Flooded77 - Slashdot User

How Wii Is Creaming the Competition 377

Posted by Zonk on Wednesday April 25, 2007 @01:11PM from the my-favorite-flavour-of-competition dept.

CNN has a report on the Wii's success in the games marketplace right now, referring to their sales dominance as 'creaming the competition'. The article tries to break down exactly why Nintendo's console has sold so successfully, discussing the system's marketing, engineering, and philosophy. "Next, engineers settled on a new approach for the Wii's looks. Just as the DS shunned the Game Boy name to appeal to a broader audience, the Wii would adopt a sleek white exterior instead of the toylike loud colors used on the GameCube. Even CEO Iwata got involved in the design process; at one point he handed engineers a stack of DVD jewel cases and told them the console should not be much bigger. Why so small? To work with the motion-sensitive wireless controller Nintendo planned, Iwata reasoned, the console would have to sit directly beside the TV. Make it any larger and customers would hesitate to leave it there. " Their sales strategy is working in spades. CVG reports that at least one analyst thinks that Wii demand won't be met until 2009. This past weekend Chris Kohler had an interesting comment on the 'ambassador programs' Nintendo ran in advance of the Wii's launch, and how that might tie in to the system's financial success.

RIAA Admits ISPs Have Misidentified "John Does" 271

Posted by kdawson on Tuesday February 13, 2007 @03:45PM from the record-keeping dept.

NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "The RIAA has sent out a letter to the ISPs telling them to stop making mistakes in identifying subscribers, and offering a 'Pre-Doe settlement option' — with a discount of '$1000 or more' — to their subscribers, if and only if the ISP agrees to preserve its logs for 180 days. Other interesting points in the letter (PDF): the RIAA will be launching a web site for 'early settlements,' www.p2plawsuits.com; the letter asks the ISPs to notify the RIAA if they have previously 'misidentified a subscriber account in response to a subpoena' or become aware of 'technical information... that causes you to question the information that you provided in response to our clients' subpoena'; it notes that ISPs have identified 'John Does' who were not even subscribers of the ISP at the time of the infringement; and it requests that ISPs furnish their underlying log files, not just names and addresses, when responding to RIAA subpoenas."

Submission + - Congress wants to monitor emails, IMs, etc.

Submitted by

Josh Nelson

on Monday February 12, 2007 @05:07PM

Josh Nelson writes: "A bill introduced last week by Representative Lamar Smith (R-TX) is beginning to raise eyebrows.

[It] would require ISPs to record all users' surfing activity, IM conversations and email traffic indefinitely. The bill, dubbed the Safety Act by sponsor Lamar Smith, a republican congressman from Texas, would impose fines and a prison term of one year on ISPs which failed to keep full records. (emphasis mine)
This is a terrifying development and it must be stopped before it gains any significant momentum. Background, Action items and contact information at this link."

Submission + - Congress Wants To Monitor All E-Mails, IMs, Etc.

Submitted by

Red Weasel

on Monday February 12, 2007 @04:00PM

Red Weasel writes: "A bill submitted February 6, 2007 called, what else, "Internet Stopping Adults Facilitating the Exploitation of Today's Youth Act (SAFETY) of 2007 " HR 837 IH would [It] would require ISPs to record all users' surfing activity, IM conversations and email traffic indefinitely." The full bill at The Library of Congress THOMAS."

Submission + - How do your store your movie collection?

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 12, 2007 @03:00PM

An anonymous reader writes: I finally went HD. I bought a new TV, new stereo, even upgraded my DVR to HD. Problem is, my DVD recorder isn't HD, and I'd rather keep things at my finger tips instead of burning everything to DVD. I'd like to capture HD content from my sat/cable system and import my DVDs so I can access everything from my couch. Ideally you could browse, search, and organize the collection, use imported DVDs (still browse the DVD menus to see things like extra features), and record HD content. And it needs to have the capacity for a reasonably sized collection (at least 200 DVDs). It doesn't need lots of bells and whistles. Importing and organizing can be complicated, but browsing and playing needs to be simple. Are there commercial solutions? How would you go about building such a system? Or would you just buy a HD DVD burner and another bookcase?

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