Today marks the first day of the second week of our CrunchGear HiFi series. We have a few more reviews and features coming so stay tuned for all of that. In addition to some great content, we’re also running an audio inspired reader response series.
What is on the line, you ask? Good question: Read More
Already bored with your Wii games? Afraid you might actually have to go outside this summer? Fear not, your pasty-white skin is safe from the sun. Nintendo worldwide president Satoru Iwata announced today that 45 new Wii titles will be ready for purchase in the second quarter of 2007. And then there’s the online gaming!
Pokemon Battle Revolution and Mario Strikers Charged are the first two titles kicking off the launch of the Wii’s online gaming platform this summer. (Who doesn’t love Pokemon and Mario, right? Maybe Nintendo can launch new Metroid or Zelda online titles to beat those franchises closer to death as well.)
With Nintendo finally boosting production of the console you might actually get your hands on a Wii this summer and be able to play more with it, too.
UPDATE: Just straightening “my” facts a bit with this piece from an IGN story. Seems not all the games will see a summer release or hit the shelves at all:
The president clarified that he’s not sure if all these games will necessarily see release. However, the number does include some of the big Wii games that are set for release between the end of summer and fall, including Super Mario Galaxy and Smash Bros. Iwata hinted that these are real gamer games, rather than the casual stuff that we’re seeing a lot of on the DS.
Nintendo boss says 45 Wii games headed this summer [tg daily]
Iwata Meets the Press [ign]
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Skype (my favoritest Internet communications service for voice, text and video owned by eBay) and Intel (my favoritest chipset company that starts with the letter “I”) are teaming up this Mother’s Day (May 13, 2007), giving users in the U.S. and Canada free SkypeOut calls to any landline or mobile number around the world.
The “Gift of Gab” promotion, as they’ve dubbed it, runs 24 hours. Use the time to apologize for not calling last year, or for her birthday, or coming home for Thanksgiving, or for that time you wrecked the car/burned the house down/puked on her shoes after drinking way too much Jägermeister. Oh and while you’re at it, convince her to sign up for Skype. More information about the “Gift of Gab” is available here.
It stands to reason that the larger your TV set gets the more power it sucks from the socket and the higher your electric bill will be. Of course this also raises your cost of ownership, something few people take into consideration when buying a new TV.
As you can see in the chart I swiped from CNET’s TV power consumption quick guide, running your average plasma TV requires 328 watts of power. Pair it with an Xbox 360 or Playstation 3 and a cable/satellite box, and god knows what else you’ve got plugged in running in standby mode and it’s easy to see how you can rack up the charges.
CNET compares the power consumption of 54 TVs in the story. The cheapest to operate is the 27-inch Envision A27W221 LCD costing $33.62 annually. The worst? The Sharp LC-65D90U, a 65-inch LCD pulling down 583 watts when on, 76 watts in standby and costing an average of $223 annually to operate.
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With summertime right around the corner, I’m sure all you active people will be wanting to enjoy the outside (bloggers have no such luxury), iPod included. iPod accessory maker iSkins has three new Urbany ways to integrate your iPod (or cellphone or whatever) with your wardrobe.
The first is the Grooverider, which, apparently, brings you “into the supernatural world of entertainment.” I guess that means tap dancing ghosts. The fabric of the shirt itself is used to control the iPod. Mein Gott, that is spooky!
My recent switch to a Mac has been a surprising and fun-filled transition from Windows machines. I feel pretty dumb for not having made the switch sooner. But after some time you start to get bored and you need to find new ways to make your toys interesting again and the best way to do that is to mod the living bejeezus out of it. Now, I don’t mod things very much because of my twitch and I’m very zealous about my things being in pristine condition, so here are five cool things to do with your Mac. Feel free to add to the list as I’m sure there are other cool Mac mods that TechEBlog missed.
First up is a cool piece of software that turns your MacBook into a MacSaber. I still watch the original Star Wars trilogy on a monthly basis and like most guys my favorite part is the lightsaber fight scenes. I still make the sound effects for some reason, but who doesn’t? Want the software? I know you do, so get it here.
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The Xbox 360 Elite should be rolling into you local video game store right about now, and reviews have already started to hit the many tubes that make up the Internets. CNET’s is just as good as any, but they review kind of weird. At least, not how I would have done it.
So this might be a bit of a stretch, but the highly respected Wired pontificates that sales on Nintendo’s Virtual Console aren’t as good as they should be. Some 3.3 million games have been sold on the VC since its launch, which is actually up from 1.5 million back in January. The problem, Virginia, is that sales haven’t grown fast enough. With the Wii still damn near impossible to find (remember, though, Nintendo just did a mea culpa and will increase production), you would think that games on Virtual Console would be selling like hot cakes.
You may have read about Sony’s recent use of a decapitated goat during a God of War II press event and how people, generally, are anti-decapitated goat used for marketing purposes. Sony now says the event was of “unsuitable nature,”—corporate speak for “we done messed up”—and that the company will investigate what went wrong and how it happened. In the company’s defense, it didn’t decapitate the goat on its own, but bought it from a local butcher. That makes it all better, sure.
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It was bound to happen: a concept piece of electronics that I don’t like. (Compare that sentiment with previous ones, sirs.) This Alpha TV, designed by V12 Design, reeks of Brionvega, an Italian TV manufacturer from the Old Days. First, the color of the Alpha TV is just atrocious—it reminds of the SNICK couch and its metallic accents just look 1950s malt shoppe tacky. I understand that it’s supposed to be retro and all, but to me it just looks silly. I bet it doesn’t even do 1080p.
V12 via New Launches
Kids are fat these days. Kids also like to play video games more than they like to play regular teams sports like basketball or football. Light bulb! By getting kids to play Dance Dance Revolution at schools across the country, physical education teachers are helping the younglings lose weight. More than 1,500 schools are poised to have installed the game before the end of the decade, which, combined with the elimination of junk food from school cafeterias, should lead to plenty of kids losing their paunch.
Perhaps even better than that, educators and parents alike are seeing DDR act as bridge to more traditional physical activities. But for kids who were raised to be afraid of direct competition, i.e., “everyone’s a winner!,” the game is a welcome addition to their school day. Bye bye fat camp, hello dance mat?
P.E. Classes Turn to Video Game That Works Legs [New York Times]
Vudu is a small company that is tackling an age-old problem: how to get movies onto your TV without stuttering, buffering, or forcing you to walk to the mailbox. The solution? P2P.
The Vudu box will store the beginnings of movies you might enjoy watching and then methodically — and quickly — download bits of the movie from peers on the Vudu network. “But wait,” you say, “Don’t there need to be lots of peers on the…” Ssshhh! Don’t tell that to Vudu!
Yes, there need to be lots of peers on the network, which is where I think this product will falter. I don’t want to be a spoilsport, but I could see Vudu becoming a patent farm and the technology ending up in Comcast boxes before I see a standalone business of delivering movies a la TiVo.
 and 42-inch ($3,300) models. LG also boasts that the Quidam will be the bleeding edge in the LCD TV market. </p>
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