SHOW #103 - NerdBoyTV: Tech News - April 16, 2011

In this episode of NerdBoyTV, Ryan Yee reviews the tech news of the week, including a discounted Wii, the end of the Flip Video, YouTube Copyright School, and the white iPhone coming soon.

Mickey is an epic amount of fun

This looks like a very fun Wii game with Mickey Mouse.

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NerdBoyTV ALERT: Target Store Ads for 10/3/2010

NerdBoyTV with Ryan Yee is focused on alerting everyone to the best electronic buys at Target Stores. This week, the iPad arrives at Target! It's easy to subscribe to NerdBoyTV at http://www.JoinNerdBoyTV.com.

National competition seeks best Wii gamers

National competition seeks best Wii gamers - CNN.com: "Are you a wiz at Wii bowling? Do you have mad Mario Kart skills? Here's your chance to prove it.

Nintendo is seeking the best Wii gamers via a national competition featuring five of its popular games.

Beginning July 16, the Wii Games: Summer 2010 competition will be open to all gamers in theme parks and shopping malls in 24 cities.

Players will do battle as two- and four-player teams organized by age groups. They will compete in five games: basketball and bowling in 'Wii Sports Resort,' the Hula Hoop challenge from 'Wii Fit Plus,' and two adventure games, 'New Super Mario Bros. Wii' and 'Mario Kart Wii.'

Scores from the games will be combined to determine winners. The competition concludes with a national championship event on September 3-5 in Los Angeles, California.

Olympic medalist Shawn Johnson will be the ambassador for the competition and appear at some events.

'I play Wii games with my friends and family all the time,' Johnson, a medal-winning gymnast at the 2008 Olympic Summer Games, said in a statement. 'I'm looking forward to watching people from all over the country coming together to have fun and compete.'

Winners will receive an entertainment package that includes a flat-screen television and surround system, a new Wii console with Nintendo games and a Netflix membership. Winners in the family category also will receive a cruise for the entire team.

For rules and information, click here.

- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Nintendo Wii sales plummeting

Nintendo Wii sales plummeting - Yahoo! News by Christopher Null

Everyone loves that Nintendo Wii, don’t they? Why, just this weekend I went to a housewarming party, and sure enough, Wii Sports was up and running for the kids to play with. You can’t get away from it. Wii is everywhere.

And perhaps that is why no one is buying any more Wii consoles. Nintendo is now in a bit of a pickle, as its Buddha-belly-sized coffers are shrinking, thanks to rapidly decreasing interest in the Wii.

According to Bloomberg Businessweek, for the second year running, Wii sales have fallen, and the company is now missing sales forecasts. Nintendo's net income is declining, too, estimated to fall 13 percent this year, on top of an 18 percent drop last year.

Why the disinterest? Aside from the obvious issue that these consoles have already saturated the market, the Wii continues to suffer from a lack of good games. The only really hot titles are still those produced by Nintendo itself — mainly continuations of the Mario and Zelda saga — and there’s really only so much milk that can be squeezed from that teat.

With Wii-mania fading, the company is now focusing on its upcoming 3-D DS handheld console, which was announced earlier this year and has a targeted release date in early 2011. Nintendo launched the original DS in 2004 and has tweaked it bit by bit ever since, but it hasn’t seen a major upgrade since the start, and the no-glasses 3-D capabilities of the new handheld could be a compelling sell.

Unfortunately, Nintendo, once the leader — by far — in a two-horse mobile-gaming race alongside Sony, now has every cell phone to deal with as competition, as players have turned to iPhones and Droids to game their way through flight delays and post-office lines. And now there’s the iPad to contend with as well: It’s not just a Web browser and e-book reader; it also makes a pretty good gaming device with a giant screen.

So while its work is cut out for it in the portable space, what does Nintendo do with the home-game-console market? The Wii isn’t dead, but it’s already looking like it needs an upgrade, and a big one. Something to attract serious gamers, developers, and even more of that casual market. What about 3-D? Why not extend what’s going on with the handheld into the world of the television ... or is that just not possible?

Sony's motion controller named 'Playstation Move', priced under $100

By Plugged In - Yahoo! Games

"Sony is on the Move.

During an event at the Game Developer's Conference in San Francisco, the company officially unveiled the name of their upcoming Playstation 3 motion control device: Playstation Move. The controller will hit shelves this fall.

'It's fast, precise and accurate,' said Peter Dille, Sony's senior VP of marketing. 'We like to think this is the next generation of motion-gaming...we're really approaching this as a platform launch.'

Sony's response to the Nintendo Wii remote, the Playstation Move system requires both the new wand controller and the Playstation Eye camera to work. Though exact pricing has not been set, Sony confirmed that a 'starter kit' of one controller, one Playstation Eye and one game will be sold for under $100. The Move will also be sold as a standalone product or bundled with the Playstation 3 system itself.

The Move packs a ton of tech into its slim controller. A three-axis gyroscope, a three-axis accelerometer and a magnetic field sensor work in tandem with the camera to purportedly provide more accurate spatial recognition than the Wii remote."

2009 Hi-Tech Wishlist

Courtesy of MSNBC Technology

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Nintendo drops Wii price to $199

By Crave - CNET

"Nintendo has officially announced that the price of the Wii will drop to $199.99, effective on Sunday. The long-rumored $50 price cut comes in the wake of recent price drops for the PlayStation 3 ($299, with built-in Blu-ray player) and Xbox 360 ($299 for the 120GB version with built-in DVD player and Netflix support), which have boosted sales of the Sony and Microsoft consoles. (To date, the Wii remains the best-selling home game console of the three.)

Other than the price cut, there are no other changes to the current Wii bundle--you're still getting the console, along with the Wiimote and Nunchuk controllers and the bundled Wii Sports game. By contrast, there's at least one rumor that the U.K. will get a Wii package that adds the MotionPlus peripheral and Wii Sports Resort to the mix. Meanwhile, white remains the only color choice in North America (Japanese consumers can choose black as well).

Nintendo also took the opportunity to officially announce the release date for New Super Mario Bros. Wii, which had previously been slated for a vague 'fall 2009' window. The multiplayer Super Mario game will hit store shelves on November 15.

So, what do you guys think? Does the price drop make the Wii more attractive? Would you prefer a more enticing bundle? Or are you holding out for the Wii HD?"

Top 5 most playable ‘Beatles: Rock Band’ songs

By msnbc.com (CLICK to read more)

"You're dumb if you don't like the Beatles. That's a fact. If you do like the Beatles, you're even dumber if you haven't considered 'Beatles: Rock Band,' the new music game for Wii, Xbox 360 and PS3 that transforms your sing-along self into a virtual John, Paul, George or Ringo, complete with musical genius.

'The game is good, the graphics are very good — we were great,' said Starr when premiering the game this summer. And he's right on all three counts.

But not every song is as fun to play as it is to listen to. It takes chemistry and energy to really get things moving. So without further adieu, I give you the top five most enjoyable 'Beatles: Rock Band' songs when played with a band."

NerdBoyTV NOTE: I saw this on a video demo screen at Toys 'R Us. WOW, the graphics are AWESOME. Terrific way to pass The Beatles music onto the next generations. My 12-year-old loves it!

Wii Sports Resort Review - MSNBC

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'Wii Sports Resort' is a great gaming getaway

'Wii Sports Resort' — the long-awaited sequel to the massively popular 'Wii Sports' game — launched Sunday. And after spending far too much time playing it, I can say that it's a must-have game for any Wii owner — a charming collection of fun, absorbing , easy-to-jump-into games that just about anyone can play and almost everyone will dig. Yes, even some of you Wii haters out there.

Nintendo VP explains what's next for Wii

Nintendo Vice President Cammie Dunaway talks about what is next for the Wii in the face of new competition from Microsoft.

Sometimes imitation is more than just flattery: sometimes its a threat. Nintendo's Cammie Dunaway reacts to Microsoft's new "Natal" motion capture concept. Plus, a price cut for the Wii? And why Nintendo considers the iPhone more of a competitor than the Sony PSP.

Reporters Matt Richtel (New York Times) and Maggie Shiels (BBC) join host Scott McGrew.

PS3 bested by older brother

According to official April figures released by the NPD Group, the Playstation 3 found itself beaten out for fifth place by an unusual competitor: its predecessor, the Playstation 2.

A 50% leap in Playstation 2 sales accounts for the surprising change, an increase likely prompted by the system's price cut on April 1, a move which apparently electrified interest in the nine-year old platform.

The PS2's success was probably the only nugget of April sales news to put smiles on the faces of Sony execs. Nintendo platforms continued their lockdown of the top spots, with the Wii coming second and the DS coming both first and third, courtesy of the just-launched DSi: the DS's two hardware variations accounted for an astonishing million sales during April.Meanwhile, the Xbox 360 was down slightly over last April, but still managed a solid fourth place and remains on course for a record-breaking year.

How much ‘Guitar Hero’ is too much?

Will 2009 be the year of the “Guitar Hero” glut?

Sure seems like it. Activision Blizzard recently promised no fewer than five new games from its “Hero” family of games. There’s “Band Hero,” a top-40 version of “Guitar Hero.” There’s “DJ Hero,” complete with a new turntable controller, and “Guitar Hero 5,” the next full version of the game that started it all.

Wii Sports is best-selling game ever

Wii Sports is best-selling game ever - Video Game Feature - Yahoo! Video Games

"According to game-tracking website VGChartz, sales of Nintendo's pop-culture phenom Wii Sports have surpassed those of legendary platformer Super Mario Bros., making the breakout Wii title the best-selling video game of all time. And it only took two years and two months to do it.

The data is based on cumulative worldwide sales figures ending the week of December 27, 2008, which indicate that lifetime sales of Wii Sports have exceeded Mario's staggering 40.24 million units."

10 Best Bets for Black Friday

10 Best Bets for Black Friday - Yahoo! Shopping

By Nick Mokey, Digital Trends

It takes some pretty spectacular deals to pry Americans out of their recliners late every Turkey Day and send them out into blistering cold parking lots to camp for hours, but retailers have it figured it out with Black Friday. And if you're looking to score a big-screen TV for half of what it normally runs for, get a printer bundled with your camera for free, or pick up an MP3 player for the cost of a cup of coffee, you'll be out there too. With the economy forcing consumers to pinch their pennies even more this year, and retailers trying even harder to open those cautiously held wallets, the deals are ripe for the picking. Here are a few of our favorite picks for this year."

Wii Ware: Is This Nintendo's First Blunder?

Wii Ware: Is This Nintendo's First Blunder? - Video Game Feature - Yahoo! Video Games: "Nintendo's Wii console unveiled its own slate of original, downloadable games this month, and the service promises to broaden this unique machine's appeal still further. With low distribution costs and little barrier to entry, it's a hit among smaller, risk-averse developers.

But after being bewildered by bizarre interfaces, confused by storage limits and inexplicably accosted by orange Marios, we're left wondering: could this be the Wii's first blunder?"