Nintendo’s eagerly awaited Wii games console went on sale yesterday in America, and the sales figures strongly suggest that the company have a winner on their hands.
Stocks quickly sold out in many stores, with sales outstripping its rival PlayStation 3, which hit the shelves two days earlier.
“There were enough people in line to snap up almost all the units of the Nintendo Wii that we had in stock, so it was an instant sellout,” enthused Circuit City spokesman Jim Babb.
Such was the enthusiasm for the new console that some sad obsessed nutters keen gaming fans had camped outside shops in New York and Hollywood for several days, with thousands of fans queuing outside shops on the launch day.
The first punter to get his hands on the shiny new console was the time-rich Isaiah Triforce Johnson, who had sat outside a New York store for more than a week.
Possibly lacking a little perspective and focus in his life, Johnson had already legally changed his name to include a reference to Nintendo’s “Zelda” games, and was pictured wearing a 1989 Nintendo Power Glove as he got to shake the hand of Nintendo’s America president Reggie Fils-Aime.
“I had to get it first,” he said, and I think we can understand why.
Sony had shipped 400,000 PlayStation 3s in North American stores at the end of last week, but Nintendo boasted that it would have “five to ten” times as many Wiis available at launch, with an end-of-year shipping figure of 4 million units expected.
Nintendo spokesman Yasuhiro Minagawa announced that around 400,000 Wiis will be hit the shelves for the 2nd December Japan launch date, with patience-stretched UK gamers finally getting the console in their grubby mitts on 8th December.
The unit will retail for £179 in the UK.
Sony has announced that it will be launching what it claims is the world’s lightest notebook computer in December in Japan.
Sony claims that their new laptop will keep on rocking for 12.5 hours on a single battery charge in Stamina mode – long enough for even the longest haul commuters.
The new lightweight range will be powered by a range of three CPUs (Celeron, Core Solo U1300 and U1400), backed by 512MB of RAM and 40-80GB hard disk drives.
Sony said that it currently has no plans to sell this featherweight beauty overseas (which is a real shame because our hearts are a-pumping at this little fella), but has announced that they will be knocking out for about 220,000 yen in Japan ($1,881, £985).
Sony and Sky are tying up to show the UK’s first HD advert tonight.
Shot over 10 days and with a crew of 250 people, the paint was mixed on site by 20 people. The clear up took 5 days and 60 people.
The launch of this first HD ad follows a major marketing agreement between Sky and Sony to promote HD.
Just spotted on the 
Notably, it’s also got a colour screen, albeit a teensy weensy, itty-bitty one which has to be one of the smallest we’ve ever seen that’s capable of showing album artwork (but we like seeing album art, even when it’s this small!).
The Walkman is billed as shipping with “noise cancelling technology,” courtesy of “high value EX headphones” with the player promising a healthy 50 Hours battery life backed up by a quick charge function.
We love a good laugh at overblown press releases that get carried away with themselves, so we certainly cheered up when we got our hands on Sony’s latest artistic offering describing their new Sony’s new Vaio C range of laptops.
Or maybe, “Cor blimey, who writes this Cobblers?”
Connectivity options come in the shape of an integrated 802.11a/b/g wireless LAN, Memory Stick Duo, Memory Stick Pro or ExpressCard media slots and i.LINK (IEEE 802.11) and USB ports.
Sony Europe has announced the Vaio LA-Series, a striking all-in-one Media Centre which is sure to make a big statement on your desk (e.g. “I have pots of money” or, “keep your grubby mitts off my fashion statement transparent surround”).
In a design not entirely unreminiscent of the iMac, the slim and sleek unit has all the components and gubbins neatly tucked away behind a large LCD screen.
In line with the unit’s eye catching looks, there’s Sony comes bundled with a wireless keyboard and mouse in a stylish brushed aluminium finish, with the keyboard “folding up for a beautiful presentation when not in use.” Can’t say we’ve ever seen a beautifully presented keyboard before, but there you go.
Sony has announced two new cameras shunting off their ever-busy production line, the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T50 and DSC-N2, both offering large LCD screens.
Shipping in (ahem) ‘bold’ red, black and silver, the DSC-T50 offers 56 MB of internal memory (with Memory Stick Duo/ PRO Duo memory cards allowing storage expansion up to 4GB) and sizes up at just 95×56.5×23.4 and 170g.
Sony DSC-N2
“With digital photography, the social interaction that happens when people share their pictures has become as important as making great photographs,” insisted Phil Lubell, director of marketing for digital still cameras and photo printers at Sony Electronics.
The exchange of Apple’s might-catch-fire batteries is happening faster than originally anticipated.
Apple have announced that they’re recalling 1.8 million laptop batteries including 1.1m in the US. This follows a 
We know that we’re looking at a camera that’s only going to appeal to a tiny niche of photographers, but it’s such a beaut we had to bring it to your attention.
Tough as nails
Exposure levels are set via a combination of 3 LEDs which indicate shutter speeds ranging from 1/2000 sec. – 8 sec. in automatic mode (1/2000 – 1 sec. + B in manual mode.)
Zeiss Ikon SW SuperWide Camera Specifications