Countering Video Game Rivals, Nintendo Introduces a Touch-Screen Wii

LOS ANGELES - Nintendo on Tuesday announced a new version of its Wii video game console, in a move to counter increased competition from higher-resolution consoles from Microsoft and Sony, as well as multifunction devices like the Apple iPad.

The new system, the Wii U, incorporates a tabletlike game controller that literally brings a new dimension to the game. The hand-held, 6.2-inch touch-screen unit includes the functions of the previous controller, including the ability to control play through motion; besides the screen, a camera, microphone and speaker have been added.

The new console, available in 2012, can also display high-definition graphics; the current version of the Wii cannot.

The company says the new controller can both mirror gameplay seen on a big screen and act as a second screen, similar to the way that tablet applications from program providers like DirecTV provide consumers with additional information when they watch a video program.

With the Wii U, the experience will be "deeper and wider," said Satoru Iwata, Nintendo's president, speaking at the annual E3 gaming convention here in Los Angeles. "You will see games in a different way."

The Wii successfully brought a new segment of casual, and older, consumers to video games, players undeterred by the system's rather basic graphics and simplified gameplay. The Wii outsold its console rivals, with 35.5 million sold in the United States. Sony has sold 16.7 million of the PlayStation 3, while Microsoft has sold 27 million Xbox 360s, according to the market research company NPD Group.

The Wii U is compatible with existing Wii accessories. The company has not said what it will cost, or whether it will replace or supplement the existing model.

Michael Pachter, a video game industry analyst with Wedbush Securities in Los Angeles, gave the Wii U high marks, calling it "really intuitive," and saying "the integration with the TV is very good."

"If they can price this under $300," he added, "they'll do very well."

The current Wii console, including accessories, retails for $150. No games optimized for the Wii U were announced, but John S. Riccitiello, chief executive of the game developer Electronic Arts, said the Wii U was "a better platform than we've ever been offered by Nintendo."

In several technology demonstrations at the convention, gameplay was either replicated or seen from a different perspective on the hand-held tablet, or, with the brush of a hand, "flipped" from the tablet to the television.

The unit was lightweight and comfortable to hold, with all controls in easy reach. In one example, it could be used as a shield, held up to stop arrows launched from a ship on the TV screen. In a game of golf, the tablet was placed on the ground; a second, current Wii controller was used to hit the virtual ball, which left the tablet's screen and appeared on the TV's screen. And in a game with two players, one received information on the tablet controller that allowed him to run from a pursuer, while the other tried to catch him as she watched a limited view of the scene on the TV itself.

The tablet can also be used to continue gameplay if another family member wants to watch a TV show. And, like Apple's iPad 2, it doubles as a video chat device.

Nintendo also announced a software update for its 3DS hand-held game, which allows consumers to purchase certain new and classic games remastered for 3-D directly from its eShop download service. New 3DS games include Super Mario, Luigi's Mansion 2, Mario Kart and Kid Icarus: Uprising.

Japan raises spectre of Fukushima 'melt-through'

For the first time, Japanese authorities have suggested the situation at the Fukushima nuclear plant may have gone beyond a meltdown.

An official report, which Japan will submit to the UN's nuclear watchdog, says nuclear fuel in three reactors at Fukushima has possibly melted through the pressure vessels and accumulated in outer containment vessels.

Japan's Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper says this "melt-through" is far worse than a core meltdown, and is the worst possibility in a nuclear accident.

This is the first official admission that a "melt-through" may have occurred.

In the report, Japan also admits it was unprepared for the scale of the Fukushima disaster, which struck after a devastating earthquake and tsunami in March.

The report also acknowledges there was insufficient communication between the government and the plant's operator.

Life in the clouds offers new benefits

Before the collapse of the Iron Curtain, some people, including a brilliant photographer I knew, prepared for a simpler time. They collected hand tools that would need no electricity, learned how to fish and hunt, and mapped out remote locations where competition for living off the land wouldn't be too fierce.

These Cold War survivalists believed that nuclear Armageddon was inevitable and that they needed to be ready for the day when all of the modern conveniences we counted on would no longer function, when there would be no gas for vehicles, electricity, food stores or indoor plumbing.

I was reminded of my friend, the survivalist, this week with Apple's announcement of the iCloud, its entry into the rapidly growing business of cloud computing.

Apple is hoping that it can do for cloud computing what it has already done with cellular telephones and personal music players, taking an existing concept, redesigning it in a way that makes sense for people who aren't computer geeks and giving it mass appeal.

For consumers, stepping into the cloud requires a leap of faith, similar to the one we took when our ancestors turned our gold and silver over to a bank in return for a slip of paper that promised their wealth would still be there when they came back later to get it.

With the cloud, we are encouraged to put our faith in a system over which we have no real understanding or control and trust that our personal information will be kept safe, that it will be there when we need it and that it won't be used against us.

Cloud computing has been around for several years or even longer, depending on how you define it. It is essentially a commercial service that offers storage and computing power at remote locations. Rather than maintain capacity that is only partly used most of the time, businesses rent computing services in the cloud, so-called because the physical location may not always be the same, depending on what capacity is available at any given time.

The physical heart of the cloud is anything but amorphous, however. It is the giant server factories like the one showcased by Apple on Monday that have row after row of unstaffed computers, quietly digesting whatever they are fed and regurgitating on command everything from suggestions for new friends on Facebook to schedules for delivering vegetables to market.

The cloud raises a number of personal privacy and security issues. Like a bank vault, putting all that data in one place - whether a single physical location or simply behind a single door - makes cloud servers a rich target for hackers.

Some observers have also warned that Apple's plan to offer a mirror site for individual music libraries might create an opportunity for users to be caught up in lawsuits looking for copyright violators, who on their own are not worth pursuing but aggregated through Apple might make an attractive target.

And I wonder what access the United States Department of Homeland Security has, either secretly or with search warrants.

In return for that risk, Apple's iCloud will offer the convenience of being able to access our music, photos and work files from almost any Apple product, anytime and anyplace with Web or phone access.

That convenience and utility for businesses that use the cloud as a productivity tool mean that we will inevitably come to lean on it for functions that will no longer be accomplished elsewhere and indeed may not have been possible without it.

All of which got me thinking about my old friend, whom I haven't seen or heard from since he headed off to Yukon more than 30 years ago.

We no longer require global nuclear war to end our civilization as we know it. All it would take is unplugging the cloud. Then again, the survivalists prepared for a war that never came.