Wii™ Party @ Home

There is no dispute that the Nintendo Wii was last Christmas’ must have present. People bent over backwards to get one, often paying over the odds on auction sites to appease the wants of their kids (and themselves). One of the fantastic features of the the Nintendo Wii is that it gives everyone the opportunity to have fun at the same time. Below are some great ideas to make the most out of
your Wii during get togethers and parties.

Play sport in the rain

If you can’t think of any fun family activities when it’s raining, then at least you’ve got the option of Wii Sports. Wii Sports comes bundled with a new Wii console so you can start playing it straight out of the box. It’s a simple, yet fun and addictive compilation of games that everyone can play. It doesn’t matter what your skill level is or even if you have never played before, the Wii can bring everybody together in front of the TV. From tennis to bowling, golf to boxing, there is a sport to suit most people and trust us when we say it’s fun. Even if you don’t normally like playing golf or boxing games, you’re guaranteed to be hooked on these.

 

There are many games available for the Wii now and most of them use the Wii’s unique controller system, so the games are more interactive and the player feels much more involved. You don’t need to have a background in gaming; you just need to want to have fun. Apart from Wii Sports, other family games that can get a crowd in the living room are:

 

• Wario Ware
• Mario Party 8
• Rayman Raving Rabbids 2
• Super Monkeyball: Banana Blitz
• Furu Furu Park
• Wii Party

 

Wii Jackets

Much like your iPod, you’ll want to keep your Wii looking good. That’s the easy part as it hardly ever gets handled. What does take a beating however is the Wii remote, or Wiimote. As with any product that sells in great numbers, you can find a whole host of accessories and the Wii is no exception. Most new Wii consoles should come with jackets or covers for the Wiimote, but if you bought your Wii before the start of 2008 then you may not have been supplied with the jackets.

 

However, the nice guys at Nintendo have realised that this may seem unfair, so they are offering to send out up to 4 free jackets for Wiimotes to anyone who has previously purchased a Nintendo Wii. All you need to do is head over to the Nintendo Wii website and fill in the form.

 

Classic Controller

Did you know that the Nintendo Wii is also compatible with Gamecube games? This poses an interesting question. How do you play your old games with the Wiimote? Well, you can use the Wiimote like a regular controller but it may not be as comfortable as what you are used to. Luckily, the Wii has 4 ports for you to use with a Gamecube controller, so you can use a classic controller instead to play the games.

 

Wii Zapper

This is a great little accessory to go with your Wii. The Wii Zapper (no relation to Frank) houses the Wiimote and the Nunchuck, and makes a stable platform for you to use them. Link’s Crossbow Training game comes bundled with the Wii Zapper so you can start using it straight away. You play as the little guy from the Zelda games running around shooting stuff. It’s loads of fun, but maybe not for the whole family. Don’t worry though there are more tiles that are compatible with the Wii Zapper coming out in the near future.

 

Component cable

Of all the next generation consoles, the Nintendo Wii has the lowest graphical potential. That’s not to say you can’t get a great picture out of it, because you can, you just need the right equipment. Obviously you need the Wii, but any other console would work just as well; a TV that supports a High Definition (HD) output; and the right cable(s) for the job. In this case, the best cable is a component video cable. It’s actually three cables in one, a green, blue and red one. The component cable is fast becoming the most popular choice for people who want a high quality picture on their TV. It can easily support HD and Blu-ray images as well, so you can use the same cable for multiple devices.

 

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AKASA External SATA Hard Disk Drive Enclosure

Pen drives are very handy devices to have but what if you want to transfer a lot of data between computers, and you find the thought of carrying a bag full of USB pen drives somewhat daunting, then buying a new hard disk might be advisable. This will allow you to transfer files from one machine to another, using the external disk drive enclosure, with no limitations on storage space.

If you’re a videographer, you’ll understand that a 200GB hard drive is soon eaten up when download DV quality footage from a camcorder, and having the ability to move such big files from your main machine gives you space to work on your next project or move to another machine to finish it off.

The device is easy to use and there are no fiddly components or wires, you simply place your SATA hard drive into the casing and then plug it into your computer via the external USB cable. The device will be recognised as an external hard drive and you can start using it straight away.

This is an ideal peripheral to have if you work with lots of data and need to perform backups regularly. Remember, this is just a casing, not the hard disk drive itself.

Click here to buy from PC World.

 

 

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2GB iPod Shuffle™

The Apple iPod arrived in 2001 and set the trend for high capacity high powered portable media players. Over the past few years, the iPod has gone through a few slight changes, but they’ve all increased its appeal to the portable music enthusiasts.

With the recent price drop from Apple, the iPod shuffle has become even more appealing. With its small sleek shape, it’s ideal for people that are always on the move or for recreational activities like jogging and going to the gym. And now, Apple has released a new 2GB version doubling its capacity, giving you enough music to push you even further during those arduous training sessions.

 

To give you an idea of how big 1GB actually is, you could fit about 240 songs onto the iPod Shuffle, which would give you about 16 hours of music. If you have the 2GB version then this extends to 32 hours!

 

Click here to buy from PC World.

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MacBook Air™

If you’re always on the move and rely on your personal files being with you, then the chances are that you have or are thinking about buying a notebook. With the MacBook Air, working on the move or just lounging around the house has never been so convenient.

The MacBook Air weighs in at about 1.4kgs and is just under 2cms in height at the highest point, giving it the title of the world’s thinnest notebook! It sports a crisp 13.3” widescreen display, which uses LEDs for backlighting that consume less power. Specification wise, the notebook features a 1.6GHz or a 1.8GHz Intel Core 2 duo processor with 2GB of RAM and 80GB of hard disk space. Wireless & Bluetooth are also built in.

 

A cool feature of this notebook is that should your working environment lack ambient light or become dark then the sensing keyboard will light up the keys so that you can continue working.

The MacBook Air has a larger than normal trackpad, which supports hand gestures to perform a variety of task. You can use the pinch gesture to allow you to zoom text on a page with one hand, and also use the swipe gesture to rotate images or move back and forth between web pages in the Safari web browser.

 

The only thing missing from the notebook, which you might need from time to time, is an optical drive. You have the option to purchase an external drive but the MacBook Air is designed with wireless in mind. Within the operating system you have a feature called Remote Disk, this allows you to share an optical drive on another PC and install your applications that way.

 

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Fellows DS1 Cross Cut Shredder

This high tech shredding device is a must for any household; it can eat through your personal documents in seconds and even disguise itself as a bin! Well it looks a little bit like a bin:-)

As well as keeping your personal data safe online, it’s also worth keeping it safe offline too. How many of you just throw away your bank statements or credit card bills without thinking about where they might end up? Although identity theft probably won’t happen to you, unless you dispose of your personal documents correctly, you could be increasing your chances.

Some of you may burn your documents, this method will work but shredding is a ‘little’ better for the environment and it gives you the opportunity to recycle the paper too. This ‘master shredder’ is capable of obliterating 11 sheets of paper at the same time. And, with its cross cut capability, even Ernö Rubik (inventor of the Rubik’s Cube) would find it impossible to put this puzzle back together!

With the shredder’s 18 litre capacity bin, you could fit hundreds of statements in there as well as shredding old credit cards and CDs. If you have a pet rabbit then you could use the shredded paper as bedding, saving you money on straw. Just remember to shred your CDs and credit cards separately!

 

Click here to buy from PC World.