About Electronics

NaviGadget: Sony PSP GPS navigation system has been around for a while but a GPS navigation system for Nintendo DS is new to us.

Fab Chain of China has just come out with a product called Ranger that does just that: GPS navigation for NDS.

It uses Google Maps (which raises some questions) can do 2D, fake-3D map rendering, uses a U-Blox GPS receiver, and can connect to other devices such as laptops and PDA’s too.

Ranger has its own rechargeable battery so it won’t waste your consoles juice, and will charge through USB. No word on availability or pricing just yet – but do check it out for yourself.

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Edge: Portable devices were designed to be taken anywhere, but users’ top location to use these devices is at home, according to new research by NPD Group.

The firm told Edge, “79 percent [of those polled say] they use their portable device in-home, far more than any other location.” A statement from NPD added, “[This] indicates that these devices may be competing with more stationary entertainment devices for a user’s time.”

Overall, the research found that people are using devices such as the smartphone, iPhone, iPod, DS and PSP more today than they were just three months ago.

More findings of the report:

- Gameplay is the feature used by most (84 percent) on the PlayStation Portable. Slightly more than one third of PSP owners are watching movies (35 percent) and listening to music (33 percent) on their device.
- Ninety two percent of Nintendo DS owners are playing games by themselves followed by close to one quarter playing games with friends locally using one game cartridge.
- Listening to music dominates iPod usage (96 percent) followed by playing games (20 percent) at a distant second.

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eNews2.0: Nintendo president Satoru Iwata said that the company does not intend to lower the prices of its Wii and Nintendo DS video games for the following fiscal year. In fact, Wii’s price has been kept constant ever since its release in November 2006.

Nintendo has high hopes as more than 28 million DS units are expected to be sold. Wii’s situation is still a bit delicate, since cases in which customers cannot purchase the game continue to be reported. The company is currently considering the possibility to increase production to no less than 2.4 million units a month. At the end of May 2007, Nintendo announced its plan to have more than 35 million Wii owners worldwide by 2012. Judging by the way things are going right now, there is a very high chance that expectations will be significantly exceeded

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Audio Junkies: AQ Interactive out of Japan has a very cool piece of music creation software in the works called the KORG DS-10 Synthesizer. The DS-10 is designed to be used with the Nintendo DS and features a multitude of high-quality sounds that can be controlled using the DS’s dual-screen touch panel.

“In addition to the two analog synth simulators and drum module, a 6-track/16-step sequencer enables precise control and provides a wide range of musical possibilities. Several units can be connected and played together through a wireless link, and this and other features make the Nintendo DS and KORG DS-10 almost limitless in their application – they can take you places that no single synthesizer can.”

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Engadget: It’s not enough that the Wii Fit is trying to cajole you into getting off your couch and actually engaging in physical activity — now the DS is worming in on the action. Developer Ubisoft is rolling out My Weight Loss Coach for the handheld, and going the extra mile (ha ha!) by including a pedometer add-on which interfaces with the system.

Apparently, the idea is that you’ll keep the pedometer in a pocket or on a belt buckle during the day, then plug the unit into your DS and let the software calculate how much fat you’ve burned — thus keeping track of your daily regimen and adjusting accordingly. The game / device combo is launching in one-croissant-too-many Europe this summer

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Just Another Mobile Phone Blog: SvSIP is a software that you allow to use your Nintendo DS like phone. For this, it uses SIP protocol. This protocol is an open standard for creating, modifying, and terminating sessions with one or more participants. It is widely used as a signaling protocol for Voice over IP.

This software is under development, it currently allows:
- to call to number with figures,
- to receive calls,
- to question IVR by using DTMF tones.

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PC World: The popular DS handheld has surpassed 50 million in worldwide sales says Tech.co.uk; nearly as fast as Apple sells iPods.

According to the report, almost 40 percent of DS owners reside in Japan. That means one in six people own a DS in the country.

Only a handful of products reach the seminal 100 million milestone. Apple announced in April that it had sold its 100 millionth iPod player, doing so in only five and a half years. It took Sony 13 and a half years to sell 100 million Walkmans, 10 years to sell 100 million units of the original PlayStation, and five an a half years to sell 100 million PlayStation 2 machines.

Nintendo’s personal best is 100 million GameBoys sold in 11 years; something the company’s newest portable should easily surpass in much less time. By comparison, Sony’s PlayStation handheld has sold 25 million units to date.

The DS was first released in late 2004. In 2006, Nintendo released the DS Lite, a more streamlined version of the original.

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Reuters: Japanese video game maker Nintendo Co. Ltd. scored a nearly eightfold rise in quarterly operating profit on vigorous sales of its DS handheld games, and forecast stronger than expected growth this year. (…)

Nintendo said it aims to more than double its Wii sales to 14 million units in the current business year from 5.84 million a year earlier.

The Kyoto-based company added that it is targeting DS handheld game sales of 22 million units this year, compared with 23.56 million in fiscal 2007.

“We cannot make our business plan on the assumption that this extraordinary situation will continue this year, although modest DS growth in the United States and Europe can be expected,” Nintendo President Satoru Iwata told reporters.

Iwata said Nintendo aims to double its combined annual Wii and DS software sales to 300 million units from last year’s levels, without giving a specific time frame.

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Crunchgear: Though the popularity of FM radio is starting to dwindle, some of still enjoy some classic rock, sports radio, or NPR.
Brando knows this and have created quite a nice looking add-on for the Nintendo DS that allows you to listen to FM radio. It leeches off your DS’ battery and has a bright, monochrome screen. And the best part? It’s only $14 (10 euro)! Pick one up and actually start getting some tunes out of your Nintendo DS that aren’t made with Elektroplankton.

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Newlaunches: The Nintendo DS plays a number of roles for the Japanese and the latest is it teaches driving. Game publisher D3P is out with the ‘Driving school for DS’ where not only does it teach kids to drive cars and bikes safely but also bicycles. It is actually a simulator where you go through the process of enrolling in a driving school to learning traffic signs and rules to driving. (…)

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Newlaunches: The Japanese continue to find innovative ways of using the Nintendo DS from teaching English to a museum guide to a cook book.

Now thanks to Capcom you will be familiarising yourself with words like Bull run, operator, EPS, futures, options, profit booking just to a few, you guessed it right the new game from Capcom teaches you stock trading.

The game starts with a protagonist explaining the basics of money markets after which you start trading and building a portfolio, the goal of the game is obviously to accumalate max profits. There is also a v/s mode where you can play against a friend with the aim of earning profit while causing maximum damage to your foe.

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AV zombie: The PlayStation portable is to receive a facelift. Sony’s handheld, which has lost out badly to rival Nintendo DS in worldwide sales, will (unsurprisingly) be made smaller and lighter.
While Sony’s Ray Maguire has refused to be drawn as to when this updated version will appear, the new model is not thought to be imminent. However, to stave off its rival, Sony clearly would want to have a new PSP story to tell come Christmas.

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