Hasta La Gadget!

We did it folks – we made it through another election, which means that we finally get a break from those endless political ads. It won’t be long before those ads are playing all over the place again, so savor the moment while you can. We found out today that President Obama set Twitter records with that a tweet that was shared more 600,000 times, and Apple was hit with a hefty fine in a case over patents related to FaceTime. Foxconn is saying that it’s still having issues keeping up with iPhone 5 production, and Pixar has named a new building after Steve Jobs.

We had a couple of quarterly reports land this afternoon, with both Activision and Qualcomm looking great as they charge into Q4 2012. Apple executive Eddy Cue has joined Ferrari’s board of directors, while AT&T is putting up a whopping $14 billion to boost its LTE and U-Verse services. There were rumors of an iPad Mini 2 with Retina Display floating around today, and ZTE was spotted teasing a new Windows Phone 8 device with a massive 5.9-inch screen.

Gearbox has squashed a nasty exploit in Borderlands 2 with a new patch, and we learned that Kim Dotcom’s new website has been killed before it even got off the ground. AT&T has revealed off-contract pricing for the Nokia Lumia 920 and 820, and Time Warner Cable is trying to lure new customers in by giving away free Xbox 360s. We got to see Nintendo President Satoru Iwata unbox the Wii U, found out which features will be on the Wii U from launch day, and were even told that the Wii U will allow for 12 user accounts per console.

Verizon is waiving voice and text fees for those who were hit hard by Hurricane Sandy, and Microsoft has released its SkyDrive app for Windows Phone 8. A new Sandvine report gives us an idea of just how popular Netflix is in North America, and Yahoo has hired a former National Geographic photographer to head up Flickr. A*STAR has revealed a new hybrid disk drive that’s only 5mm-thick, and DC Comics are now available digitally through iOS, Kindle, and NOOK devices.

Finally tonight, Don Reisinger asks if Apple actually helps its competitors, we take a closer look at Qualcomm Halo, and Chris Davis gives us his review of the Phillips hue lightbulb. That does it for tonight’s edition of the Evening Wrap-Up, enjoy the rest of your night everyone!

SlashGear Evening Wrap-Up: November 7, 2012 is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

The first thing we noticed about Nintendo’s next console when we last got our hands on it was the length — the Wii U is Nintendo’s longest console yet. Sure, sure, there’s a tablet controller and HD graphics and yadda yadda yadda. That’s immaterial. What matters here, folks, is how the new hardware — the console itself — physically stacks up against the first Wii. As you’ll see in our gallery, length is the least of the Wii U’s changes: in the Wii U, Nintendo added two more USB 2.0 ports up front and rounded out its hard right angles, for starters. Around back, the port layout of the Wii is nigh-on identical with that of the Wii U, albeit with the fan moved an inch (or so) to the right, making space for HDMI output. This is an HD console, after all. Wonderfully, unlike even the most expensive models of Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, the Wii U includes an HDMI cable right out of the box. Not a huge deal, but it sure was a baffling move when Sony and Microsoft both skimped on such an important detail.

The only other change we spotted (outside of the power port being flipped from horizontal to vertical) is the lack of GameCube controller ports up top. Say sayonara to those old Wavebirds, as Nintendo’s moving on to its new tablet controller and its updated Pro Controller. Take some super close-up looks at all the minute differences with us below.

Nintendo Wii U vs. Nintendo Wii … fight! originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 07 Nov 2012 17:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nintendo may be taking the Wii U launch as seriously as it needs to, given its financial position, but that hasn’t stopped president Satoru Iwata from having some fun with an “official pre-release unboxing ceremony.” The new Nintendo Direct video sees Iwata share his first opening experience of the new console, donning white gloves that he says “kind of make me feel like Mario.” If you’ve ever wanted to watch the head of a multi-billion yen international company brandish an HDMI cable like a proud parent, this video is for you.

Inside there’s no shortage of extras, along with a surprise or two. The AC adapter for the Wii U console itself – the large grey box in the image below – is surprisingly big, for instance, given the diminutive size of the base station.

There are also two stands, as it’s the Premium pack which Iwatu unboxes; that’s priced at $349.99 in the US, and includes stands for the console and the GamePad, and a GamePad charging cradle, as well as 32GB of storage. There’ll also be a Basic pack, for $299.99, which will do without the stands.

Pre-ordering has been open for some weeks now, and retailers report that initial stock levels are expected to be tight. We doubt that any early adopters will take quite the same care in opening up their new console as Iwatu does, however.

[Thanks Carl!]

Nintendo president dons Mario gloves for Wii U “unboxing ceremony” is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Back in the good old days, consoles used to be machines that we would just play our games on. Insert the device, load it up and we’re good to go. However consoles these days offer more than just gaming, they provide interaction, news, and other forms of entertainment and for Nintendo’s latest console, the Wii U, this comes in the form of the Miiverse, Wii U Chat, TVii and the eShop. Now it seems that if you are planning on being an early adopter of the Wii U, it should be noted that these features will not be available on your console the minute you plug it in. In fact it seems that these features will need to be downloaded and installed via an update which should be available at debut.

This shouldn’t really be an issue if all goes smoothly and according to plan, but this also means that review units will not have those features included, at least that’s what the folks at IGN have indicated. So if you were hoping for a review on the Wii U and its other features and services, you might have to wait a while. In any case like we said, this should only affect early adopters and those looking for an early review of the unit, but other than that gamers can look forward to the console released on the 18^th of November in the US.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Nintendo rolling out 5,000 Wii U kiosks prior to official launch, Wii U official advertisement shown,

Just days after publishing its ever first advert for the highly-anticipated Wii U gaming console, Nintendo is announcing today that it will be rolling out more than 5,000 interactive Wii U kiosks on selected retail stores across the U.S. The Japanese consumer electronics company wants consumers, particularly Holiday shoppers, to get a first-hand look and hands-on on the next-generation gaming console. Among the retailers included are Target, Best Buy, GameStop, Walmart, and Toys ‘R’ Us.

The company says that visitors, depending on the Wii U sampling station available, will be able to play games such as Nintendo Land, New Super Mario Bros. U, SiNG PARTY, and ZombiU and Rayman Legends. The Nintendo Wii U will be making its debut in the U.S. on November 18th. Nintendo still has plenty of time to win the hearts of consumers.

Last month, a Nintendo executive broke the news that the company is expecting a loss on every Wii U console that it would sell. The Wii U Deluxe Set will be available at a suggested retail price of $349.99, while the Wii U Basic Set will be sold at a suggested retail price of $299.99. You can find the nearest Wii U sampling station here.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Wii U official advertisement shown, Wii U will launch with Hori fight stick accessory in Japan,