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Nintendo Chief Iwata: Wii U sales 'not bad'

Nintendo President Satoru Iwata said in an interview published today that the Wii U's sales aren't bad.

"At the end of the Christmas season, it wasn't as though stores in the U.S. had no Wii U left in stock, as it was when Wii was first sold in that popular boom," Iwata told Reuters in an interview published today. "But sales are not bad, and I feel it's selling steadily."

There does appear to be a slightly different scenario playing out with the Wii U. When the Nintendo Wii launched in … Read more

The HP U160 is a 15.6-inch monitor built to be taken on the go

LAS VEGAS--The HP U160 is a 15.6-inch monitor built to be taken on the go. The monitor connects to a laptop via USB and includes a foldable carrying case that acts as a stand.

I can imagine this being useful when being required to give presentations while traveling, but 15.6 inches isn't much larger than my 13.3-inch MacBook Air. I wonder if it would actually be worth the suitcase space.

The HP U160 is expected to be available in late January for $179.

Lenovo touches up its IdeaPad laptop back catalog with U and Z Touch

LAS VEGAS--Touch, anyone?

Two of Lenovo's IdeaPad lines will be joining the touch fray this year: both the IdeaPad U310/410 and IdeaPad Z400/500 have multitouch screens. Much like USB 3.0, HDMI, and solid-state drives were in previous years, touch seems to be the de rigueur Windows laptop upgrade of early 2013.

The IdeaPad U310 and U410 Touch ultrabooks, previously reviewed by CNET, are thin notebooks with more than a passing resemblance to a MacBook. The new 2013 versions are equipped with up to a third-gen Intel Core i7 processor and dedicated Nvidia graphics in the U410 … Read more

A made-in-the-U.S., audiophile-grade turntable for $150?

Great audio can be expensive, but Ben Carter's ambitious Kickstarter project aims to make a serious dent in the price of quality turntables. A $150 pledge secures an Orbit belt-drive turntable, fitted with an Ortofon phono cartridge. As I write this blog, and just a few days after the Kickstarter project was launched, Carter has already passed the halfway mark to reaching his $60,000 goal!

I spoke with Carter on Thursday; he has a background in marketing and consulting, and Bob Hertig is handling the engineering for the project. Orbits will be manufactured by U-Turn Audio in the … Read more

U.S. Cellular serves up Android 4.1 this Friday

If you own a Samsung Galaxy S3 with U.S. Cellular, an update to Android 4.1 Jelly Bean is just around the corner.

Starting Friday, December 21, GS3 owners can begin the update process wirelessly, or manually by plugging in their phone via USB cable and visiting this U.S. Cellular site.

U.S. Cellular is one of the last carriers to offer the Android 4.1 update; a process that's been kicked into high gear as part of the busy holiday season.

Android 4.1 enhances features like the Google search app, the notifications menu, and some … Read more

BlackBerry 10 revives RIM's chances at federal agency

Research In Motion's upcoming BlackBerry 10 is being eyed by one government agency that had already planned to switch to iPhones.

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency will take a look at BB10 starting in January. The agency plans to launch a pilot program to test BlackBerry 10 devices and the BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10 to see if the new operating system can meet its needs for security and mobility. ICE will be among the first government agencies to give BB10 a spin, according to Research In Motion.

"ICE has been a valued BlackBerry customer … Read more

Nintendo Wii U

The Nintendo Wii is undoubtedly a tough act to follow. Its unprecedented success was something no one could have predicted, so for its follow up Nintendo certainly had its hands full. The company chose to go in the direction of dual screen gaming in the home by introducing the Wii U console that uses a unique tablet-esque GamePad controller to interact with games.

However, the Wii U's initial reception is almost nothing like its predecessor's. The Wii U's initial launch software offering was lackluster and a series of major updates have dampened that vital first impression. Even … Read more

Russia abandons proposal for U.N. governance of Internet

A Russian-led coalition has withdrawn a controversial proposal to turn Internet governance over to a United Nations agency, a plan opposed by Western governments during ongoing talks over an international communications treaty.

The proposal, supported by China, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and others, would have called on the U.N. to help member states seize control of key Internet engineering assets, including domain names, addresses, and numbering. The United States, Canada, France, Sweden, and others opposed the proposal, fearing that it could do grave harm to the current free and open Internet.

The U.N. agency, called the … Read more

HP to Apple: Hey, we already make PCs in the U.S.

If Made In USA is a feature, Hewlett-Packard's got Apple beat.

In effect, that's what HP said today. "Lots of noise...about Apple moving Mac production back to the U.S.... [We] wanted to offer HP's story," said an HP representative via e-mail Friday.

Part of that story was provided by way of a blog post.

"HP PCs have been assembled in the U.S. since the beginning," the post begins. "HP workstations and commercial desktop PCs are manufactured in Indianapolis, and HP servers are manufactured in Houston. These manufacturing facilities employ … Read more