Nintendo Tops Hardware, Software Sales for April

The Nintendo DS and Wii owned the video games market during April

Research firm NPD Funworld has released video game sales figures for April 2007, which once again belong much to Nintendo. The Wii and the DS continued to be top sellers, with Nintendo’s handheld taking top spot at 471,000 units and the home console selling 360,000 units.
Sony ruled the two spots after Nintendo, though it is the last-generation PlayStation 2 that takes third at 194,000 units and the PlayStation Portable at fourth at 183,000. The PlayStation 3 places three spots below the PSP at seventh, selling 82,000.
In fifth is Microsoft’s only entry, the Xbox 360, with 174,000 units. Nintendo’s Game Boy Advance, with 84,000 units, placed just above the PS3, while the GameCube held sat at the bottom with 13,000 units sold.
On the software side, Nintendo ruled the top four spots with the two new Pokemon games taking first and second. Pokemon Diamond sold an astounding 1.045 million units, while the less popular Pokemon Pearl moved a still impressive 712,000 copies. A pair of Wii games, Super Paper Mario and Wii Play, took spots three and four, respectively.
Guitar Hero II rocked spot five on Xbox 360 and spot six on the PlayStation 2. The Spider-Man 3 games on Xbox 360 and PS2 took seven and eight, while PS2 games God of War II and MLB ’07 closed out the last two of the top ten.
April represented another strong month for the video games industry, pulling in $838.6 million in U.S. sales – a 20 percent growth over the same period last year.

Reference:Marcus Yam,dailytech

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802.11n Draft 2.0 Hits Store Shelves this June

802.11n draft 2 is 5 times faster and goes 2 times farther than existing products

Roughly a year ago when the 802.11n standard was still in its infancy, companies decided to ship products based on the pre-standard anyway. The result was that customers were able to get their hands on 108Mbps Wi-Fi technology before the standard was officially approved. The risk for consumers at that point was whether or not their pre-standard 802.11n gear would still work once the standard reached its final stages.Consumers already using 802.11n devices this week receive a bit of good news. The Wi-Fi Alliance announced that starting in June, 802.11n will enter draft 2.0, which means products will undergo a new certification. Despite the news from the Wi-Fi Alliance, 802.11n products will not reach final revisions for some time. The initiative is simply to ensure that there is interoperability between products on store shelves.Draft 2.0 will bring along two significant differences. First, 802.11n draft 2.0 devices will have two 20MHz channels, giving it the ability to seek for legacy devices. One channel will turn off intelligently when legacy devices are detected. This way, users will be able to receive and transmit at optimum speeds when attached to an older network. Secondly, 802.11n draft 2.0 products will perform checks to ensure that both channels are clear before data is transmitted.Despite being a year away from a finalized version, the Wi-Fi Alliance believes that certifying products now will put products out to market faster. "802.11n will offer up to five times the throughput and twice the range of existing Wi-Fi technology, which will make it ideal for enabling multimedia applications throughout the home," said Karen Hanley, senior director of marketing for the Wi-Fi Alliance."So it's important to get products on the market that will work together so that consumers can get the technology they need to extend their home networks," concludes Hanley.

Reference:Tuan Nguyen,dailytech

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Apple iPhone Gets FCC Approval

The Apple iPhone got official FCC approval for sale on the U.S. market

Apple recently announced that it has officially received FCC approval to sell the iPhone, its much anticipated entry into the mobile phone market. Along with getting FCC approval, the iPhone is ready to ship next month, Apple spokespeople said. All mobile phones offered in the United States must receive a "grant of equipment authorization," which means it has receivedthe green light from the FCC."We're on track to release it in late June," Cingular spokesman Mark Siegel said. "Nothing has changed."FCC documents confirmed the iPhone will have WiFi and Bluetooth capabilities. Apple requested the FCC keep several details secret from the public, including the official launch date of the device. Apple also requested the FCC not release external or internal photographs and user manual of the iPhone for 45 days -- which means the material will likely not be made available until the iPhone is on the market.FCC approval came a day after a false alarm in which Engadget published an article claiming the iPhone would be delayed several months. The alleged e-mail appeared to be from Apple, but Apple immediately said the e-mail was fake. It is still unknown where the e-mail originated. The news caused a ripple effect which rattled investors, causing the Apple stock price to take an immediate dip.The iPhone will come in two versions -- 4GB and 8GB, with the 4GB iPhone costing $499 and the 8GB iPhone carrying a $599 price tag. AT&T has exclusive rights to the iPhone.

Reference:Michael Hoffman,dailytech

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Google Moves Closer to Universal Search

Google changes its homepage as well as its mechanism for delivering results

This week marked another milestone for search giant Google. The company's simplistic homepage received a rather discrete update, moving the navigation options up to the top of the screen rather than docked at the search field. The move says Google, is to move closer to the goal of having universal search -- that is, one search providing all categories of results.
To achieve this, Google is taking first steps to introduce users to more of its features. Google Blog Search, Book Search, Groups, code and other tools are now more readily accessible. Even Google's office productivity tools are more up front too. For instance, Google's Docs & Spreadsheets as well as its photo management application Picasa Web Albums are now easier to get to.
The biggest improvement for Google is the method in which it now conducts searches. Previously, results were derived from website page ranking, a system that Google itself pioneered. Now, Google says results are a culmination of many categories. Video, pictures, news, maps, books and other categories are crawled and then interpolated together to form a more comprehensive search result. Using this method says Google, results such as websites that merely mention a search term can be avoided and websites with more relevant information can be displayed.According to Google:
A user searching for information on the Star Wars character Darth Vader is likely interested in all the information related to the character and the actor -- not just web pages that mention the movie. Google will now deliver a single set of blended search results that include a humorous parody of the movie, images of the Darth Vader character, news reports on the latest Lucas film, as well as websites focused on the actor James Earl Jones – all ranked in order of relevance to the query. Users no longer have to visit several different Google search properties to find such a wide array of information on the topic.
Another area where Google is expanding its portfolio is in the gaming industry, but Google isn't developing any new titles here. Instead, Google intends to expand its advertising programs into future video games. The company recently filed for a patent on video game advertising in which methods for monitoring in-game player behavior was discussed. Consumer privacy advocates are already expressing concerns over Google's plans but the company stated that it has no plans to use the patent.

Reference:Tuan Nguyen,dailytech

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Apple Sued for Deceptive MacBook and MacBook Pro Advertising

Lawsuit claims LCD screens on Apple's current notebooks are not capable of millions of colors

Apple Inc. has been in and out of the courtroom a number of times this year for patent infringements, product defects and mostly to defend its iPhone. This week, Apple finds itself in the courtroom again, this time facing a class action lawsuit alleging the LCD screens on its MacBook and MacBook Pro laptops are substandard. The claim also alleges Apple advertised its screens as being superior, but knowingly shipped screens that did not meet its original claims.The class action lawsuit points out the glossy screens Apple introduced with the launched of its MacBook last year. Apple advertised that the new glossy screens provided users with deeper blacks and whites that are more vibrant. However, many customers experienced graininess and sparkling effects common to dithering techniques, according to the lawsuit.According to the complaint:Many such dissatisfied purchasers were chastised by Apple agents and employees for being too picky about their assessments of the quality of the display. Other dissatisfied purchasers were told that they were imagining the complained about defects.The complaint also points out that many of the disgruntled customers posted messages on Apple's own forums only later to have their posts moderated or completely removed by Apple forum administrators. "It appears that Apple has engaged in substantial editing of the posts on the discussion forum," the lawsuit indicates.The lawsuit alleges Apple uses dithering techniques to create an illusion of colors that don't actually exist. In fact, the lawsuit claims if a MacBook or MacBook Pro users installs Windows XP, they will notice superior image quality in areas such as gradients. The test seems to indicate Apple is using some sort of software at work in OS X."The displays are only capable of displaying the illusion of millions of colors through the use of a software technique referred to as 'dithering'," the lawsuit claims.

Reference:Tuan Nguyen ,dailytech

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