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N-able Technologies^® has announced Policy Manager, a new suite of complementary tools designed to make comparing and reporting on Group Policy Object (GPO) settings dramatically easier and less time consuming.

Designed for use by MSPs and IT managers, N-able’s new Policy Manager offers an important defense against group policy inconsistencies, potential security weaknesses and other factors that can negatively impact network uptime. The solution features two powerful tools — GPO Compare and GPO Exporter — for comparing and exporting GPO settings, including comparing live GPOs to GPO backups, and exporting all GPO settings to Excel. Simplifying the management and consolidation of group policies with these tools saves time and eliminates costly configuration errors.

As an integral part of Microsoft Windows, GPOs offer management and configuration of operating systems, applications and users’ settings in an Active Directory or local environment. But for many IT professionals and MSPs, GPOs also require ongoing monitoring and maintenance — a task that is both tedious and inefficient if performed manually, according to Robert Grapes, director of product management and product marketing, N-able Technologies.

“Policy Manager makes reporting, sorting and searching on Group Policy settings significantly faster and easier, particularly when comparing settings across multiple GPOs,” says Grapes. “The software’s intuitive interface and easy-to-use sorting and searching capabilities provide not only a significant time savings for busy IT professionals, but also offers greater cost advantages compared to other offerings on the market, which are typically offered as part of a much larger, more expensive solution.”

Now available, N-able’s Policy Manager includes:

• Support for the latest policy settings from Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008-R2
• Group Policy comparison capabilities to quickly identify inconsistencies
• Group Policy export features that allow administrators to choose which settings to export, and to search and sort for specific settings
• Capabilities to compare live GPOs with GPO backups to quickly find setting differences
• Selective exporting of GPO settings from one or more GPOs to a variety of formats including CSV, Excel and PDF
• Powerful keyword searching to easily find settings
• Sorting capabilities that allow MSPs and IT managers to quickly discover redundant settings
• Powerful command-line PowerShell (Microsoft’s task automation framework) interfaces for automated comparison and reporting

Intertainment Media Inc. has completed the previously announced arm’s length strategic transaction with Commobility Inc. providing enhanced technology and revenue capabilities to Intertainment.

As part of Intertainment’s ongoing strategy to create a richer and deeper relationship with its users across all its divisional lines of business, Commobility offers the addition of key development in the mobile arena, including proprietary intellectual properties extending the reach of Intertainment’s services globally.

Intertainment has acquired all of the issued and outstanding shares of Commobility pursuant to a share purchase agreement between Intertainment and the shareholders of Commobility. In consideration for all issued and outstanding shares of Commobility, Intertainment will issue 6,000,000 common shares at a deemed price of $0.70 per Intertainment Share to the Commobility Vendors over a period of one calendar year from the closing date pursuant to a voluntary escrow agreement, with 48% of the Intertainment Shares having been released upon the closing of the transaction.

The escrow agreement provides that the remaining 3,120,000 Intertainment Shares will be released to the Commobility Vendors in segments of 13% at the end of each of the calendar quarters following the closing date. The acquisition of Commobility provides Intertainment and its subsidiaries, Ortsbo Inc. and Ad Taffy Inc, a platform to operate on mobile devices and access to software and patents in development and developed by Commobility, which will significantly enhance the reach of the translation capabilities of the Ortsbo platform as well as other Intertainment divisional offerings.

Commobility assets include patent applications and software platforms for creating generic communication channels based on device proximity as well as enabling translation between devices in close proximity to each other. With this acquisition, in the near term, Ortsbo’s translation capabilities will span situations where translation occurs on single device, multiple devices that are in proximity to each other and between users that are anywhere in the world on any device through cross-language, cross-device social network and Ortsbo’s cross-social network translation applications.

Telus and US-based Rdio have announced that they intend to enter into an agreement that will give Telus smartphone customers the ability to subscribe to Rdio, an unlimited, on-demand social music service, via their existing Telus account. Rdio, founded by the creators of Skype, is the first service in Canada to bring social music discovery to mobile devices, giving users instant access to a growing catalogue of nearly nine million songs. Direct carrier billing will provide Telus customers with a secure, convenient, and easy way to subscribe to Rdio, and to access and share their music on the go.

Rdio is changing the way people discover, share and listen to music. For $10/month, Rdio users can play any song, album, artist and playlist as many times as they like, without ever hearing a single ad. Users also have access to new albums the day they are released. With Rdio, users can discover new and old favourites, and follow friends, people with similar musical tastes, recording artists and other influencers to see what they are listening to, and even collaborate on playlists. Rdio makes music sharing effortless thanks to integration with Facebook and Twitter which enables users to easily share their favourite songs, albums and playlists with friends.

Rdio syncs seamlessly across all of the user’s screens: PC and Mac computers, tablets, and of course smartphones, including iPhone, Android, BlackBerry and Windows Phone 7. That means users can pick up exactly where they left off, regardless of the device they’re listening on. Rdio also enables users to sync music to their mobile devices, so they can listen offline when there is no mobile signal or Internet connection.

“Telus is focused on curating the best Internet-based services for our mobile customers by partnering with innovative service providers who are leading on the global stage.  We want to deliver a superior customer experience by making it easy for our customers to enjoy the best of what brands like Rdio have to offer and empower them to choose the services that are right for them,” said Brent Johnston, vice-president of mobility solutions at Telus. “Our customers have told us that being able to customize their mobile experience with the services they want is important to them. Telus wants to make that easier, and of course to ensure their experience is second to none on Canada’s fastest (based on Telus’ tests of data throughput speeds in large Canadian urban centres) coast-to-coast 4G network.” Read the rest of this entry »

TVO, Ontario’s public educational media organization is pleased to announce an exciting new partnership with Polar Mobile that will make TVO’s flagship current affairs program The Agenda with Steve Paikin available on mobile apps for BlackBerry® smartphones; Apple iPhones; Android and Windows Mobile smartphones.

The development of TVO’s cross device apps offerings is part of TVO’s aggressive digital strategy designed to make its educational content available to more people, anywhere at anytime.

“Our new partnership with Polar Mobile is allowing us to further the reach of our educational content,” says CEO Lisa de Wilde. “We’re excited to be able to use digital media to bring The Agenda with Steve Paikin to a new audience.”

“A strong mobile strategy is key for any media brand to be successful, and we are very pleased TVO has decided to use Polar’s SMART™ Platform as an integral piece of their strategy,” said Kunal Gupta, Chief Executive Officer, Polar Mobile.

The Agenda with Steve Paikin mobile app will give users access to episodes of The Agenda with Steve Paikin; all of The Agenda with Steve Paikin’s blogs; YouTube videos of the program; and all Twitter feeds related to The Agenda with Steve Paikin. The app will also include TVO’s live broadcast TV schedule.

The app will launch in late summer as part of TVO’s Your Vote 2011 suite of multi-platform resources that are helping Ontarians engage in the issues that are shaping the debate in the lead up to the Ontario election in October.

TVO is a trusted source for multi-platform content, and has recently launched two new mobile apps that teach children math on BlackBerry® smartphones, Polka Dot Shorts and Flower Frenzy; and its first app for BlackBerry PlayBook, My Canada, a fun and engaging app that teaches children about Canadian geography. This follows last year’s launch of Melvin’s Marvelous Words, TVO’s early learning iPhone app.

Mobidia Technology, Inc. has announced a major update to My Data Manager, their popular Android application that helps mobile subscribers monitor and manage their data use. The update is also available to mobile operators and handset and tablet OEM’s as a component of a fully customizable and extendable carrier-grade data management and analytics solution. IOS and Blackberry versions will be available in the near future.

As the vacation season in North America and Europe moves into full gear, Mobidia has released a number of new features to help mobile phone users manage their data usage while traveling. The latest update of My Data Manager supports tracking Wi-Fi data as well as standard mobile and roaming data plans. The app now also provides Dual SIM support for those users that use multiple plans and SIM’s to manage their data usage. Small usability and accuracy improvements have also been welcomed by frequent users who are increasingly becoming dependant on the application to save them money on their cell phone bills.

“With so many people traveling over the next couple months on their summer vacations, we really wanted to make our latest technology available to them to use while on their holidays” says Mobidia Vice President of Marketing, Chris Hill. “Nothing spoils a great vacation like an unexpected, gigantic phone bill when you return home from all those data roaming charges. Our My Data Manager can help people save money by simply making them aware of the amount of data they are using while roaming and which applications are consuming the most”.

The My Data Manager has been firmly embraced by mobile phone users that are on limited or metered data plans. But even in geographies where the move to metered plans is only just starting, many phone users have benefited from using My Data Manager to manage the costs of roaming data charges when they are traveling on personal and business trips.

Chuck Musciano, a busy IT Executive at a Fortune 1000 company, agrees. Chuck occasionally travels overseas where roaming charges can be quite high. Despite paying for a monthly roaming plan, he tries to stay within his limits but has been restricted by operator-supplied tools which are often delayed in reporting usage. My Data Manager saved him real dollars on his last trip. “Your app really helped me on a recent trip to Belgium,” says Chuck, “ I had a 200MB roaming plan with my operator and blew through 25MB the first day, even with everything (I thought) turned off. The app level usage stats instantly showed me which apps were using data unbeknownst to me, and I was able to shut them down and save a lot of data and money.”

His experience highlights an important benefit of My Data Manager – the ability to identify applications that are running in the background and consuming large amounts of data. Mobidia’s My Data Manager can be downloaded from the Android Marketplace. Both a premium, ad-free version and a free version will be available. iOS, Blackberry, and other smartphone users can sign up for Mobidia’s beta program and will be notified when additional platforms become available.

Mobidia is offering My Data Manager directly to smartphone users as a powerful tool to help them save money and better utilize their data plans. A complete, carrier-grade service is also available to extend the application for mobile operators and OEM’s. The white-label service can fully integrate into operator’s existing infrastructure or on existing smartphones and tablets to help decrease costs and generate revenue.

Ortsbo and INDYCAR have formed a multi-year partnership that makes Ortsbo.com the “Official Online Translator Service Provider” for INDYCAR and the IZOD IndyCar Series.

The official kick off of the partnership, which will allow INDYCAR’s teams, car and driver sponsors, and fans all over the world to keep pace with the premier open-wheel racing events, will be at the Honda Indy Toronto event this Saturday, July 10, in Toronto, where Ortsbo is headquartered.

Ortsbo enables real-time conversational translation in more than 50 languages and seamlessly integrates with today’s most popular social media platforms; translates e-mails on the fly with O4O (Ortsbo for Outlook) and connects with PC and Mac computers, mobile browsers and major search engine platforms.

Through Ortsbo, IZOD IndyCar Series enthusiasts around the world will be able to follow every twist and turn of the action-packed racing series and connect with their favorite drivers in their native languages.

“We look upon our relationship with Ortsbo as more than just a sponsorship,” said INDYCAR CEO Randy Bernard. “It’s a true partnership that will help us expose Indy car racing to people around the world by breaking the language barrier between the fans and their favorite drivers. It will truly connect and engage all sides of the INDYCAR community.”

Transcripts of press conferences will be made available in multiple languages for distribution to the media and indycar.com as well as social media sites, and may include drivers such as 2010 series champion Dario Franchitti, Marco Andretti, Danica Patrick and others.

Ortsbo will also host online INDYCAR Live and Global Events, similar to recent, world-record breaking Live and Global events with KISS band members Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley, and NBA MVP Steve Nash. These question and answer sessions between IZOD IndyCar Series drivers and fans will be made available in up to 53 languages.

In addition, Ortsbo will provide O4O (Ortsbo for Outlook) services to INDYCAR. Ortsbo for Outlook is a seamless add-on for Microsoft Outlook™ that automatically translates e-mails without any copying or pasting. IndyCar’s official website will also be translated into three languages – Portugeuse, Spanish and Mandarin Chinese.

“Racing fans from all over the globe can now interact with some of the world’s best drivers in a way they haven’t been able to before,” said David Lucatch, president of Ortsbo. “Ortsbo translates text automatically, eliminating the typically tedious and inefficient translation process of other services.”

Ortsbo, the free, real-time chat translator, integrates with 13 of the most popular social media platforms, including Windows Live Messenger, Facebook, Google Talk, Yahoo! Messenger, iChat and AIM to allow users to instantly send and receive messages in 53 languages.

Richmond’s Point Grey digital camera technology company and AMD recently conducted a joint demonstration of uncompressed streaming HD video across USB 3.0 during AMD’s A-Series APU official launch event, held last month in Seattle.

The AMD A-Series APU-based platforms are the first to utilize the A75 and A70M FCH chipsets in desktop and mobile, respectively. The A75 and A70M FCH are the first certified chipsets to integrate SuperSpeed USB (USB 3.0) into their core logic. The live demonstration showcased the performance benefits of USB 3.0 by streaming uncompressed high definition (HD) 1080p60 video from Point Grey’s Flea3 digital video camera to an AMD Fusion A-Series-based laptop computer. USB 3.0 offers ten times the bandwidth of USB 2.0, full duplex and asynchronous operation, and increased power delivery.

“We are pleased to have had the opportunity to team up with AMD to demonstrate the benefits of USB 3.0,” says Michael Gibbons, Product Marketing Manager at Point Grey. “Point Grey demonstrated the world’s first SuperSpeed USB camera in September 2009. Since then we have witnessed widespread adoption of USB 3.0 in consumer devices and a huge groundswell of interest from both industrial and prosumer customers. Desktop and notebook computers equipped with the new AMD A-Series APUs will enable users to build high-performance and cost-effective imaging systems.”

“The AMD Fusion A-Series APUs when paired with the A75 or A70M FCH chipsets provide customers with immediate and easy access to SuperSpeed USB’s impressive bandwidth,” says Godfrey Cheng, Director of AMD’s Client Technology Unit. “USB 3.0 enables the use of HD 1080p cameras, which means a new level of realism for video conferencing and other forms of tele-presence. Using Point Grey’s Flea3 we were able to give users insight into some of the other applications that are possible with SuperSpeed USB in addition to the high-speed data transfers with external storage devices that we have seen so far.”

Secure digital media distributor YANGAROO Inc. has reached a major milestone as it has delivered over 2000 music videos since launching the service a year ago. YANGAROO’S Digital Media Distribution System (DMDS) is now used by all four major record label groups as well as the growing independent community to deliver SD and HD quality music videos digitally to broadcast destinations such as MTV, VH1, BET, CMT, MuchMusic, MusiquePlus, MTV Canada, AUX TV, CMT Canada, with more coming, and over 150 additional regional and online destinations.  Before DMDS was adopted by the major broadcasters as the preferred platform for the submission of broadcast-ready digital music videos, virtually all music video submissions were made on costly, time consuming and inefficient video tapes.

“Hitting the milestone of over 2000 music videos is a significant achievement for the DMDS technology and sales teams,” said Scott Wambolt, CEO YANGAROO Inc. “It clearly represents a culture change within the industry and establishes the fact that YANGAROO and our DMDS service is once again leading the way to a more efficient and effective digital workflow, and this was clearly reflected in our just released first quarter financials where our revenues were up 49%. We have the potential to continue and accelerate this growth rate as more content owners and broadcasters adopt DMDS and go with a digital workflow.”

YANGAROO’s technology team worked closely with the TV broadcasters and the content owners to refine the DMDS process for digitally distributing SD and HD television broadcast-quality video. DMDS also transcodes the broadcast file for online availability for streaming and provision of a frame-accurate preview quality version of the file with the time-code burned in, which improves reviewing and editing processes. The television broadcast-quality video file can be easily integrated into Online Editing Suites, On-Air Playback Servers and stored in a Digital Archive Server. These files are 50mbit IMX in an MXF OP1a container that maintain both time-code and closed captioning for the underlying video.

Multichannel newspaper and magazine content distributor NewspaperDirect Inc. has released an enhanced version of PressReader for Android that takes advantage of the larger screen sizes and hardware acceleration offered by the Google Android Honeycomb platform. The new PressReader apps gives Android phone and tablet users a convenient and immersive read of the more than 1,800 full-content newspapers and magazines from 95 countries and in 48 languages that are available on PressDisplay.com.

PressReader for Android Honeycomb is now available in the Android Market and is compatible with 3.0/3.1 Honeycomb-based tablets, such as the Asus Eee Pad Transformer, the HTC Flyer, the Motorola Xoom, and the Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 and 10.1. A Gingerbread-specific version of PressReader is also available for Android devices running Android 2.2/2.3. Pre-installations of the app on a number of Honeycomb devices are planned for the near future.

Key features of PressReader for Android include:

• Support for on-board hardware acceleration on Honeycomb-based devices
• A more immersive reading interface, customized for larger screen sizes
• Automatic daily download of user-selected titles
• High-performance navigation using thumbnails or tables of contents
• Intuitive reading experience: flip, pan, rotate and zoom articles and photos
• Support for full-graphic page views or easy-to-read text views of articles
• On-demand narration of news stories
• Sharing of articles by email or by posting on social network sites

“PressReader is the ultimate digital newsstand for readers who want the widest possible selection of full-content newspapers on their favorite Android device,” said Alex Kroogman, CEO of NewspaperDirect. “For publishers, PressReader for Android enables them to instantly expand their distribution to the fastest growing audience of mobile and tablet users, without incurring any operational or development costs.”

PressReader for Android is available as a free download from the Android Market. New customers receive seven trial issues for free. Most newspapers and magazines can be purchased for $0.99 per issue through PressDisplay.com or downloaded in conjunction with a paid PressDisplay.com subscription. For subscription pricing, visit the PressDisplay subscription page.

One of the most historically potent places in the world, Jordan is often overlooked in favour of its neighbours, Egypt and Israel. Fortunately for travellers, the fewer amount of tourists makes this small country an enchanting place to visit. Jordan: A Different Middle East follows the author Lori Henry’s adventures as she visits the two most emblematic tourist attractions in the country – Petra and Wadi Rum – and discovers the lesser known parts that make Jordan so exceptional. Published by Vancouver company Dancing Traveller Media, Jordan: A Different Middle East is (or will be) available on all e-readers.

Lori Henry left for Jordan near the end of March 2011 on a week and a half long trip through the country. This also happened to be just over a month after the protests against President Mubarak in Egypt, and in the middle of the uprisings in Syria and fighting against Muammar Gaddafi in Libya.

As she would learn very quickly, Jordan – although in the middle of the conflicts in Syria, Lebanon and Egypt – was staying out of trouble. The country was stable enough for a thriving tourism industry to welcome visitors, but many of them had cancelled their trips. Most travellers include Jordan on an Egypt and Israel circuit, so when things heated up in Cairo, tours were cancelled and trips postponed or re-booked to other parts of the world.

What a shame. Jordanians were watching the news just as carefully as those in North America were, waiting to see what would happen, but were otherwise open for business. Lori discovered the charming children who were eager to tag along with her in Amman; hiked through the lowest nature reserve on earth, Wadi Mujib; ate lunch with a Druze family in the lightly populated eastern desert; stayed at an incredible off-the-grid eco lodge in the Dana Biosphere Reserve; and spent the evening with a Bedouin family in the western desert.