So, the Nintendo 512 has a name, then: Wii U. Of course, you know this... you probably watched the live-stream from Nintendo's E3 site. If not, however, here's the fact of the matter.
Nintendo spearheaded the foray into the Eighth Generation with the release of 3DS in March. They plan to follow suit with the home console in Q2 2012 with Wii U. Appearance-wise, the console's primary controller unit is very similar to the current Wii accessory, uDraw. Michael Okuda of Star Trek: The Next Generation graphic design fame is probably wondering why so many developers nowadays are stealing his ideas... his most valuable contribution to 21st-century electronics being the PADD. First introduced on The Next Generation in 1987, the personal access display device has been made real by all kinds of different people now: Apple, Samsung, Motorola, Microsoft (computer-wise), and now Nintendo! Of course, the less copyright infringe-y name for the PADD clone is "tablet".
Now, you think "tablet", you think iPad -- a mobile device. Wii U is not that. You can't load up a Wii game and take it with you. Wii U will be primarily advertised as a tablet, but that part of it is just the controller. The Eighth-Generation Wii Remote, if you like. The console, itself, is similar in appearance to the current Wii console and is compatible with existing Wii games. Of course, to simply make a Wii clone with a tablet controller would be foolhardy. Wii U's other major selling-points are high-definition display capability and, vis-a-vis the tablet controller, the player's ability to continue playing their game on the tablet when someone else demands usage of the television set for their own ends. So, if you've got Bowser on the ropes, but your annoying family insist on switching to the Blu-Ray player for "family movie time", you can switch over to the tablet controller and pretend as though they don't exist for the next X0 minutes.
I suppose there were people who may have been disappointed at this revelation, that the new Nintendo was another Wii. Certainly, I thought they were going to make something completely different... something reminiscent of the uber-geekly Nintendo 64. A better first-person shooter console, I dare you to show me. Even three generations obsolete, the N64 is still more of an FPS and platformer console than PlayStation and Xbox will ever be. Especially now that Microsoft, in their infinite wisdom, have sacked the majority of the original Rare staff and relegated it to making campy stuff for the prancey Kinect. How the mighty have fallen, eh? But, I digress.
Needless to say, u83r633k2 know that Nintendo, in any form, is bound to exceed everyone's expectations.
