Casting has commenced on BLINDER, a new Australian feature film which will begin production in Torquay, Victoria on February 20, 2012, before moving to Boston, Massachusetts to complete filming.

A sports drama with romance, scandal, and the best AFL action sequences ever filmed, BLINDER is in the vein of Friday Night Lights and Bend It Like Beckham, and sees an ex-footballer plagued by turmoil return home after a long absence to clear his name and reignite an old flame.

Richard Gray (writer/director of Summer Coda and the new American thriller Mine Games, now in post-production) is directing the screenplay he co-wrote with Scott Didier and Michele Davis-Gray. Producing with Gray and Didier are former AFL greats Glenn Archer, Adrian Gleeson and Sam Kekovich, alongside Virginia Kay and Bryce Menzies (Malcolm, Death In Brunswick, Two Hands).

Parrot’s new customisation kits for the AR.Drone allow pilots to create their own unique designs for the indoor and outdoor hulls. The kits, available from the Parrot Shopping website and leading AR.Drone retailers come with a transparent shell that lets users spray paint and adhere stickers before reattaching it to their indoor or outdoor hull. The result is a unique and expressive look that makes each AR.Drone highly recognisable and reflective of its owner.

The customisation kits are available for both the indoor hull (AU$50.99 including GST) and the outdoor hull (AU$29.99 including GST), and include the hull, a transparent shell and a set of double adhesive tapes.

For more information, watch the tutorial video on YouTube, visit www.parrot.com/auor contact:

PlayStation®3 on a top selling adventure in Australia

PlayStation®3 hits number 1 unit and value console sales for 2011

Acclaimed action adventure title UNCHARTED 3: Drake’s Deception™ launches this week

Sydney, 2 November 2011: Sony Computer Entertainment Australia (SCE Aust.) is pleased to confirm that PlayStation®3 (PS3™) has hit the number 1 spot for home console sales in 2011 as it gets ready to present the latest instalment in the critically acclaimed action adventure franchise, UNCHARTED 3: Drake’s Deception™, in stores nationally tomorrow.

Official NPD Group Australia data from retailers nationally shows that PS3 sales in Australia currently represent the highest number of home console units sold and also the highest value share delivered for calendar year to date in 2011[1].

Michael Ephraim, Managing Director, Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE Aust.) said “PlayStation 3 sales have hit number one in Australia because of the full entertainment offer PS3 provides at exceptional value, plus the rich, immersive HD gaming experiences we continue to deliver. The entertainment launch of UNCHARTED 3 will be an adrenalin rush –as this blockbuster title really blurs the boundaries between games and cinema. It’s set to be an epic adventure for PlayStation leading into Christmas!”

Developed exclusively for PlayStation 3 (PS3) by the team at Naughty Dog Inc., UNCHARTED 3: Drake’s Deception will deliver the cinematic scale, adrenalin rushes, thrills and mystery that are the UNCHARTED trademark; together with its unique and enhanced multiplayer experience.

Fans of the UNCHARTED franchise and newcomers alike will relish the opportunity to catapult themselves headlong into a real adventure, in a search for the fabled “Atlantis of the Sands.” The journey propels fortune hunter Nathan Drake on a daring trek from the mean streets of London, through a burning French chateau, and into the heart of the Arabian Desert, a journey that pits him and his mentor Victor Sullivan against the occult treachery of a shadowy clandestine organisation and its ruthless leader, Katherine Marlowe. When the terrible secrets of this lost city are unearthed, Drake’s quest descends into a desperate bid for survival that strains the limits of his endurance and forces him to confront his deepest fears.

Key Features:

• Bigger set pieces and more perilous adventure, driven by Naughty Dog’s signature storytelling and cinematic presentation.
• Competitive and co-op multiplayer return with brand new experiences and massively expanded feature sets. The UNCHARTED universe provides online players with a unique Action Adventure multiplayer experience, bringing the cinematic elements of the single-player campaign into multiplayer.
• Nathan Drake can now take on opponents in more ways than before: hand-to-hand combat with multiple opponents, contextual melee attacks, and new stealth options. UNCHARTED 3: Drake’s Deception also features expanded and diverse traversal moves with deep gunplay.
• Naughty Dog introduces new physics, visuals, and environmental effects. UNCHARTED 3: Drake’s Deception features new innovations in sand, fire, smoke, and water dynamics and effects. UNCHARTED 3: Drake’s Deception will be playable in Stereoscopic 3D.

With its award-winning storytelling, blockbuster cinematic action sequences, immersive high resolution 3D and stunning environmental detail and effects, UNCHARTED 3: Drake’s Deception is the chance to lose yourself in the world of Nathan Drake – and to experience the true power of PlayStation 3.

For more information and assets, please visit http://press.au.playstation.com/

View the launch trailer here: http://www.youtube.com/playstationaustralia#p/a/u/2/YOdyRSTbtPk

View the launch TVC here: http://www.youtube.com/playstationaustralia#p/a/u/0/OK28U9fF_OM

Madman proudly presents the hilarious new family comedy, BIG MAMMA’S BOY – coming to DVD ($34.95srp) and Blu-Ray ($39.95srp) on 21 December, 2011.

BIG MAMMA’S BOY follows the story of Rocco (Frank Lotito) as he struggles to choose between the love of his life, Katie (Holly Valance) and his doting, over-protective Italian mother (Carmelina Di Guglielmo). Fun, heart-warming and poignant, this spirited romantic comedy explores Australia’s multicultural nuances, with hilarious results, and goes to show that being a ‘big mamma’s boy’ is a lot tougher than it sounds!

Starring comedian Frank Lotito and Holly Valance (NEIGHBOURS, TAKEN), and featuring a stellar supporting cast of iconic Australian entertainers, including George Kapiniaris (ACROPOLIS NOW, UNDERBELLY), Carmelina Di Guglielmo (STINGERS, CARLA CAMETTI PD), Maria Venuti (PIZZA, ALWAYS GREENER), Costas Kilias (THE CASTLE, THE WOG BOY) and model, Pia Miller, BIG MAMMA’S BOY is an Aussie comedy with a distinctly Mediterranean bite.

With its Australian theatrical release garnering a warm reception from people of all ages, BIG MAMMA’S BOY is a family-friendly hit in the tradition of Aussie comedy classics like THE CASTLE, THE WOG BOY and KENNY.

DVD and Blu-Ray special features include Behind-the-Scenes ‘webisodes’, a Blooper Reel, an ‘End Credit Dance’ and Australian Idol winner, Natalie Gauci’s music videos for “Do What You Want to Do” and “Best of Me” – two songs featured in the film.

To celebrate the release of BIG MAMMA’S BOY, select members of the cast and crew, including Frank Lotito, will be available for media interviews – to register your interest please contact Madman Publicity via reply, or in the details in the attached media release.

BIG MAMMA’S BOY will be available on DVD ($34.95srp) and Blu-Ray ($39.95srp) from 21 December 2011.

Sydney— November 2, 2011  — Seagate (NASDAQ:STX) is streamlining its flagship family of desktop drives under a single product that hones in on performance and big capacities to help satisfy the explosive growth in content creation and consumption by businesses and consumers worldwide. The new Barracuda® family makes it easier for consumers to find the product they need and reduces costs for Seagate’s original equipment manufacturer and distribution channel customers by reducing the number of product qualifications and amount of inventory they need to manage.
 
“A simpler desktop drive product family is exactly what Seagate customers are asking for,” said Scott Horn, vice president of Marketing at Seagate. “The new Barracuda® family reflects the reality that end-users want a full range of hard drive capacities and as much performance as we can give them to help manage and store massive amounts of digital content. In addition, our OEM and channel customers want to reduce overhead costs by having fewer product lines to qualify and manage in their inventory.”
Desktop PC performance is growing in importance as computer users consume and otherwise use more and more multimedia – a blend of text, audio, images, animation and video – and other rich-content files in areas as diverse as business, advertising, art, education, entertainment, engineering, medicine, mathematics and science. Higher hard drive performance often means a faster computer and quicker access to this content.

The new Barracuda hard drive – to be available first at online retailers Amazon, CDW, Newegg and TigerDirect – is designed for desktop, tower or all-in-one personal computers; workstations, home and small business servers; network-attached storage devices; direct-attached storage expansion; and home and small-business RAID solutions. Capacities of the family range from 250GB to a massive 3TB.

The simplification of the Barracuda family comes as Seagate begins volume shipments of its 1TB-per-disk Barracuda® hard drive. Seagate plans to end production of its Barracuda® Green drive in February 2012. Seagate analysis shows that its new Barracuda drives have a nearly identical power-consumption profile as energy-efficient desktop drives but deliver much higher performance. Barracuda® XT, Seagate’s fastest desktop hard drive, will be folded into the new Barracuda family and re-emerge, in name, as the company’s desktop solid state hybrid drive.     
 
Technical Specifications
The new Barracuda hard drive features a SATA 6GB/second interface, 7200RPM spin speed and up to 64MB cache to deliver high performance across all capacities. Seagate’s SmartAlign™ technology, a feature of Seagate’s Barracuda Green drives, will continue to ship with the flagship Barracuda drives to help the hard drive industry segue from the current 512-byte sector standard for hard drives to the new 4096-byte sector size. The new 4K standard enables the use of stronger error correction algorithms to maintain data integrity at higher storage densities and capacities.
 
Environmental Commitment
Seagate is committed to building hard drives to the highest quality and environmental standards. More than 70 percent of materials used in its storage products are recyclable, and all of its products are halogen-free and comply with the rigorous REACH standard*. These and other initiatives at Seagate are what truly make a difference to the environment.
 
*REACH is the most far-reaching and comprehensive chemical-restriction law in the world. Seagate drives do not contain the harmful halogen elements chlorine and bromine. The absence of halogen exceeds the strictest legal requirements for environmental cleanliness to satisfy the higher standards of many computer makers and environmental groups.  
 
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About Seagate
Seagate is the worldwide leader in hard disk drives and storage solutions. Learn more at http://www.seagate.com.
Copyright 2011. Seagate Technology LLC. All rights reserved. Printed in USA. Seagate, Seagate Technology and the Wave logo are registered trademarks of Seagate Technology LLC in the United States and/or other countries. Barracuda, Barracuda Green, Barracuda XT and SmartAlign are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Seagate Technology LLC or one of its affiliated companies in the United States and/or other countries. When referring to drive capacity, one gigabyte, or GB, equals one billion bytes and one terabyte, or TB, equals one trillion bytes. Your computer’s operating system may use a different standard of measurement and report a lower capacity. In addition, some of the listed capacity is used for formatting and other functions, and thus will not be available for data storage. Actual data rates may vary depending on operating environment and other factors. Seagate reserves the right to change, without notice, product offerings or specifications

CHRISTMAS COMES EARLY FOR CANON CONSUMERS WITH RETAIL LAUNCH OF “CANON ISLAND”  

Sydney, 2 November 2011: With less than eight weeks till Christmas, Canon Australia announces its much anticipated Christmas campaign Canon Island this week.

Building on the success of its 2010 promotional activity, Canon is launching a creative brand experience offering consumers the chance to win a once-in-a-lifetime prize. Canon Island is a first for Australia’s Best Selling camera brand* and expects to significantly boost sales. Available through Canon’s retailers both in-store and online, the promotion is one of the biggest competitions Canon has ever launched and aims to incentivise and reward consumers. 

Canon shoppers purchasing $90 or more worth of Canon Australia and New Zealand products in one transaction can enter the prize draw – which will see the winners whisked away on an all expenses paid VIP trip to a yet to be revealed exotic Australian island. Entries can be made online via the Canon Australia website, www.canon.com.au/canonisland, Canon New Zealand website www.canon.co.nz/en-NZ/canonisland or by scanning the QR code on the entry form.

This exclusive offer is only available in Australia and New Zealand, and shoppers will benefit from the promotion at authorised Canon retailers. The Canon Island competition kicks off this week, with entries closing on Monday 16 January 2012 and the excursion taking place in March 2012.

All 57 Australian winners plus their lucky guests will embark on an exclusive three day adventure on a mysterious island. The trip will be jam-packed with awe-inspiring activities promising to take guests on an ultimate adventure; from exotic Arabian Nights to the deep sea exploration of an Underwater Paradise and a colourful Carnivale Circus. 

“Here at Canon, we want to inspire consumers to capture life’s unforgettable moments but also reward them for choosing Canon. So what better way to do this than give away a truly original Canon experience that money simply can’t buy,” said Darren Ryan, General Manager Consumer Marketing of Canon Australia. 

“Last year, it was a jet plane. This year, we’re taking over an island. We can’t disclose all the details just yet, but shoppers can rest assure that the Canon Island competition will be well and truly worth the wait.” 

As well as winning two tickets to Canon Island, with each prize valued up to a total of AUD $12,000, the promotion will give consumers three chances daily to win up to $500, bringing the entire prize pool to over $800,000 in Australia. 

For more information about the promotion, including full terms and conditions, ask your sales representatives in-store at a local authorised Canon retailer, or by visiting the Canon Store https://store.canon.com.au/Our-Products  

Permit numbers: NSW: LTPS/11/7968, ACT: TP11/3509, VIC: 11/1839, SA: T11/1822

*YTD 18% volume/ 29% value share. Source: GfK Retail and Technology Australia, Digital Still Cameras, Retail Sales Units/Value Jan to Sep 2011 [Excludes internet and online channels].  

About Canon:

Canon is the world’s leading imaging brand that actively inspires with imaginative ideas that enable people to connect, communicate and achieve more than they thought possible through imaging solutions for business and consumers. Canon’s Australian R&D company, CiSRA, develops and exports digital imaging technologies for use in Canon products worldwide. Canon has ranked among the top-four US patent recipients* for the past 19 years, and had global revenues of around $US45 billion in 2010. Canon Australia also operates Canon Finance Australia, which offers one-stop shopping for consumers wanting leasing or finance services. For more information, visit www.canon.com.au, www.facebook.com/canonaustralia, www.twitter.com/canonaustralia, www.youtube.com/canonaustralia

BATTLE OF THE CLANS: WINNERS ANNOUNCED!

Sydney, Australia – November 1 2011 – Two winners have been announced for the Battle Of The Clans, the pro-gaming competition run as a joint venture by retailer GAME and gaming headset specialist Turtle Beach to help nurture pro gaming in Australia. Cruelty Incarnate and Break Even now have the opportunity to compete with more strength than ever before both here and abroad thanks to a unique sponsorship deal with GAME and Turtle Beach.

“This ‘X-Factor’ style event not only raised the profile of competitive gaming, but also allowed GAME and Turtle Beach to show its support to the Australian gaming community, and will now allow the winning teams to compete on the World stage,” says GAME Marketing Director Ben Grant. “We are very proud to be sponsoring Break Even and Cruelty Incarnate.”

Omar Braery, Marketing Manager at Turtle Beach’s ANZ distributor, QV Software, agrees. “Bringing Turtle Beach to Australia is part of our commitment at QVS to providing quality products to the local gaming community. We are always open to show support and involvement with local initiatives and Battle of the Clans was the perfect opportunity for Turtle Beach to be involved and help propel the pro-gaming community in Australia.”

Tune in to the dramatic finale of GAME TV’s coverage of The Battle Of The Clans to watch Cruelty Incarnate and Break Even take the title for Call of Duty: Black Ops and Halo Reach respectively.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtfhMFAm638

SYDNEY, Australia – 2 November, 2011 – Apple® today announced that GarageBand®, its breakthrough music creation app, is now available for iPhone® and iPod touch® users. Introduced earlier this year on iPad®, GarageBand uses Apple’s revolutionary Multi-Touch™ interface to make it easy for anyone to create and record their own songs, even if they’ve never played an instrument before.

“GarageBand on iPad has been a big hit and we think customers will love using it on their iPhone or iPod touch,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “The innovative Multi-Touch interface combined with Smart Instruments makes it easy to create great sounding music, even if you’ve never studied music or played an instrument before.”

GarageBand features a collection of fun Touch Instruments that sound great and make it easy for beginners or experienced musicians to play and record keyboards, guitars, drums and basses in a wide variety of styles. Smart Instruments now allow you to choose from an extensive new library of custom chords so you can play and strum along with your favorite songs.

You can plug your electric guitar into iPad, iPhone or iPod touch to play and record through classic amps and stompbox effects, or record your voice or any acoustic sound using the built-in microphone. GarageBand allows you to record and mix up to eight tracks and then share your finished song with friends or send it to your Mac® to keep working on it in GarageBand or Logic® Pro.

Pricing & Availability
GarageBand 1.1 for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch is available on the App Store™ for recommended retail price AUD$5.49 inc. GST to new users, or as a free update for existing GarageBand for iPad customers. GarageBand is a universal app that runs on iPad, iPad 2, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S and iPod touch (3rd & 4th generation).

Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and has recently introduced iPad 2 which is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices.

2 November 2011

Nintendo Australia announces that the highly anticipated Mario Kart 7 will be in stores Saturday 3 December.

Available on Nintendo 3DS, Mario Kart 7 is the latest instalment in the Mario Kart franchise and brings exciting 3D kart action to the palm of your hand. Mario Kart 7 drivers can explore all new competitive kart possibilities; customise your kart, speed over the sea floor as you race underwater, or glide over the tracks as the Glider is deployed on big jumps. Mastering these abilities will allow you to find shortcuts and beat your opponents to the finish line.

Classic items return and some new power-ups appear for the first time in Mario Kart 7. Fans of the Tanooki power-up will be glad to hear that the Super Leaf makes an appearance in this latest instalment giving you both offensive and defensive abilities. Use your Tanooki tail to both protect you from incoming shells and to whip opponents off the track.

There is a course suited to every driving style, from wild rides over a mountain road to city streets and dusty deserts. Fans might recognise new courses on Wuhu Island and in the jungles from Donkey Kong Country Returns.

Also available on Nintendo 3DS will be Super Mario 3D Land on 24 November. Bringing a unique mix of classic and brand new Mario gameplay, Super Mario 3D Land also sees the return of the Tanooki suit!

It’s Mario as you have never seen him before! Super Mario 3D Land and Mario Kart 7 – only on Nintendo 3DS

Sydney, Australia: November 01 2011 – CM Storm, of the Cooler Master Group, unveils a truly magnificent feat of engineering into an arena that represents the future of PC Gaming; the Trooper full-tower chassis. Capable of lightning fast redeployment, it’s the first in its class to include an ultra-strong carrying handle; allowing a gamer to travel with the finest system configurations available with relative ease. CM Storm Trooper includes features that are most coveted by gaming enthusiasts in that it has full dust filter coverage, a fan controller, an external SSD drive hot-swap dock and two uniquely designed modular hard drive cages. These features give CM Storm Trooper the ability to adapt to workstation or water-cooled gaming configurations easily.

Cutting-edge Innovations
CM Storm Trooper exterior features a damage-resistant rubberized coating that will protect the case during transport. Things heat up as gaming becomes more intense. The included front panel connections and controls provide a user with the ability to make on-the-fly changes to fan speed and case LEDs while USB 3.0 and 2.0 ports, and audio connections are also provided as an added means of convenience. This is topped off by a 2.5” HDD/SSD X-dock that makes mounting extra drives as easy as loading a Blu-ray/DVD. Changing settings at a moment’s notice becomes a simple matter of a quick button press with CM Storm Trooper.

Versatile Configurations
CM Storm Trooper contains two modular HDD cages which can hold 4HDDs and a120mm fan for cooling each. These modular units can be rotated, front to back, side to side or removed altogether. CM Storm Trooper is the first chassis to allow fully modular hard drive configuration with no modification required. CM Storm Trooper can be equipped with multiple watercooling radiators. Creatively mounting a vertical water-cooling radiator is possible with the removal of the hard drive cages and panels. CM Storm Trooper has nine expansion slots providing support for multi-GPUs in SLI or Crossfire, space for up to 14 hard drives, and a motherboard tray that supports up to XL-ATX. The Trooper is an ideal mobile arsenal to house and transport the most advanced system and cooling setups.
Cable Management & Storage
A professional cable management look is possible by utilizing the myriad cable tie zones and cable management holes available in the CM Storm Trooper. Smarter and larger placements of these areas allow for efficiently routing cables directly to their intended destinations. In an effort to reduce installation times, a great number of hardware can be mounted tool-free via the use of the included locking mechanisms or trays. A very large CPU heat sink retention hole has been placed in the motherboard tray to allow it to be compatible with most types of CPU and motherboard layouts. Prepare for the unexpected as seasoned operative would with a hidden drawer placed behind a false panel. The bottom panel removes to reveal a storage drawer to keep private effects safe from prying eyes until they are needed.CM Storm will be launching CM Storm Trooper at a MSRP of $189.99 in North America & South America. Expect to see it at retailers and online locations that sell your favorite Cooler Master, CM Storm, and Choiix gear by October 4th 2011 in North America & South America. Availability, and pricing will vary based on geographical region, please contact your local Cooler Master approved reseller or distributor in your country for more information.

Pricing and Availability
Manufacturer: CM Storm
Product Name: Trooper
RRP: AU$ 189.00, NZ$ 199.00
Website: www.cmstorm.com
Australian Distributors: Rectron, Australia IT, DMA, Ingram Micro

New Zealand Distributors: PBTech
Availability: Now

About CM Storm
Through long-standing research programs, CM Storm product are co-developed with the world’s most prolific enthusiasts and eSport prodigies. Thanks to intensive testing and continuous feedback, the CM Storm division has been able to fulfill gamers’ needs and produce creative gaming gear fit for intense firefights. Marking a new era for Cooler Master, CM Storm Gear gives you an edge over standard Peripherals in your digital conquests. For more information, please visit http://www.cmstorm.com