A teenage girl who mugged a 16 year old girl in a bus station for her iPod is finally behind bars. The 18 year old was let off a jail term when she was found guilt of mugging the 16 year old and stealing her iPod, but after failing to turn up for a probation appointment she has finally been jailed.

The girl, Ilysha Defreitas, received a year long suspended sentence after she robbed the 16 year old, who had just arrived in the town on the bus. She has now been jailed for 47 weeks after failing to show for probation appointments.

Her defending lawyer, Andrew Hobson, said about his client:

She is clearly leading an extraordinarily chaotic lifestyle. She found it difficult if not impossible to keep to supervision.

Ilysha Defreitas selected her 16 year old target when she saw her in the bus station, and followed her into the toilets to mug her. She punched the girl, stealing her wallet and her iPod, and emptied the contents of her bag in the sink.

When Ilysha Defreitas was arrested for the mugging the iPod wasn’t recovered.

This again highlights the dangers of carrying an iPod and making it obvious that you have one. Keep your iPod hidden and don’t flaunt it around, especially when you’re on your own in a new town.

They’ve been around almost as long as music itself, and seem to have lived forever. They’re the Rolling Stones, and their antics are as legendary as their music. Recently the Stones had a theatrical release directed by the master movie maker Martin Scorsese. The film charted the band backstage preparing for a gig, and featured their breathtaking live performances on stage.

The Rolling Stones movie, “Shine a Light”, is being released on DVD in time for Christmas this year, on November 10th. Also being released is a special collector’s edition which comes with a special 16 page booklet showing more behind the scenes info and production information. In addition to that is the bonus footage which includes four performances that weren’t in the theatrical release version, and extended backstage footage.

The best part of the release though is that the collector’s edition features a bonus second disc containing a digital copy of the movie for genuine music fans so they can port the film across onto their iPod.

Sony’s PlayStation 3 is getting a serious mauling from Nintendo’s Wii console in terms of sales across the world, and things aren’t going to get any better for the Japanese technology giant. Nintendo have just announced its increased profits forecast, which shows that consumers aren’t troubled by the economic downturn when it comes to buying games consoles, and that consumers are favouring Nintendo products over Sony’s.

Although not perceived by Microsoft as a competitor, the Nintendo Wii has far outsold the Xbox 360, as well as the PlayStation 3. In addition to that, the Nintendo DS Lite is leading the way over the PlayStation Portable (PSP).

As Christmas approaches, Nintendo has announced that it expects to sell 26.5 million Nintendo Wii consoles, which is 6% higher than their previous forecast, in the year ending in March.

This increased forecast from Nintendo has heaped further pressure on Microsoft and Sony. They may not see the Nintendo Wii as a competitor to their consoles, but the video games buying public certainly do, and it looks like the Wii is only going to get stronger.

According to a recent US study, Internet use in the USA has changed somewhat recently to mean that users are making much more of MP3 downloads and podcasts.

The research, conducted by Pew Internet and American Life Project, has found that 19% of US based users of the Internet have made use of music downloads, or podcasts, in order to listen to them later.

This shows an incredible increase, as the same study in August 2006 revealed that only 12% of US Internet users had downloaded podcasts, which was more than February and April of the same year, where just 7% had accessed podcasts.

According to the study, males are more likely than women to access music downloads. 22% of men admitted to downloading MP3 downloads, whereas just 16% of females said the same.

Age also seemed to be a factor, as net users under the age of fifty were more likely to access music downloads than users over the age of fifty.

Finally Internet speed was also important, as users with broadband access were far more likely to have downloaded MP3 files than other Internet users.

Nintendo are on something of a high at the moment with the soaring sales of the Nintendo DS Lite, the overwhelming popularity of the Nintendo Wii and of course the Wii Fit. So much so that they’ve just announced their end of year profit forecast, which show’s their forecast up by 26%.

This is following an 8.4% increase in Nintendo’s share price. Again this has been attributed to the increased demand for their Nintendo Wii and DS Lite games consoles.

According to Nintendo, their yearly income is set to rise by 59% to $3.8 billion. Sales of the Wii are set to rise by 42% and Nintendo have also changed their projection that their DS Lite will see its sales drop this year.

Koichi Takatsuka of United Investments stated:

This is a very big, positive surprise. It looks like Wii and DS are selling well, especially in Europe.

The Nintendo Wii has been outselling both the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3 across the globe, strengthening Nintendo’s position.

The Wii Fit has proved incredibly popular across the world, as it’s appealed to regular games and those not usually known for buying video games as well. In many parts of America the Wii Fit is in extremely short supply, so much so that Nintendo have responded with a statement on MTV.
A spokesperson for Nintendo stated:

Nintendo had a substantial supply nationwide for launch, though some stores saw spot shortages due to unprecedented demand for this unique product. The consumer response to ‘Wii Fit’ at launch was historically exceptional when compared with peripheral-based video game products. We are providing retailers with a constant supply of ‘Wii Fit,’ so you should see a regular supply of ‘Wii Fit’ on store shelves as we move through the summer and into the holidays.

In the USA, as indeed with the UK, the Wii Fit has proved a big seller for Nintendo. They sold a staggering 369,000 Wii Fit boards in the US in July, which explains why the board is in such short supply.

His also raised the question once again of whether Nintendo are just unable to keep up with a surprising demand, or whether they’re masterminding the demand by keeping the supply intentionally low.

Whatever the reason, the Wii Fit is sure to be one of the most sought after products this Christmas both sides of the Atlantic.

Nintendo fan boys love their Nintendo rumours and new ones sweep across the Internet every day. The latest one concerns the Nintendo DS Lite, and the possibility of a new DS. According to the rumour mill, a new DS Lite is being worked on that will feature two touch screens. In addition to this wonderful concept, it’s also rumoured that these touch screens will be larger than the current screens on offer from the Nintendo DS.

The rumour comes from a regular Nintendo commentator called ‘Kotaku’, who claims that the information has emerged from several industry sources, but not from within Nintendo themselves.

If it is true, and that’s a big if, there won’t be any official word from Nintendo until after Christmas (for obvious reasons). However it does look unlikely as Nintendo has already rubbished the reports claiming they are nothing more than “rumour and speculation”.

But then, Nintendo would say that at this stage.

Nintendo do have a history of improving their handhelds over time, as they did regularly with the Game Boy, so the rumours could be true after all.

Becoming a playable character in a video game is most children’s dream come true. That’s just what has happened for Britain’s Got Talent entrant Connie Talbot. The seven year old girl from Sutton Coldfield is to become the star of her vary own Nintendo Wii singing game.

Connie first came to light when she came second in last year’s show singing Somewhere Over the Rainbow, the Judie Garland classic. She finished second that year, only just losing out to Paul Potts, the unlikely looking opera singer.

However a mix of her talent and her tender age has seen a flood of offers come in for Connie. She’s even been offered appearances on US TV shows such as The Ellen DeGeneres Show and Jay Leno.
Sharon Talbot is her mother:

We were just approached with the offer and thought it was a great idea. Connie loves her Wii so is over the moon with the game.

There won’t be a cartoon version of her on the game, it’ll be just her and people will be able to sing along to her album Over The Rainbow.

We’ve been inundated with offers since Connie’s appearance on the TV show and we’re off to America in October.

I’m still in a bit of a daze over all of this and can’t quite believe it’s all happening.

Data Design Interactive is building the game for the Nintendo Wii, which still requires some work before it is released. No date for release has yet been set.

The seemingly limitless uses for the Nintendo Wii continue to rack up as it’s now being used to aid in the rehabilitation of US troops who have been injured fighting for their country.

As if Nintendo’s little console needed any further marketing push, being seen to aid American GI’s recovering from injuries sustained fighting for their country is about as good as it gets for the American public.

Matt Bell is a US Army Medic who, after being shot by a sniper, was unable to perform even the simplest tasks such as tying his own shoe laces. He suffered nerve damage in one hand and limited mobility in one shoulder.

18 months later and Michael is on his way back to recovery with increased mobility, and great deal of credit goes to Nintendo and the Wii.

According to Soldiers’ magazine:

Wii Sports’ forces him to grip the remote-controller and move his hand, and sometimes his entire arm, to play successfully. Guitar Hero promotes dexterity in his fingers, which became rigid from lack of use after his injury.

Hector Romero is an occupation therapist at the Walter Reed Army Medical Centre. He says that the Nintendo Wii allows patients to play games while performing physio, and because they’re playing they can forget about the pain involved.

When the body is hurt, it tries to stop movement because all it wants to do is head.

With the Wii, patients overcome their fears and the body’s reaction to movement. It is a positive distraction, and is extremely effective in improving dexterity and eliciting an increased range of motion.

If you’re a fan of comics, and let’s face most males are, you’ll be interested to know that you could soon be reading comic books on your iPod and iPhone. iVerse Media has developed a system for reading comics on the iPod platform called “iVerse Comic Reader software”.

With the software they are able to encode comics into a format that can be downloaded and read on the iPod, and they’re looking for submissions from comic fans, comic hopefuls and of course professional comic artists and publishers. Comics will be made available to download from iTunes Media, and iVerse Media is hoping that they’ll be priced as low as $0.99.

Michael Murphey is the owner of iVerse Media:

Creators and studios will be able to set the final prices on their titles, but we’re expecting most standard-length titles to be around $.99, and we’re encouraging creators to give away the first issues of their titles to allow new readers who may not be familiar with comics, but are iPhone or iPod Touch owners, to give comics on the devices a try.

With Digital Comics on the iPhone/iPod Touch we have access to a world wide audience, no printing costs or print run minimums, and it doesn’t take three months to get the title from the catalogue to on sale in a store.

When the comic titles are downloaded from iTunes, they’ll also be backed up onto the local machines once the device and the computer and synced.

Using the unique interface of the iPhone and the iPod, comics will be easy to read as they’ll be ready formatted for the size of the device.