Village Gamer

Telus has selected a packet microwave solution from DragonWave Inc. to provide additional high-capacity connectivity forspecial events. Working with DragonWave’s partner, Alliance Corporation, Telus selected DragonWave’s Horizon Compact primarily because its all-outdoor, zero-footprint design will allow for rapid deployment of service to remote locations without need for trenching optical fibre.

“The DragonWave solution offers us a cost-effective, simple and fast way to provide capacity forspecial events,” said ZouheirMansourati, VP, Network Technology & Planning, Telus. “Our partnership with DragonWave to provide last-mile capacity for video and data connectivity allows us to continue providing reliable, high-performance Telus serviceswherever and whenever opportunities present themselves.”

The Horizon Compact provides a resilient, high-performance backhaul network solution that enables service at low power consumption per bit and minimal ecological footprint. The DragonWave solution delivers simplified operations and improved total lifecycle costs.

“With the Horizon Compact, Telus can rapidly and economically deploy the reliable bandwidth that it requires for video conferencing and other innovative servicesforspecial events.” DragonWave President and CEO Peter Allen said. “Our solution’s capacity and built-in economical flexibility are unparalleled in the packet microwave industry.”

The DragonWave Horizon^® line of packet microwave systems delivers the highest levels of spectral efficiency and reliability for carrier-grade delivery of advanced applications and services. An uncompromised product design delivers pure “packet” microwave performance with software-scalable, ultra-low latency transport of up to 4 Gbps per link.

Cineplex Entertainment has announced that the official grand opening of the new IMAX theatre at SilverCity Windsor Cinemas will take place on Thursday July 14^th with a promotional presentation of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2: An IMAX 3D Experience. Beginning July 15^th, guests at SilverCity Windsor Cinemas can enjoy this highly anticipated final installment of the blockbuster film series based on the beloved books by J.K. Rowling.

The IMAX theatre at SilverCity Windsor Cinemas provides guests with an immersive movie-going experience. The theatre features revolutionary projection technology that delivers crystal-clear images and is complemented by IMAX’s latest sound system, which features its proprietary loudspeaker technology and uncompressed digital sound.

“SilverCity Windsor Cinemas is the first theatre in Southwestern Ontario to present the latest Hollywood movies in the immersive IMAX format,” said Pat Marshall, Vice President, Communications and Investor Relations, Cineplex Entertainment. “With the addition of the IMAX theatre, we are providing our guests in Windsor and the surrounding areas with a great new entertainment option to experience.”

Scene members who purchase tickets for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 in IMAX 3D at SilverCity Windsor Cinemas between July 15^th and July 29^th will earn 500 bonus Scene points. Scene members earn points with every movie admission ticket purchased at Cineplex theatres and can redeem their points for free movies and other great entertainment rewards. The Scene program is free to join.

Tickets can be purchased for upcoming IMAX presentations at the theatre box office, through the Cineplex Mobile Apps, online at the Cineplex web site, or via the Cineplex mobile site.

Every year Canada’s three levels of government invest about $12 billion in grants and contributions, but many companies report that they have little understanding of how to access these resources. With today’s launch, The Funding Portal can help Canadian businesses secure public funding through four easy steps: Find It, which is free. Should you wish to Apply for It, Score It and Advance It through the Funding Portal,  these latter three steps all require the payment of fees based upon the amount being applied for, in return for professional reviews of your application and the ultimate submission of your funding request, as described below.

The Funding Portal website features TFP Search™, a high-powered search engine that allows users to instantly search all Canadian public funding programs. Users complete their applications in secure online workrooms and can have their drafts evaluated by the Portal’s Expert Review Panel to gain valuable feedback through a TFP Scorecard™.

The Funding Portal boasts Canada’s top funding experts, including: Marielle Piché, the former Executive Director of the Industrial Research Assistance Program (IRAP); Dr. Kevin Goheen, a respected expert on tax credits (SREDs); and Dr. Sherif Barakat, a recently retired Vice President, National Research Council of Canada (NRC).

Businesses can also advance their applications using The Funding Portal’s advancement services provided by trusted accounting, law, government relations and intellectual property firms. The new service is already receiving praise from key industry associations, including the Canadian Advanced Technology Alliance (CATA) and Chambers of Commerce.

“Our members report significant challenges identifying the public funding programs that exist and in complying with the application processes—they welcome the launch of this public funding portal,” said John Reid, CATA’s president and CEO.

The Funding Portal is operated by the same group who operates The Funding Store, a private funding search and application service for Canadian businesses.

CDW Canada has announced its sponsorship of popular Canadian race car driver Alex Tagliani in the Honda Indy Toronto and Honda Indy Edmonton. Tagliani is one of only three Canadian drivers entered in the Toronto event, which will be run at Exhibition Place from July 8 to 10, 2011.

“We’re pleased and proud to be sponsoring Alex in these exciting IndyCar races,” says Mary Ann Yule, Vice President and General Manager, CDW Canada. “In the world of technology, speed and precision is vital — just as in the racing world. Alex is a great representative of racing in Canada, and his skill, perseverance and positive attitude have made him one of the best Canadian racers ever.  As a Canadian company, we’re particularly strong supporters of his journey to the finish line in Toronto and Edmonton.”

Tagliani enters the Honda Indy Toronto fresh from back-to-back pole position in Texas and Indianapolis where he won the prestigious Indy 500 Pole Award, becoming the first Canadian ever to win 500 pole. Driving for the Sam Schmidt Motorsports team, the Montreal native has enjoyed much success during his career. After driving in the Champ Car World Series from 2000 to 2007, he now competes in the IZOD IndyCar Series where he recorded five top-ten finishes last year and finished 13^th overall.

The Honda Indy Toronto is Ontario’s largest annual sporting event, and this year’s race marks the 25^th anniversary of open-wheel racing excitement on the streets of Toronto. The 11-turn temporary street course near downtown Toronto has proven to be one of the most challenging IndyCar courses anywhere, and has hosted many of the world’s top drivers. Following this weekend’s race, CDW Canada’s support of Alex Tagliani will continue at the Honda Indy Edmonton from July 22 to 24, 2011.

Sympatico.ca, which reaches 9.5 million Canadians (according to ComScore), has launched a new mobile application for smartphone users across the nation. The free bilingual app will give Canadians one tap access to the best in news, music and entertainment including stories from across the Sympatico portal. The Sympatico.ca mobile app is available for download now from popular application stores or by visiting apps.sympatico.ca.

The app uses best-of-breed mobile functionality to refine content based on opt-in user preferences and location-based services (LBS). This elevates the user experience by taking the work out of finding relevant information. It also has a QR (2D barcode) reader to make interacting with mobile codes even easier.

“Sympatico.ca is defining the next era of mobile applications for Canadians by demonstrating what is possible when you leverage innovative design, technology and content to engage people,” said David MacPhie, Associate Director, Mobile Products, Sympatico.ca. “Mobile apps have emerged as powerful content distribution channels for consumers and advertisers alike. We’re giving our audience another convenient way to access the content they love by combining it with progressive mobile technology.”

Designed for ease of use and speed, the Sympatico.ca mobile app revolves around an innovative interface featuring quick access to the full depth of Sympatico.ca’s content including news headlines, local weather, celebrity gossip, horoscopes, music, autos and sports. A bevy of features including push notifications, bilingual support, user preferences, social sharing (SMS, Email, Twitter and Facebook) and a QR code reader create an optimal experience for all Canadians to engage with content that resonates.

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

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

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

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

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

Integrated information technology services company Victrix has been chosen by Microsoft as “Partner of the Year” in Canada from among all the Canadian companies that put their names forward for this title. Over 3,000 partners from around the world registered for the competition and only one was selected per country. Victrix will receive this honour at the Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC), an annual event attended by over 17,000 participants from all over the world, to be held this year in Los Angeles from July 10 to 14.

Through this award, Microsoft recognizes all the efforts Victrix has made over the past twelve months to develop markets for collaborative solutions, unified communications and technology infrastructure. One of the ways in which Victrix stood out from the other companies in the running was in the area of Customer Immersion Experience (CIE). These sessions allow users to simulate real-life business situations using computers equipped with the latest tools such as Microsoft Office 2010 suite, SharePoint collaboration software and Lync communication software, to name just a few. Since September 2010, Victrix has organized more than 40 CIE sessions in Montreal and Quebec City. They have been attended by around 320 participants, who were able to test and assess the many opportunities offered by the latest Microsoft technologies.

Jean Julien, Victrix Director of Alliances and Partnerships, considers CIEs to be “the most effective, individualized way to demonstrate the effectiveness of the state-of-the-art products offered by Microsoft.” He added: “This title clearly shows Microsoft’s recognition for our efforts in promoting the full value of the Office 2010 suite. The title of Canadian Partner of the Year once again illustrates the relationship of trust we have with Microsoft and reaffirms our expertise in providing tailor-made, secure solutions that allow all users to work together and interact effectively in order to increase the company’s performance.”

Victrix Co-Founder and Chairman of the Board Marc-André Poulin will receive the award on behalf of Victrix. Poulin has also been invited to attend a dinner held by Microsoft’s Corporate Vice-President of Worldwide Partner Group, John Roskill, at the WPC. Jean Julien has been asked to give two presentations and participate in a panel discussion. Finally, Stéphan Gariépy, Victrix’s Vice-President for Eastern Quebec, will also participate in a panel discussion held during the event. During the forums, these three Victrix standard-bearers will take the opportunity to talk about the full potential of CIE and share the company’s success in this area.

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

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

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

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

Canadian consulting firm Ideaca, a specialist in assisting customers through a portfolio of management consulting, advisory, implementation and support services, has announced that the company is expanding its retail practice into the United States.

Ideaca has been a leading provider of solutions to retailers for over 10 years with experience delivering Dynamics AX for Retail, combined with expertise in the end-to-end Microsoft suite. These solutions have delivered benefits for a variety of retail clients including LS Retail North America, Sobeys, Subaru and many others. Ideaca will now look to leverage that experience with a strong network of partners to deliver these solutions both in Canada and the United States.

Ideaca is a Certified Microsoft partner and has recently been recognized for numerous achievements including:

• 2011 Microsoft Dynamics Customer Excellence Award – Excellence in Industry Implementation for retail solution delivered to LS Retail North America
• 2011 Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference Awards – Dynamics Retail Partner of the Year Finalist
• Microsoft Dynamics President’s Club for 2011
• Certified Microsoft Partner with Gold competencies in ERP, CRM, Business Intelligence and Silver competencies in Portals & Collaboration, Application Integration, Virtualization, Data Platform and Web Development

“We are proud to recognize Ideaca from our highly valued worldwide partner network,” said Jon Roskill, Corporate Vice President, Worldwide Partner Group, Microsoft Corp. “We applaud the unique perspective and creativity they bring to solving customer business and technology challenges. Our strong partnership along with their commitment to customers plays an essential role in our mutual, long-term success.”

“Ideaca is committed and focused on delivering value-based solutions to the retail industry,” said James Gurney, Director, Retail Solutions, Ideaca. “We look forward to helping clients across North America reduce costs, increase operational efficiencies and streamline core business processes with our integrated retail solution offerings.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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