Facebook to launch in-browser video chat powered by Skype?

Posted By Ray Nicolini

Microsoft's $8.5 billion acquisition of Skype hasn't closed yet, but it looks like Redmond is already working behind the scenes to make the service even more ubiquitous. According to an anonymous source interviewed by TechCrunch, Facebook is going to introduce video chat next week, and that service will be powered by none other than Skype. And while the service will be browser-based, it's also said to include a desktop component. We'd say none of that sounds too fantastical -- video calls would be a logical extension of Facebook chat, and let's not forget about the $240 million Microsoft invested in the site back in 2007. What's more, Facebook sent out invites for an event next week, where Mark Zuckerberg was clear the outfit would unveil a new product from its Seattle team. That's in Microsoft's backyard, of course, the invites themselves have chat icons on 'em, and, most tellingly, that Seattle office has been snapping up engineers specializing in desktop software. All told, that adds up to a likely true story to us, but we won't know for sure until the long, beachy weekend is through.

TechCrunch

Meebo for BlackBerry beta launching today

Via www.bberrydog.com

By Ray Nicolini

Good news for all instant messaging freaks out there. Meebojust launched their Meebo app for BlackBerry in beta today. Advertised as “the app that keeps you connected” it really keeps you connected to a lot of communication networks, including AIM, Yahoo!, Google, even Facebook and more.

Within the app you get two tabs – Buddies and Chats – to get easy and simple access to everything you need. You can manage your accounts while mobile and if you’re already using the desktop version, it will automatically adapt to all your settings and transition active conversations to your Mobile device.

Sounds really great and there’s even more. The app looks really good and well-designed. It supports the BlackBerry Torch 9800 and, best of all, it’s free. You’ll need a Meebo account to use the app but you can register straight from the app.

Feel free to try here and make sure to leave us comment on wether you like or dislike the app.

SocialScope is delivering more invites later this week!

By Taylor Martin via www.bberrydog.com

The ever-so-elusive, all-in-one, BlackBerry social inbox, SocialScope, has finally said they plan to send out more invites to their privatebeta later this week. People have been clamoring about SocialScope invites since the app was initially released in late 2008. It has been in private beta ever since and slowly growing hype. People are always @ replying SocialScope on Twitter begging and pleading for an invite, offering up their limbs and first-born. I’ve had SocialScope since early 2009 and it’s the only client I’ve used on BlackBerry since. Every update launches them leaps and bounds ahead of Twitter for BlackBerry, UberTwitter, and the other competition out there, and they’re about to make the jump cross-platform onto Android and iPhone.

If you’re interested in getting SocialScope, you have to sign up for the private beta, here. Let me tell you know, you are signing up for a private beta and are just now adding yourself to the end of a very long list. Let’s just hope the SocialScope team sends out a lot of invites this time. Before, when they said they would send out invites, it didn’t appear as if they had sent out too many, but there’s no way for us to really know. Sit tight and we will all see as the week is already drawing to an end!

The new SocialScope update adds:

Full Facebook Experience – We’ve upped our Facebook experience 1000x with Facebook Friends list, Facebook pages, Full Facebook Profiles, Private Messages and Notifications.  SocialScope is the best way to use Facebook on your BlackBerry.

Inbox Integration – Powerful inbox integration allows you to select exactly which messages appear in your BlackBerry inbox.

Mute – Tired of hearing from a user, application(farmville!) or topic? Now you can block those updates.

Reduced Battery Usage – We’ve tuned, tweaked and optimized SocialScope to dramatically reduced battery usage. The most powerful social networking app now also the most power efficient.

Interface Tweaks – SocialScope is faster and easier to use.  We’ve made interface tweaks through out the app based on your feedback.

Invites (coming later this week!) – You’ve been asking for a way to share SocialScope with your friends and we’ll be delivering that later this week.

Lots of Bug Fixes – We went bug hunting and fixed many issues including url shirking, removing Twitter accounts and location lookup.
These are only the first set of changes!  We’ve been hard at work to enable a whole new set of experiences with Socialscope.  Keep an eye out for them in the coming weeks.

Who already has the update? How do you like it? How does it fair against older versions or other clients? Bark it up pups!

Flipboard Social Network Aggregator for iPad available on iTunes

Billed as the world's first social magazine, FlipBook pulls your facebook and Twitter feeds into a magazine like interface.  It is free for iPad. (iTunes link)

From the developer:

Flipboard is the world's first social magazine. Your Flipboard is a fast, beautiful way to flip through news, photos and updates your friends are sharing on Facebook and Twitter. And it’s an incredible place to discover fresh content from around the Twittersphere.

Flipboard brings the timeless layout of print media to social media. No more scrolling through long lists of posts and links. No more jumping back and forth between websites. Your Flipboard is everything you care about in one place. It's your magazine. It's your Flipboard.

Use of the Flipboard Application is governed by the Flipboard Terms of Use (http://www.flipboard.com/terms).

Facebook Chat Coming Soon to the official BlackBerry App?

We've heard rumors before that the BlackBerry Facebook app would integrate the chat feature. If you're familiar with the current Facebook app, then you know it isn't anything special. However, we have heard decent improvements with Facebook v1.8 that hit select users of Beta Zone.

Although, reports on v1.8 say there isn't a chat feature, but that the overall experience is much faster. Now, it seems that Facebook has enabled it on their end to allow the Facebook Chat on a BlackBerry. There have been third-party apps that allow you to do Facebook Chat, however, this appears to be for the official Facebook app that is developed by RIM.

We're hoping that we will see this feature in v1.8 even though reports suggest otherwise. Either way, it is a good sign that Facebook has taken the initiative to get their backend setup in preparation. Knowing RIM, we probably won't see a feature like Facebook Chat in a new app version until the release of BlackBerry 6.

Via www.bbleaks.com
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