In a drive to deliver more value than ever before to the pre-paid market, Optus today launched Turbo Max, one of Australia’s best pre-paid offers.  With the new $70 and $100 Optus Turbo Max pre-paid plans, Optus customers can enjoy virtually ‘unlimited’ mobile usage with the flexibility and certainty of pre-paid.
 
For customers who make lots of calls, the $70 Optus Turbo Max provides a huge 3,000 minutes of calls per recharge* to any Australian mobile.  For those who like to text, talk and browse, the $100 Turbo Max provides  3,000 minutes, 3,000 SMS and up to 2GB of data per recharge*.
 
Michael Smith, Managing Director, Optus Consumer said “With the largest prepaid customer base in Australia,
Optus knows how important real value is to pre-paid customers. They want simple to understand offers that show
them exactly what they get upfront, and with Turbo Max that’s what we’ve given them.
 
“Just as our Timeless plans were a great innovation for post-paid customers, we believe Turbo Max is one of the
best pre-paid offers in the Australian market,” Mr Smith said. 
 
For customers who use their phone for more than just voice, the $100 Turbo Max plan is a great all-in-one pre-paid mobile offer for calls, SMS and mobile data. The 2GB of mobile data is one of the largest data allowancs ever offered on pre-paid mobile, reflecting the growing demand from customers to access email and browse the web on their pre-paid mobile device.
 
Turbo Max is available to new and existing customers and is the second major prepaid offer launched by Optus this year, allowing customers to “Live Life without limits”. Last month Optus launched Turbo Text, a prepaid plan that delivers unlimited text messaging to any five friends’ mobiles on any network in Australia for a $30 recharge.
 
“Optus continues to offer value and freedom to its customers with great plans that are easy to understand and represent great value. With Turbo Max and Turbo Text we are proving once again that when you think pre-paid mobile, you think Optus,” Mr Smith said.
 
For more information please visit www.optus.com.au/turbomax

Principal Photography Begins March 15 in Southern California  – Original Cast & Crew Re-Team Following Cartoon Network’s 2009 Record-Setting Scooby-Doo! The Mystery Begins  – New Film Slated for Fall TV/Spring DVD Release 

Warner Premiere is in production on Scooby-Doo! Curse of the Lake Monster, an all-new, live-action/CG movie follow-up to 2009’s record-setting Scooby-Doo! The Mystery Begins, it was announced today by Eva Davis, EVP and General Manager, Warner Premiere.  The film commenced principal photography on March 15 in various locations around Southern California.  The family-targeted feature will premiere on Cartoon Network in Autumn 2010 and release on DVD through Warner Home Video in early 2011.

Scooby-Doo! Curse of the Lake Monster continues the Mystery Inc. gang’s adventures from the 2009 hit Scooby-Doo! The Mystery Begins, which premiered as the most-watched telecast in Cartoon Network history, and set targeted demographic records across the board.  This new film will once again feature the familiar cast of characters in their high school years as they continue to develop and sharpen their combined sleuthing skills.

“After more than 40 years, the Scooby-Doo franchise continues to grow stronger as generations of audiences embrace these timeless characters, and that adoration has been clearly reflected in box office, DVD sales and television ratings,” said Davis. “These new live-action films, with their contemporary approach, bring excitement and thrills to an altogether new era of Scooby-Doo fans.”

Scooby-Doo! Curse of the Lake Monster finds the Mystery Inc. gang heading toward summer jobs at a country club owned by Daphne’s uncle, only to stumble onto strange happenings around the local lake – including mystical moonstones, creepy characters and a Frog Monster on the loose.  There’s mystery afoot and romance in the air that only the fearful foursome-plus-one – Fred, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy and Scooby-Doo – can solve in this Warner Premiere production. Warner Bros. Home Entertainment will distribute the film on Blu-ray, DVD, On Demand and For Download.

Director Brian Levant, producer Brian Gilbert and writers the Altiere Brothers return from their successful turns at the creative helm of Scooby-Doo! The Mystery Begins.  The Atlas Entertainment production also has the live action cast returning intact with Robbie Amell (True Jackson, VP) as Fred, Kate Melton as Daphne, Hayley Kiyoko as Velma and Nick Palatas as Shaggy. Scooby-Doo will appear via computer-generated animation courtesy of Animation Picture Company.

An animated creation from the legendary Hanna-Barbera studios, Scooby-Doo celebrated his 40^th anniversary in 2009 and represents one of the longest running, most beloved franchises in cartoon history.  Starting with Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! in 1969, the awkward, snack-craving Great Dane and his four unique pals have been solving mysteries through 10 televisions series (spanning nearly 300 episodes, with a new series slated for debut in 2011), seven TV specials/telefilms, 14 made-for-video animated films (with No. 15, Scooby-Doo: Camp Scare, arriving in September 2010), and two live action theatrical features (Scooby-Doo and Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed).

About Warner Premiere:

Warner Premiere is Warner Bros. Entertainment’s production company focused on the development, production and marketing of feature-length content for the growing direct-to-consumer market. Warner Premiere is committed to being at the creative forefront in the evolution of quality product in the direct-to-DVD business, creating material that exemplifies the commitment to story, production and brand equity for which Warner Bros. is known.

About Cartoon Network:

Cartoon Network (CartoonNetwork.com), currently seen in more than 97 million U.S. homes and 160 countries around the world, is Turner Broadcasting System, Inc.’s ad-supported cable service offering the best in original, acquired and classic entertainment for kids and families.  From 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. Monday through Sunday (ET, PT), Cartoon Network shares its channel space with Adult Swim, a late-night destination showcasing original and acquired entertainment for young adults 18-34.

About Warner Home Video:

With operations in 90 international territories Warner Home Video, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company, commands the largest distribution infrastructure in the global video marketplace.  Warner Home Video’s film library is the largest of any studio, offering top quality new and vintage titles from the repertoires of Warner Bros. Pictures, Turner Entertainment, Castle Rock Entertainment, HBO Home Video and New Line Home Entertainment.

About Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group

Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group brings together Warner Bros. Entertainment’s home video, digital distribution, interactive entertainment/videogames, direct-to-DVD production, technical operations and anti-piracy businesses in order to maximize current and next-generation distribution scenarios. WBHEG is responsible for the global distribution of content through DVD, electronic sell-through and VOD, and delivery of theatrical content to wireless and online channels, and is also a significant worldwide publisher for both internal and third party videogame titles.

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA – March 30, 2010 – Norton from Symantec (Nasdaq: SYMC) announced today that it has appointed Adam Palmer as Norton Lead Cybersecurity Advisor.  Formerly a cybercrime prosecutor and legal director for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), Palmer is a pioneer in the field of cybercrime law and its enforcement, bringing more than a decade of experience in private industry and government service.  

Although the frequency and sophistication of cybercrime has continued to increase rapidly in recent years, many consumers remain unaware of the dangers that exist.  Palmer will lead the charge to spread awareness about cybercrime and help Norton strengthen its efforts to make the online world safer through the following actions:

• Educate the public about today’s online threats through Norton-led research programs and the development of awareness campaigns
• Empower computer users by providing them with the information and tools they need to make the right choices that will help better protect them online
• Reinforce online rights through outreach to law enforcement and other key organisations

“Adam Palmer is a proven leader in the fight against cybercriminals and a powerful addition to our team,” said Janice Chaffin, Group President of Symantec’s Consumer Business Unit.  “Adam will work directly with our product teams, law enforcement and others in the industry to arm consumers with the truth about cybercrime and help make the Internet a safer place.”  

Palmer joins Symantec from the .ORG Top Level Domain Registry, where the cybersecurity program he introduced was named one of the major online security successes of 2009 by the Anti Phishing Working Group (APWG).  He has served as an instructor in cybercrime prosecution related courses for the National District Attorney’s Association (NDAA), the National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG), and The National Law Center for Children (NLC), in addition to teaching the first Internet Crimes Against Children course ever taught at the law school level, through the University of Mississippi Law School. 

###

About Norton From Symantec

Symantec’s Norton products protect consumers from cybercrime with technologies like antivirus, anti-spyware and phishing protection, while also being light on system resources.  The company also provides services such as online backup and PC tuneup, and is a trusted source for family online safety.  Friend us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/norton and follow @NortonOnline on Twitter.

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 http://www.symantec.com.au.

AMD Sets the New Standard for Price, Performance, and Power for the Datacenter

• AMD Opteron™ 6000 Series platform with Direct Connect Architecture 2.0 delivers more cores, more memory for less money
• Up to 119 percent improved performance while maintaining low price and power

Sydney, Australia: March 30, 2010 — AMD announces availability of a new server platform featuring the world’s first 8- and 12-core x86 processor for the high-volume 2P and value 4P server market. The AMD Opteron™ 6000 Series platform addresses the unmistakable needs of server customers today – workload-specific performance, power efficiency, and overall value – while delivering more cores and more memory for less money. Leading OEMs including HP, Dell, Acer Group, Cray, and SGI are introducing new systems based on this highly scalable and reliable platform.

The new AMD Opteron 6000 Series platform features include:

• The industry’s only 8- and 12-core server processors performing at up to two times the level of AMD’s previous generation 6-core processors, including an 88 percent increase in integer performance⁴ and a 119 percent increase in floating point performance.²
• Enhanced integrated memory controller supporting four channels of DDR3 memory for up to a 2.5x improvement in overall memory bandwidth.⁵
• Thirty-three percent more memory channels per processor than competitive 2P solutions.⁶
• 50% higher DIMM capacity compared to previous generations, with up to 12 per processor, increasing the available memory overall and improving virtualization, database and HPC applications.
• AMD 5600 Series chipset with I/O virtualization capability, HyperTransport™ 3.0 technology and PCI Express^® 2.0.
• Removal of the “4P tax”, since the same processors can be used in both 2P and 4P designs, and 4P-capable processors are now the same price as 2P-capable processors, bringing greatly improved value to the 4P space.
• Unprecedented price/performance. In a comparison between a best-performing 2P competitive platform versus a similar best-performing 4P AMD-based platform, customers can recognize up to double the performance and more than 10% lower total processor price.⁷
• Significant new power management features including a C1E power state to conserve energy when idle, the Advanced Platform Management Link allowing APML-enabled platforms to be remotely monitored for power and cooling, and AMD CoolSpeed technology, which automatically reduces p-states if a specified temperature limit is exceeded.
• A wide range of power and performance options with no compromise on the available feature sets.
• A legacy of consistency and stability. The new AMD Opteron platform is chipset- and socket- compatible between 2P and 4P and will be compatible with the planned processors based on the next-generation AMD server processor core, code-named “Bulldozer”.

Additional Resources

• AMD@Work blog with guest posts from Acer Group, Cray, Dell, HP, and SGI
• AMD Opteron 6000 Series platform launch blog
• The AMD Opteron™ Express YouTube Channel
• AMD Opteron 6100 Series processor launch presentation
• AMD Opteron processor performance data
• Pricing information
• Photos
• Infrastructure and Channel support
• Online press kit

Nero Introduces Ultimate 3-in-1 Bundle for Video Editing, Burning and Backup: Nero Multimedia Suite 10
Celebrating its 15th Anniversary, Nero delivers a pivotal new release with three comprehensive and enhanced standalone products bundled into one powerful multimedia suite: Nero Vision Xtra, Nero Burning ROM and Nero BackItUp & Burn

Karlsbad, Germany (March 29, 2010)- Nero, creators of liquid media technology, today introduced Nero Multimedia Suite 10, providing a fundamental shift from previous offerings of ‘all-in-one’ integrated applications to a new powerful multimedia bundle consisting of three standalone products. The three comprehensive products that make up Nero Multimedia Suite 10 are Nero Vision Xtra, which is dedicated to media organization, advanced video editing and HD movie creation; Nero Burning ROM for disc burning and copying; and Nero BackItUp & Burn for backing up, synching and restoring data. These three robust products, plus additional multimedia tools, will grant home hobbyists a powerful solution which meets their multimedia project needs, yet provides ease of use, all at a great value.
“Tools like Nero Multimedia Suite 10 have the ability to grow the market for photo and video editing,” said Kurt Scherf, Vice President and Principal Analyst with Parks Associates. “Already, the percentage of consumers in U.S. broadband households that self-edit home videos on a regular basis has grown from 10 percent in 2006 to 25 percent in 2009. Today, nearly one-half of consumers are regularly editing photos, up from 35 percent in 2006.”
Home hobbyists who enjoy creating and editing their home videos will greatly benefit from this product bundle. Nero Multimedia Suite 10 offers easy music, photo and video file management, advanced video editing which provides optimized HD performance with SmartEncoding and Blu-ray Disc authoring. Additionally, it delivers superior disc burning, reliable backup technology and multimedia tools to enhance their creativity.
“During Nero’s fifteen years in business, more than 300 million customers have enjoyed using Nero’s product offerings to manage their content at home, on-the-go and online,” said Jürgen Kurz, CEO, Nero AG. “Nero Multimedia Suite 10 was developed using extensive market research and incorporating the feedback from over 150,000 consumers and home hobbyists. The feedback showed that existing ‘all-in-one’ offerings in the market are considered outdated and work more like Swiss army knives, being the ’jack of all trades and the master of none’. As a result, Nero set out to create a true multimedia suite that offers separate, best-of-breed

products dedicated to video creation and management, burning and backup. Nero Multimedia Suite 10 not only meets the needs of today’s customers, it also provides an incredible value.”

Nero Multimedia Suite 10 consists of the following products:
Nero Vision Xtra
The all new Nero Vision Xtra is a combination of two robust, fully integrated applications: Nero MediaHub and Nero Vision.
Nero MediaHub is the home base for playback, management and simple editing of multimedia files. It features an easy-to-use interface that lets users quickly organize, sort, search, play back and share music, photo and video files, organize music playlists, as well as create and edit slideshows with high quality Movie Themes – all from one place. From the same window, play back the most popular audio, video and photo formats such as AVCHD, MKV, FLV, FLAC, DVD, non-commercial Blu-ray, MPEG-4 AVC, (S)-VCD, AVCREC, audio CDs, as well as music playlists and slideshows. Easily publish music, slideshows and video projects to CDs, DVDs and Blu-ray Discs (including 24 progressive frame high quality cinema formats) or upload to leading social media communities, including YouTube, Facebook, MySpace, Flickr and the My Nero community.
Nero Vision is fully enhanced to provide professional-looking results with advanced video editing and authoring tools for Standard and High Definition movies. It includes cutting-edge features such as true multi-track editing, advanced Picture-in-Picture and overlay effects with full key frame control, Pan & Zoom, Chroma Key, Image Matt, Lens Distortion, Sharpen, Edge Feathering, Earthquake and more. Users can look like pros with over 60 Menu Templates which can be used for creating disc menus (sports, kids & family, holiday, business and various other themes) including standard 2D, animated 2D and smart3D. To spruce up photos and videos, Nero Vision includes over 150 Clipart options like bubbles, lines, borders and frames.
Nero Vision also delivers superb HD performance including SmartEncoding for MPEG 2 and AVCHD, as well as NVIDIA CUDA™ support for high-performance hardware accelerated H.264/AVC encoding. In addition, Nero Vision enables users to export to a large variety of file formats, including online, CDs, DVDs, AVCHD and Blu-ray Discs. It’s the perfect product for those home hobbyists who want to make an impact with their projects.
Nero MediaHub and Nero Vision work together seamlessly to bridge between basic and advanced video editing. Users can start a slideshow or home video project in Nero MediaHub and seamlessly transfer their project into Nero Vision by clicking on the “advanced editing” button. Packed with powerful features, Nero Vision Xtra lets users easily transform home video projects into cinema-quality High Definition movies and share them with family and friends.

Nero Burning ROM
When it comes to burning and copying CDs, DVDs and Blu-ray Discs, Nero Burning ROM delivers the industry’s leading burning solution. Loaded with features that go beyond just burning, Nero Burning ROM provides reliable, uninterrupted burns with superb playback quality of burned content. Nero Burning ROM also integrates the recently announced SecurDisc™ 2.0 technology to increase the lifespan, reliability, security and integrity of user’s burned content. Its superb quality ensures long-lasting results that are readable regardless of scratches, age or deterioration. Working with any optical recording drive, SecurDisc 2.0 now includes support for Blu-ray Discs, in addition to CDs and DVDs. Plus, Nero

SecurDisc Viewer is automatically included with every burn and works without installation or drivers. Users can easily protect their confidential data from unauthorized access with password protection and encryption, while ensuring its authenticity with digital signatures.
Using the Nero DiscSpan and Nero DiscMerge utilities, users can burn oversized files to multiple discs or different types of media and then merge them back together again. Plus, Nero Burning ROM has also been enhanced with support for new burning compilations and now supports AVCHD for DVDs and AVCHD / BD-MV for Blu-ray Discs.

Nero BackItUp & Burn
Nero BackItUp & Burn is the ultimate in data protection providing reliable backup and recovery capabilities for all user’s valuable personal photos, music, videos and documents. Easily back up files, folders, drives and the entire system in a few easy steps. With state-of-the-art backup technology, users can secure files and protect entire systems from the effects of hard drive crashes, system failures and virus attacks. Launch the one-click Autobackup function, select the target and it automatically backups files in the background without intrusion. In addition, it’s easy to schedule regular backups with various methods, compression and protection levels to secure files.
Rest assured that any lost or deleted data can be safely recovered and restored quickly and easily, even from digital cameras, thumb drives or damaged media.
Nero BackItUp & Burn is not only about backup, recovery and restoration, but also about syncing data between computers and mobile devices for easy access to files and folders when on the go. With Nero BackItUp & Burn’s syncing features, files and folders can be synched directly to hard drives, laptops and USB flash drives or online.

PLUS Nero Multimedia Suite 10 – Multimedia Tools
Besides all the new applications and features, Nero Multimedia Suite 10 also contains well-known tools like:
• Nero StartSmart – An updated GUI on this task-oriented command center makes it easy to access music, photo and video editing, burning, or backup applications. It includes an integrated Nero StartSmart Knowledge Center to increase user skills through online access to step-by-step tutorials and manuals, networking with the My Nero community, sharing blogs and tips with other Nero users and available add-ons and updates.
• Nero DiscCopy Gadget – Quickly perform simple disc-copying operations from the desktop.
• Nero CoverDesigner – Create custom covers, labels and booklets for CD and DVD cases and more.
• Nero SoundTrax – Create 5.1 surround mixes and digitize music from vinyl records or cassette tapes.
• Nero WaveEditor – Edit music using various effects and sound enhancement tools.
• Nero Recode – Automatically convert and compress DVD-Video or video files while maintaining optimal playback quality.
• Nero Toolkit – Increase PC performance with tools to manage rights, analyze discs and display system information.

Pricing and Availability

Pre-sale of Nero Multimedia Suite 10 starts today at www.nero.com for just $99.95 (after $20 instant rebate).

Starting April 12th, Nero Multimedia Suite 10 will be available in stores Australia wide with a RRP of $169.95.

Current Nero 9 users and previous version users can upgrade to Nero Multimedia Suite 10 at a special discounted price at www.nero.com.

New products such as Nero Vision Xtra ($67.95), Nero Burning ROM ($56.95) and Nero BackItUp & Burn ($44.95) will only be available for purchase and download online at www.nero.com

For more information on Nero and its history, please visit www.nero.com. Become a fan of Nero on Facebook at www.facebook.com/nerosoftware, follow Nero on Twitter (@NeroSolutions) or join the My Nero community at http://my.nero.com.

About Nero
Nero, the creator of liquid media technology, enables liquid content creation and distribution anytime, anywhere, and on any device. The company provides consumers with the freedom to simply enjoy their music, photos, and videos, regardless of hardware or file format, by taking a unique platform neutral, standards-based approach to solution development. More than 300 million units of Nero’s trusted software solutions are used in the home, on the go, and professionally. Nero also provides strategic partners with cutting-edge applications, codecs, tools, software development kits, and programming interfaces for use with a variety of the latest platforms and devices. Products are available globally through hardware manufacturers, international partners, retailers, and directly through the Nero Online Shop at www.nero.com .
Headquartered in Karlsbad, Germany, Nero maintains regional offices in Karlsbad, Germany; Glendale, Calif., USA; Yokohama, Japan; and development centers in Karlsbad, Germany and Hangzhou, China.

Sydney, AUSTRALIA. March 31^st 2010 – The first new multiplayer map pack from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is now available worldwide on Xbox LIVE®.   Released by Activision Publishing, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATVI), Infinity Ward’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Stimulus Package adds five adrenaline-pumping multiplayer arenas to the best-selling title ever on the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft.

The Modern Warfare® 2 Stimulus Package can now be downloaded on Xbox LIVE® Marketplace for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system for 1,200 Microsoft Points.  To celebrate its release, Infinity Ward will host a Double XP weekend for Xbox LIVE gamers from April 2 – 4. 

“Thanks to our community and fans around the world for their continuous feedback and dedication to Modern Warfare 2,” said Robert Bowling, Creative Strategist, Infinity Ward.   “The Stimulus Package introduces several all-new locations to the multiplayer, as well as a few of our favourite classics from Call of Duty® 4: Modern Warfare® that can now be experienced in a completely unique new way thanks to the additional perks and gametypes Modern Warfare 2 has to offer. As a whole, this DLC package has something for everyone, so we’re excited to see all the new gameplay tactics this brings on Xbox LIVE!”

After launching worldwide on November 10, 2009, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 quickly became a cultural phenomenon making history for the largest one-day entertainment opening ever on its way to topping US$1 billion in retail sales by January according to internal estimates. 

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Stimulus Package is rated “MA” by the Australian Classification Board for Blood, Drug Reference, Intense Violence and Language.  For more information, visit www.modernwarfare2.com.

31 March 2010, Australia  – Multi-platinum selling and Grammy® Award winning group Green Day, along with Harmonix, the leading developer of music-based games, MTV Games, a part of Viacom’s MTV Networks (NYSE: VIA, VIA.B), and Reprise / Warner Bros. Records have announced Green Day: Rock Band™ will launch this June!
 
The full standalone music video game experience that celebrates Green Day’s historic career and genre-defining albums will be available for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system and the Wii™ system from Nintendo.   
 
Green Day: Rock Band allows players to step onto the stage and into the shoes of Green Day, the band that jump-started the punk-pop revival and has continued to pave the way for American rock music into the 21st century.
 
Taking on the likenesses of Green Day members Billie Joe Armstrong, Mike Dirnt and Tré Cool, players progress through the story and history of Green Day, gaining access into the band’s media vault where they can unlock more than 100 collectible images, and more than 40 minutes of rare and unreleased video from interviews, outtakes and performances.   
 
Featuring the three-part vocal harmony technology Harmonix introduced with the award-winning The Beatles™: Rock Band™, Green Day: Rock Band gives players access to an incredible setlist of 47 tracks that span the band’s career including “Brain Stew,” “Jaded,” “Hitchin’ a Ride,” “American Idiot,” “Wake Me Up When September Ends” and “Boulevard of Broken Dreams.”
 
All 47 tracks are fully exportable, providing players with the opportunity to play the songs in Rock Band™ and Rock Band 2™!* In addition, the six Green Day tracks already available in the Rock Band Music Store as downloadable content can be played in Green Day: Rock Band with added vocal harmonies, unique performance visuals, and exclusive archival material.   

The Green Day: Rock Band standalone game for Xbox 360 / PlayStation 3 / Wii has an RRP of AU $49.99.
 
Green Day: Rock Band will be released simultaneously in North America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and other territories on the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, PlayStation 3 computer entertainment system and Wii. The game is compatible with all Rock Band™ instrument controllers, as well as most Guitar Hero® and other third-party music video game peripherals and microphones.
                                                           
This latest Rock Band title aims to encapsulate the spirit and energy of a band that has sold more than 50 million records worldwide and been hailed as one of the best live acts touring today. Green Day has won critical acclaim and numerous accolades, including Grammy Awards for Best Alternative Music Performance for Dookie, Best Rock Album for American Idiot and Record of the Year for their smash hit “Boulevard of Broken Dreams.”
 
Earlier this year, Green Day released their eighth studio album, 21st Century Breakdown, on Reprise Records. The album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Top 200 chart, as well as on the Rock, Active Rock and Alternative charts, fueled by the alternative radio No. 1 single “Know Your Enemy,” and won the Grammy Award for Best Rock Album.  

Green Day: Rock Band is rated PG by the OFLC.
 
Green Day: Rock Band is published by MTV Games and developed by Harmonix, the world’s premier music video game company and creators of the best-selling Rock Band. Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS) is serving as distribution partner for the game.
 
For more information on Green Day: Rock Band or to gain access to new screenshots, video trailer, pack fronts and other art please visit http://www.rockband.com/press/greenday.
 
*Green Day: Rock Band™ features an export fee of $9.99 for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 system. The export feature is not available for the Wii system.   

Intel’s Fastest Enterprise and High-Performance Computing Chip Provides Average
of Three Times Increase in Processing Speed, More than 20 New Reliability Features

          NEWS HIGHLIGHTS

• Largest performance leap in Intel® Xeon® processor history, with an average improvement of 3x across a range of benchmarks. Data centres can replace 20 single core servers with a single new Intel Xeon 7500 processor series-based system1.
• More than 20 new reliability features and eight-core, 16-threaded Intel® Xeon® Processor 7500 series performance further accelerate mission-critical adoption on Intel server systems.
• Unprecedented advances in scalability allow new designs to range from two-socket platforms up to 256 chips per system.
• New servers to feature 4x increase in memory capacity (up to 1 Terabyte in 4-processor configurations); 8x increase in memory bandwidth.

SYDNEY, Australia, March 31, 2010 – Intel Corporation today culminated the transition to the company’s award-winning “Nehalem” chip design with the launch of the Intel® Xeon® 7500 processor series. In less than 90 days, Intel has introduced all-new 2010 PC, laptop and server processors that increase energy efficiency and computing speed and include a multitude of new features that make computers more intelligent, flexible and reliable.

Expandable to include from two to 256 chips per server, the new Intel Xeon processors have an average performance three times that of Intel’s existing Xeon 7400 series on common, leading enterprise benchmarks, and come equipped with more than 20 new reliability features.

Twenty Old Servers – To One New One
The combined scalable performance, advanced reliability and total cost of ownership advantages of the Xeon 7500 series will further accelerate the shift from proprietary systems to industry-standard Intel processor-based servers. These new capabilities enable IT managers to consolidate up to 20 older single-core, 4-chip servers onto a single server using Intel Xeon 7500 series processors while maintaining the same level of performance. In doing so, they could also see up to a 92 percent estimated reduction in energy costs and a return on their investment estimated within 1 year due to reductions in power, cooling and licensing costs.

 “The Xeon 7500 brings mission critical capabilities to the mainstream by delivering the most significant leap in performance, scalability and reliability ever seen from Intel,” said Kirk Skaugen, vice president of the Intel architecture group and general manager of Intel’s data centre group. “This combination will help users push to new levels of productivity, and accelerate the industry’s migration away from proprietary architectures. We are democratising high-end computing.”
     
New Standards in Reliability and Scalability
Mission-critical workloads run by customers that simply cannot afford unscheduled downtime such as hospitals or stock exchanges can take advantage of more than 20 new features that deliver a leap forward in reliability, availability and serviceability (RAS). These reliability capabilities are designed to improve the protection of data integrity, increase availability and minimise planned downtime.

For example, this is the first Xeon processor to possess Machine Check Architecture (MCA) Recovery, a feature that allows the silicon to work with the operating system and virtual machine manager to recover from otherwise fatal system errors,  a mechanism until now found only in the company’s Intel® Itanium® processor family and RISC processors.

The Intel Xeon processor 7500 series offers unique scalability through modular building blocks enabled by Intel® QuickPath Technology (QPI) interconnect. With QPI, cost-effective and highly scalable eight-processor servers that don’t require specialised third-party node controller chips to “glue” the system together can be built. Intel is also working with system vendors to deliver “ultra-scale” systems with 16 processors for the enterprise, and up to 256 processors and support for 16 terabytes (one terabyte is equal to 1,000 gigabytes) of memory for high-performance computing “super nodes” running bandwidth-demanding applications such as financial analysis, numerical weather predictions and genome sequencing.
     
Record-Shattering Performance
The Intel Xeon processor 7500 series represents the largest performance leap in Xeon family history, with the chip being an average three times faster across a range of benchmarks, setting over 20 new world records including stellar results from Cisco*, Dell*, Fujitsu*, IBM*, NEC* and SGI*.

For detailed performance results and more information about all the world record claims see the accompanying performance fact sheet and visit www.intel.com/performance/server/xeon_mp/summary.htm

Large-Scale Virtualisation
The Intel Xeon processor 7500 series meets the growing trend of IT organisations virtualising large mission-critical workloads for applications such as Enterprise Resource Planning. With up to eight times the memory bandwidth of the Intel Xeon processor 7400 series and four times the memory capacity with 16 memory slots per processor, the Xeon 7500 series can support one terabyte (or 1,000 gigabytes) of memory in a four-socket platform. Intel Virtualization Technologies , which include new I/O virtualisation capabilities and Intel® Virtualization Technology (VT) FlexMigration, enables live VM migration across all Intel® CoreTM microarchitecture-based platforms to ensure investment protection for administrators seeking to use pools of virtualised systems to facilitate failover, disaster recovery, load balancing and optimal server maintenance and downtime.

Two-Chip and Cost Optimised Servers
New two-chip expandable class platforms with large memory capacity based on the Intel Xeon processor 7500 series are ideal for memory intensive databases and virtualisation environments. The Intel Xeon processor 7500 series is available in quad, six and eight core versions with twice the number of threads thanks to Intel Hyper-Threading Technology. The Intel Xeon processor 6500 series provides a lower cost solution for 2-chip servers with large memory requirements.
     
Product Details
The Intel Xeon processor 7500 series supports up to eight integrated cores and 16 threads, and can scale up to 32 cores and 64 threads per 4-chip platform or 64 cores and 128 threads per 8-chip platform, and is available with frequencies up to 2.66 GHz, and 24 MB of Intel® Smart Cache memory, four Intel QPI links and Intel Turbo Boost technology. Thermal Design Point (TDP) power levels range from 95 watts to 130 watts.

The Intel Xeon processor X7560, with eight cores and 24MB cache size, is built for highly parallel, data demanding and mission-critical workloads, whereas the Intel Xeon processor X7542 is a frequency-optimised 6-core option at 2.66 GHz targeted for super node high-performance computing applications in science and financial services.
     
Pricing and Availability
The innovative modular scaling of the Xeon® 7500 processor works with the Intel 7500 Chipset and Intel 7500 Scalable Memory Buffers to enable unique OEM system designs and brings a wide range of socket, memory and I/O, form factor, and reliability feature sets never before available to the mainstream server market. Enterprise software vendors expected to support the high-end features of Intel Xeon processor 7500-based platforms, include Citrix*, IBM*, Microsoft*, Novell*, Oracle*, Red Hat*, SAP AG* and VMware*. System vendors are lining up to take advantage of the high-end Intel Xeon processor 7500 series capabilities and deliver highly innovative solutions at much lower costs than older proprietary solutions. With more than double the amount of designs versus the previous generation Intel Xeon processor 7400 series, system manufacturers were expected to announce systems based on the Intel Xeon processor 7500/6500 processor starting today.

These manufacturers include Bull*, Cisco*, Cray*, Dell*, Fujitsu*, Hitachi*, HP*, IBM*, Inspur*, NEC*, Oracle*, SGI*, Supermicro* and Quanta*.
www.intel.com/server.

Intel [NASDAQ: INTC], the world leader in silicon innovation, develops technologies, products and initiatives to continually advance how people work and live. Additional information about Intel is available at www.intel.com/pressroom and blogs.intel.com.

Available to rent and own on DVD for $34.95RRP from 16 June 2010.

Also available ON DEMAND and TO DOWNLOAD.

Prepare to cheer as the next adventure in the blockbuster Free Willy franchise arrives on DVD 16 June, 2010 from Warner Home Video. Free Willy: Escape from Pirate’s Cove, a touching story about two unlikely friends, introduces Daytime Emmy Award winner Bindi Irwin (daughter of Steve Irwin, “The Crocodile Hunter” and star of “Bindi the Jungle Girl”) in her feature film debut and stars Golden Globe and Emmy Award winner Beau Bridges (Max Payne, television’s “Desperate Housewives”). Free Willy: Escape from Pirate’s Cove is written and directed by Will Geiger (Elvis and Anabelle) and produced by David Wicht (Duma), John Stainton (The Crocodile Hunter – Collision Course, “The Crocodile Hunter” television series) and Laura Lodin. The film also stars Bongo Mbutuma (Master Harold…and the Boys, television’s “ER”), Siyabulela Ramba (television’s “24 – Redemption”) and Stephen Jennings (I Dreamed of Africa, Starship Troopers).

Free Willy: Escape from Pirate’s Cove will be available on DVD for $34.95RRP.

Free Willy: Escape from Pirate’s Cove will also be available to buy on 16 June 2010 as a Digital Download from digital movie retailers. It will also be available to rent ON DEMAND through internet movie retailers and games consoles.

On 30 June 2010, Free Willy: Escape from Pirate’s Cove will be available to rent on a pay per view and ON DEMAND basis through Digital Cable and Satellite TV. Warner Home Video will also release a limited edition Free Willy box set, containing all four Free Willy films and a poster of Bindi Irwin exclusively at BigW for $59.95RRP. The individual titles will also be on promotion for a limited time for $9.95RRP each.

SYNOPSIS
When eleven year old Kirra’s father, a widowed zoo veterinarian, is hospitalised for several months she is sent to live with her estranged grandfather, Gus, in South Africa. He owns a dilapidated seaside theme park, which is quickly losing its customers to rival park owner Rolf. Business is given a miraculous boost though when a fierce storm traps a baby orca in Gus’ lagoon, making his park the area’s main attraction. The growing orca, named Willy, has an inhibited sense of echolocation making his survival in the wild impossible, but Kirra also knows that the orca will outgrow his la goon very quickly. Gus thinks his only choice is to sell Willy to Rolf’s park where he will be captive but safe. With little time left before Rolf claims him, Kirra must find a way for Willy to survive with his pod in the open sea.

Special Features:
· Meet My Wild Co-Stars
· Bindi’s First Movie Video Diary
· Deleted Scenes and Outtake
· Greetings from South Africa: On the set of Free Willy

Approx Runtime:
97 mins
Rating:
PG