If you have been wondering about the dearth of posts for the past one week or so, we have a very valid reason for it. We were working hard in the background to come up with our 3rd Birthday Bash, which we will be celebrating on the 6th of June 2009.

At Techie Buzz, we have always been bringing the latest news, software reviews, interesting software discoveries, tips and tricks ^[1] and more for almost 3 years now, and before we turn 3 on June 6th 2009, we wanted to give back our readers some really good gifts for supporting us all through our journey.

To mark the completion of 3 years of Techie Buzz, we have a exciting announcement about the Techie Buzz Birthday Bash, where we will be having competitions and giving away prizes to participants.

This competition will start on 18th May and continue for the next 40 days, or depending on when we run out of prizes :-) whichever is latter. The prizes are exciting and will come in pretty useful to our users, thanks to our awesome sponsors for all the wonderful prizes.

Sponsorship is still open, if you are interested in sponsoring the Techie Buzz Birthday Bash, drop us an email at keith [at] techie-buzz [dot] com.

We will also be offering bonus cash prizes worth $150 at the end of the Birthday Bash for participants of the competitions, please check below for the rules on how you can be eligible for winning a bonus cash prize.

Kick-ass and Awesome Sponsors for the Techie Buzz Birthday Bash

How could we run this competition without the support of these wonderful guys, who decided to give us free licenses for some of the most exciting products available today along with some really awesome hardware that will add value to your computing life. Users usually have to pay for using the products, however you can win them for free through out our Birthday Bash competition.

Here are the Kick-ass Sponsors of our Birthday Bash in alphabetical order.

AMD (Advanced Micro Devices)

Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) ^[2] is an innovative technology company dedicated to collaborating with customers and partners to ignite the next generation of computing and graphics solutions at work, home, and play.

AMD will be sponsoring 3 graphics card from the leading brand in the graphics industry ATI Radeon, the prizes include 3 ATI Radeon 3850 series graphics cards.

In addition to that they are also sponsoring 5 Pen drives with 2GB space, exciting right? We will keep you updated on the prizes and competitions soon.

Anix Software

Anix Software ^[3] the creators of imaging softwares that make creating galleries and slideshows easier than ever are offering prizes worth $195, the prizes include;

• 5 single user licenses of MySlideShow Gold ^[4], a handy software that will make creating slide shows a piece of cake even for the most novice user, worth $39 each.

Balesio

Balesio ^[5] has created some exciting Office compatible software. FILEminimizer Office is an excellent tool that will help you minimize PowerPoint presentations, Excel spreadsheets and Word documents up to 98% using an intelligent file compression software technique which compresses pictures and embedded objects while still preserving the original file format and quality. FILEminimizer is easy-to-use with an add-in for Outlook, making it convenient to squeeze a file down with ease. What could be better? Recipients don’t need the software to edit or view the optimized files.

Balesio is giving away 5 licenses of FILEminimizer Office and 1 license of Balesio’s screen recorder software ALLCapture Enterprise to our readers.

Easeus

Easeus ^[6] the creators of popular softwares that make hard disk management, data recovery and partition much more easier than ever are offering prizes worth $160, the prizes include;

• 5 single user licenses of their popular Easeus Partition Manager Professional ^[7], which makes creating partitions and moving them around a piece of cake, worth $31.96 each.

fCoder Group, Inc

fCoder ^[8] the creators of the excellent Universal Document Converter will be offering prizes worth $345, the prizes include;

• 5 single user licenses of Universal Document converter ^[9], the most complete solution for the conversion of documents into PDF, JPEG, TIFF or other graphical files, worth $69 each.

FoneArena

FoneArena ^[10] a place where you can get all the latest news about the latest mobile phones, operator reviews, phone specifications, mobile wallpapers, mobile screensavers, ringtones and more are offering 2 prizes for our readers.

FoneArena is offering our readers a chance to win a Nokia 5130 Xpressmusic Handset ^[11] and a MTS Prepaid Mobile Phone with 1 million talk time.

Nero

Nero ^[12] the creators of next generation integrated digital media and home entertainment software suites which provides users with cutting-edge functionality are sponsoring prizes worth $150. The prizes include;

• 1 Boxed license of Nero 9 ^[13] the next generation of the world’s most trusted integrated digital media and home entertainment software suite, worth $99.99.
• 1 Boxed license of Nero Move it ^[14] a software that lets you access your files quickly and hassle-free from any supported source including your PC, digital camera, portable devices, and from online communities, and easily transfer them to iPod, iPhone, PSP and other mobile devices or online communities, worth $49.99.

Newegg.com

Newegg.com ^[15] The best place to find everything at a bargain, with over 40,000 products to choose from, this eggcellent site is your one stop for tech products and more. Newegg is sponsoring prizes worth $200

• 1 Western Digital Passport Harddrive 120 GB to take care of your backup needs. View Western Digital Store ^[16] on Newegg.com.
• Logitech MX Revolution Black 7 Buttons 2 x Wheels USB RF Wireless Laser Mouse View this mouse ^[17] on Newegg.com.

Nitro PDF Software

Nitro PDF Software ^[18] the creators of the popular and perfect PDF ^[19] product for business and enterprise, which combines the power to create, edit, organize, secure and convert PDF with ease are offering prizes worth $990, the prizes include;

• 10 single user license of the popular Nitro PDF Professional ^[20] software, worth $99 each.

PowerISO

PowerISO ^[21] a powerful CD/DVD image file processing tool, which allows you to open, extract, create, edit, compress, encrypt, split and convert ISO files, and mount these files with internal virtual drive. It can process almost all CD-ROM image files including ISO and BIN will be sponsoring prizes worth $300, the prizes include;

• 10 single user licenses of their powerful PowerISO software ^[21], worth $29.95 each.

StarDock

StarDock ^[22] which offers some of best Windows tweaking and enhancement softwares, along with superb customization softwares for Windows will be sponsoring prizes worth $230.

StarDock is offering their star product Object Desktop, a software that allows you to take your Windows XP or Windows Vista experience to the next level, the prizes include;

• 1 single user license of the Ultimate version of Object Desktop ^[23] worth $69.95.
• 4 single user licenses of the Standard version of Object Desktop $39.95.

Symantec

Symantec ^[24] the world leader in security softwares and creators of the popular Anti Virus software Norton ^[25] will be sponsoring prizes worth $250, the prizes include;

• 5 single user licenses of Norton 360 version 3 ^[26], the   award-winning security software Norton ^[25] 360 V3 protects subscribers’ PCs from up-to-the-minute online threats, including viruses, bots and spyware, worth $79.99 each.
• 5 single user licenses of their popular service Norton Online Backup ^[27], a secure, easy-to-use online backup service that automatically keeps files and digital assets safe and easily accessible from anywhere in the world, worth $49.99 each.

Syncplicity

Syncplicity ^[28] who provide us with the best backup ^[29], sync and share solution available today. Syncplicity will be sponsoring $500 worth of prizes. The prizes include;

• 5 one year 50GB syncplicity accounts ^[30] to keep your files safe in the cloud and access them from wherever you want, worth $99 each.

TechSmith

TechSmith ^[31], the market leader in screen capture and screen recording software will be sponsoring prizes worth $350. The prizes include;

• 1 singer user license for Camtasia Studio 6.1 ^[32], a software that record onscreen activity, edit it into a polished video   and allows you to share with the world. Camtasia Studio makes you look like a pro, worth $299.
• 1 single user license for Snagit Screen Capture 9.1 ^[33], a software that allows you to take a snapshot of anything on your PC screen, send it, store it, turn it into a detailed graphic, find it later, worth $49.95.

Uniblue

Uniblue ^[34] A software solutions provider of leading softwares designed to deliver superior speed, stability and continuity will be sponsoring prizes worth $180. The prizes include:

• 2 Copies of the industry leading registry cleaner, RegistryBooster 2009 ^[35] worth $29.95 each.
• 2 Copies of the industry leading computer performance scanner, SpeedUpMyPC 2009 ^[36] worth $29.95 each.
• 2 Copies of the industry leading PC driver scanner and updater, DriverScanner 2009 ^[37] worth $29.95 each.

Zabkat

Zabkat ^[38] which offers the best windows explorer replacement xplorer2 ^[39], that allows users to manage their files, pictures and documents productively is offering prizes worth $150. The prizes include;

• 5 Licenses of xplorer2 professional ^[39], a software which windows explorer should have originally been. xPlorer2 has kept the best bits and threw away the inconsistencies and irritations, all in a small and nimble, easy to use package, worth $29.95 each.

Phew that is the end of the list of our kickass sponsors.

Getting back to what the contest is about and what the rules will be, here are some of the rules & regulations along with other information that will be useful.

General Contest Rules and Details

Users may participate in a competition by using one of the following modes.

1. Tweeting about the contest in Twitter ^[40], users must use the exact phrase that we ask them to use to be eligible. Once users have tweeted about the contest, they should post a comment with the status link from twitter to be eligible for a entry.
2. Write a blog post and leave the link of the blog post in the comments, blog posts should be written on existing blogs and not newly created blogs specifically for the competition.
3. If users do not use Twitter or don’t have a blog, they can be still be eligible by commenting about why they like a particular product we are offering as a prize and why it beats the competition.
4. All the prizes will be drawn using a random lot.
5. We will email the winners the license keys or promo codes for the product, users may still have to download the product from the website before they can start using it.
6. Judges decisions will be final.

Note: Each contest rules may vary from the general rules, we will be posting participation rules for individual contests when we hold them.

Birthday Bash Bonus: Cash Prizes

If you are already excited about the prizes we have to offer, here is something that will get you more excited, at the end of the competition on the 3rd birthday of Techie Buzz, we will be offering a bonus cash prize of $150 to two random participants.

To be eligible to win a bonus prize, you have to follow certain rules as listed below.

Bonus Cash Prize Details and Rules

• A bonus cash prize of $100 and $50 will be awarded to two random participants at the end of all the competitions.
• To be eligible for winning a bonus cash prize, users must participate in all the competitions announced as part of the birthday bash, we will select the users who have participated in all competitions and draw two random winners from the list and award the cash prize to them.
• If there is only 1 user who has participated in all the competitions we have announced, we will award that single user the $100.
• If none of the users participated in all the birthday bash competitions, we will choose the next highest participation level and draw lots from those, for example if there are 10 birthday bash competitions and users have only participated in 9 of them, we will choose two random winners from users who have participated in 9 competitions, if only one user has participated in 9 competitions, we will award him/her $100.
• To be eligible to receive a cash prize, users must have a valid PayPal account, if the winner of the bonus cash prize does not have a PayPal account, we will redraw the bonus cash winners.
• Judges decisions will be final.

What more, you can catch up all the competitions and prizes on our Birthday Bash ^[41] page, to keep up with the competition don’t forget to subscribe to our RSS feed ^[42] or subscribe using email ^[43].

Rest assured we hope to make this 3rd birthday bash a really interesting affair for all our readers, we hope to get full support from our readers, do have fun and enjoy.

Psst.. don’t forget to tell your friends about Techie Buzz birthday bash, get started by tweeting about it. Tweet about the competition ^[44].

Birthday Cake Credit in main image credits ^[45]