New close-up images of the Wii. w00t!
In other news, Nintendo will be releasing an ethernet adapter for the Wii. We were simply waiting for confirmation. No clue as to the details though. Question though, why in the world would you buy something like that for $20-40 when you could just buy a wireless router for the same amount and have the ability for the other devices in your home?
Most everyone has heard of Blockbuster Video simply due to it’s nearly uncontested reign in the movie rental industry throughout the 80’s and 90’s, save for Hollywood Video’s appearance in the mid-90’s. Netflix took the industry by storm in the very late 90’s with it’s never-before-seen online rentals. Renting a movie on the Internet and having it mailed to one’s home was an uncomfortable concept for some, but for others, it was like the movie rental industry had finally reached a place where it would be able to offer services that matched their online life-styles. Blockbuster soon caught wind of this change and followed suit. So, that’s pretty much it regarding the history of each of these two rental giants. Sorry, Hollywood Video, you apparently didn’t want to play this round…
Now we come to who is better and why in what areas. Both obviously have their strengths, they are both doing quite well. Netflix seems to be doing a tad better in the market, but we’ll save that for another article.
| Blockbuster | Netflix | |
|---|---|---|
| In-Store Renting | yes | no |
| Online Renting | yes | yes |
| RSS | no | yes |
| Ability to control queue by external means | no | yes |
I’m going to be focusing on the last two parts of that chart. Why? Two reasons, which tie together quite nicely. 1) Because they are important to me and I’m the author of this blog, that and you’re not here to hear your opinions. 2) Because Blockbuster is just about ready to release the new version of their Online store. It is currently in beta and, I must say, it looks pretty slick. I have no been using it as if yet but plan to from now on.
Netflix has tempted me to try them out on a few occasions due to one thing. They have an API available which many people have taken advantage of and made software, mash-ups and widgets which allow one to control one’s queue from a tool other than the netflix website. If Blockbuster did not allow me to rent movies from their stores as part of my monthly subscription, they would have lost my business a loooong time ago. But they do, so they have been safe. It does not stop me, on the other hand, from liking what I could be doing with Netflix.
So, what does this new beta site have to do with Netflix’s API? It seems as though Blockbuster has finally come into their own and is now providing, at the very least, RSS feeds of their newest movies. They still don’t seem to have a generic feed for their customers’ queues, but I will give them a few months after the new site’s launch to see what happens. It could very easily be done securely, it’s really just a matter of whether or not they want to put forth the effort.
As many of you know, I have been following Fantasy Flight Games for a few years now. They make incredibly high quality products (not that the games are always affordable) and produce some well-known titles such as the Warcraft and World of Warcraft board games.
After speaking with their web developer regarding an expired “coming in september” message on the World of Warcraft : Shadows of War (expansion) page, I was informed that the “upcoming” portion of the site is the one they update. So I have been looking at this page for a few weeks now. Just today I noticed an upcoming product about which I am very excited.
This is yet another title by Blizzard Entertainment which has taken the gaming world by storm in it’s time. This PC/Mac game can still be found on shelves in most game stores despite it’s April of 1998 launch date.
Sadly, they have released no further information save for that of the anticipated release date of Summer of 2007. I’m sort of curious as to what “Expected at FFG” means too. Does this mean that it will be completed by this date but not in stores until later, or is this just a poor choice of words?
Doing a search for “Wii” on GameStop’s website provided a plethera of Wii items already, 33 in total in fact. Two items in particular caught my eye. Skins for the Wii. Yeah, that threw me off a little as well. What could this be? I’m sure someone out there knows, but I have no idea.
The two things that come into my mind immediately are a UI (user interface) skin to mod the interface or a mod for the physical console itself. Either way, they are $12.99 each! Seems to cheap (sadly) for a physical mod and way too expensive for a UI mod! Further confusing is the release dates of these items, 11/01/06. 18 days before the release of the actual console itself!! Now, admittedly, they have Mario Galaxy being released on 11/15/06 which does not sound right either which makes me think this is just information from before the official announcement of the Wii release date. Why am I still speculating even after this obvious possibility? Well, the page for Mario Galaxy at least has a disclaimer on it: “Content based on the best available information. Price, release date, content and title are subject to change and/or cancellation by vendor.”, whereas the skins do not. Bah, who knows… I’m sure we’ll be well-informed soon enough.
Originally, Nintendo announced that the Wii browser (Opera) would be an additional cost but free in Japan. Apparently this offer is also valid in the United States for a limited time. I’m terribly glad for that as there is no way I would have purchased it.
“Go here to access the Opera internet browser. In addition to supporting flash (making this a step up from the DS browser), the browser uses the Wiimote to zoom in and out. The browser will normally cost money, but Nintendo will make it available for free download until June of 2006.”
My sister sent this to me. I found it to be quite interesting. So far, it has been viewed 3110590 times at the time of this writing. Also, it has 4/5 stars from 523 ratings. Not bad. This is incredibly short but worth watching.
Now, watch it once more. To me, the ability to play it a second time was comforting to the degree of realizing that it is not too late after all. This took away some of the depression (the same depression that the Left Behind series inspired) and provided an immense amount of hope and encouragement to do something about it!
If you don’t know what this is all about, you may want to check this out.
This is just sick… I don’t make $25/hr!
“A shy 8-year-old Long Island boy wonder is making money hand over fist by teaching grownups how to master Halo. … His students hail from as far away as Australia. He’s even given some free pointers to New Jersey Net star Richard Jefferson.”
Nintendo has finally officially announced the launch date and price for the Wii. Surprisingly, for once, the United States will see the hardware before Japan does!
Release Date: Nov 19th, 2006
Price: $249.99
In other news, wii.com has opened the US portion of the site.
Nintendo just launched the Japanese portion of wii.com. Considering it was during the Japanese Wii conference, it can safely be assumed that the United States portion will be opened after the US Wii conference.
A pretty decent looking site. I’m pretty sure it will be there for hype and promo only, meaning not much actual information. More to come after the US conference…
If rumors can be believed,
It appears as though someone leaked a press release which seems to have been pulled soon after which contained information about the Wii’s price and release date.
The document alluded to a $250 price point to be released on November 19th. Many other bloggers of notable reputation have added their own two bits about this since.
edit [9/14/06 @ 11:12pm]: Well, well. It looks as though they’ve placed this article online again, now that the conference has revealed this information, of course.
