PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- A barge accident off the coast of Rhode Island has dented the foundation of what will be the nation's first offshore wind farm.
Deepwater Wind officials told The Providence Journal late last week that such accidents are not uncommon in offshore construction projects.
A barge being used in the construction hit and dented the foundation in the water this week. Deepwater Wind officials say repairing the foundation won't throw the project off track.
The company began attaching the steel foundation to the ocean floor on July 26 and expects to finish the work this week.
The company expects the five-turbine wind farm off Block Island to power 17,000 homes as early as next year.
Russian carriers ditch Samsung phones
Two Russian wireless carriers and two of the country's largest handset retailers said they stopped buying Samsung Electronics Co. smartphones, citing concerns over defective units and disagreements over repair guarantees.
Carriers PJSC MegaFon and VimpelCom Ltd. and retailers Euroset Holding NV and Svyaznoy suspended ordering from the South Korean company. VimpelCom stopped purchases after faulty units among Samsung devices reached as high as 7 percent, more than among other brands, the carrier said in an email.
Svyaznoy stopped ordering Samsung phones and tablets in June and keeps selling what's left of previously bought batches, spokesman Maria Zaikina said by phone. Samsung's share of smartphone sales in Russia may have dropped by 25 percent over the last month, according to Svyaznoy estimates.
Samsung "remains committed to providing the best possible products for Russian consumers," the company said in an email. It declined to comment on its relationship with Russian retailers.
The two carriers and two retailers operate more than 11,000 stores combined, according to St. Petersburg-based research firm INFOLine. Samsung phones are still available in Russia through some other retailers and online stores.
Samsung sold $1.46 billion worth of smartphones to Russia last year, accounting for about 23 percent of the value of units sales in the country, researcher International Data Corp. estimates.
-- Bloomberg News
Microsoft invests in Uber, sources say
Microsoft has agreed to invest in Uber, said sources knowledgeable on the matter, as part of a funding round that values the ride-hailing company at more than $50 billion.
Microsoft has agreed to contribute a substantial amount of the financing, which totals about $1 billion, said the sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the fundraising details are not public.
"We filed to authorize this new funding more than two months ago," an Uber spokesman said in a statement. "The filing is available to the public. We aren't commenting on additional speculation."
A Microsoft spokesman declined to comment. Microsoft's participation was earlier reported by The Wall Street Journal.
This new round cements Uber's place as one of the most valued private companies ever, along with other startups like Xiaomi, the Chinese handset maker valued by investors at around $45 billion, and Airbnb, the short-term home rental service valued at more than $24 billion.
Microsoft's participation is a new development, and may indicate a growing partnership between Uber and the software giant, which is based in Redmond, Wash. In May, a person familiar with the matter said this particular round of fundraising was intended to form strategic alliances with other companies while simultaneously bolstering Uber's coffers.
Uber recently acquired a portion of Microsoft's mapping technology assets and extended employment offers to more than 100 Microsoft employees. And while neither company has announced plans for a partnership, Microsoft's struggling mobile app ecosystem could benefit if Uber devotes more resources to making its service available on Windows devices. Uber came out with a mobile app for Windows smartphones last year, well after it was available on Apple's iOS and Google's Android software.
-- The New York Times
Artificial intelligence arms race feared
LONDON -- Scientists and tech experts -- including Stephen Hawking and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak -- recently warned of a global arms race with weapons using artificial intelligence.
In an open letter with hundreds of signatories, the experts argued that if any major military power pushes ahead with development of autonomous weapons, "a global arms race is virtually inevitable, and the endpoint of this technological trajectory is obvious: autonomous weapons will become the Kalashnikovs of tomorrow."
Some critics have argued in favor of so-called "killer robots," saying the use of robotics on the battlefield could save lives. Such weapons are still some years away.
But the scientists warned that, unlike nuclear weapons, once they are developed they will require no costly or hard-to-obtain raw materials -- making it possible to mass-produce them.
"It will only be a matter of time until they appear on the black market and in the hands of terrorists, dictators wishing to better control their populace, warlords wishing to perpetrate ethnic cleansing, etc.," the letter said.
Utility to lease solar panels for homes
Consolidated Edison Inc., owner of New York City's electric utility, said its competitive retail unit will begin leasing residential solar power systems in New York state next month.
Con Edison will offer 20-year leases to homeowners with no upfront costs and will use panels from SunPower Corp., according to a statement.
The popularity of no-money-down leasing is helping make residential rooftops the fastest-growing part of the U.S. solar industry.
SolarCity Corp., NRG Energy Inc. and Sungevity Inc. are among the companies already offering solar leases in the state. New York offers tax credits for solar leases.
-- Bloomberg News
Facebook ordered to allow pseudonyms
Facebook Inc. was ordered by a German privacy watchdog to allow users to have accounts under pseudonyms on the social network.
Facebook may not unilaterally change such accounts to the real names of users and may not block them, Johannes Caspar, Hamburg's data regulator, said in an emailed statement. The company, whose European headquarters are in Ireland, can't argue it is only subject to that country's law, he said.
"Anyone who stands on our pitch also has to play our game," Caspar said. "The arbitrary change of the user name blatantly violates" privacy rights.
Caspar and other German regulators have been fighting with Facebook for years over the implementation of European data-protection rules. The U.S. company has argued that the Irish regulator has jurisdiction over its compliance with EU privacy law.
Facebook said it was disappointed its name policy is being revisited after it won disputes over the issue.
"The use of authentic names on Facebook protects people's privacy and safety by ensuring people know who they're sharing and connecting with," the company said in an emailed statement.
-- Bloomberg News
SuperValu considers Save-A-Lot spinoff
NEW YORK -- SuperValu said last week that it is considering spinning off discount grocer Save-A-Lot into a separate publicly traded company as competition in the industry intensifies.
The company said the split will help each company focus on finding ways to grow. SuperValu Inc. has been getting smaller in recent years, selling its Albertsons, Jewel-Osco and other chains.
Rival chains have been combining. Last month, the owner of Stop & Shop and Giant stores said it will merge with the parent company of Food Lion to operate 6,500 stores around the world. And discounter Dollar Tree completed its deal to buy Family Dollar earlier this month, bringing its store count to about 13,000.
Save-A-Lot has more than 1,300 stores around the country, selling fresh meat, vegetables and other groceries. The company has plans to open 100 new Save-A-Lot stores by early next year, some in new markets. It will open its first Las Vegas store later this summer. SuperValu said it doesn't have a timeline for when the Save-A-Lot separation may happen.
Based in Eden Prairie, Minn., SuperValu distributes grocery items to nearly 3,600 stores and also operates the Cub Foods, Shop 'N Save and Hornbacher's chains.
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