People rattle on about the Steve Jobs/Apple ‘reality distortion field’, but it’s becoming increasingly clear that companies battling Apple in the handheld gaming space are also living inside their own little bubbles and firing out distortion of their own. Sony last year cunningly decided to take on iOS by saying all iPhone/iPod touch games were rubbish, using an irritating little shit as their advertising campaign’s figurehead (nice one, Sony—I’m sure you can tell from marketshare figures how that idea worked out for you). Nintendo has fared better, but is losing serious ground to iOS across all age groups, especially in the USA.

But now, Nintendo’s going to fight back, and Gamespot has revealed the launch of the Nintendo 3DS will take place in Japan on February 26. The line-up for games is the usual mix of remakes, remakes and remakes, and as someone fully immersed in iOS gaming’s diversity, the 3DS offerings don’t look terribly exciting to me, especially since I own the previous versions of many of the launch games on the DS. (“Oooh, prettier graphics” is no longer a selling point, as Nintendo itself largely proved with the Wii.)

The biggest problem though is the crazy price-points. The console’s expected to come in at over $300, which in Brit-land will no doubt mean at least £200 being stamped on the box—in other words, more than an iPod touch. Even better, the games are expected to sell between 4800 yen ($57/£38) and 6090 yen ($73/£50). Even with some serious discounting (and Japanese games often being more expensive than in the US and Europe), these prices are obliterated by the App Store, which usually ranges from $1 (59p) to $9.99 (£5.99) per item.

I’m sure Nintendo fans will lap up the new console, but I fear it’ll—like its predecessor—eventually (and all too rapidly) find itself largely bereft of decent games, relying on shovelware to keep it going. More importantly, the core market of kids is rapidly vanishing. Time was that market at least was Nintendo’s, but kids increasingly want iThings rather than expensive Nintendo kit (and Nintendo itself has warned that the main USP of its new handheld may not be safe for kids). Perhaps Nintendo’s aiming to seriously ramp up its download offerings, or tempt buyers with pack-ins. If not, it’s going to have even more of a fight on its hands than over the past couple of years, and Apple has a real chance to take the lead in the handheld gaming space.

Update: As Lukas points out in the comments, some of the launch line-up comprises new titles in existing series, with “exactly zero to do with” earlier titles. However, having been a Nintendo fan since the NES, and having owned quite a few Nintendo consoles, it’s clear that many titles will involve more than a little recycling, unless the company really has changed its ways.

Sharon Machlis on a Pioneer announcement about its new dashboard system that aims to keep drivers connected to their social networks… while driving:

I have a simple rule when it comes to what’s OK to do while driving: If you wouldn’t want your surgeon doing it while operating on your brain, don’t do it behind the wheel.

Pioneer’s take:

By providing a larger touchscreen unit installed in the dash that features a user interface specifically designed for the automotive environment and complemented by voice control features, we reduce the risk of distraction while driving.

People are already distracted enough when driving, with in-car radios, sat-navs, and hands-free kits for mobile phones (when they bother to use them), let alone other activities, such as eating and putting on make-up. But, hey, I’m sure Pioneer must have done plenty of work on this, rather than irresponsibly shoving a piece of unnecessary and dangerous technology on to the market. Because, clearly, people won’t be further distracted from not hitting things on or near the road when they’re being piped the latest Facebook and Twitter updates that couldn’t possibly wait until they’ve finished guiding several tons of metal at high speed. WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG?

(Hat tip: Ian Betteridge.)

Top Tory Toff David Cameron revealed earlier today what “we’re all in this together” really means:

• The VAT hike, which hits poorest people worst (since they spend a larger proportion of their incomes on goods that have VAT), will stay.
• Cameron hopes the 50% tax rate, which only affects top earners, will be scrapped.

Hey, Tories, why not just allow the richest in the country not not pay any tax at all? (Oh, you already did that.)

I have the utmost respect for indie developers, especially those who do really good work. For example, without the fantastic Scrivener and WriteRoom, my writing experience when working for magazines would be much less pleasant.

Something that’s pretty common among indie devs is reasonable price-tags. Instead of charging HUGE PILES OF CASH for even a tiny upgrade, you’ll find fantastic apps for bugger-all, with free upgrades for quite some time. This is something the Mac App Store should assist with further when it comes to indies, providing potential exposure, robust hosting and upgrades, and a simple payment mechanism.

Sometimes, though, people are dicks and don’t get the challenges indie devs face. Over at Sophiestication, evil indie dev Sophia has—like some other devs—announced that one of her apps will now be Mac App Store only. The thing is, she’d previously promised free upgrades until version 3, and this new version is 2.5. THE HORROR.

Clearly, Sophia should personally go round to every prior purchaser’s house, apologise profusely and perhaps offer to, say, do their shopping for a week, for free. Never mind that the new Mac App Store price for the app is $4.99 rather than $19.95 (i.e. effectively a tiny upgrade price and about the same cost as a couple of cups of coffee). Never mind that if you love the app you probably got more than $19.95 of value out of it anyway. Never mind that Sophia could have labelled the new version 3.0 and gotten away with it, despite her thinking that doing so would have been dishonest. No, bitch away at being ‘ripped off’ by an indie dev who creates polished, accessible, affordable software, who’s had to make a really tough business decision.

All you people moaning about how terribly disappointed you are, get over your fucking selves. It’s five bucks. If you like the software, support it. If not, just sod off and stop bitching about the amount of money you probably piss away daily (and literally) at Starbucks.

Slashdot reports that VLC has been pulled from the App Store. Inevitably, the article is followed by lots of comments about Apple being some kind of Evil Big Brother, utterly ignoring the fact that it was pulled due to VLC developer Rémi Denis-Courmont being a bit of a dick about a perceived clash between the GNU General Public License and the App Store terms of use.

Still, I’m not terribly sad. All iOS devices lack the storage for loads of on-board video and VLC was a bit iffy anyway. If you’ve a PC or Mac lurking about the place, I instead highly recommend grabbing a copy of Air Video (£1.79, App Store) or StreamToMe (£1.79, App Store), both of which enable live-to-iOS-device streaming and conversion of files accessible to your computer. It’s a bit annoying leaving a computer on, but these apps offer a hugely flexible system, and they also (assuming you have the right leads) provide a simple way to get content from a drive connected to your Mac or PC to your TV, just by using an iOS device.

I’m personally also hoping that 2011 will bring full AirPlay support for third-party apps, enabling converted content to be fired wirelessly to an Apple TV, or, if Jobs decides that’s the Worst Idea Ever, for the apps to be used as a remote to control the same app running on another device. AirPlay’s great, but it gets old wandering across the room and finding a fiddly virtual button to pause a movie when the dog decides he needs a wee.