Nintendo’s dual-screened handheld is set to become the best selling games console of all time by the end of this year, according to industry analysts.

Word of the prediction from the analysts at NPD comes via 1UP, which reports that, in the US at least, sales of the DS are such that the install base of the Nintendo handheld will pass out those of Sony’s PlayStation 2, which remains the most popular console of all time. Indeed, given the near ubiquity of the DS, it’s almost surprising that it hasn’t already managed to grab the title, but that much has been accounted for in the past by the fact that the DS had something of a slow start.

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Robot junkies that we are here, the unveiling of a new android that has a flexible skeletal structure that may make it light enough to one day work in our homes, and indeed which can be moved via a PS2 controller, was always going to grab our attention.

There are some drawbacks to using the skeletal system that Kojiro utilises.

Already looking impressively like a mixture between a Disney-esque friendly robot and Woody Allen in Sleeper, researchers at Tokyo University’s JSK Robotics Laboratory are understandably proud of the project they’ve called Kojiro.

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As had been heavily rumoured earlier in the month, Sony has announced that it plans to release a slimmed down version of its PlayStation 3 to Europe in November of this year, likely to see a confluence of release hype and Christmas-time sales. The new release will also see the price of the PlayStation 3 drop to €300.

Sony unveiled the new, slimmed down, PlayStation 3 at an event for games press that precedes Cologne’s Games Com 2009. Sony’s Kaz Hirai, head of all things PlayStation, had some choice words on the new PlayStation 3, saying that, in comparison with the older PS3, “It has the same features and functionality, but now it is 32% smaller, 36% lighter and consumes 34% less power.” While that’s good news for the environmentally conscious (and anyone who moves their PS3 around a lot) it doesn’t ring entirely true.

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Sony has a long history of releasing slimmed down versions of its games consoles in or around halfway through their life cycles. This was true of the PlayStation, PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable and it’s looking increasingly like it might be the case with the PlayStation 3.

This is one of the box-shots that's doing the rounds lately.

While rumours have abounded for the past few months that we’d be seeing a slimmed down PS3 sooner rather than later, Ars Technica has posted one of the most impressive confluences of rumours, snapshots and industry projections we’ve ever seen… and it all points to a slimmed down PS3 in the not-too-distant future.

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