Consumer Electronics Daily News

Hollywood Poker Game to Launch for Facebook

Beginning on October 8, PLAOR a new social games publisher, will launch its first Facebook game, Hollywood Poker . Hollywood Poker gives gamers the rare and exciting chance to play with beloved celebrities from film, television, sports and music in Texas Hold 'Em Poker.

Starting today, those who sign up will also have an opportunity to win a chance to play in an exclusive online celebrity poker game with actor, comedian and Hollywood Poker ambassador Kevin Pollak on October 20. Three lucky winners will be selected to play in this star-studded single table event to join Pollak and some of his celebrity friends.

"Hollywood Poker is a free-to-play game that's fun for everyone," said Pollak. "You'll be able to play with your favorite celebrities, and win great prizes. Check out the Hollywood Poker community site and Facebook page for a chance to play in our first-ever online celebrity game. I promise you won't want to miss it!"

In addition to Pollak, more than 160 stars have committed to playing Hollywood Poker which include James Woods (Too Big to Fail), Seth Meyers (Saturday Night Live), Dennis Quaid (Vegas), Paul Wesley (Vampire Diaries), Peter Facinelli (Twilight), Billy Burke (Revolution), Dave Foley (News Radio), Scott Baio (Charles in Charge), Stephen Collins (7th Heaven), Grant Show (Melrose Place), Kenny Johnson (The Shield), Rob Riggle (21 Jump Street), Tom Everett Scott (Southland), Peter Billingsley (The Christmas Story), Tim Busfield (The West Wing), Dean Cain (Las Vegas), Jose Canseco (MLB Player), Dennis Haskins (Saved by the Bell), Dule Hill (Psych), Ken Howard (30 Rock), Richard Kind (Luck), John O'Hurley (Seinfeld) and Michael Vartan (Hawthorne), among others, with new celebrities confirmed each week.

Hollywood Poker is designed to be easy to use and fun for everyone. Hollywood Poker is the first ever social game where fans can interact directly with stars, chat and rub virtual elbows while playing poker with celebrities. Visitors to the HollywoodPoker.com community can follow the action of ongoing events and become a member, giving them the first chance to play the game when it debuts and to win prizes, including trips to star-studded events. Hollywood Poker will be playable on all devices: starting with Facebook for PC and Mac, as well as, mobile for the iPad. Support for iPhone and Android are close behind. For more information visit www.hollywoodpoker.com or www.facebook.com/HollywoodPoker.

Obama's dog, Bo, and Romney's dog, Seamus, take center stage in a recently launched Mobile Game

Censault, a digital publisher of connected games and applications for mobile devices, announced today its new game, The Crate Escape: Seamus Unleashed, has received wide attention for its addictive, fun game design and appealing characters like Bo Obama, Seamus Romney and Sparky the Dalmatian. The game also continues to get high marks and multiple replays from users around the world.

One reason for the rapid popularity of the game is that the First Family's Portuguese water dog, Bo, plays a decisive role in it. "As with most games the more you advance the more challenging the game becomes," said Jim Chase, Chief Product Officer for Censault. "We elected to make Bo a strategically important character. His abilities in the game allow players to get much further than if he wasn't used. And, we're getting feedback that he's cute, too."

Designed to be fun to play and also communicate a positive social message, the game parodies presidential candidate Mitt Romney's notorious "dog-on-car-roof" incident involving his family dog, Seamus, being crated on top of a station wagon for a 12-hour drive to Canada. In the game, Seamus shatters his crate and, along with other famous pets with special abilities, advances through challenging environments in an effort to avoid obstacles and pick up prizes.

DEVO, the world famous New Wave band, produced a new song, "Don't Roof Rack Me, Bro!" as an alternate sound track for the game. Users can unlock it with a special code that can be found at http://www.clubdevo.com

Censault tapped Dogs Against Romney grassroots movement founder, Scott Crider, to promote and market the game. "We have over 95,000 passionate supporters in Dogs Against Romney who love this game," Crider said.

Just prior to its launch, The Crate Escape: Seamus Unleashed game received a tremendous amount of media coverage from both news and entertainment media. "Everyone from magazines like Rolling Stone and SPIN, to sites like U.S. News and Forbes covered the game," said Andy Berryman, Chief Marketing Officer for Censault. "The number of articles created by major news outlets was incredible." "We believe this game is one of the first offerings in an exciting new genre of games that are designed to be fun enough to engage large numbers of players while sharing positive social messages," Chase said. "We are also very pleased to see that our users are enjoying and sharing the game."

Introducing Handbook: The Most Versatile Way To Securely Collect, Publish and Present Content On Mobile Devices

Infoteria Corporation today announced the availability of the Handbook content manager for iPads, iPhones and Android devices. Handbook is the easiest, most flexible and confidence-inspiring way yet to bind together any combination of content—documents, spreadsheets, videos, photos, PDF files, Web links and more—for presentations, business meetings, sharing with colleagues or clients, or just for personal use.

Handbook lets users assemble, publish and/or present collections of files in both online and offline settings. Unlike "slide" presentation software or other linear methods of sharing, Handbook lets the user select any content, in any order, depending on the need. Its flexibility outperforms Microsoft PowerPoint, Google Docs and virtually any kind of conventional content management system. Moreover, the security capabilities of Handbook allow administrators and/or content creators to specify when particular files or pages will appear—or disappear—from view, in order to meet important privacy and security requirements.

With Handbook, a cloud-based service, users can enjoy incredible versatility on any tablet or smartphone: Executives can run meetings with confidence by securely sharing reports and presentations with meeting attendees in real time. The presenter can display Handbook contents on a projector or big screen while attendees can reference the same Handbook during and after the meeting. Meeting minutes can be added post-meeting for future review.

Salespeople can adjust their sales presentations on-the-fly to match the needs and interests of different clients. Moreover, new or updated sales materials can be incorporated at a moment's notice. Customer Service Personnel have the flexibility to move quickly through the precise material needed for purchase transactions, applications, claims, onsite repairs and deliveries. Anyone can collect music files, albums of photos, project documents and much more.

"With the move to mobile devices, more and more people are looking for a way to easily assemble, organize, share and present diverse kinds of content—on any kind of tablet or smartphone. Handbook is the answer," said John McMahon, Chief Technical Officer, Infoteria America Corporation. "Handbook has already been proven by thousands of people in enterprises and universities outside the United States, and now it's available here. It's secure, it's fast, it's easy to use, and it integrates with virtually all popular business software. For salespeople, Handbook is a real confidence-booster—and for any user it will quickly become their most popular productivity tool."

Powerful Features

Handbook allows content to be organized in any fashion, from albums and folders to chapters and sections. To control distribution of content among work teams and business partners, any file or grouping can be password-protected with a key code. Handbook is accessible via PC, to make assembling and managing content easy. The application is comprised of Handbook Studio, a browser-based tool for uploading and managing content, and the Handbook viewer mobile application to view, browse, and present content.

30-Day Trial

Infoteria offers Handbook as a 30-day free trial. The application is available via the Apple iTunes app store, Android Play Store, or by download at the Handbook Web site.

New Social Network Aids Cancer Patients

SPANX co-founder and former COO, David Wasilewski, spent nearly a decade helping women all over the world look and feel slimmer, but he didn't see himself selling women's intimates forever.

As Wasilewski was preparing for future ventures, cancer struck his family, as an uncle was faced not only with brain cancer, but with an array of treatment decisions that were as confusing as they were important. Internet searches turned up some good information, but a stunning lack of relevant firsthand insights from patients and families in similar circumstances. "When facing cancer, patients and family members are thrust into a world of medicine they know nothing about," said David Wasilewski, Founder of WhatNext.com.  "It can be difficult to make decisions and stay strong."

This realization inspired Wasilewski to create WhatNext.com – a leading source of firsthand insights into living with cancer. Developed in part with the American Cancer Society, WhatNext.com is now live with a rapidly growing collection of over 30,000 firsthand experiences on everything from how to deal with hair loss to what it's like to undergo breast reconstruction.

Whereas Facebook connects people based on their friends and interests, WhatNext matches people based on their cancer diagnoses and other parameters like treatment options and side effects they've experienced. "Learning from someone who shares your specific diagnosis means everything," said Lee P., a 42-year-old breast cancer survivor and WhatNexter. "My experiences as someone with stage II breast cancer are much different than someone with Stage I or Stage III."

On WhatNext, people can instantly access firsthand experiences posted by others in similar circumstances, and connect them to get answers to their questions. WhatNexters share their journeys in a timeline format that structures their experiences so they are cataloged and easy to navigate by others. The site uses advanced matching algorithms to match people to highly relevant peers, medical experiences, and American Cancer Society resources. This makes it easy for new people to find the specific help they are seeking. While WhatNext provides valuable encouragement in difficult times, the focus remains on providing easy access to the information and insight people need to make the difficult decisions and manage this very challenging episode of life.

US Presidential Debates to be Featured Online

The Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) today announced "The Voice Of ___," the online destination for the 2012 presidential debates. Beginning later this month, "The Voice Of ___" digital initiative will provide the American public with access to information about the issues at large, feature the live debates, allow access to archival debate footage, and give people throughout the country the opportunity to share their voice. "The Voice Of ____" will be showcased exclusively across a coalition of partners – AOL (aol.com/thevoiceof), Google (youtube.com/thevoiceof) and Yahoo!(yahoo.com/thevoiceof) – to reach a massive online audience.

"The 2012 debates can be the foundation for a season of conversation, and the internet initiative will provide unprecedented access for citizens to participate in that conversation," said CPD Co-chairmen Michael D. McCurry and Frank J. Fahrenkopf, Jr. "This initiative recognizes that technology offers the means to provide, receive and share information about the topics that will be discussed during the debates – it has the potential to reach and engage more people than have ever participated in these voter education forums."

AOL, Google and Yahoo!, along with back-end partners HAUS and Heroku, have all agreed to lend their technology, audiences or expertise to the program. They are collaborating to showcase an experience that will enhance every citizen's ability to further their education on the issues and add a voice to the national conversation.

Qualcomm Announces New Smartphone Processors

Qualcomm Incorporated today announced the addition of two new Snapdragon™ S4 mobile processors: the MSM8225Q and MSM8625Q. Both are members of the Snapdragon S4 Play processor tier, optimized specifically for a broad range of smartphone users seeking faster applications and better user experiences. Snapdragon S4 Play processors will now offer OEMs both dual-core and quad-core CPUs and performance for entry-level smartphones, with the more advanced version featuring higher bus bandwidth, larger screen resolution support, HD video and enhanced user experiences. Both processors will be ready for customer sampling by end of 2012 and are expected to be shipping in commercial devices in the first quarter of 2013.

The MSM8225Q and MSM8625Q processors incorporate quad-core CPUs and are the upgraded software compatible variants of the highly successful Snapdragon S4 Play MSM8225 and MSM8625 processors, which both feature dual-core CPUs and dual SIM support. The quad-core variants will support LPDDR2 memory, increasing the bus bandwidth for improved features such as 720p display and 720p video encode and decode. Snapdragon S4 Play MSM8625Q features Qualcomm's integrated multimode UMTS/CDMA modem, and the MSM8225Q has an integrated UMTS modem. Both processors enable Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0 and FM connectivity using the Qualcomm Atheros AR6005 and WCN2243 chips.

AT&T Mobile App Hackathon Winners Announced

Focusing on the power of technology to create change for a better world, AT&T* and Ericsson joined forces to host an AT&T Mobile App Hackathon Sept. 22-23 in coordination with the Social Good Summit. Hackathons bring developers—or "hackers"—together for a marathon rapid development session. Developers form teams to create the best mobile applications while competing against each other for prizes.

In the short 36-hour competition, more than 120 attendees created 21 mobile apps that offer solutions to real societal challenges. "The New York Hackathon is an excellent example of Technology for Good in action, bringing creativity and urgency to create a positive force for change," said Ericsson VP, Sustainability and Corporate Responsibility Elaine Weidman-Grunewald. "Since one of our major goals during this year's Social Good Summit is to bring improved access to secondary education for girls, we specifically challenged the developers on that theme. We hope the results will offer new solutions to the education challenge."

Developers presented ideas to address a broad spectrum of needs, working to solve issues locally and globally from substance abuse to disaster response to feeding the hungry. The winning apps brought the best technical execution and sleek user experiences to the issues they addressed:

DecisionMakr – 1st Place Overall – allows Twitter users to give real-time qualitative and quantitative feedback to decision makers at conferences, town halls, and other public events

Addic-aid – 2ndPlace Overall – helps problem drinkers overcome their condition with an easy meeting finder and a semi-anonymous support network

Hope – 3rdPlace Overall – allows food donors and charities to more quickly and easily communicate how much and what types of supplies they currently have and need

"Technology and innovation have the power to transform our world and to make it a better place to live—to bring us together as a global community and to create solutions to our most challenging problems," said AT&T Senior Executive Vice President of Technology and Network Operations John Donovan. "AT&T is committed to empowering developers with resources like our open network, API platform and events like the hackathon at the Social Good Summit so that we can continuously fuel the creation of new ideas that make communities stronger and lives better."

The AT&T Developer Program, born from the company's commitment to innovation and third-party development, is the longest running carrier developer program and the one rated best by Evans Data Corporation for the past six years. To encourage even more developer interaction and innovation, AT&T operates three Foundry locations in Palo Alto, Tel Aviv and Plano. The AT&T Foundry is one part of AT&T's overall innovation strategy that aims to accelerate technology development by collaborating with third party developers, venture capitalists and technology providers – sometimes by taking lead on a project, other times by contributing expertise, connections and resources to help developers bring an idea to reality. Membership is free to all at http://developer.att.com/.

Polaroid Instant App Now Available for iPad

Polaroid announces today that the popular Mac app, Polaroid Instant, is now available on the iPad device. With the new Polaroid Instant 1.0 app for iPad, users can snap a photo using the iPad camera, or select an existing image from the photo library, and apply special effects such as adding an authentic Polaroid filter and then framing it within a Polaroid Classic Border Logo format with the option to write a caption. Users are then able to store the newly created Polaroid instant photo or share it on favorite social media websites.

Designed and developed by ThinkTime Creations LLC, an authorized Polaroid licensee, the Polaroid Instant 1.0 app for iPad mimics the workflow of a classic Polaroid instant camera, with realistic effects – both visual and sound. When a user selects or shoots a photo, an "undeveloped" dark Polaroid film appears to slide out from the bottom of the camera on screen. Slowly the film is developed and the final picture is unveiled for the user to customize.

The app features 30 unique photo filters, including 10 classic Polaroid filters. Each filter is adjustable in strength, vignette and emulsion artifacts, adding an even more realistic look to users' Polaroid photos. Users may also customize their Polaroid Classic Border Logo format, selecting from 10 handwriting style fonts. Text can be freely resized, rotated and moved around using multitouch gestures.

The Polaroid Instant 1.0 app for iPad takes full advantage of the iPad device's large, high-res screen. Multiple edited images can be placed on the screen at the same time, allowing users to easily rotate and move the photos around to a desired format. Images created with the Polaroid Instant 1.0 app for iPad can be saved to the iPad photo library or easily shared with friends and family via Email, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Tumblr and Instagram (requires Instagram app pre-installed).

Gameloft Announces Six Titles for MEEP! Tablet

Gameloft, a publisher of digital and social games, has announced that six of its most popular titles have been optimized for the MEEP! tablet, a new tablet from Oregon Scientific.

Designed for kids ages six and up, MEEP! is pre-loaded with a wide variety of multi-media content for kids to enjoy including UNO™, the world-famous card game. One of Gameloft's most popular casual games, UNO™ features fast-paced gameplay for kids to enjoy with their friends and family.

In the version optimized for the MEEP! tablet, two modes of gameplay allow kids to compete against friends via the tablet's Wi-Fi connection or play games that increase in difficultly in Tournament Mode. In addition to UNO™, 5 other Gameloft games will be featured soon on the MEEP! online store for kids to easily download, save to their tablet and enjoy at any time.

The MEEP! tablet runs on Android 4.0, features a 7-inch screen with Neonode® MultiSensing™ Touch Technology, is encased in a toughened housing with a silicon rubber sleeve and is Wi-Fi-enabled. MEEP! is available at retail in the USA, UK, Canada, France, Germany, Spain, Brazil, Italy and Australia at launch.

Video Publishing Platform Partners with HTML5 Developer to Bring Video Apps

Thirdpresence Ltd., a cloud-based video publishing service, has announced a partnership with appMobi to integrate Thirdpresence's video publishing platform and HTML5 player technology into appMobi's mobile app development toolkit.

Thirdpresence has developed a video publishing platform and a comprehensive video ad insertion solution that allows appMobi developers to easily publish and monetize video in HTML5-based mobile apps.

Markus Bäckström, Co-founder and CEO of Thirdpresence, said: "We are thrilled to be working with appMobi developers. As we all know, video is one of the main growth drivers in mobile content but developers have struggled with the fragmentation of mobile device video formats. By combining appMobi's HTML5 development tools with Thirdpresence's video publishing platform and HTML5 player, we expect that appMobi developers can now significantly increase video revenues across HTML5 apps."

"We are focused on making HTML5-based cross platform app development easier and more profitable" said Sam Abadir, appMobi's CTO. "Thirdpresence's technology eliminates the pain of supporting video in mobile apps, and will allow our developers to create engaging apps with video content that work across all popular hardware and OS platforms. Considering that 40 percent of the apps being created by our developers are 'media' apps, we expect to see thousands of new apps using this technology within the next few months."

Thirdpresence is a cloud-based Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) video publishing solution enabling app developers, media companies and online video publishers to distribute their on-demand or live video content to any multimedia-capable device. Thirdpresence supports any mobile phone or tablet, including the Apple iPhone, iPad, Android, BlackBerry and Windows Mobile -based phones, together with older legacy phones. Thirdpresence also supports video delivery to Smart-TVs and game consoles. Thirdpresence enables monetization of video either by advertising, subscription or pay-per-view, and provides detailed tracking of content usage. For more information, visit http://www.thirdpresence.com