Village Gamer

Less than a year after provincial support for a major digital media innovation centre was announced, The Communitech Hub has officially opened for business, ready to foster the next-generation of digital media innovation in Ontario.

The Hub, which occupies 30,000 square feet of a renovated downtown Kitchener Tannery building, is now home to start-up companies, small-medium enterprises, and global multi-nationals all aiming to accelerate the pace of development of new ideas and products in the digital media sector. Leaders from business, government, and community organizations gathered at The Communitech Hub today to recognize the expansive effort that has now created a leading-edge facility customized to meet the needs of its occupants.

Iain Klugman, Communitech, Tom Jenkins, Open Text, and Kevin Tuer, CDMN at The Hub grand opening

“Ontario has a tremendous legacy of innovation in digital media and ICT, and this sector is exploding around the world. The Communitech Hub will help launch more made-in-Ontario companies, create good jobs and better lives for families,” said Glen Murray, Minister of Research and Innovation.

The Communitech Hub will not only serve as a collaboration centre for resident companies, but will also link to other digital media centres across Canada as part of the Canadian Digital Media Network (CDMN). The CDMN headquarters reside in The Hub along with Communitech offices.

“Creating this facility has been a collaborative effort between community organizations, industry, all levels of government and the community itself, making this a truly remarkable achievement,” said Iain Klugman, President and CEO of Communitech.

Founding partner companies who have contributed to the establishment of The Communitech Hub include: Canada’s largest software company Open Text Corporation; leading-edge visual technologies company Christie Digital Systems Canada Inc.; and high-tech heavyweight Research In Motion (RIM). The Communitech Hub — a $100 million project — was created with contributions from the provincial government, the federal government, the City of Kitchener, and private industry.

“Open Text and the other founding industry partners are committed to innovation; The Communitech Hub will enable R&D projects that might not have been possible without this unique environment,” said Tom Jenkins, Executive Chairman & Chief Strategy Officer at Open Text, and Chair of the CDMN.

Renovating the 30,000 square foot space in the former Tannery building and transforming it into a state-of-the-art facility for digital innovation was no small undertaking, given the size and scope of the project. The facility features unique amenities such as a four-sided 3D ‘immersive environment’ provided by Christie Digital powered by Christie’s 3D stereoscopic projectors, enabling display of vast amounts of data. The Hub has an open concept area for the established companies to brainstorm and collaborate, and private office areas for entrepreneurs to ‘incubate’ ideas in close proximity to tools and services they need to succeed. Companies have access to a suite of expert resources including entrepreneurs in residence, project manager support, and marketing & branding expertise.

“This facility is a dream come true for many of the people who celebrated The Communitech Hub opening today who can now envision the innovative technologies that will undoubtedly have their start in this facility,” said Kevin Tuer, VP Digital Media of Communitech and CDMN Managing Director.

Nintendo Canada has released an updated schedule for the Wii Party Mobile appearances in British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec. Here is the updated schedule:

BRITISH COLUMBIA

October 9th (11am-5pm) – Future Shop, #102 – 5300 No.3 Road, Richmond
October 10th (11am-5pm) – Best Buy, 1135 Pinetree Way, Coquitlam
October 16th (11am-5pm) – Best Buy, #700 – 5300 No. 3 Road, Richmond
October 17th (11am-5pm) – Toys”R”Us, 1110 Lougheed Highway, Coquitlam
October 23rd & October 24th (930am-400pm) – The Pumpkin Patch at Richmond Country Farms, 12900 Steveston HWY, Richmond
October 31st (11am-5pm) – Toys”R”Us, 1110 Lougheed Highway, Coquitlam

ONTARIO

October 9th (11am-5pm) – Best Buy, 50 Ashtonbee Road, Scarborough
October 9th (11am-5pm) – Future Shop, 1561 Queensway, Toronto
October 10th (11am-5pm) – Future Shop, #2 – 5900 Mavis Road, Mississauga
October 10th (11am-5pm) – Future Shop, 9145 Airport Road, Brampton
October 16th (11am-5pm) – Best Buy, 167 Queen Street North, Etobicoke
October 16th (11am-5pm) – Best Buy, 480 Progress Avenue, Scarborough
October 17th (11am-5pm) – Best Buy, #1 – 6075 Mavis Road, Mississauga
October 17th (11am-5pm) – Toys”R”Us, 300 Steeles Ave West, Thornhill
October 23rd & October 24th (930am-430pm) – Boo at the Zoo at Toronto Zoo, 361A Old Finch Avenue, Toronto
October 23rd (11am-5pm) – Best Buy, 695 Wilson Avenue, North York
October 24th (11am-5pm) – Toys”R”Us, 690 Evans Avenue, Etobicoke
October 30th (11am-5pm) – Future Shop, 2975 Argentia Road, Mississauga
October 30th (11am-5pm) – Toys”R”Us, 300 Steeles Ave W, Thornhill
October 31st (11am-5pm) – Best Buy, #1 – 6075 Mavis Road, Mississauga
October 31st (11am-5pm) – Toys”R”Us, 50 Thickson Road South, Whitby

QUEBEC

October 9th (11am-5pm) -Best Buy, 8871 De L’Acadie Boulevard, Montreal
October 10th (11am-5pm) – Future Shop, 6321 Trans Canada, Pointe Claire
October 17th (11am-5pm) – Best Buy, 7200 Des Roseraies Boulevard, Anjou
October 23rd & October 24th (11am-7pm) – Fright Fest at La Ronde, 22 Chemin Macdonald, Ile Sainte-Hélène, Montreal
October 30th (11am-5pm) – Toys”R”Us, 655 Boul des Promenades, Saint-Bruno
October 31st (11am-5pm) – Toys”R”Us, 6855 Boul Tashereau, Brossard

Desire2Learn Incorporated is expanding the Desire2Learn® 2GO suite of applications. Desire2Learn 2GO Mobile Web is a new set of mobile browser-optimized pages that enables students and faculty to take teaching and learning on the road. They stay connected – Anytime. Anywhere. Access will soon be available from mobile web browsers on iPhone™, Android™, in addition to BlackBerry® devices, without needing to download or install an application on smartphone or mobile devices.

Desire2Learn 2GO Mobile Web provides access to courses wherever the individual is located. Individuals can stay connected with their classes and on-top of their work. Getting caught-up on lessons whenever and wherever they like is quick and easy. Desire2Learn 2GO Mobile Web provides the freedom to work the way the Smartphone user wants to work.

“Mobile learning is a dynamic and rapidly growing component of eLearning,” states John Baker, President & CEO, Desire2Learn. “Mobile learning applications like Desire2Learn 2GO enable learners to receive a well-rounded and rich learning experience around the clock and around the globe. We are committed to enhancing mobile offerings for our clients.” Desire2Learn 2GO Mobile Web will be available with Desire2Learn Learning Suite 9.1 being launched Tuesday, October 12.

Features of Desire2Learn 2GO Mobile Web will include:

Mobile Content

* Instant access to all course content on-the-go
* Review what has been read in a history of recently viewed topics
* Ability to mark content for reading later with bookmarks and automatically sync them with other bookmarks online
* Easily identify unread topics and stay in-sync with what you’ve read on your laptop or desktop

Gradebook

* Keep on-top of academic progress
* See the latest graded assignments, quizzes, projects, and exams

Campus and Course News

* Keep up-to-date with the latest campus news
* Stay in-touch with announcements made in courses the minute they are posted

Schedule

* Track important events and deadlines
* View upcoming campus events
* Add reminders and goals to keep organized

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.