Hot! Electronics - The Cool Stuff

Since PLayststion 3 is beeing released soon, Nintendo was quick to release news of it's new strange-named console, the Wii. Word from Nintendo is that the console will go on sale in the fourth quarter of this year, a gameplay video has been released (you can see it here), and some minor news and specs have been made available.
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Nintendo has released a video of it's new Wii controler in action, ant thanks to google-videos you can see it here:


The good news is that a "normal" controller for the Wii will be available, so all you who tought that these pepole, in the video, look stupid, don't have to worry about that.

The Wii has nowdays standard connectivity via 802.11b/g, and USB 2.0, supporting a standard LAN adaptor.
It can connect wirelessly to the Nintendo DS, and is backwards compatible with all previous versions of nintendo, one way or the other. It supports standard 12cm dual layer optical discs (no details specified), and Game Cube 8cm discs.

Another key feature of the Wii is the Virtual Console: Wii will have downloadable access to 20 years of fan-favorite titles originally released for Nintendo 64, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) and even the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). The Virtual Console also will feature a "best of" selection from Sega Genesis titles and games from the TurboGrafx console (a system jointly developed by NEC and Hudson). It also will be home to new games conceived by indie developers whose creativity is larger than their budgets.

Other than the controller and virtual console, the Wii has another interesting new and unique feature:
The WiiConnect24 lets the Wii connect to the internet when it's turned OFF, and download suprize games and updates without interupting the user.

The Wii will have 512Mb of internal flash memmory and a SD card slot for expansion, which is kinda weak compared to the 60GB of the PS3.
Only released details about the CPU are that it's a PowerPC CPU (code-named "Broadway"). Made with a 90 nm process, developed with and manufactured by IBM.
It is known that the graphics are under development ba ATI, but no other details released.

Other Features and details said to be included are: Four ports for classic Nintendo GameCube controllers. Two slots for Nintendo GameCube Memory Cards. An AV Multi-output port for component, composite or S-video.