Village Gamer

I gained early access to Arctic Empire’s latest game, Galaxy Express, which has now launched in the iTunes App Store. This latest release is a puzzle game that features main character Jonathan Rowe, whose task is to deliver packages to the many planets sprinkled throughout the galaxy. He has a cranky boss named Mr. Bluckerman and a cheeky robotic assistant named Kim-Bot. As the game progresses, you are introduced to enemies who are trying to interfere with the smooth flow of courier activities in outer space. First you encounter a former childhood acquaintance who has embraced the pirating way of life – hopefully you are able to successfully fend him off this time, but you know he’ll be back for more, because pirates don’t like to admit defeat, and he’s going to bring friends.

You will also need to out-maneuver The Enemy – nasty little spaceships that will cause your ship to blow up on impact. Some puzzles require that you alter your own course, while others require altering that of The Enemy and still others require a combined solution. As the levels get progressively harder and you run into little obstacles like cannons, you will be thankful that there is no instant death time-limit nor a limit on the number of lives you have. Some puzzles will take a lot of hit and miss (remember, in the case of The Enemy, miss is a good thing) in order to figure out their solutions. I’ve also discovered that even though some puzzles seem really complicated, the solution is usually very, very simple – these will often bring on a *facepalm* moment when you realize how simple that particular puzzle really was. Well you might not, but I have.

The first 30 levels of the game are available for free, but you can unlock a further 75 levels with a $2.99 USD in-app purchase, and I recommend unlocking the additional levels if you are a puzzle addict, because they will challenge you right to the end. Upgrading to the full version also means you will receive all future game updates and any new puzzles the studio creates. On the start screen you will also see that the studio is planning on giving players the ability to build their own levels with an in-game level builder, as well as bonus levels.

Galaxy Express is compatible with the iPhone, iPod Touch (it works well on my 2nd gen model) and the iPad, providing you are running iOS 4.1 or newer. The graphics are of good quality, and you do have the option of skipping the 2D retro-styled story screens, not that I would recommend this as several of them contain important information on how to combat the enemies. If you do need to look for a tutorial, all of those levels are marked with a “T” which makes things a tad easier as they explain the new game mechanics you will encounter.

The audio and soundtrack for the game are of good quality and not the least bit irritating. That said, you do not need the sound enabled to play the game, and while Galaxy Express has been configured for low battery usage, being able to turn off the audio eases battery use just a little bit more. The controls for the game are very easy to understand and use. You can also set the speed with which your ship will move through the puzzle – just remember that all of The Enemy ships, cannonballs and other interferences will move at the same speed as you – so other than navigating the puzzle faster, there isn’t really any advantage.

The developers have also added the ability to share puzzle solutions via email, Facebook and Twitter, and you can also ask for help via this same method if you’re really, really stuck. I personally haven’t used these options for sharing or asking for help, but they are nice additional features for the game. There is no scoring system, so you are not competing for ownership of a leaderboard, however if you’re playing against friends, you can always see who can solve the puzzle first simply by solving, sharing the solution and see who posted it first. The only challenge feature I’d like to see added is a time-keeper – not to penalize a player for not solving a puzzle in time, but to keep track of how quickly the player can solve the puzzle, thereby opening the challenge of beating one’s personal times.  That said, even if you’ve solved the puzzles, Galaxy Express does have a good replayability factor.

Overall, I give Galaxy Express a 9.5 out of 10 – if there had been a personal timekeeper and if the toolbar were movable (for those of us who are left-handed), it would have earned a full 10 – although these two features are not game-breakers for me.  I can still easily access the toolbar for what I need to do in order to play the game, it’s a personal preference.

Last Chance: Registration for the Great Canadian Appathon closes at 5pm tonight.

Last week during IUGO’s GDC Smartphone Summit Session, their VP of Biz Dev, Sarah Thomson, announced IUGO’s latest social game venture; Sunshine Cruise Lines. IUGO’s first social title, Lil’ Pirates (published by Capcom Mobile), launched in November 2010 and was a breakout success earning accolades from users, critics and fellow industry colleagues alike. Lil’ Pirates went on to win Pocketgamer’s best FREEmium title of 2011.

Having proved their chops as a solid social game developer, IUGO plans to launch several social titles during the course of 2011/2012. “Lil’ Pirates was a great experience for us,” enthuses Thomson. “We saw that we could build a unique experience that users loved. It was amazing to see how “into” the game players got. On top of that, the game was monetizing really well solely from virtual items, which was a testament to our design strengths as a studio,” Sarah adds.

“Now, with Sunshine Cruise Lines, the team is super excited to build a game around a theme that appeals to virtually everyone: Travel,” offers Thomson. Setting sail later this Spring/early Summer of 2011, Sunshine Cruise Lines is a FREEmium game in which players manage their own cruise ship while traveling the world. “There is so much we can do with this theme,” she explains. “This is an opportunity for us to play on users’ imaginations while having the world at their fingertips. Players will find the game familiar and easy to play as we’ve kept a foundation of tried and true mechanics. But the team has been really amped to try new things in Cruise,” alludes Sarah. “With Cruise players will enjoy a more dynamic environment that encourages experimentation. Players will have a number of different options for how to make their cruise ship unique, while offering deeper social interaction. The team is focused on making every facet of the Cruise experience special and fun from the art style, the UI, the audio to how they all tie in and enhance each other. We can’t wait for people to play our game!”

Don’t get caught dead in that island wear, it’s so last season! Quebec’s Frima Studio and SFO’s Bolt Creative have announced that the Pygmies of Pocket God on Facebook have arrived dressed to impress with Episode IV: Dressed to Kill. This latest addition to the Pocket God world introduces new items, including St. Patrick’s Day accessories, as well as a new dance taking the island by lightning storm.

Since its debut in December 2010, the Facebook version of Pocket God has grown exponentially and is attracting more players every month. More than 40 million loyal, unquestioning Pygmies have met their demise over that time, with two million of those being sacrificed by volcano alone (that’s approximately the same amount of people who visit Pompeii every year – coincidence?). Another two million sacrifices can be attributed to friends on Facebook sacrificing other friends in a host of brutal and irreverent ways, including electrocution, shark attack, venus fly traps, tornados, tar pits, and more! What good is a friend if you can’t sacrifice them every once in a while?

The new updates for Dressed to Kill include:

• All New Customizations: Fans have been waiting for the chance to dress up their Pygmies and the time has come! Pygmies can now be customized in a variety of ways, including wearing t-shirts, bow ties, life jackets (no worries, they won’t actually work), an oh-so-taboo censor bar, and more!
• All New YPDA (Youth Pygmy Devotee Association) Dance: It’s fun to hang with the Y-P-D-A! Even though the Pygmies constantly meet death, it doesn’t dampen their spirits, and they’re now prepared to show the world their latest dance craze. Go ahead and join in already, we swear no one is watching!
• St. Patrick’s Day-themed Items: For the Pygmy leprechaun in all of us, players can now customize their favorite faithful followers with holiday-themed items such as clover hair ties and fashionable green suspenders to hold that grass skirt up. Players can also do a little jig with the new St. Patrick’s Day dance. All holiday-themed content is available for a limited time.
• Brand New Quests: Of course, we have added more quests for all the deities out there looking to bring their sacrifice count to an all-time high.

The National Lacrosse League, which is comprised of teams from Edmonton, Calgary and Toronto (along with some American teams) has announced that NLL 11, the NLL’s officially licensed video game by Pittsburgh’s Crosse Studio in conjunction with Guelph’s Stir Fry Games, is in development for release this spring on Xbox 360’s Indie Game Channel.

The game will feature all ten NLL teams and the league’s 230 players, a completely new game engine, franchise mode, player statistics, celebrations and much more. For the first time, NLL 11 will include fighting in the video game. NLL Lacrosse 2011 will be available on the Xbox 360’s Indie Game Channel and will be priced at $5.00 USD.

While you’re waiting for NLL11 to debut, you could check out Stir Fry’s latest game, Office Brawlers, which is available on Xbox Live Indie Games. You can try it before you buy it, the price is 240 MS Points. Playing as your Avatar, you fight your way through Story Mode with 11 crazy weapons. You can play against your friends either on or off-line. Be the greatest Office Brawler of all time and achieve the highest score by playing in Survival Mode.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgxG-CHPlXE]

What started out as a very small Meetup group for independent developers in the Vancouver area has now become Full Indie. The new group was unveiled to a packed house of over 100 developers at Tuesday night’s monthly event for what is now the largest collective for independent game creators in Vancouver.

In May 2010, game developers Jake Birkett and Alex Vostrov founded the aforementioned Meetup group in order to connect with their peers. After only nine meetings with overwhelming event attendance and community input, Jake and Alex agreed that a formal brand, mission and web presence were the next logical steps. The group’s mandate will be to continue with its very successful monthly events which include presentations and networking as well as develop the Full Indie web site as a community-sourced endeavour, with centralized resources to assist indie developers not only in Vancouver, but around the world, with the development, publishing and publicizing of their work.

In keeping with the National Film Board’s commitment to digital production, and reflecting the evolution of audiences into dynamic participants, the eastern section of the NFB Mediatheque in Toronto is currently being transformed into an interactive hub that will provide new ways to connect with the NFB. Its redesign guided by the principle of engaging and communicating with Canadians, this area of the Mediatheque will soon offer access to , where visitors can check out recent web-based projects via the NFB Interactive portal, the Online Screening Room featuring more than 1,800 streaming films, and news and information about the NFB.

This flexible new space will also be outfitted with ceiling-mounted projectors, floor-to-ceiling screens and a state-of-the-art audio system, providing a venue for innovative new content such as participatory programming and immersive multimedia installations based on NFB online productions. The space will also host exhibits and screenings; its resources will be creatively incorporated into the Mediatheque’s many workshops and camps, and it can be tailored for private event rental. A webcam-enhanced touchscreen will allow the public to further connect with the NFB and record instant feedback on their experience such as film reviews, workshop recommendations and programming suggestions. Visitors will continue to enjoy over 5,500 NFB titles on free digital viewing stations, and services and events at the Mediatheque will not be affected. This new area will open to the public in early April, 2011.

This is a good start, but doesn’t go nearly far enough; I hope that MP Tony Clement will keep the pressure up in regards to telecom pricing in all areas:

In response to numerous requests, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) today clarified the form and scope of its proceeding to review wholesale residential high-speed Internet access services, which was launched on February 8, 2011.

Canadians will have an opportunity to share their views at a public hearing starting on July 11^th in Gatineau, Que. The CRTC will also hold an online consultation. Details of both the hearing and consultation will be announced shortly.

Although the scope of the proceeding will not be limited to reviewing usage-based billing proposals, the CRTC intends to focus on issues such as:

• usage-based charges, whether aggregated between the Small Internet service providers (Small ISPs) or applied to each Small ISP
• usage-based charges driven by peak traffic periods, and
• an examination of network capacity and congestion.

The CRTC will not be expanding the scope, as requested by several parties, to include the billing practices for retail Internet services. There is no evidence that market forces are not working properly in this unregulated market.

Finally, the CRTC will not review, as was also requested by several parties, the overall regulatory framework for wholesale high-speed Internet access services. The overall framework was not part of the decision that is being reviewed, and it would not be appropriate to initiate such a wide-ranging review within the current proceeding.

Register Now: The Great Canadian Appathon happens this weekend, don’t miss out on this opportunity for some collaborative learning and great prizes.

Congratulations to our friends over at Greedy Productions – the studio announced this morning that Electric Playground and Reviews on the Run now have an additional slot on CityTV Vancouver and will begin airing from 6-7pm nightly in addition to the 12-1pm & 11pm-12am time slots.

Footloose Games has launched Munchies Lunch, a game that the Cavechild took a look at back in December. Munchies Lunch is a puzzle game that involves some quick and clever maneuvering of your characters in order to avoid becoming a monstrous lunch entree for the Hungries, the story’s bad guys. The game’s premise is that you must lead your family away from the dangerous Hungries who are invading your forest dwelling. Travel the world to find safety in the far-away jungles, gathering food and power-ups for your family while eluding those nasty Hungries. Available now for Windows XP,  Vista and Windows 7, you can try the family-friendly Munchies Lunch before you buy it. With the low price tag of only $5.99 and a high replayability factor, Munchies Lunch offers good value for its price.

Additional System Requirements for Munchies Lunch:

CPU: 1 Ghz
Ram: 512 MB
Hard-Drive Space: 150 MB
Video Card: Must support Pixel/Vertex Shader 1.1

Most of you already know this, but I’m going to share it anyway. Science fiction novelist, blogger, and technology activist Cory Doctorow has been selected to present one of the keynote presentations at SIGGRAPH 2011, the 38th International Conference and Exhibition on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques taking place this August 7th-11th at the Vancouver Convention Centre.

Di-o-matic is offering a free 85+ minutes masterclass, where viewers will learn many key techniques from modeling to rigging as well as animation using Autodesk 3ds max, MotionBuilder, FBX, Mudbox and Softimage FaceRobot as well as Di-O-Matic Facial Studio, Morph-O-Matic and Maskarad. As an Autodesk Authorized Developer, Di-O-Matic earlier announced that new versions of all Di-O-Matic plugins will be made available shortly after the release of Autodesk’s 3ds max 2012, Maya 2012 and Softimage 2012.

comScore is pleased to announce the release of the 2010 Canada Digital Year in Review, its annual report on the prevailing digital trends of the past year and their implications for navigating the uncertainties in the year ahead. The report provides a comprehensive overview of the digital landscape in Canada including overall Internet usage, high-growth categories, online advertising, video and search.

* How are Canadians consuming digital media, and how does this compare to other countries?
* Which trends dominated the digital landscape in 2010?
* How does media consumption differ across age and gender segments?
* What trends are we seeing in the social networking space, and what impact does that have on email activity?
* How has digital advertising shifted in the last year, and how has social media played a part?
* Which content categories are serving up the most videos? Who’s watching online video in Canada?
* What is the current state of the search market?
* How will mobile media consumption in Canada stack up against other markets?

Not surprisingly, the key motivator for consumers to pirate films and television programs is the reward of free content. But aside from the traditional reason of price, leading factors also include consumers’ desire for earlier access, a perception that “everyone is doing it” and the explosion of free content available online. This is according to PwC’s new piracy study from its US consumer research program measuring consumer attitudes towards piracy and related behaviours.

At the same time, consumers in Canada are being faced with escalating access fees and the usage based billing debate is ongoing. “Usage based billing if a reality will push consumers back to traditional and payment based methods of consuming content,” says Michael Paterson, a partner in PwC’s Canadian Entertainment & Media group.

Among key findings in the PwC study:

* 81% of the consumers who admit to pirating TV, movie and video content say they will likely continue to do so.
* 40% of those who report “pirating” content via traditional methods said they will probably also pirate on mobile devices within the next six months.
* US$3 for a movie and US$1 for a television show is the maximum amount consumers who admit to pirating are willing to pay to access content.

Combating piracy remains a struggle and a prime concern for entertainment companies – especially with the growing ease at which consumers can now access a variety of content on multiple platforms at their fingertips. Given the proliferation of smart phones, consumers are increasingly using their mobile devices to access the Internet—on average, 35 times per week.

“Mobile piracy is poised to escalate with the proliferation of smartphones, says Paterson. “This will need to be addressed in anti-piracy efforts. There is some good news in sight as consumers expressed concern about potential piracy pitfalls, including poor quality of some content and the possibility of downloading a virus or facing legal trouble.”

Funcom has unveiled a new site design for The Secret World, along with a brand new trailer that offers gamers a unique glimpse into the world, the monsters, the myths, and the gameplay of the much anticipated online game. In ‘The Secret World’ players get to play the character they want to play without being limited to classes or levels, as they adventure through modern-day, real-world locations. No release date has been announced. The game is being co-published together with EA Partners, a division of Electronic Arts Inc.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMnJD7Dt1GY]

“It is truly exciting for us to show gamers just how much freedom they will be able to enjoy in ‘The Secret World’,” says Director and Producer Ragnar Tørnquist. “The video perfectly encompasses the four important pillars of ‘The Secret World’: the modern-day setting, the freeform character progression, the dramatic storyline, and the unique secret society conflict. It feels great to reveal new details on the ‘The Secret World’ as we continue to make strides in the development of the game.”

Score Media Inc. and WWE have expanded their partnership with a multi-year agreement that will bring more high-energy WWE entertainment than ever before to fans across Canada. The unprecedented deal builds on Score Media and WWE’s already successful, exclusive television relationship to include online, mobile and VOD rights. In addition, theScore and WWE will work together to bring new original WWE content to Canadians across all platforms.

More than 60 leaders who shape Canada’s ICT industry will speak at the 2011 Canadian Telecom Summit, being held this May 31st – June 2nd in Toronto. The event will include over 15 keynote addresses offering insights into the future of Canadian ICT, examining the services, technologies, consumer & business trends and regulatory & policy initiatives that drive the information economy. This year, in addition to its always popular Regulatory Blockbuster panel, the conference is featuring sessions devoted to:

* LTE: The future of mobile
* Connecting Canadians: Delivering broadband to all
* Wireless Broadband: Our insatiable thirst for spectrum
* Privacy & Security: Guarding information in a transparent world
* Unified Communications: The evolving future of business
* Evolution of Consumer Communications: Compete or collaborate
* Tablets, TVs and Smartphones, Oh My!: The explosion of the multiscreen universe
* Cloud Computing

Fair-Play has launched its new website. An essential reference tool, the site allows both industry people and the public at large to find out more about Fair-Play’s many television products among which are Quebec’s current mega hits Les enfants de la télé and Peut contenir des Rachid. Headlining the company’s latest news and featuring an exhaustive production catalogue, video excerpts, and a Who’s Who of the Fair-Play team, the new site profiles a company founded in 1998 now firmly established in prime time and on the Web.

Television series, variety shows, documentaries, comedy, drama, live performance recordings, public affairs – their catalogue has grown over the years and will continue to expand. As the organization looks forward to producing more entertaining and provocative content, it remains proud of the creative environment it strives to foster for its writers, creators, performers and other colleagues.

Canon Canada Inc. has announced the availability of its Cloud Portal software for imageRUNNER ADVANCE software enabling a broad range of Canon imageRUNNER ADVANCE office systems to access Google Docs and Microsoft SharePoint Online cloud-based services directly from the MFP panel. Using its MEAP technology, Cloud Portal for imageRUNNER ADVANCE software is available as a free application that allows users to scan and store paper-based documents directly to the cloud, as well as to print documents stored in the cloud to imageRUNNER ADVANCE office systems.

The Cloud Portal for imageRUNNER ADVANCE software is a server-less, driver-less application that requires no additional hardware to enable direct connection to the cloud via the MEAP application. By facilitating direct integration with leading cloud services, the new application increases end-user flexibility and helps to increase productivity by allowing users to access cloud-stored data from a PC, tablet device or smart phone, and print or share the data with multiple users across locations. To print from the cloud, the Canon Direct Print Kit or the PS Printer Kit needs to be installed on the imageRUNNER office system. Please see the Canon site for full information not covered here.

Event: canWIT Breakfast Series: Business Development and Sales in the Technology Industry March 23rd at Segal Graduate School of Business, SFU
Reminder: Register for the Great Canadian Appathon the event starts on Friday.

Vancouver’s Slick Entertainment has launched the next iteration of Scrap Metal™, this time to the iTunes App Store. Scrap Metal for iPad, iPad 2, iPhone and iPod Touch, is due for release on March 11th, 2011 for $2.99.

Drift around corners with guns blazing and take out legendary competitors in the fast-paced, top-down racer, Scrap Metal™! Fight your way through four different game modes filled with explosive, action-packed missions, and compete with your friends on the Game Center leaderboards. Amazing graphics combined with a completely new super intuitive input method makes this a game you can’t afford to miss!

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sr4rOc-mpdg]

We will (hopefully) be taking it iOS version of Scrap Metal for a spin around the track this weekend to see how it translates to the small screen, if updates to Scott’s iPhone go well. The game is not compatible with 2nd generation iPod Touches, so I can’t play it, and Scott can’t risk updating his iPhone during the week, just in case the update doesn’t go well, and we all know that OS updates can sometimes go sideways. Scrap Metal does support the following hardware: all OpenGL ES2 devices: iPad, iPad2, iPhone (3GS and better), iPod 3rd gen. (32Mb or more) and iPod 4th generation. Retina display and Game Center supported.

Scrap Metal is also available on Xbox Live Arcade for 1200 points and is rated E10+ by the ESRB, with Mild Violence, Mild Suggestive Scenes, Alcohol and Tobacco Reference. There is a demo available for the 360, so if you haven’t yet, I recommend trying the game, it’s a load of fun to play.

Nickelodeon and Budge Studios present Dora’s Ballet Adventures, an Application based on the primetime musical special of the same name, premiering Monday, March 14, 8-8:30 p.m. (ET/PT) on Nickelodeon.

Available on iTunes today, Dora’s Ballet Adventures will be available for the iPhone, iPod Touch ($1.99usd) and in HD for the iPad ($3.99usd). This App contains activities specifically designed for preschoolers including: helping Dora dance with simple finger swipes and gestures, matching animals while using the built in microphone to make animal sounds, and playing songs while learning about different musical instruments. In addition, the App also teaches reading and allows preschoolers to follow along with Dora’s voice, read by themselves, or have the story read to them, all while learning Spanish words and phrases.

In the primetime special, “Dora’s Ballet Adventure,” Dora’s dance class is having a big show for all of their friends and family. Dora is opening the show and can’t wait for her family to see her dance! She just needs her dance slippers, but the delivery duck gives her scuba flippers instead. It’s a dance-filled adventure as Dora and Boots play “follow-the-bunny” to make their way through Bunny Hop Hill, dance in the animal hoedown across Benny’s barn and rush to the show aboard the dancing train.

In 2010, Dora the Explorer celebrated its 10th anniversary and remains one of the top preschool shows on television. Dora the Explorer, which can be seen in 151 markets and is translated into 30 languages, has been honored with awards including the Peabody, NAACP, Alma, Imagen, Latino Spirit, Gracie Allen, Parents’ Choice Award, the Television Critics Association Award and has received 16 Daytime Emmy nominations.

Zincroe’s will be launching their latest app, a Stella and Sam adventure, in the iTunes store on March 10th. Into The Snow We Go revolves around a missing toboggan and young readers will have to help Stella and Sam solve a series of quests to find it. The activities featured in this tale include Pictures in the Snow, Snowman and Under the Snow.

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

Based on the children’s books by Canadian author Marie-Louise Gay, The Stella and Sam Adventures for the iPad are a wonderful way for families with small children to enjoy and experience the same playful world of Stella and her little brother Sam as seen in the animated TV series.

Each adventure takes preschoolers on a quest and features:

* Four original animated story chapters
* Three open-ended, age-appropriate games
* Ten minutes of continuous storytelling
* Game replay
* Quick navigation by chapter and game

Dragon Age™ II is now available at retail stores in Canada for the PlayStation®3 , the Xbox 360®, the PC and Mac®. The game is rated ‘M’ for Mature by the ESRB. Featuring a gripping new storyline, stunning visuals and what PC Gamer magazine has proclaimed to be “the best RPG combat ever,” Dragon Age II has already been hailed as a success by critics around the world. The game has received a 94 percent from PC Gamer magazine (US and UK), a 9/10 from Official Xbox Magazine and a 9/10 from PlayStation: The Official Magazine, which also said, “Fueled by its brains, a likeable cast, and a sprawling storyline, Dragon Age II delivers.”

I got my first look at the game when the demo was made available on the Xbox Live Marketplace, and with so many features disabled, it was difficult to get a real opinion of the game, other than I found much of the text very hard to read on a 36″ CRT television. Our TV does have a flat screen, but the text doesn’t appear anywhere as clear as it does on an LCD flat screen, and this could end up being an issue for me. I just hope it’s not a game breaker for me, even though I have loads of unlockables and extra content because of pre-order and pre-launch activities. Our EB Games location was not open for the Midnight Launch, so I will wait patiently for the call that our Dragon Age 2 Signature Edition (x2 for 2 360s) order is ready to pick up.

“I am very proud of the bold, ambitious direction our team took with Dragon Age II, which I think is some of the best work yet from BioWare,” said Dr. Ray Muzyka, co-founder and Group General Manager of BioWare and Senior Vice President of Electronic Arts. “The Dragon Age team built on their success with Dragon Age: Origins and also focused on innovation for our players, delivering better combat, creating an incredible new art style and introducing a dynamic storytelling technique to really raise the bar for both the franchise and the genre.”

Dragon Age II allows gamers to experience the rise to power of Hawke, a refugee who survives the destruction of his homeland, to become the Champion of Kirkwall. Hawke’s rise to power is shrouded in myth and rumor, with these mysteries being the driving force behind a story that spans an entire decade. Players will experience how the legend unfolds by gathering the deadliest of allies, making tough moral choices, and amassing fame and fortune as they seal their place in history and change the face of the Dragon Age universe forever.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAMkzz0hKww]

Also available today is “The Exiled Prince,” the first downloadable content pack for Dragon Age II. “The Exiled Prince” introduces the noble archer, Sebastian Vael, with players joining him in the middle of his quest to avenge the horrific murder of his family. Sworn to the priesthood as a boy, Sebastian is forced to re-enter the viper’s nest of princely politics when his family is brutally murdered, leaving him as the sole-surviving heir. Banding together with Sebastian and his unshakable loyalty and excellent aim, players will choose to either avenge Sebastian’s murdered family to reclaim his title or direct his holy vengeance on their own enemies in Kirkwall. In addition to this action-packed storyline, players will also be able to enlist Sebastian as a follower throughout a majority of Dragon Age II. “The Exiled Prince” will be available for purchase separately for $6.99 or 560 Microsoft Points. Note: if you pre-ordered early like we did, The Exiled Prince is included in the Signature Edition.

Razer also has a whole line-up of sweet looking Dragon Age 2 gear, and buying any of it will provide you with a code for The Ring of Whispers add-on.

Not all of the items are available yet, according to the Razer store. I checked on the 360 controller, which will sell in the Razer store for $59.99, and it said “Currently Unavailable” as did the

Available for pre-order in the Razer store are:

* Dragon Age™ II Razer BlackWidow Ultimate keyboard: $139.99 USD (March 16th)
* Dragon Age™ II Razer Goliathus Speed Edition mouse mat: $24.99 USD (March 25th)
* Dragon Age™ II Razer Messenger Laptop Bag: $89.99 USD (March 21st)

Currently Unavailable:

* Dragon Age™ II Razer DeathAdder: $69.99 USD
* Dragon Age™ II Razer Onza Tournament Edition Professional Gaming Controller for Xbox 360®: $59.99 USD

Event: Early Registration for Canada 3.0 2011 has been extended until March 17th.
From GDC 2011: Congratulations to the Bioware Mass Effect 2 team for picking up the Best Writing award at the GDC Choice Awards and to the University of Montreal for winning at the IGF Awards with FRACT being named as the top Student Game.

Catching up with Big Blue Bubble this morning, the studio has released Geeks Unleashed to the Mac App Store for $3.99 USD. This game is a strategic puzzle game that pits the player against some of the smartest, yet geekiest opponents on the planet. The storyline, which for some reason makes me think of Big Bang Theory, follows the player as they enter a collecting convention, attempting to accumulate collectibles from different categories such as Sci-Fi, Fashion, Comics, Plush Toys and Role Playing Games.

Another popular Big Blue Bubble game also made its debut on the Mac App Store this week. Home Sweet Home, available now for $4.99 USD, is a game that invites you to play Interior Designer. You choose the furniture, patterns, and colors to create a masterpiece that will blow your client away. You can email photos of your newly designed rooms to yourself or your friends, and you can also replay levels or your designs.  With simple controls, a fun graphical style, and an easy to use interface, Home Sweet Home allows you to nurture your creative side.

Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism Minister Jason Kenney has launched a fun and educational Facebook application that tests your knowledge of Canada’s history, values, symbols and political institutions. The quiz can also be downloaded to mobile devices like iPhone, Blackberry and Android. The 20 questions are randomly selected from a bank of 122 questions, allowing the quiz to be played more than once.

“Download the app, take the quiz, and share it with your friends,” Kenney said. “You might be surprised to find out just how Canadian you are!”

The initiative is part of an on-line resource called “A Fun Path to Learning” that was launched in April 2010 by Citizenship and Immigration Canada for students and teachers. The educational tool draws from material in the popular new citizenship study guide Discover Canada: The Rights and Responsibilities of Citizenship and aims to help students from grades five to 12 learn about Canada’s history and political institutions through games and activities. There are a number of learning resources on the Youth page, making learning about Canada’s history fun.

The “How Canadian Are You, Eh?” application is a cross platform application that can be found within Facebook, at the iTunes app store, in the Blackberry app world, and in the Android marketplace.

Radian6 has announced Radian6 for Salesforce, bringing new social capabilities to the Salesforce Service Cloud experience. Monitoring the overwhelming volume of social conversations that matter to enterprises, and connecting them to existing sales, service and marketing processes is a major challenge for companies today. To address this challenge, the Radian6 integration will connect the social capabilities within both the Salesforce Service Cloud and the Radian6 platform, enabling enhanced social customer service.

The Radian6 platform monitors social media, including blogs, forums, comments, photo and video sharing sites, Twitter, public content within Facebook and more. Radian6 leads the industry with its ability to surface social metrics on everything it gathers, enabling valuable time savings through sorting and prioritization. With its pending arrival on the AppExchange, Radian6 for Salesforce will let agents work entirely within the Service Cloud, with fully automated case creation that adds social media content to Salesforce based on the customizable Radian6 workflow rules engine.

In addition to the recently added feature that allows users to interact with Salesforce Chatter directly within Radian6 Engagement Console™ additional capabilities that leverage the Service Cloud will include the ability to create new or view existing cases, leads and contacts from within the Radian6 Engagement Console™. Radian6 for Salesforce is currently scheduled to be available to early adopters in April 2011 while a full public release is currently scheduled for Q3 of calendar year 2011.

zipzoom is a brand new patent-pending anonymous communication technology changing the way consumers and businesses find each other. The service was officially launched today in Simcoe County, choosing Barrie because it is one of the fastest growing cities in North America.

“A dynamic, friendly and booming community like Barrie is the perfect place to launch this revolutionary service,” said Reg DesRosiers, the founder of zipzoom.com. “We offer residents the ability to make quick, informed decisions about any products or services they need, while also providing new streams of customers to Barrie’s local businesses and salespeople.”

zipzoom.com recently launched a beta version of its site, which acts like a personal shopper for overwhelmed consumers. zipzoom.com-registered consumers just make an anonymous personal inquiry and zipzoom immediately, through its exclusive communication platform, sends the inquiry to all relevant contacts and businesses using a brilliantly designed product keyword search association, saving time, money and effort. Businesses and salespeople also benefit by having direct access to “ready-to-buy” customers 24/7 without increasing their advertising costs. zipzoom is free of charge to register for consumers, businesses, service providers and salespeople. zipzoom finally answers the question consumers ask themselves every day: “How can I find the best deal, person or business to work with?” On the vendor side: “How do I consistently find ‘ready-to-buy’ customers?”

In addition, zipzoom is offering weekly giveaways via their social media networks on Twitter and Facebook, where randomly chosen registered vendors will receive a no-charge lifetime membership subscription.

Staying true to its friendly, down-to-earth and down the street philosophy, Original Joe’s has announced that, starting today, it will be providing a free pound of wings to each individual who ‘likes‘ them on Facebook.

“Each person who decides to participate by liking Original Joe’s on Facebook will be able to print off a coupon which they can redeem at any of our 37 locations for a pound of wings on us,” says Derek Doke, President of Original Joe’s. “We appreciate the support and loyalty of our existing customers and this is one way to express our gratitude to our regulars while encouraging newcomers to find out for themselves why so many people choose Joe’s as their preferred neighbourhood pub.”

Joe’s is expecting thousands of individuals to take advantage of this promotion, and are prepared to give away up to $100,000 worth of wings (estimated Canadian dollar amount based on 10,000 pounds of wings and gift cards). With more than a dozen wing flavours available ranging from dill pickle, Caribbean jerk and industrial strength, to the more traditional honey garlic or salt and pepper, Joe’s has something for everyone.

Note: The Toronto International Film Festival (September 8 – 18th) is now open for submissions.
Event: WaveGuide™ Technical Workshop: Samsung Bada Code Camp presented by WaveFront. This free seminar takes place tomorrow in Vancouver from 1:30pm – 8:00pm. Pre-registration is required.
Event: Global Insights Conference is taking place in Victoria on March 17th.
Event: The Basics of Intellectual Property is a free seminar on March 10th presented by the Canadian Intellectual Property Office and hosted by nGen.

Vancouver’s Decapod Studios, creators of one of my favourite XBLIG games, Murphid, has released iStopwatch for Windows Phone 7. The free app is a simple, fast and elegant stop watch. It features a stopwatch timer, split timer, lap timer and countdown. It supports logging unlimited split and lap times and shares results via email.

The studio has also submitted an update for its measurement units converter app, Convert Units PRO for Windows Phone 7. The update includes faster application loading and adds in-app feedback options. The update will be available for free for all existing users once it receives Microsoft certification.

Convert Units PRO features include:

• U.S., Imperial and metric units.
• Convert length, mass, area, volume and temperature with ease.
• More than 100 measurement units are supported.
• Rarely used and old units are available.
• High precision conversion.

Industrial Brothers has released a new 99 cent USD game on the iTunes Store. 2Bit is a challenging retro-inspired puzzle game that will challenge your nerves and co-ordination as you try to navigate through The Grid, a landscape full of dangers. Yes, that’s right, The Grid is rife with shooting turrets, trip wires, hydraulic plugs, screwblades and more dangerous too frightening to talk about. At launch, 2Bit offers 20 challenging levels contained within 2 Grid areas, each with 10 levels of puzzles to negotiate.

2Bit’s current features include:

• Select between 2D or 3D views
• Personal High Scores and Global Leaderboard and Online Registration
• Original retro-themed sound effects and music
• Additional Grids and Levels to be released over the next few weeks at no extra cost

The Cavechild has released his first non-narrated gameplay video for Dawn of War II: Retribution by Relic Entertainment. His army is the one decked out in patriotic red and white, in Last Stand on The Anvil of Khorne as the Space Marine Captain.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDDh1az2NxU]

Strangeloop has partnered with Exclusive Concepts, Inc. to offer its proprietary Site Optimizer service to Yahoo! store merchants worldwide. Yahoo! Merchant Solutions is the largest hosted platform for ecommerce stores, with more Internet Retailer® Top 500 retailers using Yahoo! than any other hosted solution. Exclusive Concepts, the leading resource for online stores seeking to convert online shoppers into loyal buyers, provides a breadth of marketing services – from advanced search engine marketing to conversion testing – to more than 800 merchants around the world. As an authorized Yahoo! partner, Exclusive Concepts will be the exclusive provider of Strangeloop’s website acceleration technology to this market.

The Strangeloop Site Optimizer, utilized by companies such as Petco, Travelocity, Visa, Sodexo, and O’Reilly Media, is the only automated web performance optimization solution that functions at the scale demanded by global ecommerce sites and enterprise applications. Through partners like Exclusive Concepts, Site Optimizer can be offered as a hosted service, making Strangeloop’s advanced optimization technology accessible to businesses of all sizes.

Calgary tech company Vaenco, Inc. has officially launched its interactive media platform called ZoweeTV. An end-to-end multi-screen media platform that delivers movies, TV shows, music, games and other interactive media to Internet-enabled devices including TVs, Blu-ray players, media extenders, set-top boxes and game consoles for both ‘over-the-top’ delivery as well as integrated solutions for service providers and operators.

Key features include a fully integrated cross-platform user interface that includes a media management system for consumers as well as social networking capabilities through ZoweeTV’s proprietary system-wide network. ZoweeTV was built for content owners by content owners, offering a fully customizable content management system enabling dynamic ‘self’ distribution with a turnkey content management dashboard including asset management, metadata integration, windows, pricing, territories and other key policies with detailed ‘back-end’ reporting.

According to recently released In-Stat research, Web-to-TV Video content revenue will grow by 750% to $17 billion by 2014. “We built ZoweeTV from the ground up, built for complete customization for any platform, any video format on any device, anywhere in the world — ZoweeTV will optimize content distribution opportunities for content owners and deliver a robust, quality user experience to the end user” said Ronald Domes, CEO.

ZoweeTV will be widely available to consumers Worldwide by Summer 2011 through strategic partnerships with device manufacturers as an operating system or through stand-alone apps and web browsers. More announcements will be made in the upcoming weeks.

Four initiatives that support northern innovation and knowledge will move forward thanks to investments by the Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency (CanNor). The Honourable John Duncan, Minister of the Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency, has announced an investment of $426,000 for research and training projects to help the Northwest Territories and Nunavut strengthen information technology (IT), energy, and educational sectors of the economy. With additional contributions from project proponents and the Territorial governments, the projects have a total value of more than $500,000.

“The Government of Canada recognizes that by investing in research and training, we are enabling the long-term sustainability of communities and businesses across the North,” said Minister Duncan, who is also Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development and Federal Interlocutor for Métis and Non-Status Indians.

“Research has shown that there is a strong positive correlation between investments in IT infrastructure, capacity development and economic growth,” said the Honourable Leona Aglukkaq, Member of Parliament for Nunavut, Regional Minister for the North and Minister of Health. “These investments will create new educational, social and business opportunities in both territories that will provide long-term benefits for northerners and northern businesses.”

CanNor’s funding will support four projects in the NWT and Nunavut, including new mining and remediation training programs, research into the potential to use local willow as biomass fuel, and two projects to assess and support the potential for establishing broadband internet in Nunavut.

Funding for these projects came from CanNor’s Strategic Investments in Northern Economic Development (SINED) program, which provides funding for northern projects that contribute to long-term economic growth, economic diversification, and capacity building in the three territories. SINED is one of a number of economic development programs delivered by CanNor in Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut.

On this past Sunday, February 27^th, members of the London RCMP Detachment Federal Enforcement Section seized thousands of pirated DVDs from a booth at the Gibraltar Trade Centre on Dundas Street East in London.

Pirated DVDs in flimsy plastic sleeves were openly displayed for sale at space rented by the accused at the Gibraltar Trade Centre, where it is alleged they sold the pirated movies. The accused were found in possession of approximately 4000 movies for sale including recently released DVD movies, movies still in the theaters and others yet to be released. Titles included: The King’s Speech, The Fighter, Black Swan, True Grit, and Inception amongst many others.

“This isn’t a victimless crime,” stated Inspector Dwight Blok, Officer in charge of the RCMP London Detachment. “We are committed in our efforts to combat this type of criminal activity.”

The accused, a 25 year old man and a 24 year old woman from Toronto, face charges under the Copyright Act for allegedly offering for sale an infringing copy of work where copyright subsists. If convicted the accused could faces fines not exceeding twenty-five thousand dollars or imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months or both.

Bits Republic Technologies, Inc., a Vancouver-based developer of cloud security applications and licensed technologies, has unveiled the new name for its popular ultra-secure Document Management System. The application formerly known as MOnet has been renamed PrivyDocs in order to better reflect the complete privacy that this application provides.

PrivyDocs is entirely browser-based. Unlike past versions, PrivyDocs requires no software installation and can be run on Mac or PC through most major browsers. This represents a major unique advance in cloud computing in that security and privacy are so complete that neither the application host nor storage hosts have access to stored data, yet control by the user extends to file sharing with other parties replete with advanced file and folder permissions.

“PrivyDocs is designed to replace a key part of in-house systems; that part that deals with guarded data dissemination both within and outside the organization.” explained Charles Chung, owner and founder of Bits Republic Technologies, Inc. “In the past, placing such data online and managing it `through the cloud` has necessitated complete trust in the application provider – they can see your data. With our solution, professionals and enterprises retain control of their sensitive data and the providers have no access to it. Our solution enables the users to control advanced permissions by file, to track file access and versions, and even to customize the look and feel of the application for their particular needs”.

PrivyDocs uses the patent-pending Bits republic security engine which provides a very flexible platform for client-side encryption and server side ‘blind’ hosting and management. This technology assures that only authorized users are able to access secured data and metadata, and that not even the application or storage hosts have access to it themselves.

DHX Media Ltd has been authorized to purchase at market price up to 3,629,576 common shares of the Company being approximately 10% of its public float of 36,295,762 common shares as of February 28, 2011, and representing approximately 5.9% of its issued share capital, by way of a normal course issuer bid (the “Bid”) through the facilities of the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX). As of February 28, 2011, there were 61,617,565 common shares issued and outstanding. DHX is making the bid to reduce the number of outstanding shares in the corporation and to improve earnings per share. The Bid will commence on March 4, 2011, and end no later than March 3, 2012, observing the purchasing restrictions during ‘black out’ or ‘close’ periods.

The Company intends to implement an automatic share purchase plan to allow it to purchase shares under the Bid while in such ‘black out’ or ‘close’ periods. The Bid will be funded from the Company’s existing cash resources. Any shares purchased under the Bid will be cancelled. The TSX rules permit DHX to purchase daily, through TSX facilities, a maximum of approximately 26,467 common shares under the Bid, being 25% of the average daily trading volume of 105,870 over the last six months.

In the opinion of the Company’s board of directors and senior management, DHX shares may occasionally trade in a price range which does not adequately reflect the value of underlying assets based on the Company’s business and financial position. Consequently, the Company may, from time to time, purchase common shares of the Company under the Bid. DHX has not purchased any shares of the Company pursuant to a normal course issuer bid during the preceding 12 months.

Calgary-based Veer, a provider of affordable visual elements that makes it easier to be creative, today announced the launch of an exclusive new font collection named Agency 26, as well as the addition of fonts from the Filmotype foundry and several other leading designers.

Other new additions to the Veer font collection include:

•   Steinweiss Script – Known as the father of the album cover, Alex Steinweiss’ distinctive “scrawl” has been faithfully recreated by Michael Doret in homage to the original. Available in three weights, each including a number of variations including simple, fancy and tilting. Steinweiss Script is part of the Umbrella Collection.
•   Yana – Designer Laura Worthingon set out to create a versatile, swashy serif usable in logos, headlines and body copy. Along the way it gained an old-style Victorian aesthetic, upper and lowercase characters, over 200 swash capitals, and regular, bold and italic variants. Yana is part of the Umbrella Collection.
•   Torino Pro – Originally designed in 1908 by Alessandro Butti, Torino is a modern italic Didone that has been revived, redrawn and expanded by Jason Walcott. It contains a large number of elegant swashes, discretionary ligatures and lining figures. Torino Pro is a Veer Exclusive and part of the Jukebox Collection.
•   Hiatus – This is a contemporary script that blends casual and formal elements with the warmth of hand lettering. Stephen Rapp’s low body height and full connection of the characters make for a versatile script. Hiatus, which includes a large number of swash alternates and ornaments, as well as extensive international language support, is a Veer Exclusive from the Umbrella Collection.

Rethink Canada has released a free app on Apple’s iTunes App Store designed to help you create. Dubbed the Realizer, the tool allows you to create realistic presentation prototypes of apps that can be easily displayed on actual iPhone or iPad screens. The prototypes include working “buttons” that give a realistic simulation of the final user experience.

The app, in beta testing since November, was created by Rethink in partnership with Nascent in Toronto. “We initially designed the Realizer for ourselves as a way to better communicate our vision when presenting app concepts to clients,” says Rethink Creative Director Dré Labre. “It proved so indispensable, in fact, we felt it a shame not to share the app with the rest of the ad and design community.” Labre says the Realizer can be used for everything from quick renderings of pencil sketches to fully designed comps. Its intended market includes designers, art directors, developers, testers and clients.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pywKPEjo80k]

“We loved helping bring this idea to life,” says Shawn Konopinsky from Nascent. “Apps are a new form of communication that can be difficult to simulate at the concept stage. We wanted to create a tool as simple and intuitive as these new platforms themselves.” Konopinsky says the Realizer will eventually be available on other mobile platforms, including Android. “There’s a real open-source spirit behind this venture,” he says. “We’re counting on our users to help us make this tool better and better.”

Today is the first day of the 2011 CorelDraw International Design Contest. With over $75 000.00 in prizes, it’s worth a try, particularly if you are a designer. If you don’t own CorelDraw X5, you can download the trial, because it will permit you to save your work so that it can be submitted and seen by thousands of people around the world. If I could draw, I would certainly be entering, because the Grand Prize is Roland VersaCAMM SP-300i printer, something we could desperately use in this office. Click here to read the full prize list in a PDF.

Contest Categories:

• Advertising/Marketing: Flyers, brochures, logos and other designs related to advertising, marketing or point of purchase (POP)
• Signs/Awards/Personalization: Designs to be used in sign making, engraving, awards, dye sublimation and other related industries
• Vehicle Wraps: Designs to be used for car, truck, boat or other vehicle wraps
• Textile/Fashion Design: Designs for fashion, embroidery and direct-to-garment printing
• General Illustration & Fine Art: Artistic, creative and unique designs
• CorelDRAW Marketing Campaign: Create a design to be featured in a CorelDRAW marketing campaign. Entries can be of any style, and will be judged on creativity and overall theme

Students: In addition to the Grand Prize and category winners, Corel will present a top student award in each of the categories above.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsKBBA2MFzI]

This contest runs until June 30th, 2011 and open to residents of Canada (except Quebec) over the age of majority in their respective province. Please click here to read a PDF of the complete contest rules.

The Competition Bureau will also be participating in Fraud Prevention Month, which this year focuses on the growing problem of online fraud. Fraud Prevention Month is an annual education and awareness campaign held in Canada and around the world.

One of the first activities during Fraud Prevention Month is the conference Preventing Fraud in a Digital Age, which will be held in Ottawa on March 7 and 8, 2011. This conference will unite participants from the private and public sectors, consumer groups, and law enforcement organizations committed to cracking down on this growing concern. Conference attendees will learn more about the current state of fraud in Canada and abroad, identify the most at-risk groups, share best practices on recognizing and preventing fraud, and ultimately provide recommendations that the partners in fraud prevention can implement to help protect consumers and businesses from online fraud.

The conference is being hosted by the Fraud Prevention Forum, which is co-chaired by the Competition Bureau. The Fraud Prevention Forum is a group of over 100 private sector firms, consumer and volunteer groups, government agencies and law enforcement organizations, concerned with fighting fraud aimed at consumers and businesses. During Fraud Prevention Month, Forum members will participate in a number of targeted activities across the country, designed to raise awareness among consumers and businesses about the dangers of fraud.

In addition, the Competition Bureau’s Web site provides important education and prevention information including a new interactive quiz designed to test consumers’ and businesses’ fraud awareness. Visitors will also learn more about some of the various types of scams that they should watch out for: job opportunity scams, fake news sites, fraudulent health products, prize scams, and advertisements on social networking sites.

Enterprises will now have an easier time keeping their global workforces productive with the release of Exceed onDemand 8 by OpenText™, an X11 window server that gives users fast, reliable and secure remote access to applications over any network connection. Exceed onDemand 8 offers support for the popular Mac OS X platform along with a number of performance and productivity enhancements that enable customers to centrally distribute and manage access to UNIX, Linux and Microsoft Windows applications.

Trusted by millions of enterprise users, the Exceed family of products is known for its dependability in mission-critical environments and “pixel-perfect” screen and color rendering capabilities. Exceed onDemand offers companies a centralized, scalable and load-balanced platform to manage the distribution of critical line-of-business applications to a geographically disparate user population. Exceed onDemand offers an all-in-one remote application access solution for stock trading, electronic design automation (EDA), computer-aided design/manufacturing (CAD/CAM) and high-end 3D modeling, among others, and delivers such benefits as lower infrastructure costs, improved security and easier team collaboration.

“Enterprises are facing increasing pressure to deliver better results on time and on budget. Exceed onDemand helps them improve the performance of their business operations by simplifying and extending their application delivery infrastructure – and we’re continuing the momentum with this new release,” said Eugene Cherny, General Manager for OpenText’s connectivity solutions. “Its industry-proven architecture offers automatic workload balancing and scalability, helping to accelerate access to business applications while boosting user productivity through real-time team collaboration.”

The new version of Exceed onDemand offers a number of significant enhancements:

* Empowers the growing population of Apple Mac OS X users with high-performance remote application access
* Helps enterprises take control of the distribution of Microsoft Windows applications on UNIX, Linux and OS X platforms
* Enhances access security through the integration with LDAP based enterprise directory services
* New dynamic screen scaling capability offers superior user experience and improved productivity

“Exceed onDemand 8 supports the Cadence EDA360 vision by empowering engineering teams to collaborate virtually, fully realizing complex designs as efficiently as possible in a globalized work environment,” said Steven Lewis, Product Management Director of Cadence. “We’ve worked closely with OpenText to ensure that Exceed onDemand 8 works smoothly with the Cadence Virtuoso custom IC technology, maximizing both design throughput and resource utilization, while lowering overall hardware costs.”

Make Technologies® Inc. is proud to introduce the Make Technologies® Enterprise Suite, an end-to-end solution for application portfolio modernization. Customers can expect to dramatically reduce the amount of custom code in their legacy portfolio without changing workflows or the way they run their business.

The Make Technologies® Enterprise Suite is built on top of Transformational Legacy Modernization (TLM®), the company’s proven modernization platform. TLM® is fit-for-purpose software guided by a mature methodology and supported by the best practices of our modernization experts.

The Make Technologies® Enterprise Suite allows customers to build a pragmatic application roadmap that is closely aligned with the strategic initiatives of its business, based on strong data points such as code dependencies and application usage patterns. The result is a marked reduction in code maintenance, giving CXOs the freedom to pay more attention to essential business matters while gaining a competitive edge in their industry.

“The challenge with all organizations is their ability to do more with less and in a resource-constrained environment companies are finding it challenging to support and maintain legacy applications and simultaneously innovate. As noted in Forrester’s Enterprise and SMB Software Survey, North America and Europe, Q42008 showed that a fairly stunning change has taken place in IT leaders’ plans and priorities. Application modernization supplanted the hot topics of prior years: eBusiness, Agile, Lean, cloud, etc. In fact the three most important software initiatives for IT decision-makers all focused on application modernization: 1) update/ modernization legacy applications; 2) upgrade enterprise applications; and 3) consolidate or rationalize enterprise applications. The data highlights a sharp turn in IT leader’s thinking, with them coming to realize that streamlining bloated application portfolios is no longer an optional activity. Rather, modernization is the best new opportunity to cut waste on low-value applications and thus free the corresponding resources for new projects and innovation.” (A Workable Application Modernization Framework is Job No. 1 Now Forrester Research, Inc. independent Report April 26, 2010)

Make Technologies® Enterprise Suite allows businesses to:

* Lower the cost of application maintenance by lowering the amount of custom code and creating an easy to maintain application.
* Maximize the speed and quality of implementation with state-of-the-art, integrated tools supporting collaboration, analysis, code generation and data migration.
* Control the output quality continuously throughout the engagement.
* Verify the functional completeness of the modernized applications.

“As legacy systems continue to age and the speed of business continues to increase, the need to modernize enterprise-level IT is at a record high,” said Bill Bergen, CEO of Make Technologies Inc. “Many companies are investing millions of dollars into a modernization project and cannot afford setbacks or failure. Organizations are looking to understand what they own – to quantify the business value and maintenance of their applications so as to devise a rational plan for streamlined modernization efforts. Make Technologies® Enterprise Suite ensures complete project success through its combined software, methodology, and best practices.”

Canada Post announced today the launch of CentrSource.ca, a new online marketplace that connects advertisers and consumers instantly – where they live. This pay-for-performance model means that small to medium-sized businesses can effectively target consumers in their neighbourhood by offering products and services online and in-store that are relevant to them. It is also possible to search the entire network for offers from businesses across Canada. Until now, there has been a gap for consumers in getting targeted, local, time-sensitive content from traditional search engines.

“CentrSource.ca is an attractive tool for businesses of any size – especially small and medium-sized businesses. It helps them promote their products and services in the online marketplace, even if they don’t have a website, and makes it possible for them to compete on equal footing with larger competitors,” says Laurene Cihosky, Senior vice-president, Direct marketing, Advertising & Publishing business. The newly launched initiative is the result of a strategic alliance between Canada Post and CentrSource SA, a progressive Swiss-based company that provides e-commerce platforms.

“The power of CentrSource.ca is that it benefits both advertisers and consumers equally. Advertisers can reach customers instantly with offers that are geo-targeted, and consumers can improve their online shopping experience with searches that return time-sensitive offers on products and services only in the neighbourhoods they want to shop,” says Bob Westrope, Founder and CEO, CentrSource SA.

Through CentrSource.ca, national businesses such as Walmart and local businesses such as Calgary’s Community Natural Foods have unprecedented access to every type of consumer. This is made possible through the partnership of dozens of media/communications companies that make up the CentrSource network such as AOL Canada and Reader’s Digest. Today, CentrSource.ca features tens of thousands of offers from small businesses and large retailers across Canada. New offers are added daily in the language(s) chosen by the retailer and are targeted based on the location of the business’ customers.

As part of its vision to deliver a modern post, Canada Post is seeking new and compelling ways to extend their services by connecting businesses with their customers – whether it is through physical or electronic channels or a combination of both. CentrSource.ca is part of a growing number of online initiatives recently launched by Canada Post.

Another Telecom wants you to increase your data usage by offering another digital product. Five dollars per month gets you 10 hours of Mobile TV.

Fans of Vancouver Whitecaps FC will be able to get closer to their team anytime and anywhere thanks to Bell’s commitment to make all Whitecaps FC matches available live on Bell mobile phones. It’s the first time ever that all home and away matches of a Major League Soccer (MLS) Club will be available live on mobile.

“Being a fan of the Whitecaps just got better with Bell,” said Loring Phinney, Vice President, Corporate Marketing for Bell. “We committed to an enhanced experience for soccer fans when we announced our jersey sponsorship, and we’re thrilled to assist the Whitecaps in being the first MLS club with access to live matches on the screen of the fan’s choice.”

With TSN already announced as the MLS Official Broadcaster, Whitecaps FC fans will have their choice of watching matches in High Definition on TSN and TSN2, all Whitecaps FC games on the regional broadcast and now on Bell mobile phones and tablets with Bell Mobile TV.

“We promised Whitecaps FC fans that, together with our partners, we would provide a unique experience for our inaugural season in Major League Soccer and today, thanks to Bell, we’re delivering on that promise,” stated Paul Barber, Chief Executive Officer, Vancouver Whitecaps FC. “Bell is a world leader in creating great experiences across multiple screens in top level sporting environments. With this historic announcement, our club and our fans will be the beneficiaries of Bell’s innovative market leadership.”

In addition to all Whitecaps FC matches, Bell mobile customers will also have access to 24 MLS matches featuring Toronto FC and Vancouver Whitecaps FC on TSN and TSN2, as well as the MLS All-Star Game, MLS Playoffs and the MLS Cup.

Bell Mobility customers can purchase 10 hours of the Mobile TV Sports package for $5 per month. This includes access to live games and highlights from the NHL, NFL and now MLS Official Broadcaster matches and Vancouver Whitecaps FC.

EA Sports™ Fight Night Champion is now available in North America and will launch worldwide on March 4, 2011. Fight Night Champion is an intense and deep new mature experience that builds on the rich legacy of the Fight Night series, which is one of the most critically acclaimed sports franchises of the past five years. Fight Night Champion full version and demo version are available for the Xbox 360® and the PlayStation®3. The game has been rated M for Mature by the ESRB.

Fight Night Champion features new gameplay innovation that delivers the rawness and brutality of the most realistic boxing simulation ever created. The title is packed with a deep menu of new modes and features, including: the all-new cinematic, narrative-driven Champion Mode; more than 50 licensed boxers including Muhammad Ali, Mike Tyson and Manny Pacquiao; Full Spectrum Punch Control; the deepest career mode yet, Online Gyms, and much more.

“The EA Sports Fight Night franchise has consistently pushed the boundaries of innovation in sports videogames, from ushering in the new console generation in 2006 with Fight Night Round 3, to Fight Night Round 4 which introduced real world physics to the franchise two years ago,” said Dale Jackson, General Manager, Fighting, EA Sports. “Fight Night Champion advances the critically-acclaimed series with genre-defining new gameplay innovation, a deep feature set and an all new type of experience for the EA Sports gamer.”

Champion Mode brings cinematic storytelling to the Fight Night franchise and is the first such story mode in EA Sports history. Written by Academy Award®-nominated screenwriter Will Rokos, Champion Mode allows players to step into the shoes of up-and-coming middleweight prospect, Andre Bishop, as he discovers that the road to becoming a champion in professional boxing is one that is filled with corruption, personal struggle and more than just what happens between the ropes.

Fight Night Champion also introduces a host of gameplay improvements. The refined punching system, dubbed “Full Spectrum Punch Control”, brings the most accessible and responsive controls ever to a Fight Night title. A new anaerobic stamina system tracks individual muscle groups separately, punishing a player’s over-dependence on a single punch and encourages combination punching and diligent stamina management. In addition, improved visuals, multiple control schemes, realistic damage, boxer-specific animations and multiple stun states round out the key gameplay improvements players will experience in Fight Night Champion.

Paramount Digital Entertainment, Electronic Arts Inc. and Behaviour Interactive would like to remind you that Rango The Videogame, rated E by the ESRB, is now available worldwide for the PlayStation®3, Xbox 360®, Wii™ and Nintendo DS™. This action-adventure game is inspired by the forthcoming Paramount Pictures/Nickelodeon Movies animated feature film, Rango in theaters on March 4th . Set in the gritty, Wild West town of Dirt and filled with wily and whimsical characters, Rango The Videogame invites players to continue on Rango’s wild journey with all new tall tales, brimming with intense action and outlandish scenarios inspired by the movie.

“Rango’s fondness for telling tall tales allowed us to push the limits in creating new adventures for players of all ages to enjoy,” said Thomas Lesinski, President of Paramount Digital Entertainment. “We worked closely with the Rango filmmaking team on a unique game storyline and integrating stunning visuals from the film to create a game that delivers a great variety of game play that has already impressed the critics.”

Rango The Videogame lets players explore a wide variety of environments featured within and beyond the film and challenges them to achieve near-impossible feats as they work to uncover a plot that threatens the entire population of Dirt. Along the way, players will encounter Zombie rodents, Alien spaceships and even an 8-bit shootout inside an arcade machine. This family-friendly title captures the spirit and humor of the movie, with an extended storyline that goes beyond the vivid world of Dirt. Some of the features include:

Rango’s All New Tall Tales – Play as the quick-thinking chameleon Rango, the best Sheriff the town of Dirt has ever known, and explore a variety of new missions and environments that expand beyond those seen in the film.
Ride Roadrunners and Desert Bats – Speed through the desert atop these unconventional chariots as players engage in extraordinary acrobatic gunplay and more.
Interact with the Dirtonians – From a group of mariachi birds that provide color commentary to a gang of wild rabbits, the townsfolk of Dirt will provide no shortage of fun and entertainment.
Wild West Action and Adventure – Face hordes of hostile zombie rodents as you show the town who’s boss in good, old-fashioned shootouts where fists are flyin’ and spurs are shinin.’

I just realized that I forgot to check on which studios UK-based PocketGamer named to the top 10 and top 20 sections of its Top 50 last week, and upon checking see that GameLoft and EA Mobile were listed at number 1 and number 10 respectively. While neither developer/publisher produces 100% Canadian product, they do have a large number of mobile games developed in Canada, and both have major dev houses in Quebec, so congratulations to both of them. PocketGamer has also revealed the winners of its 2011 Awards, and again Canadian-made products were honoured.

Best iPhone Freemium Game: Lil’ Pirates (Capcom Mobile) – developed by IUGO Mobile Entertainment
Best Developer: GameLoft – in both iPhone-iPod Touch and Mobile categories
Best Publisher: EA Mobile – in iPhone-iPod Touch and iPad categories
Best Developer: Hemisphere Games in iPad Category
Best Action/Arcade Game: Mirror’s Edge for iPad (EA Mobile)
Best Sports/Driving Game: Madden NFL 11 for iPad (EA Mobile)

QuickPlay Media has unveiled Pocket Cinema™ – a service that offers consumers the ability to download, rent and watch popular movies on their video-enabled mobile device. Initially, the service is available exclusively for BlackBerry® TorchTM 9800 smartphone customers in the UK. Over time, QuickPlay plans to extend the service to additional mobile platforms and geographical markets. Customers who purchase a BlackBerry Torch from UK retailer Phones4U in March 2011 will receive a voucher for a complimentary movie download from the service.

Beginning today, BlackBerry Torch users will have access to a catalogue of hundreds of films by simply downloading Pocket Cinema on BlackBerry App World™. Users will then be able to access the movies on their BlackBerry® smartphone. Once downloaded over Wi-Fi®, the film is cached on the device and available for an unlimited number of views for 48 hours. Users don’t need a mobile signal or network connection in order to view films they have downloaded.

Tech Data Canada has introduced the StreamOne^SM Software License Selector, a new application only available on techdata.ca. The Software License Selector is the first in a series of exclusive e-business services the company is building on its new StreamOne software platform, which improves how the channel sells and distributes software by making it more efficient and less complex.

The StreamOne Software License Selector significantly surpasses contemporary software license tools in breadth and ease-of-use. In four simple steps, the StreamOne Software License Selector guides resellers through the entire software-purchasing process, sifting through hundreds of thousands of software SKUs and each vendors’ complex licensing rules to identify the right software part number, the most accurate pricing and the correct license type.

The StreamOne Software License Selector establishes the industry’s most accurate and efficient software license distribution channel, reducing the cycle time from quote to license from days to minutes. For resellers, it lowers licensing processing costs, instantly provides accurate pricing and makes it easy to attach software to all hardware sales. For vendors, it provides the opportunity to increase their channel partners as more resellers will now be able to sell software using the Software License Selector.

The StreamOne Software License Selector automates tasks like SKU selection and order qualification for 27 major software vendors—representing more than 99 percent of the software licenses purchased through Tech Data. The StreamOne Software License Selector aims to quickly solidify Tech Data’s position as the premier software license distributor for the world’s leading software companies. Additionally, the StreamOne Software License Selector will help Tech Data strengthen software sales, especially among small and medium businesses.

Software vendors supported by the StreamOne Software License Selector include: Absolute Software, Acronis, Adobe, Autodesk, BitDefender, Computer Associates, Check Point, Corel, Diskeeper, Double-Take, Filemaker, Ipswitch, Kaspersky, McAfee, Microsoft, Novell, Oracle, Parallels, Red Hat, Sage Act!, SAP, SCO, SolarWinds, Symantec, Trend Micro, Vasco, VMware.

Mission Against Terror (M.A.T.), a free-to-play shooter published by Toronto’s Wicked Interactive, has teamed with GamerSaloon.com, the world’s largest player-to-player videogame tournament network, for cash prizes. To get things started right, GamerSaloon.com is hosting a special kickoff competition.

“We are very excited to be working with Wicked Interactive. Mission Against Terror is an excellent addition to our competitive roster,” said Justin Becker, Director of Affiliated Partnerships, GamerSaloon.com. “Whereas other pay and free-to-play titles claim to be perfectly balanced for robust, satisfying competitive gameplay, M.A.T. delivers, thanks to the significant investment that was made in developing the title along with the constant user-generated improvements and enhancements.”

“We are thrilled to be part of this opportunity,” said Sam Ho, Director, Wicked Interactive. “GamerSaloon.com is a gamer community unlike any other. Rather than just talking big, games on GamerSaloon.com back up their talk with cold, hard cash.”

How to Get Started:

1. Download M.A.T. from GamerSaloon.com (www.gamersaloon.com) to be entered into a sweepstakes to win $50 Bonus Cash
2. Spend your Bonus Cash however you see fit on tournaments, generating winnings and what-have you.
3. Invite your friends to join you for the chance to win. (4- and 8-man competitions available)

Special Kickoff Competition Prizes:

1st Place: $100 + headset
2nd Place: $25 + headset
3rd Place: headset