After announcing Japanese and North American sales figures for the Nintendo DS, Nintendo has updated its sales figures for the European market - revealing that 3.5 million units have sold in the region, with 13 million now sold worldwide.

The figures, which cover actual sell-through rather than shipments, show Japan leading the world at the end of 2005 with over five million units sold, followed by North America with four million and Europe with 3.5 million.

An additional few hundred thousand units in territories such as Australia and Latin America brings the global total for the handheld console, which launched first in the USA and then in Japan in late 2004 followed by a European launch in early 2005, to over 13 million units.

Nintendogs was the most successful title on the platform in Europe, selling some 1.6 million units since its launch in October, while Mario Kart DS racked up some 800,000 sales across the region since November.

Some of the biggest titles for the platform have yet to arrive in Europe, however; most notably DS Training for Adults: Work Your Brain, which is the most successful game on the platform in Japan and is being rebranded as "Prof. Kawashima's Brain Training: How old is your brain?" for its European launch.

Animal Crossing: Wild World, which uses the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection online service and has sold over a million units in just two weeks in Japan, is also due to launch in Europe shortly. ...

Visteon continues to be at the forefront of in-vehicle entertainment by introducing its latest family entertainment system that integrates gaming functionality. Through an exclusive partnership with Nintendo, Visteon has developed its Dockable Entertainment featuring Game Boy® Advance.

Like Visteon's Dockable Family Entertainment System, this product contains a portable multimedia device that can be detached from your vehicle and taken with you. Then, when you want to "hit the road", you can simply dock it into the overhead docking station. Additionally, this new system integrates Nintendo's Game Boy Advance – offering occupants the excitement of in-vehicle gaming.

http://www.visteon.com/products/auto...dock_gba.shtml ...

As you all know, we've got kind of a thing for gadgets 'round these parts. Sure, we can be critical and even mocking of certain products, but in the end, a gadget is a gadget is a gadget, right? Well, that's true only if it works. Meet the wireless iPod dock by Adimos, which promises to stream video content from a 5G 'Pod to the display device of your choice. Does it use WiFi? Nah. Does it use Bluetooth? Negative. RF? Nope. IR? Try again. We'll stop right there, because you could name every single wireless standard and still not come up with Adimos' proprietary ADM200 that is required for streaming from your PMP. Does your TV support ADM200? Another big no right there, because only an unnamed European manufacturer has commited to including this tech in their sets. Oh well, it's nice to dream.

http://www.engadget.com/2006/01/05/a...deo-ipod-dock/ ...

As you all know, we've got kind of a thing for gadgets 'round these parts. Sure, we can be critical and even mocking of certain products, but in the end, a gadget is a gadget is a gadget, right? Well, that's true only if it works. Meet the wireless iPod dock by Adimos, which promises to stream video content from a 5G 'Pod to the display device of your choice. Does it use WiFi? Nah. Does it use Bluetooth? Negative. RF? Nope. IR? Try again. We'll stop right there, because you could name every single wireless standard and still not come up with Adimos' proprietary ADM200 that is required for streaming from your PMP. Does your TV support ADM200? Another big no right there, because only an unnamed European manufacturer has commited to including this tech in their sets. Oh well, it's nice to dream.

http://www.engadget.com/2006/01/05/a...deo-ipod-dock/ ...

Hello,

I am happy to release the first version of my port of Quake to the PSP. Hopefully some people will enjoy it.

Here is the readme:

Quake for PSP
=============

Peter Mackay
5th Jan 2006


Introduction
------------

This is a port of id Software's Quake to the PSP. There's already an excellent port out there by PacManFan, but I wanted to code something for the PSP and it was a good project. I also wanted to port from the original id source, instead of the PocketQuake source.


Features
--------

The following is working fine:
- Software rendering.
- Sound.

Things missing:
- WLAN support for network play. Nobody I know has a PSP, so I can't implement this.
- Hardware rendering. I have no PSP GU experience, so it'll take a while to do.


Installation
------------

This game is for PSPs with firmware versions 1.0 or 1.5. To get it running on other versions, you will need to up/downgrade your firmware appropriately. Unfortunately I don't have a v1.0 PSP, so I can only hope that it works on that version of the firmware.

It almost definitely won't work with a v2.00 EBOOT loader.

Installation instructions:
1. READ THE CONTROLS SECTION BELOW.
2. Firmware v1.0 users:
Copy the Quake folder from the 1.0 folder to the PSP/GAME folder on your PSP.
Firmware v1.5 users:
Copy the Quake and Quake% folders from the 1.5 folder to the PSP/GAME folder on your PSP.
3. Download the shareware version of Quake for the PC from here:
http://www.idsoftware.com/games/quak...e_section=demo
4. Copy PC Quake's ID1 folder to your PSP/GAME/Quake folder.


Controls
--------

Regarding the buttons:

The PSP buttons are connected to the following keys during the game and when the menu is shown. You will need to go into Quake's options and configure the keys you want to use.

For example, when you press CROSS, Quake gets a CROSS key press, which you will need to set to your desired action in the game options screen.

Regarding the analog nub:

If mouselook is turned on, then the analog nub is used to look around. You'll need to allocate other buttons for movement. If mouselook is turned off, which is the default, then the analog nub is used for movement.


Support
-------

I don't intend to provide personal email support for this game. I believe that I'd get a lot of useless mail if I were to publish my email address for this purpose.

If you can't get Quake running, try posting on a related PSP forum and hopefully someone can help you.

Known bugs:
- Fast key taps may go unnoticed when the frame rate is low. This is because I'm not sure how to get buffered input on the PSP. Does the PSPSDK support it?

If you've found a bug in the code, please post about it. I will probably read it and fix the bug if I can.


Thanks
------

Big thanks go out to:
- All the great guys on the PS2Dev forum for all your hard work on the PSPSDK, and your helpful replies on the forum.
- id Software, for supporting the game porting community by making their game sources GPL.
- Hazel, for putting up with the complete lack of attention from me while I was working on this. ...

They have an add on this site and they seem to be the only ones who are carrying the white GP2x? Are they a truested company? Is there a better place to order from? ...

from DSfanboy

In addition to the online track hacks and other unlockables for Mario Kart DS that we've previously reported on, you can know uncover beta courses that were never released by Nintendo. A forum member writes: "There are several courses in Mario Kart DS that are unfinished and completely unavailable (beta). They can be played with a little bit of hacking, but not at all perfectly. The textures are missing, so the courses are displayed almost pure white."

Could lack of time be the reason for not including these tracks? Only Nintendo has the real answer, but it would have been nice to get some extra tracks on the game. Maybe some future solution will allow DS owners to do so though.

Download Video ...

A port of Python to the Nintendo DS, heres the info:

I wanted to see what was involved in cross-compiling Python to the Nintendo DS. In order to do this, I first needed a method of input and output to link the cross-compiled Python static library to, as it is simple to take input pass it into Python and have the output go to stdout or stderr. So, the first step was to look around for example source code for graphical keyboards that displayed on the touchscreen and output clicked letters to the top screen. There were many versions available, but the one I chose to start with was "Extended Keyboard Example 4".

It turns out that libNDS already provides a console, replacing stdin and stdout to do so. And devkitARM provides the common libraries and compilation tools, including a version of libc, called newlib. So, I just tried to cross compile Python 2.4, addressed the few minor issues that popped up, then linked the static library that resulted to the keyboard source code and added the 3 lines of C code that simulated a simple Python interpreter.

http://www.disinterest.org/NDS/Python24.html ...

The iPod may be the modern-day equivalent of the Red Ryder BB gun _ that all-consuming desire of Ralphie, the little protagonist of "A Christmas Story."

Every kid seemed to want an iPod this Christmas _ and many adults wanted one, too.

But an iPod, while far safer than a BB gun, can be no less problematic for the uninitiated.

"I was one of the last to join the e-mail bandwagon," said Sherri Fitts, of Providence, R.I., a clinical psychologist and confessed Luddite.

On Christmas Day, Fitts tried to set up an iPod Shuffle for her daughter, Emily. The digital music player was a gift from the 10-year-old's grandparents.

"I thought it wouldn't be that hard," Fitts said.

She was wrong.

After hours of trying, Fitts gave up so she'd have time to spend with her parents, who had come to spend the day.

"It's not the same as the (Sony) Walkman, where you just put in a battery and turn it on."

On the day after Christmas, Fitts called in reinforcements _ a computer-savvy friend _ to no avail.

"On Tuesday, I was ready to throw it out the window."

Instead, she got through to Apple's iPod help line and a technician talked her through the start-up process in a few minutes.

Fitts' experience may have been an extreme one, but she certainly wasn't the only person in the last week or so perplexed by the tiny gadgets.

In the week after Christmas, Fitts and other iPod neophytes headed online, to the phone or to a store for help setting up their new digital music players.

"It may be the exact thing that they wanted but they just don't know how to use it," said Matt Dworkin, a member of Best Buy's Geek Squad, the company's technology service team.

Apple has sold more than 28 million iPods since the MP3 players were introduced in 2001. This year, stock-market analysts predicted consumers would snap up from 9 million to 14 million of Apple's digital music players.

"Apple did such a great job marketing it, it's what people ask for when they come in," said Erik Burmeister, a salesman at the Circuit City in Cranston, R.I.

Apple, of Cupertino, Calif., introduced its credit-card-sized Nano in September to replace the iPod Mini, then the best-selling iPod version.

The company forecast that it would sell 5 million Nanos by Jan. 1. The company's head of sales, Tim Cook, told Reuters before Christmas that demand for the Nano was "staggering."

iPods were one of the top-selling electronic items on Amazon.com between Nov. 1 and Christmas, a period when the online retailer sold 108 million items overall.

With millions of iPod Nanos, Shuffles and Videos selling worldwide, Apple Computer Inc.'s Web site had the largest increase in visitors among the major brands in November, according to the latest figures available from consumer researcher Nielsen/NetRatings.

Expecting the demand for help to keep pace with iPod sales, Circuit City designated a sales associate in each of its 617 stores to run "how-to" sessions for customers last week. The company designated a computer station in each store to run iPod demonstrations.

"I expected quite a few (questions) after Christmas," said Eric Dieffenbach, Burmeister's department manager.

A dozen or so people a day came for the sessions during the early part of the week, in addition to customers asking stray questions, Burmeister said. The number dropped as the week wore on.

"Parents come in with their kids just to learn how to use it, too," Burmeister said Friday.

In the sessions, Circuit City employees gave customers a basic overview of how to charge the iPod battery, download music from a computer, and how to set up an iTunes account where they can buy songs.

On Friday, Burmeister helped Perry Caruso and his 14-year-old daughter, Lexi, learn about her new Nano.

Lexi's iPod Mini broke just before Christmas, so Caruso agreed to buy her a Nano to replace it.

"I already know how to put music in it," said the ninth-grader. "I want to learn how to put in pictures."

Dworkin, interviewed by phone from New Jersey, said he'd also been cautioning buyers to take iPods commercials _ which depict people dancing wildly with iPods in hand _ with a grain of salt.

"The iPod, despite the commercials, is not made for active lifestyles," he said. "We get a lot of people who end up killing their hard drives."

Once Fitts, of Providence, got past the initial problems of setting up her daughter's new Shuffle, she talked with Emily about how to care for the music player.

"There's a very real possibility that she might leave it somewhere or drop it," Fitts said.

But, she acknowledged, "I actually think it's a pretty cool thing."

http://www.shns.com/shns/g_index2.cf...IPODS-01-04-06 ...