Village Gamer

A total of 18 new interactive digital media projects received a combined total of $10.7M as part of the Canada Media Fund’s (CMF) Experimental Stream second round of funding  for production support. The 18 new projects are comprised of 8 games, 9 interactive digital media platforms and 1 new social media application. Read the rest of this entry »

Griflens, the new startup that hopes to spark a playground craze, are the winners of Startup Weekend Maker Edition Toronto. Their team beat out stiff competition from ten other innovative hardware startup ideas to win the contest that empowers entrepreneurs to launch businesses in a single weekend. They impressed judges with their 3D printed story beads that combine to tell an interactive online story that changes depending on which beads you have in your collection. Read the rest of this entry »

The next generation of game developers are here – and they’re already hard at work on the next big thing. Today, Mind Pirate and the Canadian Film Centre (CFC) announced the four participants selected to participate in the ideaBOOST/Mind Pirate Production Lab: a three-month boot camp that gives developers the resources to create games and apps for wearable technology devices.  The four winners selected to participate in the ideaBOOST/Mind Pirate Production Lab consist of high caliber developer talent from both the United States and Canada. The winners are: Read the rest of this entry »

As an indicator of the continued growth of messaging apps as a platform across music and brand interaction, IPG Media Lab and Sony/Columbia Records have announced a partnership for One Direction (1D) on Kik, a mobile messaging tool with over 95 million users. The first-of-its-kind campaign will introduce a 1D Kik Card – a shareable mobile experience built on Kik’s HTML5 platform. Today, fans from around the globe will be able to chat with each other on Kik and unlock exclusive One Direction content through a unique group “unlocking” program centered on the band’s new album Midnight Memories.  Read the rest of this entry »

MaRS Innovation (MI), a Centre of Excellence for Commercialization and Research, has announced a new collaboration with Johnson & Johnson Innovation and its affiliate Janssen, Inc., in Canada to advance early-stage technologies related to human health in therapeutics, medical devices, and diagnostics. Through the collaboration, MaRS Innovation and technical experts from the Johnson & Johnson Innovation Center in Boston will jointly identify and fund high-potential opportunities emerging from well-validated scientific research discoveries within MaRS Innovation’s 16 member institutions, which include the University of Toronto and its affiliated teaching hospitals. Read the rest of this entry »

Rogers Communications has released the results of a new poll that shows the broadcasting industry needs to evolve to meet changing customer demand – something we consumers already know and are waiting for.  Results reveal that a majority of Canadians value their TV subscriptions, including the channels and packages available to them, but want the opportunity to further customize those packages. I know that in our house, we are forced to have a plethora of channels we simply do not watch to get one or two channels that we do want, or simply don’t get them because we don’t want any of the other channels in the package. I still don’t understand why the “documentary” style channels – Bio, Book, Investigation Discovery, Investigation Science, National Geographic, etc. can’t be bundled together in a “Knowledge Bundle” instead of with channels like Much or Spike. Anyhow – back to the story…. Read the rest of this entry »

The Honourable Diane Finley, Minister of Public Works and Government Services, today announced the fourth Call for Proposals for the Build in Canada Innovation Program (BCIP), while welcoming hundreds of Canadian entrepreneurs at the inaugural Startup Canada “Day on the Hill.” Read the rest of this entry »

The Honourable Denis Lebel, Minister of Infrastructure, Communities and Intergovernmental Affairs and Minister of the Economic Development Agency of Canada for the Regions of Quebec, has announced that Studio Mokko Inc. has been granted financial assistance for the implementation of a structured marketing strategy, which will include the opening of a sales office, in China. Read the rest of this entry »

Independent testing confirms what users repeatedly report – that Fotobounce’s advanced face recognition technology is the best in the world for tagging and organizing digital photos. Fotobounce, developed by Ontario’s Applied Recognition, Inc., outperforms Apple iPhoto™, Google Picasa™ and Microsoft Photo Gallery™. Accuracy is only part of the story when it comes to applying face recognition technology to help consumers tag their photos. Another aspect that is just as important is the way the application handles and presents face recognition suggestions to users. Read the rest of this entry »

Canadians are looking to forego mall mayhem, skip the long lines at the cash register and shop with ease from their mobile devices this holiday season. According to a new study conducted by Pollara on behalf of PayPal Canada, 48% of Canadians with mobile devices agreed that shopping from their smartphone or tablet is a better option than shopping in store during the busy holiday season. Meanwhile 54% of Albertans and 51% of Ontario respondents agreed that shopping from their smartphone or tablet is a better option than shopping from a physical store as compared to 44% of people in Atlantic Canada. The majority of Canadians felt that shopping from their mobile device this holiday season is better than shopping in store because they can avoid long lines and crowds (68%) and enjoy the flexibility to shop anytime and anywhere (55%). Read the rest of this entry »