Australians will be amongst the FIRST in the world to get their hands on the eagerly awaited iPhone 4S, and from 8:00am on Friday 14th October, over 800 Optus stores and dealers across Australia will open their doors to connect consumers with the most important smartphone release of the year.

This year, Optus has made it easier than ever before for Australians to get their hands on this must-have handset. For the first time, Optus customers have been able to pre-order the iPhone 4S online a week before launch, with the option of collecting their pre-ordered handset from the store of their choice, or having it delivered to their home.

Demand has been overwhelming with tens of thousands of Optus customers pre-ordering ahead of launch, and for those that have not ordered online, Optus will have plenty of stock available in all stores across Australia.

Optus is once again bringing Australians the best value and has a great range of plans available to fit everyone’s budget. Customers will be able to get the popular $59 Cap – with the iPhone 4S 16GB at NO additional monthly fee.

Gavin Williams, Optus Consumer Marketing Director, discusses:

• The phenomenal pre-registration response from Optus customers
• The high stock levels in Optus stores for those who didn’t pre-order
• The ongoing appeal of the iPhone and the most popular pre-registration models
• The great value Optus plans for iPhone 4S

Check out Impulse Gamer’s review for the iPhone 4S at http://www.impulsegamer.com/hardwareappleiphone4s.html

The Sequel to the Best-Selling Fitness Game of the Year with More Than 4 Million Units Sold Features New Dance Styles and Contagious New Routines  

Sydney, Australia – November 30^th – 505 Games, a global publisher of video games, along with Zumba Fitness® LLC and All Interactive Entertainment, today announced that the Zumba® Fitness 2 video game, sequel to the best-selling dance-fitness video game, is available now at retailers nationwide. 

The original Zumba^® Fitness game is the number one fitness title of 2011, selling more than 4 million copies worldwide. Zumba^® Fitness 2 builds on the solid foundation set forth by its predecessor and amps up the experience with all-new routines, hit music, customization features and 24 dance styles, more than any other game. Join the party with the Zumba^® Fitness 2 video game launch trailer here: http://youtu.be/IY-KpLmMK3I. And as an extra treat, fans can also get a sneak peek behind the scenes at the making of the TV commercial, here: http://youtu.be/NJ0WMy2Sbds.

Featuring hot new music tracks, electrifying choreography, new venues and double the number of dance styles from the original video game, the Zumba^® Fitness 2 video game invites players to party their way into shape with a fun and proven program. Get moving with amazing Zumba^® presenters, Beto, Tanya Beardsley and Gina Grant as they guide you through each exhilarating routine, ranging from Merengue and Hip-Hop to Bollywood and Latin Pop. For the first time, players can customize their own class with their favorite routines and track calories burned.  Whether playing in Single Song, Full Class or multiplayer mode with support for up to four dancers, players will have a blast with this unique dance-fitness experience that shapes, tones and transforms their bodies, and makes them forget they’re even exercising. 

Additional Zumba^® Fitness 2 Video Game Features: 

·       Get Lost in the Beat – 32 electrifying new routines and contagious music tracks with international beats that now include hits from today’s hot artists: Pitbull, Nicole Scherzinger and Yolanda Be Cool & DCup.

·       Shake it in Style – From fan favorites like Salsa and Reggaeton to all new styles like Bollywood, Ragga, Latin Pop and Pasodoble, players can learn 24 different dance styles from all over the world. That’s more than twice the number in the original best-selling game!

·       Customize Your Experience – Select your favorite routine in Single Song mode, take a class designed by Beto, Gina Grant or Tanya Beardsley, or craft your own playlist in Full Class mode. You can even take it slow in Learn the Steps tutorial mode before you dive into the choreography.

·       Join the Party – Invite your friends to join the fun in multiplayer mode that supports up to four players.

·       Location, Location, Location – Dance it up in five dynamic new environments, from a Miami Yacht to a Los Angeles nightclub.

·       Superstar Instructors – Dance and interact with top Zumba^® instructors Beto, Tanya Beardsley and Gina Grant.

·       Dance Hands-Free– The exclusive Zumba^® Fitness belt is included inside every box so you can holster your Wii Remote™ and naturally move to the music. 

Developed by Zoe Mode, Zumba® Fitness 2 for Wii™ is rated ‘G’ by the Classification Board and is available now.  

To find out more, please visit www.ZumbaFitnessgame.com

SYDNEY, 30 November, 2011: Konami Digital Entertainment GmbH in conjunction with Gaijin Entertainment has opened a dedicated web site at www.birdsofsteel.com for its World War II flight combat simulator, Birds of Steel.

The new site has been designed to complement the new game, and showcases the varied content Birds of Steel offers. Birds of Steel has been developed by Gaijin Entertainment, and is a stunning combat simulator set within some of the most pivotal air battles of World War II, including the battle of Midway, Guadalcanal, Coral Sea, the historic attack on Pearl Harbour, Germany’s Ruhr Valley, and others. Players can select how detailed they want each campaign to be, and are offered a wealth of single and multi-player campaigns. 

Birds of Steel offers 20 historical and a wealth of fictitious missions, spanning eight world-famous campaigns, and users are given access to over 100 famous planes from the entire axis and allied forces rosters. A number of planes ideal for each campaign can be selected, and have been faithfully recreated in terms of handling, capabilities and weaponry. The classic Spitfire, P-51D Mustangs, and Messerschmidt 109 are all lined up for combat, as players opt to player opt to fight for the Allies, Japanese or Axis forces. Likewise, the war zones are brilliantly brought to life, while the handling and battle-scarred planes are susceptible to damage and will suffer in terms of control accordingly. 

A series of camera views also allows users to witness their skills from a series of external views, or within the varied cockpits of the 100 planes. The missions are presented in a pre-conflict briefing, and players can also see how their contributions related to the overall path of the scenario, with new planes available on the completion of specific goals. Birds of Steel also offers the user a number of control systems, ranging from simplistic arcade-style movements, to entirely faithful control systems that offer total control over every aspect of flight – while the games huge online modes include co-op missions alongside friends, or massive multi-player online dogfights to see who owns the skies. 

Fittingly for such a huge game, the new web portal will offer insights into the missions the game offers, and detailed descriptions of the many planes and their capabilities. A wealth of assets for the game are also offered, and fans of Birds of Steel can get to know like-minded people via the special links to a dedicated Facebook page.

SYDNEY (30^th November 2011) – Assassin’s Creed® Revelations (on sale 15^th November, 2011) will be lending one of its costume designs to FINAL FANTASY® XIII-2 (on sale 3^rd February 2012).

Since the release of FINAL FANTASY in 1987, this unique RPG series continues to showcase the spectacular visuals, highly imaginative worlds and rich stories leading the industry and earning the highest accolades from users around the world. Titles of the series have so far achieved a cumulative shipment of over 100 million units worldwide (as of June 2011). 

Initially launched in 2007, the first three Assassin’s Creed games have sold more than 30 million units worldwide, and the franchise is now established as one of the best-selling series on next-generation consoles. Recognized for having some of the richest, most engrossing storytelling in the industry, Assassin’s Creed has transcended video games, branching out into other entertainment experiences including comic books, Facebook® games, novels, short films and more. 

Assassin’s Creed Revelations is already available on Xbox®360 and PlayStation®3, PC version will launch on December 1, 2011. 

FINAL FANTSY XIII-2 will be available for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on February 2^nd, 2012.

SYDNEY, Australia – 30 November 2011 – Symantec Corp. (Nasdaq: SYMC) today announced that as many as 800 million people a day in 2011 viewed its VeriSign trust seals, up 60 percent from 2010 and marking the fifth straight year in which daily seal views have sharply increased. The rise in all VeriSign seals (VeriSign Secured Seals, VeriSign Trust Seals and Norton Secured Seals) helps build site visitor confidence by proving that Symantec has authenticated the identity of the site’s operators and performed daily scans for malware. That confidence is essential for online commerce, particularly during the holiday shopping season.

Consumers continue to demand a cost-effective, efficient and above all, safe online shopping experience. As online commerce becomes the preferred form of shopping for many consumers, these shoppers must be aware of the online scams that are becoming more frequent, sophisticated and damaging. When conducting business online, consumers should always look for a recognised third-party trust mark indicating that the website has undergone rigorous malware scanning and is therefore safe and secure.

Trust seals confer a distinct competitive advantage for organisations, especially during the busiest online shopping period of the year. In February 2011, just after the winter 2010/2011 shopping season, a U.S. Online Consumer Study found that 94 percent of respondents were likely to continue an online purchase when they viewed the Norton Secured Seal during checkout, more than any other seal displayed.

Symantec VeriSign trust seals provide clickable, dynamic, real-time proof that a web site provides a secure connection and protects online transactions involving confidential data. A March 2011 Consumer Research study found that 90 percent of respondents would not continue a transaction if they saw a browser warning page indicating the absence of a secure connection. Moreover, a VeriSign study found that 11 percent of respondents decided not to conduct business with a site because they did not see a VeriSign seal.

VeriSign seal customers also benefit from VeriSign Seal-in-Search, through which participating search engines, partners and security tools display the seal next to a website’s link within search results. VeriSign Seal-in-Search gives VeriSign customers an instant competitive advantage over sites whose search results lack a trust indicator—in 2011, increasing search engine click-through rates on average by 7.7 percent.

As web site owners prepare for the holiday rush, it is essential they take the necessary steps to ensure their customers are visiting a safe and secure site by implementing SSL from a trusted resource. According to the November 2011 Alexa Netcraft Report, more than 50 percent of  the 100,000 most widely visited web sites that utilise SSL encrypted connections, use Symantec SSL to secure their online transactions. Symantec also remains the top issuer of EV SSL Certificates, signing more than 67 percent of all EV SSL certificates worldwide (Netcraft SSL Survey, November 2011). EV SSL certificates provide the highest assurance for all sites requesting sensitive personal or financial information.

Availability

Symantec VeriSign Secured Seals, VeriSign Trust Seals, Norton Secured Seal and Symantec VeriSign Seal-in-Search are available now.

Quotes

“Displaying a VeriSign Trust Seal helps ensure my customers know they’re actually buying from me and that I am serious about keeping their data safe. Those factors improve customers’ confidence and encourage them to spend more with a vendor they trust—me.”
— Reva Colover, CEO, Van’s Gifts

“Malware and cyberattacks can affect any business, including small ones like mine. Displaying a VeriSign Trust Seal reassures customers they don’t have to worry about identity theft or other cybercrime when they visit my website. That translates into more positive word of mouth and better sales, which is especially important during the holiday sales rush.” 
— Josh Neblett, CEO, GreenCupboards.com

“The growth of phishing, spear phishing and other social engineering attacks has made it virtually impossible for anyone – even experts or website owners themselves – to tell a real website from a fake one run by cybercriminals. Symantec VeriSign Trust Seals mitigate that worry by providing real-time, visible proof that a website is genuine and malware free. Trust seals are yet another example of how Symantec helps protect online interactions, information and identities of consumers and website owners of all sizes, during browsing or transactions alike.”
— Fran Rosch, Vice President, Trust Services and Identity Protection, Symantec

Additional Resources

• VeriSign SSL Certificates
• Blog Post: Why Your Certificate Authority Matters
• Blog Post: Symantec’s Top 5 Tips to Defeating the Internet Grinch
• Van’s Gifts
• GreenCupboards.com

Connect with Symantec

• Follow Symantec on Twitter
• Join Symantec on Facebook
• Subscribe to Symantec News RSS Feed
• View Symantec’s SlideShare Channel
• Visit Symantec Connect Business Community

About Symantec
Symantec is a global leader in providing security, storage and systems management solutions to help consumers and organisations secure and manage their information-driven world. Our software and services protect against more risks at more points, more completely and efficiently, enabling confidence wherever information is used or stored. More information is available at www.symantec.com.

30 November 2011, Australia and New Zealand

With the ability to drive underwater and glide through the air to find new shortcuts, all new kart customisation options, online play, brand new and enhanced retro courses and fun new race modes, Mario Kart™ 7 for Nintendo 3DS™ offers something for every racing fan when it launches in Australia and New Zealand on 3rd December 2011.

Mario Kart 7 gives you the chance to make the Mario Kart experience your own, in a customised kart made to your specifications. Players can race on land, underwater or through the air using new abilities which have been introduced especially for Mario Kart 7. The gliders automatically deploy when you launch off a ramp, allowing you to fly through the air or the new ability to drive through water, giving you new ways to overtake your rivals no matter what the terrain.

Nintendo is also introducing four new characters to the Mario Kart roster. Play as Metal Mario, first seen in Super Mario™ 64 (Nintendo 64®), Lakitu, Honey Queen, the queen who ruled over the bees in the Super Mario Galaxy™ (Wii™) series, and Wiggler, Mario’s iconic caterpillar-like enemy. In true Mario Kart tradition you can also choose to race as one of your favourite Mario characters, with popular characters making a special comeback in Mario Kart 7, including Rosalina, Daisy and Mario’s rival Wario. In addition to these well-known characters, players can use their own personal Mii™ character as their racer. This large choice allows you to choose your favourite character and tweak your kart to create a tailor-made racing experience.

Mario Kart fans will enjoy mastering the 16 new courses, including Piranha Plant Pipeway, Wario’s Galleon, Koopa City and Wuhu Mountain Loop, a rally course where you can race along an ‘A to B’ route, rather than the traditional three-lap route. Mario Kart 7 also includes some retro courses that fans will recognise, such as Mushroom Gorge from the Wii™ version and Luigi’s Mansion™ from the Nintendo DS™ version. Fans can look forward to mastering 32 courses, made up of 16 new and 16 remastered retro courses returning in Mario Kart 7, including shortcuts and features that utilise the new abilities to glide through the air and drive underwater.

Players can also unlock parts for their karts by collecting coins during their races. Each customisable part gives you a competitive edge when racing in the different environments. Build your kart from a combination of frame, wheels and – for the first time – glider. A selection of frames such as Growlster, Pipe Frame, Tiny Tug, Cact-X and Barrel Train can be added to a selection of wheels such as Slim, Slick, Wooden or Mushroom wheels to gain an edge over the varying terrains on the courses.

Mario Kart 7 brings together racers worldwide; simply connect wirelessly -locally or over the Internet-, to race against friends and Mario Kart fans from across the globe. You can even construct your own Communities and define your racing mode and items, so you can play your way against your friends.

The StreetPass™ functionality of the Nintendo 3DS system allows you to exchange data from your game with other players, including: player profiles that show VS Rating, win and loss records and the number of coins you’ve collected throughout the game. With SpotPass™ enabled you can receive a variety of ghost data to race against, even allowing for a full eight player race between you and the ghost data. All of this data will be available to players via the Mario Kart Channel within the game, for all StreetPass and SpotPass users.

Other new features you can look forward to include the Lucky Seven item, a brand new power-up that grants the driver a ring of seven different items: the Green Shell, Red Shell, Dash Mushroom, Banana, Bob-omb, Super Star and Blooper. With this power-up you now have seven different items at your disposal, and you have control over which to use. Other new items available for the first time in Mario Kart 7 include the Fire Flower that allows you to throw balls of blazing fire at your challengers and the Super Leaf, which makes the fan favourite Tanooki Tail appear on the back of your kart to knock other drivers and items out of the way.

For further information, visit: www.nintendo.com.au

In the wake of the Cataclysm, Azeroth’s champions rose up to thwart the forces of the maddened black Dragon Aspect, Deathwing. Thus far the world’s defenders have shattered the power base of the Twilight’s Hammer cult and defeated the raging elemental lords Al’Akir and Ragnaros. Yet despite these victories, as long as Deathwing is free to pursue his twisted goals, Azeroth will remain under threat. 

No one is more aware of this fact than the great Dragon Aspects Alexstrasza, Nozdormu, Ysera, and Kalecgos. Together with the wise shaman Thrall, they have devised a plan to vanquish Deathwing with a weapon of his own design: the infamous Dragon Soul. 

Thrall and the noble Aspects will call upon the Horde and the Alliance to help them retrieve the artifact–no longer in existence–from the distant past. Those brave enough to face the challenge will embark on a perilous journey from Azeroth’s apocalyptic End Time to the Dragon Soul’s point of origin during the catastrophic War of the Ancients. If the heroes succeed, an even more harrowing battle awaits them in the present. 

World of Warcraft Patch 4.3: Hour of Twilight has arrived, and with it, Deathwing’s reign of terror will finally come to an end. Featuring a new raid, unexplored dungeons, a legendary rogue quest line, the latest raid tier armor sets, major story developments, the Transmogrification and Void Storage features, and much more, Hour of Twilight has something for everyone. 

To recap the new features in detail: 

·         Raid Finder – Players can quickly and easily form a raid for a specifically tuned version of the Dragon Soul raid; akin to the Dungeon Finder feature

·         Dragon Soul – The most epic 10- and 25-person raid encounter Blizzard has ever designed

·         Transmogrification – Customize the appearance of your weapons and armor

·         Three new 5-person dungeons – Continue the storyline of Thrall and Deathwing as players embark on all-new adventures in End Time, Well of Eternity, and Hour of Twilight

·         Void Storage – Players of all levels can now open up 80 slots of long-term storage space

·         Fangs of the Father – Legendary rogue quest line

·         The all-new Darkmoon Faire – Darkmoon Faire has been completely redesigned and offers all-new games and rewards for players to experience 

You can check out the Patch 4.3 trailer on the World of Warcraft Community Site, or via our YouTube channel.

Industry Veteran Brings Stronger Focus on Virtualization and Cloud Opportunities to Leading Provider of Data Protection and Backup & Recovery Solutions

WOBURN, MA, November 29, 2011 – Acronis Inc., a leading provider of data protection and disaster recovery solutions for physical, virtual and cloud environments, today announced the hiring of Alex Pinchev as President and Chief Executive Officer. Mr Pinchev will join Acronis on January 17, 2012 and replaces Jason Donahue who has served as Chief Executive Officer since 2008. Mr Pinchev has served as a Member of the Acronis Board of Directors since November 2010, and will continue to serve on the Board of Directors as the Chief Executive Officer appointee.

Mr Pinchev has over 30 years’ experience in building and growing highly successful companies. He joins Acronis from Red Hat where he served as an Executive Vice President for the last nine years and was most recently the President of Global Sales, Services & Field Marketing. Mr Pinchev’s business and technology leadership has been instrumental in Red Hat’s tremendous growth and expansion into emerging markets. His extensive experience in the storage management and virtualization markets, combined with his experience driving highly effective global teams will maximize Acronis’ growth opportunities.

“Acronis has a winning combination of talented employees and market leading technology, with a broad channel ecosystem and a great global customer base,” commented Pinchev. “With a successful business in data protection and disaster recovery solutions for physical, virtual and cloud environments, Acronis now has the opportunity to further develop its routes-to-market and expand its technology presence. I am excited to join the talented team at Acronis and to meet the growing demands of our customers worldwide.”
Acronis is one of the fastest growing privately held software companies in the United States. Since first launching innovative disk imaging technology in 2003, Acronis now has over 175,000 business customers and over 3 million consumer customers worldwide, served by a network of more than 20,000 partners. With the launch earlier this year of Acronis Backup & Recovery® 11, which supports all major virtual hypervisors including VMware®, Microsoft®, Red Hat®, Citrix® and Parallels®, and Acronis® vmProtect™ 6 for VMware® vSphere™ servers, the Company is now positioned to take advantage of the fast growing virtualization market opportunity as more businesses adopt new IT strategies.

“We are proud to have an industry leader of Alex’s caliber join us at this time in the Company’s development,” said Ilya Zubarev, Chairman of the Board at Acronis. “Since Alex joined our Board in 2010, we have benefited from his extensive experience, sharp business acumen and vision for the future development of the virtual and cloud markets. We believe that Alex’s strong leadership will accelerate Acronis’ journey to be a global leader in backup & recovery solutions not only for physical servers, but for virtual environments, and into the cloud.”

Prior to joining Acronis, Mr Pinchev was the President of Global Sales, Services & Field Marketing of Red Hat Inc., a position he held since April 2008 and prior to that he served as an Executive Vice President of Global Sales and President of International at Red Hat Inc. for five years.

Prior to Red Hat, he served as an Executive Vice President of MRO Software Inc. from June 2002 to December 2002. He was the founder of software company Maincontrol, Inc. and served as its Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer from July 1996 to June 2002. Mr Pinchev founded two successful software companies in Europe and served as their President and Chief Executive Officer from 1987 to 1996. Mr Pinchev holds several Board positions. He has been a Director of Acronis Inc. since November 2010. He has been a Director of Qualys, Inc. and LogiXML since 2008. Mr Pinchev holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Applied Mathematics and Computer Science and a Masters degree in Computer Science.

Tweet This: @RedHat president Alex Pinchev to join @Acronis as CEO #virtualization #backup #opensource http://tinyurl.com/7ks9ymp

About Acronis
Acronis is a leading provider of easy-to-use disaster recovery and data protection solutions for physical, virtual and cloud environments. Its patented disk imaging technology enables corporations, SMBs and consumers to protect their digital assets. With Acronis’ disaster recovery, deployment and migration software, users protect their digital information, maintain business continuity and reduce downtime. Acronis software is sold in more than 90 countries and available in up to 14 languages. For additional information, please visit www.acronis.com. Follow Acronis on Twitter: http://twitter.com/acronis

FINAL FANTASY XIII-2 will be available in Australia & New Zealand on February the 2^nd, 2012 for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.