Console

Is a Nintendo Wii a good deal at $79.99?

It wasn't that long ago that the Nintendo Wii was one of the most sought-after items on the planet. Especially around the holidays, when supply simply couldn't meet demand. The then-revolutionary game console was selling on eBay for double, triple, even quadruple its $249 list price.

Now you can get it for 80 bucks.

Specifically, GameStop has the refurbished Nintendo Wii console for $79.99, plus $4.99 for shipping (and not including sales tax, where applicable). That's the lowest price I've ever seen.

Of course, Nintendo's next-generation Wii U console is just around the corner, more

Microsoft aims for the jugular with Xbox ecosystem

LOS ANGELES--It's been a big year for the people behind Microsoft's Xbox 360 video game console, and its growing ecosystem. Month after month, the machine tops the console sales charts, and it boasts some of the most anticipated exclusive games in the industry.

This week, of course, the Xbox team is cheek-by-jowl with all of its partners and developers, and its competitors. It's E3 week, after all. And at its Monday media briefing, and at its mammoth booth at the Los Angeles Convention Center here, Microsoft has been touting its latest attempts at separating the Xbox from more

What's the best game controller?

Update: Voting is now closed. Thanks for helping us choose a winner. Stay tuned for an upcoming CNET Top 5 on console controllers.

All this E3 coverage recently has me thinking it's time for a Top 5 on console game controllers.

I have my thoughts, and I'll be sure to poll our CNET editors for their opinions too. In fact, I'll probably have the final Top 5 span the best game controllers of all-time, just to keep things interesting.

But I also want to know what you think. To keep it manageable, I'm restricting this reader'more

E3 2012: The end of hardware

E3 shows tend to fall into two categories. Those that are about hardware, and those that are about software.

Last year, at E3 2011, hardware was king, with the first look at the new Wii U console, as well as Sony's PlayStation Vita. Along for the ride was Microsoft's Kinect camera and the Nintendo 3DS, which, while not brand-new last year, were both finally coming into their own as commercially viable products.

Other than that, it's been a while since hardware was king at E3 (and we're not counting the missing in action Wii Vitality Sensor). more

Microsoft to unveil AirPlay-like 'Smart Glass' app at E3?

Microsoft is rumored to be ready to unveil a new app this week at the E3 game conference for the Xbox 360 that will allow users to play video and other media on tablets and phones.

The AirPlay-like companion application -- dubbed "Smart Glass" -- will also allow users to beam content back to their game consoles for viewing on larger screens, according to an Engadget report. The app is also expected to be made available for tablets and phones running on Windows, Windows Phone, Android, and iOS.

Seemingly adding credence to this report is another Engadget report that reveals more

Tackling SMC console errors after OS X 10.7.4 update

The OS X 10.7.4 update that Apple released yesterday has been a relatively smooth update for many people, and is a recommended update because of its fix for a password logging error and the ability to preserve users' preferences for whether to open windows when logging back in. However, a few people have found that this update causes massive number of kernel-related error messages to be displayed in the system console.

As described by Apple Discussion member "paddyiyer", after updating the following messages can be seen repeated in the Console utility:

5/9/12 7:20:23.000 more

TV is far from dead, Nielsen says

The good old-fashioned TV set is still the king of content.

As the average American watches almost five hours of video each day, 98 percent of it is viewed on a TV set, says a new study from Nielsen. And watching traditional TV shows -- both live and timeshifted -- continues to be the favorite activity, accounting for more than 33 hours of viewing per week.

Those numbers have dropped slightly from what they were in the past. But people are not turning off their TV sets; rather they're using them with other technologies to watch their favorite content more

Gaming consoles consume copious amounts of energy

Electricity costs on game consoles have soared into the billions with tons of energy being wasted, according to a study (PDF) by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University. However, it doesn't have to stay this way.

The moral of this study: power down when done playing.

According to the research, 68 percent of all game console energy consumed in 2010 happened while in idle mode, which equaled 10.8 TWh of energy and about $1.24 billion in electricity costs. Overall, 1 percent of U.S. residential energy consumption in 2010 was spent on video game consoles, which is an more

Apple and Valve: Could frenemies really team up?

The tantalizing prospect of a future collaboration involving two of tech's powerhouses has set off a frisson of excitement about the possibilities for redrawing the technology firmament.

Last week, reports placed Apple CEO Tim Cook in Bellvue, Wash., on a visit to game maker Valve. Word had it that Apple was eying a business partnership with Valve, well known for creating software hits like the Half Life and Portal series, as well as for creating Steam, a digital game distribution service for PCs and Macs.

But any sort of future gaming effort would be intensely complicated and have to more