HTC announces the Facebook phones Cha Cha and Salsa

FORGET ANY NOTIONS of privacy wherever you go with two Facebook focused phones from HTC, the Chacha and Salsa.

To be available from the second quarter, both handsets have a dedicated button for access to Facebook and HTC describes the phones as "built entirely to be social".

By pressing the dedicated button a music track you are listening to is automatically identified and shared on Facebook with your friends. The same button will also allow a photo to be uploaded straight to Facebook. Then of course you can identify your friends in your photo for social authentication purposes and to help Facebook's marketers.

"The Facebook button on HTC ChaCha and HTC Salsa is context-aware, gently pulsing with light whenever there is an opportunity to share content or updates through Facebook," says HTC. Not that that sounds at all ominous.

HTC also tells us that Facebook messages and conversations appear in your text and email inboxes alongside your regular conversations. Both phones have the latest version of Gingerbread, Android 2.3.3 with HTC's own Sense overlay.

With Gingerbread and Sense, phoning a friend or receiving a call from them brings up their latest Facebook status updates and photos. The phone's contacts list can also be used to connect with them or add Facebook-branded widgets to the phone.

The Chacha has a 2.6-inch display with a 480x320 resolution touchscreen, a Qwerty keyboard, a 5MP camera with auto focus and LED flash and a VGA front-facing camera. The Salsa has a 3.4-inch, 480x320 resolution touchscreen and a 5MP camera.

Of these two phones Orange will be selling the Chacha in the second quarter.

Ubuntu 11.04 Release Schedule Changed

Ubuntu release team, through Kate Stewart, announced today that the release schedule for the upcoming Ubuntu 11.04 (Natty Narwhal) operating system has been changed. Therefore, there will be no Release Candidate version! It was replaced with a Beta 2 release, scheduled for April 14th, 2011.

Ubuntu 11.04 will have 3 Alpha releases and two Betas. Ubuntu 11.04 is dubbed Natty Narwhal, it will be the fourteen release of the Ubuntu operating system, and it will see the light of day on April 28th, 2011.

"After reviewing the plans at the end of this release, it was felt that a release candidate release on April 21st showing up just before the easter holiday would be a bit late."

"After discussing this with the key stakeholders and not getting any negative feedback from them or in the weekly release meetings, we're going to go ahead and add a Beta 2 for this release, and drop the Release Candidate from the Natty Schedule." - said Kate Stewart in the announcement.

This is the new release schedule for the upcoming Ubuntu 11.04 (Natty Narwhal) operating system:

December 2nd, 2010 - Alpha 1 release
February 3rd, 2011 - Alpha 2 release
March 3rd, 2011 - Alpha 3 release
March 31st, 2011 - Beta 1 release
April 14th, 2011 - Beta 2 release
April 28th, 2011 - Final release of Ubuntu 11.04

As you can see, there is no Release Candidate version anymore, and the final release date was not affected. The third and last Alpha version of Ubuntu 11.04 will be available for testing on March 3rd, 2011. As usual, Softpedia will do a full coverage of the Ubuntu 11.04 development cycle.

Ubuntu is a Linux distribution for your desktop or server, with a fast and easy install, regular releases, a tight selection of excellent packages installed by default, every other package you can imagine available from the network, and professional technical support from Canonical Ltd and hundreds of other companies around the world.