Nintendo, which earns about 75 percent of sales outside of Japan, holds foreign currency assets of about $3.5 billion and 1.1 billion euros. The company used an exchange rate of 117.47 yen to the dollar and 142.81 yen to the euro for today's earnings statement. In January, the company was forecasting a rate of 110 yen to the dollar and 135 yen to the euro.

Nintendo also said it would pay a 370 yen dividend for the full year, compared to its earlier plan to pay at least 140 yen. It paid out 270 yen in fiscal 2004. Shares of Nintendo rose 1.9 percent to 17,770 yen today on the Osaka Securities Exchange, paring losses earlier in the day.

The company said as of February said it sold more than 6 million DS units in Japan since the launch in December 2004, and targets 10 million units by year-end, as it introduces a thinner and lighter model called the DS Lite and add features such as a Web browser and digital TV tuner.

Nintendo's full-year net income is the highest since its 106 billion yen profit in fiscal 2001. The company will report final earnings on May 25. ...

Nintendo, which earns about 75 percent of sales outside of Japan, holds foreign currency assets of about $3.5 billion and 1.1 billion euros. The company used an exchange rate of 117.47 yen to the dollar and 142.81 yen to the euro for today's earnings statement. In January, the company was forecasting a rate of 110 yen to the dollar and 135 yen to the euro.

Nintendo also said it would pay a 370 yen dividend for the full year, compared to its earlier plan to pay at least 140 yen. It paid out 270 yen in fiscal 2004. Shares of Nintendo rose 1.9 percent to 17,770 yen today on the Osaka Securities Exchange, paring losses earlier in the day.

The company said as of February said it sold more than 6 million DS units in Japan since the launch in December 2004, and targets 10 million units by year-end, as it introduces a thinner and lighter model called the DS Lite and add features such as a Web browser and digital TV tuner.

Nintendo's full-year net income is the highest since its 106 billion yen profit in fiscal 2001. The company will report final earnings on May 25. ...

But, said Lucent in its filing at the end of March, Microsoft has infringed this patent by releasing the Xbox 360 console, which has MPEG2 tech - it's alleged that's a breach of the Lucent patent.

When the judge made his ruling on the patent case with the typos last year, he said that the decision was without prejudice to Lucent starting a separate action.

And so it has. It filed the action on the 28th of March in the southern district of California, San Diego.

Lucent alleges Microsoft has infringed its patent and told the firm so soon after the intro of the Xbox 360. ...

Shigureden is a newly-opened museum, showcasing and celebrating the ‘Ogura Hyakunin Isshu’ – a culturally important anthology of 100 poems by 100 different Japanese poets from the middle ages. For the literary scholars amongst you, the poems are all pre-haiku 'waka' (now called 'tanka') - five-line poems of 31 syllables, arranged as follows: 5, 7, 5, 7, 7.

The really interesting aspect of the museum, to SPOnG at least, is the fact that the digital and interactive installations at Shigureden have been bankrolled by Yamauchi and designed by Miyamoto.

Visitors use a DS-based device to guide them around the museum, called a ShigureNavi which is described as ‘a kind of Nintendo DS without buttons’ with only touchscreen and volume control.

The ShigureNavi receives signals from ceiling-mounted transmitters around the various exhibition spaces, which deliver location-relevant content to the ShigureNavi in the visitor’s hands. It certainly beats following a bored mature student carrying a coloured flag around some dusty museum!

As well as acting as a location tracking device, visitors can also use their ShigureNavi to control their environment. For example - and this really has blown us away - on the installation pictured in the top and bottom photos alongside this story, you will see that there are seventy 45-inch LCD monitors embedded in the museum floor. As visitors walk around the floor they look down at a detailed, animated aerial photograph of Kyoto – so they actually feel as if they are walking in the sky above the city.

Visitors can use their ShigureNavi as a sky-walk navigation system, specifying what the want to see and where they want to go in the city below, with a big bird under your feet guiding your sky walk. Visitors can also play ‘sporty card games’ using the device and the floor-embedded monitors. SPOnG is not sure what these games are made up of, as our command of the Japanese lingo is not what it should be.

If you check out the second picture to the top right of this story you will see that there is also an installation which looks very much like a huge Nintendo DS. With this feature, visitors can play card games with ancient historical characters, who they can see on the top screen across from them as they control the decks of cards with the huge, horizontal touch screen at the bottom.

It’s great to see that Nintendo is continuing to innovate in ways above and beyond their magical videogames. Shigureden certainly sounds like more fun than most art exhibitions and museums we’ve been dragged around in the past by well-meaning teachers, friends and parents. ...

Shigureden is a newly-opened museum, showcasing and celebrating the ‘Ogura Hyakunin Isshu’ – a culturally important anthology of 100 poems by 100 different Japanese poets from the middle ages. For the literary scholars amongst you, the poems are all pre-haiku 'waka' (now called 'tanka') - five-line poems of 31 syllables, arranged as follows: 5, 7, 5, 7, 7.

The really interesting aspect of the museum, to SPOnG at least, is the fact that the digital and interactive installations at Shigureden have been bankrolled by Yamauchi and designed by Miyamoto.

Visitors use a DS-based device to guide them around the museum, called a ShigureNavi which is described as ‘a kind of Nintendo DS without buttons’ with only touchscreen and volume control.

The ShigureNavi receives signals from ceiling-mounted transmitters around the various exhibition spaces, which deliver location-relevant content to the ShigureNavi in the visitor’s hands. It certainly beats following a bored mature student carrying a coloured flag around some dusty museum!

As well as acting as a location tracking device, visitors can also use their ShigureNavi to control their environment. For example - and this really has blown us away - on the installation pictured in the top and bottom photos alongside this story, you will see that there are seventy 45-inch LCD monitors embedded in the museum floor. As visitors walk around the floor they look down at a detailed, animated aerial photograph of Kyoto – so they actually feel as if they are walking in the sky above the city.

Visitors can use their ShigureNavi as a sky-walk navigation system, specifying what the want to see and where they want to go in the city below, with a big bird under your feet guiding your sky walk. Visitors can also play ‘sporty card games’ using the device and the floor-embedded monitors. SPOnG is not sure what these games are made up of, as our command of the Japanese lingo is not what it should be.

If you check out the second picture to the top right of this story you will see that there is also an installation which looks very much like a huge Nintendo DS. With this feature, visitors can play card games with ancient historical characters, who they can see on the top screen across from them as they control the decks of cards with the huge, horizontal touch screen at the bottom.

It’s great to see that Nintendo is continuing to innovate in ways above and beyond their magical videogames. Shigureden certainly sounds like more fun than most art exhibitions and museums we’ve been dragged around in the past by well-meaning teachers, friends and parents. ...

Special Offer from Play Asia:

Weekly Special: Seiken Densetsu DS: Children of Mana for Nintendo DS™ at US$ 19.90 only - offer valid for 1 week

Seiken Densetsu DS: Children of Mana is the first game as part of the World of Mana compilation launched by Square-Enix.

In the middle of the island of Illusia stands the famous Tree of Mana. Several years ago, a great disaster took place at the base of the tree and many lives were lost, leaving the main characters as orphans. A brave young boy and girl used the Sword of Mana to save the world from disaster. Now, years later, the main characters set out to investigate the details of the event that took so many loved ones away from them.

The game retains real-time battle mechanics of previous games in the Seiken Densetsu series, but is closely being modeled after Secret of Mana. The environments also retain the interactivity with weapons and items seen in certain Seiken Densetsu titles. New to the series is the Dual-Weapon system, which gives the player the ability to wield two weapons at once on the X and A buttons - a long range and short ranged weapon.

More info --> http://www.play-asia.com/SOap-23-83-...9-en-84-n.html ...

Special Offer from Play Asia:

Weekly Special: Seiken Densetsu DS: Children of Mana for Nintendo DS™ at US$ 19.90 only - offer valid for 1 week

Seiken Densetsu DS: Children of Mana is the first game as part of the World of Mana compilation launched by Square-Enix.

In the middle of the island of Illusia stands the famous Tree of Mana. Several years ago, a great disaster took place at the base of the tree and many lives were lost, leaving the main characters as orphans. A brave young boy and girl used the Sword of Mana to save the world from disaster. Now, years later, the main characters set out to investigate the details of the event that took so many loved ones away from them.

The game retains real-time battle mechanics of previous games in the Seiken Densetsu series, but is closely being modeled after Secret of Mana. The environments also retain the interactivity with weapons and items seen in certain Seiken Densetsu titles. New to the series is the Dual-Weapon system, which gives the player the ability to wield two weapons at once on the X and A buttons - a long range and short ranged weapon.

More info --> http://www.play-asia.com/SOap-23-83-...9-en-84-n.html ...

News from Play Asia:

Roughly one week after our last Nintendo DS™ Lite shipping update, we are happy to announce that all pending preorders of the Ice Blue and Enamel Navy Nintendo DS™ Lite consoles are clearing today. If you haven't received a shipping notification of your preorder within the next couple of hours, check your customer account as some unavailable items are possibly blocking dispatch of your order. Our customer service will be happy to assist you with any order change that cannot be made online.

The shortage situation of the most popular Crystal White color model unfortunately continues. We have only been able to clear a short portion of the big number of backorders up to now. Though small quantities are coming in almost everyday, we are currently unable to completely foresee when sufficient units are going to be available on the market. If you still have a Crystal White preorder pending with us, we highly recommend considering switching to any of the other color models in order to speed up dispatch of your order.

New orders for Enamel Navy & Ice Blue Nintendo DS™ Lite units now open

As frequent visitor, you most likely have noticed that we have opened new orders of the Ice Blue model a few days ago. Today, also the Enamel Navy model is back on sale to ship within 24 hours (while those news are being written). Pricing for new orders has currently been set according to the market situation and vendor pricing/availability at US$ 199.90 and orders are limited to 1 unit per customer. Please also note that new orders placed now will not include the free gift that is supplied with all preorders.

In accordance to our previous policy, new orders for the Crystal White model will only be opened once sufficient quantities are in stock to cover all pending preorders.

More info here --> http://www.play-asia.com/SOap-23-83-...9-en-84-n.html ...

News from Play Asia:

Roughly one week after our last Nintendo DS™ Lite shipping update, we are happy to announce that all pending preorders of the Ice Blue and Enamel Navy Nintendo DS™ Lite consoles are clearing today. If you haven't received a shipping notification of your preorder within the next couple of hours, check your customer account as some unavailable items are possibly blocking dispatch of your order. Our customer service will be happy to assist you with any order change that cannot be made online.

The shortage situation of the most popular Crystal White color model unfortunately continues. We have only been able to clear a short portion of the big number of backorders up to now. Though small quantities are coming in almost everyday, we are currently unable to completely foresee when sufficient units are going to be available on the market. If you still have a Crystal White preorder pending with us, we highly recommend considering switching to any of the other color models in order to speed up dispatch of your order.

New orders for Enamel Navy & Ice Blue Nintendo DS™ Lite units now open

As frequent visitor, you most likely have noticed that we have opened new orders of the Ice Blue model a few days ago. Today, also the Enamel Navy model is back on sale to ship within 24 hours (while those news are being written). Pricing for new orders has currently been set according to the market situation and vendor pricing/availability at US$ 199.90 and orders are limited to 1 unit per customer. Please also note that new orders placed now will not include the free gift that is supplied with all preorders.

In accordance to our previous policy, new orders for the Crystal White model will only be opened once sufficient quantities are in stock to cover all pending preorders.

More info here --> http://www.play-asia.com/SOap-23-83-...9-en-84-n.html ...