the update was there within hours of launch

Then it was not that update because my GPU friend sometime between March and November 2007. I know this because I had my PS3 for a few months before the Wii GPU would barely display anything and my Wii was still under warranty. I bought the Wii on Black Friday 2006.

Had you connected your Wii online so it could actually get the update?

I didn't actually know about any SW update, I thought it had been a hardware problem, then again I had no experience if it as it was definately limited to launch window consoles (like December and earlier) and I bought mine in February 2007.

Whatever the failure rate of those early models though, the Wii is still easily the most reliable of the current three (of course Nintendo chose to advance chips in terms of size and power consumption rather than cutting edge graphical specs, and the Wii doesn't have a HDD... Less power means less heat, add that to fewer moving parts and it should have the lowest failure rate) It's probably more reliable than the original Xbox too, despite the difference in mass production numbers.

As mentioned earlier though, the GameCube is king of disc based reliability. as far as I know the only common problem it had was that after a few years, if it had some extended play periods under it's belt the lens over the laser could warp and cause the occasional disc-read error. I got a couple of DRE's late in my GC's life (2006... bought in 2002).

people always seem to forget PS2 for errors, I reckon for the PS2s bought between launch and it's 2nd Christmas (or thereabouts) the failure rate is probably close to the X360s of the same period from launch. Although admitedly those PS2s have had an additional 5 years to fail in, and come 5 years from now a working (non-repaired) launch X360 will be an incredibly rare thing.

While it doesn't exceed the record of 30% of failure... that's not a big deal.

My Wii was connected to my WiFi from the day I first got it, hence the reason I used WiiConnect24.

As for your second sentence, maybe it was fixed in a hardware upgrade, I have no idea. 

As for the rest of your post, I absolutely agree with you.

Um.. was that faked? The Gamecube startup screen was different from that. The symbol didn't fade in like that when you turned the system on. It started getting formed by an unfolding cube.

Unless spanish Gamecubes were different from USA ones...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctYQ08gxkqA

Err... the unfolding cube is exactly what I saw in the first video (little cube drops in from the top and traces out the 3D 'G' of the GameCube symbol)... which bit did you see something different?

As for your video: HOLY CRAP! I didn't know it did different sounds if you hold Z. I wonder if it works on the Wii GC mode.

EDIT: wait I watched it again, I presume you mean the last one, if you notice the cube starts turning transparent and spinning around, which is what it does if you start up without a game in it (or if you hold start [or is it A] when turning on, but in that case it skips the unfolding cube bit) As such either they didn't turn the TV on fast enough, or there was some kind of issue which meant the GC was at least damaged and decided to go to the setup screen itself.

Why instead of making a youtube video and try to badmouth the Vita the guy didnt simply exzchanged his faulty handheld for a new working one? If this problem is happening to something like 30% f the Vitas them itd be an issue (or not as theres a certain box that used to red ring like mad when it launched it aparently that was ok) but if its someting like 1-5% tham its prety much expected.

It's more fun this way.

You do realize it is the biggest anti Sony troll that blows things outta proportion here right? It's Nsanity! Nothing to see here. I didn't see Nsanity post on the RROD problems M$ had with both Jasper and Falcon chips. Your fanboyism and anti-Sony tirade is getting a bit old. Get a fu...ing life and for once stop being such a f.....ing fanboy.