If there’s one thing you can say about the Wii, it’s that it is and always has been white. Back in the days when it was first called the “revolution” it seemed like we would be getting an assortment of colors, but alas, just plain old Wii white. That’s why it’s kind of shocking to see these.

While this may not be a lime or blood red Wii console, at least Nintendo is taking a baby step in the right direction with these pastel-colored Wiimote straps for Japan. You can get the whole pack for $10 or individually for afew bucks. No word if they’ll be coming our way soon.

There’s no denying that playing the Nintendo Wii is very fun with its unique control method. The one thing I don’t like playing on the Wii is driving games. I don’t care for steering the vehicle with the Wii remote turned sideways. I have wished for a real steering wheel on more than one occasion and Logitech has finally made my wish come true.

Logitech has announced the first force feedback wheel ever for the Nintendo Wii. The racing wheel is called the Logitech Speed Force Wireless racing wheel and is licensed by Nintendo. The wheel is easy to set up and store thanks to one-piece design that does not use pedals. Controls for brake and throttle are located on the wheel. Logitech equipped the wheel with an expandable lap rest that allows you to play while sitting on a chair or couch.

Hackers will get a machine to do all kinds of things that it should do, but doesn’t. Correcting the oversights of those damn lazy companies. We want things the way we want them. That’s why some Wii coders have made it so the Wii can have DVD playback.

It’s done by installing a hidden channel on the console, which gives it a DVD access library so you can watch all your favorite dvds with the MPlayer application, an open source media player. The install file works on both modded and unmodded Wiis. They are apparently experimenting with playing media from SD cards as well. Now you’ll be able to watch any DVD you want one last time before Blu-Ray creeps into your life.

I remember Mad magazine. The fold up joke page. The bad humor. Apparently it’s still around and going strong, has Circuit city pretty pissed off even. In this month’s issue of Mad Magazine, there’s an ad parody for Circuit City that reads Sucker City!. The parody takes aim at the electronics retailer and maybe says what many people were already thinking.

Like how they are always across the street from a Best Buy, Expensive TVs and how the price always goes up right after you bought them. Circuit city is not happy and ordered that all copies being sold at their stores be destroyed. I really doubt that anyone buys Mad Magazines from Best Buy anyway. In the ad you’ll also notice the Wii Epilepsy bundle with optical disc and bitestick controller.

Apparently it’s a true story, even though it sounds more like a comedy movie. A kid named Yang from China wasn’t to happy that his parents refused to buy him a Wii. So he found a couple of lowlife friends and faked his own kidnapping.

The ransom they demanded was $1,400 USD. The geniuses got nabbed trying to withdraw it from an ATM machine. Yang’s cut of the money would have bought him a Wii for sure, although I’m certain it would have been suspicious that he suddenly has a Wii right after.

Activision and Logitech have announced a partnership where Logitech will create “premium” instrument controllers for Guitar Hero: World Tour. The press release isn’t very clear, but we take that to mean that Logitech will be making nicer, more beautiful and more expensive versions of the stock Guitar Hero guitars for the PS2, PS3, Xbox 360 and the Wii. .

The new gear will be fully compatible with World Tour. This is probably good news for fans of GH since Logitech makes quality stuff. Soon you’ll be rocking a far better ax then you rock now.

The company that worked with Nintendo on the MotionPlus controller add-on, has now released a video that demonstrates the capabilities of the new hardware using 3D tools called LiveMove2. Turns out that the 1:1 tracking is really 1:1. Also the response time is pretty instant.

Before you know it they’re playing with lightsabers and fighting off Seeker Drones, then tossing around a 3D dummy with the lightsaber. All in all a lot of fun. The end result is that this technology can map incredibly complex motions to even more specific commands then before. It’s pretty damn impressive.

This is the second Wiimote charging station we’ve seen in a week’s time. First Sanyo’s Eneloop, now this 4x charging station from Penguin United hits the scene.

This one has Li-ion batteries that promise to give you 13 full hours of playtime from each Wiimote. And it juices them up in just 4 hours, with LEDs to show you charging levels. They’ll cost you $44.99 and insure that you always have a Wiimote ready.

Canoing is supposed to be about the great outdoors, exercise and relaxation. But for nerds, canoing is like anything else, it needs to be modded for laziness and the end result should be a lot like sitting on the couch and playing a game. Mission accomplished.

This guy made a small electric motor that’s controllable via a Wiimote. The result is that the canoe is steered by finger movement. Sure it would have been cooler to see him control the rowing by wiimote, or have the canoe walk itself into the water, but I’m sure this is just a geek stepping stone to bigger things.

Here’s something else to complain about when it comes to Nintendo’s constant need to keep things away from American hands. A new partnership between Nintendo and Fujifilm is spawning the Wii Digicam Print Channel, which is immediately available for Japanese Wii consoles to access.

It lets owners upload images from SD cards and get customized prints, photo books, business cards, and more in the mail. I’m not entirely sure why they feel the need to waste resources on this one when people can just use their computer, but I’m sure one or two people will love it. Probably the same people who bought the gameboy printer. It will likely hit North America and Europe at some point in the future.

When the Wii game console could only play media on external discs the issue of storage was not a problem, but now that owners can download, store and play games online the issue of storage, as with competitor consoles such as the PS3 and Xbox 360, has suddenly become an issue.

Sure you can store some data onto SD cards and swap things in and out of 512MB of internal Wii storage, but that capacity is quickly becoming inadequate and is putting a damper on those wanting to download a lot of games not to mention the ability for Nintendo to sell more games online.

Settle down now. I didn’t mention Batman or Spiderman, now did I? A Japanese joint venture between several comic loving entities will be distributing digital comic books to the Nintendo Wii through the Internet. Again, settle down. The service will be available to those in Japan only.

In fact, the digital content delivery service has already begun, and they are working on being able to transfer the data to the DS Lite platform down the road. This means that it’s only a matter of time until we can get actual Marvel or DC comics delivered to our Wii. And that is the most awesomest thing ever. But for now, just settle down.

We love the Wii, but we hate throwing away batteries. It’s not good for the environment and it’s costing you a lot of money. That’s why Sanyo is offering the Eneloop charging station with a battery pack replacement for your Wii remote and a charging base that holds up to four controllers.

Your remotes will charge in 220 minutes and the cool thing is that they charge in order, one after another so you don’t have to wait to play. It’s priced at $73 and is an import, but I’d be surprised if this didn’t show up in North America very soon. Go get the calculator and add up how much you’ve already spent in batteries. This is a real bargain.

Nintendo’s Wii has now surpassed the Xbox 360 as the leading console in U.S. homes among the latest generation of video-game players. As of June, U.S. consumers bought nearly 10.9 million Wii consoles since it’s introduction, which makes Nintendo top console dog. In fact, the Wii has been the top-selling console in all but one month in the U.S. since it launched, according to research firm NPD Group Inc.

Nintendo is projecting that worldwide, the Wii’s annual sales will surpass the number of consoles that Sony sells for the first time this fiscal year. The formula seems pretty straightforward. Get people actually in the game with motion control and Miis, appeal to all ages and keep the price somewhat reasonable.

Looks like Wii Sports Resort, which is basically Wii Sports: The Next Generation, will come bundled with the MotionPlus accessory, when it becomes available next spring. The MotionPlus attachment gives you 1:1 motion mirroring on your Wiimote.

No word yet on the price of the MotionPlus by itself, but the thinking is that people will buy Wii Sports Resort just to get the accessory just like with Wii Play.