073009.2033

Reports today show that Nintendo’s quarterly profits are down 61 percent. Should anyone be surprised by this? If you are a market analysis type, maybe but if you are a gamer, probably not. According to an article in the NY Times, Nintendo cites “boredom, not recession” as the main cause of their economic woes this quarter. I’m inclined to agree.

Nintendo can boast that they are still doing better than Sony but realistically, the Wii started the new generation console war with a massive lead from which their competitors still haven’t fully recovered. The Wii sports a truly innovate “Wii-mote” controller interface that Sony was quick to emulate right before the PS3 launch with their “six-axis.” Most of the games for Wii use the Wii-mote (that combines a joystick and a wand like a nunchuck) pretty well, but the Wii suffers from a fatal fall I pointed out long ago when the Wii’s specs were released. The Wii is effectively a supped up Game Cube. It lacks native video disc playback, no HD support, it’s web interface is very “2000 and late,” and I’m personally tired of Mario. Mario Galaxy, Mario Baseball, Mario Tennis, Mario Kart, Mario and Friends, Mario this, and Mario That – give me a break! I’ve felt for a long time that Nintendo was a one trick pony, but the Mario brand borers on ridiculous.

The problem with the Wii and the reason why I think the Wii will not bounce back in the Christmas season is the games suck. Use Sony and Microsoft have games that are graphically mind blowing, and are becoming increasingly realistic, more cinematic, more interactive, and more community oriented. The Wii simply can’t compete with the Xbox 360 and PS3 in the hardware department. As a result, the Wii can only hope to release great titles that make even better use of the Wii-mote which is difficult because from what I’ve seen, the controller’s potential seems close to maxing out. Add to this, PS3 and Xbox developers have had a lot of time to learn the consoles, so I trust the games coming out for the Christmas season will be unlike anything we’ve seen before gameplay-wise or graphically, and the Wii will have to resort to its whack-a-mole games to keep up.

The Nintendo Wii is a novelty game system that in my humble opinion, has a limited appeal to the hardcore gamers who comprise the largest percentage sales for any gaming system. It was a great experiment and has lots of potential, but Nintendo needs to stop focusing on gamers of today and project what gamers will want in the future. Until then, Nintendo needs a Golden Eye. You know, the blockbuster first person shooter for Nintendo 64 that is still considered one of the greatest games ever made? The game that single handedly saved Nintendo from failure? Without that one mega hit game, Nintendo is doomed. While I have no degree in finances, I will predict Nintendo will not have a good Christmas if they fail to produce a mega blockbuster hit. It is a problem too big for Mario or Whack-a-Mole sports.

072709.0352

How to make your iPhone/iPod Touch work with Peripherals

If you own an iPhone or iPod Touch, you have the coolest phone and mp3 player market (and this is coming from a windows guy!) However, you may find that hi-tech gadget in your pocket is too flashy to work with the cajillions of iPod peripherals, namely FM Tuners and iPod plug-in stereo systems. The easiest solution is to double check that you are buying iPhone or iPod Touch compatible peripherals, but if you’re trying to plug your device into your friend’s stereo system at a party, you don’t have much of a choice.

There is a solution to the problem however. All you need to do is go to the settings window, then switch your phone to “airplane mode.” This effectively turns your phone into and Touch into a regular iPod. I wish I had an explanation for why that works, but the end result is all that matters in the end. In my experience, this technique has worked 90% of the time. There was one fidgety stereo dock that didn’t want to cooperate, and another device that didn’t work at first, but unplugging and plugging in the iPhone again made it work.

So the next time you’re at a party with a lame playlist, you don’t have to let your hi-tech tendencies stop you from becoming the life of the party!

I have to give credit where credit is due – much thanks to my brother for making the discovery.

072409.2235

As I get older I find myself less attracted to instant messaging, preferring text messaging and better yet, phone calls. However, there are still some people I speak to predominantly through IM so I keep it around. When I do IM people, I’m finding myself gravitating toward Facebook. Facebook has many more advantages over traditional IM: an obviously more detailed profile, the status updates tend to be a truer reflection of the happenings of our friends, and in most cases, we have more friends on Facebook than tradition IM applications.

The problem with Facebook is I personally hate IMing on web browsers. I got to thinking wouldn’t be awesome if I had an application that merged my AIM, Yahoo, and MSN, accounts as well my Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter accounts, and worked just like a traditional IM program? Lo and behold, I stumbled upon Digsby. Digsby is awesome. It is exactly what I was looking for – perfect integration of all of my IM and social networking sites, great interface, customizable, all the newer features of IM programs like IM logging, tabbed windows, file transferring and picture sharing, and gives me new updates for all my networks without having to log in through my web browser. All of your conversations appear as traditional IMs. It seems to access Facebook via proxy because when I log into Facebook, the conversation I had via Digsby will appear on the Facebook site. With multiple skins, you can emulate the look of AIM, or use its own interface which I think it better and less cluttered than AIM. It lacks some of the polish of AIM, and aesthetically akin to an open source app, but that shouldn’t deter most users. I’ve tried other apps like seismic, but the interface was a bit too cluttered and didn’t really have the messaging features I was looking for.

If you want an exceptional messaging application that does it all, works great, and costs you nada, Digsby is the way to go,

Download Digsby Here

072309.1532




A couple of days ago, Yahoo rolled out their new cosmetic changes to their homepage. It doesn’t look terribly different to me, and they took away my favorite feature of the Yahoo homepage – the ability to preview my newest emails. The homepage aspect to Yahoo’s new look is slightly enhanced. As with the old version the top gossip stories appear on the top of the page, and news stories are found on the heart of the page. However the most interesting feature of the page is the ability to add your favorite websites on the sidebar. I like this feature, but is it really necessary? If you are say a Safari user, your top bookmarks are already in clear view under the address bar. If you are a web browser power user, you probably already implemented similar bookmarks toolbar on your browser of choice. So again, interesting feature, but I’d be interested to see how often people use it.

Yahoo is still a search engine underneath the new makeover and it is still nowhere close to touching Google on that front. So if I’m not searching on Yahoo or using the bookmarking system which is already found on my web browser what is Yahoo good for? Yahoo games! Yahoo has a community with its java based games, notably Pool, Chess, Literati, and Texas Hold ‘Em. Why not build on that platform and turn Yahoo more into a social networking platform where users can post commentary on the stories that appear on the homepage? They have all the tools for it: the Yahoo chat client has been around since the dawn of IM, they have a popular (if flawed) email service, and their brand is still a household name. I won’t suggest Yahoo drop its search platform (even though it will never catch Google) but I think Yahoo needs to stop emulating and start innovating. Create a platform where its existing user base can easily communicate with one another, use the Yahoo Games platform to form micro-communities and I think Yahoo becomes a strong contender. I hope they can turn their act around, but it will take more than a marginally improved interface to increase their revenues.