Village Gamer

A reminder to all those planning to attend IN2010 – if you haven’t yet purchased your tickets, Early Bird pricing ends tonight at midnight. The event is also looking for a few good volunteers, so if you’re interested in helping out, click here.

Along with the opportunity to hear from 65 industry speakers, IN2010 offers:

3 keynote presentations
Facilitated one-on-one meeting opportunities
4 Networking breaks
2 Evening receptions
Fully catered lunch and breakfast on both days

Plus over 22 conference panels and lectures on a variety of topics, including:

Games Stream
• Concept to Screen: This will focus on the actual creative arc that individuals trace in order to create a piece of work that is exploitable along multiple entertainment verticals. Mark Long, Style Driver, Zombie Studios.

Mobile Stream
• Managing Mobile: Challenges & Opportunities Facing Mobile Projects. Creating projects for the new set of mobile platforms can present it’s own set of challenges. What types of issues can you expect to face and what opportunities can the mobile platform present? Featuring Rick Segal, Co-Founder, FixMO.

The BlackBerry Social Media Stream
• Bend It!: A discussion about pushing boundaries of social media and future trends between an assembly of innovators from several different sectors. Featuring Juliette Powell, Author, Pundit, Integrated Media Specialist.

The Rogers X-Platform Stream
• Branded Entertainment: A breakdown of brand-supported entertainment properties. Featuring creation, brand integration and ROI measurements. Featuring Paul Bennun , Owner, Somethin’ Else.

Visionary Stream
• Weird Science: From thought-controlled devices to biotechnology, this Visionary Presentation session will showcase leading work being done locally and aboard that has the potential to usher in a new era of interaction. Andrew Hessel, Co-Chair, Bioinformatics and Biotechnology, Singularity University.

If you are a Dragon Age fan but couldn’t go to Gamescom, do not despair. You, too can take part in a Dragon Age 2 live chat tomorrow (August 21st) via the magic of the internet. The live chat will begin at 12:00PM CEDT, which translates to 6:00AM EDT (or 3:00AM here in Vancouver).

XMG Studios has released its first Android title.  Little Metal Ball is a top-down full-tilt platform adventure which features 20 levels of twisted labyrinths and challenging puzzles controlled by precise tilt control and physics. You will race against the clock, trying to obtain bronze, silver and gold record times along with power-ups and more.

According to recently released data from comScore Media Metrix, Disney Online, the No. 1 ranked community-family and parenting destination on the Web, reached a record-breaking 36 million unique visitors in July, beating the previous all-time record of 34 million uniques set in June 2009 by two million unique visitors. This growth was in great part due to increased traffic to areas of the site such as Disney Games, Disney Channel and Disney Movies. Most notably, Disney Games climbed to the No. 3 spot in the Online Gaming category.

There was strong interest in online games (+6% vs. prior month) due to the wide variety in Disney Online’s portfolio of casual games and virtual worlds. Among Disney virtual worlds, Club Penguin continued to be the most popular on the Web (based on monthly traffic), while Toontown Online had a 64% increase in unique visitors and Disney Fairies Pixie Hollow saw an 80% lift month-over-month. Club Penguin’s ranking is based on a Disney pre-selected list of 95 key known virtual world gaming competitors.

Future Shop now has an iPhone App. This free app will let you browse through Future Shop’s product offerings of over 80 000 items, check sale prices or locate the nearest store. You will also be able to access many of the store’s web features such as product reviews, item comparisons, read reviews or their tech blog. When you can’t get to the store or if you’re away from a PC, you can even make purchases with their secure checkout, which features 256-bit RSA encryption, the same security you get in person and on your computer.

Online community and social software solution developer IGLOO Software today announced that its online community platform has been selected as a Trend-Setting Product by KMWorld, a leading information provider serving the content, document and knowledge management systems market. The eighth annual list, compiled by KMWorld’s team of editors, analysts, systems integrators, vendors, line-of-business managers and users, will be published in the September 2010 issue.

“When we started this process, more than 600 individual products were under consideration. What distinguished IGLOO was a clearly identifiable technology breakthrough in social and collaborative computing,” said Hugh McKellar, editor-in-chief, KMWorld. “Work as we know it is changing and the IGLOO Software platform is a powerful tool for enabling this transition.”

In conjunction with being named a Trend-Setting Product, IGLOO announced the next version of its enterprise social software platform. The new release is focused on enhancing the user experience by embracing the way today’s knowledge workers want to interact and collaborate around content.

* Content Following: people and teams collaborating on important files can follow any document (or blog article, discussion thread, wiki page and event listing) in a community, receive updates on its progress via email and respond with comments and guidance in real-time
* Community Calendar Integration: members can synchronize community calendar events directly with their personal calendaring application on their desktop or mobile device using the .ics (iCalendar) standard
* Advanced Search Filtering: new advanced filters allow members to target their search to a specific location and application in the community, and tag clouds help members quickly locate related content associated with a search
* Broadcast: published content from any application in the community can now be broadcast to members and groups with one single click
* Commenting: comments can now be edited in a 7 minute window after posting to correct small typos and errors, while maintaining governance
* Peer-to-Peer Messaging: a message can be composed quickly from anywhere in the community using the user bar and auto-recognition of member addresses

The second half of the release, to occur later in September, will include:

* Inline Editing of Documents: members can securely edit community documents inline and save new versions right from within the browser ? no downloads required
* Enhanced Document Management: folders in a document repository will expand to allow all content to be viewed without leaving the page (view as a list, series of icons or even with file details similar to navigating your ‘My Documents’)

“Being named to KMWorld’s list of Trend-Setting Products of 2010 is a significant achievement for our company,” said Dan Latendre, CEO, IGLOO Software. “Our 100% cloud strategy has allowed the company to remain agile, innovative and responsive to changes in the market and to our customers’ needs.”

D-BOX Technologies Inc., a leader in innovative Motion Technology mostly for the entertainment industry, is pleased to announce the results of its annual and special meeting of shareholders held on August 18, 2010 in Montreal. At the meeting, shareholders elected Jean-Pierre Desrosiers as a new member of the Board of Directors of D-BOX, and re-elected Louis Brunel, Claude Mc Master, Élaine C. Phénix, Philippe Roy, Pierre Mc Master, Strath Goodship, Jean Colbert and Richard Soly to the Board. The shareholders also re-appointed Ernst & Young LLP, Chartered Accountants, as the auditors of D-BOX.

Mr. Jean-Pierre Desrosiers is a partner with KPMG LLP, Chartered Accountants, and has been with KPMG since 1980. Over the years, Mr. Desrosiers has held numerous positions with pre-eminent accounting firms. From 1998 to 2007, Mr. Desrosiers held the position of Managing Partner of the KPMG Montréal office. Then, he was appointed Canadian Managing Partner, Markets. As such, he was responsible for the communication, marketing and business development strategies of the firm in Canada. He was also a board member of the KPMG Americas and KPMG Canada, for one year and three years, respectively, in addition to sitting on the KPMG Canada Management Committee for seven years. During his career at KPMG, Mr. Desrosiers was called on to work with a number of large corporations in various lines of business. Mr. Desrosiers also participated in numerous public issues and merger and acquisition transactions. Mr. Desrosiers is presently serving on the board of directors of the following organizations: Concordia University, Jewish General Hospital Foundation, Cirque Eloize and La Pieta.

At the meeting, shareholders also approved a resolution ratifying and confirming D-BOX’s stock option plan, as required under the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange, and a special resolution authorizing, if deemed advisable by the Board of Directors to possibly no later than August 18, 2011, proceed with an amendment to the Articles of D-BOX so as to consolidate the common shares of D-BOX on the basis of one share for a maximum of ten common shares then issued and outstanding.

Family and friends of the late Lt. Andrew Nuttall gathered on June 25 to celebrate his memory with a workout fit for a hero. Fondly referred to by his friends as ‘Andy’, ‘Drew’ and ‘Nutts’, the first annual ‘Nutts Cup’ was held at CrossFit Vancouver, where Lt. Nuttall had been a trainer, and raised money for the Canadian Hero Fund.

While a major draw for the event was to encourage ‘rookies’ to come out and test their grit, seasoned pros undertook a grueling competition. The Andy Nutts Hero WOD (CrossFit acronym for “workout of the day”) consisted of 10 handstand push-ups, 15 deadlifts, 25 box jumps, 50 pull-ups, 100 wallballs, 200 double-unders, and a 400 meter run (carrying a 45 or 25 lbs plate!) – all in the fastest time possible. Winners for the men’s and women’s individual competitions got their names etched on the Andrew Nuttall Memorial ‘Nutts’ Cup. Parents Richard and Jane Nuttall attended the competition and awarded the trophy.

Lt. Andrew Nuttall studied Engineering and Computer Sciences at the University of Victoria and joined the military in 2007 as a member of the 1st Battalion, Princess Patricia Light Infantry in Edmonton. He was killed in Afghanistan on December 23, 2009. Before joining the armed forces, Lt. Nuttall was an avid CrossFit athlete and coach at the Vancouver gym. Event organizer Chris ‘The Shepherd’ Saini was a close friend and fellow trainer with Lt. Nuttall. “It was amazing to have everyone and their friends working out and enjoying a great day of camaraderie and remembrance,” wrote Saini on the CrossFit Vancouver blog following the event. “It was an all around totally awesome day for our community.”

Proceeds from the event will go to the Canadian Hero Fund scholarship program for the children and spouses of fallen soldiers.

You are invited to The Canadian Forces Musical Salute which is being held in the Toronto Star Bandshell at the Canadian National Exhibition for two consecutive nights at the CNE on Friday, August 20th and Saturday, August 21st. This year’s performances will feature Amy Sky, Allen Frew and Danielle Bourre. The show will also feature a performance of Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture complete with real artillery cannons.

The performance is the military’s expression of “Thanks” to all Canadians for showing their continued support to the brave men and women in Canada’s military. This is the third year the Canadian Forces will perform a musical extravaganza to thank Canadians for their tremendous support.

You are also invited to celebrate 100 years of the Canadian Navy with a special afternoon of music at the CNE with the National Band of the Naval Reserve. This concert, which is also free with your CNE admission, will take place at the Bandshell on Friday August 20th at 2:00PM.

On August 23, inMusic.ca, Sympatico.ca’s music channel and Canada’s leading online music news destination, hosts a live and interactive chat with Grammy-award-winning artist Enrique Iglesias.  The latest music superstar to speak directly with his fans as part of inMusic.ca’s ‘Live Lounge’ series, Enrique will be interviewed by Sway, host of The Hook on inMusic.ca. “Setting up the interview in an intimate space where Enrique feels totally comfortable yet still is able to interact with thousands of fans is ideal,” says Catherine Main, Music Editor of inMusic.ca.  “Especially as fans get to ask him questions directly using our interactive chat platform.”

A studio monitor will be active during the interview allowing both Enrique and Sway to participate with fans’ questions and comments in real-time. The theme of the conversation is also live and unscripted, led entirely by what the audience is interested in. “It’s about as close as fans can get to interviewing him themselves,” Main says.

inMusic.ca’s ‘Live Lounge’ with Enrique Iglesias starts at 7:00 pm EDT on Monday August 23^rd.  The chat window embedded into the video stream easily enables fans to participate in, and follow the conversation, and those who miss the live version will always be able to access the video in the ‘Live Lounge’ archives.

iseemedia Inc. announced today, that it entered into a binding agreement with Ackren Ltd. pursuant to which iseemedia has agreed to sell its interest in its majority owned U.S. subsidiary, RealBiz360 Inc., along with certain other non-core assets which are not related to the Company’s wireless business. The sale has been approved by the board of iseemedia Inc.

As a condition to the offer made by Synchronica plc to acquire all of the issued and outstanding common shares and warrants of iseemedia which was previously announced in a press release dated July 20, 2010, iseemedia is required to dispose of its interest in RealBiz360 and certain other non-core assets. The sale of the Company’s interest in RealBiz360 is expected to close concurrently with, Synchronica taking up and paying for the securities of iseemedia that have been tendered to the Offer. The sale of RealBiz360 and the Company’s other non-core assets to be sold in accordance with the terms of the Sale Agreement will satisfy the condition of the Offer noted above. In the event, however, that all other conditions of the Offer have not been either satisfied or waived and Synchronica does not take-up and pay for the securities of iseemedia tendered to the bid, the sale of RealBiz360 will not be completed and the Sale Agreement will be terminated.