On the crowded Japanese train system the only thing you’ll see commuters obsessively staring at more than their super-advanced cell phones is the portable gaming system known as the Nintendo DS. Now a new device called the Health Control Game Timer has been released to help these gamers regulate their DS addiction. If you find that your play sessions have been going on too long, the device can be set to stop your game play after a certain amount of time.
The device also features a distance sensor that will flash a red light when your face gets too close to the screen during those unusually intense gaming sessions. Whoever develops this kind of thing for desktop World Of Warcraft players will make a fortune. For now you can pick up the DS version of this digital watchdog for just 3,990 yen ($40) here and check out video of the Health Control Game Timer in action here.
"Personal Trainer: Math" is a high-tech way to do a low-tech thing: Learn math facts with flashcards.
Instead of parents putting their kids through their math paces using a set of flashcards, this Nintendo DS game does it for them when kids play the game for 10 minutes a day. Is this method better than using flashcards? Not really. Is it more fun? Yes. The use of technology and the variations on traditional flashcards make this method more engaging.
To attain mastery of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division facts, kids need to memorize the facts using repetition. "Personal Trainer: Math" provides a way to consistently practice essential math facts in an ordered, sequential way. It keeps track of accuracy and speed over days and months of practice.
It sounds like a good investment – £100 for a gadget which promises to boost your brain power and improve your mental agility.
It is a marketing phenomenon which has had adults flocking to experiment on their children’s games consoles.
But don’t be blinded by technology. A simple game of Scrabble or a good oldfashioned puzzle are just as effective in exercising those grey cells, it would seem.
Researchers found no evidence to support claims that the Nintendo DS console and Dr Kawashima’s bestselling Brain Training game, which is played on the console, will boost intelligence.
Ever since the self-improvement genre found its place on DS back in 2006 with Brain Age, we’ve seen countless developers try to tap into the same market. Most prevalently, Ubisoft’s "My Coach" series. They have been pumping them out since late 2007, and have now released no fewer than a dozen titles in as many months. Covering everything from vocabulary to weight loss to dog care, Ubisoft provides us with just about everything we need to become balanced, cultured, healthy individuals in our everyday lives. Now that all the important knowledge is out of the way, Ubisoft can start teaching us about all the useless junk that’s left over, this time partnering with Powerhead games to bring us My Fun Facts Coach on the DS. Finally, our lives are complete.
Mama’s so talented. No more is she limited to the kitchen, sweetly suggesting you chop vegetables before she tans that behind. Now she’s free to rove in the gardens as well, pointing at the shrubbery and essaying commands. Of course, after this screenshot, we fully expect an English-Teaching Mama in the future. The sky’s the limit, Mama! So long as you stick to traditionally feminine roles, anyway.
505 Games just announced that they’ll have the latest in Mama’s franchise on shelves in Europe in the spring, to coincide with the release of that region’s Cooking Mama 2: World Kitchen for the Wii. Since World Kitchen is slated for November in the U.S., and no similar announcement has yet been made for Gardening Mama here, it doesn’t look like we’ll see the same dual release.
On the crowded Japanese train system the only thing you’ll see commuters obsessively staring at more than their super-advanced cell phones is the portable gaming system known as the Nintendo DS. Now a new device called the Health Control Game Timer has been released to help these gamers regulate their DS addiction. If you find that your play sessions have been going on too long, the device can be set to stop your game play after a certain amount of time.
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"Personal Trainer: Math" is a high-tech way to do a low-tech thing: Learn math facts with flashcards. 
It sounds like a good investment – £100 for a gadget which promises to boost your brain power and improve your mental agility. 
Ever since the self-improvement genre found its place on DS back in 2006 with Brain Age, we’ve seen countless developers try to tap into the same market. Most prevalently, Ubisoft’s "My Coach" series. They have been pumping them out since late 2007, and have now released no fewer than a dozen titles in as many months. Covering everything from vocabulary to weight loss to dog care, Ubisoft provides us with just about everything we need to become balanced, cultured, healthy individuals in our everyday lives. Now that all the important knowledge is out of the way, Ubisoft can start teaching us about all the useless junk that’s left over, this time partnering with Powerhead games to bring us My Fun Facts Coach on the DS. Finally, our lives are complete. 
Mama’s so talented. No more is she limited to the kitchen, sweetly suggesting you chop vegetables before she tans that behind. Now she’s free to rove in the gardens as well, pointing at the shrubbery and essaying commands. Of course, after this screenshot, we fully expect an English-Teaching Mama in the future. The sky’s the limit, Mama! So long as you stick to traditionally feminine roles, anyway.
