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.

Review: Amazon's same-day delivery service is a big win for consumers

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

You really can't ask for anything more. If you're lazy to go out shopping, or need one or two elusive items right away, same-day delivery is well worth the money you spend on shipping and handling. 

While not as extensive in terms of products and categories offered as its larger US-based counterpart, Amazon.ca has developed into a very viable place to do one's online shopping. Thanks to the relative ease of use, that trusty One-Click purchasing button and some of the most informed user reviews. For Amazon users at a nominal price. I tested the service over the weekend and was quite impressed at how well it worked.

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Taylor Swift's adoring fans can still get their streaming music fix on RDIO

image from Taylorswift.com

Pop superstar Taylor Swift rocked the interwebs by pulling out of popular streaming service Spotify this week. Swift's sentiments that streaming services like Spotify fail to properly compensate artists as well as musicians, engineers and producers that create the music. So, as an experiment, streaming music was something Swift no longer wanted to participate in. Thankfully, fans of Swift's music can turn to RDIO which announced that the full library of Swift's musical ouvre would be available (except the latest album "1989") will remain available through the following ways through the platform’s ad-supported Internet radio service. 

• on-demand, allowing paid subscribers to listen to any of her songs anywhere, anytime they want
• Internet radio, allowing anyone to hear her songs as part of the ad-supported Internet radio experience