Village Gamer

Quebec City – When aliens attack, monsters fight back in Activision Publishing, Inc.’s Monsters vs. Aliens™, the video game based on the highly anticipated 3D feature film from DreamWorks Animation SKG, Inc., which will debut on March 27.  Monsters vs. Aliens was developed for the console and PC platforms by Beenox, Inc. and for Nintendo DS by Amaze Entertainment.  Starting today, gamers can experience heart pounding action and silly antics as they lead a dynamic team of misfit monsters on a mission to protect earth from destruction.

“Monsters vs. Aliens allows players to control the characters from the film and use their unique abilities to battle alien enemies throughout the game,” said Rob Kostich, head of marketing for licensed properties, Activision Publishing, Inc. “Players invite a friend to grab a Wii Remote™ or controller and join forces at any time to help clear enemies, collect monster DNA and overcome obstacles as their favorite monster heroes.”

The Monsters vs. Aliens video game calls players into action to battle against Gallaxhar and his alien robot army. Taking on the roles of The Missing Link, the macho half-ape, half-fish; the gelatinous, indestructible and always hungry B.O.B.; and Ginormica, the 49-foot-11-inch tall woman, gamers team up with the helpful genius Dr. Cockroach, Ph.D. and Insectosaurus, the 350-foot tall grub to defeat the alien invaders. Players master the unique and diverse abilities of each character as they ooze, brawl, skate, puzzle solve, climb, crawl, jump and race through more than 20 levels on Earth and through outer space.

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Vancouver – 6S Marketing created the Canadian Social Media Survey to determine how businesses in Canada are using social media marketing for building online communities around their product offerings, and how they are using social media to increase brand authority and visibility online. The survey produced surprising stats on the use of Social Media by companies in Canada, as well as individuals.

Participants were asked about their involvement with various social media sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter, as well as their age group. Not surprisingly, younger people seemed more likely to use Twitter, but the most-used social media site overall is Facebook at 69% followed by Twitter at 47% and LinkedIn at 30%.

Canadians also seem to be very active bloggers, with 74% maintaining a personal blog, 57% running a business blog, and 35% maintaining both a personal and business blog. At 63%, WordPress is the number one blogging platform of choice, followed by Blogger in a distant second with 34%.

It seems that those seeking careers and those doing the hiring still prefer to do things the old-fashioned way. Only 22% of respondents had been hired through an online application, while only 9% of those who do the hiring had found employees online. Businesses are, however, concerned about what their corporate reputation is, with 61% of corporate respondents monitoring online chatter about them. What I did find interesting in regards to business blogs is the breakdown of which department is responsible for blog postings. Marketing departments were responsible for 28% of the corporate blogs, while Management made up for 18%, Other Staff came in at 13%, IT Departments at 4%, and No Work Related Accounts came in the winner at 37%.

You can see the full survey results at 6S Marketing’s web site.

Vancouver – Absolute® Software Corporation, the leading provider of firmware-based, patented, computer theft recovery, data protection and secure IT asset management solutions announced today that to better support its global expansion, Computrace® customers can now access enhanced security, management and usability features in the Absolute Customer Center.

Absolute Customer Center is a powerful console that enables customers to secure and manage their computer population, particularly those hard to manage mobile devices such as laptops and handhelds. Through Customer Center Absolute customers can access Absolute’s full range of IT asset management, data protection and theft recovery services. For example, by logging in to the secure console, a corporate IT administrator could view the location and configuration of all Computrace-protected laptops, desktops, tablets, and BlackBerry® and Windows Mobile® devices in their organization via an applicable Absolute service. Absolute’s Customer Center can be accessed from any computer with an Internet connection and a web browser.
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Iconic Canadian Duo Return in an All-New Animated Global Original Series

Toronto – Canada’s favourite pair of ‘hosers’, the McKenzie brothers, return to primetime on Global in an all-new half-hour animated comedy series, Bob & Doug. Premiering Sunday, April 19th – 7:30pm ET/PT, the 22-episode Original Series, starring SCTV alum Dave Thomas (“Grace Under Fire”) and comedian Dave Coulier (“Full House”), will join Global’s highly successful Sunday night line-up alongside such animated favourites as “Family Guy” and “The Simpsons”.

“Bob & Doug builds on the hilarity of the Canadian cult classic while offering viewers a fresh animated look at these beloved characters,” said Christine Shipton, SVP, Drama and Factual Content, Canwest Broadcasting. “It is an outstanding addition to our strong and unique original slate.”

Driven with character stereotypes reminiscent of the celebrated film “Great White North”, the series is centered around the fictional Canadian town of Maple Lake, Bob and Doug’s lives as garbage men and their gang of friends who often gather at the ‘Skate ‘n Bowl’.

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Vancouver – Swap it! Encrypt it!, the internet’s newest file transfer company, delivers users an unparalleled file transfer service at prices so low it seems too good to be true. Unlike ‘You Send It’ and other major file transfer companies, Swap it! Encrypt it! offers users the ability to transfer files between home computers or mobile devices from one simple web page (no mobile application required). Swap it! Encrypt it! was designed to provide users with a fast (easy to use) inexpensive way to transfer files quickly and safely.

Advantages

– Transfer files for as low as .99 cents
– Free confirmation e-mails
– Works for mobile devices
– No membership or sign up required
– Lowest prices on-line

Send small files for free with Swap it! Encrypt it! Lite and see for yourself how excellent Swap it! Encrypt it!’s file transfer service is. Swap it! Encrypt it! Lite does not require a membership or sign up!

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Vancouver – Yummy Interactive, Inc. has created a special offer for software game publishers in time for the 2009 Game Developers Conference (GDC) to be held in San Francisco March 23 to March 27, 2009. PC game creators and distributors will be able to evaluate GameShield™, Yummy’s Digital Rights Management software free of charge. Furthermore, game publishers and distributors can protect and sell their games without paying any royalties on the license and protection service for 60 days.

“What we have essentially done here is remove all the barriers to publishers,” says Christopher Hennebery, Director of Software Distribution at Yummy Interactive. “We understand that in this industry, game titles are measured on their playability and overall value. GameShield is no different in this respect.” Hennebery goes on to say, “We’re confident that if we can give publishers unhindered access to GameShield, they’ll see for themselves the incremental value that a flexible and powerful licensing product can deliver.”

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Burnaby – Teradici® Corporation, the industry leader in delivering a true PC experience over standard IP networks, announces that its groundbreaking PC-over-IP® (PCoIP®) technology is now available worldwide in new products from partners EVGA Corporation, ELSA Japan Inc. and Leadtek Research Inc.

EVGA is supplying PCoIP technology as an add-in card solution to PC and workstation users in North America, South America, and Western Europe. EVGA’s HD01 and PD01 products enable the benefits of desktop consolidation to be realized securely across the enterprise while delivering high definition content to the desktop. The EVGA products are available from distributors Ingram Micro, D&H and Synnex.

ELSA Japan, a leading computer graphics and multimedia solution provider based in Tokyo, has implemented Teradici’s PCoIP technology in highly-integrated 3D remote graphics products called the ELSA VIXEL series. Available in Japan, VIXEL products provide scalable and secure remote computing solutions featuring rich graphics performance.

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Toronto – Opalis Software Inc., the market leader in IT process automation, today announced version 6.0 of their award winning automation platform with support for cloud computing. This release marks the first IT process automation vendor to deliver integration, orchestration and automation for multi-vendor heterogeneous cloud computing environments.

Opalis IT process automation accelerates the adoption of cloud computing by simplifying the delivery and utilization of cloud resources. With Opalis, companies can automate IT processes that provision, consume, monitor, and release on-demand resources without vendor lock-in.

The Nature of Cloud

“Cloud computing equals virtualization plus automation. For cloud computing to deliver on its promise, it must be dynamic and responsive to the needs of the consumer. Dynamic response comes from having virtual workloads that can be moved automatically – this means you need to have an automation fabric to orchestrate virtual services within the cloud” said Charles Crouchman, CTO, Opalis Software Inc.

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Ottawa – Corel Corporation today announced that Joe Roberts, formerly President of Broderbund software, has been hired as the Company’s Interim Executive Vice President, Products.

An established industry executive with over fifteen years of experience in consumer-oriented software, Roberts was President of Broderbund software prior to it being sold to Riverdeep. At Riverdeep, Roberts served as President, Worldwide Products and Marketing where he was responsible for growing revenue to over $270 million by extending the business into alternative media. After leaving Riverdeep, Roberts served as President of Cosmi Corporation, a leading publisher and distributor of physical and digital PC software solutions. At Cosmi, he played a key role in expanding the company through OEM and e-commerce distribution channels. Most recently Roberts has provided strategic consulting services to a variety of software companies as President of J.D. Roberts Group.

In his new role at Corel, Roberts will lead the Company’s global product management, product development, and product marketing efforts for the Graphics, Productivity and Digital Media businesses, overseeing products such as CorelDRAW® Graphics Suite, Corel® Painter™, Corel® Paint Shop Pro® Photo, VideoStudio®, WinDVD®, and Corel® WordPerfect® Office.

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