Digital Streets

I came across a Twitter bot called WiiMe that could be quite useful this holiday season if your trying to get a Nintendo Wii. The bot is a Amazon Wii Tracker that checks Amazon every second and posts tweets when there are Wii’s in stock. Sometimes they are only in stock for a few seconds, but there are times that the time period is much longer. So if your trying to score a Wii for a friend or loved one (or even yourself), follow this Twitter bot. Happy hunting!

Last month (I think), Google made a specially designed Google Reader for viewing on the Wii.  Instead of the feed list appearing on the left of the screen, it becomes a menu that pops up when the 1 button is pressed.  You can use this same interface on your PC by going to http://www.google.com/reader/view/?ui=wii.  Pressing the 1 key on your keyboard will show the feeds list while pressing 2 will show the upper left menu of Home, All items, Starred items, Shared items, and Trends.   By using the 1 and 2 keys  plus the arrow keys, you have another way of viewing your Google Reader with just the keyboard.  Could be useful for those who use a media PC and don’t have a Wii.

Check it out.

Go check out Radio.Blog.Club using the Opera browser on your Wii.  It’s a quick and easy way to listen to music from your favorite artist.  When you get to the homepage, simply enter the artist name in the search box and click Go.

 A list of songs for that artist will appear.  Select one and it will begin playing the song while taking you to the playlist for the blog that contained your song.

Found some more stuff, apparently you can receive bonuses for making certain team combinations, here are a few of the teams we found:

• Classic Avengers:  Captain America, Black Panther, Iron Man, Thor
• Fantastic Four:  Human Torch, Mr. Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Thing
• X-Men:  Wolverine, Iceman, Storm, Colossus
• Femme Fatale:  Spider-Woman, Storm, Invisible Woman, Ms. Marvel
• Defenders:  Silver Surfer, Iceman, Luke Cage, Dr. Strange
• Double Date:  Mr. Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Black Panther, Storm
• Scorchers:  Thor, Storm, Ghost Rider, Human Torch
• Air Force:  Ms. Marvel, Storm, Thor, Human Torch

My son and I were messing around with Ultimate Alliance (he’s a big comic book fan).  Fun game for team play using some of Marvel Comics best heroes.  However, my son is rather impatient and wanted to unlock some of the features without having to earn them.  Here’s what we found (you will use the D-PAD and the + button):

Unlock All Heroes
 1.  Go to the Change Team screen.
 2.  Hit UP, DOWN, UP, DOWN, LEFT, LEFT, LEFT, + 

God Mode
 1.  Do while in game.
 2.  UP, DOWN, UP, DOWN, UP, LEFT, DOWN, RIGHT, +

Unlock Comic Book Covers
 1.  Go to the Review screen.
 2. LEFT, RIGHT, RIGHT, LEFT, UP, UP, RIGHT, +

Unlock All Costumes
 1.  Go to the Change Team screen.
 2.  Select any hero.
 3.  Click Z on the Nunchuk controller to select Details.
 4.  UP, DOWN, UP, DOWN, LEFT, RIGHT, LEFT, RIGHT UP, DOWN, +
(This one is my favorite.  Some cool costumes including Spider-Man’s black costume, Scarlet Spider costume and the new one from the Civil War story line).

Who would have thought that bowling would be such a fun game to play on a console. Everybody that has played it on my Wii has become instantly hooked. Here are a couple of tips:

To Change the bowling ball color: When the screen fades to black after selecting bowling, press and hold the control pad in a set direction until the screen fades into the game. The ball colors are as follows:

Red Ball: Press and hold left on control pad
Gold Ball: Press and hold right on control pad
Green Ball: Press and hold down on control pad
Blue Ball: Press and hold up on the control pad

To bowl the ball straight down the lane: release the ball high so it drops on the lane before rolling, making sure to not rotate your Wiimote. (I learned this from my kids who bowl like this in a real bowling alley, I’m glad bowling balls don’t bounce!)

Yesterday looked to be filled with disappointment as we searched the local mall for a Wii. We thought that we might have some luck at GameStop, since they had dozens of Wii boxes on display. Turns out that they were sold out but were not allowed to pull the boxes on display nor were they allowed to put up a sign saying they were sold out. What crap! I had given up for the day and decided to look for other things. My wife and I decided to go look for music in Sam Goody and when we were checking out, my beautiful, wonderful wife asked the cashier why they had Xbox 360’s on sale, but no Wii’s. In a quiet voice, the cashier told us that they did have a Wii. She reached under the counter and pulled out the wonderful treasure hidden in its white box. She said it had to be purchased as a bundle with two games but that it was up for grabs. They had received it that day and it was the only one that had come in. Before I could say a word, my wonderful spouse stated that we would take it. I truly love my wife, but when she pulls at my geek side like this, I am putty in her hands. Some of the Sam Goody employees were wondering if I had reserved the console, surprised that I had been able to get one.

If you are still searching for a Wii, make sure to ask people at the counter of the store, even if they have no Wii’s on display. You might luck out like I did.

If you’re like me, you are hoping to receive some tech goodies and gadgets this Christmas. If you do happen to get a new iPod, Zune, or Wii under the tree, Tech-Recipes has some helpful tutorials on how to start enjoying your gadget right away:

Nintendo Wii
If you find a Wii under the trii, then you should feel very blessed. The popular console is packed full of all kinds of fun. Recipes by Davak and seamonkey420 aid you in your quest for Wii knowledge:

• Sending Photos On a SD Card to Your Wii Friends
• Sync a New Controller to the Console
• How To Find Your Wii Number and Register Friends
• Send Photos to Friends (video)
• Turning Off/On Wii-Spelling (Dictionary/Word Complete)
• Adjusting Wiimote Volume/Rumble, Rearranging the Main Menu/Channel Screen, How Friends Work, Rearranging Messages on Your Message Board, Mii Channel Tips and Photo Channel Tips
• How To Control your PCs Winamp with the Wii Opera Browser

Also be sure to check out seamonkey420’s blog for even more on the Wii!

Apple iPod
If you found an iPod in your stocking, then consider these tidbits:

• How To Copy Music from your iPod to Your PC or Mac
• Put Your 4th Generation iPod into Diagnostic Mode
• Use Your iPod Headphones as a Microphone
• How To Enable iPod Video Screensaver or Kiosk Mode
• Sync Your iPod Calender and Contacts with Outlook
• How To Reset Your nano if it Locks Up
• How To Use Your iPod as a Drive
• How To Store Full Resolution Images on Your iPod

Microsoft Zune
Maybe Santa felt you were more of a Microsoft person and gave you the new media player. If so, you’ll find these useful:

• Increase the Quality of Converted Files
• How To Remove All Content from Your Zune
• How To Change the Background Image
• How To Manually Add Album Art
• How To Reset Your Zune
• How To Change Your Zune’s Device Name
• How To Prevent Zune Software from Sending Your Usage Data
• Re-Register WMDM if Zune Software Cannot Detect Your Zune
• How To Transfer Your iTunes Music Store Songs to Your Zune
• Zune to Zune Picture Sharing

Additionally, if you did get a media player for Christmas, you will need some free music and videos for it. Check these out:

• Free Music and Videos for iPod or Zune - The Megalist
• How to Hack Bebo to Download Free Music

If you’re like me, you probably are having a tough time coughing up the dollars to get yourself a new Wii or PS3. In my case it is due to my misadventures with Murphy’s Law, hopefully your’s is a less expensive tale. All hope is not lost though, there are some great giveaways for these two consoles. You definitely will not win if you don’t enter, so what have you got to lose?

Giveaways

• Circuit City is giving away a Wii per day through Christmas Eve.
• Simple Green’s Holiday Sweepstakes is giving away the Wii and a Target gift card, ends Dec. 20th.
• 1UP.com is giving away a Wii and Game Prize Pack from Ubisoft everyday through December 30th.
• TigerDirect is giving away a Wii per day, PS3 per day, and Zune per day through tomorrow.
• ThinkGeek is giving away a massive prize pack with a Wii, a PS3, and three games for each console, ends Dec. 31st.