Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

Getting the newest games console has always been hard, and the Nintendo Wii is no exception with ‘Out of stock’ signs adorning many games hardware outlets.  In addition to unrelenting demand, would be buyers are facing constraints from an unlikely source.  If you can’t get a Nintendo product this year: blame Somalian pirates.

Not content stealing folks using Torrents, but sword in mouth, eye-patched, rum-swilling pirates.  Thought today’s crews cary RPGs and fast boats to seize your electronics as their booty.

Find out why the increase in pirating means no Wiis for many.

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Despite uneasy feelings on Wall Stre5et, electronic gadgets are predicted to gain in sales by 3.5 percent over last year’s Q4.  While overall spending is set to decline on holiday shopping, gadgets are somewhat immune.  According the CEA (Consumer Electronics Association), specific gadgets will still do extremely well this holiday season.

Smartphones

Any product that increases connectivity with friends and loved ones will be spent on more heavily according to the CEA report.  Consumers will forgo other luxury spending to get smartphones that can handle e-mail, texting, phoning and even Internet browsing.  Consumers can justify the expense easier as the phone becomes integral to daily life.

See what other electronics can withstand this economy after the break.

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This is where we call out by names the actions and companies that seem odd, out of touch or just plain straight up smokin’ crack.  Technology is an odd realm where PR speak doesn’t hold a lot of water if the 1s and 0s don’t line up.  This week sees posturing, positioning and flat out insanity.  Here is what caught my eye this week:

Check out my mockery of:

• Cell phone carriers
• Dell
• Asus
• Motorola (yet again)
• the gaming industry

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Imagine if your TV was strong enough to withstand any Wii-mote strikes, you could then indulge in your favorite Wii games wholeheartedly without worrying about accidentally damaging your expensive TV. Panasonic has unveiled a new line of Wii-proof plasma TVs at its HD Networking Conference in Valencia, Spain.

Panasonic claims that the plasmas can resist up to 4 joules of energy, which is enough to protect it from a flying Wii-mote unless it is purposely thrown with great force…

Read [Gamertell]

• Gamertell Review: Animal Crossing City Folk for Wii
• Hudson’s Fishing Master World Tour takes the gold
• Aonuma will not stop until he makes a game better than Ocarina of Time

At least, that’s what the sales figures for American consumer games market share in February shows as compiled by NPD Group. Nintendo blew away competitors by the thousands. The company sold 485,000 DS units and 335,000 Wii consoles in the month. Microsoft, on the other hand, only managed to sell 228,000 of its Xbox 360, while Sony was struggling to move 127,000 units of its PlayStation 3 out of its stores.

The popularity of the Wii console was evident in the impact its sales had on the company’s supply chain, Nintendo said. Gamers were “snapping up virtually every system available in America,“ the company added.

Combined, Nintendo game systems “represented 54 percent of all hardware sales in February, more than those of all other manufacturers combined,“ noted the company.

Nintendo’s success was attributed to the simplicity of it’s products.

“The DS has games that go down to pre-school level and the Wii has games where you don’t even need to crack the instruction manual at all to play.“

Xboxers and Playstationers…. what say you?

Read [Tech News World]

• Random Amazon game deals
• Sony’s Home beta temporarily shuts down for maintenance
• Sony giving away Qore Episode 7 for free

This has got to be one of the coolest Wii ads I have seen so far. If I were the owner of Nintendo, I’d asked my PR department to checkout on Super 78 and track down the person who had come up with the idea for this ad.

To make things a little bit more interesting, Super 78 should create something for competing game consoles as well and see who gets to them first for their next advertising job. By then, my guess is that there could be a lot of USD potentially change hands and someone will be laughing all the way to the bank.

Read [Guardian Unlimited]

• Gamertell Review: Animal Crossing City Folk for Wii
• Random Amazon game deals
• Scandalous Animal Crossing - Baabara the sheep’s catchphrase is the N-word

Don’t let the 600,000 Wiis sold in North America shortly after its launch fool you. According to a report by Yahoo, the winner of this past holiday season’s console war is Microsoft’s Xbox 360.

Editor’s Note: NPD Group was incorrectly attributed in the source articles. Click here for the update. - PJ

Hold it. Before Xbox fans start breaking out the champagne, there’s one thing we must consider: remember the supply problems? The insanely long lines? The exorbitantly-priced units sold at eBay?

Michael Gartenberg, vice president and research director at Jupiter Research, noticed this too and was quick to point out that the real test will come when everyone is on equal footing with regards to available units. The Wii and the PS3 had limited units available, while the Xbox 360 had a year to work out any hitches in manufacturing, said Gartenberg.

Ergo, it’s a bit early for Microsoft to claim long-term victory. The holiday battle may be over, but the console wars aren’t.

All things considered, Sony remains to be king of the hill, thanks to the way paved by PlayStation and PlayStation 2, but that 60% grip may not last for long.

Read [Yahoo!]

• Random Amazon game deals
• Sony’s Home beta temporarily shuts down for maintenance
• Sony giving away Qore Episode 7 for free

While Nintendo lawyers are busy preparing to defend a lawsuit over a patent infringement allegation by Interlink, Nintendo’s cash registers in Europe have not stopped ringing. Nintendo’s CEO Satoru Iwata must be laughing all the way to the bank.

Who cares about who owns the design patent on the Wiimote? The Europeans certainly didn’t give a damn. Nintendo’s Wii sold out in Europe in less than a week, making it the fastest-selling home console ever. In fact, 325,000 units were sold in the first two days after the machines went on sale in the region on Dec 8. And Nintendo seems to be working around the clock to ensure steady supply across Europe, whose residents are in the shopping mood with Christmas just around the corner.

Thanks to the free publicity generated by Interlink’s lawsuit,  Nintendo can now look forward to repeat success in more countries after similar success in the USA and Japan recently. Did I just hear another cash register ringing?

Read [Bloomberg] via [Techjunkeez]

• Gamertell Review: Animal Crossing City Folk for Wii
• Random Amazon game deals
• Scandalous Animal Crossing - Baabara the sheep’s catchphrase is the N-word