BlackBerry's BBM is now a tool for helping locate missing children in Canada

Margaret Stuart, Managing Director of BlackBerry Canada launches the Most Valuable BBM network to aid in locating lost children. - Photo by Gadjo SevillaBy Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

Putting technology to the service of communities was the message today at the Toronto Police Service HQ in downtown Toronto where the Missing Children Society of Canada, Most Valuable Network and CodeSearch teamed up with BlackBerry to launch a BBM channel specifically for helping locate lost children.

The launch event featured Dr. Alok Mukherjee of the Toronto Police Services Board, Amanda Pick of the Missing Children Society of Canada, BlackBerrys managing director Margaret Stuart and Richard Bartrem, VP of communications for WestJet as well as Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair.

"There's no greater responsibility than to take care of our children," Blair said. "We need all Canadians to get involved in this initiative and for them to get involved, they need to be informed."

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Raspberry Pi is now smaller and cheaper

The world's tiniest computer has been made even smaller. The popular Raspberry Pi has added the Model A+ which is even smaller and cheaper than the Model B+. At just 2.6 inches, the Model A+ features Broadcom BCM2835 System-on-a-Chip and 256MB of RAM, draws less power, features a microSD card slot and costs $20 ($29 plus shipping, without import fees, taxes). Raspberry Pi boards have been popular for people who are learning to code as it runs various flavours of Linux. It has also spawned a cottage industry of accessory, add-on and cases which enable it to be used in various situations. Check it out here.

Night-time shots of Eiffel Tower are considered copyright violations

Heading over to Paris for a quick vacation soon? You might want to keep night-time photos of the Eiffel Tower for yourself. You see the Eiffel Tower is part of public domain and it’s okay to take shots of it during the day. However, at night it is illuminated by different light shows and those are considered copyrighted works of art. So, “reproducing” or taking photos of them and sharing them online will need to have the permission of the artist.

This issue was brought to light when EU Observer pointed out that Belgium and Italy also have copyrights on public buildings like the Belgian landmark Atomium. While you probably have little to fear when it comes to enforcement, it is still good to know these things.

Source: EU Observer | Via: SlashGear

HealthKit app Deadline tells you when you’re going to die

There’s nothing like a visual reminder of your impending death to keep you on your toes or creep you out immensely. A new HealthKit app for iOS 8 called Deadline is designed to let you know when you’re supposed to bite the dust. It makes use of a short quiz and HealthKit functionality to let you know when you’re supposed to die. It uses your answer and HealthKit information to calculate a generic algorithm for your death. It even has a timer that counts down to your death, which you can turn into a widget on your screen (if this is your kind of thing). Morbidness aside, it’s the kind of thing we’d need to remind us that life is short and we better get some living done.

Source: Gizmodo | Download: Apple iTunes App Store ($0.99)