I was first in line for a Nintendo Wii in November, 2006. Well, that’s not exactly true. I pre-ordered mine from Amazon.com and received it the DAY BEFORE it was released to the general public, so I never actually had to stand in line. Based on the articles I’d read on Nintendo’s new product and the few preview videos that were circulating on the web, I knew I had to have one.

It turns out I wasn’t alone. Nintendo’s profits are up in a year that saw slow holiday sales for most products. Chances are, if you don’t have a Wii, it’s not because you don’t want one. It’s because you can’t find one. I knew the Wii would be popular, but who knew it would be impossible to find for two straight Christmas seasons in a row?

It really is a great product though, so if you can find one and you can afford one, you should really give it a try. I had a family gathering at my house right after the Wii came out and it was amazing that my mom, my grandma, nieces and nephews, aunts and uncles, and, well, everyone in my family, wanted to play the thing. I’ve had dozens of family gatherings at my home over the years and I’ve had Playstations and Xboxes on at every one of them, but only the kids ever showed any interest in using them. When my eighty-year-old grandmother asked to play Wii bowling with me after seeing me play against other family members, everyone was surprised.

Grandmothers don’t play video games. Well, they didn’t until the Nintendo Wii came along, that is.

Jan. 24 - Nintendo announced a dramatic jump in profit on Thursday, driven by strong holiday sales of its Wii and DS game machines.

Dan Sloan reports.

I don’t know what’s more scary, the fact that they’re putting iPod speakers in just about everything these days, including an indoor/outdoor George Foreman Grill, or the fact that I kind of want one.  My only concern is putting my expensive iPod near that heat and grease, although I would hope they designed the thing with protecting your mp3 player in mind.

The $99 price tag isn’t bad either.  I’m curious to see some reviews on this.

So I was checking out the latest spam from Apple about new features on the Ipod Touch, and while e-mail, maps, weather, and stocks on the go are cool concepts, the Ipod Touch requires a wi-fi network in order to supply this data.  The problem with this is that when I need a map I’m probably in my car, nowhere near a wi-fi hotspot like Starbucks.  Sure, there are plenty of free wi-fi hotspots in Indiana (and every other part of the country), but there never seems to be one nearby when you need one.

More…

What’s so special about the MacBook Air? Well, it’s the thinnest laptop of all-time for one, making it extremely light and ultra-portable. Second, the MacBook Air doesn’t have an optical drive (meaning CD or DVD drive). Why? Because as Steve Jobs says, it doesn’t need one. Apple has actually developed software that lets you use the optical drives on other PCs and Macs, so you can pop a disc into your desktop drive and run it on your laptop wirelessly.

Some people will love this concept and others will consider it an inconvenience, but I think we are slowly moving away from optical drives anyway. Why distribute content on discs when everything can be easily downloaded these days? Still, the option to use discs is still there, you just need to have access to another computer that has a disc drive.

The price for the MacBook Air, $1799, isn’t bad and I wouldn’t mind owning one myself. There are several things an Apple still does better than a PC, such as photo and video editing. Check out the video and see for yourself why this is sure to be one of the hottest selling laptops of 2008.

The Optimus Maximus keyboard is insane. Every key is a separate OLED screen with a resolution of 48×48 pixels. This means that you can program your own fonts, reconfigure the letter order on your keyboard (my Dad could stop whining that keyboards have a QWERTY configuration instead of alphabetical), change the colors of your keys (I see ugly flashing rainbow keyboards coming to an office near me in the future), or even play games like Minesweeper using your keyboard as a gaming surface. This concept has a lot of possibilities, and I’ll definitely buy one once the price drops down from $1500, which with the drastic decreases in OLED prices we’ve seen in the last year or so, shouldn’t take too long.

The BUG is a new device from Bug Labs that makes it easy to build portable electronic devices with a plug and play modular hardware system and open source software. You purchase a base unit and as many optional modules (web camera, LCD screen, camera, GPS, etc.) as you want. You can snap four different modules into the base to create your own wifi-enabled device.

This concept has a lot of promise. We’ve been able to customize our PCs for years by simply plugging in new components. Now we’ll be able to easily customize our mp3 players, video players, PDAs, and other portable devices as well.

Here’s another cool video from CES 2008. Guitar Hero fans, such as myself, should get a kick out of Guitar Wizard, a computer program and guitar interface that is similar to Guitar Hero only it allows you to actually learn how to play a real guitar. The creator also claims that you can use your own music in the game and if you already own a guitar (either acoustic or electric) then you can use that as well. I may have to pick this “game” up if it makes it to mass market.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t attend CES 2008 this year, so I’ve been watching the videos as they come in on Google Video today. One of my favorites is probably this one shown during Bill Gate’s keynote speech. Gates is planning on stepping down from working at Microsoft full-time this year so he can focus on his charitable foundation. This humorous video depicts what his life will be like now that he’s no longer a Microsoft employee and what his last day at the office will be like.