Total Gadgets

Wii Fit has been out in Japan since December 2007, but this latest addition to the Nintendo Wii family has just landed in Europe and will hit North America later next month.

But what is Wii Fit?  Wii Fit is a game designed for Nintendo’s Wii console.  It consists of a game and a peripheral called the Wii Balance Board.  The balance board can measure the user’s weight, calculate their center of gravity and work out their BMI (Body mass Index).

Wii Fit tracks the users Wii Fitness Age using a daily body test which also takes into account the user’s current age, weight, and athletic ability

So, what can you do on the Wii Fit?  Here are some of the activities:

• Yoga exercises, ranging from deep breathing exercises to extended poses.
• Muscle workouts, such as press-ups and sit-ups.
• Aerobic exercise:
  - Hula_Hoop
  - Boxing
  - Jogging
  - Step aerobics
• Balance games:
  - Skiing
  - Tightrope tension
  - Penguin slide
  - Heading footballs
  - Balance Bubble
  - Table tilt
  - Zazen

Sounds like a LOT of fun!

Still wondering why Sony dumped the Dual Shock from the PlayStation 3 lineup and added a feature that uses six axis motion sensors instead (which feels a lot like a bolt-on since most games don’t support it)?  It’s more than likely got something to do with the ongoing patent infringement lawsuit filed against them by Immersion.

Pending Sony’s appeal, the judge has stayed the injunction, but Sony is still paying a compulsory license fee each quarter to Immersion—Immersion is hopeful that the appeal will be decided upon in their favor by the end of this year. With that in mind, many in the industry have found it quite curious that Sony’s newly announced motion-sensing PS3 controller contains no rumble functionality. According to an SCEA rep contacted by GameDaily BIZ, Sony maintains that “the new PS3 controller uses six axis motion sensors to move with the user’s body; because of this sensitivity it can’t use vibration.”

It would be a huge risk for Sony to go ahead with Dual Shock in the hope that they win the appeal because losing the appeal would mean that sales of the PS3 console could also be affected - something that Sony is bound to want to avoid.. 

It also seems that their claim to be having difficulty integrating Dual Shock with motion sensing is somewhat dubious too:

If Sony truly is having trouble successfully integrating vibration alongside motion-sensing technology, Immersion said that it would like to help. “Immersion would be happy to step in and solve their problem,” Viegas told GameDaily BIZ. “If it truly is a conflict between vibration and motion sensing, we have some of the world’s experts in the field of haptic technology or force feedback… and we already have three ways we know how to solve the problem, but we’re not willing to work with them until we’ve resolved this long, simmering legal battle. So if this is really a technical hurdle, we’re confident that we can solve this through filtering techniques, through processing techniques and through hardware modifications.”

Is it possible that Sony will, one way or another, reintroduce Dual Shock into their console lineup as soon as this legal mess is cleared up?  Only time will tell.

The one part of the PlayStation 3 that gamers are really going to get to know very well is the controller, and for the PlayStation 3, Sony have made some crucial modifications to this vital bit of kit.

So, what are the changes?  Well, before looking at the changes, let’s look at the similarities.  The PlayStation 3 controller has the same two analog sticks, the same four-button complement on the left and right side and the same four buttons at the top of the controller.

Now for the changes:

• The shape - Sony have improved the design of the controller to allow for more delicate manipulation.  Whether this is true or just a style side-effect remains to be seen.
• Increased sensitivity - the PlayStation 2 controller featured 8-bit sensitivity while the new PlayStation 3 controller will have 10-bit sensitivity.
• The new controller will feature motion-sensing technology that can detect motion in six directions - up, down, left, right, forwards and backwards.
• No force-feedback vibration - Sony believed that this would interfere with the motion sensing technology.
• Wireless technology - The PlayStation controller will make use of Bluetooth 2.0 EDS wireless technology (as opposed to 2.4GHz RF used by the Xbox 360).  The controller will have a range of about 30 feet (10 meters) and a battery life of around 24 hours (compared to about 300 hours for the Xbox 360 controller).  The controller is recharged by connecting it to the PS3 using the USB cord (this can be done mid-game).
• The Bluetooth controller also means that the PlayStation 3 might be able to support other Bluetooth devices (such as headsets, mice and so on).
• The PSP can be used as a controller for the the PS3.

These are an interesting set of improvements tot he game controller and it is good to see that Sony have put a lot of thought to this part of the new console - it will be interesting to see if this translates into greater usability.  My main concern is that the lack of force-feedback might be noticeable to those that have come to enjoy this feedback when using the PS2.

Buyers interested in Sony’s next games console, the PlayStation 3, should be aware that the extra $100 for the high-end model giver them a lot more than just an extra 40GB of hard disk space.

Some background first.  The other day Sony announced the launch data and price for the PS3 at its studios in Culver City in Los Angeles.  At the time that they announced the two models that would be available, one costing $499 and another costing $599, the only difference that was highlighted was a larger hard drive - 20GB verses 60GB. 

However, details later emerged that there were other, more crucial, differences between the consoles.  Specifically, the higher-priced model comes with:

• Memory card slot
• WiFi
• An HDMI connector

So beware.  Pretty soon stores are going to start offering the PlayStation 3 for pre-order - make sure that you get the features and functionality that you want.  You don’t want to end up with the wrong one come November!!!

Region encoding for [tag]PlayStation[/tag] will be a thing of the past when the [tag]PlayStation 3[/tag] hits the shelves as Sony have decided to make it [tag]region-free[/tag].

IGN is reporting that piracy is one reason for this - many owners add a “mod” chip to their player to allow it to play games from different regions, now with the [tag]PS3[/tag], there will be no need for this.

However, as the article explains, there are still technical reasons why games from one region might still not work in other regions, but this is technical rather than an imposed restriction.

Sony have confirmed that the [tag]PlayStation 3[/tag] will ship with a 60GB hard drive which will be upgradable.  The ends speculation that the drive would be optional.  All [tag]PS3[/tag] games will be designed to take advantage of this internal drive.

PS3 News

Sony has announced that the launch of the much awaited [tag]PlayStation 3[/tag] ([tag]PS3[/tag]) games console has been delayed until November.

This delay has been caused by technical issues to do with the device’s [tag]Blu-ray[/tag] drive - according to Sony’s games chief Ken [tag]Kutaragi[/tag] [tag]Sony[/tag] are still finalizing agreements on the disc copy protection technology that the console will use.

This was bad news for Sony and their stock prices dropped 1.8% on the news - an indication that investors were just as eager as the gaming fans to see the console launched.

CNET is reporting that [tag]Sony[/tag] [tag]PlayStation 3[/tag] could be delayed until next year. This is according to a research report by Merrill Lynch which claim that the device is too ambitious (Sony Cell processor, Blu-ray drives) and that the costs will be high (cost of materials estimated at $900 at lauch, falling to $320 three years after launch).

This is currently just a research report but if it is true then [tag]PS3[/tag] could be where Sony trip up and really give Microsoft and the [tag]Xbox 360[/tag] the edge.