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Finding Direction In Canada’s Digital Compass Competition

Toon Boom [1]MontrealToon Boom [1] has released a new version of their Flip Boom Classic [2] animation software. Version 4 now has sound recording ability, so users can add their own voices and sound effects to their animations. Flip Boom Classic 4 is designed primarily for kids who would like to learn computer animation, and today’s new release comes with Easter templates as well as a full tutorial. Flip Boom Classic 4 can be purchased online for only $39.99.

PricewaterhouseCoopers [3]Toronto – All signs point to a digital transformation in the way we do business, our lifestyles and the global economy. As Canada tries to find its footing in the digital industry, today PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP [3] (PwC) has launched Canada’s Digital Compass [4] – a ‘crowdsourcing’ competition that will ask Canadians to help define the nation’s role in the future digital economy.

Canada’s Digital Compass will draw a community of Canadians who are passionate about digital transformation to submit and vote on ideas that could help position Canada to lead the digital economy. Weekly competitions will take place on five topic areas and winners from each competition will participate in a final showdown on May 4, 2010 where the top three ideas will be chosen. The three winners will be awarded tickets to the Canada 3.0 conference [5] at the University of Waterloo on May 10-11, 2010 where their submissions could be presented to attendees.

“The best ideas are developed by collaborating with others and Canada’s Digital Compass is a crowdsourcing initiative which is built on this principle,” says Tracey Riley, partner and national leader of the Technology, Information, Communication and Entertainment (TICE) practice of PwC. “Canada is home to some of the brightest minds in the digital space and this program will allow a community of digital enthusiasts to contribute, critique and build upon ideas that will help Canada lead in the digital realm.”

In addition to community involvement, a panel of digital experts will also weigh in on the submissions and will assist in selecting the top three winners. Their decisions will be based on the ideas with the most community votes and how well each submission aligns with the three measures of success:  economic potential, how it fits with Canada’s capabilities and how it reflects Canada’s values.

“The panel is comprised of experts from a wide range of industry backgrounds and will play an important part in the campaign,” says Riley. “Along with feedback from the community, the panelists will inject valuable insights on the submissions based on their expertise.”

The panel of judges includes:

– Mike Kirkup, Director of Developer Relations, Research In Motion (RIM)
– Jacob Glick, Policy Counsel, Google
– Barbara Bailie, Director of Interactive, Astral Television Networks
– Olivier Vincent, President and CEO, Canpages
– Jerry Brown, Associate Partner, Consulting and Deals, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP

Weekly Competitions and Subjects:

– Technology – March 16 – 29, 2010
– Education – March 30 – April 5, 2010
– Media Production – April 6 – 12, 2010
– Connectivity – April 13 – 19, 2010
– Policy Development – April 20 – 26, 2010

Best Buy Canada [6]SurreyBest Buy Canada [6] will be celebrating the grand opening of its new South Surrey store beginning Friday, March 26 at 15760 Croydon Drive, Surrey, B.C. (at Grandview Corners). The grand opening specials and $500 daily Gift Card giveaways are also included at all Lower Mainland Best Buy locations!

Grand Opening Weekend Schedule of Events:

Friday, March 26, 2010

– Before 9:45 am: Line up for a chance to win a $500 Best Buy gift card
– 9:45 am: Cheque presentations: $2,500 to Big Brothers of Greater Vancouver and $2,500 to Big Sisters B.C. Lower Mainland
– 9:30 am: $20,000 cheque presentation from Monster Cable to Olympic Gold Medalist Chandra Crawford for Fast & Female
– 5 – 7 pm: Iron Man meet and greet

Saturday, March 27, 2010

– Before 9:45 am: Line up for a chance to win a $500 Best Buy gift card
– 2 pm: Olympic speed skating gold medalist Denny Morrison and Olympic speed skating silver and bronze medalist Kristina Groves photograph and autograph session

Sunday, March 28, 2010

– Before 9:45 am: Line up for a chance to win a $500 Best Buy gift card
– 2 pm: Meet Vancouver Canuck, Alex Burrows

[7]OttawaCorel Corporation [7] has introduced Corel® WordPerfect® Office X5 [8], the newest version of the world’s leading alternative to Microsoft® Office. Delivering enhanced online collaboration tools, a new integrated email client and expanded file format support, the latest version of WordPerfect Office has been designed to offer users even greater flexibility in how they work, both online and offline. WordPerfect Office X5 [8]

“For more than 20 years, WordPerfect Office has earned the trust and loyalty of millions of users by providing essential tools and innovations that are designed specifically to address the evolving needs of our customers,” said Jason Larock, Director of Product Management for Corel’s Office Productivity group. “With WordPerfect Office X5, we’ve expanded the scope of our suite, to provide customers with a unique solution that addresses the new requirements of an online-offline workflow while enhancing the formatting features and PDF tools that our users have come to rely on.”

Offering exceptional value to new and existing users alike, WordPerfect Office X5 offers a complete suite of powerful office productivity applications, all from one trusted source. And with support for more than 60 file formats, including Microsoft Office files, WordPerfect Office X5 makes it easy for users to create and share files in whatever format they choose. The newest version of WordPerfect Office includes a number of established customer favorites along with new additions that reflect the evolving requirements of today’s users.

• A complete office suite comprised of WordPerfect® X5 for word processing; Quattro Pro® X5 for spreadsheets, charts and graphs; Presentations™ X5 for creating and presenting slideshows and demonstrations; and WordPerfect® Lightning™ for collecting and storing information for digital note taking
• Enhanced PDF Tools: The world’s first PDF office suite continues to offer users unrivaled flexibility when working with PDF documents, including PDF creation out of each application, opening PDFs in WordPerfect, creating archival and password protected PDFs
• Better integration with document management systems including Microsoft® Office SharePoint®
• New Web services integration: Now users can quickly and easily populate their documents with content pulled directly from a Web service or internal Enterprise system
• New Mozilla® Thunderbird® for WordPerfect Office: An integrated email client and calendar that offers a tabbed e-mail view and powerful search tools
• New Nuance® PaperPort® SE 12: Users now have the ability to easily organize, annotate and share PDFs
• Expanded support for Microsoft Office’s latest XML formats, allowing users to open, edit and save in OOXML (docx, xlsx, pptx) formats
• New Reference Center: It is now easier to find answers, with guided tutorials for every part of the suite
• File Format Freedom: Compatibility with more than 60 file types, including Microsoft Office, enables users to focus on the content of their files, not the format. And enhanced compatibility with binary Microsoft Office formats ensures that file content displays better than ever before

 

Open Text [9]WaterlooOpen Text Corporation [10] said today that it’s extending the reach of its ECM solutions to mobile devices in a bold new strategy designed to help organizations harness the power of today’s mobile workforce to increase productivity.  As part of its strategy, the company is unveiling a new application called Open Text Everywhere [11] that will make the entire Open Text ECM Suite available via mobile devices. Focusing initially on BlackBerry® smartphones, the company announced a first set of mobile applications today with plans for more in the year ahead.

The time is right for mobile content applications, as smartphones gain in power and grow as a critical tool for productive workers on the go. According to an IDC study [12], the number of mobile workers accessing enterprise systems worldwide will top one billion this year. This increasingly mobile workforce will demand access to more enterprise content, business processes and collaborative tools normally reserved for the desktop or laptop. Today, the biggest applications dominating smartphones are email, calendaring, messaging, personal contacts, and entertainment.

“We call them ‘smartphones’ but the fact is they can take over the role of laptops,” said Eugene Roman, Chief Technology Officer at Open Text. “The power of smartphones is only growing and they offer an entirely new platform to extend the productivity of workers in ways we never imagined just a few years ago.”

For example, a September, 2009 study [13] (PDF) by Forrester Consulting stated: “BlackBerry devices enable workers to be more efficient and productive in their daily work activities. These productivity benefits vary depending on the type of employee using the BlackBerry device, the range of mobile applications deployed over these devices, and the maturity deployment stage of the organization. For example sales professionals can improve weekly productivity by 1 to 2 hours per week in a reactive deployment organization, 4 to 7 hours per week in a proactive organization, and 13 to 21 hours per week in an integrative organization. Significant productivity benefit ranges are also achieved by field service and executive management personnel.”

“Statistics like those are hard for senior management to ignore as they look to grow their business with shrinking budgets,” said Roman. “Business doesn’t stop when we leave the desktop or the laptop. It’s time to unleash business content, processes and applications to go wherever employees need them on a smartphone. Open Text Everywhere will let CIOs extend the productivity power of mobility across their business.”

Open Text Everywhere will deliver a comprehensive view of business processes, content and workplace social collaboration tools via native applications unique to each mobile platform. While Open Text’s first applications will be introduced for BlackBerry smartphones in early May, the company also plans to support other mobile operating systems in its product strategy. Open Text Everywhere uses the BlackBerry platform’s secure connection transportation layer for fully encrypted wireless communication, and uses the same permission model to allow mobile users to access content in the Open Text ECM Suite.  Longer term, Open Text plans to develop a mobile media management application that lets users import mashed up content images, video and text straight from a smartphone into secure, searchable repositories or online corporate social networks.

PDFConverter [14]Vancouver PDFconverter.com [14] is excited to announce the release of FreePDF Creator [15], a fully free desktop tool for high-quality PDF creation. The fully free nature of FreePDF Creator means no limits on how much the software can be used to create PDF documents, making it a great alternative to other costly PDF creators on the market.free PDFconverter [16]

FreePDF Creator employs a simple to use, user-friendly interface that can print over 300 different Windows file formats to PDF. PDF documents can be created directly from the source program that the document was created in. FreePDF Creator has been tested and is compatible with current Microsoft Windows operating systems, including Windows 2000, XP, Vista and the newly released Windows 7 and it is also compatible with 64-bit machines.

FreePDF Creator includes several helpful features, such as the ability to create secure PDF files with 128-bit encryption. Free PDF Creator also includes the ability to customize PDF files by adding additional file information and by setting the quality of the PDF output depending upon the desired use of the resulting PDF.

The portable document format (PDF) has firmly established itself as the standard for e-document viewing, distribution and storage. FreePDF creator and pdfconverter.com are excited to be able to give users a free way to share their personal and business documents in a precise and extremely cost effective way.