friedgreenmushrooms

I have to agree with everybody who's commented so far: this information has been on Wikipedia since at least E3 '06, if not earlier.

Wait, wait. Hold the phone.

Poster #25, you're going to get a Wii at Blockbuster?! Since when is this possible?

http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j239/friedgreenmushrooms/wii_wait.png

Only a little while longer.

Okay, some people are still confused.

"Bias" is a noun. It cannot be used in place of a verb, or an adjective.

"Biased" is an adjective, a modifier if you will. This is what you want to say.

When you say, "Joystiq is bias," what you should be saying is, "Joystiq is biased," because that's how grammar works.

Unless you're saying Joystiq is actually bias, which would be as stupid as saying "DVDs are pencil" or "George Bush is pants".

Oh, and to everyone calling for Vlad to be fired or whatever:

He runs Joystiq. He can't be chastised by the higher-ups, because he is the higher-ups.

@Optimus Prime:

"Its not so much about making Wii compete with 360/PS3... it more about differentiating Wii from Game Cube and last gen.. which, from the Wii launch release titles, it does an poor job."

Get your thoughts straight. You said earlier that Zelda with HD would have won this gen. Now you're saying that it's not about making Wii compete with 360 or PS3, it's about diffrentiating between Wii and Cube.

So which is it?

Meh. I won't have the money for the Wii until one day before launch, so no preorders for me. And I'm in Canada, where the only preorders for Wii have been at Gamestop so far, pretty much. Bah humbug.

I just realised now that I misread your first post. To clarify, all data is transferred through Bluetooth alone, none at all through the sensor bar. The cord is for power only, but I agree with some earlier posters that I wouldn't want to have it powered by batteries, for fear of sensor death during a game.

A quote from the Wikipedia article on the Wiimote, to clear things up:

"The sensor bar is about 20cm in length and features eight IR LEDs, with four LEDs being arranged at each end of the bar. The Wii Remote contains a one-megapixel image sensor which is used to locate the sensor bar's eight points of light in the Wii Remote's field of view. The known real-world dimensions of the spacing between the LEDs on the bar allows the Wii Remote to calculate its position and orientation in space relative to the bar. This information is in addition to, and supplemented by, the 3-axis acceleration and tilt sensors in the Wii Remote."

The Wiimote does know its position in space relative to the bar which, when taken alongside acceleration and tilt data, allows for effects like the push and pull in the Photo Channel.

Sorry if I implied the Wiimote was magical.

That was the best news report I've ever seen. Why can't our news be like that?

That guy when he's shouting about playing tennis by swinging the remote? When she tells him how he just has to swing the remote, and he's like, "What?! I don't even need to press buttons? Really?!"...that's just great.

And when he yelled out "Kamehameha!" playing DBZ, and pushed his arms forward...

Priceless.

@Moogle:

Just Bluetooth wouldn't work, because the Wiimote is like a mouse. The mouse needs a reference (the mousepad) and the Wiimote needs the sensor bar. Otherwise, your cursor could start anywhere on-screen, and you would have to move around to get the right positioning. That isn't convienient for anyone: would you want to have to make sure you're pointing at dead center of the TV screen every time you turn the Wii on?

Also, the cursor can't move past the edges of the screen, which would skew the Wiimote's connection with the cursor (similar to if you slide your mouse farther on the table than the cursor can go, the cursor will stay on the screen's edge).

Also, the sensor bar is needed to locate the Wiimote in 3D space, which gives the Wiimote different functions depending on how close it is to the sensor bar. For example, in the Photo Channel, your cursor grows smaller or bigger depending on how close you are to the sensor bar, giving you different-sized brushes, as if you were simply painting and just applying more pressure.