via GamesIndustry

Although Nintendo has not made any official announcement, the Wii has now passed the total cumulative sales of the GameCube in Japan according to sales data released by Famitsu.

Famitsu reports that the Wii has now sold 4,025,356 units in Japan.

According to the most recent data released by Nintendo, the GameCube has sold 21.66 million units worldwide as of September 30, 2007. 12.88 million units were sold in the Americas, 4.02 million in Japan, and 4.76 in other regions.

MediaCreate's sales data differs from Famitsu, but still puts the Wii within 100,000 units of the GameCube. At the rate that the Wii has been selling in Japan, it should take only a few more weeks to surpass total GameCube sales.

The Wii was launched in Japan in 2006; The GameCube was launched in Japan in 2001. ...

via MTR

Tired of waiting for Apple to add Flash video support to your iPhone? Avot Media has announced a new site that enables you to access content from many of your favorite video sites - using just the current software on your iPhone or iPod touch.



Avot mV has a wide variety of content, including sports, politics, music, and TV shows, from sources like YouTube and MySpace. You can use the site's Search command, or browse the included directory, to locate the video you want. Then, simply tap on the Play button and the video will start playing in Safari Mobile. Amot mV also lets you create an account so you can store links to your favorite videos.

Amot mV is currently free and supports the iPhone, iPod touch, Windows Mobile devices, Motorola RAZR, and Samsung/LG mobile devices. To give it a try, visit http://www.amotmv.com. ...

via InformationWeek

Finally! Apple has added the capability to allow users to create their own ringtones in GarageBand and export them to the iPhone. You need to have the latest 4.1.1 version of GarageBand 8 running. It takes about 5 minutes from start to finish, and you can even use songs from your iTunes library.

It really is stupid easy. Granted, this is something I did back in the 1.0.0 firmware days with an unlocked iPhone, but it was not sanctioned and required jailbreaking your iPhone first. Hacking ringtones is officially a thing of the past.

Here's the process.

Connect your iPhone. Open GarageBand. Create a track using Apple's loops or compose an entire song on your own. (The possibilities are sort of endless here and opens the floodgates for highly inappropriate ringtones.) Click on the "Share" tab, and under it is a selection called "Send Ringtone to iTunes". Click that, and it lets you select a 10-second loop of your track, mixes it, and sends it to iTunes. Once you've done that, simply sync your iPhone and voila! You've created your own ringtone.

After you sync, you can go into the iPhone's settings and choose the newly added ringtone as your ringer. It appears in a separate list from the official Apple ringtones, called "Custom."

At first, I used an existing song I was working on in GarageBand. The 10-second loop sounds pretty good as a ringtone, but I decided it would be more fun to choose something from my iTunes library.

With GarageBand open, I went into my music folders and dragged a song into the GarageBand track editor. It imported the song with no issues. I then picked a 10-second loop of that song (a killer riff from Lamb of God's Sacrament CD) and repeated the process above. It worked just the same. I was able to use a song from my iTunes music library and create a ringtone out of it for free. No silly extra charge. ...

via InformationWeek

Market statistician Net Applications says on its Web site that Apple iPhones currently account for .09 percent of Web browsing, while all Windows Mobile devices put together accout for only .06 percent. That's pretty astonishing, given the relative numbers of handheld devices running each OS in the marketplace.

Those numbers are truly low. Given the total volume of Web page retrievals the difference between nine one-hundredths of 1 percent and six one-hundredths of a percent stats is a gnat's eyelash. But Net Applications finds them persuasive, and they confirm a conclusion I came to last summer when I wrote a piece on browsing the Web on a smartphone: it works a lot better on an iPhone than it does on a Windows Mobile handheld.

Another report published last week by Daniel Dilger in his "Roughly Drafted" blog claims that iPhone is also outselling all Windows Mobile devices combined in the U.S. market (but, to be sure, still trailsRIM (NSDQ: RIMM)'s BlackBerry).

Dilger cites statistics from analyst firm Canalys that I can't find on the Web, and his blog is a little too consistently kind to Apple, but his piece does make interesting reading. And his stats are supported by analyst firm NPD, which recently calculated that the iPhone held 27 percent of the smartphone market in the U.S. (and the smartphone market has almost tripled over the past year to hold 11 percent of all mobile phone sales, which is also astonishing growth.)

If all these statistics are reliable, it just could be that Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) is losing out in the growth market for mobile operating systems. Whatever the numbers, Microsoft isn't about to be put out of business. Net Applications says 78.3 percent of all Web browsing in the U.S. is done from devices running Windows XP, while Apple OSes, whether Intel-based, Power PC or iPhone, account for just 6.9. But the mobile market certainly doesn't seem to be going Microsoft's way – and Google's Android looks like it will only make the fight tougher. ...

via Kotaku

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noXMc...-do-333194.php

Fulfilling your life long dream of playing Pac-Man on the Game Boy Advance using nothing but your feet is within your grasp. Thanks to the folks at Instructables, who provide a step-by-step tutorial on how to hack together such a contraption, fat kids everywhere will be able to combine their two favorite things: eating (dots) and shedding pounds by frantic shuffling. They call this a "win-win." ...

via FileFront

A trio of SEGA titles have hit the Wii Virtual Console recently and for fans of the original games Sonic 3D Blast, Ecco Jr., and Alien Soldier can rejoice. For those of you who are unfamiliar with these titles, I have provided some more information on them below.

Sonic 3D Blast (1996): The evil Dr. Eggman (AKA Dr. Robotnik) stumbles upon an alternate dimension where some odd birds called Flickies have the ability to travel anywhere. In order to get help in his search for the Chaos Emeralds, Dr. Eggman transforms the Flickies into robots that will help him track down his coveted gems. Of course, it’s up to our favorite blue hedgehog Sonic to step in and save the day!. Jump into this 3D adventure as Sonic or his buddy Tails, and collect the golden rings to help free the Flickies and defeat the Doctor.

Alien Soldier (1995): As Epsilon-Eagle, you are an alien soldier that has been genetically engineered to produce maximum intelligence and strength. You were once a member of the criminal organization Scarlet, but when you decide to break from the group, you are forced into a showdown with Scarlet’s new leader Xi-Tiger, who kills a hostage in his attempt to destroy you. Now it’s up to you to take revenge against the bad guys in this side-scrolling action game. Choose from six different weapons and battle the bosses of Scarlet until you reach the final confrontation with the ultimate secret weapon.

Ecco Jr. (1995): The aquatic adventures of Ecco come to life for a younger generation of gamers. Perfect for kids, Ecco Jr. finds our young hero heading out to sea with a variety of tasks he must perform in order to get there. Along with his friends, Tara the baby orca and Kitnee the young Atlantic dolphin, Ecco Jr. will interact with sea lions, seahorses and other aquatic life as he makes his journey to the Big Blue. ...

via Kotaku

It looks like High Impact Games' portable take on the Ratchet & Clank series may be the latest PSP game to get a PlayStation 2 port. A listing for Ratchet & Clank Size Matters for the PS2 was uncovered by the eagle eyed staff at Joystiq today, one which points to the game shipping for the console February of next year. It's listed at $29.99, ten dollars cheaper than the PSP original.

While we don't have official word yet—we're waiting to hear back from SCEA—it certainly wouldn't surprise us to see yet another PSP game ported to the PS2. With one-time exclusive PSP titles such as Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories, Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories, Twisted Metal: Head On, Tokobot and (allegedly) Silent Hill Origins making the jump, it might just file under fiscally sensible. ...

via IGN

Today's news isn't over quite yet. NIS America recently announced their newest game that will be released in late March. Entitled Mana Khemia: Alchemists of Al-Revis, this new RPG will serve as a "spiritual successor" to the Atelier Iris series. This particular title, unlike its predecessors, will be a campus sim game, giving you the ability to interact with classmates and professors, as well as undertake various academic assignments.

From the looks of things, you'll be taking main character Vayne Aurelius on a number of quests that are assigned to you by your professors. Should you fail, you'll have to stay after school to make up the work. The game will also feature character customization, item crafting, and no random encounters. If you're in the mood to tackle the mysteries of alchemy, this may be the game for you.

Mana Kehmia will be available on March 18 and is being developed by Gust. Check back soon for more information. ...

via GameDaily

Last week, a newly updated Dreamcast trademark sparked rumors across the Internet that Sega might be looking at possibly creating a Dreamcast 2. At the time, Sega of America PR Director Charlie Scibetta immediately told GameDaily BIZ that Sega "has no plans to get back into the console business."

Today we received a new statement that explains in part why Sega actually updated the trademark. "SEGA has no plans to get back into the hardware business, but we also want to protect our past and current brands. The trademark application was filed to protect our current and potential future use of the word DREAMCAST and to prevent other parties from using it in a way that could be confused or linked with SEGA," Scibetta said.

While Sega has made no explicit comments regarding further digital distribution of Dreamcast titles, certain Dreamcast games have already appeared on GameTap, and from a business standpoint it would seem to make sense to make select Dreamcast classics available on services like Xbox Live or PlayStation Network. Protecting the trademark "for potential future use" leaves that door open as a possibility for the future.

That said, some of Sega's big properties saw previous releases on the Dreamcast, and when Sega releases a new game in the same franchise on the current consoles, the trademark simply protects their reference to an old Dreamcast version as well. We highly doubt Sega will ever launch another console, but digital distribution of Dreamcast games does seem like an attractive avenue. ...