Marco Casario | RIAvolutionize the web

Mac OS X Tiger Unleashed

A lot of articles, reviews and blogs were written about the new realease.
So, all you want to know is on Google News :)

And read the Mac OS X Tiger  200+ new features

Macromedia Acquire Strategic Stake in Indiagames.com (Flash Lite games based company)

via Indiagames.com mediaroom April 29, 2005.

China's leading wireless Internet company, announced today that Cisco Systems Inc. and Macromedia Inc. will acquire strategic share interests in Indiagames Ltd., a leading global publisher of mobile games majority owned by TOM Online. This move enhances the India-based mobile game publisher's position for global growth.

Hong KongTOM Online Inc. (Nasdaq: TOMO; Hong Kong GEM stock code: 8282),

Cisco and Macromedia will pay a total of US$4 million for a combined stake of 18.2% in Indiagames through subscription of new shares. In view of Cisco and Macromedia's investments, TOM Online, which owns 76.3% of Indiagames, will not subscribe for new shares worth US$4 million in the company as stated in its announcement on December 17, 2004.

"The strategic investments are beneficial to all parties," said Wang Lei Lei, TOM Online Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director. "I have confidence Cisco and Macromedia will bring significant value to Indiagames going forward given their strength and leading position in their respective business areas.""I am delighted to have Cisco and Macromedia as investors in Indiagames" said Gondal, Chief Executive Officer and Director of Indiagames. "We now have Chinese, Indian and American investors, all leaders in their respective verticals. This combination is really very unique and will surely help accelerate our global growth plans, keeping us on the cutting edge of mobile, broadband and Internet technology"

Cisco, the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet, is an innovator in Internet Protocol (IP)-based networking technologies and works closely with major telecom and wireless carriers around the world. Macromedia is a major independent software company whose Flash technology is viewed as one of the hottest wireless applications.

The Directors of Indiagames envision synergy coming from better visibility to future technology developments related to Internet and wireless applications, the investors' existing client network and relationships globally, and their marketing expertise and resources. Indiagames will also publish and support all its content on the Macromedia Flash Lite platform which is already having a big share in Japan and is expanding worldwide.

The global wireless games market is expected to grow 50% per year in the next three years, reaching US$8.4 billion in 2008, according to industry estimates. Indiagames, the owner of one of the largest wireless content development facilities in the world with more than 200 highly experienced professionals, is well placed to benefit from that growth.

Founded in 1999, the company has distinguished itself as a high quality and creative game developer and now counts top tier Hollywood studios, handset manufacturers, and more than 100 distribution channels among its partners around the world, including Orange, Verizon, Sprint, Singtel, Airtel and Vodafone.

A global publisher with a strong reputation and track record, the company also has successfully established diversified revenue streams from mobile games publishing and third-party development. Indiagames has been profitable for the past two years.

Go and see to Indiagames.com site.

Macromedia Acquire Strategic Stake in Indiagames.com (Flash Lite games based company)

via Indiagames.com mediaroom :, April 29, 2005.

China's leading wireless Internet company, announced today that Cisco Systems Inc. and Macromedia Inc. will acquire strategic share interests in Indiagames Ltd., a leading global publisher of mobile games majority owned by TOM Online. This move enhances the India-based mobile game publisher's position for global growth.

Hong KongTOM Online Inc. (Nasdaq: TOMO; Hong Kong GEM stock code: 8282),

Cisco and Macromedia will pay a total of US$4 million for a combined stake of 18.2% in Indiagames through subscription of new shares. In view of Cisco and Macromedia's investments, TOM Online, which owns 76.3% of Indiagames, will not subscribe for new shares worth US$4 million in the company as stated in its announcement on December 17, 2004.

Following Cisco and Macromedia's investments, TOM Online's share in Indiagames will be diluted to 62.42% while Indiagames' original shareholders and management, including its founder Vishal Gondal, will continue to hold a 19.4% stake in the company.

"The strategic investments are beneficial to all parties," said Wang Lei Lei, TOM Online Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director. "I have confidence Cisco and Macromedia will bring significant value to Indiagames going forward given their strength and leading position in their respective business areas.""I am delighted to have Cisco and Macromedia as investors in Indiagames" said Gondal, Chief Executive Officer and Director of Indiagames. "We now have Chinese, Indian and American investors, all leaders in their respective verticals. This combination is really very unique and will surely help accelerate our global growth plans, keeping us on the cutting edge of mobile, broadband and Internet technology."

Cisco, the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet, is an innovator in Internet Protocol (IP)-based networking technologies and works closely with major telecom and wireless carriers around the world. Macromedia is a major independent software company whose Flash technology is viewed as one of the hottest wireless applications.

The Directors of Indiagames envision synergy coming from better visibility to future technology developments related to Internet and wireless applications, the investors' existing client network and relationships globally, and their marketing expertise and resources. Indiagames will also publish and support all its content on the Macromedia Flash Lite platform which is already having a big share in Japan and is expanding worldwide.

The global wireless games market is expected to grow 50% per year in the next three years, reaching US$8.4 billion in 2008, according to industry estimates. Indiagames, the owner of one of the largest wireless content development facilities in the world with more than 200 highly experienced professionals, is well placed to benefit from that growth.

Founded in 1999, the company has distinguished itself as a high quality and creative game developer and now counts top tier Hollywood studios, handset manufacturers, and more than 100 distribution channels among its partners around the world, including Orange, Verizon, Sprint, Singtel, Airtel and Vodafone.

A global publisher with a strong reputation and track record, the company also has successfully established diversified revenue streams from mobile games publishing and third-party development. Indiagames has been profitable for the past two years.

Go and see to Indiagames.com site.

Errata Corrige for Nokia N91 and Flash Lite

Bill Perry told me about my New Flash Lite compliant device, series 60 based Nokia N91 post that :

"Each handset goes through a certification process for Flash Lite to ensure it's
compatible.  Once it passes certification then it becomes an official Flash
Lite compatible phone.  So Marco's statement that the N91 handset is Flash Lite
compatible is incorrect.  It's still an awesome handset.

We can't comment on future products or features.  When information is
available it will be posted on the Macromedia mobile web site"

I hoped that when Nokia signed licensing agreement with Macromedia every series 60 based mobile phones are gonna be Flash Lite compliant :((
So ...... waiting for certification process :) But I think I'm gonna bouy N91 phone anyway !!

thanks Bill !

Live iTechnology news and views with Flash Video

Great use of Flash and FLV by Sys-con :

Visit  Sys-Con.tv site and enjoy !!

NASA Open-Sources Java PathFinder

via java.sys-con.com :

"Java PathFinder is a program that helps people find bugs in other programs," said John Penix, a computer scientist at NASA Ames Research Center, located in California's Silicon Valley, as the Center announced today that they are releasing Java PathFinder as open source code at no cost to people who would like to use it.

Read all NASA Open-Sources Java PathFinder article.

I become Firefox extension addicted

I found ScrapBook,  a Firefox extension, which helps you to save Web pages and easily manage collections. Key features are lightness, speed, accuracy and multi-language support. Major features are:

• Save Web page
• Save snippet of Web page
• Save linked Web page
• Organize the collection in the same way as Bookmarks tree
• Full text search and quick filtering search of the collection
• Simple Editing of the collected Web page
• Text/HTML edit feature resembling Opera's Notes

Have a look to all Scrapbook extension features.

I love it !

New Flash Lite compliant device, series 60 based Nokia N91

Based on Nokia series 60 and therefore Macromedia Flash Lite compatible, here it is the new Nokia's Gem : N91 model.

Integrating a 4 GB hard drive, the Series 60 based Nokia N91 is a surprisingly small smartphone given its mind-boggling feature set. The stainless steel exterior feels comfortable and solid, but you'd better not be suffering from spotless-related obsessive compulsive disorders as keeping it neat and clean is likely to prove virtually impossible.



Last black note, the price.
Nokia estimates the retail price of the N91 to fall between 650 and 750 EUR :((

Read the whole presentation from InfoSync World  Preview Nokia N91 article.

W3C Workshop on Rule Languages for Interoperability

W3C is holding a Workshop on Rule Languages for Interoperability to
bring together rule system vendors, rule users with a need for
interoperability, and others to work toward developing a standard rule
language for the Web.

  When:  27-28 April 2005
  Where: Washington, D.C., USA

The event is being organized by the W3C Semantic Web Activity. 

Please note that:

  - There will be a limit of 75 participants.
  - Attendance is open to everyone, but each organization or
    individual wishing to participate must submit a position paper.
  - To ensure maximum diversity among participants, the number of
    participants per organization may be limited in the event the
    overall participation limit is reached.
  - There is no registration fee.

-----------------
Workshop Overview
-----------------

   Rule languages and rule systems are widely used in applications
   ranging from database integration, service provisioning, and
   business process management to loan underwriting, privacy policies
   and Web services composition. General purpose rule languages remain
   relatively unstandardized, however, and rule systems from different
   suppliers are rarely interoperable.

   Meanwhile, the Web has achieved remarkable success in allowing
   documents to be shared and linked throughout the world. More
   recently, Semantic Web languages like RDF and OWL are beginning to
   support data/knowledge sharing on the same scale and with
   considerable flexibility. Having a language for sharing rules is
   often seen as the next step in promoting data exchange on the Web.

   This workshop, held by W3C with support from DARPA and hosted by
   ILOG, is intended to gather various participants and inputs needed
   to see how a standard rule framework might be developed, informed
   by Web Architecture and useful for addressing real user challenges.

The Usability Week 2005 Conference

Usability Week 2005 takes you beyond the typical conference experience, offering a three-day usability camp, a two-day intensive on interaction design, and several exceptional day-long tutorials that get both broad and deep on core usability topics.

First week has gone but you can still register for Stockholm, London and San Francisco.
I'd love to partecipate at Stockholm (i've never been there) but I think Genesoft (my company) are gonna register me for London :((

Apr 18-23

May 9-13

May 16-21

Jun 20-25