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Nintendo released an update for the Wii today, that gives users better control of the parental options available on the console. There’s still no news on when the channels are coming (news, weather and more) or when we’ll see the Opera browser. If you do decide to update your Wii, take into account the browser exploit that’s been available for the Wii probably won’t work anymore. A few users are also having trouble loading certain games. Looks like I’m going to have to go an update my console so no one can use it but me.

Nintendo Refines Options For Parents [destructoid]

Sony Computer Entertainment of America head Kaz Hirai will be replacing Ken Kutaragi as president of Sony Computer Entertainment. Kutaragi has been promoted to become chairmen of SCE and Jack Tretton, executive vice president of SCEA, will be taking Hirai’s place.

Kutaragi will continue to oversee the entire SCE Group as chief executive officer, and will fully exercise his power to reinforce and further accelerate the development of the PlayStation business

- Sony

Though Sony didn’t state why it decided to promote Kutaragi, it’s more than likely it was due to problems with the PlayStation 3 launch. Under Kutaragi, North America received a very limited number of PS3 consoles, and once the console released, it has had nothing but bad press. Sony needs to make some changes, and hopefully we’ll start seeing them soon.

Sony Gets New President [game industry.biz]

TigerDirect.com Gives Shoppers A Chance to Win one of 20 Sony PlayStation 3’s, 20 Nintendo Wii’s, and 20 Microsoft Zunes over the Next 20 Days

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Well they’re calling him Sam, but I know Beethoven when I see him. And no I’m not saying all St. Bernards look alike.

Anyway, here is the commercial for Samsung’s Q1 UMPC. Intriguing product, but I’m not sure about the commercial. What do you all think?

Nokia + Yahoo! [Nokia Press Release]

We just got in the Insignia 2GB Sport video player. An interesting beast. It’s branded with Best Buy’s music store and plays MP3s and WMAs as well as some video formats – not DivX, apparently, because a movie I just dragged over didn’t play. I’ll take a closer look tonight. It also has and audio in jack and FM tuner and is considerably lighter – but not smaller – than the nano.

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I’ve used a pair of Sennheiser headphones since my gaming days (long time ago), so I can attest to their awesomeness. And as someone who exercises a lot, I’m always in the market for a good pair of sports headphones. Well these MX75 might be just the thing.

Using a convenient twist to fit technology, the MX75’s provide a snug fit for athletics. It also has various ear piece attachments for different settings. The system includes a clip for snapping the cord to your shirt, keeping it from flopping around wildly.
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HP’s new IQ770 PC (aka Crossfire) is looking incredibly powerful now that some specs have gotten out and details are emerging. Slated for a January launch, this 19-inch touch screen behemoth comes with Vista and is ready to roll with a slew of features and is packed with goodies. The specs include an AMD Turion 64 X2 dual core TL-52 CPU (Christ that’s a long name), 2GB of RAM, 320GB of storage, Geforce Go 7600 graphics, WiFi, Bluetooth, a 1.3MP camera built-in, FM and ATSC HDTV tuners, DVD burner with LightScribe, wireless keyboard and mouse, card readers, remote control, 5.1 digital out, six USB 2.0 ports, two Firewire ports, and about 2037490720374 other things. Man do my fingers hurt after typing that!

So how much would you expect to pay for a monster of a machine like this? $4000? $3000? Nope! The Crossfire will range from $1799 – $1899 and though not as pretty as some other all-in-one PCs, this baby offers some serious competition.

HP IQ770 “Crossfire” 19-inch touchscreen Media PC revealed! [Engadget]

…Our latest CrunchGear reporters. Seth is a former Men’s Health writer who will be focusing on the future with a new column launching next week, Mike worked at PC Mag until they stopped caring about audio and he will now care about audio for us, and Peter Suciu is a gaming guru with enough pull at Nintendo to get his face superimposed on Bowser in Super Paper Mario 2. For reals! Read on for their full bios and don’t forget Bryce, our crack squid illustrator who is looking for freelance work.

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Apple has filed a new patent application for a method of browsing podcasts. It’s patent 20060265637, Utilization Of Podcasts on Portable Media Devices.

ZDNet has a bunch of pictures of arrows and squiggly lines if you want to go check them out for yourself.

The word “audiophile” gets bandied about so much that it seems in danger of losing its true meaning as a descriptor for a grade of products that is of such high quality that most of us can’t hope to afford then. But this year saw quite a few items blurring the line between audiophile and consumer audio, as higher-end components are finding their ways into almost-affordable products. The eight deliciously designed audio toys below are my favorites of 2006, and while they’re not exactly cheap, you don’t have to be Paris Hilton to get one in your holiday stocking this year.

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Mobility Today has a video demoing the beta functions of Windows Live Search for Mobile. The video showcases many of the cool features the service will offer. Features like directions and traffic information. It’s still in beta, of course, but it looks promising.

Be sure to head over to Mobility Today to read the rest of their comments on it.

Now this is what we call a sexy MP3 player. Pictured above is the YP-K3, the successor to Samsung’s YP-K5 audio player. This bad boy has a great design and is supposedly Samsung’s thinnest player to date. Slated to debut during CES 2007, the YP-K3 will not feature a built-in speaker like it’s older sibling. Also, the display is now 1.8-inches and no one really knows how good it looks just yet. Judging by these delicious photos though, this is one MP3 player I’d actually buy that isn’t the iPod (which says a lot). When CES 2007 rolls around in January, we’ll definitely give you an update on this one.

Samsung YP-K3: The K5’s Little Brother, Sans Speaker [Gizmodo]

I reported Tuesday that the BlackBerry Pearl had a prelaunch status on the Cingular site. Well the sexy BlackBerry candybar is now available to the masses. It carries a $199.99 price with a two year contract.

You can get it online now. Or if you prefer brick-and-mortar, a limited but expanding number of retail stores will be carrying the Pearl. Good luck finding one though.

Also announced is that the Pearl will support Cingular’s TeleNav GPS. The TeleNav system allows for the routing of 10 trips per month for a fee of $5.99 or $9.99 for unlimited trips. Possibly useful in a pinch, but definitely not as good as something like the Helio Drift.

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Tom’s Hardware Guide, the platform and processors add up to a whole lotta “meh.” Which, by the way, took them 13 pages to get to.

It’s not that the setup doesn’t have its perks: Good enthusiast power, well priced, big bandwidth, dedicated memory for each chip and the ability to upgrade to two quad-core CPUs later next year, giving you eight cores to process your ones and zeros.

But THG just doesn’t see the point because of huge power and cooling demands, high platform costs (only one motherboard is available from Asus and isn’t in retail), and the benefits aren’t immediately accessible with today’s programs. And all just to get about the same performance as Intel’s quad-core processors.

AMD’s 4×4 Platform & Athlon 64 FX-70 – Brute Force Quad Cores [tom's hardware]

When you walk into a gym, you see the same gear you saw 10 years ago, with little or no innovation. Sure, some equipment now features music or some kind of TV but there is little that would really make the sedentary crew of CrunchGear want to leave their comfy chairs. Until now: Expresso Fitness has released an innovative virtual reality-enhanced fitness bike, the S2. The fitness bike features a 17-inch LCD screen, heart rate sensors, steering mechanisms, a shifter and a Pentium PC with built-in TV tuner and video card. Ready for your cardio workout?

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A report from Frank Magid Associates states 53% of consumers are buying HDTVs for video games and DVD playback. Last year, 63% of consumers were buying HDTVs for high definition TV shows, the percentage has now dropped to 47%. Consumers are having trouble with HD subscription with their cable providers and feel that there just aren’t enough high definition TV shows out there, which is true. As a Comcast customer, I get about 10 channels in high definition, and a few of those are HBO and Starz, not standard programming. Consoles like the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 are high definition ready right out of the box.

At this point, consumers can choose between high definition and standard definition without losing much. I feel that in the next year, once HD DVD and/or Blu-Ray fully enter the market, it may force studios to slowly stop releasing DVDs altogether, forcing users to buy a HDTV. Of course, that all depends on how successful HD DVD and Blu-Ray are, but I really see the market pushing towards HD, mainly because if forces consumers to buy new products. We’re already starting to see this with video game consoles&mdash if you don’t have a HDTV, you’re really not getting the experience you could be getting out of your game. Only time will tell, we’ll keep you posted.

Forget HDTV, We Want HD Gaming [joystiq]