Village Gamer

Corel has released Corel® Paint it!™ Show, the first photo-painting slideshow app created specifically for the iPad™. Offering a fun way to show off favorite photos from Facebook® and the iPad photo library, Corel Paint it! Show draws you in and offers a photo-viewing experience unlike any other.

Fun to watch and virtually effortless to use, Corel Paint it! Show automatically turns your snapshots into a customizable slideshow of painted masterpieces, right before your eyes. Select an album from your Facebook account or images from your iPad, start the slideshow and let Corel Paint it! Show do the rest. You can also save your favorite painted images on your iPad, post them to your Facebook account, or email them to friends and family.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGldXXeqtq0]

“At Corel, we’re continuously inspired by the question, ‘What else is possible.’ For 25 years, this question has motivated our teams around the world to come up with new and better ways to help our customers express their creativity and become even more productive,” said Nick Davies, Senior Vice President, Corporate Marketing at Corel. “With our first iPad app, we wanted to take the photo-viewing experience one step further. Corel Paint it! Show transforms your iPad into a portable art gallery, using a variety of painting effects to transform each photo, brushstroke-by-brushstroke, into a beautiful masterpiece. It’s a unique and eye-catching way to enjoy and show off your favorite photos and, watching people play with Paint it! Show, I can tell you, it’s addictive!”

Corel Paint it! Show includes 5 different painting effects. The app will apply effects to your images randomly or you can select specific effects to be applied. In addition, you can also customize your slide transitions and access your iTunes® Library to add songs or personalized playlists.

Built on Corel’s ground-breaking digital painting technologies, Paint it! Show is Corel’s first iPad app and the latest addition to the Corel Paint it! product family. Recently, the Corel Paint it! photo-painting software for Mac® and Windows® was honored with the PTPA (Parent Tested, Parent Approved) Seal of Approval, recognizing excellence in family products.

Corel Paint it! Show is available in English in various markets worldwide and is priced at $0.99 in the US and Canada from Apple’s App Store.

Barrett Xplore Inc., under the Xplornet brand, announced that this Fall it is commencing a next-generation 4G network for rural Canadians, starting with terrestrial fixed wireless, and quickly followed by a new satellite network. This is the first commercial deployment of a national 4G network in Canada. For rural Canadians, the deployment of this technology will mean they have better access to faster, affordable broadband with higher bandwidth allowances – and this state of the art technology is coming to rural Canada first.

4G wireless and satellite means a new world of opportunity for rural Canadians. “Barrett Xplore’s mission is to bridge the urban/rural broadband divide in Canada,” said Barrett Xplore CEO John Maduri today. “4G means the goal of bringing fast, robust, affordable broadband to all Canadians, regardless of location will be achieved in the very near future. The potential impact of rural broadband can’t be overstated. From telecommuting, to new business in rural areas, to distance health and education, rural broadband can change the face of Canada,”

The 4G network will have both terrestrial and satellite components. The terrestrial wireless network, which will be comprised of roughly 1200 towers, will be capable of speeds over 40 Mbps improving to over 100Mbps by next year. While speed is important the key to a great experience is more bandwidth, and the new network will provide the capacity for more robust service packages – ranging from 3x – 10x the capacity of today’s HSPA. The terrestrial 4G network will initially be based on Wimax, and is software-upgradable to the future Wimax protocol or to LTE – whichever will offer rural customers a better experience. BXI’s investment in the terrestrial wireless network is roughly $150 million.
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Edmonton’s Ted Bradshaw and Scott Rusnak today announced the launch of Visimonde Inc., a new company that will design and develop virtual worlds and games for audiences worldwide.

“Visimonde will specialize in the creation of games for the purposes of engaging, entertaining, and educating our players and delivering value to our partners,” said Bradshaw, the company’s CEO and President.

The Albertan company is already in production on its first property, which is scheduled to launch in closed beta this winter. This full-featured massively multiplayer online game will offer both free and subscription-based features, as well as an innovative new “Instant Trial” that lets players experience the virtual world without the need for a time-consuming registration process.

Bradshaw and Rusnak come from both educational and children’s software and information management backgrounds. Bradshaw was the President and CEO of StudentsAchieve Software. Bradshaw oversaw the company from early stage start-up through to a successful acquisition by SRB Education. Rusnak, Visimonde Creative Director, spent 15 years as Vice President of Management Information Group in Scottsdale, Arizona and Edmonton, Canada. Rusnak has extensive international experience in development and marketing of education and social media software applications.

The company has hired Blaine Graboyes to serve as Executive Producer for its current game. Graboyes is an award-winning Media Architect and Game Designer that has worked with the likes of Dreamworks, Sony, Mattel, NFL Films, Disney, Nickelodeon, MTV and more.

Opera Software and Guelph’s Netsweeper, Inc., have announced today a partnership that will provide added security and Internet content filtering to operators who ship and distribute the Opera Mini browser.

With Netsweeper’s technology, Opera will be able to offer mobile operators increased ability to block phishing, fraud, viruses, trojans, malware, access to adult content or other sites, services that are deemed inappropriate, and also add in an extra level of security, especially for enterprise networks. This new solution leverages the latest caching technologies and is capable of processing interactive, user-generated Web 2.0 content that will further strengthen online user protection.

“Our operator customers have requested the ability to control and filter content for our Opera Mini browser, due to legal requirements in the countries where the operators are established,” said Christen Krogh, EVP Products at Opera Software. “This partnership with Netsweeper, which has the most advanced and scalable solution in the market today, will make Opera Mini very attractive to the world’s operators.”
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GameString is pleased to announce the Beta sign up for its free personal cloud gaming service GameString Adrenalin™.

“At GameString we asked the question ‘what if you could remotely play the PC games installed on your own computer in a browser’ – everyone told us that would be pretty cool.” said Chris Boothroyd, CEO of GameString.com. “For the cloud gaming market to really take off, we need to start with a nice easy toe-in-the water approach for game developers and publishers. What better way, than to work with what is already installed out there on PC gaming gear. Publishers don’t have to do anything different, players get to remote play a game they have already purchased and others get to watch the games being played by their friends, live.”

GameString created the specially built Adrenalin application to let gamers access the games installed on their own PC, remotely in a web browser. Adrenalin can also broadcast the remote gamers session to online video streaming services like Justin.tv for others to watch en masse. Optimized for OpenGL and DirectX, Adrenalin is designed to lets gamers play their PC games when they are away from home, invite friends to watch and even let others drive the game remotely.

“It’s like the gamers version of WebEx™ combined with Go-To-My-PC™ and ProCaster™. If you have a buddy who has just bought a killer game like StarCraft II, he can remote you in to watch and even let you try it out – but watch the smack talk, he can boot you anytime.” said Boothroyd. “If you gotta play but you are away from home, this will let you jump in and play a quick round before your boss, significant other or grandma cuffs you one.”

Transgaming, Inc. and Sony Online Entertainment LLC (SOE), in collaboration with TransGaming, Inc. have announced that the Toronto studio is currently working on Free Realms™ for the Macintosh® platform. Scheduled to release later this fall, Free Realms Mac® users will play together in the family-friendly online world with the over 14 million existing registered players on the PC.

“There is no denying the overwhelming player demand for Free Realms on the Mac platform, of which we plan to deliver very soon,” said John Smedley, president of SOE. “For the first time ever, SOE is developing synchronous gameplay for Mac and PC players and we are thrilled to tap into TransGaming’s Mac development expertise to bring this functionality to fruition.”

Free Realms players on the Mac platform will experience consistent controls and functionality and will be integrated on the same game servers as PC players. Mac users will also have full access to the existing Marketplace and community forums.

“Free Realms offers a truly unique and captivating user experience that aligns with TransGaming’s focus on bringing new massive multiplayer online games to the Mac platform,” commented Vikas Gupta, CEO & President of TransGaming Inc. “Our strategic partnership with SOE has strengthened our leadership position in the enablement of family-friendly titles for the growing Mac community and offers Mac gamers an ever-increasing catalog of outstanding video game content.”

Free Realms is an online, interactive virtual world that offers players adventures in the form of quests, activities and minigames. From ninja fighting to demolition derby to raising pets, Free Realms allows players to be what they want to be, while offering a safe environment to connect with old and new friends. Free Realms is rated E10+ for Everyone 10 and up with content descriptors of Crude Humor and Fantasy Violence.

The Co-operators insurance corporation has launched Mobile Assist, an iPhone application that enables clients to submit home and auto insurance claims using their iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch. The free application, which can be downloaded from the App Store, provides a new option for clients to interact with their insurance company on their own terms.

After downloading the Mobile Assist, clients can input their basic home and auto insurance information into their profile so that it’s readily available should they need to submit a claim. The application will guide them through the process, prompting them to provide the necessary details. The claim will then be submitted directly through a secure transmission, along with photos taken with their device. The app also offers one-touch dialling option to speak to a Co-operators representative and submit their claim over the phone.

“Canadians are leading increasingly fast-paced lives. Whether our clients want to drop by an agent’s office, phone us or deal with us online, they should – and do – have the choice,” said Kathy Bardswick, president and CEO of The Co-operators. “Co-operators Mobile Assist puts claims reporting in the palm of their hand.”

The application can be used by home and auto insurance clients of Co-operators General Insurance Company throughout Canada.

Electronic Arts Inc. has begun a special promotional partnership with Susan G. Komen for the Cure® in support of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month through specially marked EA Sports™ games during the month of October. Starting in early October, select Best Buy store locations will have available for sale EA Sports video game titles featuring the Komen Running Ribbon logo to acknowledge the $100,000 dollar donation from EA Sports.

“This year marks the third year of commitment on behalf of EA Sports in continuing to create awareness in the fight against breast cancer,” said Christopher Erb, EA Sports Senior Director of Partnership Marketing. “EA is honored to work with Susan G. Komen for the Cure to spread awareness and to give EA Sports consumers an opportunity to participate in finding the cures.”

Nancy G. Brinker promised her dying sister, Susan G. Komen, she would do everything in her power to end breast cancer forever. In 1982, that promise became Susan G. Komen for the Cure, which is now the world’s largest breast cancer organization and the largest source of nonprofit funds dedicated to the fight against breast cancer with more than $1.5 billion invested to date.

“Over the past 30 years, significant advancements have been made in the fight against breast cancer,” said Katrina McGhee, Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer for Komen for the Cure. “Without partners like EA Sports, Komen wouldn’t have been able to pay for half a million breast screenings for women last year. Together, we are literally saving lives.”

Best Buy, the exclusive retail partner for the EA Sports and Komen for the Cure promotion, will have the limited edition video game packages in select stores throughout the month of October. EA Sports titles marked with the Komen Running Ribbon logo will include FIFA Soccer 11, , NCAA Football 11, NHL 11 for the PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system and Xbox 360® videogame and entertainment system and will be featured on Madden NFL 11 and Tiger Woods PGA TOUR® 11 across the PlayStation 3 system, Xbox 360 and Wii™ gaming consoles.

A check of both Canadian and American Best Buy web sites did not return any results for the specially marked covers, so it would appear that the “select” locations designation does not apply to online, and will also most likely be only at Best Buy stores located in the USA.

The Royal Canadian Institute for the Advancement of Science (the RCI) has awarded an Honorary Membership in the RCI to Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady, executive producers and co-creators of the hit television series The Big Bang Theory. The RCI, founded in 1849, is Canada’s oldest scientific organization and is dedicated to promoting the public’s understanding of science primarily through public lectures, scholarships, and the Sir Sandford Fleming medal for science communication. Jim Parsons (Sheldon), Simon Helberg (Howard), and Kunal Nayyar (Raj) of The Big Bang Theory are accepting the award on their behalf following the taping of Live at etalk: The Big Bang Theory in Toronto. The special tapes this afternoon from CTV’s Queen St. HQ.

“We are honoring Chuck Lorre, Bill Prady and the entire Big Bang Theory team for creating a television program that seamlessly melds science and everyday life,” said Bruce Gitelman, President, RCI. “The program exposes the public in an entertaining way to the awe and wonder of science and life in general. As the number one series in Canada today, it not only makes science accessible to the public but also entertains many practicing scientists.”

In a statement, Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady said: “Messrs. Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady do, with great humility, accept Honorary Membership in the Royal Canadian Institute for the Advancement of Science.

Those who toil in the field of science often wait patiently for their work to be acknowledged. Einstein, for example, waited years for the Nobel committee to bestow its award for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect. In light of this, your honorees harbor no resentment that it has taken the Institute decades to reach across the border and recognize Mr. Lorre for his groundbreaking fourth grade work in neurology entitled “How Smart is the Human Brain? (An Extra-Credit Project)” and Mr. Prady for his definitive exploration of zoological ophthalmology in the seventh grade science fair entry, “Dissecting a Calf’s Eye.”

As members, your honorees pledge to do everything in their power to advance the interests of Canadian scientists in the global community. For example, every time someone uses a telephone, they will note: “Did you know that was invented by Alexander Graham Bell, a Canadian scientist?” They will also look on Wikipedia and find names of other Canadian scientists to talk about.

Finally, while Messrs. Lorre and Prady are baffled as to why such an august group would seek to honor them, they are truly thrilled you have done so.”