The "freemium" business model really can work. The "freemium" model -- giving away service to users and making money when some opt to pay for additional features -- has become wildly popular among Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, all banking on reaching the critical mass of a Facebook or Twitter (or being acquired). The competitive advantage is tantalizing. A product that's largely free can't be edged out by something cheaper.

While it may feel like an all out tug-of-war between Blockbuster and Netflix, don't forget they aren't the only companies battling for market share. Redbox is fighting for kiosk space. Apple, Amazon, and Comcast are competing for movie download purchases. And Hulu will soon start its subscription-based service. Blockbuster is trying to fend off all these competitors, even as the company is mired in debt.

At a little over 4 pounds with the bulkier 8-cell battery (5.2 pounds with the power brick), the Vostro 3300 won't strain your shoulder as you lug it along on your daily travels. That weight includes a tray-loading DVD recordable drive, so you're not sacrificing optical storage just for thinness. The 13.3-inch, LED-backlit screen offers a matte finish, something we'd like to see more of, since the glossy screens that seem so common these days can be annoying to use in most normal lighting situations.

If you’ve been shirking your social media reading responsibilities this week, here’s your chance to make it right. See below for a week’s worth of guides, lists, and analysis you need to stay on your social game. This batch includes some great Twitter trend trackers, a peek into the future of the “smart home,” and some sound social business strategies.

Last February, fashion buyers and press gathered simultaneously in Paris, Dubai, Tokyo, New York and L.A. and donned special glasses to witness an industry first: the 3D livestream of Burberry’s Fall 2010 Prorsum collection.

USA Today has partnered with location-based social network Gowalla to bring its travel content to the network’s users. Gowalla users who follow USA Today and check in at major U.S. airports will receive airport and airline news and features from the news organization’s Travel section and online community.

Andreas Weigend, former chief scientist of Amazon, spoke to audiences Tuesday at the World Innovation Forum about how to bring your business into Web 3.0 marketing. Weigend, who teaches at Stanford and is an expert in data mining, argues that we’ve moved from “eBusiness” (essentially, getting businesses online in Web 1.0) to “MeBusiness” (customer focus in Web 2.0) to “WeBusiness,” which realigned marketing with a community focus. Weigend used his time as Amazon to teach lessons on how marketing has evolved into a combination of communication between the customer and businesses, the customer and other customers, and the customer and the world.

Ted Murphy looks at a soda can and sees an opportunity for people to make money. And not by returning the empties to collect a nickel. Instead, the CEO of IZEA sees people snapping photos of their beverages with their iPhones and collecting points through his new program WeRewards.

It's become a classic business mantra: you learn more from your failures than from your successes. But what if that idea is all wrong? Alex Bogusky, co-chairman of Crispin Porter + Bogusky, believes it is--and recent MIT research showing that we learn more from success backs him up. "You create a fearful culture where you spend a lot of time looking at where you screwed up," he says. Instead, his company has bred a culture in which success is celebrated, and failure is forgotten.

The funny thing about business books is that for many stories, there are countless counterexamples of  management philosophies that are radically different, yet still successful. What is inspiring about Zappos.com, the world’s largest online shoe retailer, is that it is possible for a business to be founded on curiosity, built with friendship, and sustained with employee happiness.