Village Gamer

Corel Digital Media products include the latest in photo and video editing, disc authoring and video and disc playback with the latest Blu-ray support

Ottawa – Corel Corporation today announced that key partners will exhibit its high-definition playback and authoring software at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) from January 8-11, 2009 at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. Corel products to be demonstrated at CES include Corel® WinDVD®, Corel® LinDVD® and Corel® DVD MovieFactory®. Corel will also demonstrate its complete line of Digital Media products in private meeting rooms 6221mp and 6222mp, located in the North Hall. Current and potential OEM clients may contact Corel to schedule a meeting at corel.oem -at- corel -dot- com.

Corel at CES

The following Corel partners will exhibit Corel products at CES:

Intel (Corel WinDVD)
Central Hall, Booth 7153

Dolby (Corel WinDVD and Corel DVD MovieFactory)
Lower South 1 LVCC, Booth 20901

Phoenix Technologies (Corel LinDVD)
Central Hall, Booth 9014

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Absolute to feature real-life computer recovery stories of LoJack for Laptop customers

Vancouver – Absolute(R) Software Corporation, the leading provider of firmware-based, patented, computer theft recovery, data protection and IT asset management solutions, is showcasing its home office computer security service, Computrace(R) LoJack(R) for Laptops, at MacWorld Expo and the Consumer Electronics Association’s CES 2009.

Absolute is an industry leader in anti-theft and security solutions for mobile computers. Throughout MacWorld and CES, Absolute will provide the opportunity for media and attendees to learn about Absolute’s real-life computer theft recovery stories, as well as its IT asset management, managed theft recovery and data protection technologies.

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Toronto – YANGAROO Inc., the industry’s leading secure digital media distribution company, is pleased to announce that it has received allowance of its United States Patent Application #10/431,854 titled “Content Distribution System and Method” from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). The formal Letters Patent grant is expected to follow shortly.

The patent in the U.S. for “Content Distribution System and Method” covers a method of distributing digital content, such as music and advertising, to selected individuals over the Internet, in which the uploading content provider selects the individuals that are entitled to access the content and sets release conditions, like a time and date, and where the identities of the selected individuals are verified at login and are provided with access to the uploaded content if the release conditions are met.
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Unique Wireless and Powerline home connectivity solutions powered by ExtremeUSB will be showcased at Parks Associates Connections Reception, and the DS2 Booth on the CES Show Floor

Burnaby – Icron Technologies (TSX Venture: IT), leading providers of USB extension and bridging solutions, today announced that it will be demonstrating new and innovative PC to TV connectivity solutions based on its patented ExtremeUSB(R) technology at CES. Demonstrations will take place on the CES show floor at the DS2 Booth (Booth No. 26129, South Hall 2) and at the Parks Associates CES Connections Summit Reception, taking place at the Las Vegas Hilton on Friday, January 9th from 6pm-8pm.

Icron’s Interactive PC to TV connectivity solutions demonstrate the ability for home users to interactively access all PC content and applications, including real-time Internet content, on TVs throughout the home. The solutions combine HD quality PC video along with full USB functionality, including mouse, keyboard, flash drive, webcam, and other USB peripherals, and extends them over standard 802.11n Wireless or Powerline networking technologies, enabling a true PC experience on the TV.
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Storage Appliance Corp.’s Latest Breakthrough Turns Any External Hard Drive from Any Manufacturer into an Effortless, Clickfree Backup Solution, Eliminating the Risk of Losing Precious Photos, Videos, Music and Data Forever

Richmond Hill, ON – Storage Appliance Corp., the company whose portable backup systems made the otherwise laborious task of backing up computer data manually a thing of the past – today announced another breakthrough with the launch of its Clickfree Transformer Cable. The new Transformer USB cable instantly turns any competitor’s external hard drive into a Clickfree automatic backup device, completely eliminating the hassle and confusion of installing and configuring backup software. Like all Clickfree products, there is no software to install or configure, it is truly automatic – right out of the box.

“The Clickfree name has become synonymous with effort-free computer backup. Regardless of what the competition claims, our new Clickfree Transformer Cable is the only way to make a regular external hard drive easy to use, requiring no software or configuration, and immediately backing up everything that matters from your computer’s hard drive,” says Storage Appliance Corp. CEO, Bryan McLeod. “The Transformer Cable works with any manufacturer’s USB external hard drive to deliver automatic, no-click backing up. Finally, you can stop avoiding backup because it was too much trouble!”

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In less than one year, the browser-based parody RPG Forumwarz has attracted more than 100,000 users. Supported primarily by user donations, it is one of the first browser-based games to successfully use a “shareware model” to sustain itself.

Toronto – Forumwarz, a parody role-playing game that takes place on the internet, recently confirmed that it has surpassed the 100,000 sign-up mark since its public launch in February, 2008.

The game, which has been described by Wired News as “an offensive but deadly funny approach to lampooning the poor grammar, childish humor and bad manners of the web’s underbelly,” managed to attract a surprisingly large niche mostly through reputation, word-of-blog and favorable reviews from such sites as Gawker, The Onion A.V. Club, Digital Journal and Gamasutra.

Forumwarz skewers both internet culture and traditional MMORPG tropes by combining the two in an off-color and sometimes deliberately offensive mash-up. Players can choose classes such as Troll, Hacker, Emo Kid, Camgirl or Noob, while using a World of Warcraft-like attack bar to derail or “pwn” various internet forums.

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Toronto – What kind of a future does 2009 hold in store for voice overs and the language services industry? Quite a bright one indeed according to the 2009 Report (PDF) released by the experts at Voices.com, revealing that $10.9 billion was spent in 2008 on language services and voice recording, an industry that is expected to grow by 7.5% to $11.7 billion in 2009. Voices.com is an online workplace that connects buyers with sellers of voice over and audio recording services.

Alongside rising sales for MP3 players, mobile phones and gaming consoles, the demand for voice acting in podcasts, audiobooks and video games has naturally increased as a result, becoming even more relevant to everyday consumers as the applications soar in popularity and reach new market demographics.

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10 Films, 20 Speakers, 6 Days, 1 Fantastic Festival

Vancouver – The ACM SIGGRAPH Vancouver Chapter has released preliminary details on the featured films which will be shown at the upcoming SparkFX Festival taking place January 21 – 26 2009 at the Vancouver International Film Centre (VanCity Theatre) in Vancouver, BC. In addition to these top VFX films, Spark FX will be showcasing 15 seminars and panels “with some of the most talented FX artists and researchers from Vancouver, San Francisco, Los Angeles and beyond.” Among the speakers will be Dennis Muren, Senior Visual Effects Supervisor at ILM, where he has worked since 1976. The winner of six Best Visual Effects Academy Awards, Dennis Muren has worked with George Lucas, Steven Spielberg and James Cameron.

There will be a Festival Networking Mixer with music and a cash bar at 6pm on Friday, January 23 as well as the Festival Gala, which will take place at 8:30pm on Saturday, January 24.

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Due to an increasing number of Canadians who shop online, Amazon.ca has just finished its busiest holiday shopping season in six years. Canadians had purchased gifts for friends and family not only in Canada, but around the world. Amazon.ca shipped holiday gifts to 120 countries around the world, including Algeria, Aruba, Australia, Bulgaria, Costa Rica, Egypt, Jamaica, Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia, Malawi, Pakistan, Romania, Slovakia, Trinidad and Tobago, Uganda, Vanuatu and Zambia. Within Canada, gifts were sent as far north as Grise Fiord, Nunavut, as far east as St. Brendan’s, Newfoundland, and as far west as Beaver Creek, Yukon.

“At Amazon.ca we are constantly working to offer our customers the best possible shopping experience, not just around the holidays, but throughout the entire year,” said Julie Todaro, director of Amazon.ca. “We are thrilled that we were able to provide our customers with an increased variety of products by opening the Electronics Store in time for the holidays, and would like to thank all of our customers for their support. We look forward to continuing to
offer great prices, a seamless shopping experience and one-stop convenience in the coming year.”

Amazon.ca’s five bestselling items during the holiday season in each product category (based on units ordered since Nov. 1, 2008) were:

Video Games

1. Nintendo Wii includes Wii Sports
2. Nintendo Wii Nunchuk Controller
3. Nintendo Wii Remote Controller
4. “World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King” Expansion Pack
5. “Mario Kart” Wii with Wii Wheel
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Kelowna, BC – Two-and-a-half million Club Penguin players embraced the spirit of the season and displayed their passion for helping others this holiday by participating in a unique online giving opportunity that let them donate virtual coins to support real world causes.

The second annual Coins for Change campaign, which ran from Dec. 12, 2008 through Dec. 22, 2008, encouraged the kids who play Club Penguin to donate the coins they earn playing games within the popular virtual world in support of causes dedicated to helping children.

At the end of the campaign, players had donated three billion virtual coins. The virtual donations served as votes which were tallied for New Horizon Foundation, an organization started by the founders of Club Penguin, to help it determine how to allocate $1 million amongst charities dedicated to helping children. New Horizon Foundation has selected the following charities to receive a portion of its donation:

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