Amazon Preparing to Launch Over 3,000 Satellites to Help Provide Broadband

Amazon is working to launch thousands of satellites into space as part of a bid to offer global internet access.  CNBC found details of the project, known as Project Kuiper, contained within some of Amazon’s federal findings. A company spokesperson confirmed the project, saying it “will provide low-latency, high-speed broadband connectivity to unserved and underserved communities around the world.”

Amazon’s proposal is for a network of 3,236 satellites. Building, launching and operating the satellites will require intensive capital, likely billions of dollars. But Bezos has already been funding Blue Origin with upwards of $1 billion a year and Amazon itself remains one of the world’s most valuable companies. GeekWire first reported the filings on Thursday. Kuiper is the name of a belt of objects that include asteroids and dwarf planets. It was named for the late Dutch American astronomer Gerard Kuiper.

BBEdit Returns to Mac App Store after Four Years

Popular productivity app BBEdit left the Mac App Store in October 2014. Today it’s back. As the “go to” tool for web site designers, web application developers, writers, and software developers, this award-winning product provides an abundance of high-performance features for editing, searching, and manipulation of text, code, and HTML/XML markup. An intelligent interface provides easy access to BBEdit’s best-of-class features, including: grep pattern matching; search and replace across multiple files; project definition tools; function navigation and syntax coloring for numerous source code languages; code folding; FTP and SFTP open and save; AppleScript and Automator support; Unix scripting support; text and code completion; a complete set of robust HTML tools; and more. Mac App Store: Free (Offers In-App Purchases)

Facebook Runs Sponsored Content in Daily Telegraph to Help Get Its Message Out

As part of its drive for better publicity, Facebook has been running a series of articles with British broadsheet newspaper The Daily Telegraph. The partnership was reported by Business Insider as something of an exposé. In fact, it looks to be a fairly standard, and clearly marked, sponsored content campaign. However, what struck me as interesting is how seriously Facebook is taking improving its PR. More conventional adverts have appeared in Britain too. After months of bad publicity, it is taking action to get its message across and try and reassure users.

The series — called “Being human in the information age” — has published 26 stories over the last month, to run in print and online, and is produced by Telegraph Spark, the newspaper’s sponsored content unit. “Fake news, cyberbullying, artificial intelligence — it seems like life in the internet age can be a scary place,” the articles say. “That’s why Telegraph Spark and Facebook have teamed up to show how Facebook and other social media platforms are harnessing the power of the internet to protect your personal data.”

Ting Mobile Launches Right to Repair Campaign

Ting Mobile is launching a right to repair campaign, and released a survey called ‘Epic Phone Fails’ showing that 78% aren’t aware they have a right to repair their devices.

One of the least surprising results from the survey is that 78% of people have never heard of ‘Right to Repair,’ which is the sometimes contested right for people to repair the things they own without being required to go through the item’s manufacturer. We are encouraged by the opportunity to make consumers more aware of the options they have when it comes to repairing their smartphones.