Monthly Archive for September, 2006

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Wii to launch on December 8 for £179 in Europe

Published on Saturday, September 16, 2006 in Gaming, Noteworthy, Software and Technology. Closed

nintendo wii logo

We have a European launch date and price! Though it is much later than the US and a few days later than the launch in Japan, at least it will be here before Christmas. The 360 launch was similar last year. The Wii will be on sale on December 8th throughout Europe for £179 / €249 EUR. The Wii will also include the Wii sports package, like in the US. Games will cost between £34-£39 / €49-€59 EUR. Launch games include the Legend of Zelda and WarioWare: Smooth Moves.
You can read the full UK press event details at Eurogamer.net

Another Apple event: September 25th

Published on Thursday, September 14, 2006 in Apple, Software and Technology. Closed

It seems that in the Apple announcement rush, we forgot that the original rumours about the event, stated that it was to be held one day before photokina, which is a photography event held in Germany on September 26th. It looks like that Apple may still hold this event, as UK press has received invitations, and recently MacWorld did as well. So maybe we have yet another Apple event to speculate about. The invitation is very vague, as always, and has a closeup of a camera lens, much like on the box of Apple’s Aperture, pro photography editing software, with the words “Start photokina a little early this year.” I guess that it will be a new version of Aperture, and/or maybe some bumped up MacBook Pro’s with Core 2 Duo’s maybe? We can all hope for something.

Note: The date has been errornously reported by many sites as September 24th, it is actually September 25th. photokina starts on September 26th.

iLounge spill the guts of the 2G nano

Published on Thursday, September 14, 2006 in Apple and Technology. Closed

So the nano has been out for 2 days and iLounge already felt compelled enough to take the poor nano apart. If that was mine, I’d take better care of it Apple sure managed to squeeze a heck of a lot of things in there, it is so small! Beware: If you open up easily at seeing bare gadgets, then you should not continue.

Lots of Wii News!

Published on Thursday, September 14, 2006 in Gaming, Noteworthy, Software, Technology, TV's and Wireless. Closed

Before I get to my other posts, there has been a lot of Wii information released today, and I don’t have the time to post about them all, so I’ll give you the lowdown:

USA TODAY have posted an article detailed the release information of the Wii, as well as the box that will be used (above). [link]
Games downloaded to the virtual console, will be tied to a user’s Wii account, so that in the event of something happening and all the games are lost, then they can all be re-downloaded for free. [link]
USB storage is initially limited to flash drives, and USB hard-drive support is not yet included, however they have not yet planned any USB hard drive compatibility yet. [link]
First-party Wii titles (ie, produced by Nintendo) will be region-free, however whether 3rd party games will be locked, is upto the manufacturer. It is not yet known though whether GameCube titles, which are region locked, will play in all Wiis, though they are supposedly fully compatible. [link]
The Wii will not be supporting DVD playback of films. Kerrin Kaplan, Nintendo of America’s vice president of marketing and corporate affairs confirmed with IGN today. The decision was made because it made the Wii cheaper, and that most people already have DVD players, so there is no need for the function. [link]
Wii Sports, which is bundled with the Wii, will include Tennis, Baseball, Golf, Bowling and Boxing. [link]

That about covers it! I told you there was a lot, I’ll bring you more news as it comes as European pricing has not yet been disclosed.

Wii Pricing and Dates for America: November 19th

Published on Thursday, September 14, 2006 in Gaming, Noteworthy and Technology. Closed

It looks like Northa America will be getting the Wii earlier than Japan which is quite strange. The details were also spilled early in by Seattle PI, then removed and re-instated. But at Nintendo’s NYC press conference the details were official revealed. The Americas will receive the Wii at a MSRP of $249 USD (or $280 CDN in Canada), in only white (therefore one configuration). Wii Sports, a game that has bowling, tennis and other sports games will be bundled with the console. Signiture game titles are Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, and Excitetruck both of which are available at launch. These first-party games will cost $49.99 US, and there are a lot of third-party games as well.

“These titles represent fantastic trio of first-party titles. There’s nothing like Legend of Zelda, first time we’ve had a Zelda title on launch. Gives us a huge boost and momentum right out of the box. We will continue to make those big masterpiece titles for the core gamer. Because of Wii remote and nunchuk, this Zelda game plays like no other. If you played all day, you’d only scratch the surface. This is the best gotta-have-it title since Mario 64.” – Reggie

A new section has been created in the Wii menu. Called Wii channels these offer different areas, ie) games, news, shop, weather, etc. A downloaded classic game will have its own channel. Starting on launch day, until the end of year, Nintendo offer 30 legacy titles. Next year, ten new titles will be released a month. 500 Wii Points for NES Games, 800 Wii points for SNES, 1000 for N64 Games. 2000 Wii Points for $20 USD. Wii points are used to buy things, like MS points for the 360. 2000 Wii points will go for $24CDN in Canada.
You can read Engadget’s full article, giving you a blow by blow of the event with photos.

Nintendo’s Japanese Wii Conference

Published on Thursday, September 14, 2006 in Gaming, Noteworthy, Technology and Wireless. 2 Comments

nintendo japan wii conference

Today at Nintendo’s Japanese Wii Conference, they revealed the pricing and more details of the Japanese launch for the Nintendo Wii. Japan receive their Wii on December 2nd, which is less than a month after the US get it (November 19th). The price will be 25 000 yen, which includes tax. That is roughly £113 or $213 USD. Nintendo’s Japanese press release states that the following will be included with the Wii:

Wii Console
Wii Remote with strap
Nunchuck attachment
Wii AC adapter
Wii A/V cable
Wii Console Stand
Sensor bar
Sensor bar stand
2 AA batteries

Joystiq has some sources, and used Engadget’s Japanese translator to get most of the information. Photos are from Japanese blog Famitsu. European and US details have been revealed at separate conferences, I’ll post more details on that later.

Get a Windows Vista RC1 Key

Published on Wednesday, September 13, 2006 in Microsoft, Noteworthy, PC, Software and Technology. 2 Comments

vista logo

When Microsoft announced that they are releasing Windows Vista RC1 I immediately went to download it. I didn’t in the previous BETA because I didn’t want to destroy my dad’s Windows PC. But now he wants to try it out so we downloaded it. However I realised that I needed to become a part of the Customer Preview Program to do this, which I didn’t sign up to back in June. However I found a good trick to get a key (this is legit and actually works!). The original site crashed but I managed to get the form (below). There is also another link you can follow, but I’m not sure whether that works for all countries, or just the US. Either way you can try them both So select your country and press go.
Note: You will need a Windows Live account (Passport.net account) to sign in.

Apple bought Coverflow

Published on Wednesday, September 13, 2006 in Apple, Software and Technology. 1 Comment

You know that cool browsing view Apple included into iTunes 7? Well it looks like they bought the technology from an individual developer. Well done to him! The coverflow website says:

We are pleased to announce that all CoverFlow technology and intellectual property was recently sold to Apple. It has been incorporated into the latest version of iTunes. Please visit www.apple.com/itunes

Now that is one guy who did very well for himself. I’m sure Apple paid him a good amount of money, and he deserved it, it is very cool! If you work hard, maybe Apple will buy your apps too!

Links for 13/09/2006

Published on Wednesday, September 13, 2006 in Gaming, Noteworthy, PC, Random Stuff, Software and Technology. Closed

The shorts for today (and some from the past) are:

Rotating Lego Chaingun that shoots elastic bands at 11 rounds per second – with video [link]
Why Linux doesn’t need defragging (good article) [link]
World’s worst hacker – IRC transcript (absolutely hilarious) [link]
iTunes 7 for Windows includes a Software Update like app to update Quicktime and iTunes [link]
Joystiq’s Wii rumour roundup [link]

The Xbox 360 Laptop!

Published on Wednesday, September 13, 2006 in Gaming, Noteworthy, PC, Technology and TV's. Closed

Although this is a couple of days old, I thought I should blog about it because it is really unique. You may have seen somewhere on the internet, devices that are portable versions of old consoles — ie, the N64, NES, etc — well this is like that, except it is unbelievably small. Folded up it seems smaller than the 360 itself, with a full keyboard and 17″ High-Def monitor. Now that is true portable gaming! Ben Heckendorn has created this masterpiece which is 2.8″ thick and weighs14 pounds. It also has a built-in WiFi adapter as well as a water cooling system, for noiseless gaming. And he all did this in 3 months!
On Ben’s site you can go to the final page and view the finished pictures, or browse through the four pages which detail his steps with plenty of pictures. This is one article which is definitely worth reading.