If you’re one of those people who’s refused to go down the new iPhone 3G route, insistent that a mobile phone and an MP3 player should remain separate, there may be some degree of validation to your decision from a new report. It seems that the new iPod Touch is faster in terms of processing speed that Apple’s new, much lauded, iPhone 3G.

The CEO of Handheld Games Corp, Thomas Fessler, has produced a report which states that the iPod Touch features a processor speed of 532MHz, which is much faster than any previous iPod Touch, or any iPhone (including the 3G model). The previous iPod Touch ran on 412MHz.

The report was conducted to see how well their game, TouchSports Tennis, ran on each available device. When the tests were conducted, the new second generation iPod Touch showed the best performance and was the fastest.

This shows that it’s best to keep mobile phones and MP3 Players separate for enhanced music listening enjoyment, but you can still get an MP3 Player that will play games faster, and better, than a mobile phone.

It’s the same old feeling, you’ve been in the pub for hours and you’re bursting for a Wii, but the queue is just too long. This time however it’s not the queue for the toilets, it’s the queue for the Nintendo Wii.

The cutesy console from Nintendo that has been giving its heavyweight rivals the PS3 and the Xbox 360 a good pasting in the sales charts is now taking on pub classics such as darts, pool and dominoes.

The pub is the Shoulder Of Mutton in York, and it’s just installed a Nintendo Wii for regulars to battle over while they lubricate their shouting tackle. The pub is staging its own ten pin bowling tournament, not with the classic pub games of ‘skittles’, but with the Nintendo Wii.

Landlord Robin Watson set the tournament up last week and it’s proving a real hit with the locals.

We had the Wii upstairs, but it wasn’t being used, so we thought we might as well bring it down and let our customers have a go.

Everybody loved it and it just took off from there – it’s been a real hit and people come in just to have a go.

Skittle alleys have all but disappeared from pubs these days, so this bowling game is the closest you’re going to get – I guess it’s the modern version.

You have to swing your arm like you would in real-life and pretend you were releasing a ball.

The best of three tournament features sixteen pub regulars, all battling for the crown of best virtual bowler in the pub.

It’s been really good. Everyone crowds round to watch and they all seem to be cheering for the younger ones. I think people want to see the adults beaten because they all think they’re going to win.

We’ve got people playing from 11 o’clock in the morning right into the evening.

I think at times like these, when the money situation isn’t good, it’s helping to keep people coming out.

The pub tournament was a £2 entry ‘winner takes all’ deal, and with sixteen competitors that’s an awful big pub prize kitty up for grabs.

There’s no denying that the iPhone is a staggering piece of kit. It’s won many accolades since its launch, including many gadget of the year awards, but is it likely to compete against the leading games console when even Sony and Microsoft have failed in terms of sales?

It seems as though may pose a challenge for the Wii, as a new series of free games for the Apple iPhone that have been released allow users to play games on the handset, using the handset itself as a controller.

The gaming website iFun has release four games that can be played on the iPhone, and your computer at the same time. Players can use the iPhone as the controller, playing the game on the computer screen.

All you need to do to play is to connect the iPhone to the same wireless network as your PC or Mac, download the games and begin playing.

Whether this will be enough to compete with the Nintendo Wii is another matter, but when the games are free to download it’s definitely worth a look.

Just when it seemed that everything Nintendo touched turned to gold, their most recent release for the Nintendo Wii, Wii Music, hasn’t been quite so hotly received. When it was launched at E3 earlier in the year the critics weren’t exactly enamoured with it, either because they didn’t get it, or they just weren’t interested in a game that allows you to play along to music.

Now that the title has been released, it does seem to have fallen foul of consumer disinterest, although that of course doesn’t mean it’s not a great game. Many great games have had poor sales over the years, turning them into cult classics. This isn’t what Nintendo will want to hear though; a cult classic doesn’t put money in their pockets.

According to video games website GameSpot:

According to raw NPD data, Wii Music sold just under 81,000 units in the 11 days after it went on sale on October 20. The number is merely a fraction of the 687,700 units Wii Fit moved domestically in a similar period when it went on sale on April 19.

One of the reasons for the game’s poor show at the tills could be the competitive market. With Rock Band and Guitar Hero already leading the way, Wii Music has some heavyweight competition to beat. Also the lack of any peripherals might be a factor. Waggling the Wii remote isn’t quite as exciting as strumming on a Wii Guitar or beating some Wii Drumsticks.

Nintendo is probably hoping the game will take off, as Brain Age wasn’t a massive hit when it was released, but gradually picked up sales and snowballed over time. Nintendo is also reportedly looking at getting Wii Music introduced into schools for educational use. This could be a very shrewd move indeed if it comes off.

You probably wouldn’t think that the average American would put the Wii Fit before a McDonald’s. It just doesn’t sit right with the stereotypical image we have of Americans.

You’d be wrong though. A survey was conducted in the US to find the most memorable product launch of the year, and it found that Nintendo’s fitness accessory for the Nintendo Wii, the Wii-Fit, was the most memorable product launch of 2008.

The Wii-Fit finished just ahead of Apple’s iPod Touch, showing that Americans still remember their gadgets, even in an economic slump and amid a presidential election.

The third and fourth most memorable product launches restore our faith in Americans though, with the fruity low calorie Bud Light Lime beer in third place, and yes, a McDonald’s product was fourth. It had to be didn’t it? The Southern Style Chicken Biscuit & Sandwich - which no doubt doesn’t resemble a biscuit or a sandwich.

Burger King also featured in the top ten, among other food products.

The video game Rock Band also featured in the top ten, at eighth spot.

We may be in the middle of a global economic downturn, with consumers being very careful with their money, but nobody seems to have told Nintendo. The Nintendo Wii is ploughing along towards its usual Christmas flurry of sales without a care in the world.

In fact, sales of the Wii are going up month on month in the USA. In October, $1.31 billion was spent in the US on video games, which was an increase of 18% on September’s sales. The spike in sales for October is, unsurprisingly, led by the Nintendo Wii, which has been outselling its rivals since its launch 2 years ago.

According to NPD Group, a market research company, the Nintendo Wii sold 803,000 consoles in October. The Wii is beating its rivals in the family arena, according to Geoffrey Rockwell, humanities computing professor at the University of Alberta.

The video game has come out of the basement.

It’s not just family bonding but you’re finding video games are showing up in different social spaces. When I talk to my students, they’ll often have video games at parties.

The Entertainment Software Association of Canada has endorsed his claims, as they’ve published the results of a survey that show six out of ten parents actually play along with video games, showing that video games are now more of a family affair rather than the domain of a lone player.

The Nintendo Wii may be one of the most ingenious games consoles ever made, and have some of the strangest, yet most playable, games every designed, but the Nintendo Wii isn’t just about playing games. No, the Nintendo Wii has other strings to its bow, and one of them is its ability to act as a web browser for those that like to surf the net.

Those that use the Nintendo Wii for the Internet have the option of downloading the Opera browser. In December users will be able to download a free upgrade for the browser, or if you don’t have one already you can purchase the new browser for 500 Wii Points.

The new browser features a new, better layout on the screen and new navigation buttons. This will make it easier to browse the Internet. Plus the new browser features better access for Wii Speak and Wii Mail. The tabbed browser now holds six websites open at the same time.

Despite the Nintendo Wii outselling the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360 since its launch, almost as much as the two rival consoles together in fact, it has still been shunned by the hardcore gamer. The Wii has even been dismissed by its rivals as being no competition, because Microsoft and Sony believe it doesn’t compete for the same audience as their machines.

All that is about to change according to Nintendo US’s Cammie Dunaway. Dunaway told MTV in an interview:

Well, certainly, I feel there are titles that should make that group stand up and pay attention next year.

If you look at something like The Conduit, that’s really pushing the edge of graphic capabilities on the Wii and doing things that people didn’t think were possible. And I think, one, that makes other developers stand up and take notice. And two, that makes consumers say, ‘Huh. Maybe there’s something to this.

I think that next year you’re going to see the tide turn a little bit, in terms of people realising that the Wii can have something of interest for everybody.

If you’re wondering what the Conduit is, it’s a FPS from SEGA and High Voltage. It is expected to launch next spring, and has been claimed by it’s developers to put other Wii games in the shade on a graphical front.

Nintendo came under criticism for its games releases this year, with no traditional games revealed. Nintendo claim those games are under development, with the Mario and Zelda teams working on games for Wii.

Whether that will be enough to sway the hardcore gamers remains to be seen.

With an increase in assaults and robberies on teenagers for the technology that they carry, such as iPods, MP3 players and games consoles, a new survey has revealed a worrying trend. It seems that the average teenager has approximately £665 worth of kit about their person when they go out, including electronic items, watch and clothes.

This is possibly the reason that 40% of all parents include the things their children own on their household insurance. It’s a good thing too, because a quarter of all teenagers have lost possessions in the past 12 months due to theft or carelessness.

Insurance company Allianz conducted a survey of 3,000 parents in the current climate of teenage driven crimes. Even the Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, has warned against teenagers carrying expensive items with them when they go out, making them obvious targets for crime.

The survey showed that teenagers tend to leave the house in approximately £225 worth of clothing, including shoes, and often carry gadgets with them such as an iPod, a mobile phone or an MP3 player.

14% of teenagers also said that they carry games consoles with them when they leave the house, such as the PSP or the Nintendo DS.

Mark Bishop from Allianz stated:

Teenagers travelling alone are still particularly vulnerable to thieves and muggers.

Leaving the house wearing expensive jewellery and using an MP3 player might attract attention but not necessarily the sort a teenager is looking for. As always, it is important-to conceal items of value when out and about.

The news had been full recently of the Nintendo Wii being used in hospitals by patients recovering from injury and operations as a physiotherapy aid, but could any use of the little console be more deserving than this? The Nintendo Wii is being used in a Sheffield hospital to help young patients suffering with Cancer.

The Nintendo Wii and its physical fitness addon, the Wii-Fit, has been donated to Weston Park Hospital for use in their Teenage Cancer Unit by the Mayor and Mayoress of Barnsley.

Mayor Coun Ken Sanderson stated:

When we originally visited the Teenage Cancer Unit we were so impressed with what the Weston Park Hospital Cancer Charity has been able to achieve here.

The Cancer Charity part-fund a dedicated activities co-ordinator who suggested a Wii would be an ideal gift - the young patients have fun and get some exercise at the same time.

This is an early Christmas present.

The money to pay for the Nintendo Wii was raised by the Mayor’s charity, which was set up to support causes like Cancer, and the Riding for the Disabled Association.

We are halfway through our year and are thoroughly enjoying using the mayor’s charity to help these young patients.

We didn’t want them to have to wait till we completed the year before we made a difference.

The Wii has already proven itself as helping patients recover from injury, and it will surely be a great asset to the Teenage Cancer Unit in Sheffield.