Geeks Lyle, John, and Sean will be on hand to discuss the week’s news and to take your calls.
! Week in Geek
!! Nintendo’s Wii
Nintendo Wii gaming console launches November 19th.
Nintendo announced that it’s gaming console called Wii will be launched in the US on November 19th, in Australia on December 7th, and in Europe on December 8th, and will well for $250 in the US.
The price includes one wireless Wii Remote controller, one Nunchuk controller, and the groundbreaking collection of five different Wii Sports games on one disc.
Every Wii console includes a series of on-screen “channels” that make up the Wii Channel Menu that is the starting point for all of the console’s functions. When connected to a TV, the Wii Channel Menu offers a simple interface, letting users pick games to play, get news or weather, view and send photos or even create playable caricatures of themselves to use in actual games.
The most interesting aspect of Wii is the controller that allows users to pinpoint targets in games or move through the Wii Channel Menu. Nintendo dubs it an intuitive control system that will be understood immediately by everyone, regardless of their previous experience with video games, and will make games both easier and more intense. For example, in the Wii Sports tennis game, players swing the Wii Remote like a racket to hit the ball, as in real life. They can add topspin or slice the ball just by angling their hands and wrist like they would in a real match.
The downside: Wii will not include a DVD player, so it cannot play DVD movies. Nintendo feels most people already have a DVD player and it was a good way to cut costs. Some games may be region-locked, as is the case wth Xbox 360 games, but this is not required by game publishers.
[Read a liveblog of Nintendo’s NYC Event|http://kotaku.com/gaming/nintendo/liveblogging-nintendos-nyc-event-200486.php].
!! Microsoft launched its Zune portable media player
[Zune| http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2006/sep06/09-14ZuneUnveilingPR.mspx] is a digital media player that competes head-to-head with the Apple iPod. Zune comes in black, white or brown colors and features a 30GB hard drive, 802.11b/g wireless connectivity, a USB 2.0 interface and a bright 3-inch LCD video screen that works in portrait or landscape mode. It also includes an FM tuner, and advanced tuning capabilities allow you to see the name of the song currently playing on selected frequencies that broadcast a Radio Broadcast Data Standards (RBDS) signal.
With Zune, users can share music between devices using Zune-to-Zune music sharing that utilizes the integrated wireless connection to share selected songs, homemade recordings, playlists and pictures between Zune devices that are within range. Shared songs can be listened to up to three times over the course of three days and can be later purchased from Zune Marketplace.
Zune Marketplace is Microsoft
