CNM Short Takes

Tira Wireless draws US$13M investmentTira Wireless Inc., a Toronto-based provider of technology that enables mobile content development and deployment, recently announced a US$13-million investment by Lehman Ventures in the firm. With its Series C funding, which will be used to round out the firm’s service portfolio and expand global support and distribution, Lehman Ventures joins Brightspark Ventures, Flagship Ventures and Export Development Canada on the roster of investors in the company. "Tira’s unique approach to content deployment, developed from three years of experience preparing content for major publishers, was critical to our decision to invest," said Lehman Ventures managing director Tom Banahan in a media release. Tira Wireless’ Jump technology allows mobile content developers to design content for more than 500 handsets at one go, and has to date been used by more than 80% of the mobile content developers out there, the company says. More Canadians looking for health info online: IBM studyCanadians are increasingly turning to the Internet for information on what’s ailing them, according to a new survey from IBM Canada Ltd. The Canadian operations of Armonk NY’s IBM Corp. questioned 2,500 Canadians and found that 37% had looked up health information online in attempts at self-diagnosis, nearly twice as many as in 2003. Also, more than one-quarter of those who said they’d looked up health information were doing so to verify or scrutinize a diagnosis made by a real-world physician. However, most of the survey’s respondents also said it was hard to tell whether information on the Internet was trustworthy or not, and expressed some dissatisfaction with the quality of medical information online. Tri-Vision gets boost from US FCCToronto-based V-chip license holder Tri-Vision International Ltd. says its business entered "a new era" as of March 15 – the effective start date of the United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC)’s mandate that new television sets sold in the US must include flexible V-chip content blocking technology. As the leading licensee and patent holder of the technology, with between 55% and 65% of the televisions sold in the US coming from manufacturers who have licensed the technology, Tri-Vision believes it’s positioned to capitalize on the new FCC requirements. Bight’s Slam Street gets on Rogers Wireless’ deckCharlottetown’s Bight Interactive Inc. has signed up its first Canadian wireless carrier customer for its Slam Street mobile street basketball game. Rogers Wireless will add Slam Street to its deck and make it available to customers for $5.00 with a $0.50 download fee. The 3D game is essentially a slam dunk competition, and users can personalize the content by adding their name to a jersey and putting it on their character to wear. "As the wireless carrier of choice for youth and young adults in Canada, Rogers Wireless provides us access to a growing consumer base, with analysts predicting the global wireless gaming market to exceed $4 billion by 2007," said Bight CEO and president Stuart Duncan in a media release. The game is already being distributed through mobile content aggregators such as Calgary-based Wmode and the UK’s Finesse Mobile, and Bight plans to release new games such as Llama Country, The Eye, Naughty Nurse Betty and Project 573: The Cold War later this year. Email marketing works: new IAB studyA new study conducted by the Interactive Advertising Bureau of Canada (IAB) has found quantified the delivery, open and click-through rates for email campaigns originating south of the border but targeting Canadian consumers. The IAB tracked the three rates throughout 2003, 2004 and 2005, with the final year’s data including more than 7,000 individual campaigns and more than 225 million emails sent. According to the study, marketers were able to deliver their message to a valid Canadian email box 93% of the time, and the owners of the boxes opened those messages more than 55% of the time. Finally, more than 8% of readers actually clicked on the links within the messages. Those figures, IAB president Paula Gignac said in a media release, "firmly establish Canada as a leader in the industry. Individual results provide even stronger proof, and highlight Canada’s heightened customer receptiveness and interaction – making email an integral part of any smart marketer’s overall strategy this year." AirG signs mobile community deal with CingularVancouver’s AirG announced yet another signing with a US carrier, but this time it’s the top dog south of the 49th: Cingular Wireless has more than 54 million subscribers in the US. The Canadian firm will offer its CoolTalk interactive mobile community, which features specialized niches for sporting enthusiasts, gamers, music buffs and fans of Latino culture, to Cingular’s user base free of charge for the first 30 days. AirG also recently singed a similar deal with Little Rock AR-based Alltel Corporation Inc. Yahoo Answers user questions with new offering Yahoo Canada Co. has beta-launched Yahoo Canada Answers, an enhanced information search service that allows users to ask questions of real people, through its Canadian operations. The service works by drawing on subject matter experts within Yahoo’s communities, and curious Canadians will benefit from the knowledge of not just those users here but also worldwide. With the Canadian offering and others worldwide, Sunnyvale CA Yahoo Inc. appears to be trying to best Wikipedia, Urban Dictionary and other similar user-generated online knowledge repositories. Dynasty Gaming in mahjong deal with Golden PalaceOnline casino heavyweight Golden Palace – whose web address often appears scrawled on the back of streakers and other disruptive audience members at sporting events – has signed a deal with Montreal-based Dynasty Gaming Inc. A subsidiary of the Canadian firm, Mahjong Systems Ltd., will provide the company’s Mahjong Mania software as well as installation services, to Dynasty Gaming for an unspecified share of royalties. Mahjong Mania also recently launched on the website of venerable UK sports betting institution Ladbrokes. Ideazon releases keyset for latest LOTR gameIdeazon Inc. of Vaughn ON has released a new custom keyboard command template designed to help gamers conquer Middle Earth. The new keyset is designed for Electronic Arts’ The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle Earth II and offers gamers 35 dedicated and clearly labeled hotkey commands and compatibility with earlier versions of the game, as well as controls for playback cameras and exclusive keyset graphics. One catch: would-be saviours of the Shire need Ideazon’s ZBoard to use the keyset. Kangaroo.TV launches at NASCARMontreal’s Kangaroo.TV says its portable multimedia screens have proved a big hit so far during this year’s Nextel Cup NASCAR season, which got underway in February. The company says thousands of FanView devices were rented – at US$50 a day or US$70 for the weekend – by racing fans during the first two races of the season. FanView offers enthusiasts up to seven in-car camera channels and audio feeds, supplemented with statistics and other information. Kangaroo.TV has been testing the devices with NASCAR since 2004 in limited deployments, and this year’s season marks the first full roll-out. D-Box wins first arcade orderShortly after announcing its intention to focus on the arcade installation market following disappointing year-end earnings (CNM, Mar. 20/06), Longueuil QC-based D-Box Technologies Inc. has announced a single order worth more than $450,000 from fellow Quebecois firm Triotech Amusement Inc. of Lavaltrie. Triotech will be using D-Box’s actuator technology as it fulfills a custom order for an unnamed US client in the amusement arcade business, and will take delivery of the components over the course of the next two months. "While the arcade sector is not our main market, it is nevertheless an important market for D-Box," said company president and CEO Claude McMaster in a release. "Our relationship with Triotech, an emerging leader in this sector, will enable both parties to fully capitalize on this business."

CNM Short Takes

Broadcast | March 31, 2006

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