CNM Short Takes

Parks Canada to interview new media playersCanada’s federal agency responsible for parks and conservation areas is curious about new media, and wants to meet with representatives of the industry this month in Toronto. The New Media Business Alliance is facilitating meetings with its members and Parks Canada in the morning of November 21, but interested parties should contact the NMBA before November 14. The announcement says the federal agency wants to acquaint its own interactive media staffers with "the ‘cutting edge’ work that is being done in the field of new media, particularly new media based in education and/or interpretation." AirG feelin’ blue on Bell’s 1X networkVancouver-based AirG, a provider of interactive communities for wireless network operators, will be the first to offer such services on Bell Mobility’s 1X network. The BC firm’s new bilingual offering for Bell, called Blue Lounge/Bleu Salon, will run on Java-enabled phones and provide users with instant messaging, picture-enabled personal profiles, and public and private "lounges" for online messaging, as well as round-the-clock content monitoring and promotions, contests and games. Users can access Blue Lounge/Bleu Salon for free for a 30-day period. Score Media cuts the cable with new wireless serviceHamilton ON’s Score Media Inc. will now offer sports fans the goods on all the games with Score Mobile, a new wireless offering available to Rogers Wireless and Bell Mobility customers. The company is touting the service’s ability to allow users to skip almost directly to the scores and updates they’re looking for, which in addition to major league sports will include U.S. college sports and Canadian CIS football. Users must download the free Sports Mobile 1.0 client (airtime charges are extra) in order to access the service.Score Media plans to add more wireless carriers to the service soon, as well as roll out a Blackberry-friendly version of the product. At the same time as the Score Mobile announcement, Score Media also revealed that the soon-to-be-launched Sirius Canada satellite radio service will feature the Hamilton firm’s sports radio channel, The Score. EA launches AI programming competition in CanadaThe Canadian operations of Redwood City CA-based game publisher Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is looking for the best student artificial intelligence (AI) programmer in the country with its new Tank Wars competition. The invitation-only contest is open to Canadian citizens enrolled in a post-secondary computer science program at any one of 16 universities and colleges, as well as members of 10 campus-based computer gaming clubs. Up for grabs is a state-of-the-art gaming machine and a library of EA game titles. Tira Wireless extends support to Nokia content developersContent providers for Finnish cell phone giant Nokia Corp.’s Preminet Solution can now avail themselves of the Tira Jump development platform Toronto’s Tira Wireless. The Canadian firm’s product allows developers to build and compatibility-test their creations before deploying them across the more than 500 Java-capable handset platforms supported. The firm says a full half of the mobile games and applications currently available worldwide have been deployed by engineers using Tira Jump. Nurun builds brand for Montreal interface eventA series of digital interface design "demo-conferences" organized by Montreal’s Society for Arts and Technology (SAT) will gain a boost from the support of interactive communications and web design firm Nurun Inc. The firm has pitched in to design a web site, logo and other marketing material for Interface(s) Montreal, as well as designing the external façade and an events room at SAT’s Saint-Laurent headquarters. The events run every Tuesday night this month until November 29. Oyco launches contest to promote interactive portalOyco Systems Inc. is running a contest to promote its new converged messaging portal. Winning entries for both best email/text introduction and best e-mail/text invitation will win $1,000 each. The contest runs until December 27, at which time the top 10 entries for each category will be published. Vancouver-based Oyco offers a one-stop web presence for users to access SMS and text messages, text-based and video email, teleconferencing and other Internet-capable forms of multimedia communication. Bell, Microsoft offer Xbox 360 packageBell Canada and Microsoft Canada Co. have teamed up on a limited-time offer aimed at online gamers. Available with the release of Microsoft’s new Xbox 360 gaming console later this month, the Xbox Premium Gold Pack will feature an Xbox 360 console with a year’s subscription to Microsoft’s Xbox Live online gaming service, a wireless networking adapter for the Xbox 360, and a wireless home networking modem from Sympatico. Iseemedia unveils digital home tour productConcord ON’s iseemedia Inc. announced the North American release of its High-Definition Virtual Tours (HDVT) offering. The product allows prospective home buyers to move around a property and zoom in on details, capabilities the company says were lacking from existing virtual real estate imaging products. HDVT uses iseemedia’s Photovista and ImageServer 5XE technologies to deliver the high-quality images, which can be served to mobile devices as well as desktop computers. Lemontonic divests online dating unitToronto’s Lemontonic Inc. has finalized an arrangement to transfer its online dating and social networking operations to Gibraltar UK-based Silverback Media Ltd., a deal that was first discussed in April. Under the deal, Lemontonic will transfer the assets in question to a new division, dubbed "New Lemontonic", which will then merge with Silverback. Shareholders in New Lemontonic will receive shares in Silverback, and the new division will launch in Europe early next year. FUN Technologies furthers reach with Eurosport dealToronto-founded, London-based online skill gaming firm FUN Technologies plc announced an agreement with Paris’s Eurosport SA, a sports broadcaster providing content across Europe in 18 languages. FUN will provide and operate custom-designed games for the French firm’s English-language websites, www.eurosport.com and www.eurosport.co.uk, which account for roughly 1.5 million of Eurosport’s monthly unique visitors. In total, Eurosport reaches more than 95 million households and 250 million viewers in 54 countries around the world.FUN Technologies also recently announced third-quarter earnings for the 2005 fiscal year. The firm saw an 85% increase in consolidated revenue across all its operating divisions, but was still operating in the red with an after-tax loss of £2.1 million (approximately $4.3 million). However, the firm inked several contracts with notable content publishers, including eBay and Virgin Games. INTERNATIONAL BRIEFS iMesh converts to partly paid peer-to-peerBowing to pressure from the recording industry brought to bear in a $4.1 million lawsuit last year, music file-sharing service iMesh has revamped its peer-to-peer software to include both paid and free music downloads. The new service will see approximately two million music tracks of the 17 million it makes available bear a 99-cent cost, part of which will go to participating record labels. After an introductory free period, the service will cost $6.95 a month for a subscription. UK DRM firm signs up German customers London UK-based Softwrap Ltd. has entered into an agreement with a joint venture controlled by two German entertainment software firms. Play+Smile Marketing GmbH, which is owned by game developer Play+Zone 2 Connect GmbH and publisher/distributor rondomedia GmbH, will use Softwrap’s digital rights management technology to bring their associated products to market through trial and full-versions.

CNM Short Takes

News | 11/11/2005 5:00 am EST

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