broadcom.com — Broadcom today announced a partnership to supply Nintendo's Wii console with the Bluetooth technology that enables the peripherals to interact with the system. According to an official release, Wii will be the first videogame console in history to use Bluetooth as the standard..
May 17, 2006 View in Crawl 4
npskenMay 17, 2006
So true. All the time before Nintendo announced bluetooth, they just said wireless while sony said Bluetooth.
gabebearMay 17, 2006
@dementedcrabsWhere did you get this info? There was the whole "NO WIFI=NO BLUETOOTH" uproar which was totally wrong, but when was it announced that the 20gig PS3 would ship with a wired controller?
daggerhartMay 17, 2006
why is the parent being modded down?... he's clearly joking. ... and it's relatively funny.+
slimpipMay 17, 2006
Actually I didn't bother to read the article, I know I'm going to buy a Wii and I could care less if they're "first" in the bluetooth wifi race. I came across a comment for this story that Nintendo had functioning Wii consoles on the show floor, they had functioning dev kits, just like Sony. They weren't "souped up gamecubes in gamecube cases" as you put it. It was original GC hardware with functionality for a Wii remote. That is what the Wii alpha dev kits are. I believe IGN actually published an article about it. The only "finalized" hardware Nintendo has shown so far is behind closed doors. If you don't believe that the prelim dev kits were just development GC hardware, then go look up what got sent out to developers initially: a wii remote, nunchchuk attachment, and motion bar. They all plugged straight into a Gamecube (granted a dev GC which by default will have an upgraded feature or two). I still don't understand what you're trying to argue with me about. I said that they were running on dev kits, and then you reassured me they were in your response. Maybe you should learn to read?
telapanMay 17, 2006
If Nintendo had announced bluetooth first and later Sony announced they were going to have bluetooth the digg title would have been 'Sony blatantly copies Nintendo' instead its 'Nintendo is first to offer bluetooth'.
r3z0nateMay 17, 2006
I have had nothing but problems with all but one bluetooth device I have used, I'm definately not a fan of it and hope that interferance or bugs don't find their way into the system.
styromaniacMay 19, 2006
What would really have me sold is if these or the next next gen consoles featured the following in high end wirelesses: UWB (up to 200 m at near gigabit speeds for the entertainment set connections), WiMAX (a variant of WiFi that goes as far as 30 miles at 70 Mbps), and a safer version of the WEC (wireless extension cord) built into the external adapters. Cords can burn in HELL! or strangle themselves to death.Some of you people worry a little too much about ripoffs. I know that Sony is one of the biggest companies that pioneer in technology, but they have every right to royalties. And if companies never used other companies' technologies, most technologies would never be in most of the same kinds of competing products. Then there would be a huge monopoly for companies like Sony and we'll never see striving competition like Nintendo doing something very original for games.
tidejweMay 20, 2006
True enough to a DEGREE...though as mentioned above, if Nintendo releases before PS3 then they will be first. Secondly, this says it will be STANDARD, while PS3 has a lot of things missing with their "Standard" console already (no wifi, and maybe no bluetooth as standard).In the end, the point of this article isn't necessarily who's first...it's the fact that Nintendo will be completely bluetooth, so lets get over it already. Personally, I think it's going to make consoles a lot easier to emulate on the pc if their controlers/joysticks, etc are already pc-compatible without having to buy special hardware to make them work the same. Now all we'll need is drivers and you can use the same weird Nintendo joystick on your PC when it's emulated (though that will be forever from now since the gamecube emulation projects are even still developing).
styromaniacJun 23, 2006
Apologies, ThinkGeek.com made up the WEC thing as an April Fools prank.