Thought I wanted a Wii

(I could not resist the title, the alternate one is "Wii or Xbox 360 or PS3")

Last year the Nintendo Wii was on my Christmas wish list, but I choose the 8GB iPod Nano instead. I'd more or less intended to buy a Nintendo Wii sometime during this year either as a present or an entertainment appliance.
But after thinking about it, once the novelty of the motion sensitive play wears off, the selection of games do not really appeal to me. Nintendo-lovers relax – I’m not saying the games for the Nintendo Wii are not good, I’m just saying that they don’t appeal to me personally.

The most costly competitor is the Sony PlayStation 3, which seems a natural choice since I have the PlayStation 2 and the Sony PSP. The PS3 would even allow me to play PS One games on my PlayStation Portable. Almost 600 US Dollars for a gaming console is well out of price range though. Okay, it plays high Definition Blu-ray movies too, but I don’t have a HDTV. It also plays most PlayStation 2 games, but I have one of those. As for showing media, I have a Media Edition PC. I was almost tempted by a "trade in your working Sony PlayStation 2 and get $100 off the PS3", but then the rumors of a price drop began to surface. Now it appears that there will possibly be a price drop by Christmas. Since it is unlikely to be more than $150, I don't think I'd want to wait that long.

Then there is the Xbox 360, somewhere in the middle ground between the Wii and the Sony PlayStation 3 (although many may differ). It has been out for over a year and has a large selection of games. Generally the games appeal to me more than the Wii selection of games. There are also a large number of accessories, including third-party accessories, which are cheaper than official Xbox 360 accessories. Of course if you add enough extras to the Xbox 360 it is going to cost as much, if not more, than the PS3, but it also boils down to the games. The Xbox 360 is a year ahead of the PS3, and it shows in the wide selection of games. The latest games are so expensive I would be likely to rent to make sure I like a game before shelling out $60 for it. Another thing which intrigued me is that I could use the XBox 360 as a media extender for my Media Center PC . My main concern about the Xbox 360 was its reputation for failure. I researched this and figured that it should be an acceptable risk if I got a decent warranty.

One requirement I had was that I wanted to be able to play games in my study, where I don't have a television, but two PC monitors. That way I would have more chance of actually using the gaming console – the PlayStation 2 is in a spare room hooked up to a nice LCD TV, but I very rarely play it. That is no real problem since it is mainly used to watch DVDs. A PS3 or Xbox 360 are too expensive for use as mere (standard definition) DVD players. The decision was swayed by the availability of a VGA cable for the Xbox 360. So, after talking it over with my wife, I got the okay to get an Xbox 360 as a birthday present.

Top 5+ List of 2006

Okay, I know it is already 2007, and I should be looking forward, but:

At the end of 2005 and 2004 I wrote a list of the Top 10 tech products and have been thinking hard about whether to do one for 2006 or to do something different. The problem is that I've previously limited this list to products I've actually used or own, and had to limit (or pad) my list to ten items.

So here is my slightly different top 5+ list for 2006 (I still may repeat tech gadgets from previous years if they - or their updated versions - still are worthy of mention):

iPod Nano second generation - the 2nd generation improves on the original with a less scratch-prone anodized aluminum finish, brighter screen and double the capacity.

Creative Zen Vision:M - this MP3 Player with video capability outclasses the iPod Video with a 262,144 color screen and support for multiple video formats.

Sony PSP (PlayStation Portable) - there are even more games available now and some of the more recent ones have incredible graphics. Sony also continues to release firmware updates which add more and more features. Also, worldwide sales of the Sony PSP are more than Microsoft's Xbox 360.

Ubuntu Linux - Maybe I'm biased towards a product from a fellow (ex-)South African, but this free Linux distribution from Mark Shuttleworth's company is competing right up there with commercial Linux distributions. Although my main Operating System is Windows XP, I like to have a Linux distribution installed and handy. Right now Ubuntu Linux 6.06 LTS is it.

Mozilla Firefox browser - still my browser of choice. I'm slowly upgrading to version 2.0 (one machine at a time), while Mozilla still releases updates to version 1.5.x. Even with tabbed browsing, Internet Explorer 7 doesn't come close.

Honorable Mentions

Nintendo Wii - the gaming console Sony hoped the Sony Playstation 3 would be. The Wii makes gaming accessible to non-gamers, and is attractive as a second gaming console to gamers.

Giveaway of the Day website - I don't know how long this will still be around for, but it is a great idea. Mainly shareware software, the programs are available for download and free registration for one day. I've found some useful programs there. The catch - the software can only be registered in the 24 hour period, cannot be upgraded and doesn't have technical support.

VMWare Player and Server Even though Microsoft Virtual PC 2004 is now free, VMware still outclasses it with more powerful features

Dishonourable Mention
Motorola RAZR V3 cellphone - popular but flawed - the screen is impossible to read in daylight. If that and a slippery keypad is acceptable this isn't a bad phone.

Which Wish?

Which wish (from my Christmas "Wish List") was chosen and fulfilled?

A picture is worth a thousand words (the magazine is for size comparison):


Click here for a larger view.

(My apologies to PC Magazine, I also read PC World!)

I connected it up and needed to find out how long it needed to be charged. This is what I got from the manufacturer's site:
tech support?

I was very glad I didn't chose a Nintendo Wii though, as they were hard to get hold of - I actually saw some Playstation 3's on a shelf in a Circuit City store, but only heard talk of Wii shipments.

What's in a name?

The December 26 issue of PC Magazine mentioned the "Worst Company Name Ever": Revoltec .

I guess the company may have been thinking "A revolution in technology - Revoltec(h) - cool!" and no-one stepped back and really looked at the name (or no-one understood English well enough).

It almost sounds like the project code name Nintendo had for their next generation gaming console - the Revolution. Then they renamed it the "Wii" (see "Nintendo Revolution renamed" at news.com). Fortunately people don't seem to be put off by this moniker - the Wii sold 600,000 units in the first eight days after its release (News.com and others).

Other Wish List Items

I've been concentrating on the MP3 Players for replacing my iPod Mini, but what about the other Christmas Wish List Items?

I'd already eliminated several items from the list, but here is what's left:

The Microsoft Flight Simulator for PC with airplane controls or Nascar PC game (or Sony Playstation 2 game) with driving controls. I ruled out the Flight Simulator quite quickly - I find myself easily bored with flying simulators.
Racing is another story though. There are an amazing variety of driving controllers avaiable for the Sony Playstation 2. I priced some online - they range from $50 to $130. The problem is how much would I use them, as I tend tire of driving/racing games quickly (I'd also have to buy a couple of PS2 racing games as well). I could get a wireless joystick, but I really prefer playing the Sony PSP.

The Nintendo Wii remains tempting. With the motion sensitive controllers I might actually get some exercise. But I have a Sony Playstation 2 which gets more use as a DVD Player than a gaming console. Oh well...

PS3 sold out, Zune Wars

Not unexpectedly, the Sony PlayStation 3 sold out within hour(s) of it’s release on Friday.

The Microsoft Zune, however, seems to be staying on shelves mostly and getting really bad reviews. Engadget said "Installing the Zune... sucked".
A News.com news blog sums it up as: "A rude awakening for Zune" - "Forget brown. The true color of the Zune is black-and-blue.".



Oooh, nasty, but there have been other nastier references to the brown colored Zune: "The only thing cool about the brown one is that the color is appropriate." from "Zune is out of tune, for now"
Others said that the Zune is actually quite good – notably the CNET.com Review which concluded that "…intuitive interface and solid playback performance will please most users…" and gives it a rating of 8.0 out of 10 (the iPod Nano received a rating of 8.3 out of 10)

And back to gaming:
Tomorrow the Wii gaming console is due for release in the U.S., which I'd almost forgotten about with all the PS3 hype.

It does seem like there may be some queues for the Wii too – I wouldn’t have thought so – but here is a site with tips for getting your Wii with the least amount of inconvenience- WiiLoaded.com and the exact same article, it appears, at theboxheads.com.