Your Highness! Surprise!
(Credit: Geek)Our senior editor Leslie Katz pointed me to this story about the Queen of England getting a Nintendo Wii as a gift, and I thought to myself, "Ah, this is the kind of news that's gonna change the world."
The Royal Wii.
(Credit: Kombo)Apparently, THQ is doing a huge promotion of the latest release of a Wii game called BIG Family Games. According to THQ product manager Danielle Robinson, it's "the ultimate Wii game to get all family members, from grandparents to young children, playing together."
This game is the newest release in the company's "BIG" range of titles, which have been very successful in the E.U., with more than 600,000 units sold in the summer of 2008. It seems the company believed there was no family in Europe that could better represent the notion of "playing together" than the U.K's ultimate clan.
Secretly though, my interest is the gift itself. I don't yet have a Wii, and this one isn't just like any other you can get for around $200. The package includes a gold-plated console, Wii remote and Nunchuck controllers, and the game itself.
It's unclear whether the console has any special functionality, like the ability to play Blu-ray or even DVD movies. Nonetheless, the gift was delivered to Buckingham Palace on Thursday, and by now, it's pretty much priceless.
It's unlikely her Royal Highness, who just turned 83, will have much interest in the game or the console. At best, she might watch as others, namely the princes, enjoy it for her, as she listens to one of her iPods.
This weekend, Justin Yu made an appearance on Tom Merritt's and Roger Chang's podcast, East Meets West. Ostensibly, it sounds like a podcast about technology and Asian and Western cultures, right? Nope. Turns out it's half an hour where Tom and Roger ream Justin and The 404 for our use of "curse words."
(Credit:
Mark Licea/CNET)
Also in the news this weekend, "Adventureland" came out. Contrary to its marketing campaign, it's not a film in the vein of "Superbad," but is actually kind of deep. As for way less deep films, "Fast and Furious" topped the charts with a cool 72.5 million bones. Michael McCarthy, ace reporter Caroline McCarthy's little brother, joins the show today to lend us his opinion on movies and provide a laugh track.
Twitter, for all the problems that it's caused in the world, may have actually saved the life of a suicidal woman. Apparently, if you @reply Demi Moore, you can get saved. There's some more bummer technology stories in there, too.
In happier news, Rick Moranis might make an appearance in "Ghostbusters III." We just hope that Seth Rogan, Michael Cera, Paul Rudd, and Jonah Hill aren't the new Ghostbusters. Also, Queen Elizabeth II gets an iPod from Barack Obama filled with show tunes. And finally, Domino's gives away 11,000 pizzas, accidentally.
Listen to this episode of East Meets West and let us know what you think. We're available via voice mail at 1-866-404-CNET (2638) or via e-mail at the404 [at] cnet [dot] com. Does bad language really bother you? Does it make us juvenile? Or are we just getting lectured by padre?
EPISODE 314
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"Her majesty is far more down with technology than other ones might think."
(Credit: CC TF Duesing/Flickr)Imagine the Queen of England hitching up her tartan skirt and twirling around one of the large, but I'm guessing cold, drawing rooms at Buckingham Palace with U2's "In the Name of Love" transmitted down her earholes via characteristic white earphones.
Yes, President Obama has just gifted the queen an iPod.
Now we can all delight in the mere thought that the Her Majesty, or Liz, as some in her native land call her, will be perched over a MacBook and downloading a little Celine Dion or some early Snoop.
Four years ago, when she was conferring an honorary knighthood upon the burdened shoulders of Bill Gates, the queen admitted she had never used a computer. But these days she is no tech-illiterate. She has her own BlackBerry, just like the president's.
And I have very bad news for the president. The queen already has an iPod. At least two, it seems.
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(Credit:
Crave UK)
Every now and again, we'll come across a piece of technology that works just fine, does exactly what it's supposed to, and yet, and yet... Something about it just isn't right. We can't put our finger on why, but even thinking about it makes us feel a bit funny. This is technology that's just... wrong.
Crave UK has highlighted, in no particular order, some of the inventions that we could happily live without, and would in fact prefer if they'd never been invented. We've placed each wrongosity onto our patented "Scale of Wrong" to show where they fit into the grand scheme of wrongness--are they more Steve McQueen looking icey-cool or Steve Ballmer dancing like a loon? Click here to judge for yourself.
(Source: Crave UK)
Her Royal Highness will pwn your sorry hide!
(Credit: Official Royal Images Library)Here in the U.S., our head of state couldn't seem to master the Segway, but Britain's Queen Elizabeth II is apparently quite the video game diva.
The undoubtedly reputable U.K. publication The People reported earlier this week that the 81-year-old royal got a hold of a Wii console (according to a "Palace source," it belongs to her 25-year-old grandson, Prince William) and "showed all the signs of becoming a Nintendo addict."
The Queen's game of choice seems to be Wii Bowling (what, did you expect Call of Duty 3?) and the source told The People that her "hand-eye coordination was as good as somebody half her age."
Prince William, meanwhile, "was in fits of laughter," but allegedly will have a tough time prying the console away from his grandmother. She is, The People notes, an unusually tech-savvy dame. She has reportedly had a cell phone since 2001, a BlackBerry since last year, and listens to an iPod regularly. (The People reports that it contains over 100,000 songs, which means that Steve Jobs must have custom-made it for her since the 160GB version holds only 40,000 songs, tops. Hey, Brits, do some fact-checking!)
And we here at CNET suppose it's good that Her Majesty is raiding Prince William's video game library rather than Prince Harry's liquor cabinet.
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