New Wii will rock you

16/01 15:06 CET

hi-tech

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Japanese gaming giant Nintendo expects to release its next generation Wii, the Wii U, this summer.

One of the stars of the Consumer Electronics Show at Las Vegas, the new games console features a large touchscreen controller.

This will work alongside the normal smaller Wii controllers, making multi-player games for the whole family possible.

“Yes, this will be a successor to the Wii and will be coming out some time later this year. And it offers consumers a second screen that’s fully integrated right out of the box that connects not only to your TV but to your internet and offers a real unique new avenue into game play and game development,” said Nintendo’s Scott Moffitt.

The battle for supremacy among TV makers continues, with smart televisions, voice and movement-command software and Web apps all the rage.

There is deeper internet connectivity than ever before. Panasonic has introduced a line of TVs that will bring social-media updates to your screen as well as enabling split-screen Skype chatting while you are watching a programme.

Picture quality got a boost, too. Samsung created a buzz with its OLED — organic light-emitting diode — televisions.

Braving its eighth straight year of losses, once invincible Sony was showcasing its Crystal LED set.

“We’ve been making content for decades, we’ve been making TV for decades so we know how to make a TV look great. No one walks into your house and says ‘look at all those millions to one and all those hertz, they look great’. They look at your TV and say ‘Wow, look at that picture’. And that is what we bring ‘Wow, look at that picture’, said Sony’s Sean Cassidy.

We have seen voice and gesture controlled televisions before, but Chinese manufacturer Haier is working on a set that you can control with your mind alone.

Brain Wave TV could mean viewers can change channels or the volume simply by concentrating on an area of the screen as brainwave patterns are interpreted into a digital signal that televisions can recognise.