Village Gamer

Vancouver – Today Ubisoft® announced a new addition to its sports portfolio, Academy of Champions™, an arcade soccer game featuring legendary sports icons Pelé and U.S. soccer champion Mia Hamm. Developed for the Wii™ system from Nintendo, the game will deliver an engaging, interactive experience for kids and their families. Academy of Champions is scheduled to be released in 2009.

Academy of Champions

“We made our mark in the sports genre last year with the global success of Shaun White Snowboarding,” stated Yves Guillemot, chief executive officer at Ubisoft. “Now, with Academy of Champions, Ubisoft offers another sports game with a fresh approach that has something unique to offer young gamers and sports fans.”

Created by an experienced team of sports game developers at Ubisoft Vancouver, Academy of Champions engages players in a rich, story-driven adventure around the world’s most popular sport. The journey begins with enrollment at an extraordinary Academy where your coach is the legendary Pelé and U.S. soccer champion Mia Hamm is your team member and mentor.
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Toronto – The Android Market, an open distribution channel for mobile applications (apps), is coming to Canada exclusively through Rogers Wireless with the launch of the HTC Dream™ and HTC Magic™ in June. Canadians will have a new store for all their wireless device apps shopping needs.

As of May 15, there were already more than 3200 apps available in Android Market, and that number is growing rapidly. The HTC Dream and HTC Magic smartphones, the first cellphones in Canada powered by the Android platform and featuring access to Android Market, will soon be available from Rogers Wireless and will be the first chance Canadians have to get Android Market at their fingertips.

“Innovation is part of our DNA at Rogers Wireless,” said John Boynton, Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, Rogers Wireless. “Exclusively available through Rogers Wireless in Canada, the leading-edge Android-powered HTC Dream and HTC Magic will allow consumers to fully personalize their handsets with an expansive choice of apps in Android Market, when they launch in June.”
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Montreal – Kangaroo Media, a recognized leader in sports fan enhancement solutions and technologies today announced the upcoming launch of its next generation of fan experience enhancing technology & platform. The launch includes an all new Fan Experience Control Center technology suite and a Generation III wireless hand-held device.

The Fan Experience Control Center hardware and software suite will expand the ability to intelligently enhance and tailor the fan experience including future capabilities to connect to an array of WEB-based fan community applications and add-ons. The newly minted Gen III handheld will feature a sleeker form factor with a prominent HD type LCD screen and new Wi-Fi capabilities to broaden connectivity beyond the in-stadium venue.
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Toronto – WinMagic, the innovative leader in disk encryption, today announced that Mount Sinai Hospital, an internationally recognized health care centre affiliated with the University of Toronto, has selected WinMagic’s SecureDoc full-disk encryption software to protect hospital data. SecureDoc is being installed on more than 200 laptops being utilized by physicians, administrative staff, support staff, clinical staff, IT support staff and researchers.

Having researched available full-disk encryption solutions, Mount Sinai selected SecureDoc based on numerous pre-determined criteria. Mount Sinai’s thorough evaluation process included testing for Windows compatibility, user experience during initial encryption, ongoing performance and user experience following initial encryption, performance and compatibility across a wide variety of laptop models, ability to unencrypt data, data recovery capabilities, ability to support security policy control, client management and monitoring capabilities, auditing and reporting capabilities and preboot authentication functionality.
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Montreal – Vantrix, the leading provider of content adaptation and optimization solutions for converged wireless, broadband and cable networks, today announced the appointment of John Major as an Independent Director to the Vantrix Board of Directors. The strategic addition to the Board caps a strong first quarter for Vantrix, highlighted by four new customer wins and the Frost & Sullivan 2009 Mobile Content Optimization Solution of the Year Award.

John Major

In his role as Independent Director, to which he brings a wealth of experience, Mr. Major will support Vantrix by providing expertise and strategic advice regarding potential growth strategies. He has been serving as non-executive Chairman of the Board of Directors of Broadcom since May 2008, having joined the company as an Independent Director in 2003. He also serves as Director of three other public companies, including Lennox International, Littelfuse, Inc., and ORBCOMM, Inc.
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Toronto – QuickPlay Media, the premier provider of solutions that manage the business of mobile video, today announced that the company is powering Virgin Mobile India’s first unlimited full-track music download service, at no charge to subscribers. Christened “Vmusic,” the service offers a range of Western and Indian content from leading artists across brands & music labels, such as Sony BMG and Hungama.

“As India’s leading youth-focused mobile service, Virgin Mobile India has consistently set itself apart by providing an attractive range of phones to the world’s fastest growing mobile market,” said Wayne Purboo, president and CEO, QuickPlay Media. “Now, through this collaboration with QuickPlay, VMI will transform their customers’ mobile experience by providing them with access to music from some of the world’s most popular artists. By working with QuickPlay, VMI also ensures seamless expansion of its multimedia services to meet evolving customer preferences.”
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Ottawa – WinZip Computing, an American company wholly owned by Canadian Corel Corporation and maker of the world’s most popular compression utility for Windows®, today released WinZip® 12.1 featuring the new Zipx format, WinZip’s most efficient archives to-date. WinZip 12.1 also makes it faster and easier for users to resize images before sending them via ‘Zip and E-Mail’.

With its commitment to continuous improvement, WinZip has significantly advanced the compression and encryption capabilities of Zip files and the new .zipx file extension is the next step in that evolution. By using the most current compression methods to create Zipx files, WinZip 12.1 helps users create their smallest Zip files ever. The new .zipx file extension makes it easier to share highly compressed files with others by making it clear when a file was created using advanced methods and that WinZip 12.1 (or another compatible compression utility) is required to open the file. Users can still create regular “Legacy Zip 2.0” files with WinZip 12.1. In addition, WinZip has documented all of the details associated with creating and reading Zipx files and has made them available for software developers of compression software, anti-virus software, search engines, and other software applications.
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Vancouver – Zynga, the industry leader in social gaming, has shown its support for the Masters of Digital Media (MDM) Program with three new entrance scholarships totaling $20,000. The three scholarships will be awarded in the areas of Game Design, Art and Programming. Students beginning their studies in September who have demonstrated remarkable talent in these fields will be considered. The MDM application deadline is June 30, 2009.

“At MDM, we’re thrilled that Zynga is keen to support our Masters of Digital Media students,” said Dr. Gerri Sinclair, Executive Director of the MDM Program and CEO of the Centre for Digital Media at Great Northern Way Campus. “The backing of an industry leader such as Zynga is a testament to the quality of the students joining our two-year program, and we thank the company for their support not only of our program, but of the digital media industry in Vancouver and throughout North America.”
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Toronto – NAC Geographic Products Inc. announced that NACMaps – a NAC enhancement for Blackberry Maps has been released and available on the Blackberry App World of Research In Motion (RIM), to make Blackberry Maps work everywhere in all its covered geographic areas no matter whether there are no street addresses such as in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and no matter whether there are no standard street addresses in English.

Although Blackberry Maps is the most comprehensive mobile map application in the world, providing locating, nearby business searching, turn-by-turn driving directions and navigating services in 67 countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, Middle East, Carribean and North America, it can specify locations only with street addresses which have many problems:
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Vancouver – PEER 1 Network Enterprises, Inc., a leading online IT hosting provider, has launched SmartMonitoring, a full suite of advanced monitoring solutions now available for its managed hosting customers. Utilizing the platform of partner, Absolute Performance Inc., SmartMonitoring provides in-depth data and analysis to better anticipate IT needs for business success. This offering, which will be expanded to all product lines later this year, represents strategic momentum in working together with best-of-breed companies to provide PEER 1 customers a valuable range of products and services.

“With the launch of SmartMonitoring, we are offering the best monitoring services available, while continuing to provide the advanced hosting services that are in greatest demand by our customers,” said Tim Varma, director of product management for PEER 1. “SmartMonitoring will help our customers increase efficiency and maximize IT resources, which is especially vital in today’s economy. With our fully scalable hosting solutions and services, PEER 1 adjusts to customers’ needs and helps them be more cost effective, to keep their businesses running smoothly.”
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