the pirates at least be using your software instead of a competitor’s.
• Free to read, costs to write. This is the Adobe PDF model: It’s free for anyone to read, search, print, and share documents, but you have to pay Adobe if you want to author PDFs. This is a nice way to have a “Lite” version to increase usefulness and spread the word, but still make money on a smaller subset of users.
• You can combine the two ideas. Start with a time-limited trial of the complete product so customers are impressed and hooked. After the trial expires, revert to a hobbled “Lite” version that continues to function, but which misses vital features. Because they can still try to use the product, but fail, they’ll want to purchase.
• You can change your mind. Start with the Pro/Lite combo. At the early stage of your company you want new customers above all else – not unprofitably so, but almost at any cost. Use the two tiers to test price levels and which features people will really pay for. Eventually you can elect to drop the Lite version; just offer free or inexpensive upgrades for your existing Lite users and move on.

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