In The News

“BAFTA Awards Live viewed in 161 countries”

Source: Film-News | February 15, 2012 | by NewsDesk

Ortsbo Inc. and Variety has this weekend unofficially broken its world record in live broadcasting. At the prestigious BAFTA Awards, Variety Magazine powered by Ortsbo.com interviewed the stars of the big screen whilst taking questions and responding to them, in real time in 53 languages.

Ortsbo holds the Guinness World Record for The Most Nationalities In An Online Chat, previously recorded at 88 Countries. Today, unofficially, Ortsbo smashed that with a record of 161 countries participating in the BAFTA event.

Video highlights from the Variety Magazine powered by Orsbo broadcast is available now on Youtube. http://www.livestream.com/ortsbo/video?clipId=flv_6fa9657f-8892-4e22-a4d5-5f6e3735763b

The stars of the night lined up to speak with Variety, powered by Ortsbo. Amongst those interviewed were – George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Daniel Radcliffe, Viola Davis, Kenneth Branagh, Octavia Spencer, Tom Hiddleston, Chris Hemsworth and Jim Broadbent. Also embracing Ortsbo’s international audience was Michel Hazanavicius, Berenice Bejo and Jean Dujardin.

Ortsbo was also priviledged to speak with top industry figures such as Variety’s Neil Stiles and legendary movie mogul Harvey Weinstein.

Following the red carpet, International Ortsbo viewers were also able to ask questions backstage in the winners room. Questions came in from multiple countries in multiple languages. Clooney took a question from one of the viewers in Italy and even Martin Scorcese answered fan questions from around the world as global viewers watched around the world in their native language with instant language translation.

In the next few days, Ortsbo will upload a full video with multi-language transcript allowing users to watch a recorded version of the event and select in any one of 53 languages.

“State of INDYCAR previews 2012, reviews”

Source: IZOD IndyCar Series News | February 13, 2012 | by Dave Lewandowski

New commercial partnerships, six IZOD IndyCar Series races on ABC, an NBC Sports Network feature series titled “INDYCAR 36,” and an extension of the Firestone tire contract through 2014 were among the major announcements during the second State of INDYCAR.

The event at the Hilbert Circle Theatre in Indianapolis, which was open to the public, was streamed live to a global audience via indycar.com, Ortsbo.com and INDYCAR Mobile.

INDYCAR CEO Randy Bernard, who noted gains of 28 percent in viewership and 9.8 percent in attendance in 2011 over the 2010 IZOD IndyCar Series season, outlined goals of 15 percent increases in both viewership and attendance for 2012.
“Our only goal every single day with INDYCAR is to better it and make it stronger,” Bernard told the audience. “We have fantastic drivers, we have outstanding teams, and partners willing to invest millions into the series in an effort to help this series thrive and ensure INDYCAR will be here for another century.

“I know when you tune into ABC and NBC Sports Network you’ll see what an incredible product we have. I’m confident that the strong staff at INDYCAR, along with the drivers, the teams, the sponsors, the promoters and all the fans can bring INDYCAR to a new height.

“So let’s sit back, buckle up and hold on tight because 2012 promises to be one helluva ride.”

INDYCAR has entered into multi-year agreements with Discover Network and First Bankcard, a division of the First National Bank of Omaha, to offer a credit card program designed to provide rewards to the sport’s fans.

Fuzzy’s Ultra Premium Vodka will be the Official Vodka of the IZOD IndyCar Series and Firestone Indy Lights. Fuzzy’s Ultra Premium Vodka, the primary sponsor of the No. 20 Ed Carpenter Racing entry, will activate in all domestic race markets in 2012 and develop the signature cocktail of INDYCAR, which will be featured at all events.

Also, INDYCAR has entered into a multi-year agreement with Indianapolis-based LIDS Sports Group, in which their LIDS Clubhouse division will manage the online and trackside merchandising. The partnership will increase INDYCAR’s retail presence at-track at North American events, giving fans more opportunities and easier access to INDYCAR merchandise each race weekend. LIDS also will offer fans an opportunity to purchase the same merchandise online.

ABC will televise the season-opening Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg on March 25, along with the Indianapolis 500 and events at Detroit, Milwaukee, Toronto and Mid-Ohio. Races will be expanded to include live streaming of ABC’s onboard cameras on ESPN3.

The recently rebranded NBC Sports Network (formerly VERSUS) will broadcast the remainder of the 16 races. It will introduce “INDYCAR 36,” which will document 36 hours in the life of an IZOD IndyCar Series driver, taking viewers behind the scenes during select event weekends from the first practice through the checkered flag. Also, all Firestone Indy Lights races will be aired on the NBC Sports Network.

Firestone will remain the IZOD IndyCar Series’ Official Tire through at least 2014, with negotiations already underway to extend the IZOD IndyCar Series sponsorship and supply contract beyond 2014.

INDYCAR COO Marc Koretzky outlined technological objectives, including a relaunch of indycar.com and an INDYCAR Mobile app that will allow fans to watch a race on their Verizon mobile device as if they were on pit lane.

“Technology and innovation are two of the core brand attributes that differentiate our sport from others out there,” Koretzky said. “Telemetry takes a whole ‘nother level as we bring on Gravity Jack. It’s the leader in augmented reality. We’re the only sports property in the world to introduce this to you.”

Award winners from the 2011 IZOD IndyCar Series and Firestone Indy Lights season also were recognized, highlighted by the formal presentation of the Aster Trophy to Dario Franchitti and the Firestone Firehawk Cup to Josef Newgarden. Newgarden, who moved to the IZOD IndyCar Series with Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing for 2012, also won the Greg Moore Legacy Award. James Hinchcliffe, the 2011 Sunoco Rookie of the Year, received the Tony Renna Rising Star Award.

“This is unbelievable,” Newgarden said. “Greg Moore, what a guy to look up to. There’s been a lot of great people in this sport, and certainly he’s at the top of the list. That’s very special.”

“Interview: David Lucatch of Intertainment Media and Angus Dent of Synchronica”

Source: Cantech Letter | February 8, 2012 | by Cantech

Last year’s M&A environment in Canadian tech seemed to be in hyperdrive. Canadian investors lost some of our best and brightest companies including Zarlink, March Networks, Bridgewater and MOSAID. And that was just Ottawa.

Earlier this year, Synchronica (TSXV:SYN) a company headquartered in the UK but listed on the TSX Venture Exchange (as well as London’s AIM Exchange) received an offer from Swiss-based Myriad AG. The proposed deal would have had Synchronica shareholders receive 4.67 newly issued Myriad shares for every 100 shares of Synchronica they held. Last week, Synchronica announced its board could not come to an agreement with Myriad AG and advised shareholders to take no action.

Today, a surprise, as Synchronica announced it has signed a Letter of Intent with Toronto’s Intertainment Media (TSXV:INT) to integrate Synchronica’s flagship messaging platform, Mobile Gateway, with Intertainment Media’s Ortsbo experiential language technology. As part of the transaction, Intertainment Media will also, subject to Synchronica shareholder approval, invest up to CDN $ 10 million in Synchronica, at a minimum price of GBP 0.16 per unit. The deal seems to signal that both companies will continue to innovate on Canadian soil for some time to come.
As the news broke, Cantech Letter’s Nick Waddell talked to Synchronica CEO Angus Dent and Intertainment Media CEO David Lucatch about the deal.

Angus, the board of Synchronica recently told shareholders it could not reach a deal with Myriad Group AG, who made an all share offer for Synchronica. Does this deal with Intertainment signal you are moving on?

DENT: I would characterize it as us are choosing a partner in Intertainment, rather than having a partner thrust upon us in the shape of Myriad.

David, how did this come about?

LUCATCH: Intertainment and Synchronica have been discussing opportunities for some time, but nothing of major significance. But now I feel that both parties feel the relationship with Intertainment is a stronger option than the one that has been presented to Synchronica. Is that fair Angus?

DENT: Yes, absolutely. It’s a stronger relationship and it’s a better relationship because Intertainment brings not just an investment, but intellectual property from which Synchronica can benefit, and it’s reciprocal as well. That’s a much stronger combination.

Angus, what do you see in Intertainment Media that made you want to do this?

DENT: In the short term we were particularly interested in the Ortsbo translation software and embedding that with Mobile Gateway, our flagship product. We’re intrigued by the ability to translate messages on the fly, from one language to another. That’s something that we will be able to demonstrate at the upcoming Mobile World Congress in late February. By the end of this month we will have a product ready at least for demonstration. For the longer term, the language translation software will continue to be an important integrated feature to our software and development curve. Intertainment has a lot of experience in advertising and marketing, generally. We need to push the Synchronica product forward and bring it to the forefront of the mobile market, particularly as we add new features such as geo-location chat. We believe Intertainment Media can really help us with these things.

Angus, for our readers who don’t know, could you explain to our readers what Mobile Gateway is and highlight some of Synchronica’s intellectual property?

DENT: Sure, Synchronica Mobile Gateway, as the name implies, is a gateway that allows carriers and device manufacturers to offer push email services, instant messaging services and, increasingly, social networking messages in both directions to devices. We came from the email space, added instant messaging as that became more popular, and now we’re focusing on the social networking side of things. We’re in the process of bringing out a unified inbox, so you can get all your messages, whatever the bearer of those messages may be, in one place, on your handset. Adding the geo-location services, so your device knows where you are. So if you land at an airport in Toronto, as I have just done, you want an Italian restaurant, your mobile will tell you that. That’s one application of geo-location. With Intertainment, it’s not just about finding a restaurant, it’s about being able to talk to that restaurant in their native language, if you are in Italy, for instance. Of course geo-location chat is the next wave that is hitting us now. Interestingly, I saw the other night that Facebook believes the next one hundred million of their users will be on mobile. That enablement of chat on mobile is something that Synchronica does, across the whole range of handsets, from the basic to the feature phones and smart phones.

David, what do you like about Synchronica?

LUCATCH: What we like is very simple, Nick. Synchronica has a stellar reputation for the development of carrier-grade technologies. That is something that Ortsbo could do down the road, but might take years to develop because of the lengthy approval process. Synchronica has over 100 mobile operators and device manufacturers within their partnership scheme. That gives us instant access to a global network, which means it gives us instant access to users within that global network. Ortsbo is developing a series of mobile applications that need homes, and we have other ideas for applications across operating platforms. So Synchronica provides those gateways. Synchronica also has the expertise to allow us to accelerate all our development programs. For us, it’s a very simple transaction. We have a best of breed partner in Synchronica that provides us carrier grade technologies, access to over 100 mobile operators and device manufacturers and the ability to scale our own technologies based on their development network and expertise they have in house.

One of the really interesting things about Synchronica’s technology is that it can enable a very large percentage of people on the planet who do not have a smartphone to experience smartphone like features…

DENT: That’s absolutely right, and that’s where our business started from. We were providing software that could take the most basic phone and put a push email service on it and an instant messaging service. These days we can continue to do that, as well as social networking and geo-location chat to come. That’s our roots and if you look at the customers we’ve got have a good spread of customers in North America, in fact it’s a veritable who’s who of the North American carriers. We also have the big Latin American carriers as customers, we have the two big Pan-African carriers as our customers, we have the four big carriers in Russia, and we have other carriers as you go into Asia. Yes, smartphones are penetrating those markets, and maybe they are into double digits as far as percentages now, but that still leaves a good 80% of the mobile users in those countries with basic or feature phones and that is a real sweet spot for us.

LUCATCH: I think Synchronica has features that, combined with Ortsbo and some of the other things we are working on will, ultimately, enhance revenue value for the carrier. I think we will ultimately create value for them because they will have these great products to offer to their end users. The next-generation of software that is going to be developed jointly under our new arrangement will be driven by secondary and tertiary opportunities for revenue, so the carrier can offer more features, but not have to charge for those features as they are supported by advertising and other revenue programs.

Angus, Synchronica is platform agnostic, correct?

DENT: Completely, we work literally from the most basic handsets and operating systems on the planet, right up to the latest Apple and RIM smartphones.

LUCATCH: It’s a very interesting situation, Nick. On the Intertainment side we’re doing the investment, on the Ortsbo side we’re engaging the operating agreements. It’s really important as we believe that our potential investment in Synchronica will provide Intertainment exceptional long term returns. And that value will be driven by the operating relationship with Ortsbo. We’re already developing products and programs and unified mobile suites. And Synchronica already has the carrier and the business relationships in place, so effectively, we are fast tracking everything we are doing at Ortsbo to accelerate way beyond what any other social-media group is doing.

“Marvel’s The Avengers Assemble on Twitter”

Source: Marvel | January 27, 2012 | by Marvel

UPDATE 1/31: The Global Twitter Chat has concluded! Replay the entire conversation with Samuel L. Jackson, Tom Hiddleston, Clark Gregg, and director Joss Whedon now! Plus, watch a 10-second preview of the Super Bowl XLVI TV spot for “Marvel’s The Avengers”

Marvel Studios announced today that they will be sponsoring a Global Twitter Chat on Tuesday, January 31, 2012 at 11 a.m. PST with cast members and the director of their highly anticipated action-adventure “Marvel’s The Avengers,” opening in theaters on May 4, 2012. The 30-minute live tweeting event features writer/director Joss Whedon and cast members Tom Hiddleston and Clark Gregg.

Fans around the world will be able to participate in the Q&A on Twitter by using the @Avengers handle and the #Avengers hashtag. Participating fans will have the opportunity to see a 10-second tease of the 30-second Super Bowl spot that will air during Super Bowl XLVI on February 5 on NBC. They will also have a chance to answer “Avengers” trivia for a chance to win “Avengers” prize packs.

International fans will be able to submit questions for the talent in their native language through a global translation tool provided by Ortsbo.com. The chat will be moderated by Marvel’s @Agent_M.

“Marvel’s The Avengers” is the super hero team up of a lifetime, featuring iconic Marvel super heroes Iron Man, the Incredible Hulk, Thor, Captain America, Hawkeye and Black Widow. When an unexpected enemy emerges that threatens global safety and security, Nick Fury, Director of the international peacekeeping agency known as S.H.I.E.L.D., finds himself in need of a team to pull the world back from the brink of disaster. Spanning the globe, a daring recruitment effort begins.

Starring Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner and Tom Hiddleston, with Stellan Skarsgård and Samuel L. Jackson, and written and directed by Joss Whedon, “Marvel’s The Avengers” is based on the ever-popular Marvel comic book series “The Avengers,” first published in 1963 and a comics institution ever since.

“Marvel’s The Avengers” is presented by Marvel Studios in association with Paramount Pictures. The film is being produced by Marvel Studios’ President Kevin Feige and executive produced by Alan Fine, Stan Lee, Jon Favreau, Louis D’Esposito, Patricia Whitcher, Victoria Alonso and Jeremy Latcham. The film is distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.
Follow @Avengers on Twitter for more details.

In addition to “Marvel’s The Avengers,” Marvel Studios will release a slate of films based on the Marvel characters including “Iron Man 3″ on May 3, 2013.

“Gene Simmons Helps Millions Connect Through Language (VIDEO)”

Source: genConnect | January 27, 2012 | by Nancy Spears

Did you know that rock legend Gene Simmons speaks 5 languages? He showed off his multilingual skills for genConnect in Park City, Utah, at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival as part of a live Q&A event with himself and pop culture icon Stan Lee. Watch as we discuss the importance of connecting through language:

KISS front-man and global entertainer Gene Simmons is lending his iconic personality to help spread the word about Ortsbo’s unique translator experience. During a live global event with comic book writer Stan Lee, the two icons showed off the translating chat service from Ortsbo.com, a tool that enables real-time conversational translation in over 50 languages. Simmons explained the global chat to genConnect:

“This was a global chat with potentially millions of Stan Lee fans around the world and it was streamed live in real time in any number of languages,” Simmons said. “Fans from Greece, Bulgaria, the Phillipines, would ask questions of Stan in their language, the question was then asked of Stan Lee in English, he would answer in English and in real time somebody in the Phillipines or Greece would get the answer in their language. Therein lies the magic of Ortsbo.com.”

As an immigrant himself, Simmons recalls his own difficulty learning English when he came to America and believes Ortsbo will be a pivitol point in our history. He encourages people to learn more about this powerful language tool.

“What tears people apart are our differences,” Simmons told genConnect, “and language is the biggest difference we have.”

“Gene Simmons wants to see Mitt Romney as 2012 GOP nominee”

Source: FoxNews.com | January 25, 2012 | by Hollie McKay

Who said Sundance was just for independent films?

Rock icon Gene Simmons was just one of the many stars plugging something of a different kind at the Park City, Utah-based film festival this year His venture is Ortsbo.com, a real-time experimental language translation platform, which enables folks from all the around the world to engage in conversation in their native language.

But technology and tunes aside, there is something else the “KISS” star likes to discuss – politics.

“I want a real political and economic debate. On the one hand, you’ve got President Obama, who I voted for, last minute. I wasn’t going to vote for him because he didn’t have a good resume. He only had two years of local political experience, he’s never run a company, he’d never been overseas, and he didn’t know any of the political leaders. I voted my conscience, based on some sort of – well, it’s the right time in history,” Simmons told FOX411’s Pop Tarts column prior to Tuesday’s Ortsbo-powered Live Q&A with comic book legend Stan Lee during the Sundance Film Festival. “But I want Mitt Romney and Barrack Obama to face off on the economic and political issues of our time. I want a real dialogue, and I, as a private citizen, want to be able to vote my conscience . More often than not, I want business men and business women in politics, not college professors.”

The rocker also gave his two cents on why the GOP primary seems to have become a fierce competition focused on more on morality than economic concerns.

“That’s because 50 percent of the population are women. They are interested in if the candidate is married, or not –I actually don’t care,” he continued. “I want government to become business, because countries aren’t businesses.”

And although Sundance founder Robert Redford last week vowed that the 34-year-old indie festival, at its heart, was for the “99 percent” and served to share their stories – Simmons found such a remark a little off-the-mark.

“Redford means well, he’s a great guy. But it’s a bit hypocritical, since he’s part of the one percent, to address the 99 percent. The truth is that Sundance represents America, period,” Simmons said. “Either we are all Americans, or you’re going to fall victim. This is the reason why the old Roman Empire died, it fell from within. Division from within is one of the stupidest things you can do. So demonstrate all you want, say ‘I don’t like this, I don’t like that’ – then basically shut up and vote; get somebody you like. If you like Mitt Romney, or President Obama, or Ron Paul – vote whoever it is you like, because that’s how you get power.”

Simmons added that his platform will help Americans to do so.

“Use Ortsbo to communicate your political message to anybody you’d like, equal access to everybody, that makes it 100 percent not 99 percent,” he added.”Ortsbo is the universal language of planet Earth – it’s the way people can communicate, without having any communication barriers.”

“Gene Simmons teams up with Stan Lee to introduce new venture”

Source: KISSFAQ.com | January 19, 2012 | by TimStar87

Intertainment Media Inc. has announced that its social media/real time communications platform, Ortsbo.com is teaming up with two of pop culture’s legendary names Stan Lee and Gene Simmons for the Ortsbo Live And Global At The Sundance Film Festival.

As part of Ortsbo’s new platform, viewers can watch the Q&A live via an online broadcast video stream with multi-lingual closed captioning in the broadcast language of their choice. Fans and media alike can be a part of this worldwide event by logging on at Ortsbo.com and submitting questions to Lee and Simmons. Available in more than 50 languages, the live Q&A will be instantly translated by the Ortsbo service, to enable users from around the world to send and receive messages in their native language.

“Stan Lee is one of today’s most iconic creators, the characters and comic books he has been involved with are known around the world and have had a huge impact on society, he will make a perfect guest for our global event,” said Simmons. “Ortsbo is amazing technology, it breaks down the language barriers and allows us to chat with our families, business contacts and anyone we need to around the world without delay.”

The event will be live to audiences worldwide on Tuesday, January 24 from the Canyons Grand Summit Resort in Park City, Utah.

“Gene Simmons To Host Online Q&A With Comic Book Legend Stan Lee From Sundance”

Source: Hair Metal Mansion | January 19, 2012 | by Andrew

Intertainment Media Inc. has announced that its social media, real time, experiential communications platform, Ortsbo.com is teaming up with two of pop culture’s legendary names STAN LEE and GENE SIMMONS for Ortsbo Live And Global At The Sundance Film Festival.

The event will be live to audiences worldwide on Tuesday, January 24th, 2012 from the Canyons Grand Summit Resort in Park City, Utah.

“Intertainment Media Presents Ortsbo Live and Global at Sundance Film Festival”

Source: Tech Finance | January 19, 2012 | by Newsbrief

Intertainment Media Inc. (TSX-V: INT; OTCQX: ITMTF; FRANKFURT: I4T) said Ortsbo.com is teaming up with Stan Lee and Gene Simmons for “Ortsbo Live and Global at the Sundance Film Festival.

The event will be live to audiences worldwide on Tuesday, January 24, 2012 from the Canyons Grand Summit Resort in Park City, Utah.

Gene Simmons of KISS will host a Live Q&A with Stan Lee featuring web video with real-time translation for audiences worldwide to log on and ask questions.

Lee and Simmons will tell stories and discuss Lee’s documentary, “With Great Power: The Stan Lee Story,” which will premiere during the festival.

“Stan Lee and Gene Simmons to talk at event that will be broadcast online”

Source: The Salt Lake Tribune | January 18, 2012 | by David Burger

There will be a live event with two of pop culture’s iconic figures, comic-book maverick Stan Lee and Gene Simmons of KISS, at the Grand Summit at Canyons in Park City.

The event will be centered around anecdotes between the two and also delve into Stan’s documentary premiering at Slamdance, “With Great Power: The Stan Lee Story.”

Fans can also watch the event in real time by logging onto Ortsbo.com’s new live and global platform. The platform, which debuted at CES last week, will close-caption the experience live to over 170 countries and 50+ languages.

The event will be at 12:30 p.m. Mountain time, at Canyons Grand Summit Resort Hotel, 4000 The Canyons Resort Dr, Park City.

Learn more about Ortsbo at http://ortsbo.com/.

The doors for the event open at noon and is free to the public until capacity is reached.

“Web Video Gets Real-Time Translation In 50+ Languages”

Source: Fast Company | January 11, 2012 | by Neal Ungerleider

Canadian startup Ortsbo’s new product can instantly translate Internet video into more than 50 languages in real time. And Gene Simmons is on board.

At CES in Las Vegas today, Canadian startup Ortsbo debuted its Live & Global platform, which uses proprietary technology and close-captioning to translate video in 53 languages–in real time. Translation options range from Spanish and Chinese to Maltese and Yiddish. And there’s even a rock star connection: Gene Simmons of Kiss is a business partner and spokesperson for the firm.

Internet audiences can watch closed-caption translation in real time of Variety magazine’s ongoing Entertainment Summit. Variety and Ortsbo have signed a partnership agreement. Ortsbo president David Lucatch stressed the product’s potential for corporate meetings at CES, saying that “regardless of the language you speak, today you speak your client’s language.”
In a real-time demo by a Fast Company reporter using Google Chrome on a Windows 7 PC, the closed captioning system performed admirably. After an initial crash, Ortsbo’s software provided fairly accurate translations into French and Spanish, along with somewhat more error-ridden translations into Arabic and Hebrew. However, the translations didn’t appear to be any clunkier than major competitors such as Google Translate.

Ortsbo has a history of holding publicity stunts to raise awareness of the company’s products. Steve Nash and several other basketball players took part in an online multilingual press conference with Len Berman for Ortsbo this past year; Simmons also participated in an online chat with fans in 92 countries using the company’s products.

The main purpose of the real-time closed-caption product seems to be for corporate events and international consumer engagement. Ortsbo recently signed an agreement with IndyCar for translation of press conferences and custom social media events. But the big commercial ramifications for this type of product lie in the exponentially expanding world of Internet video. Google’s YouTube (which, of course, has easy access to Google Translate) is likely out of reach but there are hundreds of other Internet video sites with deep pockets and overseas consumer reach. Ortsbo would have to be foolish not to reach out to them. Then there’s the issue of what will happen when Skype introduces instant translation. It is a deeply lucrative field despite the potential headaches for both coders and linguists.

Instant translation is like something out of Star Trek. The Defense Department has been a pioneer in the field; military contractors Voxtec and IraqComm have both produced products that allow troops, NGO employees, and DynCorp/Blackwater types to communicate on the fly. In addition to Google Translate, the wildly popular Word Lens smartphone app allows users to instantly translate French- and Spanish-language signage. Live & Global is only the latest product released by Ortsbo; the firm makes the bulk of their sales from a suite of popular desktop- and smartphone-based instant translation packages.

Translation is a big deal precisely because of the global nature of the Internet. Even though English is the Internet’s lingua franca, fluency and comprehension levels vary wildly. Real-time translation means aspiring YouTube stars can gain non-anglophone fans in Brazil and Indonesia. Real-time translation means that small firms can hold instant Skype chats with investors abroad. As the Internet continues to mature and confluence between desktop and mobile devices continues, more and more firms will pop up offering products similar to Ortsbo’s.

However, any translation service is ultimately only as good as the translation it offers. Due to the amazingly complicated issues surrounding real-time translation, quality varies. Ortsbo uses a proprietary method and has not publicly disclosed many details surrounding it (although they recently invested in voice translation outfit Lexifone). Google recently put a chain link fence around the Google Translate API; website developers now have to pay to integrate Google Translate into their products. In November, Ortsbo parent company Intertainment made a controversial public statement that they would take legal action against individuals making negative blog or web forum posts about their products. Meanwhile, Google has steadily been transforming Google Translate into a stand-alone, app-centered product.

Correction: A previous version of this article erroneously stated that Simmons announced his involvement with Ortsbo at the 2012 CES. Simmons has been involved with Ortsbo since 2011.

“How does Intertainment Media’s Ortsbo stack up against US Social Media IPO’s?”

Source: Cantech Letter | January 6, 2012 | by Cantech

With forty million monthly unique visitors, Intertainment Media’s (TSX:INT) Ortsbo, software that translates, in real time, more than fifty different languages across a dozen social media platforms, is an unqualified success.

Ortsbo’s recent deal with Variety (the company will provide users at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas with the ability to watch Variety “summit sessions” through an on-line broadcast video stream that will feature multilingual closed captioning) is not the platform’s first taste of the limelight. Intertainment has hosted similar events with rock group KISS, Canadian NBA star Steve Nash, IndyCar and with the Disney & Dreamworks Corporations.

But has Ortsbo’s success outgrown that of its parent company? In one way, CEO David Lucatch says it has.

In a press release issued late in November, Lucatch said management felt that Ortsbo’s growth would be accelerated as independent company, and that Intertainment shareholders would benefit from Intertainment maintaining a stake in this new entity.

And for those wondering whether an Ortsbo IPO was just idle chatter, management went on to provide detail on how they felt an Ortsbo IPO would look, valuation wise.

“Ortsbo has garnered significant interest by U.S. banks, venture and investment firms” the company said in a November 28th press release, adding that the plan “…has already received interest for a lead order of $20-million (U.S.) from a U.S. institution at an anticipated premoney valuation for Ortsbo Inc. of a minimum $210-million (U.S.), with further potential interest for additional financing. ”

A spinoff of Ortsbo would therefore be bigger than the value of its parent company. Shares of Intertainment Media closed today at $.52 cents, giving it a market cap of just under $150 million.

So in an environment rich with social media IPO’s, how does Ortsbo stack up?

Popular user review site Yelp, in filing its IPO paperwork with the SEC, revealed that “Approximately 61 million unique visitors used our website, and our mobile application was used on more than 5 million unique mobile devices, on a monthly average basis during the quarter ended September 30, 2011.” Yelp generated $58.4 million revenue in the first nine months of 2011, with a net loss of $7.6 million. The company has hired Goldman Sachs and Citigroup to lead its IPO, which is expected to value the company at $1.5 billion to $2 billion.

Social network game maker Zynga (NASDAQ:ZNGA) IPO’d in mid-December with a $7 billion valuation. Zynga has 148 million unique visitors on Facebook every month, for games such as its runaway hit Farmville. Zynga’s sales were much higher than Yelp’s In 2010, the company had a $90.6 million profit on sales of $597 million.

Online real estate company Zillow (NASDAQ:Z), which had an IPO valuation of $540 million when it debuted at $20 per share in July. Zillow currently has 24.2 million average monthly unique users. Zillow’s Q3 revenue, was $19.1 million.

Of course, the rub against Ortsbo is that it has yet to generate much in the way of revenue. Cantech Letter caught up with David Lucatch this afternoon, and while he acknowledged that investors will have to decide for themselves what sort of discount would be reasonable to apply to Ortsbo for its lack of revenue, the plan is by design for the platform, which he points out is just eighteen months old.

“Going after revenue instead of eyeballs would have been detrimental to Ortsbo” said Lucatch. “We have long term plans for this platform and we made the decision early on that we didn’t want this to be Netscape, where we try to monetize too early and destroy the user experience and that ultimately clears the path for someone else to monetize it. So we approached it by concentrating on delivering a great product for the end user, with monetizing in the back of our minds. Now, we’re starting to see the paths to revenue very clearly, in our deal with Variety for instance, and in other commercial applications, which are are presenting themselves on a regular basis.”

For shareholders of Intertainment Media the Ortsbo spinoff could be a winning situation at most any valuation. That’s because current accounting principals force Intertainment to recognize the value of Ortsbo at zero. An IPO would peg an actual value to the asset, instantly increasing the value of whatever stake the company maintains.

“Variety CES Summit to offer free, multilingual stream: Partnership with Ortsbo kicks off with Entertainment event”

Source: Variety | January 4, 2012 | by Variety Staff

Variety’s Entertainment Summit Wednesday at CES in Las Vegas will stream for free via a new partnership with Ortsbo. Variety has partnered with the digital broadcaster to deliver content through Ortsbo’s Live & Global platform, which allows viewers to watch events with multi-lingual closed captioning in more than 50 languages.

“It’s critical that Variety constantly evolves how we deliver our content to audiences, who are quickly embracing new platforms and digital experiences,” said Neil Stiles, CEO and president of Variety.

The CES programming beings at 10 a.m. PST Wednesday at Variety.com/CES.

Ortsbo CEO David Lucatch said the system “allows broadcasters around the world to engage their audiences regardless of the language that they broadcast in.”

Speakers at Variety’s Entertainment Summit include keynoter News Corp. chairman/CEO of News Digital Media Jonathan Miller, Warner Bros. prexy of digital distribution Thomas Gewecke, Yahoo exec VP of the Americas Ross Levinsohn, Facebook head of market development Matt Jacobson and Lori MacPherson, head of global product management at Walt Disney Studios.

Variety also will publish CES daily editions, distributed throughout the Las Vegas confab, Tuesday through Friday.

Many of Variety’s future conferences, events and summits will stream on Variety.com through Ortsbo.

Contact Variety Staff at news@variety.com

“ZDNet Exclusive: Gene Simmons rocks Social Media with Ortsbo”

Source: ZD Net | December 16, 2011 | by Ken Hess

Summary: Hear Gene Simmons in this ZDNet exclusive interview discuss Ortsbo, a revolutionary new language translation service.

A few days ago, I had the rare pleasure of interviewing Gene Simmons: Father, husband, entrepreneur, musician, businessman extraordinaire and Ortsbo partner along with Ortsbo President, David Lucatch. Ortsbo is an exciting new service that translates, in real time, your tweets, Facebook updates, chats, texts and more into whatever language you need to communicate with. You may remember my previous post, “Ortsbo: Return to Shinar,” where I described the Ortsbo service and what it can do for you.

Gene Simmons Interview Podcast

There’s no doubt that Ortsbo is a game-changer in the world of social media and in international communications. We’ve waited a very long time for this written-word service and, as you will hear for yourself in the interview, the service has expanded to voice.

The edited interview is just over 15 minutes long but captures the essence of Ortsbo and Gene Simmons’ excitement about the company and its far-reaching potential.

I’ve been a Gene Simmons fan for many years and I watch his reality series, Family Jewels on A&E, at my leisure thanks to DVR technology. He’s most famous for his role in the rock band, KISS. Yes, I was and am a KISS fan. I still remember most of the lyrics from not just their megahits but their more obscure songs like, “God of Thunder,” “2000 Man” and “Do you love me?” But, probably my all-time favorite is, “Heaven’s on Fire.” I think it was the first “unmasked” hit but I can’t remember for sure–it was a long time ago.

These days, I’m more impressed with Gene’s business savvy, workaloholicism and his awesome family. I never was able to see a KISS concert because of my perennially-unfortunate financial situation but now, if they have a show within 100 miles of me, I’m there. I wonder if I can use my ZDNet credentials to get a backstage pass?

I hope you enjoy listening to the interview as much as I did conducting it.

Rock on, Gene Simmons.

“Ortsbo: Return to Shinar”

Source: ZD Net | December 11, 2011 | by Ken Hess

Summary: Take a look at Ortsbo’s revolutionary language software. The world may never be the same as long as we keep to the mundane and resist the temptation to build a tower to heaven.

Genesis 11: 1-9

Now the whole Earth used the same language and the same words. And it came about as they journeyed east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar and
settled there. And they said to one another, “Come, let us make
bricks and burn them thoroughly.” And they used brick for stone, and they used tar for mortar. And they said, “Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into
heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name; lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.”
And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. And the LORD said, “Behold, they are one people, and they all have the same language. And this is what they began to do, and now nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them.”
“Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.” So the LORD scattered them abroad from there over the face of the whole earth; and they stopped
building the city. Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of the whole earth; and from there the LORD scattered them abroad over the face of the whole earth.

Though I’m not sure Ortsbo’s President, David Lucatch, will fully appreciate or condone the biblical reference, there’s an uncanny parallel between software that allows us to communicate with each other, in real time, using almost any application–in the conversation participant’s native languages and that of the Tower of Babel. Further, if you think about it, not since that time, in ancient Shinar, have people been able to communicate freely for a single purpose. Ortsbo enables us to do so.

Now, our goals are less lofty than those of the ancient Shinar people; we just want to let everyone know what we had for lunch or which concert we’re attending. Perhaps we’ve learned our lessons well.

I had the pleasure of speaking with David Lucatch about Ortsbo during a recent phone interview. My reaction to the revelation of what Ortsbo brings us was, “Wow, this changes everything.” And, it does.

How does it change everything?

Simple. If I can text a coworker in India, in his native Hindi, and he can text me back in English, we’ve achieved an immediate connection and rapport. We’ve also made ourselves 100% more efficient. No misunderstood instructions. No language difficulties. No accents. Just communication. Simple.

So simple, in fact, that I believe Ortsbo will revolutionize global communications. That makes the world a much smaller and more peaceful place in which to live. OK, maybe that’s a bit lofty but language keeps people apart. It makes us suspicious of one another. It builds cultural barriers. It causes prejudice and discrimination.

I’m not sure Lucatch and his team ever considered the full ramifications of this service, when they started it, but the implications are far-reaching. And, it will only be a matter of time before the service reaches applications like Skype, where I will speak to someone in Russia in my native English and they will hear me in their native Russian. Just imagine it. Conference calls where no one says, “I didn’t get that last part, can you repeat it?” While the person on the other end tries desperately to eek out his thoughts in a language so foreign to him, that it’s even more unintelligible than on his first attempt.

Ortsbo, for those of you who want to know, means “Local.”

What it means for those who are smart enough to get it, is “Global.” Ortsbo removes the old limitations. You can now speak any language that you want to speak.

No Rosetta Stone needed.

Note to the people’s of the world: It took us 5,000-ish years to get back to this point, don’t screw it up again. I had a cheese omelette for breakfast.

“MTV IGGY ANNOUNCES LINE-UP FOR “BEST NEW BAND 2011″ CONCERT EVENT”

Source: MTV Iggy | December 8, 2011

Grammy-Nominated Dance Punk Band La Vida Bohème, Reggae Star Gyptian and Breakout Malaysian Singer-Songwriter Yuna Join K-Pop Sensation and 2011 Best New Band 2NE1 for a Live Concert Event at MTV’s Times Square Studio on December 12

MTV Iggy Reinvents Music Fan Frenzy in Times Square with New Global Acts

New York, NY, (December 8, 2011) – MTV Iggy, a multi-platform global music brand connecting America with global artists and pop culture phenomena, announces the full concert line-up for MTV Iggy’s Best New Band global pop music event at MTV’s Times Square Studio on December 12. Hosted by a star cast of MTV personalities – Matt Pinfield, Sway, and SuChin Pak, as well as Bollywood and TV actress Shenaz Treasury – this multi-location concert will unfold in New York City’s Best Buy Theater, the MTV Studio and on MTV’s giant HD screen in Times Square, 44 ½. The concert will also be streamed live on MTVIggy.com and enhanced by a global chat with real-time translations in 53 languages powered by Ortsbo.com, a leader in experiential language technology.

With Salli Frattini, award-winning MTV veteran and Sunset Lane Entertainment founder, as Executive Producer, the event represents an evolution of successful music events and programming that have drawn thousands of impassioned fans to Times Square to catch a glimpse of their music idols in the windows of the MTV Studio.

Best New Band illustrates MTV Iggy’s mission to open the doors for global music and youth culture to an American audience. Breakout music acts from around the world, such as the UK, USA, Australia, Malaysia, Jamaica, Pakistan and South Korea, were voted by music fans from 169 countries and resulted in 4.25 million votes along with a tidal wave of social media activity. The top voting countries included the US, Mexico, Canada and the Philippines, demonstrating a cross-border hunger for new music.

“Our audiences live in a highly connected global environment and music is a centrifugal force for them, a way to discover the world and make connections,” said Nusrat Durrani, Senior Vice President and General Manager of MTV World. “The passion aroused by the Best New Band program is inspiring, and with this concert, we are doing what we are famous for: creating emotional connections between our audiences and artists. What’s different is that this event taps into a new generation of fans and musicians whose cultural context and consciousness is borderless.”

K-pop superstars 2NE1 were announced as the Best Band in the World on November 10 and will headline the concert along with indie pop stars La Vida Bohème (dance punk band from Venezuela nominated for 2011 Grammy for Best Latin Pop, Rock or Urban Album), Gyptian (dancehall reggae star from Jamaica) and Yuna (award-winning singer-songwriter from Malaysia). MTV Iggy is cross-pollinating leading K-pop, dancehall reggae, dance punk stars, but also diversifying the pop music lexicon in the US by introducing iconic new artists.

MTV Iggy creates and distributes content across multiple platforms, including online, on-air and social media outlets. MTV Iggy premiered its first episode of The MTV Iggy Show, a weekly showcase of the best new music from around the world, this October. The 30-minute music showcase airs on mtvU at 8:00 p.m. ET/7:00 p.m CT, with other editions of the show airing across MTV television networks, such as MTV and MTV2 as well as MTV.com. MTVIggy.com is the brand’s home base, accessible from anywhere in the world, providing music fans the same experience regardless of their country or region. The website offers a vast library of globally cleared content with live performances, music videos, interviews, articles, reviews, and original photography.

ABOUT MTV WORLD

MTV World connects global-minded millennials with music and pop culture trends and creates original programming for targeted audiences across multiple platforms. The division’s consumer properties include MTV Iggy, featuring emerging music from around the world, MTV K, devoted to global K-Pop, and MTV Desi, focused on South Asian music and pop culture. It also creates innovative content and programs for advertising partners. MTV World is a unit of Viacom Inc. (NASDAQ: VIA, VIAB).

CONTACTS:

Allison Elbl-Striegel
IDPR
323.822.4851 / aelbl@id-pr.com

Rhett Usry
IDPR
212.774.6163 / rusry@id-pr.com

Melissa Munafo
IDPR
323.822.4850 / mmunafo@id-pr.com

Mark Jafar
Viacom
212.846.8961 / mark.jafar@mtvstaff.com

“Spielberg Talks ‘War Horse’ in Live Simulcast”

Source: Digital Media Wire | November 28, 2011 | by Chris Marlowe

Steven Spielberg spoke to audiences in ten cities on Sunday following a screening of War Horse, his epic tale that follows a horse’s adventurous trail through the First World War. The director answered texted questions in a simultaneous satellite broadcast to theaters on both coasts and in Chicago, while everyone else could follow a live stream hosted by MSN.com and with real-time translation for the international followers provided by Ortsbo.

No amazing secrets were revealed, but the public did get a good idea of what the movie means to Spielberg and what they can expect when it officially opens on Dec. 25 in the U.S., which is historically one of the most popular days for adults to visit movie theaters.

Some of the movie’s most dramatic action takes place as torrential rain turned the trenches into mud, presenting a challenge to cast, crew and critters alike. Among the nuggets of information the director shared was that he used animatronics when necessary for the animals’ well-being, and that he limited the number of digital effects: “There are three shots that are significant CG during this film, and the only reason I did it because I wanted to keep the horses safe.”

Spielberg also admitted that film was losing out to digital, an evolution he didn’t seem happy about. In answer to a question from a fan in Venezuela, Spielberg answered, “I’m not looking to convert to Red cameras. Tin-Tin was 100 percent digital animation, but we will all be forced to shoot digitally sooner rather than later.”

Another glimpse of personal insight was in reply to someone in San Francisco who sought Spielberg’s opinion of war, which was appropriate for a man whose direction of Saving Private Ryan was honored with an Academy Award. “I have many feelings about the war,” Spielberg said. “My father is a proud veteran of World War II, and he taught me something when he was very young – war proves who your friends really are. And that teamwork, and way people live and die for each other, is what my movies are about.”

A transcript of the chat can be read here, and videoed highlights from the satellite simulcast are below.

The theaters that hosted the live Q&A were in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Dallas, Boston, Washington DC, Seattle, Miami and Atlanta. Trade and industry screenings began last week in Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco.

DreamWorks Pictures’ War Horse is directed by Steven Spielberg and stars Emily Watson, David Thewlis, Peter Mullan, Niels Arestrup, Tom Hiddleston, Jeremy Irvine, Benedict Cumberbatch and Toby Kebbell. It is produced by Steven Spielberg and Kathleen Kennedy, and executive producers are Frank Marshall and Revel Guest. The screenplay was written by Lee Hall and Richard Curtis and is based on the best-selling book by Michael Morpurgo and the Tony Award-winning international hit stage play by Nick Stafford, originally produced by the National Theatre of Great Britain and directed by Tom Morris and Marianne Elliot.

“Steven Spielberg Hosting Special ‘War Horse’ Screenings During Thanksgiving Weekend”

Source: The Hollywood Reporter | November 22, 2011 | by Pamela McClintock

The move is designed to spark word-of-mouth a month in advance of the movie’s official Christmas Day release. Thanksgiving weekend is starting to look a lot like Christmas at the multiplex.

DreamWorks announced on Tuesday it will hold special word-of-mouth screenings of Steven Spielberg’s War Horse on Sunday, Nov. 27 in 10 cities.

The primary screening will be in New York City, to be followed by a Q&A with Spielberg. The session will be beamed in via satellite to the other nine screenings, as well as streamed live on MSN.com with real-time text translation provided by Ortsbo.com. Those attending the screenings, or listening to the live stream, can text in their questions.

War Horse, based on the critically acclaimed stage play and book, opens nationwide on Dec. 25.

On Saturday, Nov. 26, 20th Century Fox will hold official sneaks of Cameron Crowe’s Christmas film We Bought a Zoo in hundreds of theaters across the country. We Bought a Zoo, starring Matt Damon, Scarlett Johansson and Elle Fanning, opens Dec. 23.

“Ortsbo 2Go: Language app from Gene Simmons”

Source: USA Today | November 15, 2011 | by Marc Saltzman via Technology Live

You don’t need a tongue like Gene Simmons to master multiple languages. A free Apple app called Ortsbo 2Go lets you engage in real-time instant messaging with family, friends and colleagues around the world regardless of your mother tongue. Whatever you type is immediately translated into another language, and vice versa.

Specifically, Ortsbo 2Go for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch lets you communicate in more than 50 languages via Facebook Chat. For example, while English might be your preferred language, you might have family in Germany, friends in Hong Kong or colleagues in Dubai. Whatever you type in English is instantly translated for the other person to read in their preferred language, and ditto for you.

“Language is no longer a barrier,” says Gene Simmons, co-founder of the legendary rock group KISS, star of A&E’s Family Jewels, and business partner and spokesman for Ortsbo.

While the Ortsbo Web service supports more than a dozen social-media platforms, Ortsbo 2Go only works with Facebook Chat at this point. The first step is to log into your Facebook account from within the app and input your Facebook username.

If you don’t know what that is, go to Facebook on a computer and click account settings. Then, wait for the app to load your friends list, and you can initiate a conversation. A small drop-down box lets you select your language and what language you’d like it translated to.

Unlike other translation services like the popular Google Translate, Ortsbo — which means “local” in Swedish — eliminates the need to copy and paste the text from one app to another. The app also has a section called Transl8tr, which translates your words and lets you email the text, and another section, transcripts, to see your translation history.

Born in Israel, Simmons speaks five languages: English, Hebrew, Hungarian, German and some Japanese. Simmons shared a story about receiving anonymous love notes on his iPhone — in Hungarian — only to find out they were from his wife, Shannon, [Tweed], who doesn’t speak Hungarian.

“Let’s face it, technology is very unsexy,” Simmons says. “But this tool is very emotional, as it’s more about people and less about technology.” “When I drive my truck, open the window and enjoy my freedom, I’m not thinking about the carburetor doing this and the engine doing that.”

Translations between the following languages are currently supported in this app: Afrikaans, Albanian, Armenian, Azerbaijani, Arabic, Basque, Belarusian, Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese (simplified), Chinese (traditional), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Filipino, Finnish, French, Galician, Georgian, German, Greek, Haitian Creole, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Italian, Irish, Japanese, Korean, Latin, Latvian, Lithuanian, Macedonian, Malay, Maltese, Norwegian, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, Urdu, Vietnamese, Welsh and Yiddish.

Ortsbo says its real-time language conversion works via in-house algorithms as well as licensed technology. Accuracy is between 85% and 95%, the company says.

While the app worked very well in our week-long testing — translating from English and French to Hebrew and Japanese — it’s not a perfect 10. Along with only support for Facebook at this time, another issue is the inability to search for Facebook friends. I was only able to scroll up and down to see the names of people open to chat via Facebook, but I could not search for a particular name. And while the app works on iPad, it’s not optimized for the bigger screen. So be sure to tap the 2x button to make it easier to see what you’re typing and reading on the tablet’s 9.7-inch display. The Web version of Ortsbo supports multiple and simultaneous chat sessions, but the mobile version does not.

Despite its shortcomings, Ortsbo 2Go is a free, powerful and easy-to-use tool for people who want to communicate with those in another language, in real time.

An encrypted business version, which includes an Outlook plug-in, is also available for $29.95.

Category:

Social Networking

Developer:

Ortsbo

Rated:

3.5 out of 4

“Toronto Star’s Travel App of the Week”

Source: Toronto Star | November 10, 2011 | by Bert Archer

Ortsbo (free, all platforms). This Richmond Hill-based app from Intertainment Media is a real-time translator you can hook up to Twitter, Facebook or the instant messaging system of your choice to talk to people in their language, and hear back from them in yours. Its One2One function lets you split your tablet screen to have face-to-face conversations by typing at each other.

“Ortsbo Presents Classic Rock Live & Global Featuring GENE SIMMONS & More Rock Legends: FROM The WORLD FAMOUS Roundhouse in London, England — Ortsbo’s next global chat event November 9 from 1800-1915; and from 2115-2330 GMT”

Source: MarketWire | November 3, 2011 | by PR Newswire via Comtex

TORONTO and NEW YORK, Nov. 3, 2011 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ — Ortsbo.com, the real-time conversational translator, will host a two part Live & Global event from the Red Carpet and Backstage at this year’s prestigious Orange Amplification Classic Rock Roll Of Honour in association with currencies.co.uk. The event is being hosted by Ortsbo spokesman and partner, Gene Simmons.

Classic Rock Live & Global will be a combination worldwide chat and webcast, streamed live from the historic Roundhouse in London. Fans and press from around the world will be able to ask their questions in up to 53 different languages using Ortsbo.com’s seamless translation technology while watching a live video stream at www.classicrockliveandglobal.com .

Questions will be asked in any one of ORTSBO.com’s 53 native languages, and then instantly translated into English. The question is answered in English, and the questioner gets the answer back in their own language. All viewers can pick any of the 53 languages to view and understand the event.

Part one of this web interactive event will be broadcast from the Red Carpet at 1800 London time on November 9 until 1915. Later that night, as the awards are presented, the winners and presenters will move to the ORTSBO.com Press area which will be active from 2115 until approximately 2330.

With over 32 million monthly unique users spending well over 250 million minutes of engagement each month, Ortsbo.com is proud to announce its first live event outside North America.

Scheduled to appear and/or perform at this year’s Classic Rock Roll Of Honour are Brian May, Chrissie Hynde, Duff McKagan, Ian Anderson, Pete Townshend, Peter Frampton, Randy Bachman and Roger Daltrey, as well as Jeff Beck who is set to receive the Living Legend Award during the ceremony, and host Gene Simmons.

An ambassador for the Ortsbo brand, Simmons has praised Ortsbo.com translation technology by stating “Ortsbo takes a sledgehammer to the Tower of Babel that is modern communication. It connects humanity. We are all one people.”

Fans (and press members who can’t attend the event) will be able to view and participate in the chat by pre-registering at www.classicrockliveandglobal.com and logging on November 8th to watch the live event. Members of the press should click the “Press” button for registration, and qualified persons will be placed in a separate press queue. A limited number of press members will be admitted to the actual event. Please contact (see below) Paul Elliott or Duff Battye for registration.

This is a great way to view and join in all the backstage activities surrounding the Classic Rock Roll Of Honour. Deemed by Music-News as “one of the most respected and highly anticipated music events of the year”, the show is organized by Classic Rock Magazine and features reader-voted award categories such as Best New Band, Album of The Year and Band of the Year.

This Live & Global highlights the fifth time Ortsbo.com has used its chat platform to host a global interactive chat event. Previous events have featured KISS’s Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley, two-time MVP and NBA superstar Steve Nash, three generations of the legendary Andretti racing family and a global chat with the 2011 IZOD IndyCar Championship contenders.

About Ortsbo Inc. www.ortsbo.com

Ortsbo ( www.ortsbo.com ) enables real-time conversational translation in over 50 languages and seamlessly integrates with today’s most popular social media platforms. Ortsbo Inc. is a subsidiary of Intertainment Media Inc., a Rich Media Applications leader, focused on delivering leading edge technology and marketing solutions enabling clients to power enhanced branding, loyalty initiatives and consumer engagement. Selected as a Microsoft Global Agency Initiative partner, Intertainment has joined an elite group of interactive agencies worldwide that Microsoft recommends to its Partners and Customers.

Ortsbo allows users to communicate with family, friends and colleagues around the world, providing users with the ability to break down language and cultural barriers through its easy to use, language centric platform products and services. Ortsbo’s flagship product for social media ( www.ortsbo.com ) supports global communications with instant translation capability, real time multi-lingual social media chat connects to PC and Mac computers, mobile browsers as well as all major search engine and social media chat platforms.

Headquartered in the Toronto, Canada region, with offices in New York, Los Angeles and San Mateo, CA, Intertainment Media Inc. is listed on the Toronto Venture Exchange under the symbol “INT” /quotes/zigman/461990 CA:INT +8.00% and in the US on the OTCQX under the symbol “ITMTF”. Intertainment is also traded in Europe, on XETRA under the symbol “I4T”.

About Classic Rock Magazine

The world’s most revered and respected hard rock magazine, every month Classic Rock magazine goes behind the scenes to bring the real stories behind rock legends from Led Zeppelin to Guns N’ Roses, Black Sabbath to Pink Floyd and far beyond. Written by the world’s leading rock experts and featuring rock’s most renowned photographers, Classic Rock unearths the reality from the myths and brings you the latest in 21st century rock. Every issue is packed with exclusive interviews and features on rock’s biggest names, and includes the heftiest and most trustworthy rock reviews section on the planet.

Classic Rock is the original main brand from the same people who also publish Classic Rock Presents Prog and Classic Rock Presents AOR. Classic Rock: The world’s only high-voltage rock’n'roll magazine.

www.ortsbo.com

www.intertainmentmedia.com

SOURCE Ortsbo Inc.

“Interview: David Lucatch, CEO of Intertainment Media”

Source: Cantech Letter | October 31, 2011 | by Cantech

While some, including The Globe and Mail, implied earlier this year that their numbers might be a trick, (a statement that was subsequently retracted), Intertainment Media (TSXV:INT) has been mostly a treat for Canadian tech investors this year.

On the strength of Ortsbo, software that translates, in real time, more than fifty different languages across a dozen social media platforms, Intertainment rocketed from pennies in January to a high of $3.35 before coming back to earth. With the controversial stock that has traded billions of shares this year once again showing signs of life, Cantech Letter’s Nick Waddell caught up with CEO David Lucatch at The Stocks 2011 Conference at The Vancouver Hyatt on October 30th.

David, we last caught talked with you in May, can you catch us up on Intertainment?

Since May? Wow. Let’s see. Ortsbo has grown at a fantastic rate and it continues to grow. We reached 32 million unique visitors last month and just over a quarter of a billion minutes. Ad Taffy has added some really great clients to the stable such as The Red Cross and ScotiaBank. And Knctr has grown to over three million users. So things are going very well. Magnum, our traditional business is doing very well. The big mainstay of our growth over the past few months has, of course, been Ortsbo.

In your presentation here earlier you described Intertainment Media as an “incubator”. Can you talk a little bit about that idea?

Sure, Intertainment was always built to grow independent business units. That model is traditionally known as an incubator. We believe that Ortsbo has grown in valuation potential, especially in the US, to be larger than the company itself. So we feel we now have to unlock the value of Ortsbo. To do that we might require it might require a mechanism outside of Intertainment.

So are you talking about the possibility of spinning off Ortsbo, or spinning off every company that you incubate?

I don’t think spinning off everything is the right way to go. I think you have to assess each individual opportunity. Ortsbo itself has created such an individual brand identity that its now more important that we individualize it further and prepare to monetize it further. And to do that we have to think about what’s in the best interest of the shareholders and the company. Shareholders want maximum value, and if Ortsbo is being hampered by being inside another corporation and its identity being clouded then we have to look at that. As other business units grow we might have the same challenges with those.

One of the things you have managed to do this year is put a lot of cash in the bank. How does that change the way you approach the future? Does the money allow you to look at opportunities that you might not have been able to before?

It certainly does do that, but what it allows us to do is allow us to set out our operating plan to grow. We been very fortunate this year we changed the fortunes and the balance sheet of the company dramatically. We went from as fledgling company that at the end of 2010 was receiving its cash injections from myself and other directors writing cheques, to one that is stable and stands alone and is ready to grow. And we’ve still stuck with it; management invested something in the neighborhood of $1.25 million in our last round. But at the end of the day its really about execution, and if you are hampered trying to raise money all the time its really hard to execute because it becomes a big part of your business.

So I guess there’s that big block of time that you had to put aside to raise money that you can use to focus on the business…

Absolutely, without a doubt. The vision that we have can be executed without external forces. And its not just the time to raise the money, but there’s the old golden rule “He who has the gold rules”. This gives us the opportunity to take the vision and plan and put it into execution mode.

Ortsbo has gotten to a point right now where it’s almost synonymous with Intertainment. But there are these other divisions. Can you tell us where Ad Taffy is at?

We have a great team that operates Ad Taffy, led by our CMO Brad Parry. The success of Knctr and Ad Taffy has a lot to do with Brad’s execution and the corporate visions combined. So I want to give a hat’s off to Brad in that respect. We’ve never lost sight of all our divisions. It’s just that, you know one of your children might become an Olympic swimmer, it doesn’t mean the other children are lost, it just means that at that point in time one has taken the forefront and Ortsbo has. Ad Taffy and Knctr we think have great life, so we’re spending a little more time and resources on those.

I learned from today’s panel that you have a bit of a contrary view of tech investors in Canada.

There are so many smaller investors these days. We had one private investment group in our last private placement put eight figures into the deal, in Canada. This is just private investors. A lot of people tend to believe that there aren’t a lot of tech investors in this country, but I think you just have to spend the time cultivating the relationships. In our last private placement there was high volatility in the markets and the time and a lot of brokerage firms chose not to participate because of that. We were oversubscribed and it was, I think the largest non-brokered tech financing in Canada this year. People will tell you what you can’t do all the time. That’s where I become very contrarian. I don’t like people telling me what I can’t do.

You feel that maybe we can’t scale up to billion dollar businesses, but that there is an opportunity for smaller, internet based businesses in Canada?

Yeah, we’re kind of fortunate at Intertainment in that right now, we’re kind of the leader of the pack. But I suspect that other companies such as Poynt, Selectcore, iSign Media etc. could become the leader. In fact I’m doing as much as I can to encourage other companies to do what Intertainment has done well and to not make the mistakes we have made.

What have you done well?

I think what we have done well is communicated well. One would argue that could have been to our detriment when there was volatility on the market and there was a lot of open shorting. The shorters at that time I think were taking advantage of how communicative we were. But I don’t think it can be argued that we’re not a great communications stock. Some people might argue that we have too many press releases, but part of our mission statement is to educate the market. And you can’t educate the market once a week or once a month. We’re a company that has great marketers, but are also great technologists. Many companies just have one or the other. You have to be cognizant that you are on show.

You mentioned to me one real tangible benefit of close communication with your shareholders; Ortsbo actually came from one of your investors.

Yeah, one of our shareholders came to me and said “I want you to look at this technology”. I was so busy with something else it actually took me six months to look at it, and when I looked at it, it was a good kernel of technology, but it was really rough around the edges. Also, at the time people didn’t believe we were technologists, they thought we were just a marketing company. They believe we are now. This software is brilliant. We made a deal that was favorable to the developers, and as it grew out the team that we bought the underpinning technology from have been wonderful to deal with all the way through. It’s been an honorable and open relationships because we didn’t go in as “vulture capitalists” we went in there as partners. We want to treat everyone around us as partners. Nobody works for us, everyone works with us. And it’s a philosophy that we have carried forward through almost thirty years of business. We still have a small company atmosphere even though we’re now located in two countries, soon to be three or four.

Are you looking at acquiring other businesses?

Yeah there are some things we are looking at that may have a huge impact for Magnum. We look at core values, core strategy, we look at partnership we think we can get into and grow. We’re not a funding organization, we’re a partnership organization. So when we work with people the philosophies have to align. But to answer your question, we are actively looking.

“Ortsbo and IZOD IndyCar Series Host Interactive Live & Global Fan Event With Championship Contenders Dario Franchitti and Will Power”

Source: PR Newswire | October 5, 2011 | by PR Newswire

INDIANAPOLIS and LAS VEGAS, Oct. 5, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — On the eve of the last race in the 2011 IZOD IndyCar Series, Championship Contenders Dario Franchitti and Will Power will chat with racing fans and members of the media worldwide about their season-long battle for the overall title during a live, video streaming and web chat hosted by INDYCAR and Ortsbo, the world’s leading real-time experiential language platform. Members of the media and fans who register at www.indycarliveandglobal.com will interact live with the drivers in up to 53 languages via Ortsbo’s Guinness World Record-holding platform, Live & Global (www.ortsbo.com / www.liveandglobal.com).

The chat will be broadcast in front of a live audience from the INDYCAR Fan Village at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, at 10 a.m. (PT) on Oct 15. The event will be hosted by 2011 Indianapolis 500 Champion Dan Wheldon. Wheldon also will field questions about the $5 million Go Daddy INDYCAR Challenge taking place during the IZOD INDYCAR World Championships Presented by Honda race on Sunday, October 16, when the 2011 IZOD IndyCar Series title will be decided between Franchitti and Power. Wheldon will be starting from the rear of the field of entries on race day and, if he wins the race, he and a lucky sweepstakes winner will split $5 million.

“INDYCAR and Ortsbo will be using the most unique and innovative technology yet developed to bring together three of the sports’ leading drivers with racing fans in every corner of the world,” said Greg Gruning, Vice President, Sales for INDYCAR. “Social media has evolved to a point where the latest, most advanced technology makes it possible to ask questions and talk with Franchitti, Power and Wheldon in advance of the Championship race in this special one-time experience. I can’t think of a better way for fans to get ready for one of the most anticipated races of the season.”

This Live & Global event is the latest in a series of INDYCAR events with Ortsbo, the Official Online Translation Partner for the IZOD IndyCar Series and Firestone Indy Lights. Ortsbo’s record-setting Live & Global event software has been used for previous events that featured rock legends Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley of KISS, two-time NBA MVP Steve Nash, and the legendary Andretti racing family.

With participants from more than 90 countries participating in previous Live & Global events, the Ortsbo cloud application, powered by Microsoft Windows Azure, holds the Guinness World Record for the most nationalities in an online event.

For more information on the IZOD INDYCAR World Championships, visit www.indycarworldchampionships.com

“Top 5 Trending Windows Phone 7 Apps This Week”

Source: MobileTopSoft | September 27, 2011 | by Veselin Nedeff

One2one
Ortsbo’s one2one is an easy but powerful tool that any traveler can’t be without. One2one allows you to have a one device conversation with someone seamlessly in over 50 languages. Ortsbo’s one2one translates your text inputs and allows you to communicate with the recipient in a free flowing style without the need for guides or other translation devices.

“LA Mobile Entertainment Summit® Announces Speakers and Sessions”

Source: Newsday | August 24, 2011 | by The Associated Press

LOS ANGELES & MILFORD, Conn. – –(BUSINESS WIRE)–Aug. 24, 2011– Unicomm, a leading event management company, and The Bob Dowling Group today announced speakers and sessions for the second annual LA Mobile Entertainment Summit®, presented by Ortsbo.com in association with Variety, scheduled for Tuesday-Wednesday, September 20-21, 2011 at the Hollywood & Highland Center, Hollywood, CA. Producers have additionally confirmed David Lucatch, President, Ortsbo.com, and Barry Cottle, EVP/GM, Electronic Arts Interactive, as featured speakers.

The LA Mobile Entertainment Summit is co-located with the 3D Entertainment Summit® and the 3D Gaming Summit: 3D Gaming and Beyond®, collectively taking place September 20-22, 2011. Together the three conferences comprise the most comprehensive array of experts, research and analysis covering the 3D and mobile entertainment sectors.

Attendees of the LA Mobile Entertainment Summit will gain practical insight into technology developments, market considerations, adoption rates, creative and production strategies, content aggregation, talent and licensing issues. The Summit is totally focused on the future of entertainment as it relates to the creation, distribution, monetization and consumption of content across myriad mobile platforms.

In addition to his role as President of Ortsbo.com, the world’s first real-time online and mobile translation platform, Mr. Lucatch is the primary founder and CEO of Intertainment Media (TSXV: INT / US: ITMTF / FRA: I4T). Intertainment Media is a rich media applications company focused on delivering leading edge technology and marketing solutions for enhanced branding, loyalty initiatives and consumer engagement. Mr. Lucatch has more than 25 years of experience developing business concepts and successfully taking them to market, holding senior management posts at both private and public media and technology firms.

“Though mobile content has seen explosive growth in recent years, the market for mobile connectivity, entertainment, commerce and related technologies remains in its infancy stages,” said Mr. Lucatch. “The LA Mobile Entertainment Summit brings together all of the important players in this mobile ecosystem, a market that is expected to remain on an upward trajectory as devices, content and enabling technologies continue to gain in sophistication.”

Mr. Cottle leads Electronic Arts Interactive, the leading global publisher of mobile, social and online games. Cottle has a long history of achievements in the mobile industry. Prior to EA, Cottle was founder and CEO of Quickoffice Inc, a spin-out of Palm, Inc, as COO. Before that he served as COO and Chief Internet Officer for the Mobile Content and Wireless Service business of Palm Computing Inc. After joining Palm as an Executive Officer to help lead Palm’s IPO, Cottle built and oversaw Palm’s wireless and Internet division and set the company’s worldwide strategic direction for mobile content and services. Prior to Palm, Cottle spent nine years with The Walt Disney Company, where he served as Senior Vice President of Marketing of Disney TeleVentures and CMO of Americast, the Disney division leading the $500M joint venture with SBC, Ameritech, GTE, BellSouth, and SNET to develop digital TV and broadband Internet applications and services. Cottle led Disney’s efforts in marketing, content development and distribution for innovative services such as video-on-demand, web-TV, and TV navigation.

“Mobile represents one of the most engaging and dynamic segments of the entertainment industry,” said Mr. Cottle. “As the world’s #1 mobile gaming leader, EA continues to execute in new growth areas bringing the most popular gaming franchises, along with new casual IP, that consumers can discover, play and share — anytime, anywhere.”

“We’re thrilled to have several top-caliber speakers on board for this year’s LA Mobile Entertainment Summit,” said John Golicz, CEO of Unicomm. “David and Barry have long track records of innovation and leadership in the broader mobile technology space, and combined with Gene Simmons, this year’s Summit speaker lineup promises to deliver a high-impact, provocative and compelling two days of content.”

Speakers at the LA Mobile Entertainment Summit will include:

Topics and Sessions will include:

Sponsors of LA Mobile Entertainment Summit® include: Ortsbo.com, as presenting sponsor; Blue Calypso, as official sponsor; Epic Marketplace, MocoSpace Inc., SRS Labs, Inc., thisMoment, Inc. and Jump!3D as sponsors; Adknowledge Super Rewards, Celtra, ChaCha, Ericsson Inc., Mobile Messaging Solutions (MMS), Screenreach Interactive, Trilibis Mobile, Waterfall Mobile Inc., BluFocus and xCubeLABS as supporters; Korea Trade-Investment-Promotion Agency and Korea Media & Content Market (KMCM) as event partners.

To register for the event or to receive a brochure on attendance, visit www.lamobilesummit.com or call 203-878-2577 x109. For more information on exhibiting and sponsor opportunities, visit the website or contact Rich Massella, Director, Mobile Entertainment Group at 203-713-1079 or rmassella@unicomm.org.

“Don’t Miss Live Global Chat on Ortsbo with the Andretti Racing Family on Saturday, August 27, 2011 at 9:00 am PT”

Source: Windows Azure | August 16, 2011 | by Windows Azure Team

Calling all race fans: Don’t miss the live chat, “Andretti Live & Global” on Ortsbo, powered by Windows Azure, with three generations of the legendary Andretti racing family – Mario, Michael and Marco – Saturday, August 27, 2011 at 9:00 am PT. During the live chat, fueled by Ortsbo’s Live & Global platform, the Andretti racing family will chat live with racing fans and media around the world in up to 53 languages.

A division of Intertainment Media, Ortsbo allows users around the world to communicate with family, friends and colleagues by enabling them to break down language and cultural barriers through an easy to use, language-centric interface.

Ortsbo’s new HTML alpha platform offers users the ability to connect to Facebook, MSN and Google Talk; other social networks will be added quickly. The HTML version of Ortsbo, combined with the power of Windows Azure, allows both commercial and consumer use of Ortsbo without the need to download a plug-in, facilitating real time translated chat for virtually all worldwide browser-enabled devices.

Presented by Andretti Autosport, together with INDYCAR and Ortsbo, the chat will be broadcast live to fans around the world from Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, Calif., which was the site of Marco Andretti’s first win.

Learn more and register.

“ENTERTAINMENT LEGEND GENE SIMMONS TO KEYNOTE”

Source: LA Mobile Entertainment Summit | July 11, 2011 | by LA Mobile Entertainment Summit in Association with Variety

(Los Angeles, CA and Milford, CT; July 11, 2011) — Unicomm, a leading event management company and The Bob Dowling Group today announced that media powerhouse Gene Simmons will headline its second annual LA Mobile Entertainment Summit®, in association with Variety, scheduled for Tuesday-Wednesday, September 20-21, 2011 at the Hollywood & Highland Center, Hollywood, CA.

“We couldn’t be more excited to have international entertainment legend, and serial entrepreneur Gene Simmons to keynote the LA Mobile Entertainment Summit”, said John Golicz, CEO of Unicomm. “Gene is definitely in a league of his own when it comes to creating, marketing and monetizing an international entertainment brand globally.”

A founding member of the iconic rock group KISS, Simmons shows no signs of slowing down these days. KISS has just added tour dates in Canada for this summer and he and his family are currently shooting a seventh season of A&E’s “Gene Simmons Family Jewels,” now the longest-running celebrity reality series on TV and exported to more than 80 countries. In addition, he continues to build upon a licensing and merchandising empire that includes movies, publishing, TV and, of course, music.

Described as the “ultimate deal maker”, Simmons recently signed on as a business partner and spokesperson for Intertainment Media’s Ortsbo – a real-time filter for translating 53 different languages across 12 leading social media platforms. This summer the company is scheduled to deploy mobile apps in conjunction with extending its software across instant messaging, e-mail and RSS. According to Simmons, “Any pop culture entity has to be worldwide”.

The 2nd Annual LA Mobile Entertainment Summit will host the brightest minds in mobile technology, interactive media and entertainment to examine how content and rapidly evolving technology is dramatically changing the entertainment marketplace. The event is all about connecting the ecosystem among digital assets, original content and mobile platforms. In its latest report on the mobile entertainment market, Juniper Research predicts that revenues will rise from $33 billion last year to $54 billion in 2015.

Sponsors of LA Mobile Entertainment Summit inlcude: Blue Calypso, as official sponsor; Epic Marketplace, MocoSpace Inc., SRS Labs Inc., and thisMoment, Inc. as sponsors; Adknowledge Super Rewards, Celtra, Ericsson Inc., Mobile Messaging Solutions (MMS), Screenreach Interactive, Trilibis Mobile, Waterfall Mobile Inc. and xCubeLABS as supporters; Korea Creative Content Agency (KOCCA USA)/Kotra as event partner.

Throughout two days of in-depth discussions, industry luminaries from studios, television, content providers, startups, brands, manufacturers, media outlets and technology companies will join leading market analysts to share best practices and provide a unique and thorough understanding of the exploding intersection of the mobile and entertainment worlds.

To register, or to request a complete event brochure, please visit www.lamobilesummit.com or call 203-878-2577 x109.

For more information about speaking submissions, exhibiting, and sponsor opportunities, please visit: www.lamobilesummit.com or contact Rich Massella, Sales Director, Mobile Entertainment Group at 203-713-1079 or rmassella@unicomm.org.

“South Bronx United Attend Steve Nash’s Showdown in Chinatown”

Source: Bleacher Report | June 24, 2011 | by Cesar Diaz

Chinatown, NY – On Wednesday, June 22, 2011, the Steve Nash Foundation hosted their fourth Annual “Showdown in Chinatown” 8 v 8 soccer match at the Sarah D. Roosevelt Park located at Chrystie St. & Staton St.

Presented by Ortsbo.com, this year’s Showdown in Chinatown event featured an All-Star roster that raised funds for The Steve Nash Foundation and its work with underserved children. In addition, monies raised from this fundraiser will benefit early education work with Educare.

Players from the both soccer and the NBA in the match included Demba Ba (Newcastle United), Giuseppe Rossi (Villareal CF), Leandro Barbosa (Phoenix Suns), Jared Dudley (Phoenix Suns), Marcin Gortat (Phoenix Suns), Grant Hill (Phoenix Suns), Brandon Jennings (Milwaukee Bucks), Tony Parker (San Antonio Spurs), Claudio Reyna (Retired-US Soccer) and Simone Sandri (NBA TV Analyst).

While many in the media were taking photos and interviewing Wednesday’s participants, I noticed a group of adolescents wearing their South Bronx United Soccer Club jerseys. As the herd of media rushed to one side, I went and briefly spoke with South Bronx United Soccer Club’s Executive Director Andrew So.

I had met Andrew’s staff of volunteers and have remained in contact with some of them since Women’s World Cup Legend Brianna Scurry conducted her clinic at the Macombs Dam Park. I thought it was fantastic that they had the opportunity to watch the game inside while a sea of fans was watching from the outside of the four-sided chain link fence.

While the score is important to follow, I’m also interested in the impact this beautiful game has locally and globally in our communities. One thing I’ve learned as a sports fan and now a sportswriter is that players come and go, but global issues and dreams remain.

In addition to following the game, I make it a point to look behind stats and scores. Wednesday’s event served as a reminder why I love this beautiful game.

Based in the Bronx, N.Y., South Bronx United Soccer Club’s mission is to use soccer as a vehicle for social change while helping youth build character, teamwork and leadership skills. South Bronx United soccer programs promote educational achievement, health and wellness and character development, while also training youth to develop soccer and athletic skills appropriate to their ages, abilities and interests.

For the summer, South Bronx United has a “Summer Soccer Scholars” program where they will be serving over 60 South Bronx middle and high school youth. By combining fitness and soccer training, these participants will also be part of an educational component which will enhance their academic achievements in the future.

This program is a five-day program from July 18th – August 11th, Monday – Friday from 9:00 AM – 3:00 PM. Held at the Urban Assembly School for Careers in Sports located at 730 Concourse Village West in the Bronx, these participants are witnessing that there are volunteers who are willing to invest their time and make a commitment towards their future.

Photograph courtesy of South Bronx United. From what I’ve observed from South Bronx United, they have a passionate staff of volunteers who are also realistic in running their nonprofit and creating outcomes which are achievable for their participants. Having worked in the nonprofit sector for many years, I can easily recognize an excellent nonprofit, and South Bronx United is one of them.

While they’ve been able to hold their own, they still need our help. While I’m unable to commit the time to coach, I’ve agreed to cover any event they have under the condition that I’m given enough notice.

For more information on how you can become involved, go to their website and Facebook.

Oh yeah, Steve Nash’s team defeated Claudio Reyna’s team 15-10.

“Recap: Showdown in Chinatown 2011″

Source: Bowery Boogie | June 23, 2011 | by Andrew Cohen

The 4th annual Showdown in Chinatown was held last night at the Sara D. Roosevelt Park in the heart of the Lower East Side. The event, presented this year by Ortsbo, benefited the Steve Nash Foundation, which provides under-served children with medical support, education, and personal development.

Nash, along with several current and former Phoenix Sun’s teammates and fellow NBA players such as Marcin Gortat, Grant Hill, Leandro Barbosa, Raja Bell, Brandon Jennings, Tony Parker and Jared Dudley, participated in this exhibition match with a handful of international soccer stars (i.e. Claudio Reyna, Demba Ba). As in the past, bleachers were erected outside the Rivington field and fans stood 3 deep, under threatening skies (which eventually opened up) to catch a glimpse of their favorite athletes. “I want to thank all you guys for coming. You guys are what make this great,” said Nash to a loud ovation.

At the event Nash touched on a number of different topics, ranging from a potential lockout in the NBA and trade rumors, to his foundation and how he came up with the idea of having a soccer match not far from his summer home.

Nash said he conceived the Showdown idea after speaking with a friend of his. “A good friend of mine and I were talking, we have a lot of friends that play soccer internationally and we thought we could do a great event for my foundation,” said Nash. “The atmosphere would be amazing if we can bring international players, basketball and soccer, to play for fans in this neighborhood,” added Nash.

When asked how happy he was for his former teammate Dirk Nowitzki winning that elusive ring, Nash said “incredibly happy. He is a phenomenal player. He is one of the great players in our game. Sometimes he is under-appreciated because he doesn’t do a lot of media stuff. He stuck with his team for 13 years, had a lot of ups and downs, got close before and finally pushed through,” said Nash. “So you can only be happy for him.”

As for rumors that Nash, who has one year left on his contract might be on the trading block, he said “I expect to be back in Phoenix. I am not worried about it at all. There is always a chance something could happen in the NBA. You see it in the NBA all the time,” said Nash. “If something happens, something happens. But I’m confident I will be back in Phoenix,” added Nash.

On a potential NBA lockout Nash said “obviously it would be disappointing to have a lockout. We all have a good thing going. We have a lot of fans. We have a lot of business and an exciting product and unfortunately that’s business.” Nash added “we have to come to an agreement at some point. I have faith and confidence we’ll get there.”

Back on the subject of the annual Showdown in Chinatown, Nash said he has several goals in mind. “To put on a great show, to give this neighborhood something to get excited about and even more importantly to raise money for the children through his foundation.”

From the excitement of the crowd and the enthusiasm of the youngsters on the field, it looks like he accomplished everything he set out to.

“Chatting Online with Stars”

Source: The Windsor Star | June 23, 2011 | by Bob Duff

For me, it was Johnny Bower.

My childhood hero.

Growing up in suburban Toronto as a young netminder, Bower, goaltender for the Toronto Maple Leafs, was a celebrity.

I’d been to Maple Leaf Gardens to see him play, even went to the Leafs’ open practice one year to catch another glimpse of him.

The thought that I’d ever get the opportunity to talk to him was a dream, but as a reality, a remote possibility.

That was then.

This is now.

Wednesday, people from across the planet were afforded the chance to talk to a legendary Canadian athlete, Phoenix Suns guard Steve Nash.

Nash, of Victoria, B.C., was among a number of prominent sports stars who participated in the Showdown in Chinatown video live chat, billed as the world’s largest real-time interactive conversation.

And it was Ortsbo, a Toronto-based company whose slogan is “Everyone Is Local,” that created the software to make all of this possible.

Also participating were Marcin Gortat, Nash’s Phoenix teammate from Poland, former U.S. World Cup soccer player Claudio Reyna and Brandon Jennings of the Milwaukee Bucks.

Four world-class athletes, ready and willing to answer your questions. And it didn’t matter in what language those questions would be posed. Ortsbo’s technology is capable of translating 54 languages.

So you could ask Nash a question in Afrikaan, he’d read it in English, then the answer, as well as all other questions and answers from the chat, would appear to the questioner in their native tongue.

Capable of integration with 13 major social-media platforms, it’s just another step forward in technology that’s giving everyday people access to their idols that no other generation would have ever dreamed possible.

Canadian Floyd Porter got the ball rolling, wondering of Nash who was the toughest competitor he’d faced as an NBA player. Michael Jordan was Nash’s response.

“He was incredible,” Nash said. “He had a fire, but also he intimidated a lot of people in a way I’ve never seen anyone else do.”

Later, Nash acknowledged to a query from Belize that his own childhood hero was former Detroit Pistons guard Isiah Thomas, describing Thomas as, “an unrealistic athlete.”

Cirsty Bifna from Saudi Arabia posed the question that’s on the mind of most Canadian basketball fans. Could Nash ever see himself in a Toronto Raptors jersey?

“I don’t know, that’s a tough question for me,” Nash said.

“When you’re in a situation like I am, I feel a loyalty to my community in Phoenix.

“I want us to compete for a championship. If the opportunity were ever there, Toronto would be an amazing place to play.”

The inquisitors pulled no punches. Some would make fine journalists.

Canadian Ryan Matches asked Jennings how he would attack Nash defensively.

“One-on-one with Steve Nash, would you take him to the hoop, or opt for the outside jump shot?” Matches wondered.

“Take him right to the hoop,” Jennings responded.

Gortat confirmed to someone from his homeland that should there be an NBA lockout next season, he would definitely play in the Polish League.

Maria Vincent from France queried Nash about what it felt like to light the Olympic torch at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Games.

“Probably the greatest moment of my sports career,” Nash said.

The athletes made themselves available for over an hour, fielding questions from a dozen different countries.

In the past, encountering someone’s hero generally came from a fluke, chance meeting, or waiting forever in line at some autograph appearance.

Today, if you desire to speak to someone famous, chances are that chance will come.

Read more: http://www.windsorstar.com/sports/Chatting+online+with+stars/4991366/story.html#ixzz1QE5mF2IE

“Chinatown Soccer Showdown”

Source: Youtube | June 23, 2011 | by NYPost

Check out the video! Great footage of us speaking to Steve Nash and the soccer game!

“Ortsbo Presents Steve Nash’s ‘Showdown in Chinatown’”

Source: Cippin On Sports | June 22, 2011 | by Chris C

Steve Nash and fellow NBA and International Soccer athletes will be part of a live, online global chat on Wednesday, June 22 at 11 a.m. for a live at the Hudson Room at Trump Soho Hotel in New York, N.Y sponsored by Ortsbo.com, a subsidiary of Intertainment Media Inc.

For the first time in history, fans from all over the world who pre-registered at Ortsbo.com will have the opportunity to interact with Steve Nash and other professional athletes scheduled to participate, including Guiseppe Rossi, Marcin Gortat, Brandon Jennings and Claudio Reyna.

Ortsbo, the presenting sponsor for the day’s events, will enable Nash and other Showdown athletes to interact seamlessly with fans in more than 50 languages through their social media platforms. Four time Emmy winner and legendary NBC sports anchor Len Berman will serve as host and moderate the worldwide chat.

The free, real-time experiential translation platform integrates with 13 of the most popular social media platforms, including Windows Live Messenger, Facebook, Google Talk, Yahoo! Messenger, iChat and AIM to allow users to instantly send and receive messages in their native language.

“Fans all over the world who have followed the NBA and Steve Nash’s amazing career will be able to talk to him in a way that few can,” says David Lucatch, president of Ortsbo. “Ortsbo not only breaks down barriers, but translates text automatically, eliminating the typically tedious and inefficient translation process of other services.”

Later that day at 6 p.m. will be the fourth “Showdown in Chinatown Presented by Ortsbo.com.”The event will take place at Sara D. Roosevelt Park, Chrystie and Stanton streets in New York City. It will raise funds for The Steve Nash Foundation and its work with underserved children. The proceeds will benefit early education work with Educare.

The Showdown and surrounding events “mesh three of my big passions – basketball, soccer and kids – and a presenting sponsor with an incredible, global play,” said Nash. “Through my Foundation, we’re able to assist children internationally; so having these players come in from all around the world to assist our efforts feels very synergistic.”

Tickets and VIP packages for the Showdown, and a Showdown After Hours evening and auction event, are available at stevenash.org/showdown. General admission to the Showdown is free and open to the public.

About Ortsbo

Selected as a Microsoft Global Agency Initiative partner, Intertainment has joined an elite group of interactive agencies worldwide that Microsoft recommends to its Partners and Customers.

Ortsbo’s flagship product for social media (www.ortsbo.com) supports global communications with instant translation capability, real time multi-lingual social media chat connects to PC and Mac computers, mobile browsers as well as all major search engine chat platforms including Microsoft, Google and Yahoo! along with Facebook, iChat, AIM, ICQ, Gadu-Gadu, Ovi, Lotus Sametime, LiveJournal and Tencent QQ and QQ International, China’s largest chat platforms and Twitter.

Intertainment Media owns and operates a number of key properties including Ad Taffy, itiBiti, Ortsbo and Magnum. For more information on the Company and its properties, please visit www.intertainmentmedia.com.

Headquartered in the Toronto, Canada region, with offices in New York, Los Angeles and San Mateo, CA, Intertainment Media Inc. is listed on the Toronto Venture Exchange under the symbol “INT” (TSX VENTURE:INT) and on the OTCQX under the symbol “ITMTF”. Intertainment is also traded in Europe, on the XETRA Exchange in Frankfurt, Germany under the symbol “I4T”.

“Steve Nash Helps Introduce Ortsbo to the World”

Source: The Epoch News | June 22, 2011 | by Kristen Meriwether

Nash was joined by fellow Phoenix Suns player Marcin Gortat, Milwaukee Bucks guard Brandon Jennings, and retired U.S. soccer player Claudio Reyna. The athletes were asked a variety of questions from the media in the room, as well as from participants from all over the world.

The questions ranged from light topics such as music preference, to serious issues such as the impending NBA lockout. Nash commented that during negotiations, “No one wants to give in first. Hopefully we can get things resolved in eight days.” The NBA may join the list of professional U.S. sports in a lockout if a new collective bargaining agreement cannot be reached by June 30.

Ortsbo to Break Language Barrier

Steve Nash takes questions at the Ortsbo introduction. (Kristen Meriwether/The Epoch Times) Ortsbo was founded based on the need to have a faster medium for online translation of conversations. President of Ortsbo, David Lucatch, said, “We felt that the last barrier to global communication was language. So Ortsbo was born.”

According to their website, Ortsbo “enables real-time conversational translation.” The newest social media platform boasts 54 languages with plans to expand to over 80 very soon.

“We think that by adding more languages, we are going to make the world smaller.” Lucatch expressed interest in expanding to India based on the large population and diverse languages spoken.

The service is currently offered in China, but only in simplified Chinese. When asked about how he felt media censorships in China would affect the use of Ortsbo, Lucatch said it would not be affected. “We are a conduit, a facilitator. We don’t get involved in the conversation, we just help facilitate it.”

Ortsbo can be used in a personal setting, such as talking with a friend overseas, or in a business setting to help translate conversation between clients.

On the horizon for Ortsbo is translating tweets, and having a dictionary function that will translate slang phrases.

“Steve Nash To Host Annual “Showdown in Chinatown”

Source: Dime Magazine | June 22, 2011 | by Rachel Marcus

Steve Nash will host his fourth “Showdown in Chinatown” today, a charity soccer match that raises funds for Nash’s seven-year-old foundation. The money will benefit early education.

The match, which will be held at the Sara D. Roosevelt Park, will feature not just soccer players but NBA players such as Nash, Brandon Jennings and Marcin Gortat.
For Nash, helping children with his charity is something that he has always felt compelled to do.

“It’s always struck a chord with me,” Nash said in a press conference this morning while promoting the event.

Nash spoke about the event at the Trump Soho Hotel along with Jennings, Gortat and U.S. soccer player Claudio Reyna. Topics from Michael Jordan to Michael Jackson were covered, along with Jenning’s music taste (R&B and hip-hop) and Gortat’s admiration of Shaquille O’Neal.

Although much of the conversation centered on soccer and its growth in the United States, the potential lockout was also discussed.

The best advice on the lockout that Jennings got? “Save your money,” he said with a smile.

Most of the conversation, though, was dominated by Nash, the clear star of the event. He talked about his relationship with match sponsor Ortsbo, the company that translates languages online. He also discussed the possibility of one day joining the Raptors — he’s from Canada — but then continued to state his desire to continue working towards a title with the Suns.

And with the NBA Draft on Thursday, the most interesting tidbit Nash offered about draft day was his memory of his bad suit on draft night.

Other topics covered included Nash’s fascination with lighting the Olympic torch in Vancouver last year, Jenning’s experience playing in Italy before the NBA and Gortat’s childhood dream of being a goalie in soccer.

The players answered not only questions from the New York media, but also questions that were translated in a global chat by Ortsbo.

Nash and co. will kick off tonight’s game at 6 p.m. ET. The match is open to the public.

“Steve Nash and Ortsbo Team up For Showdown in Chinatown”

Source: Hey Do You | June 22, 2011 | by Yvonne

Today is Showdown in Chinatown featuring Steve Nash brought to you by Ortsbo!

Showdown in Chinatown has taken place in New York City for the past 3 years at Sarah D. Roosevelt Park. This year, it is taking place tonight, Wednesday June 22 starting at 6pm at Sarah D. Roosevelt Park. It is a soccer game that includes athletes from the NBA and MLS. For instance, past rosters have included Chris Bosh from the Miami Heat, Tony Parker of the Spurs and Grant Hill of the Phoenix Suns. The Steve Nash Foundation brings this special event to us for our entertainment, seeing NBA and MLS stars compete for charity. Steve Nash of the Phoenix Suns is their point guard and a 7x NBA All-Star. He is the founder of The Steve Nash Foundation.

Steve Nash Foundation: It’s a registered Canadian charity that is dedicated to assisting underserved children in their health, personal development, education and enjoyment of life. The foundation works to increase access to critical needs resources at home and abroad to ensure that every child has a chance to grow. Learn more at www.stevenash.org. Showdown in Chinatown benefits Educare Arizona, the Steve Nash Foundation’s platform to provide highest-quality early learning opportunities to low-income children and families.

Ortsbo: This is an online real-time conversational translation in over 50 languages. Ortsbo connects all the platforms of social media into one and is focused on leading-edge technology. It will allow fans from all over the world (yes, the world) to participate in the press conference taking place this morning from 11am-noon EST. Ortsbo will host the NBA Star, Steve Nash and fellow NBA and International Soccer athletes today for a live, online global chat event in the Hudson Room at the Trump Soho Hotel in New York City.

To participate in the press conference, please register here: www.Showdownliveandglobal.com

REMINDER:

Showdown in Chinatown is free admission, first-come, first-serve basis TONIGHT at 6pm at the Sarah D. Roosevelt Park (Chrystie St. and Stanton St.)

“Basketball Meets Soccer in Chinatown: Kicking For a Cause”

Source: Total Footblog | June 21, 2011 | by Dobens

What are you doing on Wednesday, June 22? If you are a soccer fan in North America, you’ll be watching the 2011 CONCACAF Gold Cup semifinals at 6:30 & 10:00 PM Eastern. The US are looking to avenge their group stage loss against Panama while Mexico are looking forward to another scrimmage – this time against Honduras – before the final.

But if you are in New York City and don’t mind watching the games later (be sure to add ample time to your TiVo or DVR, in case the US match goes into extra time), then head down to Chinatown after work. You’ll get to see some soccer stars and basketball players having a kick-around for charity.

Showdown in Chinatown
Yes, it’s the 4th-annual Showdown in Chinatown, sponsored by Ortsbo. NBA star Steve Nash has invited Demba Ba, the Senegalese striker who just signed with Newcastle after netting seven goals in 12 games for West Ham this spring, along with old friend Claudio Reyna, a US soccer legend. There are bound to be other soccer stars, as past games have included Jozy Altidore, Juan Pablo Angel, Ryan Babel, Gregg Berhalter, Ivan Cordoba, Edgar Davids, Youri Djorkaeff, Mathieu Flamini, Robbie Fowler, Thierry Henry, Salomon Kalou, Steve McManaman, Adrian Mutu, Giuseppe Rossi, Giovanni Savarese, and Javier Zanetti. From the hoops world, Nash has lured the likes of Grant Hill and Tony Parker for the match. As with the footballers, there will be plenty of additional surprises for the fans.

The charity match kicks off at 6:00 PM in Sara D. Roosevelt Park, at the corner of Chrystie & Stanton Streets in Chinatown. It’s free to watch, but there is limited seating, so get their early. It should be entertaining to see the “handers” playing a “no-hands” sport. Plus it’s for a great cause. The funds raised will benefit Educare Arizona, a non-profit that provides educational opportunities and healthcare access for young children in need.

But wait, if it’s free to watch the game, how can you help them raise money? Well, you could make a donation, just to say thanks for an entertaining evening of footie. But if you visit the Showdown in Chinatown Web site, you will see that there are many ways you can contribute. You can purchase special VIP passes to the game, with preferred seating. You can buy packages that actually put you on the field at halftime, giving you a chance to score against one of the stars. You can even pick up some Down in Town gear. But all the cool kids will be rubbing elbows with the players at the after-hours party and auction.

Steve Nash is a basketball player. That’s the round-ball game where they only use their hands. But Nash is not just any basketball player. He’s a two-time NBA MVP with the Phoenix Suns, which means he’s one of the best in the game but has to wear a hideous jersey when playing.

Off the court, Nash has been honored for his tireless dedication to charitable causes, including the Steve Nash Foundation, which he established in 2001 to support initiatives that improve the lives of underprivileged children. Time named Nash one of the 100 most influential people in the world. He has also received the Order of Canada, the nation’s highest civilian honor, which I believe consists of a life-sized bronzed beaver mounted on a hand-carved maple stump.

Despite all his success, happiness has alluded Steve Nash. Secretly he harbors a desire that has yet to be fulfilled. Deep down, Steve Nash wants to be a soccer player.

Born in South Africa to a Welsh mother and English father, Nash relocated to Western Canada when he was still a toddler. He grew up playing soccer, along with his younger brother, Martin, who used to play for the Vancouver Whitecaps. Nash has invested in the Whitecaps, helping them join Major League Soccer, and has also supported Women’s Professional Soccer. Like his father, he is a Spurs fan.

Having seen Nash in action at the inaugural NYFEST, the guy has skills – especially for a 37 year-old. So if you plan on doing a little wagering on the Down in Town match, you’d be wise to favor Steve Nash’s side. Not only can he hold his own with his feet, but the man is a winner – on the court, on the pitch, and pretty much everywhere else.

“Steve Nash’s Soccer Game Gets Innovative Sponsor”

Source: CNBC | June 21, 2011 | by Darren Rovell

Every year, for the last three years, Steve Nash has held a soccer match in New York City and invited his basketball playing and pro soccer friends. Later that night, the group gathers for a party that benefits his foundation.

The game is different not only because it’s a chance to see Nash, Tony Parker and Brandon Jennings play soccer, along with former USA World Cup team captain Claudio Reyna and Giuseppe Rossi of Villareal CF and the Italian National Team, but also because it is played “Rucker Park style” in Chinatown.

The event, which takes place at 6 p.m. ET tomorrow, caught my eye this year because of its sponsor, Ortsbo, an experiential translation service that provides an instant chat translator in over 50 languages.

At 11 a.m. tomorrow, those that register on the Web site can participate in a chat with Nash and that chat immediately will be translated in whatever language the participant wants to see it. It’s a great attention-getter for a company looking to put itself on the map.

“The world is getting smaller and smaller and what Ortsbo offers is another step in the direction we’re going in,” Nash said.

The company plans on licensing out software that instantaneously translates emails from one language to another and is working on a full commercial suite of translating services for corporations. Ortsbo CEO David Lucatch says the event with Nash, who is a spokesman along with Gene Simmons of KISS, helps tout the brand’s capabilities.

“Someone can ask a question in Spanish and it can be translated immediately into English,” Lucatch said. “The answer could be typed in English and received back in Portuguese.”

“When the Internet first came about, almost everyone who was using it spoke English,” Lucatch said. “Now only one out of every four speak English.”

Nash said next year he wants to broadcast the soccer game. It was packaged and fully produced two years ago, but never made it onto a network.

Said Nash: “I have a feeling we’ll do YouTube next year.”

“Ortsbo Offering Cloud Computing Real Time Translation Application on Microsoft Windows Azure Platform”

Source: TMCnet | June 01, 2011 | by Madhubanti Rudra

A division of Intertainment Media Inc., Ortsbo announced that its world famous real time translation application is moving to cloud to support viral growth. Built on the Microsoft Windows Azure platform, Ortsbo’s new HTML alpha platform will allow the users to connect initially to Facebook, MSN and Google GTalk. Other social networks will be implemented quickly on the new platform, the company said in a press release.

According to the press release, the new platform has been launched ahead of schedule.

The company further claimed that the imitative has been launched at a time, when Google decided to close down of its popular Translate application programming interface.

In the release, Ortsbo explained that unlike traditional capital expense model, the operating expense model resulting from the move to Windows Azure will provide Ortsbo with increased user capacity, speed and performance. This ultimately will help the users to achieve significant cost saving.

The HTML version of Ortsbo which enables real time translated chat to virtually all worldwide browser enabled devices is aimed at both commercial and individual consumers. The users will not require to download a plug- in..

Currently Ortsbo is developing its new platform, Ortsbo 2.0 to offer increased language capabilities. The new platform, scheduled for beta release in calendar Q4 2011 is designed to allow users to chat in real time in over 80 languages. Punjabi and Traditional Chinese have been included in this list as user requested languages.

Microsoft Silverlight based original version of Ortsbo, which supports 12 of the world’s most popular chat networks will remain in operation for the near future.

Ortsbo was initially launched in July 2010, Ortsbo’s social media translation platform infrastructure was designed to handle 12 Million monthly users in the first two/ three years operations. According to the company, the existing platform has touched 16.1 Million users mark and this forced Ortsbo to accelerate the initial launch of the Microsoft Azure Cloud Computing Platform planned for mid June. As Ortsbo integrates the new cloud app, performance numbers will be reported monthly, the company said in the release.

Earlier this month Intertainment announced that its social media, real time, language translation platform, Ortsbo.com has entered into an agreement with two-time NBA MVP Steve Nash to become an official spokesperson for Ortsbo.

“KISS Set Guinness World Record for Most Nationalities in a Chat Room”

Source: Noisecreep | May 24, 2011 | by Chris Epiting

Leave it to KISS legend Gene Simmons to spearhead a cutting-edge venture that breaks down walls and brings people together. Last week in Los Angeles, Simmons and Paul Stanley took part in an event that set a Guinness world record while helping to create unity and communication between people in over 100 countries.

The event, called Kiss Live and Global, was presented and hosted by Ortsbo, the real-time social media language translation platform. Simmons also serves as an Ortsbo business partner and spokesperson.

Fans from all over the world who pre-registered at Ortsbo.com had the opportunity to interact with Simmons and Stanley in their native languages via a chat room. Questions and answers were instantly translated to and from up to 53 languages, allowing participants from all over the world to understand the entire event in their native tongues.

A ballroom at the Beverly Hills Hotel was transformed into a nightclub as Simmons and Stanley sat on stage by a computer, surrounded by KISS artifacts including guitars, a motorcycle, even the famed KISS Kasket.

Simmons manned the computer keyboard, demonstrating some truly impressive typing skills. The pair answered questions from around the world, dutifully talking up the Ortsbo technology and marveling at the power of being able to create a “one world” language on line.

Questions came in from over 100 countries and were translated into English for Simmons and Stanley, whose responses were then translated back into the native language of each chat participant.

The chat set an official Guinness World Record for Most Nationalities In An Online Chat Room, and a post-show ceremony was held in front of the small stage.

Gene Simmons told Noisecreep that Ortsbo is playing an important part in social history right now. “The Ortsbo technology is helping the world to come together. It’s unifying planet Earth as we speak. Think about it. It’s like a miracle. With what is happening in the Arab world today, now citizens can use Ortsbo to directly communicate with the world in their own language. It’s the ultimate tool. Dictators can’t stop it — nothing can stop it.”

Simmons added that technology plays a big part in his life, but it has to make sense.
“Technology can help, but you have to prioritize,” he said. “When people call or text each other and say, ‘What are you doing, nothing? Me either. I’m doing nothing,” then that’s a total waste of time and technology. You have to make it make sense.”

Simmons also told Noisecreep that his daughter is doing fine after her recent car accident. “She was smart. She got the other person on video admitting it was their fault. Again, technology in action. Insurance companies have to love it.”

Ortsbo CEO David Lucatch loves having Simmons aboard. “KISS is one of the largest global brands on the planet, and so who better to help break down language barriers around the world?” he told Noisecreep. “Gene in particular is so brilliant when it comes to communicating the heart and soul of a brand, so we have no doubt he’ll be a big part in taking Ortsbo to the next level.” Lucatch added that he has other celebrity events planned throughout the year to generate awareness, including one in June with NBA superstar Steve Nash.

As a partner in Ortsbo, Simmons says the company reminds him a bit of his band. “The core of KISS has always been to connect with fans on many levels. What Ortsbo does is the ultimate in connections: it makes it possible for all of us, instantly, to relate to each other in our own languages. It goes beyond just connecting fans. It’s good for the world. Think of what it does for the military, even for the U.N. — there’s no more need for translators. It’s astonishing.”

“Intertainment’s Ortsbo Real Time Translator Establishes Guinness World Record at KISS Live & Global”

Source: MSNBC | May 24, 2011 | by MSNBC

NEW YORK, NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA and SAN MATEO, CALIFORNIA and TORONTO, CANADA — Intertainment Media Inc. (“Intertainment” or the “Company”) (TSX VENTURE: INT)(OTCQX: ITMTF)(FRANKFURT: I4T) announces that its social media, real time, language translation platform, Ortsbo.com (www.ortsbo.com), with over 16.1 Million Unique Monthly Users, month over month, established a Guinness World Record on Friday, May 20, 2011 for the Most Nationalities In An Online Chat – with 92 countries officially being recorded as participating at KISS Live & Global, hosted by Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons. The event also marked the official launch of Ortsbo’s plug-in email translation platform for Microsoft Outlook, the world’s largest email platform.

Broadcast around the world from the Beverly Hills Hotel in Beverly Hills, CA, participants were able to watch a live video stream on their computers, iPhone, iPad, Android devices as well as submitting questions in 53 languages for KISS co-founders to answer. Thousands of questions were in the queue throughout the broadcast, allowing participants from over 92 countries, representing every geographic region globally to ask questions of the legendary rock stars.

“In addition to establishing a world record, Ortsbo has become a name known around the world as the leader in real time translation,” said David Lucatch, President of Ortsbo and CEO Intertainment Media. “We have already received follow up business opportunities, media requests and advertising inquiries increasing the value opportunities for Ortsbo.”

The event was covered by media around the world, including CBS, FOX, AOL and a wrap-up live broadcast interview with CNBC. Copies of all media, as it’s available, will be posted on the Intertainment and Ortsbo web sites.

During the event, Ortsbo announced the launch of its much anticipated email platform plug-in, allowing users to instantly translate and send emails in 53 languages. The first plug-in for Microsoft Outlook, known as Ortsbo for Outlook, or “O4O”, is now available for registration at www.ortsbo.com. Ortsbo will initially make up to 10 Million copies of O4O available globally to consumers and businesses on an introductory basis from mid June through mid September 2011.

With the launch of O4O, ORTSBO CRUISE INTO TRANSLATION is a new promotion that gives users who register and install O4O through August 2011, the opportunity to win 1 of 5 trips on the KISS KRUISE in October as well as other VIP prizes. Additional contest ballots will be available for people who refer friends that register and install O4O.

Ortsbo’s flagship product for social media continues to accelerate. When initially launched in July 2010, Ortsbo’s social media translation platform infrastructure was designed to handle the expected first 2 to 3 years of operations or 12 Million monthly users.

Ortsbo has exceeded all growth projections in its first 9 months and has maximized existing platform capabilities and consequently the Company is now accelerating its move to Microsoft’s Window Azure Cloud platform to accommodate the continued viral growth of Ortsbo.

The new Ortsbo Azure platform is expected to be active by mid June as the priority for Azure development has been the KISS Live and Global event technology. This transition will provide virtually unlimited access to Ortsbo from anywhere in the world on almost any computer, smartphone or tablet device.

To become a Facebook Fan of Ortsbo, sign up at www.facebook.com/ortsbo

Follow Ortsbo on Twitter

To review Ortsbo’s weekly performance metrics and the Company’s corporate blog, please visit www.intertainmentmedia.com/blog

About Ortsbo Inc. www.ortsbo.com

Ortsbo (www.ortsbo.com) enables real-time conversational translation in over 50 languages and seamlessly integrates with today’s most popular social media platforms.

Ortsbo Inc. is a division of Intertainment Media Inc., a Rich Media Applications leader, focused on delivering leading edge technology and marketing solutions enabling clients to power enhanced branding, loyalty initiatives and consumer engagement. Selected as a Microsoft Global Agency Initiative partner, Intertainment has joined an elite group of interactive agencies worldwide that Microsoft recommends to its Partners and Customers.

Ortsbo allows users to communicate with family, friends and colleagues around the world, providing users with the ability to break down language and cultural barriers through its easy to use, language centric interface. User demographics have continued to favor the BRIC countries with China remaining the number 1 usage country for Ortsbo followed by Brazil, the US, South Korea, Canada, Taiwan, Germany, Argentina, Russia and India. Ortsbo’s Top 10 user countries have a combined population of over 3.4 Billion people.

International rock legend, accomplished global entrepreneur and one of the world’s most recognized personalities, Gene Simmons has endorsed Ortsbo.com, having signed on as a business partner and to serve as Ortsbo’s official spokesperson.

The personification of today’s globally connected, multi-cultural citizen, Simmons is fluent in five languages, including English, Hebrew, Hungarian, and German, as well as some Japanese and he’s working to add Mandarin to his repertoire. Simmons will lend his legendary personality to help spread the word about Ortsbo’s unique, translator experience platform that integrates seamlessly with the most popular social media platforms to enable users from around the world to instantly send and receive messages in their native language.

Headquartered in the Toronto, Canada region, with offices in New York, Los Angeles and San Mateo, CA, Intertainment Media Inc. is listed on the Toronto Venture Exchange under the symbol “INT” (TSX VENTURE: INT) and in the US under the symbol “ITMTF”. Intertainment is also traded in Europe, on the Frankfurt Exchange under the symbol “I4T”.

This news release may contain certain forward-looking information. All statements included herein, other than statements of historical fact, is forward-looking information and such information involves various risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate, and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such information. A description of assumptions used to develop such forward looking information and a description of risk factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from forward-looking information can be found in the company’s disclosure documents on the SEDAR website at www.sedar.com. The company does not undertake to update any forward-looking information except in accordance with applicable securities laws.

This release may contain forward looking statements within the meaning of the “safe harbor” provisions of US laws. These statements are based on management’s current expectations and beliefs and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward looking statements. Intertainment Media Inc. does not assume any obligation to update any forward looking information contained in this news release.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

“KISS Chat World Record”

Source: Kissopolis | May 24, 2011 | by Kissopolis

Video of Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley accepting the Guinness World Record!

“「ＫＩＳＳ」シモンズさんの新規事業が最先端”

Source: Yucasee Media | May 23, 2011 | by Yucasee Media

米人気ロックバンド「ＫＩＳＳ」のベーシスト、ジーン・シモンズさん（61　Gene Simmons）が、ソーシャルメディアを52カ国語に翻訳するシステム「Ｏｒｔｓｂｏ」を開発する新しいベンチャーを起こしたことがわかった。

シモンズさんは先日、ＣＮＢＣに出演し、翻訳システムについて「ソーシャルメディアを即座に翻訳される上に、おまけに無料なんだ。ありとあらゆる言語、スワヒリ語だってできるぞ。大きなバリアーになる言語の壁を、これで破ることができるようになるんだ」と自画自賛した。

シモンズさんは、また富裕層顧客を対象にした保険会社「クール・スプリング・ライフ」なども経営し、実業家としても才能のあるところを見せている。

ＫＩＳＳでは音楽的な才能以外にも、キャラクター展開、版権管理、ビジネスの側面を支えた名プロデューサーでもある。

“Gene Simmons on Ortsbo, a New Language Technology”

Source: KSTU FOX13 Salt Lake City | May 22, 2011 | by KSTU FOX13

“Kiss rockers to showcase Babel-busting tech”

Source: CNET.com | May 20, 2011 | by Greg Sandoval

How do you say “I want to rock and roll all night and party every day” in Dutch, Taiwanese, or Swahili?

You might be able to find out today when Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons, two members of the iconic glam rock band Kiss, take part in a real-time “multi-language global chat” with fans.

The chat is, of course, designed to bring attention to Ortsbo.com, a language translation service. From the press release: “Ortsbo.com eliminates the need to cut, copy and paste text into a translator by automatically translating typed text into the specified language instantly. The service works with over 50 different languages.”

Users who want to instant-message the Kiss members can communicate in their own languages. And who better than Simmons to showcase a service that deals with native tongues?

“Ortsbo.com is taking a sledgehammer to the tower of Babel,” Simmons said in a statement.

Simmons and Stanley will be conducting the chat from Beverly Hills, Calif., starting at 7:30 a.m. PT.

“KISS Live & Global Chat Today on Ortsbo.com”

Source: Windows Azure | May 20, 2011 | by Windows Azure Team

Today, Ortsbo.com and celebrity spokesperson Gene Simmons will present KISS Live & Global, an online multi-language global chat event powered by the Windows Azure platform. Showcasing the power of cloud computing, the event will feature a live, interactive studio audience in Los Angeles and be broadcast around the world via live streaming to computers and mobile devices. Guinness Book of World Records will also be onsite tracking the attendees as Ortsbo.com plans to break the current world record for a live streaming chat, which is currently at 50 nationalities.

For the first time in history, fans from all over the world who are pre-registered at Ortsbo.com will have the opportunity to interact with Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley in their native language. Questions and answers will instantly translate in up to 53 languages, allowing viewers all over the world to review the live chat and ultimately communicate in truly unique ways, making this event a truly worldwide spectacle.

“Gene Simmons on How to Say ‘Rock ‘n Roll All Night’ in Swahili”

Source: CNBC | May 20, 2011 | by Jane Wells

Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley play rock music as a side job. Their real jobs are marketing the KISS brand, licensing their names across a myriad of products.

And now across a myriad of languages.

This morning in Beverly Hills, the two have been hosting a global webcast to promote Ortsbo.com, a software filter which translates Facebook posts or Tweets or Outlook emails into 53 languages in real time. Orstbo means “local” in Swedish, and the firm, owned by Intertainment Media [ITMTF 1.2687 0.0287 (+2.31%) ], claims 9 million unique monthly visitors in 170 countries.

During the webcast at the Beverly Hills Hotel, questions came in from 107 different countries for Simmons and Stanley, from Afghanistan to Zambia, all being translated into English for the duo, who then sent their responses translated back into…Pashtun? Swahili?

In a “press conference” populated by attractive looking…actors…Simmons and Stanley got their first question from “Carlo”, who sent it in from Germany.

The fan asked, in German, “I love ‘Sonic Boom’, do you have plans for another album?” Stanley spoke his answer while Simmons typed it. “We’re very proud,” Stanley started before Simmons interrupted, “A little slower.” Stanley paused, waiting for Simmons fingers to catch up. “It all led up this new album (pause) which is untitled (pause) but picks up where that left off.” The answer was then translated into German. I don’t speak/read German, so I can’t say whether something was lost in translation.

The two hoped to break the Guinness World Record for the most countries in one webcast in this event.

The current record is 50, and a half hour in they were up to 27…

“Gene Simmons Talks Ortsbo on CNBC”

Source: CNBC | May 20, 2011 | by CNBC

Gene talking Ortsbo on CNBC right after the world record breaking KISS Live & Global chat earlier today!

“Chattez dans plus de 50 langues”

Source: Salut Bonjour | May 20, 2011 | by François Charron

Great chat about Ortsbo from Montreal area morning show!

“Halftime: KISS Language Barriers Goodbye”

Source: CNBC.com | May 20, 2011 | by Michelle Fox

Any investor who even thinks about putting money to work oversees won’t want to miss this. It’s a new real-time social media language translation service called Ortsbo, and you’ll never guess who’s involved — KISS frontman and reality television star Gene Simmons.

The entertainer is also an entrepreneur. Not only is he a master merchandiser of the KISS brand, he’s now a partner in Ortsbo. Simmons said the service enables anyone in the world to speak with anyone, at anytime, in any language instantaneously. It works with about thirteen social media platforms and what’s more, it’s free.

“It will be fantastic for the Street, business, the U.N., education, our proud military,” Simmons said. “Imagine landing someplace and having the biggest barrier, which is the tower Babel itself, it’s finally come tumbling down and Ortsbo is the tool that just broke it down. No more language barriers.”

And his entrepreneurial arm reaches beyond the online translation business. He’s also co-founder of Cool Springs Life Equity Strategy. Simmons said it’s not a traditional life insurance company, but an estate plan strategy for high net worth individuals.

“How to cope with… language barriers”

Source: Business Traveller | May 20, 2011 | by Jenny Southan

Business Traveller suggests solutions to common travel problems. This month: language barriers

The English have been resting on their lingual-laurels for far too long, travelling under the assumption that everyone will understand some of their native tongue. But panicked Babel Fish word-checks do not make the grade in a world where business spans continents and cultures, and making yourself understood is crucial to the success of your trip.

Hire an interpreter

If you’re visiting a place where English isn’t widely spoken, hiring a translator can be helpful. K International (k-international.com) has about 6,000 interpreters based in major cities around the globe, who can be called upon at a few hours’ notice. Stewart Pearce, head of marketing for the company, says he is seeing a revival in requests for face-to-face language services: “It’s cyclical. We had two or three years of everyone wanting to video-conference, then you realise it’s not quite the panacea you thought.”

Choose a translation style to suit your needs

Ensure you are comfortable with the interpreter’s method to avoid awkward pauses or misunderstandings. Consecutive translation, when you stop to let them speak, is best if you are presenting simple slides with a few pointers on each, though you need to be able to keep the thread alive and seamlessly pick up where you left off. “Some people are very good at it – actors, for one – but it’s down to the individual,” Pearce says. Simultaneous translation, when the interpreter translates quietly over you or through earpieces the clients wear, may be preferable for longer, more complex presentations.

Get some virtual help

For informal communication through social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo and MSN, Ortsbo (ortsbo.com) offers a free translation service that allows you to chat in real time with someone who speaks another language. It claims the technology is up to 85 per cent accurate. More than 50 languages are covered, and once you have logged on, whatever you type in the chat box will appear with a translation beneath it. An Outlook add-on that translates emails has also been launched.

Download an app

Applications are making mobile learning an efficient way to cut corners. Penpower Technology’s Worldictionary (£2.99, penpower.net) for the iPhone translates between nine languages – just take a photo of a word and the software will provide a dictionary meaning. US-based company Speechtrans (speechtrans.com), meanwhile, has designed the Ultimate app (£11.99), which allows you to record speech from seven languages and have it spoken back in your native tongue (14 to choose from). John Frei, Speechtrans’ chief executive, predicts that the next phase of translation software will improve on its existing 90 per cent accuracy by understanding colloquial terms.

Google Translate has developed a free app with 15 input languages and up to 57 audio/text output, available on Apple and Android devices, but it is missing a few handy features offered by Speechtrans – namely a 55-second speech limit (Google has 15) and no text-to-speech limit (Google offers 100 characters max). With eight language apps operational offline (costing £2.99-£16.99), Jibbigo (jibbigo.com) is a good alternative.

Learn a little

Rough Guides’ pocket phrase books (£4.99) are good to have on stand-by and come with audio conversations that can be downloaded to your laptop or iPod. The 32-language World Travel Toolkit phrase book (£7, amazon.co.uk) was launched for Kindle e-readers this year.

Learn a lot

Going back to school to learn a language needn’t be daunting. Simon and Simon International (simonandsimon.co.uk) specialises in training business people and works the lesson schedule around the client, with teachers available at 24 hours’ notice. Managing director Simon Robinson says: “I’m convinced companies miss out on billions in sales every year because they don’t equip employees with the language skills they need.”

If you prefer to learn when and where you want, Rosetta Stone (rosettastone.co.uk) launched its new Version 4 Totale software in May, which offers users the added benefit of scheduling live online video tutorials with native speakers. There’s also an app for iPhones and iPads.

Tips for using an interpreter

• Pause routinely so listeners can absorb the material in their own language or ask questions
• Emphasise key words to give them something to grab hold of
• Be confident and make eye contact with everyone, including the interpreter
• The latter is important as you may pick up that you’re speaking too quickly
• Watch your audience for a reaction and use this to your advantage. As K International’s Stewart Pearce
says, there is “a little bit of theatre” to presenting and keeping people engaged.

“A New York Soccer Dude Named Steve”

Source: The Wall Street Journal | May 19, 2011 | by Jason Gay

By now he’s a familiar character in New York’s downtown soccer crew— the floppy-haired guy, just a term paper taller than six feet, sweating on the turf below Delancey on steamy summer nights. He brings game—it’s obvious; watch his quick feet— but what might not be so clear is that this playground soccer guy, the one pushing the ball upfield and later buying beers at the bar, is also a two-time NBA MVP.

This is how Steve Nash likes to spend his off-season vacation: quietly in New York City, in unpretentious parks like the one at Chrystie and Stanton Streets, playing soccer on cramped fields with friends who run for kicks instead of money. One of the best point guards ever is a footballer at heart, a Canadian born into a family of Tottenham Hotspur supporters, and when his basketball seasons in Phoenix conclude, he can’t wait find his way back to a narrow New York pitch.

“The atmosphere is just amazing,” Nash said on Wednesday. “You have these little seven, eight-on-a-side fields with a chain-link fence and streets on both sides. There’s an intimacy—so many people in the city happen by the field, and just stop to watch.”

Nash competes for two city soccer clubs—one affiliated with the communications firm The Promotion Factory, and another sponsored by Phebe’s, the East Village bar. While his colleagues know about Nash’s high-visibility winter job, “there’s no pretense or inequality when I’m out there. We’re teammates.”
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Nash has long been an influential advocate for soccer. He’s an original investor in the Women’s Professional Soccer league, which began play in 2009. Last year he travelled to the World Cup in South Africa to work for CBS. And at 6 p.m. on June 22 at Sara D. Roosevelt Park, Nash will host the fourth New York edition of the Showdown in Chinatown, an all-star soccer game benefitting the Steve Nash Foundation, which provides health and education services to children in need.

This year’s game, sponsored by Ortsbo, a social media translation company, will feature NBA players such as Tony Parker, Brandon Jennings and Nash’s Phoenix Suns teammates Grant Hill and Jared Dudley. There will be soccer pros, too—Nash is hoping to recruit a few former members of the U.S. National Team. (Any civilian can come watch for free, and if you really want to play, there are two slots available at stevenash.org—$20,000 a piece.)

As for basketball, Nash confessed he wasn’t watching Tuesday when his friend Dirk Nowitzki poured in 48 as Dallas beat Oklahoma City in Game 1 of the Western Conference finals. “He’s seven games away from a championship.” Nash said. “Hopefully he can do it.” Nash also said he was pleased by the positive reception given to Suns president Rick Welts, who recently revealed he is gay. “I was proud of Rick for coming forward,” he said. “It’s a barrier we needed to break down.”

Nash, who is 37, has a year left on his contract in Phoenix, but that hasn’t stopped rumblings that he could soon find himself playing elsewhere—even here.

“I try to focus on Phoenix and next year and not worry beyond that,” Nash said. “Obviously I love New York City. There’s been a lot of talk about me going to the Knicks, but for me, I just concentrate on this year. But I am excited for New York, and how they have a very talented roster. The Garden is kind of electric again.”

Nash has switched over to soccer mode for the summer. He said he thought it was “great” that LeBron James recently purchased a stake in the Liverpool Football Club. He’s also picking Barcelona over Manchester United in the Champions League final on May 28. “Manchester United has had a terrific year, but Barcelona plays the best football I’ve ever seen in my life,” he said.

But Nash is mostly looking forward to returning to those small rectangles downtown, where no one’s getting rich or famous, and the guy passing you the ball on the carpet is just a dude named Steve.

“It’s a million miles away from Madison Square Garden,” Nash said.

“Steve Nash joins Gene Simmons as Ortsbo Spokespeople”

Source: Tech Vibes | May 18, 2011 | by Rob Lewis

Toronto’s Intertainment Media is busy lining up celebrity spokespeople for its social media, real time, language translation platform, Ortsbo.com.

Last month they announced that they had signed a business partnership and spokesperson agreement with rock legend and global entrepreneur, Gene Simmons. Speaking of which KISS co-founders Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley will be hosting the world’s first interactive global fan chat – KISS Live & Global – in 53 languages on May 20th.

Today Ortsbo entered into an agreement with two-time NBA MVP Steve Nash to become an official spokesperson. Leading Ortsbo’s global sports fan program, Nash will present and participate in a number of online fan chats with international athletes from a number of sports disciplines.

Ortsbo is in the process of releasing its first beta application for mobile phones – Ortsbo for iPhone. Other Ortsbo mobile phones and portable computing apps, including apps for Android, Apple, Windows Phone, BlackBerry and tablet computers are scheduled to begin launching Summer 2011.

“Ortsbo on Red Chip Radio with Chris Schilling”

Source: Ortsbo on Red Chip Radio with Chris Schilling | May 17, 2011 | by Red Chip Radio

“P&R: Gene Simmons”

Source: Rolling Stone Mexico | May 17, 2011 | by Por Sopitas

Se ha acostado con más de 4,500 mujeres.
Ha vendido más de 100 millones de discos.
Su programa de televisión es el reality show más longevo que se haya hecho en la historia.
Más de 3 mil diferentes productos llevan su cara,
¿Hay algo que Gene Simmons no pueda hacer?

El vocalista de Kiss atendió la llamada de Rolling Stone para hablarnos de su próxima aventura, con la que busca interactuar de manera simultánea con miles de fans de Kiss alrededor del mundo, en algo así como 53 lenguajes diferentes.

¡Hey, Gene! Es un gusto saber que estás de regreso en Internet, después de que tu página fue hackeada el año pasado.
Sí, bueno antes que nada, quiero decirle a todo el mundo que esto es algo muy especial, y que finalmente no es necesario hablar inglés para preguntarme lo que quieran. Lo que haremos con este chat, es sentarnos frente a un teclado, elegiremos nuestro idioma, y por ejemplo tu me puedes preguntar en español y yo recibo tu pregunta en inglés, contesto en inglés y tu lees mi respuesta en español ¡todo esto de manera instantánea!

Ortsbo es una gran herramienta para comunicarse en otras lenguas, pero sabemos que tú hablas cuatro o cinco idiomas diferentes, ¿cierto?
Hablo Inglés, Alemán, Japonés, Húngaro, Hebreo y un poco de Mandarín…

¿Y cómo va tu español?
Creo que bastante bien, al menos puedo insultar bastante bien: “La tuya”, “¡Maricón!”, “Tu madre”… ya sabes; mejor no te metas conmigo en español.

Estás por cumplir 62 años y de alguna manera no deja de resultar fascinante el hecho de ver que sigues muy involucrado en la tecnología, ¿cuáles son los últimos gadgets que haz usado?
Bueno, los gadgets son una gran herramienta para estar comunicado, y en nuestro caso cosas como Twitter y Facebook nos ayudan a estar en contacto directo con nuestros fans de todo el mundo, por eso es que decidimos hacer este chat, pues queremos hablar con nuestros fans sin importar si hablan español, africano o inglés, simplemente chateas en tu idioma y gracias a Ortsbo, la gente podrá hablar de la manera en la que lo hace comúnmente sin importar distancias, países ni idiomas.

Sabemos que vas a lanzar tu nuevo libro: The Art Of War ¿qué nos puedes contar sobre él?
La verdad es que no he tenido tiempo de terminar el libro, porque decidimos hacer un nuevo disco con Kiss, el cual vamos a empezar a grabar, luego haremos algunos conciertos en Estados Unidos y Cánada, regresamos a terminar el álbum y de ahí, comienzo a grabar la séptima temporada del show de televisión (Gene Simmons Family Jewels).

Suena a que tendrás un verano muy ocupado…
Bueno, la verdad es que nos la pasamos muy bien, y he de decir que el hecho de que el programa de televisión se transmita en más de 84 países, ayudó a que decidiera hacer este chat especial el próximo 20 de mayo.

**Ahora, te toca preguntar **
Gene Simmons estará interactuando y respondiendo personalmente todas tus preguntas este 20 de mayo a partir de las 9:30 hrs. hora del centro de México, a través del Chat que albergará en Ortsbo.

Para ir enviando tus preguntas, puedes registrarte en ortsbo.com

“Gene Simmons: We’re ‘Tortured By Tech’”

Source: The Huffington Post | May 16, 2011 | by Amy Lee

Legendary Kiss bassist Gene Simmons has been featured in Guitar Hero and had run-ins with hackers–but he can’t always figure out how to get his gadgets to work for him.

“All of us are tortured by tech,” he told the Huffington Post. “I still cant get my flashing light on my video machine from the 1800s to stop flashing. I have one of the old ones that played videotape. I cannot turn it off.”

Simmons, is the spokesperson for the real time social media translation platform Ortsbo, and acknowledges that technology has changed some things about how he lives his life.

“I hardly talk to my daughter unless I’m texting and chatting,” he said. “We’re too busy to do voicemail and shmoicemail and all that stuff.”

But despite all that and some of the headaches of tech, Simmons says he appreciates the conveniences of a wired life.

“You know, I drive a truck, and I can get in and start that thing right away and it tells me when it’s out of gas and when I want to go somewhere I know exactly: the GPS and the shmeePS and the IRA and all that,” he said. “What’s great about it is modern cars are automatic. When I was growing up they were stick shift, you wanted to hang yourself. Isn’t it great to be able to get in your car and press your foot to go forward?”

“Rock Musician Paul Stanley of Kiss Joins Gene Simmons as Ortsbo.Com Presents Kiss Live & Global”

Source: TMC | May 16, 2011 | by TMC

May 16, 2011 (Close-Up Media via COMTEX) — Intertainment Media announced that Ortsbo.com, a social media, real time, language translation platform, with business partner and spokesperson Gene Simmons welcomes Paul Stanley, international rock legend and co-founder of KISS to its online multi-language global chat event – “Ortsbo presents, KISS Live & Global.” In addition to the online chat, which will attempt a world record for the “Most Nationalities In An Online Chat Room,” the event, featuring a live, interactive studio audience will be broadcast around the world via live streaming to computers, iPhones and Android devices.
People from all over the world, the four million KISS Facebook fans and the global KISS Army who pre-register at Ortsbo.com will have the opportunity to interact with Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley and present questions online in 53 languages.

The real time Ortsbo platform will instantly translate questions and answers in multiple languages, allowing viewers all over the world to review the online chat in their own native language.

Supporting Ortsbo.com presents, KISS Live & Global will be Live Nation, a live entertainment and online ecommerce company. Along with the global chat with Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley, the event will provide people around the world with the ability to purchase a selection of entertainment merchandise and special promotions directly throughout the event. This event will provide a prototype for future global commercial events with Live Nation, their Artists and Ortsbo.com.

The event will also showcase the power of Cloud Computing, as the entire KISS Live & Global event will be managed through Microsoft’s Windows Azure platform.

The Ortsbo.com platform eliminates the need to cut/copy and paste text into a translator by automatically translating typed text into the specified language instantly unlike typical translation software. Users simply indicate the desired language for their intended recipient and Ortsbo does the rest. Ortsbo even lets users conduct multiple chat sessions simultaneously across multiple social networks in multiple languages in real time.

Recently, Ortsbo announced its first beta application for mobile phones – Ortsbo for iPhone. Other Ortsbo mobile phones and portable computing apps, including apps for Android, Apple, Windows Phone, BlackBerry and tablet computers are scheduled to begin launching Summer 2011.

“KISS Rock Stars to Participate in World’s Most Global Online Chat”

Source: Social Media | May 14, 2011 | by David Spark

Ortsbo real-time chat translation tool to be featured this Friday
I’m pretty psyched.

Next week I’m headed down to LA to report on a live event starring KISS’s Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley, who will be participating in an online chat using Ortsbo (disclosure: Ortsbo is a product from my client Intertainment Media).

Ortsbo is a very cool real-time chat translation tool. You can chat with anyone in the world in your native language, and it gets translated to the other person in their native language, all in real time. And it interfaces with your friends on your existing chat applications such as Facebook, Windows Live Messenger, and Google Talk.

They’re trying to break a world record for the most nationalities in an online chat. They need 50 to establish a world record and already 80 are registered for the event.

The event will be live streamed along with the live chat.

“Gene Simmons on KTLA In The Morning”

Source: KTLA | May 13, 2011

“KISS’ Gene Simmons And Paul Stanley In Fan Chat”

Source: The Hollywood Reporter | May 11, 2011 | by Etan Vlessing

KISS co-founders Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley to participate in May 20 global chat room from the Beverly Hills Hotel in 53 languages to promote Canadian social media language translator Orstbo.
TORONTO – KISS co-founder Paul Stanley is joining fellow band member and reality TV star Gene Simmons to pitch the social media language translator Ortsbo at a May 20 Beverly Hills Hotel promotional event for the Canadian interactive content producer Intertainment Media.

Gene Simmons to Pitch Social Media TranslatorStanley and Simmons will participate in KISS Live & Global, an interactive fan chat in 53 languages.

Simmons, who speaks five languages, including English, Hebrew, Hungarian, and German, has become a business partner and official spokesman for Ortsbo.

Simmons and Stanley have friends to call on: The Ortsbo chat session aims to pull in KISS’ four million Facebook pals and a global KISS ARMY fan base.

Ortsbo offers instant, real-time translation of conversations in over 50 languages on social media sites and chat rooms.

“Ortsbo on App Central from BNN”

Source: App Central | May 10, 2011

“Ortsbo Translation Software Review”

Source: Mobile Magazine | May 9, 2011 | by Silvia Pikal

Intertainment Media acquired mobile software and app developer, Commobility, on April 13, 2011 to expand their business into the mobile and portable computing areas. Intertainment Media intends to release a mobile version of their Ortsbo translation software, a desktop application that integrates with platforms like MSN and Facebook to translate conversations in real-time.

The Ortsbo iPhone app is currently undergoing review to be available on the Apple App Store. The Commobility and Intertainment Media teams are also working on apps for platforms including Android, BlackBerry and Windows Phone, which are scheduled to launch summer 2011.

Some of you might be thinking, why use Ortsbo when Google Translate does the same thing? Well, it’s not quite the same. From my personal experience, which has been trying to translate Croatian into English and Spanish into English, the translation strays so far from the original meaning it’s often incomprehensible. As well, with Ortsbo, you don’t have to waste time copying and pasting your words from Google Translate, as the translations go right into Facebook or MSN’s chat window. With Ortsbo, speaking a different language happens with the push of a button.

Ease of Use
I chose to connect Ortsbo with Facebook, which was really simple. It only requires your Facebook username, which can be found under account settings of your Facebook account. To log in, you just put @chat.facebook.com at the end of the username. There are over 50 languages available for translation. I picked English as the language I would receive communication in. After logging in, I opened a chat window with one of my Croatian cousins, and chose Croatian as the output language.

Highlights
I was very pleased that my English had been translated into Croatian with the proper diacritic marks. I was understood and managed to sustain a conversation without any significant loss of meaning. Ortsbo made it extremely easy to carry on a conversation with my cousin. It enabled the conversation to be much quicker and smoother, as I would usually spend time trying to figure out how to phrase something in Croatian, or looking it up on the internet. There was no lag between translations; it was fairly instant.

Drawbacks
Some of my sentences were fragmented and grammatically incorrect. As well, certain words were not translated and just left as they were. However, despite the grammar errors, the meaning was grasped. It might help that I speak Croatian and that she speaks English. If I was speaking with someone who speaks Japanese but not English, I imagine I would have much more trouble maneuvering the broken and untranslated words. In such an instance, I might have to jump to Google Translate, which would defeat the purpose. As well, I had to log into Facebook and open a chat window because in Ortsbo’s chat window, everything I typed was just in English, so I wasn’t sure if it was translating to Croatian. I would have preferred to see both the original message and the translation appear underneath, to be sure my words were being translated.

While Ortsbo’s desktop software is currently free, the mobile app will be a paid one. I don’t see myself paying for the mobile app, as I can use the software online for free. It would prove useful for people who need to stay in contact with coworkers or employees, who I’m sure would be willing to dish out the price, as they can use the software when they are away from a computer.

Intertainment Media is holding off on updates about the app until it’s officially approved by Apple, which should be within the next 30-40 days. We’ll keep you posted on when the app is approved.

“Ad Taffy plays politics”

Source: Media In Canada | Apr. 28, 2011 | by Jennifer Horn

As the Canadian federal election draws close, federal politicians of all stripes are reaching out to average Canadians in an effort to earn votes for their party. But one Canadian MP is taking a particularly media-savvy route in using Intertainment Media’s newest ad platform, Ad Taffy.

Ad Taffy is a location-aware display ad product featuring IP-based geo-location and click-to-call functionality.

The units come in two formats. One is a click-to-locate rich media ad unit that generates a pop-up map where users can browse through the nearest brand locations to them (found using an IP geo-locator). The second is a static display ad with click-to-call functionality, activated when the user punches their phone number into the ad’s information field. When the user inputs their mobile or landline number, it connects their phone to the service provider’s landline, immediately establishing a connection.

The format has obvious use for local service providers, but it is currently being used in the political arena by Brian Storseth, the incumbent for Westlock-St.Paul, who recently implemented a “Click To Call Me” display ad to connect his constituents with volunteers and a mapping function to call up nearby polling stations. The strategy provides an extra level of connectivity between him and constituents, Storseth said in a release.
The Ad Taffy technology is ideal for someone like Storseth because it localizes and simplifies traditional web search, Brad Parry, CMO, Intertainment Media tells MiC.

“If you were trying to find a local dealer from a traditional web ad, it would take you anywhere from 8 to 12 clicks to find that local dealer,” says Parry. “What our technology does is it finds your IP address automatically, pulls up a map that showcases where you are and all the retail service provider locations around you in just one click.”

“Cantech Letter catches up with David Lucatch of Intertainment Media”

Source: Cantech Letter | Apr. 25, 2011 | by Nick Waddell

Israeli-American Gene Simmons, whose mother calls him Chaim Witz, recently joined Ortsbo as spokesperson and business partner. Simmons speaks five languages.

With its shares climbing from pennies to a recent high of $2.25, Intertainment Media (TSXV:INT) has been the runaway success of the Toronto Venture Exchange this year.

Intertainment has been rising on the promise of Ortsbo, software that translates, in real time, more than fifty different languages across a dozen social media platforms. After February’s sit down interview with Cantech Letter Editor Nick Waddell, we caught up with David Lucatch to talk about Gene Simmons, Ortsbo and the amazing run of the stock

David it has been a remarkable run for Intertainment shareholders of late. Intertainment is the top trader on the entire exchange by a wide margin. How is the word getting out about this company?

Nick, as a social media company, we have build a loyal following of users and investors who are spreading the value proposition of not only our divisions, but of the Company itself. We feel that these activities in conjunction with the Company’s releases, media attention and social media performance is getting the word out to the investment community.

Gene Simmons recently joined Intertainment as spokesman. What does Gene bring to the table and what plans do you have for him?

Actually, Gene did not join Intertainment, but rather Ortsbo Inc. as a spokesperson and business partner. Gene is one of the most recognized personalities globally and with his business acumen and entrepreneurial experience combined with the fact that Gene speaks five languages and is learning a sixth, made him and ideal business partner and spokesperson. Together with Richard Abramson, Gene and I are looking at innovative and exciting opportunities to make Ortsbo.com a household name for those who are looking to communicate with people around the world in almost any language. One specific event I can point to is the upcoming Gene Simmons Live & Global on May 20th. This event is proposed to be the world’s largest multi-language conversation, allowing people from all over the world to communicate with Gene. As a sponsor, Live Nation view this opportunity as prototype for potential online events with their Artists.

Last time we talked you alluded to spinning out Ortsbo as its own entity. What are your thoughts on this now?

We had announced our decision to turn down the offers Ortsbo. I believe that this was the right decision and we will continue to support Ortsbo’s growth and we will continue to evaluate any new offers, should they come to our attention, as any fiscally responsible enterprise would.

Ortsbo is getting all the attention for Intertainment right now, but the company is actually several divisions. Are you concentrating solely on Ortsbo now, or is Ortsbo part of an overall strategy involving the other divisions?

Nick, language is a key focus of every part of the Internet and Social Media as the cultural landscape continues to change. At one time English was the predominant language of the Internet, but today, only one out of four Internet user’s first language is English and that will continue to change as the surge continues in Asia and other areas around the globe. Ortsbo, not only as a stand alone division, but as part of the Intertainment family of Companies, is helping shape our overall offerings.

“Simmons sends Intertainment stock up the charts”

Source: The Globe and Mail | Apr. 19, 2011 | by Shirley Won

Gene Simmons, founder of the rock band KISS, has given shares of Intertainment Media Inc. a shot in the arm after becoming a pitchman for the Toronto-based firm’s social media and translation website.

Intertainment hit a 52-week intraday high of $3.35 a share Tuesday before sliding to close up 10 cents at $2.25 as more than 64 million shares changed hands on the TSX Venture Exchange. The company, which has reported no earnings and no significant revenue to date, has seen its stock gain a whopping 2,150 per cent this year.

“It’s getting a little crazy,” says Peter Hodson, a portfolio manager at Sprott Inc. who bought Intertainment shares between 50 and 70 cents a share in early February.

There is “chatter” on the Street that Mr. Simmons plans to soon do a demonstration with his fans around the world on Intertainment’s Ortsbo.com site so “that is perhaps what is driving the stock,” Mr. Hodson said. “ I am not a big KISS fan, but Gene has been very entrepreneurial. He has turned a mediocre rock band into a worldwide conglomerate.”

Intertainment has gained $1.58 a share over 11 sessions after Mr. Simmons agreed to become a shareholder and also a promoter for Ortsbo. The website says it enables users to hold online chats in more than 50 languages, with immediate translation of their text messages.

The stock has gained momentum after the company announced earlier this week that it had achieved a “major milestone,” reaching 12.2 million unique visitors in less than 10 months.

“There may be some very large buyers who want a piece of this social media opportunity before it’s too late,” Mr. Hodson suggested. “But it’s exceptionally hard to value, and you don’t know how much money is going to be ultimately made down the road.”

Intertainment chief executive officer David Lucatch said that he convinced Mr. Simmons to get onboard earlier this year after persuading the entertainer, who couldn’t speak English when he emigrated from Israel to the United States as a boy, to try the site.

“Gene typed a message to one of my staff in Hungarian,” Mr. Lucatch recalled. “My staff member received it in simplified Chinese over Ortsbo. She typed it back in Spanish, and he received it in English … We were using four different dialects in a single conversation, and he was blown away.”

Hedge fund manager Steven Palmer of AlphaNorth Asset Management Inc. began buying shares of Intertainment at 5 cents a share through private placements as early as 2009. “It remains to be seen whether it will continue to grow at a rate comparable to Facebook,” he said. “That is what is getting people excited.”

“Simmons made to be a corporate pitchman”

Source: The Toronto Star | Apr. 6, 2011 | by Michael Lewis

Trading in his platform boots and skin-tight spandex for a business suit and loafers, Kiss founder Gene Simmons has signed on as corporate pitchman for Toronto-based Ortsbo Inc.

Simmons, a NYSU graduate who speaks several languages, will use his prodigious tongue to promote Ortsbo and its translation software.

The application translates Internet messages into 50 languages across 12 social media platforms, including Facebook and China’s instant messaging service Tencent QQ.

“Ortsbo takes a sledgehammer to the Tower of Babel that is modern communication,” Simmons said. “It connects humanity in real time. We are all one people.”

Suggesting he was made for his new role, which includes input on branding and other creative matters, Simmons said, “Ortsbo has changed my life. I can now instantaneously communicate with fans around the world in their native language. It’s opened up so many new doors for me, personally and in business.”

The Kiss bassist also created the swirling, blue-lettered Ortsbo logo.

Ortsbo is relaunching its website to offer users a platform compatible with desktop and mobile browsers, iPads and other portable devices.

Terms of the partnership with Simmons have not been disclosed.

Unlike Google’s Translate service, the Ortsbo platform does not require cutting, copying and pasting text into a translator; it automatically translates typed text into the specified language, said Ortsbo president David Lucatch.

Simmons, an Israeli immigrant with a Hungarian-born mother who arrived in the U.S. as a child before founding rock band Kiss in the early 1970s, said the technology has a personal resonance.

“When I landed, I couldn’t speak a word of English. I think making communication easier makes the world a better place. It’s a game-changer,” Simmons told the Star.

Less than nine months after its launch Ortsbo, which means “local” in Swedish, has reached nine million unique monthly users in 170 countries.

Ortsbo also offers a business product that includes private chat networks and custom services.

The service is free on social media, but some offerings including mobile apps will require payment.

Ortsbo, a unit of Toronto’s Intertainment Media Inc., recently received an unsolicited $30 million (U.S.) bid for the translation platform from a North American investment firm. Lucatch said the offer is under review.

“Gene Simmons Partners With Online Translating Service”

Source: Contactmusic.com | April 5, 2011 | by Contactmusic.com

Rocker Gene Simmons is teaming up with an online language translation service to help celebrities connect with fans worldwide.

The Ortsbo website, which launched nine months ago, is a real-time virtual translator designed for social media platforms such as Facebook.com, instant messenger, and mobile applications.

The Kiss frontman, who will serve as the company’s spokesman, signed onto the project because, as an Israeli immigrant, he believes in the initiative’s mission.

He explains to Variety, “Ortsbo takes a sledgehammer to the Tower of Babel that is modern communication. It connects humanity. We are all one people… Any pop culture entity has to be worldwide.”

The rocker adds the software can also help stars connect with fans in other countries more easily.

“Gene Simmons backs Ortsbo – Kiss of approval for Web translator”

Source: Variety | Apr. 5, 2011 | by Andrew Wallenstein

An online translation service with users spread all over the planet is getting some help from a man who knows what it takes to create a global brand: Gene Simmons.

The Kiss frontman and serial entrepreneur has signed on with Intertainment Media’s Ortsbo as a business partner and spokesman.

Ortsbo, which means “local” in Swedish, functions as a real-time filter for translating 53 different languages across 12 leading social media platforms, from Facebook to China’s Tencent QQ. Users type messages in their native languages that are instantly translated in a fashion more seamless than the cutting and pasting of textrequired in Google’s Translate service.

The software can also be utilized across instant messaging, email and RSS. While Ortsbo is free on social media, some of its offerings require payment, including mobile apps to be deployed this summer.

The technology resonated both personally with Simmons, an Israeli immigrant who arrived in the U.S. as a child with a Hungarian-born mother, as well as on a professional level. A one-man merchandising machine for both his band and himself, he discussed Ortsbo in an interview from a room in his Beverly Hills home teeming with Kiss gear, including a branded motorcycle and coffin.

“Ortsbo takes a sledgehammer to the Tower of Babel that is modern communication,” Simmons said. “It connects humanity. We are all one people.”

Simmons will function as more than mere pitchman, informing corporate strategy and even redesigning the Ortsbo logo for the recently relaunched website.

Ortsbo boasts impressive growth for a service barely 9 months old. The website already reaches 9 million unique monthly users from 170 countries.

Simmons noted numerous potential applications for the entertainment business since Ortsbo can allow stars to speak to fans in more than one country simultaneously. “Any pop culture entity has to be worldwide,” he said.

Simmons shows no signs of slowing down these days; he and his family are currently shooting a seventh season of A&E’s “Gene Simmons’ Family Jewels.” The longest-running celebrity reality series on TV, “Jewels” has been exported to more than 80 countries.

“Toronto’s Ortsbo offers real-time translation for online chatting”

Source: FP TECH DESK | Mar. 30, 2011 | by Jameson Berkow

Not quite the instant translating, ear canal dwelling Babel Fish of Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Ortsbo Inc. can perhaps be considered the online version.

The name is Swedish for ‘local’, an appropriate moniker considering the type of service the Toronto-based company provides. Unlike the bablefish translation website, Ortsbo integrates with all major online chatting platforms — from Facebook and Twitter to MSN Messenger, Google Talk and even ICQ — to provide real-time translation in more than 50 languages, making international conversations seem local.

“English has been the dominant language of the Internet, but that is changing,” said David Lucatch, chief executive of Intertainment Media Inc., the publicly-traded parent company of Ortsbo.

“We felt it was time to embrace that opportunity and we think we have a solution that provides a platform for any language anytime, anywhere.”

While English is still the most commonly used language online, accounting for about 1 in 4 Internet users globally, Mr. Lucatch is right to point out that dominance is in decline. As a growing number of remote regions of the world gain access to the Internet, a wider array of mother tongues are moving online.

There were 2,500% more Arabic-speaking Internet users in 2010 than there were in 2000, and 1,800% more Russian-speaking users. Chinese-language users accounted for 22.6% of all Internet users in 2010, an increase of more than 1,200% since 2000.

More languages used online means more people will need services such as Ortsbo to break down language barriers to ensure the Internet remains an open forum where anyone can communicate instantly with anyone else, language notwithstanding.

Having only launched Ortsbo last July, Mr. Lucatch has seen usage go “off the charts.”

“We’re up to 8.6-million active monthly users,” he said. “We’re at the end of month 9 as of March 22 and we’re at where Facebook was at month 29.” (though in fairness, Facebook’s initial growth was tempered by only being open to those with valid University email accounts)

Ortsbo isn’t confining itself to just instant messaging either. The company is already accepting registrations for the Beta version of an email plugin for Microsoft Corp.’s Outlook software which it calls O4O (Ortsbo for Outlook) and plans to launch very soon.

Although the current Ortsbo service is free, the Outlook plugin will cost $29.99. Orsbo is also planning to launch mobile applications and an SMS translation platform by mid-summer.

There are even plans to deal with the literal translation issue, where colloquial phrases such as ‘needle in a haystack’ or ‘knock on wood’ have long plagued automatic translation platforms. By launching an Ortsbo wiki, Mr. Lucatch is hopeful the service’s own users will help to make such translations more accurate.

“The first phase of this was just to look at social media integration, but our next phases that we’re bringing out will go way beyond that spectrum,” he said.

Investors have already taken notice of Ortsbo’s value. Intertainment Media’s stock on the TSX Venture Exchange has grown in value by nearly 500% since late January, from about 10 cents per share to 50 cents when markets opened on Wednesday.

“If you look at all the trading we’ve done in the last couple months, hundreds of millions of shares for a junior tech stock, we’ve had both liquidity and volume,” said Mr. Lucatch.

“This has been a real big success for us.”

So far, Intertainment Media has already received two offers to purchase Ortsbo: a $30-million offer last September and then another in February for an undisclosed amount described by Mr. Lucatch as “significantly higher.” In both cases, the offers were rejected.

“We’ve only launched one of several of our product groups within Ortsbo and in fairness, we didn’t want to put that value into someone else’s hands,” Mr. Lucatch said.

“Ortsbo is making language sexy again.”

“Harnessing real-time translation for multilingual social media campaigns”

Source: The Wall | Mar. 28, 2011 | by Christian Arno

Real-time translation platform Ortsbo (meaning “local” in Swedish) is showing growth that surpasses even Facebook’s early months. Clearly, the desire for social networking communication across languages is there. But how can you harness this, as an online marketer?

Machine translation is a hot topic at the moment, with technology for the first time reaching a standard that is good enough for non-business critical content. And many ecommerce businesses have embraced the benefits of expanding their online customer base by going multilingual with translated websites – however, with social media marketing you need to interact in real-time, which is difficult when translation is involved.

Ortsbo is one of the leading real-time translation tools, integrated with some of the world’s most popular social media and live chat platforms, such as Facebook, MSN Messenger and Twitter, providing instant translations in over 50 languages. Ortsbo recently exceeded 8.6 million monthly users, which has sparked quite a bit of media interest, as it is growing faster than Facebook in its early days (the modern day online start-up success gauge).

What Ortsbo brings to the table is that you can now have real-time machine translation integrated directly within social media applications and websites. Through its integration with various platforms, Ortsbo literally cuts out the cutting-and-pasting of other machine translation tools.

But when is it appropriate, as a business, to use these tools? Machine translation has a long way to go before it can match up with the accuracy of human translation, but there are a few instances where it can be beneficial. Below are five types of content that are suitable for instant message translation programs such as Ortsbo, and a ‘best practice’ guide for how they should be used.

1. Blogs, status updates and tweets

Many businesses these days have blogs running in parallel to their official websites. But while you may be able to invest in having someone post to your blog regularly, you may not have the resources to translate each and every blog post. With an instant message translation tool, you can post in multiple languages simultaneously, and users who don’t speak your language will be able to get the gist of what you’re saying (you may want to include a caveat that machine translation has been used for these posts).

The same principle applies for tweets and posts to your Facebook or LinkedIn pages. In these cases, though, it’s important to be careful that you’re not communicating sensitive, business-critical information, as a poor machine translation may do you more harm than good. In the case of Twitter, you’re better off using professional translation for your tweets, and using a real-time translation tool such as Ortsbo for instant multilingual communication back and forth between your followers (as people are more likely to forgive errors in meaning or grammar in a real-time conversation). A multilingual Twitter strategy is especially relevant for British businesses, with the recent news that UK companies are lagging behind when it comes to tweeting in multiple languages.

2. User comments

Say a customer in Japan wants to leave a comment on your Facebook page, or join a group discussion in German. With programs like Ortsbo, they can instantly translate the content into Japanese for their understanding and their Japanese response can in turn be translated back into English or German, or whatever language the next visitor speaks.

3. Wikis

Wikis are a great way of collaborating on a project, and many companies use them as corporate intranets. For a global company, real-time machine translation could be hugely beneficial when it comes to various forms of internal communications that don’t require exact or stylised formatting.

4. Live chats

This is what Ortsbo was really built for – having a written conversation in different languages in real-time, so you can communicate with a colleague in Romania or with customers in Rome.

Essentially, the best practice guidelines for the use of Ortsbo and other machine translation tools is to make use of them for high-quantity, non-critical content that either can’t be translated fast enough by humans, or is too expensive to have professionally translated. Machine translation is good for when information is useful, but grammatical, stylistic and linguistic accuracy isn’t essential, and it can be a great tool for increasing a business’s multilingual accessibility through instantaneous translation.

The reality is that real-time machine translation is never going to be perfect, but the key is to incorporate it into your online and social strategy in a way that is appropriate to the content and to your business’s objectives and brand. And to help it along, if you make sure your source texts are written clearly and without errors, that ought to minimise ‘no-translation’ issues.

As they say in Sweden, ‘Lycka till med dina flerspråkiga framsteg!’ (Good luck with your multilingual progress!)

“Instant Chat Translation”

Source: Jaunt Magazine | Mar. 25, 2011 | by Managing Editor

Yep, “out of this world” language translation technology allowed aliens and Captain Kirk to speak back in forth with ease in English and now you can too. Well, maybe you won’t be speaking with aliens (yet), but with new acquaintances met during worldly travels this website just might be the open door to love or friendship.

Because many international travelers do more than just take in the sights and sounds of the new places they’re visiting (I know I do), making new friends and acquaintances along the way is right up there with your way through Europe or trying to speak the language of love. But, one of the biggest challenges when returning home is keeping in touch with our new friends abroad that speak another language.

Ortsbo.com is the first site that enables people of different languages to chat online in their native language and have real time translation while using social media platforms such as Facebook, AIM, etc. and translates instantly in more than 50 languages. The website may look a bit out there at first, but we’d like to know from you… is this up your alley?

So, check it out and let us know!

“Website of the Week”

Source: Johnny Jet’s Travel Blog | March 23, 2011 | by John DiScala

Ortsbo.com
Ortsbo is the first site that enables people of different languages to chat online in their native language and have real-time translation while using social media platforms such as Facebook, AIM, etc. and translates instantly in more than 50 languages. Tools like this help make the world a smaller place.

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“Ortsbo to Real Time Translate Your Mobile Chats Too”

Source: Mobile Magazine | Mar. 14, 2011 | by Michael Kwan

In case you haven’t figured it out already, we live in an international world and, believe it or not, not everyone speaks English. Ortsbo by Interntainment is meant to break down some of those language barriers.

They already have a desktop application that integrates with a series of IM platforms like MSN and Facebook chat, translating your conversations in real-time so you can communicate with people around the world, but now they’re ready to tackle the road. Intertainment is launching applications for iOS, BlackBerry, Android, and Windows Phone 7. Other mobile devices can go through the mobile web browser interface.

Since I make my living as a freelance writer, I can see the value of such a service. This way, I can more easily work with clients whose first language isn’t English. I don’t have to pop back and forth, copying and pasting into Google Translate… though I don’t work with too many clients who don’t have some proficiency in English.

Expect the mobile apps to roll out in Q2.

“Somes Stocks Are Expensive For A Good Reason”

Source: Financial Post | Feb. 19, 2011 | by Peter Hodson

Around this time of year, I always find it instructive to do a screen on which stocks are doing well already in the short time we’ve had this year.

Such a screen can give investors clues on many things: which sectors are moving, which companies are beating expectations, which “dogs” are recovering, and so on.

Typically, the best-performing list is filled with some high fliers, up hundreds, even thousands of percentage points. Many investors, if doing such a screen of stock performance, often simply toss these potential names aside, on the belief that they are risky, promoted, or overvalued.

Often they are exactly that. But as an investor, it might be unwise to toss these ideas aside until you have at least determined why other investors are buying them. Every once in a while, you will find a real diamond among the sparkles, a diamond that might continue to shine and even get bigger. Real diamonds can’t even claim that.

Below are some companies that have performed well so far this year. We make no claims as to their merits, other than investors seem to really like them — that in itself is worth checking into. Remember, there is never any bad information. Only bad decisions based on bad information. It is usually better to have the most information as you can possibly have, so you yourself can choose what may or may not be valuable.

So here goes:

Vonage Holdings Corp. (VG/NYSE): Vonage is up 70% so far this year, so you might think it is a universally loved name. Wrong. Vonage, which offers internet telephony services, instead holds the claim for being one of the possibly worst IPOs of all time.

The company issued stock at US$17 per share in 2006 and promptly fell off a cliff amidst missed earnings and shareholder lawsuits. Analysts famously called it a “dog” on TV.

Once a popular stock in terms of analyst attention, most simply gave up, and now only three analysts cover the US$800-million company.

Why is it going up? It seems many of the lawsuits have been settled, and revenues and earnings have the potential to grow again. The company has hit its stride with its international calling offerings, which are appealing to U.S. budget-conscious consumers. This week, the company reported earnings of US7¢ per share versus expectations of 4¢, so the recovery looks to be continuing.

Intertainment Media Inc. (INT/TSX-VEN): Intertainment Media is up an impressive 430% so far this year.

The company provides proprietary programs for clients to help build brand loyalty and programs, but the real excitement this year is from its Ortsbo real-time translator. Ortsbo allows users to communicate on social network sites despite differences in languages. The company has more than 50 languages already developed.

Because of the growth and success of Facebook, many see all social network companies as valuable. The company itself highlighted how its early-stage growth was in fact faster than Facebook’s. The fact that shares in Facebook are only available through secondary markets further helps fuel investor frenzy for anything deemed “social networking.”

This company might be one to watch, but as proven by the share price, many investors are choosing to buy and watch at the same time.

Petrofrontier Corp. (PFC/ TSX-VEN), an international oil and gas company, is up an impressive 190% so far this year because of it propensity for “elephant-hunting” in its exploration. From the company’s own presentations, its holdings have the potential (read that carefully) to hold 27.5 billion barrels of oil. The company’s market cap is now US$165-million.

Evergreen Energy Inc. (EEE/NYSE) is up 551% so far this year. This, for a company that faced de-listing not that long ago. Why the excitement? A new management team has taken over the coal technology company, and the executives have a good reputation in the industry. It also hasn’t hurt that a large part of Australia’s coal reserves have been under water from flooding. Evergreen, formerly KFX, has a technology that dries coal and increases its energy content. Lat week it re-opened its test facility at Fort Union, Wyo., which caused the stock to move some more.

Remember, we are making no recommendations here. On the other hand, there has never been a stock go up 25-fold that didn’t go up a few hundred percentage points first.

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“App Translates Your E-Mails”

Source: New York Post | Feb. 19, 2011 | by Hilary Lewis

Struggling to communicate with colleagues and clients in countries where you don’t speak the language? With Ortsbo, you can chat and compose e-mails in your native tongue and the company will instantly translate your messages for you.

To use Ortsbo’s chat service, just go to Ortsbo.com and sign in to one of the 13 services the company supports, including AIM, Google Talk and Yahoo Messenger.

Select your preferred language and that of your contact. Then just start typing and Ortsbo will instantly translate the messages you send and receive. You can even chat with multiple people using more than one chat service. The service supports more than 50 languages, including ones with different characters, like Chinese, Russian and Arabic.

Ortsbo also has an e-mail plug-in for Microsoft Outlook that works in much the same way. Just download it, select the language you and various recipients would like to receive e-mails in and Ortsbo will translate your e-mails as they’re sent. You can even send the same message to people who speak different languages, and they’ll each receive it in the language you’ve specified.

Ortsbo also has a Web-based e-mail service in the Transl8tr feature on Ortsbo.com, where you can type in a message that’s instantly translated that you can then e-mail from the site. Ortsbo also works with Twitter, translating feeds written in a foreign language into whatever language you specify, so that you can monitor developments in other regions.

Ortsbo’s chat, Transl8tr and Twitter services are all free. The Outlook plug-in is free for users who register on Ortsbo.com but will soon cost $29.95, as the company develops business versions that will make it easier for you to send messages to large groups of people who all speak the same language. Ortsbo is also working on mobile versions of its chat service.

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“Google, startup Ortsbo bring ‘Star Trek’-like translation to smartphones, chat sites”

Source: MercuryNews | Feb. 19, 2011 | by Mike Swift

On “Star Trek,” even the aliens with blue skin and antennas sprouting from their foreheads spoke with Capt. Kirk in perfect English, thanks to the universal translator, long a staple of science fiction.

After more than two decades of research and investment by corporations, universities and the government, machine-based speech recognition and language translation, while still in its infancy, has made significant headway. For the first time, the technology has reached the point where it is good enough for real-world commercial products.

Ortsbo offers a more basic form of machine translation, based on text, that is attracting millions of users in its first few months of operation. The new service, a unit of Toronto-based Intertainment Media, offers real-time text translation in more than 50 languages for Instant Message networks including Facebook, Yahoo Messenger, MSN and Tencent QQ, the most popular IM network in China.

Then there is Google. Leveraging its vast computing power, the Mountain View Internet giant recently rolled out updates to its Google Translate apps for the iPhone and Android smartphones that offer limited speech translation between languages. While it’s not quite Star Trek’s universal translator, an experimental feature of the Android app even translates real-time spoken conversation between English and Spanish.

“If you had told me five years ago that we would get to where we’ve gotten,” said Franz Och, who leads Google’s machine translation group, “I wouldn’t have believed it.”

Google, which also offers a software extension to its Chrome browser that translates documents, has a powerful business incentive for translation. Only a small share of Internet content is in some of the world’s most commonly spoken languages, like Arabic or Hindi. If Google can give speakers of those languages access to the large volume of online content written in English, for example, it can gain a huge audience, and the revenue that comes with it.

Google’s cloud network of distributed servers, which may be the world’s largest computer network, can host millions of simultaneous translations. Ortsbo, which seven months after its launch already has a traffic volume it didn’t expect until 2013, is racing to build a global cloud computing network to handle the flood of chatter from China, Taiwan, South Korea and Brazil, as well as from the U.S.

“You’re seeing the real emerging markets come to life, and the networks that go with them,” said David Lucatch, president of Toronto-based Ortsbo, which has more than 5.1 million users, a 27 percent jump since January. Lucatch says Ortsbo’s online traffic is growing faster than Facebook in its first year because he’s making social networks bigger, by allowing members who lacked a common language to chat.

Ortsbo — www.ortsbo.com — runs on 12 instant message networks, including Facebook Chat, Twitter, AIM, MSN, Google Talk, Yahoo Messenger and large Chinese networks like Tencent’s QQ. The service is far from perfect: It can take the app more than 10 minutes to load onto your PC or Mac, and the machine-powered text translations regularly make the literal translation errors to which computers are prone, struggling with such colloquial expressions as “the best of two worlds.”

Lucatch says that the startup is working to address those engineering problems, but that the traffic shows the powerful demand to bridge the language barrier, even if it isn’t perfect yet. Ortsbo allows instant message conversations in 53 languages and 2,756 language pairings, meaning you can type in English and have your Facebook friend in Hong Kong see your IM in Chinese characters. Or, Google Talk users in Copenhagen and Katmandu could chat between Danish and Nepali, while Twitter followers in Reykjavik and Jakarta could send direct messages back and forth in Icelandic and Indonesian.

“We saw the opportunity to connect people in a new way without asking them to give up the things they like and already value, like Facebook and Google and Yahoo,” Lucatch said.

The Google Translate app, meanwhile, allows users to speak or type a phrase into their phone and have it be translated into any one of more than 50 languages, some audible and some in text only. The iPhone app can “speak” translations in a synthesized voice in 23 different languages. The Android version has an experimental “conversation mode” for English and Spanish, a feature that combines speech recognition and language translation. Two people who spoke just Spanish or English could hold a phone between them, allow it to record a phrase in one language, send it to Google’s cloud network for translation, and “speak” it back in the other language — all in a few seconds. Microsoft also has a translation app that runs on its Windows Phone 7 platform.

Efforts at computer translation reached a turning point in the 1990s as scientists gradually abandoned trying to program computers with the rules of grammar and diction in favor of a statistical approach. Computer scientists like David Chiang of the Information Sciences Institute at USC say they have made great progress in having computers look at millions of sentences and their translations, using powerful statistical models to allow computers to infer the rules of grammar — an application of artificial intelligence that mimics the human mind.

Still, computer scientists note that informal speech and text — laden with jargon, localized expressions, inconsistent grammar, and the “ums” and “aahs” that pepper everyday conversation — is among the most difficult problems in machine translation and speech recognition. Indeed, when Twitter announced a “Twitter Translation Center” on Monday, it said it would rely on humans to translate the site into less commonly spoken local languages.

“We’ve found that the quality is higher when humans translate,” said Carolyn Penner, a Twitter spokeswoman. Even Ortsbo plans to use humans to translate common expressions like “your neck of the woods,” that can be nonsensical if a machine translates them literally.

Chiang called the Google app “impressive,” but said it also shows the limitations of machine translation.

“If I’m traveling to a foreign country, and I want to be able to ask, ‘Where is the bathroom?’ I’m pretty confident this app can do this,” Chiang said. “But if I want to negotiate a business deal, I think we probably have some way to go.”

Och joined Google in 2004 after a personal recruiting call from co-founder Larry Page, who assured the scientist that linguistic translation was central to Google’s mission “to organize the world’s information.” But despite the advances Google and others have made in machine translation, Och believes there will be a role for human translators for the foreseeable future.

Machine translation “opens up possibilities that we’ve never thought of before,” he said. “There will be more need for (human) translators, just because it’s encouraging people to do things across the language barrier.”

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“Ortsbo getting big traffic in first seven months since launch”

Source: TechVibes | Feb. 14, 2011 | by Liam Britten

Intertainment’s online translator Ortsbo released some pretty impressive traffic numbers today, most impressively the 67.2 million minutes of user engagement the website has attracted since the website launched on July 22nd of last year.

Ortsbo, based in Toronto, is a real-time translation service that integrates with existing chat services like MSN Messenger, Google Chat, Facebook Chat and 10 other major chat services. With Ortsbo, you can assign a language to any one of your contacts and have those contacts receive your message in that language without copying and pasting translated messages from a translation website.

Since the July 22nd launch, Ortsbo, which is still in public beta, has seen huge traffic numbers. 300,000 users are on the website every week, contributing to 42.3 million page views and 18.7 million chat sessions. 12.6 million unique visitors are using the website from 170 countries and territories, including the top 10 markets for Ortsbo, China, Taiwan, South Korea, the United States, Brazil, Germany, Canada, Russia, Ukraine and India.

With 39,000 Facebook fans and 5,000 Twitter followers, Ortsbo says that they have been focused on user engagement. They say that a focus on engagement will “improve overall service and performance and provide a long-term deployment program allowing for significant increase in users around the world.”

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“Tech weekend: Service instantly translates as you chat”

Source: USA Today | Feb. 12, 2011 | by Deborah Porterfield

You write in English. Your Web-pal writes in Japanese. You can chat in real time with the help of Ortsbo, a site that provides instant translations in more than 50 languages.

You can chat in real time with the help of Ortsbo, a site that provides free instant translations in more than 50 languages.

Designed as a free service, the site works with popular social media platforms such as Facebook, Google Talk, AIM, iChat and Windows Live Messenger. With integrated Twitter and RSS tools, the service converts messages both ways:

Simply select the desired language and the site will automatically translate the messages you send into the recipient’s preferred language and the messages you receive into your preferred language. Want a group discussion? It also can handle multiple translations at the same time.

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“Say Hello to Ortsbo: Social Networking Goes Multiplatform and Multilingual”

PC Mag Online | Feb. 10, 2011 | by William Fenton

A free instant chat translator, Ortsbo, recently launched, giving jet-setting socialites real-time language translation in online chat. Available now as a beta, the free Web site enables users to converse across continents with support for more than 50 languages—from English to Arabic.

With Ortsbo, users can chat and translate in real-time across more than a dozen social-networking platforms. After registering for an Ortsbo account, you can choose from any or all of the available chat services. The site supports multiple services simultaneously, so you can chat with a Chinese friend on Tencent QQ, a German friend via MSN Messenger, and an American friend over Facebook Chat—all without ever leaving the page. Because it’s fully automated, it’s as simple as selecting your languages (input and translator) and chatting.

For e-mail enthusiasts, Ortsbo features a tool called Ortsbo Transl8tr, which lets users bid adieu to the Babelfish ballet. With the option to translate and e-mail text instantly, you can keep in touch with multilingual mates sans copy-and-paste. The company plans to bolster social network support and roll out further enhancements in the coming months.

“As we move forward, Ortsbo will expand its capabilities to e-mail, RSS feeds, casual and social gaming and other key areas of commercialization,” said Ortsbo CEO David Lucatch. “With over 4 million active monthly users, Ortsbo is accelerating its growth and activities to all corners of the globe breaking down the language barrier.”

Ortsbo isn’t the only one chipping at the language barrier. Yesterday Google brought its official Google Translate app to the iPhone, enabling users to “Speak to translate.”

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“Instant Chat Translator – Ortsbo Is Free Instant Chat Translator”

Source: About.com Adventure Travel | February 9, 2011 | by Lois Friedland

Ortsbo.com, which accurately bills itself as an instant chat translator, lets you easily communicate with friends, colleagues, and guides or tour companies around the world who speak different languages. Ortsbo (which means “local” in Swedish) supports approximately 50 languages, and even allows multi-language chats in multiple environments.

The Web site went online last summer and by late January, four million unique monthly users had discovered Ortsbo.com for instant chats. They’ve been using Orstbo via Facebook, MSN, Google Talk and other services. You can even put in a passage of text in another language and have it translated. (Handy for reading the fine print on a contract you’re about to sign with a guide service in a foreign country.)

Instant Chat With Ortsbo for Free

This instant chat translator is free and easy to use. Simply go to the web site, download the app and follow the directions.
Then, you can sign into one of the 13 networks and start writing. You send the message in English and your friend or contact in the other country will see the message in his or her language. They respond in their language and you will see it on your computer in English.

Instant Chat Translator Using Email

If you’re trying to plan an adventure travel trip on your own, and need to contact guides or tour operators in foreign countries and they don’t speak English, try the beta version of Ortsbo’s email application. Currently, it’s only available for Outlook and costs $29.95. The commercial release is expected within the next month or two.
Connect to Instant Chat Translator

To start talking to friends, tour operators and guides in other countries visit Ortsbo.com.

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“Be Multilingual Instantly”

Source: The Boston Globe | February 4, 2011 | by Kari Bodnarchuk

Ortsbo’s real-time automatic translator lets you chat with people in more than 50 languages, from Greek to Ukrainian to Vietnamese, using your native language. The free, web-based application works with 13 social media networks, including Facebook, Google Talk, Yahoo! Messenger, iChat, and AIM, that allow you to instantly send and receive messages in your chosen language. It can translate multiple languages with multiple people at the same time.Ortsbo, which means “local’’ in Swedish, needs no special software, but you and your fellow chatters have to install Microsoft’s Silverlight plug-in. 800-395-9943, ext. 324, www.ortsbo.com

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“Ortsbo Unveils Free Real-time Translator For PCs & MACs”

Source: Business Travel Executive | January 26, 2011 | by Judy Ferring

Ortsbo, a web-based language translator, has unveiled a platform-agnostic service able to integrate with more than a dozen social media networks to provide instant translation in more than 50 languages. The free service is currently available on both MACs and PCs. An upcoming version for HTML and HTML5 is currently under development to accommodate a larger web presence, the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch, as well as other mobile handsets and computer devices.

The service is built on Microsoft’s Silverlight platform: Ortsbo requires no software to install on either the sender’s or recipient’s end, as long as Silverlight is already in place. Users simply indicate the desired language for their intended recipient and Ortsbo does the rest. Multiple chat sessions across multiple social networks in multiple languages can be conducted simultaneously in real time.

The most prevalent of those language choices are likely to be Chinese and Spanish, according to David Lucatch, president of Ortsbo. Despite the proliferation of English on the Internet, speakers whose first language is one of those two outnumber English speakers by more than 60 million.

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Ortsbo on Web Nation

CP24 (TV) Jan. 19, 2011

“CWC THIS WEEK: Gaga for gadgets”

Source: IT World Canada | January 11, 2011 | by IT World Canada

Our weekly video roundup. This week:

TECH IN TWO MINUTES Ortsbo CEO David Lucatch demonstrates the company’s real-time, online translation service for instant messaging and social media.

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