Village Gamer

Richmond – Brother International Corporation (Canada) Ltd. has expanded their Richmond, BC facility to 52,500 sq. feet, providing nearly triple the capacity of Brother’s previous location. The expansion was needed in order to keep up with the demand for its products in Western Canada.

“The decision to expand in Vancouver follows the expansion of our Montreal facilities three years ago, which is already operating at full capacity”, explains Martin Featherston, President of Brother Canada. “In order to support our sales growth, it became a necessity to expand our capacity in the Vancouver area as well.” For geographic reasons, the region of Vancouver was a natural point of entry for Brother products, which are predominantly manufactured and shipped from Asia. The first Brother office in Western Canada was established in Vancouver in the early 1980’s. Both current Brother facilities in Canada (Montreal and Vancouver) are ISO certified for quality management (ISO 9001:2008), environment (ISO 14001:2004) and health & safety (ISO 18001:2007). The construction of the new building started in March 2009 and was completed by the end of July, while operations officially launched in early August 2009.

Toronto – Bay3000 Corporate Education, a leading provider of Project Management Education has announced that nominations for the 6th Annual Canadian Project Excellence Awards and Learning Forum (CPEX) are now open. CPEX is dedicated to business success by enabling and recognizing outstanding leadership. Through the CPEX Competition, we celebrate Canadian projects that have overcome challenges to deliver superior value. CPEX will be held on November 2, 2009 at the innovative Institute for Learning in Toronto. The goal of this milestone event is to connect individuals and organizations from industry, business, and government sectors to learn critical best practices from leading experts in the field, to share knowledge, to network, and to celebrate achievements made by Canadian Projects. CPEX fills a void by serving as the meeting place where leaders and their teams come together to exchange ideas and discuss strategic alignment and execution. This unique event is geared to Senior Project Management and Executive leaders.
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Vernon – A new service has opened its BETA to the public today expecting to forever change the way websites are created. installAll.net is the first site of its kind to offer a database of fully automated script installations and upgrades, including one-click modification and template installations, completely free. With more than 300 scripts in its database–from shopping carts to customer relationship managers–installAll.net helps reduce the time it takes for web developers to create a website.

Its list of free features continues with unlimited installations to unlimited domains, compatibility with nearly all web hosting companies, no required branding or advertising, excellent speed and security, and more.

“As a web developer, I know the value of this service. I know the time and effort web developers will save by using this tool,” says Dan Nelson, president and CEO. “Plus, we’ve made the site so easy to use that even someone with no web development experience can create a fully functioning website in less than five minutes.”

The database of free scripts, modifications and templates they offer will continuously grow. “We already have dedicated staff managing the applications from developers and I think there will be an increasing interest in contributing works for installation using our service,” says Nelson. installAll.net does not charge developers to contribute free scripts that are open-source to its database.

installAll.net is a web-based service designed for experienced and amateur web developers alike. Based out of Vernon B.C., the company is committed to community investment and expects to donate more than 20 percent of its profits to local charitable organizations.

Vancouver – 3D3 Solutions, a cutting-edge developer of 3D scanning technologies, announced today the launch of FlexScan3D 2.5 , the latest version of its 3D scanning software. New features and upgrades reduce scan editing time while providing high quality results.

“The best way to improve a product is to listen to your customers,” said Thomas Tong, President of 3D3

Split Scan Mode

Solutions. “FlexScan3D 2.5’s new features and upgrades are a direct response to customers’ feedback and needs.”

FlexScan3D 2.5 new features include:

* New Split Scan mode: The new mode captures more data by scanning two sides of an object simultaneously and automatically merges the coverage area for more complete results. Ideal for face and foot scanning.

* Mesh alignment and merging tool: Users can skip the process of importing scans into third-party 3D scan data processing software with FlexScan3D’s alignment and merging capabilities.

* Supports 360° scanning with rotary table (sold separately): Automates the process of performing multiple scans of a single object and automatically aligns the scans to form a 360 model.

Upgrades to FlexScan3D help produce higher quality scans than its predecessor including higher accuracy single scanner calibration and advance color scan support.

FlexScan3D software is offered at $1,699 USD. 3D3 Solutions’ all-in-one HDI 3D Scanners are powered by FlexScan3D and start at $3,999 USD. These products can be ordered today at 3D3 Solutions website.

Today on Global TV BC’s morning news, travel consultant Claire Newell mentioned two sites that will be of interest to those in the industry who do a lot of traveling. These two sites enable you to be certain that you are getting the seat you want on a flight, because as we all know, not all airplanes have the same seat layout. If you want to be sure you’re sitting where you want to sit, visit Seat Guru and Seat Expert.

Some cool info from our friends in the Vancouver-based Unity 3D community – Unity 3D appears to be the most popular engine for iPhone game development.  There are currently 258 confirmed games in the App Store that have been made with Unity 3D. From games created by students to professional outfits Unity has been used to create a wide variety of visually stunning, innovative and engaging games – from the quirky to the more traditional – the flexibility and feature set of the engine allows developers to concentrate on content rather than technology.

Nicholas Francis, Chief Creative Officer and co-founder of Unity said, “There’s so many iPhone games made with Unity that its hard to keep track; we’ve got 258 confirmed releases, but the actual number could be much higher. This spans small titles to smash hits like Zombieville USA and Touch KO. Even if its ‘only’ 258, that still means that there has been a Unity iPhone game released every two days since we launched – a great success.”

Unity will release 1.1 for iPhone towards the end of August 2009. The Unity tools have been hailed as revolutionary for enabling high quality results in an easily accessible development environment. Unity is the fastest growing cross platform engine.

Congratulations as well to Pug Pharm, who has received additional project funding from the Canada New Media Fund (CNMF) administered through Telefilm Canada.

“With this financial contribution from Telefilm, along with our recently announced support from the IRAP-NRC program, Pug Pharm is building momentum and is well-positioned to execute on our current production plans towards a public beta launch,” stated Steve Bocska, CEO of Pug Pharm.

“With this investment, the Canada New Media Fund is supporting novel online games that combine the engagement of traditional video games with the technologies of social networking applications. We see opportunities to create innovative offerings that have global appeal,” continued Bocska.

Vancouver – The official League of Super Evil site is now fully operational and ready to unleash its evilness on the unsuspecting world wide web from their secret headquarters, A.K.A. Nerd Corps Entertainment. Visitors can now sign up for an account and create their own evil avatars to “play games and earn Evil Points so you can dress to impress. Or blow stuff up, your choice. Then, fill your Lair with evil gadgets so after a long, hard day you have a place to call “home sweet home.” Okay maybe not sweet but you get the idea! And remember, the only way to win, is to LOSE!”

According to recon information gathered via YTV, which seems to be the source of their regular, animated transmissions, “The League of Super Evil (a.k.a. L.O.S.E.) follows four Super Villains who have set their sights on nothing less than total neighbourhood domination! L.O.S.E. is helmed by the diminutive Great Voltar, whose grandiose plans are generally miniscule and child-like and give new meaning to the term lowered expectations. Then there’s gadgeteer Doktor Frogg, whose evil genius is diminished only by his incredible bad luck. Bringing the muscle is fresh-faced former farm-boy Reginald “Red” Menace, who prefers to channel his energy into gardening, cute animals and bouncy castles. And we can’t forget the completely unpredictable Doomageddon, a pan-dimensional creature who brings the term “bad dog” to a whole other level. Between using a Shiruken anime robot to win a playground slam dunk competition, inventing a super-computer to protect Voltar’s sweet new evil BMX bike, or hosting a neighbourhood barbeque and not inviting ANY of the neighbors, L.O.S.E. struggles ever-onward to its goal of total mindless fun!

Dragon Age™: Origins Collector’s Edition and pre-order incentive program. The Collector’s Edition is a premium package available in limited quantities featuring exclusive Dragon Age: Origins collectibles including a unique steel case, a cloth map of the world of Dragon Age, a Making-of documentary DVD, a digital version of the Dragon Age: Origins soundtrack, game trailers, wallpapers, strategy tips and a concept art video, plus three exclusive downloadable items that will provide special advantages to the player. The Collector’s Edition is available for pre-order today for an MSRP of $74.99 (console) and $64.99 (PC) in North America.
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Toronto’s Phased Games has released Snax Lite on the Xbox 360. Priced at 80 Microsoft points, Snax Lite is available on the Xbox Live Indie Games service. In Snax Lite, you’re the chef at your barbecue and all your friends are dying just to get a piece of the grill action! Cook up and serve your guests in a limited time frame. It’s a race against the clock and the grill! Snax Lite (Cooking Arcade Game) features 6 Challenging levels of fast game play action and a Massive 80 Minute Marathon Mode. Do you have what it takes to become the Master Chef?

Nexon has taken down the web site previously used to publicize Sugar Rush, a game developed by Vancouver’s Klei Entertainment. A spokesman from Klei thanked all of their beta testers, but there is unfortunately no further word regarding the future of the game, which was well received by the gamer community. Klei Entertainment, who owns the rights to the title, is actively seeking a new publishing partner.

Fit Brains has added a new game to their site. Paradise Island 2 is a word game designed to help with improving word stem recognition, deduction and concept formation as well as combining syllables and fragments. Just a few minutes per day spent with the games on FitBrains will help keep your cognitive abilities sharp – or even teach you a few new skills – all for free. Village Gamer highly recommends Fit Brains for everyone.

Three Canadian developed games are gracing the FAQ page of the new Xbox 360 Games on Demand site. The featured games are Mass Effect, Assassin’s Creed and Need For Speed: Carbon. Games on Demand is available for purchase on Xbox LIVE as part of today’s Xbox LIVE Update. You will be able to browse and purchase games through the Xbox LIVE Marketplace on the Web starting August 13. Village Gamer was selected to experience the preview of the Xbox Live, and so far we’re liking the additions, even though some of the Avatar Marketplace add-ons seem to be a bit pricey and I haven’t really seen anything in the Avatar Marketplace that I would like to purchase for my avatar. I’m not sure yet how I feel about being able to purchase new titles directly from Xbox, and I’m sitting on the fence as far as “the end of retail” models. I’m one of those people who will purchase Collector’s Editions for certain titles (like Assassin’s Creed 2), and I would hate to see those options disappear, even if it is far off in the future.

The folks from Bioware have departed for GenCon, with promises of cool stuff for Dragon Age: Origins fans, and then they’re headed for GamesCon in Germany. I guess we’ll just have to wait for PAX to see all the cool stuff for ourselves.

And in my final note for the morning, just a reminder for those of you who are thinking about going to GDC Austin – early bird pricing ends in two days.

Vancouver – A new brand monitoring application will help companies mine Twitter for brand ‘buzz’, automatically scanning for positive or negative sentiment and transforming the constant stream of buzz into actionable business intelligence, software maker ResponseTek announced today.

ResponseTek’s Media Aggregator, launched this week as part of the Summer 09 release of ResponseTek:CEM, the company’s flagship customer experience management software platform, helps businesses benefit from the enormous output of consumer-generated content from social media phenomenon Twitter through a single, integrated software platform that combines media mining, reporting, analytics and action management.

“We know a lot of companies are struggling to wrap their heads around the sheer volume of information coming out of Twitter, blogs and non-traditional news media, but at the same time need to track and understand how their brands are being covered and discussed by media and consumers,” said Gord Elder, product group director at ResponseTek. “We extended our enterprise customer intelligence platform to the world of the web and social media; businesses can now stay on top of tweets, blog posts, news and other content that’s actually relevant in business.”
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Don’t forget to give the Government your input on the Copyright Consultation process. The eConsultation web site has transcripts from the past Town Hall meetings held across the country, as well as areas for direct participation such as the site’s forum and the online submission centre which both give you an opportunity to respond to a few specific questions on copyright. You can also submit your own paper or report to on the site so that other people can view your work. Both the Copyright eConsultation process and the ongoing CRTC hearings have a direct impact on the digital media industry, so it’s important to get involved and have your say. The Education Medias web site also has important information for educators in regards to the new copyright process.

How many of you have been holding out for the new Palm Pre instead of snapping up the iPhone 3Gs? The new Palm Pre is now available for pre-order exclusively through Bell Canada in anticipation of its August 27 shelf date. The Palm Pre is comparable in price to the new iPhone – $199.95 with a three year contract or $599.95 without a contract, with a minimum 500 MB data plan. Bell smartphone clients can choose from a wide variety of voice and data plans, including Smartphone Combos that offer unlimited Internet browsing, personal email, text messaging and Windows Live Messenger.

Toronto’s digital distribution company YANGAROO Inc. has announced that, subject to regulatory approval, American media services company Horizon Media Inc. will acquire warrants to purchase 750,000 YANGAROO common shares. The warrants will become exercisable after various phases of a digital media workflow solution are successfully completed. These warrants will have an exercise price as permitted by the TSX Venture Exchange policies at the time of issuance and an expiry date of five years from the date of issuance.

Meanwhile, Science Daily has reported that researchers in the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) and the Georgia Tech School of Electrical and Computer Engineering are developing programming tools to enable engineers in the defense industry to utilize the processing power of GPUs without having to learn the complicated programming language required to use them directly. These tools are designed to take advantage of videogame computer and console GPUs.

“As radar systems and other sensor systems get more complicated, the computational requirements are becoming a bottleneck,” said GTRI senior research engineer Daniel Campbell. “We are capitalizing on the ability of GPUs to process radar, infrared sensor and video data faster than a typical computer and at a much lower cost and power than a computing cluster.”

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Toronto – The Canadian Professional Sales Association (CPSA) has developed BTSidekick, a free BlackBerry application designed to help business travelers find the things they need while on the move, including hotels, restaurants, banks, gas stations and coffee shops.

Since its release on July 16, BTSidekick has become one of the most downloaded applications from BlackBerry App World™ and remains as one of its top 25 downloads. “Convenience is key when you are on the road and need to find a hotel or other businesses quickly and easily,” says CPSA president and CEO Harvey Copeman. “BTSidekick determines where you are, what’s nearby, and how to get it – all in one easy-to-use application.”

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Toronto and Vancouver – StyleTap Inc. and Techneos Systems Inc. today announced the completion of an OEM agreement which allows Techneos to integrate StyleTap® Platform with its Entryware™ mobile survey application. The resulting Entryware 6.4 system enables customers to seamlessly obtain the benefits of the world’s most powerful and flexible mobile survey software on inexpensive and readily available devices running Windows Mobile™.

Entryware running on StyleTap

A primary benefit of the integration of StyleTap Platform and Entryware is the elimination of the need for separate installation and licensing of the two products. Although existing versions of Entryware execute on StyleTap Platform, Entryware 6.4 was enhanced to recognize the StyleTap environment and to take advantage of device-specific capabilities, such as high-resolution screens and support for cameras on Windows Mobile smartphones.

“Many of our key customers were already using our product with StyleTap Platform,” said Dave King, CEO of Techneos. “This integration makes it easier and faster to deploy Entryware on a wider range of devices, while maintaining a consistent user experience regardless of the hardware manufacturer. And for many of our global customers, the ability to use inexpensive devices that can easily be obtained in their local markets is essential to their use of our software.”
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