SourceCode: TELUS strikes deals with RDIO, Skype to enhance its services

Telus' HTC Status gets you Google and Facebook on one device

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

TELUS held a Back To School Event for the media today to showcase its latest services, recent handsets as well as introduce some of the new service offerings including tighter integration with VoIP giant Skype as well as hot new social cloud music service Rdio.

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Review: Facebook on webOS for HP TouchPad

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

One of the launch apps on HP's new TouchPad tablet is a full-scale Facebook application. To date,  the BlackBerry PlayBook and the TouchPad  have device-specific version of the popular (750 million users) social network. Here's a quick review.

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First Look: HP TouchPad 32GB

We have a review unit HP TouchPad in hand to review for a few weeks. Here are some photos from our earlier unboxing, the keyboard and TouchStone charger boxes as well as some comparative pictures with other 10.1" inch tablets the iPad 2 as well as the Motorola XOOM. Full review to follow as soon as we've had some time to test it out thoroughly.

We found that webOS does translate nicely to the larger screen, the rounded shape makes it a bit easier to carry and that it is fairly intuitive to use. Now that we've seen it, the OS multitasking similarities to the BlackBerry's PlayBook OS are more evident. 

Lucky attendees at an exclusive #touchPadTO event held last night each got a free TouchPad for showing up, so there are some units in the wild.  We also learned last week from the HP Connected event that qualifying webOS developers will get a discount or can sign up for a 60 day  Loaner Program for the 32GB version of the tablet.

The TouchPad ships in Canada on July 15th starting at $499 for the 16GB version.

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- Motorola XOOM WiFi Review

- Apple iPad 2 Review

- Samsung Galaxy Tab 7" Review

- Apple iPad Review

Source: Chris Brooker

Facebook to offer group chat messaging and video via Skype

Poking is so 2009. Facebook just introduced some new group chat and video functionality that will make the already popular social network even more indispensable. Facebook has slowly replaced personal and corporate webpages, it has also displaced email and instant messaging as the primary way friends like to connect real-time now it gets even more immersive.

Facebook users who are using the chat service can now have group chats with multiple users simultaneously. Facebook has also integrated video via Skype right from their Facebook interface, the service will roll out today but anyone wanting to try out the video aspect can check it out here.

No software installation is necessary and the  Facebook says it currently has 750 million users sharing 4 billion things every day, Skype hosts 300 million minutes per month of video calling. These new features are for the web version of Facebook and will not yet be part of their mobile clients.

Facebook released the following statement on their website, "For those of us who have been working on this, it's particularly exciting to bring video calling to over 750 million people. We're making this available in over 70 different languages, so friends can stay in touch all over the world."