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CDW Canada has announced its sponsorship of popular Canadian race car driver Alex Tagliani in the Honda Indy Toronto and Honda Indy Edmonton. Tagliani is one of only three Canadian drivers entered in the Toronto event, which will be run at Exhibition Place from July 8 to 10, 2011.

“We’re pleased and proud to be sponsoring Alex in these exciting IndyCar races,” says Mary Ann Yule, Vice President and General Manager, CDW Canada. “In the world of technology, speed and precision is vital — just as in the racing world. Alex is a great representative of racing in Canada, and his skill, perseverance and positive attitude have made him one of the best Canadian racers ever.  As a Canadian company, we’re particularly strong supporters of his journey to the finish line in Toronto and Edmonton.”

Tagliani enters the Honda Indy Toronto fresh from back-to-back pole position in Texas and Indianapolis where he won the prestigious Indy 500 Pole Award, becoming the first Canadian ever to win 500 pole. Driving for the Sam Schmidt Motorsports team, the Montreal native has enjoyed much success during his career. After driving in the Champ Car World Series from 2000 to 2007, he now competes in the IZOD IndyCar Series where he recorded five top-ten finishes last year and finished 13^th overall.

The Honda Indy Toronto is Ontario’s largest annual sporting event, and this year’s race marks the 25^th anniversary of open-wheel racing excitement on the streets of Toronto. The 11-turn temporary street course near downtown Toronto has proven to be one of the most challenging IndyCar courses anywhere, and has hosted many of the world’s top drivers. Following this weekend’s race, CDW Canada’s support of Alex Tagliani will continue at the Honda Indy Edmonton from July 22 to 24, 2011.

Game publisher Wicked Interactive has announced that the popular, free-to-play, online first-person shooter Mission Against Terror (M.A.T.) will begin commercial launch today. Wicked Interactive’s SUBA Games platform, best known to shooter fans for such titles as Cross Fire, is hosting M.A.T. With the official commercial launch of M.A.T., SUBA Games endeavours to blow through expectations of all SUBA Games’ Cross Fire and M.A.T. fans.

“We are delighted to be launching M.A.T. 2.0 today,” said Sam Ho, Director of Wicked Interactive. “M.A.T. 2.0 comes with a massive amount new content and updates.  The biggest change is that the game is no longer in Open Beta status.  M.A.T. 2.0 strikes hard with its commercial release; rocking a new user interface, a new game mode, an expanded crafting system, seven maps and over a dozen weapons.”

Hybrid Invasion is a brand new game mode that is being introduced with this patch, expanding on the need to band together as team mates to survive.  Players will survive wave after wave of hybrid creatures that are a combination of AI robots, mummies and biological weapons.  If players survive long enough, they will encounter the Tyrant; a hammer-swinging monstrosity that’ll take a well trained and well armed squad to put down!

The expanded crafting system will allow players to create a variety of items out of multiple types of materials.  Before the patch, players had to collect just a robot part from AI Mode and use a Weapon Casting Machine on it to create one of several weapons.  With the new patch, players will be able to use all kinds of materials like PCB boards, diodes, metal, nylon, leather, dyes, etc to create not just weapons, but clothing and items as well. Read the rest of this entry »

Hothead Games producer Hamish Millar (heyyyy, we know that guy!) provides an in-depth tutorial of the gameplay from the Tower Mode in this new Kard Combat video.  Kard Combat, which is already available for Canadian iOS gamers will be unleashed upon the masses in the iTunes App Store on July 13th.

Watch the video to learn how players can earn upgrades for their mage, items, and additional cards by completing the Tower campaign.  The walkthrough covers basic strategy, offensive and defensive tactics, card combinations, and powerful spells.  This particular battle is fought out on the Master difficulty level, but nothing less should be expected from the producer of the game.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcjfDJvq-Vc]

Kard Combat is rated 12+ for the following:

* Infrequent/Mild Mature/Suggestive Themes
* Frequent/Intense Horror/Fear Themes
* Infrequent/Mild Cartoon or Fantasy Violence

Device Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch and iPad devices running iOS 3.1.3 or later.

The Writers Guild of Canada (WGC) and Bell Media have expanded their program to bring more diverse writers into the talent pool of Canadian screenwriting. The invitation is now open for interested writers in western Canada to answer a call for applications to take part in this intense hands-on educational program taking place in Vancouver this December.

This session is for writers who live west of Ontario, as they must apply to the Vancouver session, while writers east of Manitoba must apply to the Toronto session. More information for the Spring 2012 Toronto session will be released later this Fall. Out of town writers who are selected for the immersion program will be awarded bursaries to cover their travel and accommodation expenses. The application deadline for this session is September 6th.

The Bell Media Diverse Screenwriters Program (formerly known as The CTV Diverse Screenwriters Program) reaches out to offer emerging and mid-career writers from diverse backgrounds the chance to hone the skills they need to become successful professional screenwriters.  And one writer will come out of the program with a paid internship on a Bell Media TV series.

Each session of the Program will offer up to eight writers a one-week intensive workshop, featuring lectures, guest speakers, screenings, and more.  This immersion phase will launch the writers’ development of their original script.  After the workshop, each writer will partner with an experienced screenwriter mentor to hone their script and pitch, finishing the program with a polished calling card to the industry.  In addition, one writer will be selected by jury for a paid internship in a writers’ room on a Bell Media conventional television or specialty service show.

Eligibility Requirements in Brief:

• Not currently be enrolled in any full-time school or university program.
• Demonstrate ownership of all underlying rights to the project with which they are applying.
• Be a Canadian citizen or Landed Immigrant.
• Demonstrate in their support material an understanding of the fundamentals of screenwriting such as story arcs and character development.
• Be able to make a commitment to the one-week intensive training and the subsequent 10-12 week mentoring process.
• If chosen, be in a position to accept a paid internship on an existing television series.

Please visit the program’s web pages for a full list of requirements, FAQs and the application package (PDF). The Bell Media Diverse Screenwriters Program presented by the WGC is made possible through the CTV-CHUM tangible benefits. Contact Elizabeth Stewart if you have further questions.

My two cents’ worth: I hope that those of you who are contemplating this program bite the bullet and apply. If I had had access to, or even known about, the myriad of programs available in this country for creative people, especially writers, when I was much younger – granted, there are more programs now than there was back in the stone-age – and had I been encouraged to follow my creative tendencies, I would have a very different career history from the one I have now. When you see an opportunity like the one above, take it – whether you are successful in your application or not – make the attempt.

Sympatico.ca, which reaches 9.5 million Canadians (according to ComScore), has launched a new mobile application for smartphone users across the nation. The free bilingual app will give Canadians one tap access to the best in news, music and entertainment including stories from across the Sympatico portal. The Sympatico.ca mobile app is available for download now from popular application stores or by visiting apps.sympatico.ca.

The app uses best-of-breed mobile functionality to refine content based on opt-in user preferences and location-based services (LBS). This elevates the user experience by taking the work out of finding relevant information. It also has a QR (2D barcode) reader to make interacting with mobile codes even easier.

“Sympatico.ca is defining the next era of mobile applications for Canadians by demonstrating what is possible when you leverage innovative design, technology and content to engage people,” said David MacPhie, Associate Director, Mobile Products, Sympatico.ca. “Mobile apps have emerged as powerful content distribution channels for consumers and advertisers alike. We’re giving our audience another convenient way to access the content they love by combining it with progressive mobile technology.”

Designed for ease of use and speed, the Sympatico.ca mobile app revolves around an innovative interface featuring quick access to the full depth of Sympatico.ca’s content including news headlines, local weather, celebrity gossip, horoscopes, music, autos and sports. A bevy of features including push notifications, bilingual support, user preferences, social sharing (SMS, Email, Twitter and Facebook) and a QR code reader create an optimal experience for all Canadians to engage with content that resonates.

N-able Technologies^® has announced Policy Manager, a new suite of complementary tools designed to make comparing and reporting on Group Policy Object (GPO) settings dramatically easier and less time consuming.

Designed for use by MSPs and IT managers, N-able’s new Policy Manager offers an important defense against group policy inconsistencies, potential security weaknesses and other factors that can negatively impact network uptime. The solution features two powerful tools — GPO Compare and GPO Exporter — for comparing and exporting GPO settings, including comparing live GPOs to GPO backups, and exporting all GPO settings to Excel. Simplifying the management and consolidation of group policies with these tools saves time and eliminates costly configuration errors.

As an integral part of Microsoft Windows, GPOs offer management and configuration of operating systems, applications and users’ settings in an Active Directory or local environment. But for many IT professionals and MSPs, GPOs also require ongoing monitoring and maintenance — a task that is both tedious and inefficient if performed manually, according to Robert Grapes, director of product management and product marketing, N-able Technologies.

“Policy Manager makes reporting, sorting and searching on Group Policy settings significantly faster and easier, particularly when comparing settings across multiple GPOs,” says Grapes. “The software’s intuitive interface and easy-to-use sorting and searching capabilities provide not only a significant time savings for busy IT professionals, but also offers greater cost advantages compared to other offerings on the market, which are typically offered as part of a much larger, more expensive solution.”

Now available, N-able’s Policy Manager includes:

• Support for the latest policy settings from Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008-R2
• Group Policy comparison capabilities to quickly identify inconsistencies
• Group Policy export features that allow administrators to choose which settings to export, and to search and sort for specific settings
• Capabilities to compare live GPOs with GPO backups to quickly find setting differences
• Selective exporting of GPO settings from one or more GPOs to a variety of formats including CSV, Excel and PDF
• Powerful keyword searching to easily find settings
• Sorting capabilities that allow MSPs and IT managers to quickly discover redundant settings
• Powerful command-line PowerShell (Microsoft’s task automation framework) interfaces for automated comparison and reporting

Intertainment Media Inc. has completed the previously announced arm’s length strategic transaction with Commobility Inc. providing enhanced technology and revenue capabilities to Intertainment.

As part of Intertainment’s ongoing strategy to create a richer and deeper relationship with its users across all its divisional lines of business, Commobility offers the addition of key development in the mobile arena, including proprietary intellectual properties extending the reach of Intertainment’s services globally.

Intertainment has acquired all of the issued and outstanding shares of Commobility pursuant to a share purchase agreement between Intertainment and the shareholders of Commobility. In consideration for all issued and outstanding shares of Commobility, Intertainment will issue 6,000,000 common shares at a deemed price of $0.70 per Intertainment Share to the Commobility Vendors over a period of one calendar year from the closing date pursuant to a voluntary escrow agreement, with 48% of the Intertainment Shares having been released upon the closing of the transaction.

The escrow agreement provides that the remaining 3,120,000 Intertainment Shares will be released to the Commobility Vendors in segments of 13% at the end of each of the calendar quarters following the closing date. The acquisition of Commobility provides Intertainment and its subsidiaries, Ortsbo Inc. and Ad Taffy Inc, a platform to operate on mobile devices and access to software and patents in development and developed by Commobility, which will significantly enhance the reach of the translation capabilities of the Ortsbo platform as well as other Intertainment divisional offerings.

Commobility assets include patent applications and software platforms for creating generic communication channels based on device proximity as well as enabling translation between devices in close proximity to each other. With this acquisition, in the near term, Ortsbo’s translation capabilities will span situations where translation occurs on single device, multiple devices that are in proximity to each other and between users that are anywhere in the world on any device through cross-language, cross-device social network and Ortsbo’s cross-social network translation applications.

Pulse The World is excited to announce the release of v1.2 of its real-time, location-based mobile platform and application. The newest features of the app allow Pulse The World users greater insight into the world around them, further interaction with other users. In addition to the ability to link with other social networks, such as Twitter, and share what is happening with even more people.

Benjamin Roberts of Pulse The World explains that v1.2 “enhances the service for both the individual user and the entire community. While features like the time filter allow individual users a greater ability to find out what is going on around them in a more specific time frame, up and down voting allows the entire Pulse The World community to decide which pulses contain the most valuable information. Users now have a sense of the impact their contribution is making to the community at large.”

Latest features of v.1.2 include:

• New user experience interface for content creation and interaction

• Tight integration with Twitter allowing Pulses to be spread to other networks and groups of people

• Individual pulse statistics including the reach of content and a reliability score based on community votes

• The ability to respond to pulses directly, creating a conversation between the original creator and those curious about the content

• Individual statistics which show the total reach of your own content, as well as a personal Karma score, the cumulative ranking of your Pulses as determined by the Pulse The World community

• A time filter that makes it easy to find the most relevant time and location-based information

• Speed improvements to increase navigability and ease-of-use

Pulse the world is available as a free download on iTunes

Integrated information technology services company Victrix has been chosen by Microsoft as “Partner of the Year” in Canada from among all the Canadian companies that put their names forward for this title. Over 3,000 partners from around the world registered for the competition and only one was selected per country. Victrix will receive this honour at the Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC), an annual event attended by over 17,000 participants from all over the world, to be held this year in Los Angeles from July 10 to 14.

Through this award, Microsoft recognizes all the efforts Victrix has made over the past twelve months to develop markets for collaborative solutions, unified communications and technology infrastructure. One of the ways in which Victrix stood out from the other companies in the running was in the area of Customer Immersion Experience (CIE). These sessions allow users to simulate real-life business situations using computers equipped with the latest tools such as Microsoft Office 2010 suite, SharePoint collaboration software and Lync communication software, to name just a few. Since September 2010, Victrix has organized more than 40 CIE sessions in Montreal and Quebec City. They have been attended by around 320 participants, who were able to test and assess the many opportunities offered by the latest Microsoft technologies.

Jean Julien, Victrix Director of Alliances and Partnerships, considers CIEs to be “the most effective, individualized way to demonstrate the effectiveness of the state-of-the-art products offered by Microsoft.” He added: “This title clearly shows Microsoft’s recognition for our efforts in promoting the full value of the Office 2010 suite. The title of Canadian Partner of the Year once again illustrates the relationship of trust we have with Microsoft and reaffirms our expertise in providing tailor-made, secure solutions that allow all users to work together and interact effectively in order to increase the company’s performance.”

Victrix Co-Founder and Chairman of the Board Marc-André Poulin will receive the award on behalf of Victrix. Poulin has also been invited to attend a dinner held by Microsoft’s Corporate Vice-President of Worldwide Partner Group, John Roskill, at the WPC. Jean Julien has been asked to give two presentations and participate in a panel discussion. Finally, Stéphan Gariépy, Victrix’s Vice-President for Eastern Quebec, will also participate in a panel discussion held during the event. During the forums, these three Victrix standard-bearers will take the opportunity to talk about the full potential of CIE and share the company’s success in this area.