Instagram partners with six Canadian brands, rolls out first batch of ads

We couldn’t avoid it any longer. Ads are heading your way on Instagram any day soon. The social media platform has partnered with six Canadian brands for the launch, including HBC, Air Canada, Target Canada, Travel Alberta, Sport Chek, and Mercedes Benz.

Instagram says they plan to roll out ads in a slow and “carefully controlled” way while taking feedback from its community. They said they plan on delivering a small number of high-quality photos and videos from brands that are already part of the Instagram community.

Source: Instagram

HTC's Eye experience rolling out to M8 devices this week

HTC is rolling out a software feature called HTC Eye Experience which brings advanced face tracking for video conferences and photos as well as Split Capture, Voice Selfie and Face Fusion features to existing HTC One (M8) smartphones. Hit jump for the press release and the full range of new functionalities.

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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.