| Press Releases for the Week of March 9, 2009 |
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New MSI Gaming Notebook features NVIDIA GeForce GTS 160M GPU
MAJESCO ENTERTAINMENT ANNOUNCES 'GO PLAY CITY SPORTS' FOR Wii™ Family Friendly Title Transforms City Streets Into Competitive Urban Playgrounds This Fall EDISON, N.J., March 9, 2009 - Lace up your sneakers and get ready to hit the pavement as Majesco Entertainment Company (NASDAQ: COOL), an innovative provider of video games for the mass market, announces Go Play City Sports for Wii™. The latest title in Majesco's recently announced Go Play line of motion-based video games for the whole family, Go Play City Sports recreates the experience of playing sports in a vast urban playground where manhole covers double as home plate. The all-new sports compilation allows players to compete against the best neighborhood athletes in six classic games, including stickball, kickball, handball, rooftop hockey, shootout soccer and jump rope. UNIBIND WINS DIMA 2009 INNOVATIVE DIGITAL PRODUCT AWARD FOR PHOTOS N SOUNDS Photos N Sounds is First Photo Book with Sound Records Personalized Voice Messages, Child’s First Words, & Plays Songs for aCompletely Personalized Photography Experience
Unibind Photos N Sounds was chosen from hundreds of digital products on display at Sneak Peek 2009 during PMA, held in Las Vegas, March 3-5, 2009. The annual award is one of several events sponsored by the Digital Imaging Marketing Association® (DIMA®), a PMA® member association in Jackson, Michican. DIMA Innovative Digital Product Awards recognize products or services utilizing new technologies and/or applications that make the product either distinct or the first of its kind. The product or service must be available within 90 days of PMA 09 to qualify for the DIMA Innovative Digital Product Award. Winning products were selected by a panel of digital imaging editors to receive the prestigious DIMA Innovative Digital Product Award. The awards are given to products or services utilizing new technologies and/or applications that make the product either distinct or the first of its kind.
Companies were asked to submit entries for their product/service to allow a panel of industry press to evaluate the products and services for the DIMA Innovative Digital Product Awards. All entries were evaluated based on the following questions: 1: Why is this product/service considered innovative?2: What sets this product/service apart from its competitors? 3: How does this product/service benefit its user? “We are honored to win the prestigious DIMA Innovative Digital Product Award for the ground-breaking Photos N Sounds,” said Rusty Redecker, Vice President, Peleman Industries Inc. “Photo books preserve the image. Now with Photos N Sounds, you can also capture priceless sound to further enhance the emotional tie photo books offer for an even more profoundly creative experience.” Photos N Sounds lets you describe your photos and provide the background story for a photo album, preserve a child’s first words, remember a wedding toast, or simply play a melody -- the possibilities are endless! Business applications include recording content for marketing pieces and verbal descriptions for realtors selling homes. Patent-Pending Technology Featuring unique, easy-to-use patent-pending technology, recording a message with Photos N Sounds is extremely simple: just press and hold the record button and start recording your personal message. Messages can be re-recorded as many times as you’d like. When satisfied, remove the tab to make your recording permanent. Photos N Sounds comes with replaceable batteries, with covers available in a variety of colors and sizes. Available May 1, 2009, Photos N Sounds pricing will be determined. For more information, see www.unibind.com About Peleman IndustriesPeleman Industries Inc, a privately held manufacturer of binding and presentation products founded in 1939. With its worldwide headquarters in Puurs, Belgium, the company opened its U.S. corporate office in Alpharetta, GA., in 1999. Today, Unibind products are distributed globally, reaching more than 100 countries. For more information, visit www.unibind.com.
CASIO INTRODUCES STYLISH NEW 10.1 MEGAPIXEL DIGITAL CAMERA EX-Z29 Offers Increased Portability and 23 Best Shot Modes to EXILIM Zoom Series of Digital Cameras LAS VEGAS, NV, MARCH 3, 2009 — Casio America, Inc. and its parent company, Casio Computer Co., Ltd., introduced the latest addition to its stylish series of EXILIM digital cameras today, the EXILIM Zoom EX-Z29. This newest member of the EXILIM line features a stylish, slim and compact design to increase portability, and provides an improved 10.1 megapixels of image resolution with 3X optical zoom. The EX-Z29 will be on display at Casio’s booth at the Photo Marketing Association International Convention and Tradeshow. This new model stays true to the user-friendly features that have become standard to the EXILIM Zoom series. The 2.7-inch wide LCD display enables users to easily navigate camera operations and enhance the review of images, while the 23 Best Shot Modes and face detection technology help users take high quality photos without having to adjust camera settings. “Casio is dedicated to creating digital cameras that feature superior technology while maintaining an ease of use for the consumer,” said Bill Heuer, Vice President of Sales for Digital Imaging Division at Casio America, Inc. “We continue to be a leader in the digital camera industry, providing fun and convenient ways to capture quality photographs.” The EX-Z29 comes loaded with other useful features including Anti-Shake DSP which reduces photo blur from shaky hands or moving subjects, allowing users to shoot images with ease and confidence. Easy Mode simplifies the camera settings to three easy menus (image size, flash and self timer). With Easy Mode, the camera is set to take great photos in every situation without having to check presets or accidentally making a wrong adjustment. Casio’s Face Detection Technology maintains a sharp focus and the correct exposure for the human face. Available at retail in April, the EX-Z29 will be available in black, pink, blue, silver and purple with an MSRP of $149.99. Please see the following pages for details on the new model.
EX-Z29 Specifications
2K Sports Announces Major League Baseball® 2K9 Now Available in Retail Stores Play Ball! Visual Concepts offers fans the Major Leagues down to the minor details New York, NY – March 3, 2009 – 2K Sports, the sports publishing label of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. (NASDAQ: TTWO), announced today that Major League Baseball® 2K9 is now available in retail stores for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, the PLAYSTATION®3 and PlayStation®2 computer entertainment systems, Wii™ home video game system from Nintendo, and Windows PC. Featuring National League Cy Young Award Winner Tim Lincecum, Major League Baseball 2K9 adds to its impressive library of player–specific animations with more than 300 new Signature Style™ animations. Players are brought to life at the plate, on the mound and in the field, to play ball like never before.This season, Major League Baseball 2K9 offers fans improved two-step Precision Pitching™ controls, deeper Swing Stick™ batting and quick fielding responses for even greater control of the game. The improved batting controls provide the ability to influence hits with timing and aim, improved hit distribution and variety to deliver more hit types including spray shots, pulls, line drives and long bombs. With more than six years of scouting reports infused into the action on the field, Inside Edge produces remarkably accurate player tendencies to ensure players react to in-game situations as they would in real life. Major League Baseball 2K9 also features new commentary, as Gary Thorne provides the play-by-play calls alongside color analyst Steve Phillips giving a new perspective and more depth for a true-to-life, insightful broadcast. In addition, Living Rosters has been added this season to provide fresh and active roster updates that guarantee every game is current and automatically updated behind the scenes, so players are never late on a trade and always have the hottest players in their starting lineup. Major League Baseball 2K9, developed by 2K Sports’ Visual Concepts studio, is rated E for Everyone by the ESRB and now available for Xbox 360, the PLAYSTATION 3 and PlayStation 2 systems, Wii, and Windows PC. Major League Baseball 2K9 will be coming to the PSP® (PlayStation®Portable) system this spring. For more information, please visit www.2ksports.com/games/mlb2k9. MLB 2K9 Fantasy All-Stars for Nintendo DS™, rated E for Everyone by the ESRB, is also available today from 2K Sports. About Take-Two Interactive Software Headquartered in New York City, Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. is a global developer, marketer, distributor and publisher of interactive entertainment software games for the PC, PLAYSTATION®3 and PlayStation®2 computer entertainment systems, PSP® (PlayStation®Portable) system, Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, Wii™ and Nintendo DS™. The Company publishes and develops products through its wholly owned labels Rockstar Games, 2K Games, 2K Sports and 2K Play; and distributes software, hardware and accessories in North America through its Jack of All Games subsidiary. Take-Two's common stock is publicly traded on NASDAQ under the symbol TTWO. For more corporate and product information please visit our website at www.take2games.com. Major League Baseball trademarks and copyrights are used with permission of Major League Baseball Properties, Inc. Visit the official Major League Baseball website at MLB.com © MLBPA-Official Licensee, Major League Baseball Players Association. Visit www.MLBPLAYERS.com, the Players Choice on the web. Microsoft, Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox LIVE, and the Xbox logos are trademarks of the Microsoft group of companies and are used under license from Microsoft. “PlayStation”, “PLAYSTATION”, “PS” Family logo and “PSP” are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. PSP® system – Memory Stick Duo™ may be required (sold separately).
GUITAR HERO® CATALOG EXPANDS WITH NEW MUSIC FROMROCK ‘N’ ROLL ICONS QUEEN AND JIMI HENDRIX THIS MONTH Six Additional Tracks from Countries throughout Europe and the James Bond Theme Song Further Add to Guitar Hero World Tour’s Downloadable Content Set List SANTA MONICA, CA – March 3, 2009 – This month, gamers will again be able to expand their virtual set lists with over a dozen new downloadable tracks for Activision Publishing, Inc.’s (Nasdaq: ATVI) Guitar Hero® World Tour. With over 37 million songs downloaded for the franchise to date, Guitar Hero® fans will soon be able to experience more awesome music – from the likes of English rock ‘n’ roll icons Queen, guitar legend Jimi Hendrix, a host of European superstars and more – which will join the more than 550 songs rocking the Guitar Hero catalog already. On March 5th, Guitar Hero World Tour’s global music library will continue to grow with three additional tracks from some of Europe’s greatest bands. The third European Track Pack, which includes the hit song “Break It Out” by Italian pop punk band Vanilla Sky and “In the Shadows” by one of Finland’s most successful bands, The Rasmus, will also contain “C'est Comme Ça” the top single from French pop rock duo Les Rita Mitsouko’s 1986 album The No Comprendo. As a follow-up to the third European Track Pack, rockers from the Netherlands, Germany and Spain will also be contributing to Guitar Hero World Tour’s increasing catalog of downloadable content. On March 19th, the Dutch symphonic rock/metal band Within Temptation takes the virtual stage with “What Have You Done,” the first single off their fourth studio album The Heart of Everything. Joining them are German punk band Die Toten Hosen, who made their debut appearance in Guitar Hero® III: Legends of Rock, playing an encore as part of the full band experience with their 1988 hit “Hier Kommt Alex” and Spanish rock band M-Clan with their classic song “Carolina.” Already appearing as an in game playable character; on March 19th, guitar savant and music legend Jimi Hendrix returns to Guitar Hero World Tour’s stage once again with an extraordinary three song Track Pack that will set fans fingers ablaze as they strive to keep up with his intense guitar riffs and insane solos. The second Jimi Hendrix Track Pack features “Freedom” and” Angel,” two hit singles off of his First Rays of the New Rising Sun album, and a one of a kind 1969 live from Woodstock recording of the timeless classic “Foxey Lady.” Additionally, the songs from the first Jimi Hendrix Track Pack – “If 6 was 9,” “Little Wing” and “Fire” – will also be available on March 19th as downloadable singles for Wii™. Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees Queen, one of the greatest and most influential bands of all-time, take center stage on March 26th with downloadable content for Guitar Hero World Tour. The three song Queen Track Pack contains some of the band’s most iconic tracks including the power ballad, “We Are The Champions,” which has become one of the most common anthems celebrating the ultimate victory, as well as “Fat Bottomed Girls” from the 1978 album Jazz and “C-lebrity,” from their 2008 album with Paul Rodgers, The Cosmos Rocks. On March 26th, Bond aficionados and Guitar Hero rockers alike will have another reason to celebrate as Guitar Hero World Tour releases a new recording of the classic James Bond theme song as downloadable content. The two European Track Packs, Jimi Hendrix Track Pack and Queen Track Pack will be available on Xbox LIVE® Marketplace for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft for 440 Microsoft Points and on the PlayStation®Store for the PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system for $5.49. The songs in the two European Track Packs, Queen Track Pack plus the James Bond Track will be released as downloadable singles for Xbox 360 for 160 Microsoft Points, PLAYSTATION 3 system for $1.99 and Wii™ for 200 Wii Points each. The Jimi Hendrix tracks will be available as downloadable singles for Wii for 200 Wii Points. Guitar Hero World Tour transforms music gaming by expanding Guitar Hero’s signature guitar gameplay into a cooperative band experience that combines the most advanced wireless controllers with new revolutionary online* and offline gameplay modes including Band Career and 8-player “Battle of the Bands,” which allows two full bands to compete head-to-head online. The game features a slick newly redesigned guitar controller, drum kit controller and a wired microphone, as well as an innovative Music Studio music creator that lets players compose, record, edit and share their own rock ‘n’ roll anthems. Music creators are also able to share their recordings with their friends online through GHTunesSM where other gamers can download and play an endless supply of unique creations. Guitar Hero World Tour is now available for Xbox 360, PLAYSTATION 3 computer entertainment system, the Wii home video game system from Nintendo and the PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system. The game is rated “T” for Teen by the ESRB. For more information on Guitar Hero World Tour, please visit worldtour.guitarhero.com. About Activision Publishing, Inc.Headquartered in Santa Monica, California, Activision Publishing, Inc. is a leading worldwide developer, publisher and distributor of interactive entertainment and leisure products. Activision maintains operations in the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Sweden, Spain, the Netherlands, Australia, Japan and South Korea. More information about Activision and its products can be found on the company’s website, www.activision.com. VIA Unveils Em-ITX, the First Form Factor Standard
O'Reilly Tools of Change for Publishing Conference Shows Way to Digital Future
http://www.toccon.com/toc2009/public/content/news-coverageIf you'd like to stay up to date on information relating to TOC conferences, sign up for the conference newsletter (login required) at: http://elists.oreilly.com#conferencesFind the tools you need to learn about publishing innovators and connect with the right ideas from around the web at: toc.oreilly.com.To read Tim O'Reilly's take on the future, go to the O'Reilly Radar at: http://radar.oreilly.com/For information about exhibiting at or sponsoring the next TOC conference, contact Sharon Cordesse at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .If you would like to discuss forming a media or promotional partnership with O'Reilly for an upcoming event, contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .More O'Reilly Conferences:· O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference in San Jose, CA, March 9-12, 2009· Web 2.0 Expo San Francisco in San Francisco March 31-April 3, 2009, co-produced with TechWeb· MySQL Conference & Expo in Santa Clara, CA, April 20-23, 2009, co-presented by O'Reilly Media and Sun Microsystems· RailsConf in Las Vegas, May 4-7, co-presented with Ruby Central· O'Reilly Where Conference in San Jose, CA, May 19-21, 2009· O'Reilly Found Conference in Burlingame, CA, June 9-11, 2009· O'Reilly Velocity Conference in San Jose, CA, June 22-24, 2009· OSCON in San Jose, CA, in San Jose, CA, July 20-24, 2009· Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco, CA, October 20-22, 2009· Web 2.0 Expo New York in New York City, Nov. 16-19, 2009For a conference overview, visit: http://conferences.oreilly.com O'Reilly Media spreads the knowledge of innovators through its books, online services, magazines, and conferences. Since 1978, O'Reilly Media has been a chronicler and catalyst of cutting-edge development, homing in on the technology trends that really matter and spurring their adoption by amplifying "faint signals" from the alpha geeks who are creating the future. An active participant in the technology community, the company has a long history of advocacy, meme-making, and evangelism. O'Reilly conferences bring together forward-thinking business and technology leaders, shaping ideas and influencing industries around the globe. For over 25 years, O'Reilly has facilitated the adoption of new and important technologies by the enterprise, putting emerging technologies on the map. # # #O'Reilly is a registered trademark of O'Reilly Media, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.  
NVIDIA BOOSTS GRAPHICS SUPPORT FOR MILLIONS OF WINDOWS 7 BETA USERS New GeForce Graphics Drivers for Windows 7 Beta Now Available Directly from NVIDIA.com SANTA CLARA, CA—MARCH 2, 2009—NVIDIA today announced the immediate availability of new graphics drivers from www.nvidia.com for NVIDIA® GeForce® GPU owners running the new Windows 7 Beta. Today’s availability represents the start of regular NVIDIA driver updates for the forthcoming operating system from Microsoft. Windows 7 will be the first Windows operating system to fully integrate and take advantage of the GPU for both graphics and parallel computing. “Since its release last month, the Windows 7 Beta has been eagerly tested by hundreds of thousands of NVIDIA GeForce owners, who are excited about the many graphical improvements Microsoft has added into the upcoming operating system,” said Ujesh Desai, vice president of GeForce desktop business at NVIDIA. GeForce version 181.71 graphics drivers, released today on NVIDIA.com, support the new Windows Display Driver Model (WDDM) v1.1 from Microsoft. Powered by NVIDIA DirectX 10 GPUs, WDDM v1.1 drivers provide an optimal visual experience in Windows 7. These drivers offer increased performance and reliability in both 2D and 3D applications, including the 3D Windows Aero desktop. “We expect that all of our hard work teaming with Microsoft over the past two years will pay off for GeForce GPU owners when Windows 7 officially launches,” said Dwight Diercks, vice president of software engineering at NVIDIA. “Our customers are demanding an experience that is faster and more visual, and with the addition of many new GPU-accelerated features, including DirectX Compute, we believe Windows 7 will be well positioned to meet those needs.” To download the new Windows 7 Beta drivers for NVIDIA GPUs, please visit: http://www.nvidia.com/object/windows_7.html About NVIDIA NVIDIA (Nasdaq: NVDA) is the world leader in visual computing technologies and the inventor of the GPU, a high-performance processor which generates breathtaking, interactive graphics on workstations, personal computers, game consoles, and mobile devices. NVIDIA serves the entertainment and consumer market with its GeForce® products, the professional design and visualization market with its Quadro® products, and the high-performance computing market with its Tesla™ products. NVIDIA is headquartered in Santa Clara, Calif. and has offices throughout Asia, Europe, and the Americas. AVG launches new protection against identity theft, boosts free product protection Latest upgrade aims to prevent newest digital threats from becoming digital disasters AMSTERDAM, The Netherlands (March 2nd, 2009) - Identity theft is now the number one Internet-based crime and claims almost ten million online and offline victims at a cost of $48 billion in the US alone, according to the Javelin Strategy & Research, 2008 Identity Fraud Survey Report published last month. CIFAS, the UK’s Fraud Prevention Service, estimates that identity theft is costing that country’s economy over $3.4 billion annually. To help users protect their personal and private information online, AVG Technologies, developer of the world’s leading free computer security product, today introduces AVG Identity Protection (IDP). AVG Identity Protection gives computer users an additional layer of protection on top of their existing security software. IDP is specifically focused on helping to prevent thieves from using carefully-targeted attacks to steal passwords, bank account details, credit card numbers, and other digital valuables. It uses a technology called behavioral analysis to make sure all the programs running on a user’s computer are operating the way they should. If it spots something suspicious that could indicate an attempted ID theft attack, it shuts that activity down, preventing any possible theft from happening. It doesn’t matter whether users are running AVG software or security software from another vendor; IDP runs smoothly alongside all popular programs to keep users safer when they’re online. “Computer users need to be confident that, when they’re banking and shopping online, they won’t become a victim of identity theft,” says AVG Technologies CEO JR Smith. “Anti-virus alone can’t give users the level of security people need in today’s complex, fast-moving threat landscape. AVG Identity Protection gives them the confidence that they’re safe from the bad guys.” AVG Identity Protection is the headline product in today’s launch of an across-the-board upgrade to the AVG family of security software for home and small business users. The technology in IDP has also been combined with the company’s Internet Security suite, which provides total protection for all aspects of users’ online lives. In addition to the new Identity Protection, AVG Internet Security defends against viruses, spyware, worms, hackers, botnets, poisoned web pages, trojan horses, spam, and other cyberthreats with a full arsenal of digital weaponry. Whether users are surfing, e-mailing, instant-messaging, or downloading files, Internet Security stops threats from becoming problems. “We know the security challenges users face in their daily lives,” says Smith. “Our products are designed to prevent those challenges from becoming problems, leaving users free to get on with their digital lives. They’re easy to set up, easy to use, easy to find – and some of them are even free, for ever.” AVG’s Free product also gets a boost with this upgrade, adding Active Safe-Surf real-time protection to the existing anti-virus, anti-spyware, instant message security and safe-searching capabilities. Today’s web threats move at lightning speed and only stay around long enough to scoop up their victim quota, so real-time detection is vital. Active Safe-Surf checks the web page behind every link for hidden threats at the only time that matters – when users are about to click on that link. Improvements to the small business products focus on the company’s Exchange Server products, which gain a long-awaited upgrade to centralized anti-spam protection that will make life much easier for those tasked with managing networked e-mail. A peek under the hoodAVG Identity Protection is based around the technology AVG acquired when it bought the Sana Security company earlier this year. This technology helps to prevent identity-related attacks by analyzing the behavior and characteristics of malicious programs and using the knowledge gained to create protection that doesn’t require “signature updates” to stay current. The software is continuously learning and improving its protection, based on information drawn from real threats encountered by real users, ensuring that users are always protected against new and unknown threats. “Tens of thousands of new virus samples arrive in security companies’ labs every day,” says AVG Technologies CTO Karel Obluk. “It is simply not feasible for traditional signature-based anti-virus to keep up with this level of activity from the bad guys. So while it’s important to continue to use anti-virus to protect against the known viruses that are out there ‘in the wild’, it’s vital for users to have an additional protective layer against the unknown.” AVG Active Safe-Surf further enhances users’ protection against unknown threats by analyzing web pages in real time for hidden threats and exploits such as drive-by downloads. Unlike other safe-surf products which rely on historical data acquired by periodically scanning sites across the Internet based on a variety of criteria, Active Safe-Surf bases its safety ratings on real-time analysis of individual web pages, ensuring an accurate assessment of a page’s current status. The new anti-spam module in AVG’s Internet Security for SBS and E-mail Server Edition is based around the widely-used Mailshell engine, ensuring stability, compatibility, and ease of management from a central point. This ease of use is further enhanced with the addition of a single installation process for all components. Product availability and pricingThe complete AVG 8.5 family of products is available now online and through retail and reseller channels. AVG Identity Protection is priced at $19.99; all other product pricing remains unchanged. For more information on the complete range of AVG security products for consumers and small businesses, please visit www.avg.com.Follow AVG on Twitter @OfficialAVGNews About AVG TechnologiesAVG is a global security solutions leader protecting more than 80 million consumers and small business computer users in 167 countries from the ever-growing incidence of web threats, viruses, spam, cyber-scams and hackers on the Internet. Headquartered in Amsterdam, AVG has nearly two decades of experience in combating cyber crime and one of the most advanced laboratories for detecting, pre-empting and combating Web-borne threats from around the world. Its free online, downloadable software model allows entry-level users to gain basic anti-virus protection and then to easily and inexpensively upgrade to greater levels of safety and defense in both single and multi-user environments. Nearly 6,000 resellers, partners and distributors team with AVG globally including Amazon.com, CNET, Cisco, Ingram Micro, Play.com, Wal-Mart, and Yahoo!. More information is available at www.avg.com.
Covad Integrated Access Service Wins Telecom Association’s 2009 "Members Choice" Award Covad also grabs “Top Five” awards in Fixed Wireless,Data/Internet and Carrier Categories San Jose, Calif. – March 2, 2009 – The Telecom Association, a professional membership organization of 3,200 telecom distributors, has presented a “Member’s Choice” award to Covad Integrated Access (IA) service, an affordable, all-in-one phone and Internet service for businesses with up to 35 employees per location. “Winning Telecom Association's annual 'Members Choice' award in a specific category is a significant tribute to the winner's channel partner and customer service programs,” stated TA Founder Dan Baldwin. “Our members are fairly stingy with their votes. They only vote for those providers they feel are doing an exceptional job, one that is far above the norm for service providers in the category.” Covad also finished in the top five in the Carrier, Data Internet and Fixed Wireless categories, confirming Covad’s stature as an industry leader in each of these categories. Covad’s hosted VoIP offering also placed in the top ten. “Covad is proud to receive this recognition of our commitment to quality service offerings that our channel partners can use to meet the specific needs of small business customers across the country,” said Jake Heinz, vice president, Covad VoIP Product Group. “Covad has recently completed network upgrades and a nationwide MPLS deployment to enable our partners to deliver even more advanced video, voice and data services going forward.” Covad’s broad spectrum of carrier partners include includes market leaders like Sprint, Verizon, AT&T, EarthLink and a wide range of agent and Master Agent resellers, including Telarus, another Telecom Association winner. Covad Integrated Access service is delivered over a powerful voice-optimized T1 line and works with customers’ existing phone systems so businesses can leverage their equipment investment while saving money and simplifying operations. Covad Integrated Access utilizes SIP trunking and supports a wide range of IP, digital and analog PBXs. Pricing starts as low as $410 per month with no installation fees in many cases, depending upon contract length and services ordered.About CovadCovad is a leading national provider of integrated voice and data communications. The company offers DSL, T1, broadband wireless, and voice-optimized access directly through Covad's network and through Internet Service Providers, value-added resellers, telecommunications carriers and affinity groups in the small and medium-sized businesses market. Many of the nation's top carriers, Internet service providers, and resellers rely on Covad to power their high-speed broadband solutions. Partners benefit from Covad’s streamlined provisioning and ordering systems, scalable, cost-efficient support infrastructure, and the only facilities-based, next-generation wireline and fixed wireless broadband network. Covad broadband services are currently available across the nation in 44 states and 235 Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) and can be purchased by more than 58 million homes and businesses. Covad is located at 2220 O’Toole Avenue, San Jose, CA 95131. Telephone: 1-888-GO-COVAD. Website: www.covad.com. Potential partners can learn more about working with Covad at: http://www.covad.com/web/partners/index.html
Couch Potatoes Take Heed!New Children’s Book Cautions Moderation to Young Videogame Fans with Sofa Boy Gaming industry veteran pens children’s book about an overly avid young gamer Los Angeles, Calif.– “Just 5 more minutes!!” and “Just let me finish this level!” Families around the world hear these proclamations from kids when asked to put down their videogame controller. With his newly released children’s book, game industry veteran Scott Langteau coins a new name for this phenomenon - Sofa Boy. Launching today, Sofa Boy paints a hilarious yet fantastical picture of an extreme case of gaming obsession, accompanied by the eye-popping art of illustrator Rion Vernon. Sofa Boy invites readers into the living room of an average family. But this family’s son has a bigger than average obsession with videogames. Sitting from daybreak to dark on the family sofa, the boy will not stop his gaming and TV gazing to play outside, have dinner, take a bath, or go to bed. He is - quite literally - consumed with sitting on the couch. Penned with a clever rhyme scheme and accompanied by captivating illustrations, Sofa Boy encourages moderation in gaming habits, by showing the fantastical fate of one boy (and one cat!) who wouldn’t put the controller down. Author Scott Langteau, a former “Sofa Boy” himself, is best known as a video game producer for his work on the acclaimed Medal of Honor game franchise. Scott has worked for companies including DreamWorks, Electronic Arts, and the Jim Henson Company. Currently, Scott is a co-founder of the videogame development studio Spark Unlimited. Bringing the pitiable fate of Sofa Boy to life, artist Rion Vernon’s illustrations vividly capture the tone of the tale. Vernon resides in Southern California and continues to work as a freelance artist. Available now at www.shakethemoonbooks.com, www.Atlasbooks.com, and online retailers including www.Amazon.com, Sofa Boy is a videogame fable promoting moderation in gaming habits. FIDELITY ELECTRONICS INTRODUCES THE FIDELITY NETBOOK VPC (Very Personal Computer) Very Portable, Very Functional, Very Affordable TORONTO, CANADA (February 16, 2009) – Fidelity Electronics this week announced the launch of the VPC - Very Personal Computer: a fully preloaded, Wifi portable netbook computer at a very affordable price. Very portable: The VPC weighs only 1.5lbs and measures just 8.4” x 5.5” x 1” Very functional: The VPC has both wifi and ethernet connections and a full function keyboard to connect, work and play Very affordable: All programs and applications are preloaded and ready to use. “At a $199 SRP, the VPC is perfect for students and people on the go,” says Richard Kizner, Director of Marketing for Fidelity Electronics. “Preloaded programs include internet browser, spreadsheet, word processor, a media player for movies, music and pictures, e-book reader, dictionary, calendar, PDF reader, email, chat, calculator, file manager and much more. VPC comes with a full function keyboard, touchpad, 7” TFT display with 800 x 480 WVGA resolution, 802.11g Wifi, 100 MHz internet browser, 2 GB internal storage, 3 hour rechargeable battery, microphone and a headphone jack. It has onboard USB, SD and Ethernet ports that make the VPC an incredibly affordable yet versatile device,” he adds. The VPC is expected to retail at $199.99 USD and should arrive in stores beginning March, 2009. Fidelity Electronics Inc. is a leading provider of innovative personal electronics and consumer products including award winning Fidelity digital picture frames, digital memory and imaging accessories. Fidelity operates from Vaughan, Ontario; Buffalo, New York; Hong Kong and Shenzhen, China. For more information, visit Fidelity's website at www.fidelityelectronics.com. Virtual boardroom helps companies to fight the credit crunch The world’s first interactive business networking site aims to transform the lives of millions of professionals as they do business online, in a volatile market place. Whilst the rapid growth of online networking sites has now become big business, the business networking space, which many experts believe to be the largest and most lucrative, has only just started. UK (London) and US (San Francisco) based www.talkbiznow.com is the most intuitive and effective business networking site in the US and global market today, promising to help connect all business professionals; enabling business communication to be quicker, more efficient and more effective. CEO and Co-founder Martin Warner says: “We are changing the landscape of traditional online networking to an online work place that has no boundaries. This will enable people to come together to communicate, share information, get answers to problems and transact business. This is what we are all about.” Features of Talkbiznow · Host free Webinars (only professional/business networking site to do this)· Post free advertisements (only professional/business networking site to do this)· File Share· Post blogs· Nudge contacts (gentle way to remind contacts)· iphone application President and Co-founder, Mark Parker says: “The success of online social communities has shown that connecting online using networking functionality is growing at a significant rate. However, networking for business reasons is not only the next logical step but in fact more necessary than social networking. Almost everyone has a business life. Talkbiznow has brought a completely new dimension and formalised the business networking space, in the way that social networking did when Facebook arrived on the scene. We are about ‘Making you more productive in your business network, and it is completely free, even posting your own Ad’s.” CEO and Co-Founder, Martin Warner says: “We believe that our business networking platform itself is the best in the global market today as it enables our members to build relationships and communicate more efficiently. Also more importantly it is free. We do not intend to ever charge our members subscription fees like the other sites in the market today.” Talkbiznow is expected to create a significant paradigm shift in the way that business professionals and companies engage with each other in a national and global market place. Now that both big and small companies can brand and position themselves on an international basis, whilst having an equal reach across the site, small companies will undergo a considerable level of empowerment as they reach out to bigger markets on limited budgets. Talkbiznow will serve many purposes starting from the business network itself, such as, sales, general marketing, recruiting, job-hunting, knowledge exchange, and business development (in the sense of strategic alliances, joint ventures and channel sales). Of all these, business development is the one that it supports best. In fact, business development and business networking are closely related. Online networking sites offer unprecedented ways for entrepreneurs to identify and connect with potential partners. Samsung Adopts VIA Nano Processor for the Samsung NC20 12.1" Mini-Notebook VIA Nano processor platform enables the Samsung NC20 to deliver superior performance and battery life in a sleek 12.1" mini-notebook form factor Taipei, Taiwan, 27 February 2009 - VIA Technologies, Inc, a leading innovator of power efficient x86 processor platforms, today announced that Samsung has adopted the VIA Nano processor in the new Samsung NC20 mini-notebook.
Iomega DVR Expander Drive Now Certified With Pace Set-Top Boxes###500GB DVR Expander Drive Adds Viewing Hours for Set-Top Boxes and Digital Video Recorders From Leading Cable Providers SAN DIEGO, February 26, 2009 – Iomega, an EMC Company (NYSE:EMC) and a global leader in data protection, today announced that the Iomega® DVR Expander Drive is certified for compatibility with Pace Americas cable set-top boxes and digital video recorders. Hailed by WIRED.com as “the perfect solution to your HD storage problem,” the 500GB* Iomega DVR Expander Drive adds storage capacity for eSATA-enabled DVRs, allowing cable TV customers to record and enjoy more of their favorite cable TV and movie broadcasts. The Iomega DVR Expander Drive expands users’ digital video recorder (DVR) storage capacity by as much as 300 hours of standard-definition TV or 60 hours of high-definition TV. The Iomega DVR Expander Drive also enables certain Pace Americas cable set-top boxes without an internal hard drive to function as a full featured DVR. Pace is the latest set-top box manufacturer to certify compatibility with Iomega’s DVR Expander Drive. Pace provides millions of cable set-top boxes to operators throughout North, Central and South America. “The certification of the industry-leading Iomega DVR Expander Drive for use with Pace set top boxes is fantastic news for millions of cable subscribers,” said Jonathan Huberman, President of Iomega and the Consumer and Small Business Products Division of EMC. “Everyone loves their DVRs, but no one likes to delete programming to record something new. With the Iomega DVR Expander Drive, you get a massive capacity increase for recording new content with absolutely no installation hassles.” Tim O’Loughin, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Pace Americas, said, “It’s a pleasure to work with Iomega on the certification of the DVR Expander Drive, which will benefit Pace Americas’ cable operators and their millions of subscribers. Compatibility with the Iomega DVR Expander Drive means cable subscribers with compatible Pace set-top boxes can greatly expand their ability to securely record movies, sports and television programs in SD or HD format.” Compatibility The Iomega DVR Expander Drive connects to the eSATA port on Pace set-top boxes. After an initial setup the DVR automatically streams new recordings to either its internal hard drive or the external SATA drive, whichever has more space available. The Iomega DVR Expander Drive is specifically designed to operate cool without a fan for quiet operation. The drive has a small footprint – almost half the size of similar products – so that it can fit into small spaces in an entertainment center. Because the DVR Expander Drive is always turned on to record selected programming, the product is Energy Star® compliant for power conservation and a better environment. Included with the Iomega DVR Expander Drive is the required eSATA cable, quick start guide and power supply, along with a stand for vertical or horizontal placement of the Iomega DVR Expander Drive in an entertainment center. The Iomega DVR Expander is also certified for compatibility with Scientific Atlanta standard and high definition DVRs. Iomega expects to announce more certified compatibility with other eSATA enabled DVRs in the near future. Price and Availability The new Iomega® DVR Expander Drive, eSATA 500GB, is now available for $149.99 (pricing is suggested U.S. retail) from online etailers, retailers and from the Iomega Web site, www.iomega.com. About PacePace (LSC: PIC) is a leading technology developer of the global pay TV industry, working across satellite, cable, IPTV and terrestrial platforms. Pace has one of the world’s most experienced specialist engineering teams, developing intelligent and innovative products and services for both pay TV operators and retail markets across the world. Following the acquisition of the set-top box and connectivity solutions business of Royal Philips Electronics in April 2008, Pace employs over 900 people in locations around the world, including France, the USA, India and Hong Kong. Pace’s international headquarters are in Saltaire, West Yorkshire, UK. About EMCEMC Corporation (NYSE: EMC) is the world's leading developer and provider of information infrastructure technology and solutions that enable organizations of all sizes to transform the way they compete and create value from their information. Information about EMC's products and services can be found at www.EMC.com. About IomegaIomega Corporation, headquartered in San Diego, is a worldwide leader in innovative storage and network security solutions for small and mid-sized businesses, consumers and others. The Company has sold more than 410 million digital storage drives and disks since its inception in 1980. Today, Iomega’s product portfolio includes industry leading network attached storage products, external hard drives, multimedia solutions such as the Iomega DVR Expander Drive and the ScreenPlay Multimedia Drive product line. To learn about all of Iomega’s digital storage products, please go to the Web at www.iomega.com. Resellers can visit Iomega at www.iomega.com/ipartner.
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