TVSquad

As reported earlier this week, the BBC plans to develop a Nintendo Wii version of its iPlayer online TV viewing software. The announcement left me scratching my head a bit. After all, aren't Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's Playstation3 more obvious choices? Both video game consoles are already designed to be multimedia devices, with optical disc drives and access to online media.

Now the BBC is explaining why it decided to go with the Nintendo Wii. The Wii supports branded channels. In other words, if the BBC wanted to make video content available on the other platforms, the software interface would have to look pretty much like all the other Xbox 360 or PS3 channels. Nintendo, on the other hand, is offering the BBC a dedicated channel which will mimic the iPlayer interface already available through a web browser.

[via Joystiq]

We knew the BBC was considering launching its iPlayer online video service for set top boxes like the Apple TV and possibly even the Xbox 360. But here's one I really didn't see coming. The BBC has announced plans to bring the iPlayer to Nintendo Wii users.

The iPlayer channel should go live for British Wii owners tomorrow, although the BBC is still working on the software and a more advanced version should be released later.

Apparently the BBC also plans to add iPlayer functionality to television sets/set top boxes soon. The service lets Brits watch any program that's aired on the BBC over the past week for free. The service is not likely to become available outside of the UK anytime soon, since it's funded by the television license fee paid by British residents.

[via Automated Home]

Here's a video game that promises to slice up the competition. A cut above. It will serve up a dish full of fun for gamers everywhere. It'll be... All right, you get it. Food cliches. Chop-chop. But, seriously, in a marriage between the Food Network and United Media, Iron Chef: America is coming to the home market. Destineer today announced plans to publish the video game Iron Chef America: Supreme Cuisine exclusively for the Wii system and Nintendo DS. It's based on the popular food network competition show, which in turn is based on the original Iron Chef in Japan, produced by Fuji Television.

Some of you may remember a cartoon series that aired in the mid-'90s called Mega Man, based on the Nintendo video game of the same name. The series had something to do with Mega Man, a cyborg of sorts, battling an army of evil robots or some such thing. Whatever, the plot really isn't important, because it has nothing to do with the video I've placed below.

The folks from OvertimeComedy.com have dubbed their voices over a short clip from Mega Man to create "Lack of Social Awareness Mega Man." Instead of battling the forces of evil, Mega Man tries to convince his pal that Six Feet Under is the greatest show ever, and that he should come over to his place and watch it on DVD.

The AppleTV is turning out to be the little box that could. It could be an internet TV platform, it could be a full fledged computer, and it could even be a video game console.

In the short time since the AppleTV began shipping, we've seen hackers:

• Run the internet TV program Joost
• Add a larger hard drive
• Extract the AppleTV OS as a disc image

But that was just the beginning.

The Nintendo Wii includes an editor that allows you to create your own avatar - called a "Mii" - to use while playing Wii games. As you might imagine, it took all of three seconds before people started creating celebrity Miis and uploading them to the internet. Search "mii" in flickr, and you'll find Amy Sedaris as Jerri Blank, Spike Lee and Borat. Kottee hosted a celebrity Mii contest back in December, which resulted in my favorite Mii to date - David Foster Wallace playing tennis.

It was just a matter of time before an Office fanatic had too much time on his hands and created Office Miis - the entire cast of the Emmy Award-winning show as Nintendo avatars. Jim, Dwight and Kevin look the best, but they're all little works of time-wasting, pop culture-inspired art. You can check them out on Flickr.

[Via Digg]

Like Saturday Supercade followed Atari in the '80s, Captain N: The Game Master followed the success of Nintendo in the '90s. Not unlike The Last Starfighter, in which a young man's video game skills are utilized to defeat an evil alien army, Kevin's talent for defeating various Nintendo games results in his being turned into a cartoon a la Kid Video and sucked into a strange land inhabited by a menagerie of product placements.

I was a Nintendo geek, so I remember watching this growing up, though not much of it has stayed with me. Watching some clips on YouTube, it's easier to see now that the show was essentially a half hour commercial like pretty much any other series based on a toy or game. There were some interesting touches, such as the use of video game sound effects. Ultimately, though, it's a half hour of bad dialogue and bad animation. Perhaps it would have some nostalgic value to folks my age, but it's mostly a relic of its time.

The four-disc set will be available February 13, 2007 from Shout! Factory.

Everyone has to start somewhere, and long before Bill O'Reilly made a name for himself on Fox News cutting mics, gesticulating toward the camera and telling people to shut up, he was the host of Inside Edition and getting to the bottom of this strange new phenomenon called Super Mario Brothers. College Humor has the video, and a very youthful Billy bookmarks the segment. The stuff in between is typical Inside Edition pabulum, though I was actually one of those nerds who would call the Nintendo hotline to figure out how to complete different levels. Nintendo was about as far as I ever went, though. If you were to sit me down in front of a PlayStation or an Xbox I'd probably start crying from not being able to figure anything out.

[via Best Week Ever]

Oh, regrets. I really shouldn't have turned down the Hollywood Foreign Press Association's request to present an award at the Golden Globes tonight. After all, that's a darn fine goody bag the presenters get:

• Trip for 2 to Antarctica (plus cold weather gear) with Quark Expedition, $22,000
• Trip for 2 to Canada, for a diamond-cutting and polishing experience, $15,000
• Lumineers teeth whitening, $4,000
• One pair of diamond-encrusted blue jeans from Denim for Immortality, $1,200
• Chopard Golden Diamond ring, $2,000
• Saeco USA Italia espresso machine, $695
• Philip Stein Teslar uni-sex watch, worth $585
• Gift certificate to Jackrocketwear, a couture line of doggie duds, $500
• Blackberry 8700c, $500
• Salt Optics sunglasses (1 pair), $375
• VAX USA vacuum, $300
  
• Nintendo Game Boy Micro with Dr. Mario/Puzzle League game, $250

What? No video iPods?

These are just some of the items, the HFPA has the full list here, plus the much shorter list of goodies that each attendee receives. The presenter's bag is worth about $65,000 and it's put together by the fashionistas at In Style magazine.