The storage situation on the Wii is sorta abysmal, especially if you’re an avid Virtual Console or WiiWare fan and have lots of games. Don’t worry, Nintendo knows it. According to a translated interview with Latin American pub Club Nintendo, Reggie and Miyamoto say that you can expect an announcement about storage goodness in the future, since they’re working on a number of technologies, but it won’t be a hard drive.

Nope, Reggie says it’s even better than a hard drive. Could it be online storage? (That’s the only thing we can think of besides a hard drive, since online storage is actually super cheap nowadays.) Whatever it is, if it involves hardware, expect it to be one of the few Wii peripherals Nintendo makes, since Miyamoto says they have enough already. Amen to that. [Go Nintendo via CVG via Kotaku]

Kotaku is claiming that Nintendo will debut a new Nintendo DS in April or May of 2009. According to their sources, the new DS model’s features will be similar to the next-generation DS wishlist we published last year.

Kotaku says that both screens would have touch capability, which is reasonable to expect. They also point out that both screens will have a wide aspect ratio, which it’s more difficult to believe unless they position the controls somewhere else (I don’t see Nintendo sacrificing physical buttons for a pure touch interface.)

They also claim that this may not be the Nintendo DS 2, but a revision to the current model. Personally, I don’t know how can that be. With such new prominent features, which will require a new generation of games to be fully exploited, it won’t make sense to not name label it as the next generation DS.

In any case, they seem very confident about the news. So much in fact, that they used our Nintendo DS 2 3D mock-up to further highlight their scoop.

[Kotaku]

Stores in Australia are heading into a possible Wii shortage this week, due to to worldwide demands for the hot game console leading up to Christmas.

A recent poll done by various stores around Sydney shows that most has Wii consoles in stock, but doesn’t expect them to last towards the weekend.

A spokeswoman for Myer said their stores were currently receiving their last delivery before Christmas, but expected them to sell quickly.

“They’re selling like hotcakes,” she said.

“Once the current deliveries sell, we’re not receiving any more until the early New Year.”

Nintendo Australia public relations coordinator Heather Murphy admits the Wii and its smaller cousin the Nintendo DS have become victims of their own success.

“Throughout 2007, both Nintendo DS and Wii’s popularity have grown exponentially,” Ms Murphy said.

“The range of games for both Nintendo DS and Wii is really broad - we have games that appeal to core gamers, casual gamers, young females, even seniors are embracing both the Nintendo DS and Wii.”

Ms Murphy said that the company is working to pump out more units harder and faster than ever before, but admits that many people who are thing of owning a Wii this summer will most likely miss out on the fun.

“We’re continually putting more and more Wii systems into the pipeline, but they all sell through almost instantly,” Ms Murphy said.

“Due to the high demand for both products, come Christmas time we may not be able to satisfy all consumer demand.”

Many stockists are profiting from the Wii shortage, with anecdotal reports of customers buying as many as 10 units at a time and then selling them at an inflated price online.

Several listings on the online auction website eBay have attracted bids between $400 and $500, with one listing as high as $729 - almost double the recommended retail price of $399.

Toshi Iwai, a madia artist from Japan and the creator of the Electroplankton, has collaborated with Yahama to product a completely new instrument: the Tenori-On. Toshio Iwai says the Tenori-On was developed with “particular attention being given to the beauty of the light & sounds, the ease of performance, and as a musical instrument of the future.”

The Tenori-On features a 16×16 LED button matrix. There are six modes of performance and sound/light: Score Mode, Random Mode, Draw Mode, Bounce Mode, Push Mode, and Solo Mode. Compositions are made of “Layers” and “Blocks”, where sounds made in each layer will be played in order of the position of the button pushed.

The Tenori-On was offered in a limited test market in the UK for £599.00 (about $1,200 USD). Artist like Bjork have used the Tenori-On during live performances.

At last, someone managed the most needed, most anxiously-awaited PC retrofit job there is: putting a PC inside a Nintendo Wii box. Looking into its guts and its back, the Wii PC not very powerful, but it is fully functional and comes with everything you need in a Windows XP box.

The computer runs Windows XP SP3 on a Celeron 1.3GHz, Intel 852 chipset, 512MB of RAM, and 40GB hard drive, with wireless access, digital video output, three USB ports, and a fan that he stole out of a F-35 STOVL fighter yet. At least, it sounds like one:

[A9VG via Kotaku]

Taking inspiration as well as construction cues from the massive NES controller table built in May, SCAD Inc., which I will charitably call a garage-based novelty enlargement collective, set out to build a giant-sized SNES controller, complete with functioning buttons. A few months later the build is complete, and it looks, well, huge.

The angular, simply-shaped NES controller lent itself well to humongonization, but the rounded sides and shoulder buttons made the SNES a formidable challenge to accurately build at such a large scale. The SCAD guys sure as hell pulled it off though, getting everything from the curvature of the L and R buttons to the fonts used on the control labels almost perfectly right. The body of the controller is cut from wood, and the buttons are connected directly to the guts of a standard SNES controller, preserving the now hilariously small-looking cable and connector. Matt LaBoone, the primary builder of the project, says that videos (hopefully including some gameplay action) are forthcoming. For now check out the full log of the building process at the SCAD Inc. site. [SCAD Inc.]

The Nyko Wing, other than looking a bit more comfortable than the Wii’s Classic Controller, brings a few other conveniences to Wii vintage gaming. First, it’s wireless. So while it still requires an active Wiimote to communicate with the system (and it uses a Wiimote dongle to do so), you won’t need to worry about wire tethering. The extra shoulder buttons may or may not come in handy (since Nintendo doesn’t allow controller remapping in most Virtual Console titles), but very thoughtfully, you can load the Wing with AAA rechargeable batteries that can be refreshed via built-in USB. Looks good, but no word on pricing or availability yet. [IGN]

There is an alternate universe much like our own, but in this universe there is no war and cows produce ice-cold milkshakes. And in this universe, you’ll also find the manifested counterparts to these wooden Wii peripheral concepts. Made of wood and featuring well-placed LED flare, the only thing better than the Wiimote and Nunchuk is this realistic Wiiglock:

It’d be a complete bitch for the TSA, but there really aren’t enough functional wooden firearms in the world. [flickr via ubergizmo]

G4 says they’ve got a scoop on a Guitar Hero: World Tour peripheral that hasn’t been announced yet, one that’s just for the game’s studio mode to help you make music. It’s not for the game mode at all, apparently. We’re kind of thinkin’ accordion, but G4 guesses it’ll be a keyboard. Another option is something like Beatmania’s turntable/keyboard controller, or this fine musical instrument. [G4]