We've got a long road ahead of us. The current gen consoles are finding their footing, stumbling or starting to hit their stride. It's too early to declare clear cut winners, but not too early to forecast the future. Popular Science has a feature called "PPX" (PopSci Predictions Exchange) in which the publication sets forth predictions and lets readers bet on them with fake money for bragging rights. PopSci's predictions are:

• Virgin Galactic will not suffer a passenger fatality in its first year of business.
• 
  
• A human will break the world record for skydiving by the end of 2009.
• 
  
• Gas prices in the U.S. will smash records this year.
• 
  
• NASA will finish building the International Space Station by 2010.
• 
  
• The PLAYSTATION 3 will outsell both the Xbox 360 and the Nintendo Wii by the end of 2009.

Popular Science Predicts [Game Grope Thanks, Anon!]

Popular Science does what they do best in their latest How it Works, tearing apart the Wii and its controller to show you the guts and explain them.

The piece includes some nifty animated images, a gallery of a Wii torn-down, and a quick explainer on the physics of the Wii remote's accelerometer technology.

How it Works [Popular Science, thanks Camron]

OMG that's a long interview, eight pages to be specific.

Robert Howarth points out that Popular Science has the mother of all interviews up with Spore creator Will Wright. In it Wright talks about many things, but I'll trust Howarth that this was the most interesting thing:

How do you think the audience for Spore may be different from your other games? I think we're probably going to be capturing some more hardcore gamers, just because of the scope of the game and the unusual nature of it. I'm looking hopefully at a big overlap with The Sims players, though - I want to make sure the game is not too hard or complex for the average Sims player. But if you look at Sims 2, it's actually a very complex game, and it surprised me how easily players migrated from Sims 1 to Sims 2. And if anything, the interface and controls of Spore should be much simpler and more streamlined than Sims 2. Next is, will the theme of content and worlds and space and science be appealing, and I think primarily the creatures are our hook there. If you can make weird, cool goofy creatures that show emotion and have societies and do dances and stuff, I think if you look at the graphics for Neopets and Pokemon -Neopets especially is actually quite gender balanced. So I think really we're looking at those two groups as probably the first core groups, half Sims players, half hardcore competitive gamers looking for something novel, and maybe a third, people coming from totally outside. I've had a lot of people, when I've demoed Spore coming up and saying "I've never played a game before, but I want to play this one." And I think those people are attracted by the empowerment of the tools, they would really like the experience of creating a Pixar character and having it come to life.

Sheesh, even that one answer was long. Brian Crecente

Spore in Popular Science [Voodoo Extreme]

The Wii continues to gather praise and accolade as we move ever closer to launch day. First Time Magazine's Gadget of the Year Poll, and now Popular Science, who have given the Wii a Grand Award in their Best of What's New 2006 feature. The article gives kudos to Nintendo for choosing innovation over horsepower.

Nintendo's processor is 75 percent slower than an Xbox 360's. The company decided that gamers didn't need to pay extra for photo-realistic renderings of its iconic talking mushrooms. Instead it reimagined the controller, introducing a three-axis accelerometer that transforms your hand motions into in-game action, so you really play the games.

The Wii beat out various televisions, sound systems, and ironically enough, a Blu-ray player. A taste of things to come? Michael Fahey

Popular Science honours Wii [GameSpot]

The mag named Sony's PSP the Gadget of the Year and praised Microsoft's Xbox 360 for its place in home entertainment. I don't know that Popular Science had too many choices for Home Entertainment, so the not-yet-available Xbox 360 is a fine choice (I suppose). The choice of Sony's PSP is a bit troubling considering the Nintendo DS's software vastly outclasses the PSP's still-anemic library. It seems like the PSP was awarded because of what it could someday be, not for what it is currently.