Walmart loses its mind, offers third-party Wii Remote and game for $35

Walmart's apparently spread its retail dominance over so much of the country that it no longer has a need for your usual economic motivators like ... um, profit. The store is offering shoppers a $35 bundle which includes either a Nyko-brand Wii Remote or a Power A Wii Pro Pack (which we demoed earlier this year), and their choice of one out of a list of pre-selected games. At that price, you'd expect the bundled games to be shovelware, but the inclusion of Epic Mickey, New Super Mario Bros. Wii and Super Mario Galaxy 2 might convince you otherwise.

We don't know how long this deal will be available, but considering you can purchase a Wii Remote, Nunchuk and a game for less than the standard retail price of a Wii game by its lonesome, we're going to wager that it won't be available for very long at all.

Walmart loses its mind, offers third-party Wii Remote and game for $35 originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 03 Dec 2010 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Kindle losing e-reader market share to iPad

A new survey from ChangeWave Research says that Amazon's Kindle is "rapidly" losing e-reader market share thanks to the popular iPad tablet.

For the three-month period of August 1st to November 8th, the Kindle's market share fell to 47 percent, from a whopping 62 percent.

The iPad took most of that share, rising to 32 percent from 16. Sony's "Reader" line accounted for another 5 percent, and the Barnes & Noble Nook took 4 percent.

ChangeWave surveyed 2800 consumers and found that 75 percent were "very satisfied" with their iPad, compared to 54 percent for Kindle owners.

The bigger question may be to ask if the iPad can be considered in the same market as the Kindle, as it does so much more. The Kindle is a dedicated e-reader. That being said, the survey showed that 76 percent of iPad owners use it to read.

Apple has sold over 2 million iPads. Amazon does not reveal Kindle sales figures.

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UI Improvements For Boxee Box Incoming

While the interface wasn't on our list of no-nos in our Boxee Box review, there's always room for improvement. Boxee has announced in their forums that they'll be updating the box's firmware with a few changes that should make it smoother overall. Here's what's going down...

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Nintendo UK promotion offered Donkey Kong Country Returns in exchange for bananas

Nintendo offered a strange promotional deal for Donkey Kong Country Returns at UK video game stores recently. All fans were asked to do is bring in real bananas; the first 20 who did would get a copy of Retro Studios' brilliantly tough platformer. And, sure enough, it worked -- fans handing over bananas got a copy of the game, as well as a photo opportunity with ... the store employees.

The promotion worked so well, according to Nintendo, that the company is planning some similar giveaways in the future. Soon, by bringing in real-life psychadelic mushrooms, you'll be able to get a copy of the trippy Super Mario Galaxy 2. A fully knitted sweater will net you a copy of Kirby's Epic Yarn and 20 lucky game store shoppers will be able to get a copy of Metroid: Other M by bringing in a real extraterrestrial being. Good luck with that one.

Nintendo UK promotion offered Donkey Kong Country Returns in exchange for bananas originally appeared on Joystiq on Sat, 04 Dec 2010 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Xbox modder gets case dismissed by prosecution

Yesterday we reported that the jury trial for the case of Matthew Crippen had been delayed, after the presiding judge took 30 minutes to lecture the prosecution.

Today, the prosecution has dismissed the case, after just hours, "based on fairness and justice."

Prosecutor Allen Chiu says: "The government has decided to dismiss the indictment."

Crippen was on trial for allegedly modding Xbox 360 consoles to be able to play pirated games and homebrew.

U.S. District Judge Philip Gutierrez started the trial off yesterday with a 30-minute rant complaining about the prosecution and the government's case, with his main concerns being the prosecution's "star" witnesses.

The two witnesses in the case had both potentially broken the law, making them less credible. The first,Entertainment Software Association investigator Tony Rosario, had video of Crippen modding consoles in his home in L.A. Those videos, however, were taped secretly, in violation of California's strict privacy laws.

Microsoft security employee Ken McGrail was the second witness, the man who analyzed the consoles that were seized from Crippen's home. McGrail, however, had admitted under oath to modifying the original Xbox and the Xbox 360 back when he was in college.

Crippen was charged with two counts of breaking the anti-circumvention provisions of the DMCA and faced up to 10 years in prison.

The 28-year-old says he will finally be able to go back to school, needing just one more year to get his degree from Cal State Fullerton.

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Rock Band Weekly: Queen

Next week's Rock Band DLC will be two track packs that are all Queen. One pack includes some Rock Band 3 upgraded tracks from Lego Rock Band, along with some lesser-ish known ditties, while the other is an extrabonanza of the band's most popular songs (which you might already own) reworked for RB3. That means: harmonies!

So, if singing like Freddie Mercury wasn't already hard enough, you're really gonna have to work as a team to nail those tracks properly. You are the champions, my friends. The full DLC track details are posted after the break.

Continue reading Rock Band Weekly: Queen

Rock Band Weekly: Queen originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 03 Dec 2010 11:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Some Sanity From Those In Power In The US Government, Concerning TSA Security & Wikileaks

While we've been highlighting the absolutely ridiculous responses by the US government to both the terrorism threat to airlines and the Wikileaks situation, it should be noted (thankfully!) that not everyone in the US government is overreacting, and there are some clear signs of sanity.

First up, we have Aaron Farnham pointing us to Defense Secretary Robert Gates' response to the Wikileaks disclosure of diplomatic cables, that seems to take a much more rational view:

But let me -- let me just offer some perspective as somebody who's been at this a long time. Every other government in the world knows the United States government leaks like a sieve, and it has for a long time. And I dragged this up the other day when I was looking at some of these prospective releases. And this is a quote from John Adams: "How can a government go on, publishing all of their negotiations with foreign nations, I know not. To me, it appears as dangerous and pernicious as it is novel." . . .

Now, I've heard the impact of these releases on our foreign policy described as a meltdown, as a game-changer, and so on. I think -- I think those descriptions are fairly significantly overwrought. The fact is, governments deal with the United States because it's in their interest, not because they like us, not because they trust us, and not because they believe we can keep secrets.

Many governments -- some governments deal with us because they fear us, some because they respect us, most because they need us. We are still essentially, as has been said before, the indispensable nation. So other nations will continue to deal with us. They will continue to work with us. We will continue to share sensitive information with one another. Is this embarrassing? Yes. Is it awkward? Yes. Consequences for U.S. foreign policy? I think fairly modest.

The full statement has even more details, where he talks about better information sharing. Given some of the responses from others inside and outside the government, it's nice to see someone like Secretary Gates (who has been quite critical of Wikileaks in the past), come out with a more reasoned response (though it has received almost no press coverage).

Similarly, Wired has an article highlighting how Michael Leiter, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, is speaking more reasonably about anti-terrorism efforts and security as well, noting (as we have in the past) that "perfect security" is an impossible goal that is, itself, damaging to security.

He points out that the US appears to be playing right into Al Qaeda's hands by playing up each failed terrorist attempt and then overreacting to it, noting that (like internet trolls), a better response might be to just ignore them publicly, while continuing to do things quietly on the back end to protect the country.

I don't agree with everything he had to say, but given how many frustrating responses we've seen from government officials on both of these issues over the last few weeks, it's worth pointing out that not everyone is responding that way.

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