Nintendo has seen a significant drop in profits lately and most say Apple’s mobile gaming platform is to blame. Nintendo themselves are even keeping an eye on Apple. Sony and Microsoft is no longer the thorn in Mario’s side. It’s the big “little i”.
Is Apple really the biggest issue Nintendo is facing or is it a larger issue? Most likely, a little bit of both. As a hardcore Nintendo fan, I can safely say that my favorite gaming company has failed me the past few years. It all began with the shoddy release of Twilight Princess, the lack of core titles for the DS and then the Wii games that were off-shoots of “Sports” started to move through the shelves.
What’s left for us? The Moms, families and kids are only going to enjoy their Wii for so long. Then, they will put it down for a new toy that’s promising family fun. I have it on good authority to say this since I’ve sold my Nintendo Wii. Why? Because my kids stopped playing it and moved on to something else.
Nintendo has forgotten about their core audience. They have been pumping out games for a brand new audience that were quite successful. You can only go so far with the “Wii-fit-sports-swimming pool-billiards-backyard party” franchise. Frankly, you can only go so far with any franchise. I have to admit, even Zelda is in desperate need of an upgrade.

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A 100 year old visually impaired woman received an iPad from her family. They bought it for her so the woman could read and write again, using the iPad’s features to be able to read very large print. The video went viral overnight and there’s no wondering why. Just watch.

Turbine Inc was purchased by Warner Brothers Entertainment Group, adding to WB’s roster of video game and video game publishers. They have previously purchased TT Games, famous for the LEGO video games. Turbine Inc publishes Dungeons and Dragons Online, Asheron’s Call and Lord of the Rings Online.

Turbine has consistently brought it’s players an environment where the community is at the forefront of the game. Developers and Turbine staff drop in on forum threads and feature a self contained social network for Lord of the Rings Online called My Lotro.

(Disclosure: The blurb about Turbine is blatantly biased. Candace is an avid Lotro player.)

It seems like Apple may have an issue on their hands here. A country and now three prominent Universities in the United States are banning the iPad. Each of them cited security concerns, bandwith concerns and interference with wifi as reasons for banning the device.

Quite a few people gawked at Israel deciding to ban the iPad in the country over security concerns. They probably aren’t gawking today. Princeton University, George Washington University and Cornell University have all banned the iPad.

All of them are citing security and connectivity issues as the reason. Cornell University said they are seeing connectivity issues and a bandwith overload which is why the iPad was removed from campus. George Washington University rejected the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch from connecting on their campus. Wonder if they are Microsoft fans?

I think we need to write some letters to Apple about this issue. If someone writes a snarky enough letter, we could get a response from Steve Jobs. He will probably tell us we’re nuts, but he may give a one sentence answer as to how he’s going to handle this issue.

Like other uber geeks, we are the beautiful people and we have awesome taste in tattoos, clothing, games, tech, gadgets and nostalgia. A generation grew up on Atari, Space Invaders, Pac-Man, Donkey Kong and the Mother of video game entertainment of the 1980′s – Nintendo. We proudly wear our dorky gamer badges on our bodies for all to see.

There are probably hundreds of thousands of Nintendo tattoos out there. We scoured the web to find our 5 favorite Nintendo character tattoos.

#5. Hey. Hey Listen!

Why Navi? Of all things, why Navi?! Because you said that as soon as you saw this tattoo. She’s embedded into your brain, the constant screaming of “Hey, hey hey listen!” and this brave man has made sure everyone will remember it. The tattoo is really well done, but we all hate him just a little bit.

Original

#4. Stars and Ghosts, oh my!

This tattoo comes complete with invincible stars and a Boo. It’s quite obvious this girl loves her Nintendo. We love her half-sleeve and her stars. The original photo by Kotaku stated this woman’s husband was the tattoo artist. We love both of them just a little.

#3. 8 Bit Mario

Memories of throwing your controller when Mario died, moving the controller with Mario to make him jump and wanting to kill Toad when your Princess was in another castle come to mind when looking at this tattoo. The original tattoo is credited to artist Jon Poulson on Flickr.

Number 2 and number 1 are after the break

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It’s not every day you receive a reply from a big wig at Microsoft or Apple. It’s also not every day you receive a reply from Steve Jobs himself.

One man sent Apple an e-mail, airing his grievances with iPad’s international shipping issues. At one point, Jobs was accused of “pulling the wool over the world’s eyes.” This man got a very simple response from Jobs that started with “Are you nuts? We are doing the best we can.”

If you want to read the full e-mail conversation, it’s under the mystical “Read More” link.

“Dear Mr Jobs

On behalf of the international community of Apple consumers I would like to protest at the way Apple is apparently leaving us out in the cold with the Apple iPad product.

We have been fed either misinformation or no information at all and it is starting to cast doubt over Apple’s intents, at least it is to me.

I live in Switzerland and as yet we have no idea what the Apple iPad will cost here, if it is anything like the international pricing we have been used to to date on other Apple products, then it will certainly not be an “unbelievable price” as stated in your marketing. Read More

E3 2010 is a couple of months away. As usual, everyone is making predictions and speculating what huge announcements are coming. A lot of talk is revolving around Sony and Microsoft this year. There are hopes of long-awaited games finally coming out in the public eye.

I wonder if Duke Nukem will finally come out? Sure. Right.

For E3 this year, I have a couple of predictions of my own. I am hoping that Nintendo redeems themselves and announces a new Legend of Zelda game. I see the game releasing during the 4th quarter of 2010. Gears of War 3 is another prediction. I don’t see it releasing in the 4th quarter of 2010. I see an announcement at E3 with the possibility of release in 2nd or 3rd quarter of 2011.

I asked on Twitter what your predictions for E3 are from The Geek Media’s Twitter and my personal Twitter. The answers after the jump. Read More

A great video of Alice in Wonderland is circulating the internet. It’s not the recent Disney movie that was released, it’s the book that is available as an app on the iPad. The book has become an interactive platform where pictures move and change. Things turn topsy turvy just like they should in Wonderland and the characters move about in odd Alice in Wonderland fashion.

This book is beautiful. It shows such promise for what books and readers like the Kindle from Amazon can become. If books started to work and read like this classic tale on the iPad, imagine how much more you would read. Could you imagine reading “The Fellowship of the Rings” or “The Hobbit” like this? I certainly could.

The app is made by Atomic Antelope and available on the iPad app store for $8.99 USD.

This great app found thanks to:
GigaOm

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