Yes, PSP again. What do you expect these days…?
According to the Register, this is only half the number of machines Sony shipped into the US, but they are not overly worried because it took the PSP less time to reach the 500,000-unit mark than Nintendo’s DS did when it launched in the US, right before Christmas last year. It took the DS two weeks to sell what the PSP did in 2 days.

In Japan, it is over one million sold, and as far as Europe is concerned there is no official lauch date announced yet, but everyone is expecting June.

DSlinkup is about to get released (April 11th), and this will be the edge Nintendo DS users will be able to brag about to their PSP friends. This software created by an Italian team named Jadrule allows each DS user to create their own LinkTag and connect to other DS users around the globe using the DS wireless multiplayer feature. To use the software, the Nintendo DS need to be in a wifi hotspot or own a 802.11b router or faster.

DSLinkup has already been tested and successful connections have been across Europe and Italy, and one successful connection has made across to the United States. The reason this software will not be released until at least April 11 is because we want to make sure we can make the software work to all corners of the globe. We at Jadrule are working hard and will be sure to keep you up-to-date on where in the world this has been tested.

More news, forum, pictures, and screenshots at jadrule.tk

Update from the previous Nintendo DS post: the trailer we linked to has been removed since then. But it’s ok, because another one — longer! — is available now at: http://nintendo.co.jp/n10/nwt/dssoft/movie/dssoft.html. Enjoy!

Ok, some people complained that we showed the promotional “live” billboards for the Sony PSP, but not the Nintendo DS campaign yet. So here are a few pictures of the giant display they put on one of the most looked at spot in Tokyo. Not the same type as Sony’s marketing approach, but definitely the same goal: unavoidable!

Think of Shibuya as one of the top 5 spots in Tokyo’s nervous system, and this particular crossing as the center of Shibuya. This is were at any given moment of the day or the night hundreds of people are waiting for someone, and kill time by looking at the 3 giant screens across the street, or waiting for the light to turn green and cross to get to one of the zillions of karaoke, bars, restaurants, love hotels, or simply to the busiest Starbucks in the world…

The center screen is the biggest, and now it has on each side ads for the Nintendo DS that are even bigger. Seven floors high, to be precise.

And for those who don’t know her yet, the girl is Utada Hikaru. She is arguably the 2nd most popular pop-singer in Japan these days (and for a while now) and she’s about to launch her US career (for the second or third time now) with her album “Exodus“.

Nintendo’s website features a very impressive flash-movie showing the first-party DS games:
http://nintendo.co.jp/ds/movie/index.html