Hasta La Gadget!

Mark Zuckerberg’s plan to get five billion people in developing nations online is ambitious but unlikely to bear fruit any time soon, with a survey of network analysts suggesting the Facebook-led project faces a considerable lead-time before any significant number of users are actually connected. The so-called internet.org project may be supported by some industry […]

Box may not be the first company you think of when it comes to cloud storage, as it’s largely focused on serving business needs. Still, while Box’s bread and butter is the enterprise, the company does dabble in personal storage, and today Box users had their lockers double in size to 10GB. That’s twice the 5GB previously offered, which makes it a more spacious option than SkyDrive (7GB), Dropbox (2GB), Amazon Cloud Drive (5GB) and iCloud (5GB). The only big-name competitor with more free digital square footage, in fact, is Google Drive, which provides 15GB of space.

There’s also some good news for small businesses and folks who like to share their space in the cloud. Box has rolled out a new starter tier that delivers 100GB of storage and allows up to ten users for $5 a month. 100GB of web workspace for the price of a large latte? Even the smallest startups can afford that.

Filed under: Storage, Internet

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Source: The Box Blog

Now that back to school season is upon us, Microsoft has launched its promised Bing for Schools in a pilot phase. The test lets more than 800,000 K-12 students search Bing ad-free while receiving daily learning activities, improved privacy and automatic adult content filtering. Schools wanting to join the pilot can apply today. Those who have long since graduated can pitch in, too: Microsoft has launched a program that lets Bing Rewards members contribute their credits toward Surface RT tablets for their preferred schools. All you need to know is available through the source links; we’re just wondering where Bing for Schools was when we were kids.

Filed under: Tablets, Internet, Microsoft

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Via: Bing Search Blog

Source: Bing for Schools, Partners in Learning

Word broke in late July that Google might launch Helpouts — a Hangout-based video platform where folks could charge for lending assistance over video — in about a month’s time. Like clockwork, Mountain View’s officially announced the platform, but it isn’t a free-for-all just yet. Page and Co. are inviting people with expertise in different topics to offer their services when the solution opens for business. The search giant has published a form allowing self-proclaimed experts to toss their hat in the ring for an invite, and lists categories including Arts and Music, Computers and Electronics, Cooking, Education, Fashion and Beauty, Fitness and Nutrition, Health and Counseling along with Home and Garden. Fittingly, Google’s own help documents for Helpouts have gone live as well, and they give us a few more details.

First, users will have to submit a listing for their services, which Google will review just before hanging out with them over video to get acquainted and ensure their live feed is in tip-top shape. If you’re a medical professional, you can offer your expert opinion to the masses as well, but Mountain View will confirm you’ve got the proper certificates and licenses in order. Once that’s done, interested customers will be able to check a pro’s availability and schedule appointments. Folks can offer their skills for free or charge for sessions, but both parties must use Google Wallet for the transaction, and Google will apply a 20 percent fee (yes, even with credit card payments). A launch date for Helpouts is MIA, but you can sign up to be notified and provide a helping hand at the source.

Filed under: Misc, Internet, Google

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Source: Google (1), (2)

Mark Zuckerberg, the founder and CEO of Facebook, has just announced the introduction of internet.org. Just what is internet.org? It happens to be a global partnership that will have the ultimate goal of making internet access available to the other 5 billion people on the planet. Now, where have we heard of such an idea before? Ah right – Google’s Project Loon does have the possibility of delivering internet connectivity at decent speeds due to the nature of its design, but I guess internet.org will do things a little bit differently.

Wanting to bring internet connectivity to the remaining population outside of the 2.7 billion connected folks, the ultimate aim is to offer everyone similar opportunities to remain hooked up (and perhaps increase Facebook’s subscription rate along the way?). The list of founding members of internet.org include Facebook, Ericsson, MediaTek, Nokia, Opera, Qualcomm and Samsung, and with their powers combined, Captain Planet – er, nay, it will result in joint projects, shared knowledge, and be a platform to mobilize industry and governments in order to bring the rest of the world to an online future. Do you think that this particular initiative would be able to achieve its goal at long last? The three key challenges internet.org are focusing on would be to make access more affordable, to use data more efficiently, and to assist businesses to drive access. [Press Release]

Internet.org Announced By Mark Zuckerberg original content from Ubergizmo.