How many of you bulk at paying your TV licence because the quality of television is poor? When you have to pay to fund shows like ‘My Hero’ on BBC 1, it could really put you off wanting to cough up the money.

However things might be getting worse, as Ofcom (the Broadcasting Regulator for the UK) say that UK residents might soon have to pay a new tax to fund even worse TV programs on C4 and ITV. The new tax; the iPod tax.

Ouch.

It’s not just iPod and MP3 users who would be targeted though, as people with Sky dishes, Freeview boxes and even just an Internet connection would be expected to fund the dross on C4.

Ed Richards is the CEO of Ofcom, and he thinks that consumers should be taxed for everything from blank DVDs and CDs to just owning computers. This is one of the many options that Ofcom is looking at to provide funding for public service broadcasting.

Advertising spend is currently leaving the television industry and disappearing online, so according to Ofcom the three junk channels, ITV, C4 and C5, would require somewhere between £145 million and £235 million in order to keep making the rubbish that they’re producing right now.

Everyone loves going for a Wii in the pub, but a Nintendo Wii isn’t the sort of the entertainment you expect to sit alongside the usual pub games of darts, pool and skittles. However, as you can play darts, pool and skittles (well, ten pin bowling at least) on the Nintendo Wii, why not have one in the pub?

It makes sense; at least it does for a pub in Lambley, where the Nintendo Wii is replacing traditional pub style games. The pub was recently refurbished, and due to the building work the skittle alley that locals enjoyed had to go, as they have done in so many pubs in England and Wales recently. However the manager, Jon Mallows, didn’t want his drinkers to be without their beloved pub games. Thus the Wii was introduced.

According to Jon:

Pubs have to offer a lot more nowadays, don’t they? It won’t please everybody, but it will also bring in some of the younger trade.

One advantage the Wii has over playing skittles for real is that you don’t need to put your pint down when you’re playing!

The Nintendo Wii has been part of the pub for a few one off nights so far, but Jon is looking at making it a regular Monday night theme.

I’m hoping to rekindle the traditional beer-and-skittles night.

If the Nintendo Wii nights take off, he’s thinking of starting a pub Wii team to compete in a pub league.

When it was announced that Star Wars the Force Unleashed was coming out on the Nintendo Wii, the prospect of wielding a lightsaber in your house as you slashed at Stormtroopers was a very real possibility. Now that possibility has become reality, thanks to the noble people at Thrustmaster.

They’ve unveiled their lightsaber Wii addon that allows you to control your Jedi weapon while playing Star Wars the Force Unleashed, in all of your Jedi glory. It takes gaming to a whole new level, and makes the dreams of many small boys (and admittedly some larger men) come true.

The lightsabers come in two colours, obviously a blue for the Jedi among you, and a red for the Sith who have succumbed to the dark side, and have chosen the quick and easy path.

You know who you are!

The lightsabers have a 17 inch blade, with an 11 inch handle. Powered by three AAA batteries, the lightsabers will allow you to strike down your enemies (hoping they don’t become more powerful than you could possibly imagine) for up to 40 hours.

With Christmas approaching faster than Jeremy Clarkson on one of his pan European races, attention will be turning to what gadgets people want from Santa this year. Popular gadgets will include items like games consoles, handheld consoles and of course iPods and MP3 players.

But, an iPod is much better than a games console. It’s a fact, but why is this so? Let’s look at some ways that an iPod is better than a games console.

An iPod can be enjoyed alone and doesn’t need friends or family members.
If you want to get the most out of a games console, such as a Nintendo Wii, you’ll need friends or family members to make the experience complete. With an iPod, you just need yourself.

An iPod can be enjoyed anywhere, anytime.
You can’t exactly play on your Nintendo Wii while you ride the bus now can you? With an iPod you’re able to do this. Although yes, you could use a Nintendo DS or DS Lite on the bus, you can’t use them while riding a bike or jogging (unless you don’t mind crashing). With an iPod, you can use them anywhere.

Price!
This is what it always comes down to isn’t it? In these credit crunch times price is always a factor, and an iPod can be much cheaper than a DS Lite or a Nintendo Wii, which means you’re more likely to be able to get one for Christmas.

Ever since its launch the Nintendo Wii has revolutionised the games industry, as only Nintendo can. Gaming has changed from an industry where video gamers were passively sat on the sofa twiddling their thumbs, to getting up, dancing around and participating in the games themselves.

The Wii has got video games players actually ‘playing’, and it’s made gaming available to people who would never have dreamed of touching a games console. For example, the elderly, very young children and even parents have found the lure of the Nintendo Wii too much to refuse and have jumped up from the comfort of their chairs to waive around the Wii Nunchucks for all they’re worth.

The other added benefit of the Nintendo Wii is that families tend to play on it together, as opposed to gamers playing on their own.

So how is a Nintendo Wii better for you than another console?

• It promotes activity and gets you moving around, keeping you fitter
• It appeals to people who wouldn’t be interested in playing other games consoles
• It helps the family play together, promoting the family unit

The Nintendo Wii isn’t just a console for children and adults to enjoy themselves playing the latest games. It can also be used for physical therapy, as it is being in an American hospital, St. Mary’s.

Anthony Cunningham was a baseball coach who worked for most of his life teaching children how to play the game and improve their skills. When he suffered two strokes he was forced to retire, and hadn’t swung a baseball in anger since. Now thanks to the healing powers of the Nintendo Wii, Anthony isn’t just back swinging a ‘bat’, he’s using the Nintendo Wii’s online capabilities and playing against players in other parts of the world.

The wireless aspect of the Nintendo Wii, coupled with its motion sensing technology, allows players to copy the movements of the animated characters on the screen. Due to its ‘no impact’ playing feature, and energetic style, it has been utilised in hospitals throughout the United States as a physio therapy tool.

Anthony Cunningham enthused about the console:

It’s really something. I love playing it. It’s like you’re back in the game.

The movements that players using the console make are very similar to the movements that physio therapists want patients to make. Verne Mosley, a physio therapist at the hospital, stated:

We’re getting all those angles through the arm that are functional.

We’re actually doing something that to them is intrinsically rewarding, which for occupational therapists is really big for us because that’s what we want to focus on. We want to do things that the client is interested in doing and what they enjoy.

An additional advantage to the physical aspect is that when patients are playing on the Nintendo Wii, they’re able to concentrate on the game itself and forget that they’re actually undergoing physio therapy. It makes them much happier, and helps them forget about their injuries and any pain that may be experiencing.

When the Nintendo Wii was launched and came out with Wii Sports it revolutionised the gaming world. Games players left the relative comfort of their sofas and took the first few dangerous steps towards standing up to play, and they started to get fit.

Then the Wii Fit took their exercise to the next level as players were graded on their fitness level, and even won or lost depending on how active they were. Now the Nintendo Wii is to do for music what it’s done for sports and fitness.

Wii Music is being released with the intention of aiding people who want to learn to play a musical instrument, but find it too daunting or too challenging. Wii Music is being released on October 20th, and will allow players to learn over sixty different instruments. The kit on show includes the electric guitar (obviously), the trumpet and the saxophone.

Once you’ve chosen the instrument you’d like to learn, you play it by using the Wii Remote and the Nunchuk. The advantage of Wii Music is that players who have never picked up an instrument in their life will be able to make music with it straight away.

The game also contains fifty different songs for you to play along to, which features an array of pop music, classical music and Nintendo music.

Players are even able to share the music they create with friends.

An iPod has many uses, from storing photos to playing games to listening to music (what it was originally invented for) but one use that many people wouldn’t have thought of for it is learning a new language. However that’s just what the iPod Touch is able to do, thanks to a new app that can be downloaded from the App Store, and costs $19.99 (approximately £10).

The developers, Codefromtokyo, have just announced the app ‘Japanese 1.0’ and have declared that it’s available for the iPhone and the iPod Touch.

The app is said to be a language aid for people already learning Japanese, and for people who need to speak the language. The app contains over 127,000 entries, housing a comprehensive vocabulary, and it all works offline. You’re able to browse through the list of words, or even search to find the word you’re looking for.

Japanese words are presented in their Japanese form, and are accompanied by an English style transcript for those who are just learning the language.

Did you think an iPod was just for playing music? It’s an educational aid as well!

Alva Academy school children are to trial a new concept in teaching, one which utilises MP3 players and MP3 downloads. The ‘virtual teachers’ is a new pilot scheme being trialled in Clackmannanshire, to help pupils with their homework.

The new scheme has been dubbed ‘vodcasting’. Teachers will be recording short video clips of themselves explaining different aspects of the schoolwork, and posting them on the school’s website. They will also be recording audio clips, which will be uploaded as MP3 files so that pupils can download them and play them on their MP3 players and computers.

The head teacher, Stuart Clyde, believes that the scheme will be popular because it enables pupils to use their favourite technology.

Children learn well when they have the best practice demonstrated to them; these videos do just that.

Alva Academy hopes to further engage parents in their children’s learning as the videos can act as a refresher-course for parents too, enabling them to help their children with homework.

Anyone that doesn’t have the Internet can still benefit by using the computers in the library. If the scheme proves successful, it will be rolled out to the entire school.

Fans of the Grand Theft Auto series of games, and there are a lot of them, will be sad to hear that the popular series of car stealing, drug dealer shooting games will not be coming to the Nintendo Wii. Though it wasn’t through lack of trying. Rockstar, who make the popular games, tried to develop a Wii version, which presumably would have seen you stealing cars at the flick of a wrist, but they said it just didn’t feel natural.

Dan Houser, co-founder of Rockstar, stated:

It didn’t feel natural to us, I guess.

Instead of the Wii, they chose Nintendo’s handheld console the DS Lite to launch their latest GTA game, Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars.

It really was that the DS felt like it had a lot of interesting challenges that would be totally different from what we’d done in the past.

The stylus and the chance to use minigames in that way was really interesting and exciting to us, and we thought we could integrate seamlessly between those two modes. And it would be the chance to make something really good on a handheld with our handheld-focused team. That was really why we went that way.

Don’t panic though if you want to steal cars on the Wii, they haven’t said ‘never’ on making a Nintendo Wii version of the game.

We haven’t really done any concrete, major thinking about the Wii, one way or another. They’re sort of separate issues.