London, UK (PRWEB) July 29, 2010

Sony Ericsson has announced the extension of its user generated content contest, Battle Fingers, on the Sony Ericsson YouTube channel.

The Battle Fingers contest celebrates the recent campaign for the Sony Ericsson Xperia™ X10 mini, which illustrates the easy to use touch screen user interface, optimised for the smallest ever Android platform phone through the form of finger dancing on the touch screen. The 360° campaign broadcast through TV Commercials, print, outdoor and digital initiatives encouraged entrants to submit their very own videos for the chance to win either the opportunity to be in a music video for The Breakadelics.

The competition launched officially on the 28th of June, and users will now be able to submit their video entries up until the 2nd of August. All users need to do to find out more is head to the Sony Ericsson channel on YouTube for more instructions.

Ben Padley, Head of Digital and CRM for Sony Ericsson, said: “The Battle Fingers competition is our latest project to enable our fan base to engage with Sony Ericsson through social media. Sony Ericsson is keen to maintain a strong relationship with its fans, as can be seen through our presences on social networks such as the Sony Ericsson Facebook page.”

The contest is another in a long line of Sony Ericsson’s social media-based competitions, as can be seen with those often highlighted on the Sony Ericsson Twitter and Facebook pages. Offering a wide range of prizes from handsets to once in a lifetime experiences and trips away, the competitions have been a big hit across the various online communities.

Xperia™ brings consumers the best communication and entertainment experiences, delivered in a collection of smartphones and designed with each individual’s entertainment in mind. Sony Ericsson seeks to help each user see things differently, to be at the centre of countless everyday moments and make them extraordinary, and to create an inspiring friend for everyone so that they can find beauty in the unexpected.

For more information, please visit sonyericsson.com.

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Hampshire, UK (PRWeb UK) July 22, 2010

A new study from Juniper Research has forecast that challengers from the consumer electronics market will achieve global sales of smartphones exceeding 26 million by 2015. In addition, Asia will assert greater influence in the production of Smartphone devices.

“The availability of the Android operating system and the commoditised nature of several elements of the handset supply chain are behind both of these developments,” says Anthony Cox, senior Analyst at Juniper Research. “Any manufacturer with consumer electronics expertise can add mobility to their devices by incorporating an Android operating system into a smartphone,” he says, adding that they are doing so partly due to the tight margins in the PC industry.

Until five or six years ago Western Europe dominated the handset market, US manufacturers led by RIM and latterly Apple then began to assert their dominance. The market is shifting again as handset manufacturers like HTC, LG and ZTE bolster their smartphone portfolios, finds the report.

Further findings from the Smartphones report include:

• Smartphone functionality will increasingly filter down to mid-tier handsets
• Competition will drive smartphone pricing down, though this may be mitigated against by the launch of handsets with new functionality
• The combination of the smartphone and the app store will result in substantial increases in data usage over the smartphone device
• 3D functionality and dual core processors are among several technical development which will come to light over the next five years

At least ten players are planning to launch both smartphone and tablets this year but it remains to be seen how they will fare: “Barriers to entry may have come down but competition is fiercer than ever,” says Cox. “The consumer is likely to benefit most through lower prices and enhanced functionality,” he says, even if some players fall by the wayside.

Smartphones whitepaper and further details of Next Generation Smartphones: Strategic Opportunities & Markets 2010-2015 can be downloaded from www.juniperresearch.com.

Juniper Research provides research and analytical services to the global hi-tech communications sector, providing consultancy, analyst reports and industry commentary.

John Levett

Juniper Research

T: +44(0)1256 830 002

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The company claims it can up your touchscreen typing speed by as much as 50% over the norm, by guessing what words you’re about to type in.

SwiftKey is supposedly more accurate than your average predictive text (and a good job too), because that uses word lists, whereas TouchType’s app employs more complex language modelling which takes into account the context of words in a sentence.

TouchType claims on its website: “With SwiftKey, your next word is predicted with such incredible accuracy that a third of suggestions are right first time and usually you won’t need to press more than two letters.”

The app is available in multiple languages, and the company even says it can adjust itself and learn from your particular writing style, predicting not just the next word, but potentially multiple following words based on your past writing habits.

Read full story

Sydney, Australia (PRWeb UK) June 30, 2010 — Altium has appointed HANSA PLM-Solutions as Value Added Reseller (VAR), a move that complements Altium’s existing direct sales channel in Austria, and one which will build on the market opportunities in this region.

According to figures released by the Austrian Association of Electrical and Electronics Industry (Fachverband der Elektro- und Elektronikindustrie) the electronics industry comprised some 300 enterprises, employed about 60 000 people and had a production value of over 11 billion Euro in 2008. These producers of electronic products, systems and services present a vast target group for Altium’s next generation electronics design solutions.

As a result of the cooperation with Altium, HANSA PLM-Solutions, a specialist in product lifecycle and product data management solutions (PLM/PDM), will enter the market of electronic systems with the distribution of Altium Designer and the NanoBoard family of reconfigurable development boards. To strengthen its skills in this area and meet the demands of the domestic market, HANSA PLM-Solutions has begun to recruit additional application and sales engineers.

Data management presents a growing challenge and obstacle to innovation for designers of electronics products. Altium has recognized and addressed this challenge by steadily improving the design data management capabilities of its electronics design software, Altium Designer.

“Our partnership with HANSA PLM-Solutions brings us closer to our customers in Austria to support them in innovating their electronics design processes,” said Martin Harris, Vice President EMEA at Altium. “The next generation of electronic products will require a higher level of connectivity with the web. And the electronics embedded in products continue to represent more and more of the overall value of those products. Being able to manage the electronics design processes effectively without stifling innovation is what will define ‘success’ in electronics design in the future. Altium Designer delivers that required level of electronics design data management today.”

“As a PLM/PDM specialist we can really appreciate the advantages presented by Altium’s approach to design data management, which allows engineers to take full control of their design data and is unique in the industry,” said Ing. Mag. Hermann Zauner, General Manager, HANSA PLM-Solutions. “Our understanding and experience of product data management puts us in an excellent position to explain and sell on these benefits to the customer. We see Altium Designer as an engine for growth and innovation in the Austrian electronics industry.”

Information on Altium Designer and the NanoBoard is on Altium’s web site. More detailed information on Altium Designer and the NanoBoard is at the Altium Wiki.

About Altium
Altium Limited (ASX:ALU) creates electronics design software based on the belief that anyone who wants to create electronic products that make a difference should be able to do so. Altium’s unified electronics design environment links all aspects of electronics product design in a single application that is priced to be as affordable as possible. This helps electronics designers break down barriers to innovation, harness the latest devices and technologies, manage their projects across broad design ‘ecosystems’, and create connected, intelligent designs.

Founded in 1985, Altium has headquarters in Sydney, and operates worldwide. For more information, visit www.altium.com.

Altium, Altium Designer and LiveDesign, and their respective logos, are trademarks or registered trademarks of Altium Limited, or its subsidiaries. All other registered or unregistered trademarks mentioned in this release are the property of their respective owners, and no trademark rights to the same are claimed.

About HANSA PLM-Solutions
HANSA PLM-Solutions was founded in March 2008 in Linz. The young, dynamic team of HANSA PLM-Solutions supports its customers through sales and implementation of CAD and PDM/PLM solutions. In addition, the company offers consulting services, training courses and customized services for product development, production and process innovation.

One of the greatest strengths of HANSA PLM-Solutions is the unique partner system. HANSA PLM-Solutions cooperates with many partner companies and individuals with specialized know-how in the area of 3D and PLM, thereby guaranteeing deep knowledge for each of the products.

HANSA PLM-Solutions is a young, ambitious and growing company, which represents a qualified partner for 3D and PLM solutions.

For more information, visit www.catia-austria.at.

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(PRWEB) June 18, 2010 — Tissot have become the leaders in Swiss watch innovation over the past decade. Since the launch of the first T-Touch watch, the Tissot brand has become one of the most sought after wrist wear brands the world over.

The T-Touch range has grown in popularity since its launch more than five years ago. Titanium has been added to the watch designs in order to offer a lighter alternative to steel cases and bracelets. Extra functionality has also been added to the range. This is epitomised by the T-Touch Expert, a watch that now has ten functions. Extra water resistance now enhances the Sea Touch, to make the watches in this range the first fully functioning T-Touch watch compatible with diving.

This year Tissot have further complemented the T-Touch watch range with the launch of the all new Sailing Touch. As the name portrays, the Sailing Touch has been designed to appeal to people who love to sail and want a Tissot watch with functionality to compliment their hobby. The Sailing Touch is not like the T-Touch Pilot Expert - a watch that has minor changes to the case and then given a new name. The Sailing Touch has new functionality and a completely new case.

The Sailing Touch has been designed by Tissot Watches as a smoother, less cumbersome watch - gone are the hard edges of the T-Touch Expert, which have been replaced by sweeping curves. The Sailing Touch also bridges the gap between functionality and fashion, with fantastic use of colour throughout the Sailing Touch range. With beautiful design across six different watches within the range, it is easy to see why the Sailing Touch will be popular with the masses as well as with sailing enthusiasts.

Another additional feature worth mentioning is the Regatta function – this offers a ten minute countdown for those who want to use the watch for its true purpose. The Sailing Touch also offers new 100 meter water resistance, a real plus point if the watch is being worn during sailing.

All in all the new Sailing Touch is a step in a new direction for the T-Touch range, one that is sure to secure an even stronger position for the brand.

Tissot watches are only be purchased through www.HotWatches.co.uk which is one of a number of authorised UK distributors that offer a full manufacturer’s warranty and full customer support.

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London, UK (PRWeb UK) June 8, 2010 — Acronis, a provider of easy-to-use backup, disaster recovery and security solutions for physical, virtual and cloud environments, today announced that it has teamed up with Origin Storage to provide an easy to use package which allows users to migrate their operating system, applications, settings and data from hard disk drives (HDDs) to self encrypting drives (SEDs).

This package comes as part of Origin Storage’s Enigma range which includes the Acronis True Image solution. This package can capture an operating system, including applications, settings and data. The tool will allow users to easily migrate from their existing system to a new SED.

The package comes with a kit that includes a USB / SATA data transfer cable for ease of installation. Once the image has been migrated, Origin Storage customers can also use encryption capabilities to lock down the data on their SEDs. The encryption data comes courtesy of Winmagic.

Andy Cordial, managing director at Origin Storage, explains: “Our aim is to provide a complete solution to enable businesses to migrate their system from one source to another. This can sometimes be a complicated process, which is why we have created this package. We looked at several imaging vendors, but Acronis was the obvious choice for its ease of use and reliable technology.”

David Blackman, general manager Northern Europe at Acronis, said: “As the demand for self encrypted drives continues to rise, Acronis True Image HD has become the preferred solution for vendors like Origin Storage who want to give their customers a proven, reliable product that helps users make the most of their technology investment.”

All three drives come in a 2.5 inch form factor and use 256-bit AES hardware encryption. The drives start at £249 for a 160GB version, and span up to 500 GB for £299.

About Origin
Origin Storage Ltd is one of Europe’s leading IT storage manufacturers for matched hard drive solutions. Origin Storage prides itself on its ability to support legacy storage products and notebook accessories for all leading manufacturers. Origin has supported all major OEMs for the past five years and has worldwide supply links with tier one manufacturers. http://www.originstorage.com

About Acronis
Acronis is a provider of easy-to-use backup, disaster recovery and security solutions for physical, virtual and cloud environments. Its patented disk imaging and management technology enables corporations and individuals to protect digital assets in physical and virtual environments. Acronis’ backup, recovery, server consolidation and virtualization migration software helps users protect their digital information, maintain business continuity and reduce downtime. Acronis software is sold in more than 180 countries and available in 13 languages. For additional information, please visit www.acronis.co.uk Follow Acronis on Twitter: http://twitter.com/acronis.

Acronis® and the Acronis logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of Acronis Inc. in the United States and/or other countries.

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(PRWEB) June 11, 2010 — Kids are shunning traditional car games in favour of modern entertainment gadgets, according to the results of a nationwide test carried out by Pixmania.

The study:
In a study involving 28 families, covering over 22,000 miles of road and over 500 driving hours, the online retailer road-tested the entertainment value of traditional car games such as Eye Spy and 20 Questions against the latest gadgets including portable DVD players and the latest iPod Touch. The results of PIXmania’s digital miles test revealed that modern entertainment gadgets are leading the way in keeping the kids amused, engaging children for over six times longer than the traditional car games.

The results of the tests come as record numbers of families are expected to hit the roads this summer as they shun international travel in the face of continued ash cloud disruption. The AA has predicted that over 15 million cars will hit UK roads over this bank holiday weekend alone.

The results:
Families taking part in the test were required to keep a log over the course of three weeks of how long each game and gadget kept the kids entertained for. The iPod Touch and the Sony PSP were the most successful of the five gadgets put to the test. Both kept children occupied for an average of just over 3.5 hours or 201 miles – that’s an entire journey from London to Manchester.

Results for the SIGMATEK TV portable DVD player, reveal this popular piece of kit would ensure a peaceful car journey from London to Bristol, distracting children for just over 2 hours and a distance of 113 miles.

In 3rd place on the grid is the Nintendo DSi XL, which is revealed as perfect for journeys from London to Southampton, clocking up an average of 79 miles or over 1 hour 40 minutes of entertainment time. Recent sales figures reveal that 3 in 5 families in the UK now has a Nintendo DS console.

Netbooks came in 4th place, which, hugely popular with kids for being lightweight and cheaper than their laptop cousins, had an average distraction time of 1 hour 20 minutes. It’s equivalent to a journey of Cambridge to London. Apple’s 5th generation iPod, the Nano, came in last keeping kids entertained for an average of 45 minutes or 37 miles.

In comparison, the most successful traditional game, Eye Spy, kept children occupied for an average of 30 minutes, just about covering the journey from central London to the motorway! The entertainment value of this classic game was reduced by two thirds at 70 miles and hour, to an average of just 10 minutes, when objects became too fast to spot.

Other traditional games in the PIXmania road test, which included 20 Questions, the Alphabet game and the Number Plate game held the children’s attention for a mere average of 16 mins – the average time for travelling down London’s Oxford Street during rush hour! The Word Association game fared the worst causing arguing in the back seat on 8 in 10 occasions and lasting for as little as 5 minutes. Traditional games did however win the day on the rare sunny days, when sunshine obscured the screens of the likes of the DVD player and PSP.

Analysis of the records kept by families during times of heavy congestion on the roads also showed the modern gadgets way out ahead of the traditional games. The portable DVD player came out best keeping kids engrossed for the entire length of the DVD. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and Cars were the most popular and also longest running of the children’s DVDs tested, lasting an average of 2 hours and 50 mins. The number plate game was revealed as the worst in congestion lasting for just 5 minutes, equivalent to a distance of less than half a mile.

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(PRWEB) June 10, 2010 — For those shoppers who have been looking for a new watch for some time now and are starting to tire of the constant sales patter from the staff of every jewelery store they go into to try on a watch. Now Tissot, the Swiss watchmaker, have a web application for that.

Their idea allows any web user with a web cam to see a Tissot watch superimposed on their wrist using augmented reality. It allows users a more personal interactive shopping experience without having to traipse around crowded high streets. It works incredibly well and can be found at www.tissot.ch/reality/

Tissot are leaders in the watch market with new additions, for example, to the T-Touch range which include the Sailing Touch. This new 3D augmented reality app shows that the innovation of the Tissot watch brand does not stop once the watches are made. Tissot hope that the new application will aid the shopping experience of the online customer and hope it will enhance the Tissot name as a consumer orientated brand.

The application is easy to use and all that is need is a webcam and an internet connection. The program can be downloaded from the Tissot website and within 5 minutes you can have the program stored on the users computer. From this point onwards shoppers can start trying on any of the 28 watch styles which are currently part of the program. However, trying on a Tissot watch is not all this new application has to offer online shoppers. Those interested in how watches such as the T-Touch Expert work, before they even contemplate paying over £500 for a watch, then this new augmented reality by Tissot will allow them to virtually try out the functionality of a T-Touch watch without having to enter a jewellery shop or buy the watch online.

Tissot watches can only be bought through authorised UK distributers like HotWatches.co.uk so users will still need to shop around for the best price once they have decided on the Tissot watch they want.

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(PRWEB) May 20, 2010 — Photographers and music fans will save time and frustration with a new and totally free product, FileTagSleuth from Ulfwood Ltd. Version 1 of FileTagSleuth enables photographers to search all of their various photo files by shutter speed, exposure, and anything else stored inside the photographs. Music fans and DJs will be able to easily catalogue all their MP3 tags, export a report, or search through it to find what tracks were written by which artists.

Previously this could either be very tedious, or cost money. However the totally free Exif viewer FileTagSleuth lets customers drag and drop up to 10,000 files into it, and then sets to work analysing them all. Customers can find all of the tag information for individual files, all of the common tags for many files, or all of the tags for all files. And almost any kind of file can be analysed, not just photo and music files.

Paul F. Wood of Ulfwood said:
“Cataloguing and searching MP3 and photo files can be incredibly time consuming. FileTagSleuth lets you search thousands of files quickly - even if don’t know the entire name of what you’re looking for and just have a small bit of the text. FileTagSleuth will unlock the secrets of your files, and quickly show you what you’re looking for and which file it’s in”.

Once the relevant tags have been found by FileTagSleuth, customers can easily export them and their associated files to different formats, making it simple to view the information in other programs like Word and Excel.

About Ulfwood and FileTagSleuth:

Ulfwood is an independent software company committed to making life a little easier with file utilities which are quick, intuitive and easy to use. For more information don’t hesitate to contact us about our Exif viewer, file renamer or anything else.

Media Contact: Paul F. Wood
US: 1-888-249-8594
International: +44 20 8133 7497

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(PRWEB) May 1, 2010 — Over 40% of people running small firms are planning to vote Tory in the coming General Election, and it’s their experience of operating a business that’s driving their decision, according to a survey of 4,000 SMEs conducted by Touch Financial.

This strong pro-Conservative sentiment comes at a time when many businesses are struggling to survive. Having weathered a deep recession a large number of firms are finding it difficult to get access to credit and to grow their sales, with almost three quarters of those surveyed believing that banks need to make more commercial funding available.

The Conservative’s headline policy for small businesses is to take the sting out of Labour’s planned 1% increase in National Insurance contributions which will hit both employers and employees. Of the firms surveyed, almost half predicted this increase will hit profits, and more than 60% felt it would put a freeze on hiring more staff, or worse, lead to redundancies.

Shortage of Business Lending Remains a Concern
The issue where the survey respondents thought the Conservatives would make the largest difference to them is improving the access to borrowing. The Conservative Party propose to bring in a National Loan Guarantee Scheme aimed squarely at introducing diverse sources of affordable credit for business.

Faced with the prospect of very slow economic recovery firms need to borrow more money in order to invest in their future, or simply to survive. Measures taken by the government, such as spreading VAT and Corporation Tax payments through the Business Payment Support Scheme have helped in the short term, but these are not medium-term solutions to funding the current shortfall in working capital that many are enduring.

Other Business-Friendly Commitments
The Conservatives are also offering a number of other attractive incentives to business. They’re proposing to cut the main rate of Corporation Tax from 28p to 25p and the small company rate from 22p to 20p, paid for by eliminating a complex system of reliefs.

Their other promises, as set out in their manifesto, include:
• Encouraging entrepreneurialism by making it easier to set up businesses and removing restrictions on tenants in social housing from starting businesses.
• Setting a target of 25% of government contracts going to SMEs.
• Making small business rate relief automatic.
• Exemption from Employers’ National Insurance on the first ten employees hired in the first year, for all new businesses set up in the first two years of a Conservative government.
• Setting up an Office of Tax Simplification to do exactly that: review the tax system and recommend ways of making it easier for businesses to manage.
Touch Financial work with over 20 of the UK’s leading factoring companies. Compare quotes instantly online for factoring or invoice discounting or read more about factoring services.

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For the original version on PRWeb visit: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/05/prweb3941994.htm