DISQUS

VentureBeat: Google hacks the Wii Balance Board to surf Google Earth — literally

  • fred · 11 months ago
    Google hired Santa Claus?
  • Jeff · 11 months ago
    No you fool. It's Jerry Garcia
  • silicon valley dropout · 11 months ago
    i didnt know google had older folks like him in actual engineering position. i thought it was majority young 2o's kids with some 30's sprinkle in.
  • Matt A.* · 11 months ago
    Google is foolish. Its employees spend 20% of their time producing worthless un-monetizable products like this. Google took its 20% rule (most likely) from the book of 3M where employees are allowed to spend 15% of their work time on their own project. However Google forgot to include the critical component of the rule when implementing it in their own company: employees could spend their 15% time working on whatever they liked so long as it had some potential COMMERCIAL APPLICATION.
  • Miguel D. · 11 months ago
    I think that is a completely naive statement. How do you even know if something is applicable unless you explore new ideas. Plus new inventions often are used for something different then their original purpose.
  • jimmy · 11 months ago
    Clearly, we're all reading about this and thinking, "Cool, Google," which is at least,worth a few million in PR and advertising for brand recognition. If that isn't a commercial application, I don't know what is.
  • Fuimus · 11 months ago
    toché
  • Steven · 11 months ago
    Foolish.......like a fox.

    You're damn right. Tell them to give all that money back.
  • Mike · 11 months ago
    Google News came out of the 20% time projects just FYI. Of course it's going to be hit and miss with what people do with their time, but that's a pretty naive statement as Miguel said.
  • Rick Sorkin · 11 months ago
    yeah, you're right. if only that google could figure out how to monetize their creations....
  • Gus C. · 11 months ago
    owned lol obviously google has some pretty good heads on its one shoulder... I think you should try and see the bigger picture.
  • Jmb3d · 11 months ago
    For some reason I don't think Google has problems in the monetization area...their stock is over $300 per share and we are in a economic recession. When you make your own company and have millions of dollars that you don't know what to do with, be sure to use that money making monetizable products that aren't worthless.
  • LostOverThere · 11 months ago
    You know, Gmail was started as a 20% project thing. You know how much money they've made from that now?
  • hnb · 10 months ago
    you obviously know nothing about Google.
    their largest money machine - Adwords/adsense came from that 20% of "do whatever you want" time. And Eric Schmidt has confirmed that in many interviews. innovation comes when you let people thing freely without time constraints.
  • stagueve · 11 months ago
    German searchers have made it already since early 2008 (video demo on my blog: http://tinyurl.com/92qbo8).

    Thanxxx Google for "inspiring others to code their own programs using these open source methods"... :/
  • aaronbrethorst · 11 months ago
    Check out the Microsoft Coding4Fun blog: they've been doing this sort of thing and giving away the source code for a couple years, now.
  • Johnny Weirdo · 11 months ago
    HA! This is awesome. This is exactly the sort of thing I'm talking about. The possibilities with the balance board are endless. I just realize tonight that this is only the beginning of what Nintendo can do with this thing. Forget thumb games. I'm all about games I can play standing on this balance board.
  • phil · 11 months ago
    isnt there a weight limit on the balance board?
  • Robin Majumdar · 11 months ago
    The weight limit as per the instructions with the board is 150kg or 330 lbs.
  • Jamie Jones · 11 months ago
    Wow, now that is truly amazing!

    JT
    www.web-privacy.pro.tc
  • danblank000 · 11 months ago
    if you could do that on street view it would be like having a freaking hoverboard (Marty McFly stylee!)
  • Joe Charakupa · 11 months ago
    http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/05/28/german_...

    Been done WAAAAAY before. May 2008.
  • DYLX · 11 months ago
    1) Apparently, someone already did this.

    2) Who cares if someone already did it? its cool and "new" to most of us.

    3) To the 2nd or 3rd poster, you seriously think google can't make money off of an idea like this? People would buy that, are you smoking crack?
  • Wannabalanceonmywii · 11 months ago
    She's hot - I'd balance her on my WII board...

    yeah.... she's definitly hot... who care about the wii board..
  • Steven · 11 months ago
    Hmmmm, she's a five or six pinter in my estimation.
  • William · 11 months ago
    Remote Buddy will let you use your Wii remote on your Mac. Controls a huge number of applications and includes a pop-up keyboard like on the Wii!
    http://www.iospirit.com/index.php?mode=view&obj...
  • Dan · 11 months ago
    In case anyone is interested, we built an Virtual Reality version onCoding4Fun that uses a Wii Balance Board, Wiimote, and VR goggles to have you virtually fly through Microsoft Virtual Earth.

    The source code is here
    http://blogs.msdn.com/coding4fun/archive/2008/1...

    The video is here
    http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/Dan/Coding4Fun-w...
  • Tim · 11 months ago
    I fear google will become Skynet in 10 years. XD
  • Mohammed · 11 months ago
    umm, wasn't this done by a Japanese developer? Tokyo-Jogging.com?
  • Yuri Ammosov · 11 months ago
    Joe C. --

    Yep. Looks like outright plagiarism.
  • grammar nazi · 11 months ago
    NOT LITERALLY.
    If this was literal, we'd be navigating through the atlantic on our wii consoles.
  • Juan Acatlán · 11 months ago
    Meh...
  • WHAT? · 11 months ago
    WHAT? I CAN'T HEAR YOU!
  • wiis4less · 11 months ago
    Wow, very cool. I love the Wii Fit best thing on the Wii Console
  • Freddie · 11 months ago
    Sweet! That seems like it would be fun.

    To the conversation above talking about Google and 3M, how could you say google doesn't know how to monetize their creations. You have got to be kidding, right? I know that is a joke. Google makes the bacon, son! Get with it and realize what they are do ing.

    I predict that Google is going to buy Twitter.
  • Heroin · 11 months ago
    Wow, very cool. I love the Wii Fit best thing on the Wii Console.
  • danny · 11 months ago
    Google hired Santa Claus??
  • Gibi · 11 months ago
    Wow, very cool. I love the Wii Fit best thing on the Wii Console..
  • not the first · 10 months ago
    The are not the first to do this!!!!!!!!!!!!
  • recession · 9 months ago
    I am surprised at some of the comments, this is pretty awesome IMO