Facebook to offer free Net in Zambia
Facebook Inc. and Bharti Airtel Ltd. of India formed a partnership to provide free Internet services including Wikipedia in Zambia, according tosaid Guy Rosen, a product management director at Facebook.
The offering will be provided through the mobile application Internet.orgcq, named after a project developed by the world’s biggest social-networking site to expand Internet access to the 5 billion people yet to go online.
“Zambia for us is a very interesting country,” Rosen said Wednesday by phone from Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif. “Internet penetration is 15 percent, so there’s a lot of opportunity to expand productivity by making the Internet accessible to more people.”
Bharti Airtel, India’s largest mobile-phone operator, will offer free data to its Zambian subscribers through the Internet.org application for services including Accuweather, health and jobs sites, and Wikipedia, Rosen said.
Airtel, as the local unit is known, competes with Johannesburg-based MTN Group Ltd. in Zambia, Africa’s second- biggest copper producer, where the economy is expected to grow 6.5 percent this year.
Internet.org, in which mobile-device makers Samsung Electronics Co., Nokia Oyj and chip-maker Qualcomm Inc. are also partners, plans to expand the application to more countries, Rosen said. The focus will be on nations with high growth and low Internet connectivity in Asia, Africa and Latin America, he said.
‘“We believe Africa has a lot of potential,” Rosen said. “It’s a fascinating market; there’s a lot of untapped opportunities.”
— Bloomberg News
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Google confirms it sold barge docked in Maine
Google confirms it sold barge in Maine
PORTLAND, Maine — Google Inc. is confirmingconfirmed Friday that the barge it docked in Maine has been sold.
The barge carries dozens of old shipping containers that were joined to create a four-story building. Google envisioned it as one of three floating retail stores.
The Portland Press Herald saysreported that an international company is buying the barge and taking it on an ocean voyage. Portland Harbor’s deputy harbor master sayssaid the containers will be disassembled and scrapped.
The barge first docked in Portland Harbor in October and moved to South Portland on Wednesday. A Portland city spokeswoman saysspokesman said the city received $400,000 in state reimbursements while it docked there.
Google initially had little to say about the barges, leading to speculation about its intentions. It later revealed they were to be stores. One is moored in Stockton, California.
— The Associated Press
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Amazon jumps into 3-D printing market with bobbleheads, more
Amazon to partner with 3-D print firms
From personalized miniature bobbleheads to flower vases, Amazon’s new 3-D printing marketplace plans to simplify the 3-D printing process for consumers.
The online retailer, which launched the marketplace July 28last Monday, offers users the ability to customize a number of objects including jewelry, bobbleheads and wax seals before having them 3-D printed and shipped out, just like any other Amazon transaction.
Making the customization aspect of the website more accessible to 3-D printing novices is important, Amazon Marketplace Sales Director Petra Schindler-Carter said, because it opens a new marketplace to more consumers.
“It’s an innovation that we’re excited to invest in,” she said.
3-D printers use a variety of materials to create objects including toys and casts for broken bones. The printers themselves often cost several hundreds of dollars, and usually require a rudimentary knowledge of technical programs likesuch as AutoCAD to begin building 3-D designs.
Amazon is offering more than 200 printable objects through the marketplace, with customizable features such as color, size, style and text additions. The objects will retailbe priced from $25 to $100.
The tech giant is partnering with 10 3-D printing companies that sell and create 3-D printing items and hopes to add more, Schindler-Carter said.
Expanding to a much larger customer base in Amazon isn’t a concern for partnering company Mixee Labs, co-founder Nancy Liang said. She said the company, which produces the customizable bobbleheads, was a great fit for Amazon.
“You can’t sell a personalized mini-bobblehead without a way of personalizing,” Liang wrote in an email. “It just so happens that Amazon was interested in launching a personalization widget on their product page, so it was perfect.”
— Los Angeles Times