The iPad is now available in the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Switzerland, Spain, Japan, Australia and Canada and will soon also be available in China.

But it’s not Apple who are saying they’ll have trouble meeting demand but an analyst at US-based firm Pacific Crest Securities.  Andy Hargreaves says…

“there’s still going to be supply constraints, but I’m expecting them to sell every single thing they can ship.”

Apparently this has everything to do with Apple’s parts manufacturers being unable to meet the company’s supply demands.

This wouldn’t be the first time that a major technology company has had trouble meeting demand for a new product.  Nintendo famously faced the same problems when supplies of their Wii console fell short in the early months after its release, and at the crucial Christmas holiday period.

Apple have so far declined to comment, unsurprisingly wanting to avoid any hysteria or negative reporting on their success.  Apple are predicted to have shipped over 8 million iPads by the end of 2010.

The results are pretty amazing. He used to measure his weight, BMI, body fat and heart rate and saw a drop in all of them. His weight went from 191 lbs to 176 lbs, BMI from overweight to normal (down 1.5 points), body fat from 20.8% to 18.4% and heart rate from 87 to 71.

This obviously are interesting results. The question that comes to my mind is however if those results would have been the same – or even better – if he decided to do something else instead. I’m not thinking about Eyetoys here although this would probably make up an interesting experiment as well.

What if he decided to run, swim or play football (that’s soccer for you Yanks) for 45-60 minutes a day instead ? I would think that it would have been reduced even further.

The benefit of Wii Fit however is that you can do it in your home, that most of the exercises are fun and not boring and that you can do it on your own.

The test compared the on, off and idle states of the devices if applicable listing the weekly, monthly and yearly energy consumption and costs in a table. The Playstation 3 is by far the most energy hungry device in the test followed by a 42″ Plasma TV and the Xbox 360 while the Nintendo Wii consumes only a tenth of the energy the Playstation 3 needs.

I could go on but the essence, the real important information can be found when comparing the idle energy consumption with the one when the device is turned off. Lots of money can be saved by turning the devices off instead of leaving them in idle mode. The Playstation 3 for instance consumes 1655.20 Kwh per year in idle mode but only 15.53 Kwh when turned off.

It does not make much sense to turn off the gaming console the whole year to save energy but it makes perfectly sense to turn it off when no one is playing. If you want to cut all costs you simply disconnect the power supply from the device.

Someone with a Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 would pay more than $420 per year for both devices even if they would be in idle mode most of the time. Please note that you have to check the local costs of 1 Kwh and calculate the expenses this way. It could very well be that you would be paying more or less depending on the energy costs in your country.

I usually cut the power supply that powers my LCD TV, Nintendo Wii, Xbox 360, Playstation 2 and Xbox whenever I’m not using those devices to save energy. I do not cut the power supply on my computer though, mainly because it does not make a huge difference.

Are you saving energy, if so how ?

Many sites that report these numbers point out that the amount of sales in dollars comes close to each other but fail to mention that is is not enough to compare game system sales but also consequences for game and accessory sales. With almost 700000 more systems in Japan in this year Nintendo is going to sell more games, more gamepads and other accessories increasing the revenue in that field as well.

It is also an important sign to game creators that the Wii is selling well and that it is currently the gaming system that producers will most likely sell the most games for. At least in Japan. The situation is different in North America and Europe where Microsoft is leading the field with their Xbox 360 thanks to the one year head start.

Which gaming system will be the dominant system in this generation ? Or, will there be a dominant system at all ? What do you think ?

Wiikey is working. I thought I just share that information before I begin explaining what I tested so far. I have a friend who is one of those geeks who likes to import his gaming systems to play the original version of the game instead of a localized version. Forgot to mention, I do own a Wiikey modded PAL Wii gaming system, my friend owns a US Wii system with some US games. I was not able to test Japanese games at all but I doubt that this is interesting for most users anyway. He owns a US Gamecube as well and brought over some Gamecube games that I could check if they would run on the Wiikey modded Wii system.

The first thing everyone using a Wiikey should do is to burn a Wiikey Setup ISO to DVd and load it into the Wii system. This lets us test if the modchip is working correctly. You have to set region override to ok to be able to play games from a different region. You can also increase drive speed here.

It works great with backups from the same reason but many games, like SSX Blur US do not work on my Pal Wii system. I was able to play some US Gamecube games though, namely Outlaw Golf and Tales of Symphonia.

The conclusion is simple. If you only want to play PAL / NTSC games with the Wiikey you should go and buy it immediately. If you would like to play different region games with the Wiikey you should try and find someone who tested those games before you buy a Wiikey or wait for a new version of Wiikey or a new modchip that supports region free games.

One way to get at least a partial compatibility would be to use so called region free patcher that patch backups of games from other regions to look like the correct region for your Wii system. I found a Wii region patcher compatibility list, take a look at it here.

The next step would be to create an account at mycast.orb.com. When that is done you can start configuring the service at the server. Right-click the icon that should appear in the system tray and select Configuration. Select the media tab and add folders of videos, music, photos and documents that you want to access with another internet device. You may add other users who are allowed to view your media files.

Once everything is setup you simply open the mycast.orb.com website and login. After that you can browse the contents that the server streams and view it on the other device. A real simple but effective system. I was able to view movies using my Wii that way. You can also stream tv if you have a video card that supports it. I don’t think it makes that much sense to stream tv to my wii but it would be nice if you are using a notebook for instance.

Take a look at the following youtube video which demonstrates orb used by a Nintendo Wii.

Please note that you need a broadband connection to do this kind of things. Some folders are automatically added (my documents). If you do not want this make sure to remove them from the configurations menu.

to be continued..

The launch lineup consists of 17 titles including the blockbusters Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess and Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Double Agent. First party games will retail for 49,99$ while third party companies may choose a different price range. Additional controllers look expensive at first glance: Another wireless Wiimote costs 40$ and a Nunchuck 20$. Considering that you need at least two controllers for multiplayer experience this is quite expensive.

A normal setup would include the Wii system, a second set of controllers and one or two additional games which leads to a price around 400$ for that bundle. This is still not expensive for a new console system and nothing compared to the expensive Playstation 3.

Virtual Console games will be available at launch, Nintendo is expecting to offer around 30 games until the end of 2006. You can purchase Wii cards with 2000 points (20$) and use those points to buy NES (500 points), SNES (800 points) or N64 (1000 points) games. A total of 24 companies including SEGA and Square Enix are supporting the Virtual Console and we can expect more games coming our way from those companies. Those 30 games are Nintendo first party games, it will be most likely a lot more considering the huge amount of supporting companies.

First party Wii games will not have a country code, means you can play Japanese and European games on a US Wii and vise versa. Again, third party companies may include a country code in their games.

The Wii will have messaging and photo capabilities. Web browsing will be included as well, totally free unlike Xbox Live. You just have to purchase the Opera browser for it. No Wii point price know for that.

I think the Wii will be highly successful. First, it starts with Zelda which alone is a system seller. It has big third party support with incredible games coming out like Resident Evil and Final Fantasy. It has a unique way of playing the games which appeals to long time gamers and probably to never before gamers as well. Remember those Eyetoy parties ? Even non gamers had lots of fun and were able to grasp the concept quickly.

Now, I only need to see an announcement from SEGA that they publish all Shining Force games for the Virtual Console. Oh, and Panzer Dragoon Saga please.