Village Gamer

Toronto – The Adventure Company and JoWooD Productions, leading publishers of adventure games worldwide, are pleased to announce The Hardy Boys: The Hidden Theft is under development for Wii™ set to be released September 2009.

The Adventure Company and JoWooD have a partnership with Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing to develop a series of interactive games based on the works of the popular boy detectives.  The company released The Hardy Boys: The Hidden Theft for Windows® in 2008.

The Hardy Boys for Wii is an excellent choice in games suitable for the whole family.  It incorporates an enjoyable story, likable characters and challenging puzzles,” said Dan Dawang, Product Manager at The Adventure Company.  “It’s a non-violent video game option that players of all ages and fans of The Hardy Boys book series can become a part of with the immersive gameplay style of Wii.”

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High tech executives are signing up to race in popular fundraiser for research into early detection of cancer at BC Cancer Agency

Vancouver/Victoria – High-tech company CEO’s will design and hand-build a fleet of sleek soap box race cars for the annual Canary Derby Soapbox race which will be held in Vancouver on  Saturday June 27th and Victoria on June 28th, to raise funds for the Canary Project of BC Cancer Foundation for cancer early detection research at the BC Cancer Agency. Canary Foundation of Canada, which is dedicated to funding early detection of cancer, is partnering with BC Cancer Foundation on this international cancer research effort.

Last year the first Vancouver Annual Canary Derby signed up 21 teams raising over $110,000 benefiting the Canary Project at BC Cancer Foundation.

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Toronto – Cookie Jar Entertainment’s new series, Peter Pepper’s Pet Spectacular has been greenlit for production in 2009. This is the first Canadian – South African animation co-production where the work will not be subcontracted outside of either country. The co-production between Canada’s Cookie Jar Entertainment, a leading global independent producer of children’s entertainment, and Clockwork Zoo, South Africa’s biggest animation studio, is scheduled to air on CBC.

“We are thrilled to co-produce this wonderful series with Clockwork Zoo,” said Toper Taylor, President and COO, Cookie Jar Entertainment. “This marks a great moment in animation and we believe that Cookie Jar’s history of making quality children’s entertainment along with Clockwork Zoo’s creativity and strong presence in South Africa’s animation industry will make this a successful series.”
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Toronto – Kaboose Inc. (TSX: KAB), one of the largest family-focused media companies in the world, today announced that it has entered into two separate agreements which together will effect the sale of substantially all of its assets. Following the completion of these two transactions, Kaboose intends on distributing the resulting net proceeds to its shareholders. The Company expects that such net proceeds will result in approximately $0.65 per share being distributed to shareholders in the months following completion of the transactions, which distributions represent approximately a 70% premium to the thirty-day average closing price of Kaboose’s stock on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

The two agreements will effect the sale of the Company’s UK business, being Bounty Group Limited, to a company controlled by funds managed by Barclays Private Equity Limited (“BPE”) and the sale of the Company’s North American business to Disney Online, a unit of Disney Interactive Media Group segment.

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Ottawa – The New York Times launched today a new crossword application for the Apple iPhone and iPod touch models. Developed by Ottawa’s Magmic Games, the crossword application is designed to closely mirror the print crossword experience, with a simple user interface and three different puzzle views. It features the daily puzzle from the newspaper, 30 classic puzzles edited by Will Shortz, crossword editor, The New York Times, and an archive of more than 4,000 puzzles.

Other features include the ability to:

* Send messages and compare solve times with other users
* Compete against top players through the online leader board
* Write in pen or pencil
* Solve puzzles on the grid or directly from the clues list
* Highlight related clues automatically

The New York Times crossword application is available for a one-time cost of $9.99 through the Apple App Store. Magmic is also developing a NY Times version of Sudoku.

Toronto –  CCI Entertainment Ltd. in association with MotionWorks GmbH, and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation are proud to announce the launch of Artzooka! a new multinational, multiplatform children’s property that takes both art and entertainment to a whole new level. The series will be a mix of live action and animation and will be produced in various languages. The initial order includes 26 episodes in English which have been bought by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

Artzooka! is a mix of fun, intrigue and surprise and shows kids that everyone can be an artist and that art can be made out of anything and everything. The series will present unique and innovative ways of being creative as well as provide children with a solid foundation on a range of art techniques. The property will feature cutting edge digital elements and electronic art and will include bizarre, animated characters that contribute to the shows upbeat, off-the-wall energy. All of the art projects will be easily mastered and accessible to all children while at the same time being inventive and dazzling.

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Vancouver – IUGO has announced the upcoming release of two new titles which have been originally designed “from the ground up” specifically for the iPhone. Due out this spring, these two games will be available in the Apps Store for purchase and download.

Starhogs

Rig up your hogs, strap yourself in, and head out into orbit for the fiercest battles this side of Uranus. Obliterate the competition with a Cruise Missile or close in for some potshots from your Vulcan gun with this turn-based strategy experience. Not your style? Don’t worry, you’ve got more than 20 ways to kill someone. Nuke some asteroids for an extra payday, but remember, they’re the only thing protecting you from a re-entry hangover you won’t wake up from.

Take out some chumps and unlock heaps of new gear in 32 campaign levels, or ride into the online arena to face curly tails from all over the universe. But remember, in space no one can hear you squeal. Starhogs is due for release in April 2009.

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Vancouver – Sierra Wireless today announced the expansion of the company’s patent-pending TRU-Flow™ technology to include Sierra Wireless EV-DO products. First launched in the company’s HSPA product line in 2007 to address the issue of reduced data transfer speed during simultaneous upload and download, TRU-Flow is the only technology in the world to improve web page load times during uplink congestion even with virtual private network (VPN) enabled.

Sierra Wireless TRU-Flow is designed to address the way real users work over their wireless connections. When a wireless network user attempts to upload and download over the wireless network at the same time, congestion can reduce data throughput, slowing down performance. Sierra Wireless TRU-Flow monitors IP traffic and data throughput to optimize the overall upload and download modem performance. When there is uplink congestion, TRU-Flow technology is theoretically capable of 9 times increase in download throughput. Field tests show an average 100 percent increase in the download throughput performance and an average 100 percent improvement in web page load times even with a VPN enabled and regardless of the mobile operator network.

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Cyber-Shot Camera Lets You Share Your Memories in the Moment

Toronto – With a focus on making photo sharing easier and more convenient, Sony of Canada Ltd. today introduced the world’s first Wi-Fi® enabled digital camera that uploads photos and videos to Web sites through any public hotspot due to its built-in Web browser.

The new Cyber-shot DSC-G3 digital still camera answers one of the most pressing needs for photo enthusiasts: how to share those amazing photos and video clips of family, friends and events as soon as you shoot. The Cyber-shot camera makes it easy to upload images and video directly to popular photo and video sharing sites wherever a Wi-Fi connection is available.

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Software allows lost/stolen computers to be quickly retrieved and sensitive information to be remotely deleted

Vancouver – Absolute® Software Corporation, the leading provider of firmware-based, patented, computer theft recovery, data protection and IT asset management solutions announced today that Getac rugged notebooks and tablet PCs are now available with firmware support for Absolute’s mobile computer anti-theft and IT asset management solution Computrace®.

“Getac rugged notebooks and tablet PCs are designed for the mobile workforce in extreme environments – on an oil rig, in emergency response vehicles, or helping firefighters with rescue planning,” said Jim Rimay, president, Getac, Inc. “Having Computrace embedded in the firmware of our computers gives our customers the additional security and satisfaction of knowing they can track and manage computers as well as delete sensitive data even if the hard drive is replaced or reformatted. Absolute’s services are an ideal complement to our world-class rugged notebook computers and tablets.”

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