5th April 2011

American Schools Turn To Absolute For Theft Recovery

Absolute SoftwareAbsolute® Software Corporation has released details of several laptop theft recovery success stories from K-12 school districts across the U.S. that utilize Computrace® by Absolute Software. These recoveries, along with the over 5,000 stolen computers recovered in the last 12 months, demonstrate the value of security software in the prevention of data breaches and the financial loss associated with laptop theft.

Computrace has been successfully deployed by school districts across 39 states as an effective and proven layered approach to endpoint security. In fact, 75% of America’s top 20 school districts depend on Computrace persistence technology to provide them with actionable intelligence to understand where their devices are, regardless of location, and take the necessary action required when a device is at risk.

“School districts throughout the U.S. are facing drastic budget cuts, and as a result, the ability to adequately track, monitor and protect expensive mobile assets both in and out of the classroom is more critical than ever before,” said Lyle Singular, vice president of recovery services, Absolute Software. “The power of Computrace persistence technology combined with the expertise of our Absolute Theft Recovery Team and their established relationships with local authorities provides a clear value proposition to all organizations. Our technology provides resource-strapped IT departments with the necessary visibility and control they need to track and manage their deployed devices and get them back quickly should a crime occur.”

Carleton Elementary School, part of the Detroit Public School District, recently fell victim to large-scale theft. Included in the items stolen were several Mac laptops, which were outfitted with Computrace software. Relying on the tracking capabilities inherent in Computrace, Absolute worked with the local police department to provide a trail of clues leading directly to a suspect.

When contacted by law enforcement the suspect admitted that while he did not steal the devices, he had recently purchased them for $400 each from a nearby gas station. He agreed to return the stolen laptops and one day later, the devices were returned to Carleton Elementary. Read the rest of this entry »

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5th April 2011

IAB Canada Announces New Mobile Council And New Partnership

IAB CanadaThe Interactive Advertising Bureau of Canada today announced the launch of its new Mobile Council, and new partnerships with the Mobile Experience Innovation Center (MEIC) and OCAD University, to drive Mobile Marketing research, education and innovation in Canada.

The Mobile Committee, which has been operating under IAB Canada’s Emerging Platforms Council since 2006, will now be broken out into a full Mobile Council (with various committees now able to organize under it).

Work already done by IAB Canada’s Mobile Committee over the past 6 years includes:

Research

Education

  • Inclusion of Mobile marketing within the Essential Interactive Handbook (2004-2007), produced with Marketing Magazine as part of the IAB Canada/Marketing Interactive To The Max Conference.
  • Creation of a dedicated Mobile In Motion Handbook and Mobile In Motion Roadshow with Marketing Magazine (2006).
  • Inclusion of Mobile marketing modules within IAB Canada’s Intensive One-Day Course In Interactive Marketing (since 2006), and the recent launch of a fully-dedicated Intensive One-Day Course in Mobile Marketing (2011), to SOLD OUT! classes and rave reviews In Toronto, Montréal and Vancouver.

Standards

  • Inclusion of Mobile Ad Standards within IAB Canada’s Canadian Universal Ad Package (since 2010).
  • In-progress work on revisions to Mobile Ad Standards, and the development of new Tablet Ad Standards specifically for Canada.

Networking/Events

  • Inclusion of Mobile marketing in IAB Canada’s MIXX Canada Conference + Roadshow — including Mobile Keynotes by Neil Sweeney (formerly StreamTheWorld, now Juice Mobile), Alan Li (Adtech), Kamar Shah (Vortex Mobile), Anthony Novac (Spreed:Inc.) since 2008.
  • Launch of IAB Canada’s MIXX Canada Mobile BlackBerry App (since 2009).

IAB Canada’s Mobile Council will be jointly chaired by Peter Vaz, Vice President, Director Digital Communications, MacLAREN M2 UNIVERSAL (who will also retain his Chair role on the Emerging Platforms Council), and Sara Diamond, Chair, Mobile Experience Innovation Centre; President, OCAD University; and Board Member, Interactive Ontario. Read the rest of this entry »

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5th April 2011

Rock Legend Gene Simmons Endorses and Partners with Ortsbo

intertainment mediaIntertainment Media Inc. has announced that its social media, real time, language translation platform Ortsbo has been endorsed by international rock legend, accomplished global entrepreneur and one of the world’s most recognized personalities, Gene Simmons, who has signed on as a business partner and to serve as Ortsbo’s official spokesperson.

The personification of today’s globally connected, multi-cultural citizen, Simmons is fluent in five languages, including English, Hebrew, Hungarian, and German, as well as some Japanese and he’s working to add Mandarin to his repertoire. Simmons will lend his legendary personality to help spread the word about Ortsbo’s unique, ortsbotranslator experience platform that integrates seamlessly with the most popular social media platforms to enable users from around the world to instantly send and receive messages in their native language.

Along with the new logo created by Gene Simmons, Ortsbo is launching an engaging, dynamic website that offers users the choice of Ortsbo for Silverlight and Ortsbo HTML that is compatible with desktop and mobile browsers, iPad, and other portable computing devices for consumer and commercial environments.

“Ortsbo has changed my life. I can now instantaneously communicate with fans around the world in their native Gene Simmons Family Jewels Image Credit: Gene Simmonslanguage. It’s opened up so many new doors for me – personally and in business,” said Simmons.

Unlike typical translation software, Ortsbo eliminates the need to cut/copy and paste text into a translator by automatically translating typed text into the specified language instantly. Users simply indicate the desired language for their intended recipient and Ortsbo does the rest. Ortsbo even lets users conduct multiple chat sessions simultaneously across multiple social networks in multiple languages in real time.

Free for consumers to use, the Ortsbo service is ideal for both personal/social communication, allowing users to chat with friends and family around the world or around the neighborhood, and for business communications. Global colleagues can use Ortsbo to collaborate and chat about projects in their native language for faster and more efficient communication that reduces the risk of misunderstanding due to translation errors.

For businesses, Ortsbo provides multi-lingual global communications solutions via RSS, API solutions, private chat networks and custom services allowing organizations to provide seamless communications with their constituents.

“Ortsbo is tearing down language barriers to bridge communication gaps in our infinitely connected global society,” said David Lucatch, president of Ortsbo. “Whether you want to communicate with family and friends back home in Europe, or a business associate in Japan, Ortsbo is changing the way people communicate around the globe by automatically translating your conversation in real time.”

In just nine months, Ortsbo usage has reached the same level that it took internet bellwether Facebook 29 months to achieve, outpacing usage growth at the world’s largest network in one-third of the time. Ortsbo boasts more than 9 million unique users each month. Since launch, over 26.9 million unique visitors from more than 170 countries have logged more than 132.7 million minutes using Ortsbo, translating conversations automatically into more than 50 global languages.

Ortsbo integrates seamlessly with all the most popular social networks you already use, including Facebook, Twitter, MSN, Google Talk, Yahoo! Messenger and many more. For business or personal use, the Ortsbo for Outlook plug-in module will automatically translate emails sent and received for a one-time purchase of just $29.95.

“Our world is becoming increasingly interconnected every day, but the fact that we’re all speaking different languages remains a significant obstacle in achieving a real global connectivity and consciousness,” Lucatch said. “Ortsbo’s quick and easy automatic translation that eliminates the need for the hassle of cut/copy and paste can help eliminate this barrier to move us forward economically and socially and help us to overcome some of the stereotypes, cultural challenges and political obstacles that stand in our way.”

Here’s a trivia fact for you – Gene Simmon’s Family Jewels is the only “family” reality show we watch. No Osbornes, no Kate & Jon, no Sister Wives. We watch the Simmons, because for all their celebrity, they are not afraid to their strengths, their weaknesses, and most of all, their humanity.

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5th April 2011

CANARIE DAIRs Technology Entrepreneurs to Accelerate Innovation

canarieCANARIE Inc. has announced that it is accepting proposals from technology entrepreneurs and innovators to develop their products, services or applications using Canada’s Advanced Research and Innovation Network, offering a unique opportunity and competitive advantage for Canada’s small and medium-sized information and communications technology (ICT) companies.

CANARIE’s DAIR – the Digital Accelerator for Innovation and Research Program – is a shared R & D environment where users can design, prototype, validate and demonstrate pre-commercial technologies on demand and at no charge during the pilot phase of the program, which runs from May 2011 until March 2012. Based on a successful pilot, the program will be expanded to incorporate additional users, such as multinational enterprises and academic researchers.

The  Digital Accelerator for Innovation and Research Program is open to developers of:

  • Multi-player online games
  • Transactional software such as e-banking
  • Telecom software such as billing
  • Web-based apps such as social networking/marketing
  • Other digital products, services and applications

“Canada is rich in terms of technical talent and technology start-up companies. There are many companies involved in developing advanced networking solutions and associated software systems across the country. The DAIR Program represents an innovative way to help these companies rapidly develop solutions for world markets. It will provide a substantial boost to the technology R & D community in Canada,” said Terry Matthews, Chairman and founder of Mitel, March Networks, Solace Systems and many other Canadian technology companies.

“DAIR is a very welcome program,” said Mr. Matthews. “This will help a large number of developers in smaller ICT organizations who often lack the resources to test their solutions in an advanced R & D network environment.”

CANARIE announced DAIR in December 2010 in response to data showing Canada’s ICT sector underperforms in comparison to its global peers. DAIR is designed to stimulate the ICT sector by removing a competitive barrier for SMEs and by promoting made-in-Canada product development and commercialization.

DAIR helps accelerate time-to-market for SMEs by providing access to an R & D environment consisting of a high-capacity fibre optic network, macro cellular and WiFi access, and compute and storage resources. This environment will offer SMEs the opportunity to move products quickly towards commercialization, without incurring additional development costs.

Applicants are urged to submit their proposals by April 22, 2011, as these will be evaluated by May 2. Proposals accepted after that date will be evaluated within 5 business days. The first group of users is expected to access DAIR in May 2011. Selection criteria for the program include expected cost and time savings with respect to product development, and alignment of technical requirements with DAIR resources.

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5th April 2011

Open Text Named Top Software Company For Third Year Running

Open TextOpenText has been ranked Canada’s top software company for the third consecutive year by the Branham Group, a leading Canadian industry analyst and strategic consulting firm serving the global information technology marketplace.

“OpenText is really a homegrown Canadian success story, given that the company evolved from an ambitious project at the University of Waterloo initiated 20 years ago,” said John Shackleton, Chief Executive Officer at OpenText. “We’re delighted to have become one of Canada’s flagship high-tech companies, and to be named the top software company again this year.”

The Branham300 has highlighted the top Canadian and multinational ICT companies operating in Canada, as ranked by revenue, for almost 20 years. “OpenText leads the Canadian Software sector on the Branham300 again this year, closing yet another year of positive growth,” today’s Branham300 announcement states.

OpenText’s growth is reflected in the expansion of its headquarters location in Waterloo which when completed this summer more than doubles the capacity at the facility. The company now operates in 114 countries serving millions of software users worldwide and partnering with companies like Microsoft, SAP and Oracle. OpenText is focused on providing social networking software that is secure and robust enough for use behind corporate firewalls; mobile solutions to ensure that content can be accessed everywhere; and advanced content analytics technology to improve search and Web user experience. OpenText was the first company ever to provide secure social networking collaboration for world leaders at the Toronto and Korea G-20 Summits held in 2010.

“OpenText is helping enterprises globally manage content challenges, something that is becoming increasingly critical in a digital world,” said Shackleton. “When meeting with our customers throughout the world, we find that the role of enterprise content management solutions has never been more relevant for improved productivity and performance.”

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5th April 2011

Introducing Puzzle of the Day for Burn The Rope

Big Blue BubbleBig Blue Bubble is pleased to announce that Burn the Rope for the iOS fans can now play a new puzzle every day. Players can log in daily to see a fresh, new challenge. Additionally, Burn the Rope fans are invited to submit their original puzzle ideas for development as a Puzzle of the Day.

Puzzle of the Day is a unique game feature introduced in the 1.3 game update now available to all users. Every day, players of Burn the Rope for the iPhone will receive a new puzzle to play, which means free ongoing new content designed by users.

Anyone who submits a puzzle design has a chance to win a free T-shirt, bragging rights, and the undying admiration of Wickman if their puzzle is selected to become an actual game level. One puzzle will be selected every day so there’s plenty of opportunity to win. Submit a puzzle now to become one of the first winners.burn the rope key

“Puzzle of the Day strives to give users more influence over the kind of levels they most enjoy. With the ability to design and rate their own levels, players can create an experience they want and not what we think they want.” stated Dave Kerr, designer of Burn the Rope.” Plus, they’ll get a ton of new levels to solve.”

Burn the Rope is a challenging game where you try to burn as much rope as you can in each level, and as the fire only burns upwards, you have to tilt and turn your iOS device to keep your flame alive – and sometimes it’s burning up three or four different ropes, all headed in different directions.

As you progress through the levels, you’ll encounter bugs crawling along the rope. Different bugs have different reactions to the flame. For example, the ant changes the color of the flame so you can burn different colored ropes, and the spider shoots out a web bridge so you can access parts of the level that you could not before.

Burn the Rope is incredibly fun and addictive. You will actually feel like you’re burning a rope, yet there’s no need for a fire extinguisher.

Features:

· 112 exciting levels that are fun for the whole family
· New puzzle of the day feature
· Incredibly fun and addictive that is easy to learn but hard to master
· Unique controls with beautiful graphics and cool fire effects

Burn the Rope has received a great deal of praise from the critics and has been nominated for several awards including Best of 2010 and several categories in the upcoming Canadian Video game awards. Burn the Rope was also selected as “App of the Day” on both Gizmodo and TUAW. Burn the Rope 1.3 is $1.99 (USD) and available worldwide exclusively through the App Store in the Games category, as is Burn The Rope Lite version. A new Unlocking System has been introduced in Burn the Rope Lite, which now includes the ability to earn every level in the original game, for free.

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5th April 2011

Second Season Confirmed For Skatoony

skatoonyThere’s more loony Skatoony fun on the way for TELETOON fans. The Canadian broadcaster has ordered a second season of the marblemedia-produced hit TV series Skatoony (26 half-hour English and 26 half-hour French episodes), and further expansion of the popular multiplayer online game on Skatoony.ca. Skatoony is based on the Cartoon Network UK format.

“Skatoony has proven to be a very successful franchise both in English and French Canada, and we’re excited to be starting production on its second season in association with our long-time partner TELETOON,” says Mark Bishop, Executive Producer/Partner, marblemedia. “The great thing about Skatoony is that it encourages education and learning through fun and engaging trivia games,” adds Bishop. “There is a high-level of interactivity both on-air and online that resonates well with kids.”

Production of the second season has begun in Toronto on the animated/live-action comedy series that pits tweemarblemedians and toons against each other in competition through frantic, trivia-based rounds – but only one will be named Skatoony Quiz Champ. The live-action portion of Skatoony is being filmed in front of a green screen with contestants chosen through an audition process, which took place in Toronto and Montreal over the past two months. In addition, teletoon.com held a wildly successful contest and a winner from both English and French Canada will appear on the show. To add to the excitement of the second season, there will be special “celebrity” toon appearances by popular characters from other TELETOON hit series, such as Total Drama Revenge of the Island (Fresh TV) and Jimmy Two-Shoes (Breakthrough Entertainment).

teletoon“TELETOON is incredibly excited to bring Skatoony on board for a second season – a series that has become a beloved part of our programming lineup,” says Alan Gregg, Director, Original Content, TELETOON Canada inc. “We’re delighted to have more celebrity appearances from TELETOON’s other original productions that will enhance the new season and the overall game-show experience that Skatoony brings to our viewers.”

This year, teletoon.com launched its first-ever multi-player online game, the marblemedia-produced Skatoony Home Game (available at Skatoony.ca), which has been played over 85,000 times with over one million trivia questions asked to date. Kids play against other real kids in real time as well as computer-generated characters, distribution360and compete in the same trivia rounds featured on the television series, such as Bang On or Bogus and Hoo Flung Dung. The more kids play, the more Skatoony Bucks they collect, which can be used in-game to purchase accessories to customize both their avatar and their quiz show block.

Distributed internationally by Distribution360, Skatoony TV and Skatoony Interactive were produced with the financial participation of TELETOON Canada inc.; Canada Media Fund; Bell Broadcast and New Media Fund; Ontario Film & Television Tax Credit; Canadian Film or Video Production Tax Credit; Canadian Television Fund – Digital Media Program; OMDC Interactive Digital Media Fund.

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4th April 2011

New Leaders and New Initiatives For Industry Associations

DigiBCNews that I’ve known about for a couple of weeks now can (and has been) finally be announced publicly – Howard Donaldson, a co-founder of the recently closed Propaganda Games and former Disney Interactive Studios VP of Howard DonaldsonStudio Operations will be taking over the President’s position at DigiBC.  Mr. Donaldson will be splitting his time between running DigiBC and participating in the CEOs in Residence program over at the Centre 4 Growth. He is also the chair of the BC Interactive Task Force, the organization which spearheaded the implementation of the Interactive Tax Credits program in BC. It is my hope that under Mr. Donaldson’s leadership DigiBC will be able to move forward and become a strong force for the province’s interactive digital media, wireless and transmedia industries. Howard Donaldson will officially take over the President’s seat later this month.

IAB CanadaThe Interactive Advertising Bureau of Canada has  announced two new initiatives designed to help Canadian marketing professionals keep up to date with recent research in Interactive advertising, plus gain access to the deep digital expertise that resides within IAB Canada’s own 250+ Member-companies.

The first Monday of each month, as part of the new “Faces Of IAB” program, IAB Canada will release a thought-leading Research Report, White Paper, Advertiser Case-Study, How-To Checklist, etc. that has been developed by one of IAB Canada’s Member-companies.

Through the Faces of IAB program, the Canadian marketing community will now get one-week of free access to important or even proprietary information from IAB Canada Members, that otherwise, might only be presented to a select group of that Member’s contacts, and only in select cities across Canada.

April’s selected “Faces Of IAB” Research Report is Carat and Microsoft’s New Shopper Journeys, which details how consumers’ purchase paths in four key retail categories (apparel, quick-service restaurants, groceries and home electronics), have changed in response to a variety of economic pressures and digital developments in the past two years, and how offline, Online and in-store media play a role in shaping purchase decisions now.

The second Wednesday (popularly known as Hump Day) of each month, IAB Canada will release its Hump Day Bump Of Research, an outstanding Research Report culled from the hundreds of global industry resources and newsfeeds that IAB Canada reviews in order to provide Custom Digital Marketing Research consulting for its Members. The research will be available for download by the entire Canadian marketing community — again, for one week only — on the IABCanada.com Homepage.

April’s selected “Hump Day Bump Of Research” Report is Delvinia and Environic Analytics “AskingCanadians™ Social Media PRIZMC2-Link,” which teams up PRIZMC2 (Environic Analytics widely-used segmentation system that assigns Canadians into 66 unique lifestyle types), with Delvinia’s annual AskingCanadians™ Social Media Survey — resulting in the first database that enables Canadian marketers to determine the Social Media behavior of all segments of Canadian society, and target products and messages to Canadian consumers based on a detailed understanding of their Social Media habits and lifestyles.

The following week, both forms of research will be brought back into the IABCanada Knowledge Centre, for access by IAB Canada Members-only.

“The goal of IABC Canada’s Faces Of IAB and Hump Day Bump of Research programs is simple,” says Paula Gignac, President, IAB Canada. “To provide time-stressed marketers with at least two pieces of credible and immediately-usable digital advertising research per month, that they don’t have to find or vet on their own; and to promote IAB Canada Members’ expertise in all things digital at the same time.”

“Trust and reliability are key attributes we look for when sourcing industry research,” says Karl Flanders, VP, Media Director, Saatchi & Saatchi. “IAB Canada has a proven track record of supplying us with leading-edge articles, facts and insights that help us help our clients, so we’re excited to know that we’ll be hearing about new Member and non-Member research finds in a more regular manner as a result of this programme. The initiative will also help the industry understand which IAB Canada Members or other global companies could be potential research partners in the future — a real “win-win” for everyone.”

mobile monday TorontoResearch In Motion will be the guest of honour at tonight’s MobileMonday Toronto, being held at at the MaRS facility. This marks the second time that RIM has taken the stage at MobileMonday Toronto to showcase upcoming initiatives for 2011 and beyond. In February 2009, RIM discussed the launch of BlackBerry World, and this time around, RIM will discuss the launch of important BlackBerry platform products such as the Playbook. Tyler Lessard, Vice President BlackBerry Global Alliances and Developer Relations, will take the stage to talk about the Playbook, ecosystems, and developer programs for business professionals and developers. Teams from RIM Developer Relations and Roger’s Catalyst will be on-hand with presentation booths to answer any questions for audience attendees during the networking portion of the event.

“This is the second time that Tyler has joined us to discuss the launch of a significant RIM product or service. An iconic Canadian company, RIM’s ever-popular BlackBerry device is a beloved high-tech business communication tool for countless users worldwide including President Obama. Always close to developer and business communities, it’s great to see RIM’s second-return to the MobileMonday Toronto community,” says Alexander S. Bosika and Jim Brown, co-founders of MobileMonday Toronto. “RIM also became a presenting sponsor of the MobileMonday Toronto @ MaRS annual series at the start of this year. Our community represents the intersection of intellectual and financial capital to help mobile innovation in Toronto and surrounding regions. We’re ecstatic to have RIM join the growing list of key sponsors which support our efforts to build MobileMonday Toronto into a key platform for mobile professionals to share knowledge, information and business contacts.”

Stingray DigitalMontreal-based Stingray Digital announced today from MIPTV in Cannes that it has entered into an agreement to purchase Music Choice Europe Limited from a European private investment group for an undisclosed sum.

Music Choice Europe, founded in 1993 and based in London, England, offers over 70 different commercial-free music channels delivered to more than 10 million subscribers through television service operators in 17 countries across Europe and Africa. In addition to the professionally programmed linear music channels, Music Choice Europe also offers a multi-platform solution to operators including music videos on demand and a service delivered by broadband.

“This acquisition is a perfect strategic fit for Stingray” stated Eric Boyko, President and CEO of Stingray Digital. “We will immediately benefit from synergies between the two companies, but more importantly, Music Choice Europe’s presence in 17 different countries will allow us to expand more quickly into Europe and Africa with our other music services that we have developed for the North American market including The KARAOKE Channel and Concert TV” he added.

“Music Choice has been actively growing its subscriber base and geographic reach over the past several years”, said Mark Wilson, President of Music Choice Europe. “Now as part of the Stingray Digital group of companies, Music Choice will be able to continue its growth by providing a greater variety of music-related services to current and future customers,” he added.

Stingray Digital’s acquisition of Music Choice Europe will create a true global music broadcaster that serves a digital music service to more than 20 million subscribers in more than 30 countries across Europe, Africa, North America, South America, the Caribbean and beyond. Stingray Digital is an innovative broadcaster who invests heavily in research and development in order to remain at the cutting edge of technology required to deliver a compelling music service to customers around the world.

Stingray Digital owns and operates the Galaxie Music service which is available in all digital cable, IPTV and satellite television households in Canada and an increasing presence in the US, the Caribbean and other countries. Galaxie, Your Musical Universe, is more than 50 commercial-free music channels on TV and on authenticated broadband services, and soon on mobile devices.

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4th April 2011

Preventing Scams and Device Theft

CIRAThe Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA), in partnership with Media Awareness Network (MNet), is proud to introduce a PDF Cyber Security Consumer Tip Sheet, a guide to avoiding risks online.

As the Internet has become a ubiquitous part of our daily lives, so too have the number and severity of potential risks we face each day. With increasing accessibility to digital technologies, Internet literacy programs are, now more than ever, essential to protecting Internet users and their computers.Media Awareness Network

Recognizing the need for such programs, CIRA and MNet have developed a Cyber Security Consumer Tip Sheet to help Canadians take the necessary steps to protect themselves and their computers from cyber risks.

“The Internet has become a central tool in the lives of Canadians,” says Byron Holland, President and CEO of CIRA, “making it more critical than ever that we provide the information and resources necessary for people to protect themselves.”

MNet focuses its efforts on equipping adults with information and tools to help young people develop the critical thinking skills required to understand the extent to which they, as consumers and citizens, are being well informed. CIRA supports these efforts through an annual sponsorship of MNet’s activities.

“We are proud to be partnering with CIRA to provide Canadians with the digital literacy skills and knowledge they need to use the Internet with confidence,” says Cathy Wing, Media Awareness Network’s Co-Executive Director.

Absolute® Software Corporation has announced the general availability of Absolute Manage 5.4.Absolute Software

“The continued growth in adoption of Apple iOS4 devices is driven both by employees wanting to use their preferred device to access the corporate network, and IT departments sanctioning the use of non-PC devices. The growing challenge for IT administrators is to establish effective security and management solutions at the endpoint, while avoiding major disruptions to established server and network architectures,” said Peter Frankl, vice president, lifecycle management at Absolute Software. “With the release of Absolute Manage 5.4, our customers have even more flexibility in managing their iOS4 deployments, while maintaining enterprise-caliber security, in either a Windows or Mac network and server environment.”

With the release of Absolute Manage 5.4, new features include:

  • App Store Volume Purchase Program (ASVPP) management – Apple’s ASVPP program provides schools with special discounts and the option to complete volume purchases of Apple iOS4 Apps using purchase orders. With Absolute Manage 5.4, customers can automate the management of this program, distributing purchased apps, and tracking ASVPP code redemptions within the Absolute Manage console for accurate license compliance and management.
  • Geolocation – IT Administrators can locate a lost or stolen device on an internet map.  Depending on the perceived security risk, the call frequency of the device can be adjusted and additional security measures can be invoked, such as device freeze or wipe.
  • Active Directory Integration – Organizations using Active Directory can leverage their existing security and infrastructure to authenticate users on enrollment.  Users will be able to enter their normal Active Directory credentials to authenticate. Additional directory information is automatically imported from Active Directory and attached to the device record on enrollment, enabling mobile device management policies based on existing organizational units.
  • Detection/Reporting of Jail-broken Devices – IT administrators, via Absolute Apps, can detect compromised devices. This status is provided within the device report enabling administrators to take remedial actions to protect network security, or ban the compromised device.

IT administrators using Absolute Manage can efficiently manage all their assets by automating time-consuming IT processes such as software distribution, patch management, asset inventory and imaging for both their Macs and PCs from a single, unified console. Additionally, Absolute Manage helps organizations save money by allowing them to track installed applications and licenses, redeploy under-used licenses and hardware to maximize inventory utilization, and avoid non-compliance fines. For Apple iOS4 devices specifically, Absolute Manage allows IT administrators to manage apps, collect asset inventory and security data, as well as conduct change and configuration management for each device.

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4th April 2011

Max The Mutt Animation School Signs Articulation Agreement

LudiaGame development studio Ludia has released Planet Fish™ on WiiWare for 500 Wii Points. In this planet fishgame, which is rated E for Everyone by the ESRB, invites you to fire suction bubbles from your underwater craft to trap fish that you can then display in your personal aquarium. Catch and collect exotic fish in colorful deep-sea environments such as the Gulf of Mexico, the Ryukyu Islands and the spectacular Great Barrier Reef. Try to avoid obstacles and dangerous species lurking in the depths. Grow your aquatic collection with beautiful marine life from around the world. Navigate through 30 unique levels of play, each with its own challenges and obstacles. Watch out for jagged surfaces, dangerous jellyfish and paralyzing algae. Win bonus collectible fish as you advance in the game. Unlock animated Trophies with each region that you successfully complete.

max the muttToronto’s Max the Mutt Animation School and Daemen College in Amherst, New York have signed an articulation agreement that may provide some Max the Mutt graduates with the opportunity to obtain advanced standing in Daemen College’s Bachelor of Fine Arts program subject to meeting Daemen College’s requirements.

“This is exciting news for Max the Mutt diploma holders who apply and are accepted as they can earn a BFA degree in one academic year!” explains Maxine Schacker, the Founder and Director of Max the Mutt.  “They will have the ability to round out their education with academic studies, and attain credentials that may be necessary for some job opportunities abroad.”

Max the Mutt and Daemen first entered into a partnership in May, 2010. Max the Mutt was able to assist Daemen in founding their new animation degree program. In the future, both schools will support and enhance each other’s programs and plan to cooperate in developing innovative educational strategies that will enhance the development of students at both schools.

Max the Mutt and Daemen are well matched as both stress small class size, foster skills and creativity, and seek to develop knowledge and skills that will make their graduates  a positive addition to their fields and to the world. Max the Mutt and Daemen will also offer relevant workshops to each other’s students.

“We were amazed and delighted to find a school that has the same basic philosophy as Max the Mutt,” says Schacker.  “We believe our graduates who apply for this and are accepted will have an easy transition into Daemen’s environment.”

Max the Mutt Animation School is devoted to the study of drawing, classical and computer animation, illustration for sequential arts and concept art for animation and video games.

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