Wii tops console sales for November

Nintendo Wii won again the title of the best-seeling gaming console in US during November with close to one million sold.

Wii was followed by Microsoft’s Xbox 360, that sold 770,000 units, which is quite a record. In September, Microsoft outsold Nintendo Wii, for the first time since the last holiday season, with 528,000 units sold. But in October as Halo 3 effect was fading out Microsoft sold only 366,000 Xbox 360s.

Sony’s PlayStation 3 managed to score its best month this year with 466,000 units sold, which proves that finally Sony’s strategy to slash the prices paid off. Still PS2 outsold again its brother with 496,000 units.

Apple updates Java for Mac OS X Tiger

Apple has released updates for Java for their Mac OS X Tiger edition.   Apple stated that these patches fix 18 different vulnerabilities. These include the patches shipped by Sun in the recent months.

The update is around 80MB big and has been named Java for Mac OS X 10.4, Release 6 on the Apple website.

Sony Advances its Use of Renewable Energy Sources

As part of its efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, Sony Corporation is actively promoting the use of solar, wind, geothermal and biomass power generation across Sony Group companies in Japan and around the world.

In fiscal 2006, the widespread implementation of renewable energy across the Sony Group helped reduce Sony’s CO2 emissions by approximately 13,000 tons worldwide. Sony will continue to advance its use of renewable energy, with the aim of increasing its contribution to CO2 reduction approximately fourfold to 50,000 tons through fiscal 2010 (compared to fiscal 2006).

Intel showcases Z-P140 PATA solid-state storage drives

Intel has announced that they are now planning to embed solid-state storage drives in its upcoming platform for ultramobile PCs.

The aim is to make available more storage space for these devices. The company showcased their Z-P140 PATA solid-state storage drive which would be provided by them as an optional module to OEMs.

These drives would be available in capacities of 2GB and 4GB. Manufacturers would be able to embed up to four SSDs to provide 16GB of space.

Boarding Pass on Your Cell Phone

A new boarding pass system has been launched this week, according to The Transportation Security Administration and Continental Administration. It is a first for the U.S., following Germany, Spain, Canada and Japan, some of which implemented this system as long as three years ago.

The passengers will receive a code on their cell phone or PDA which will become their boarding pass. The technology used for these codes is different from the one used on the barcodes we all know. Considering the amount of information stored, a new 2D technology will be used to create a complex pattern of squares, capable of storing much more information, such as the passenger’s name and flight information.