Hasta La Gadget!

With estimated unit sales approaching 100 million worldwide, Nintendo has proven itself time and time again as the industry ruler of the portable console market. With the DSi–the second refresh of the Nintendo DS–we’re starting to see the company move in an evolutionary direction with its flagship handheld.

The DSi takes with it most of the features the DS Lite had to offer, but adds new multimedia capabilities. The DSi has been on sale in Japan since November 1 of last year and has already sold well over an astonishing 1 million units. Now that Nintendo has announced that the DSi will go on sale April 5 in North America, it certainly leaves everyone asking one big question, “Should I buy one?”

First, let’s look at what exactly separates the new DSi from the DS Lite. In terms of actual form-factor, the difference between the two portables is negligible. The DSi is slightly slimmer, but you’re not going to see the massive change in size like we saw when Nintendo upgraded the original DS to the DS Lite. What you may notice is that both screens are a quarter of an inch larger. The DSi hardware also actually eliminates the Game Boy Advance slot found on the Lite, so you won’t be able to play older Game Boy Advance games or DS titles that make use of the port such as Guitar Hero: On Tour.

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An analytics company recently conducted a study that found most free iPhone apps are rarely used after the first day they’re downloaded.

In fact, only 20 percent of users use free apps again after the first day they’re downloaded, according to Pinch Media, who based its analysis on trends seen in 30 million downloads. And within a month, most users stop using the app altogether.

The problem for developers? Advertising revenue. Advertisers shell out cash not just based on the number of downloads, but also how often each app is used. In other words, if you’re hoping to make it big like iShoot developer Ethan Nicholas, just know it’s extremely difficult to rake in money with a free iPhone app given the quick drop-off.

I can certainly vouch for the analysis. I’m especially picky about what stays on my iPhone springboard, and I’d say I delete about 90 percent of free apps a day after I download them. What are your thoughts?

iPhone App Store Secrets [Pinch Media]

Image: Apple

I’ll admit, it’s depressing when a kid under 16 has achieved more in their life than you have as an adult. However, the achievements of the whiz-kids in this list can also be inspiring.

[Image via Flickr]

Oh sure, the idea of having in-flight calling capabilities is pretty awesome, but actually biting the bullet and paying international roaming fees in order to indulge is likely to be a stretch. Ryanair, one of Europe’s low-cost airlines, has finally equipped 20 of its planes (all traveling to / from Dublin) with in-flight mobile service after promising it around 1.5 years ago. Ryanair confesses that typical prices will be around €0.50 to send a text message and between €2.00 and €3.00 per minute to make and receive calls. In other words, you’ll probably be keeping your conversations to yourself until you touch down, but at least it’s there in case of emergency. Or something.

[Via Gadling, thanks Conrad]

Filed under: Transportation, Wireless

Ryanair brings in-flight calling to 20 aircraft, but you’ll never use it originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 20 Feb 2009 15:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s pretty clear NVIDIA already has some big plans for its new nettop / netbook-specific Ion platform, and it looks like its reach is about to get broader still, with company president Jen-Hsun Huang reportedly confirming that the platform will also support VIA’s Nano processor by the end of the year. As you may recall, the two companies had been in off and on talks about a partnership last year before things finally fell though in November, and there was even a point where it seemed like NVIDIA might actually acquire VIA. No word from Intel on this latest development, although it doesn’t seem like it’ll be affecting the Atom’s status as the go-to processor in the short term. There’s also unfortunately no indication as to exactly what sort of VIA-powered, Ion-based systems we can expect to see, although it certainly wouldn’t be a surprise if they followed the Ion / Atom combo and went with a nettop first.

[Via GadgetMix.com]

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

NVIDIA Ion platform to support VIA Nano processors this year originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 20 Feb 2009 15:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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