Wii UNintendo launched the Wii U, its new home games console, in North America on Sunday (Nov. 18). Netflix and Hulu Plus are now both available through the Wii U, and both take advantage of the GamePad tablet controller to offer a second screen experience.

Netflix

Netflix arrived on the Wii U on day one, with existing Netflix users able to access the app by signing in. Non-members are instead invited to sign up for a free trial.

The Netflix app on Wii U takes advantage of the GamePad, the tablet-style controller that is Nintendo’s big idea with this console. Information about whatever you’re watching shows up on both the television and the GamePad, while the latter acts as a remote control while content is being played on the TV.

By selecting the ‘Play on GamePad‘ option playback switches from the TV to the controller, which also supports 1080p video. In this way you can leave the room while continuing to watch whatever content was previously playing on the television.


Hulu Plus

It took a few extra days for Hulu Plus to launch on the Wii U, as the service was still being tested and fine-tuned until today.

As with Netflix, Hulu has utilized the second screen. While you’re scrolling and searching through the content on offer the GamePad will display extra information about the movies and television shows selected.

Switching from viewing on the TV to viewing on the GamePad is as simple as clicking the two screens in the bottom-right of the tablet’s display (as pictured above). Because this is the subscription-based Hulu Plus, Hulu is offering a free one-week trial for all non-members on the Wii U.

Conclusions

The current-gen games consoles have made a big impact on this market, allowing the mainstream public to access online television services in their living rooms. Nintendo lagged behind Sony and Microsoft in this sense, but the Wii U looks set to change that.

It’ll be interesting to see what the adoption rate for both Hulu Plus and Netflix is on the Wii U. And we have successors to the PS3 and Xbox 360, which will likely bring even more possibilities with them, to look forward to, probably in 2013.

Samsung Galaxy S IIIIt seems those snarky Samsung ads are working. According to data from Strategy Analytics,the Samsung Galaxy S III was the world’s hottest smartphone in the third quarter. The phone shipped 18 million units to the 16.2 million in shipments from Apple’s iPhone 4S.
 

Neil Shah, a senior Analyst at Strategy Analytics, said in a statement that it’s the first time that the Galaxy S III has taken the top spot in the market ,with 11 percent share overall.

The party, however, may be short-lived. The iPhone 5 has yet to hit its stride, and its impending release dampened enthusiasm for the iPhone 4S. And even though the device launched late in the quarter on Sept. 12, Strategy Analytics still has it as the third-most popular model of smartphone in the world with six million shipped.

The competition between Samsung and Apple is fierce, but the companies’ legal grapples have raised the Galaxy line’s profile considerably. The company recently announced that even its Galaxy Note II — a 5.5-inch device that serves a very particular niche of smartphone consumers — sold 3 million units in a little over a month.

Apple recently filed further infringement claims against Samsung, targeting the Galaxy Note 10.1 tablet and the operating system that powers it — Google’s latest build of Android, version 4.1 or Jelly Bean. As VentureBeat reported the trial addressing those complaints is set for 2014.

The Korean company announced in October that it had sold 56.3 million smartphones and solidifying its position as the largest handset maker in the world. Apple, meanwhile, sold 26.9 million iPhones in the same period of time, including 5 million iPhone 5 units in the first weekend.

Apple has, however, had some trouble meeting demand for its latest smartphone.The AFP reported that Foxconn chairman Terry Gou told reporters this week that the major Apple supplier is having problems meeting demand in part because the newest iPhone’s case is difficult to produce. Apple chief executive Tim Cook said in an October conference call that while he’s not sure when supply will balance with demand, he believes Apple is in good shape for the December quarter.