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Nintendo announced yesterday at the Tokyo Games Conference that, as speculated in some corners of the media after a photograph of some promotional material made it’s way onto the internet last week, it would indeed be dropping the price of the Wii console in both the US and Japan. Of course us mere mortals here in the PAL zone won’t receive a price cut for the time being, but then if units are still shifting why would they instigate a premature price cut?

What you may not have heard however is that also yesterday Nintendo celebrated their 120th birthday! to put into perspective how long this is it’s almost double the 63 years that rivals Sony have been in existence (founded 1946), and nearly nine times as long as Microsoft (founded 1975). Of course back when they were first founded they weren’t developing and distributing incredibly popular games consoles and games. In fact they started with hanafuda playing cards (which they still manufacture in Japan today), and on the journey from these beginnings to where they are now they have also dabbled in other area’s, trying things such as instant rice, and setting up their own TV channel and taxi company.

It wasn’t until 1973 that Nintendo really began the evolution into the gaming giant recognised all around the world today. It was then that they shifted their focus to family entertainment and opened entertainment venues with the Laser Clay Shooting System, which was an early version of what would later be turned into Duckhunt and packaged with the Nintendo Entertainment System. A student product developer was hired in 1975, and it was he that four years later designed Donkey Kong, and was largely responsible for the new direction and success of the company at the point. Indeed Shigeru Miyamoto is still a very important part of Nintendo.

What will the next 120 years hold for the big N? There is little doubt in my mind that the evolution of the Wii will be to a more interactive, intuitive, and inclusive method of gaming, and considering we’ve gone from playing cards to the Wii, where we will we be if we travel as far again?

Hello everyone! Friday’s here and so it’s time for the weekend again.

This week the Gadgets team have been very busy with all the new products coming in.

On Monday I was off due to my birthday celebrations, and yes I had a great birthday weekend for all of you who are interested! I was back in on Tuesday and had lots of new gadgets to get acquainted with.

First up was the new Don Mug, this almighty mug holds nearly 2 pints of tea!! Tea addicted Dirk has already eyed it up and is ready to order one in! Next was the Personalised Classic story books, what a great idea for all of you who have bookworm friends. It’s simple, you choose which title gift pack you want, register it, change the names so you or your friends are the stars in the story, then you receive the finished book in the post. There are six great titles to choose from including Pride and Prejudice, Dracula, and Alice in Wonderland, or should I say Clare in Wonderland?

Wednesday came and so did more new products, this time its the Adopt a penguin gift set. This is my favourite new item to be added to the site because not only do you get loads of nice photos, certificates etc, but you can also have a day trip to visit the penguins at any Sealife Centre with the complimentary ticket included in the pack. All I need now is an “Adopt a Meerkat Gift Box” and Pip Squeak can have a new friend to visit!

Thursday arrived and finally all was starting to calm down. The gadgets team even had time to have a little birthday carrot cake to treat ourselves with. I got a great Cup Cake tin for a gift, and I will be using this shortly to create my own giant carrot cup cake!! Yes, of course photos will be provided!

So Friday is here and I have to say how quickly the week has flown by! After such a busy birthday last weekend I shall be taking the time this weekend to catch up, chill out, and watch some classic girlie films. Maybe I’ll even dig out my Dirty Dancing DVD in honour of Patrick Swayze who sadly passed away this week. Can’t wait, what with the weather turning cold the last few days winter seems to be round the corner, so I plan on doing nothing but snuggling up with some Cosy Boots and a Slanket!

So that’s it from me this week! Make sure you all have a nose at the new products, and keep your eyes out for some more new additions to the gadgets.co.uk website over the coming days! I will see you all Tuesday xx

Underway currently in Brussels is an exhibition entitled ‘Visual Voltage’. It is a collection of conceptual ideas which are meant to give an insight into how we use electricity. My two favourite pieces are below with more to be found here.

First up is the energy aware clock, which is designed to display the patterns of energy use throughout the household across a twenty four hour period, rather than displaying the time. I think myself that this actually looks quite attractive, and the visual means of the display is very easy to look at and grasp with just a glance, giving you an idea of your peak times of usage, and what sort of level your energy consumption is at even over very low use periods such as when you are at work or asleep.

My second pick is the flower light. A ceiling mounted lamp shade that changes shape in relation to the amount of energy being consumed. When energy use is low the ‘flower’ flourishes and will bloom opening up to allow more light and a prettier display, but if energy levels increase the shade will close into a cylinder, in turn affecting the quality of light emitted.

Obviously these are, currently at least, more ‘art’ projects than anything else, but I can see the above pieces fitting in quite nicely in a standard household, so who knows….

This weekend came the somewhat surprising news that, in Japan at least, the Sony Walkman toppled the iPod from the top of the sales charts for the week ending 31st August. My first thought was of a Japanese retro craze for old cassette type Walkmans, but on reading further through the article it becomes apparent that it is Sony’s new range of MP3 players that are the products in question.

I thought this was a pity myself, the idea that a sudden swathe of nostalgia for the ’80s had swept Japan sending even the mighty iPod reeling in its wake was a much better mental image than the (apparently) somewhat less than comprehensive sales figures which, according to the article I read, don’t include sales of the iPhone. Still, it did give me a few moments to look back through my Rose tinted spectacles, and reminisce about the good things the 80s gave us. As well as being arguably the golden age of music, well, maybe that’s a bit too rose tinted, but the 80s also gave us shoulder pads, big hair, terrible fashion, and…

Ok, so maybe the 80s weren’t actually all that great, and in reality we are better off with MP3 players than we were with cassette walkmans and mountains of tapes, that would invariably get chewed up at some point. But it’s still nice to look back at how ridiculous it all was.