Nintendo has a Wii problem

The maker of the new Wii video game consoles said Thursday it is investigating reports of problems with a strap that secures the machines’ wandlike remote-controller to the player’s wrist.

Players hold the Wii’s signature remote to mimic the motions of a tennis racket, golf club or sword, depending on the game.

At least two Web sites have been set up to collect photos that purportedly show damage — such as broken glass and TVs — resulting from the strap coming off players as they swung around the controller, at times causing the remote to fly out of their hands.

“Some people are getting a lot more excited than we’d expected,” Nintendo Co. President Satoru Iwata said. “We need to better communicate to people how to deal with Wii as a new form of entertainment.”

The company has not decided on any specific measures to change the strap, Nintendo spokesman Yasuhiro Minagawa said.

•A data format used in Microsoft Corp.’s prevalent Office software line has been approved as an international standard — a move aimed at preserving access to documents created with the package for years to come.

Companies and governments had expressed concern that documents created with Microsoft’s proprietary technology might be impossible to read at some point in the future if Microsoft shifted to a format incompatible with current versions.

The groundswell threatened to hurt demand for Microsoft’s highly profitable Office products, which include such programs as Word and Excel.

So last year, Microsoft proposed making its “Open XML” format — which is the default format in its newly released Office 2007 line of software — an international standard that could be licensed for free.

•Appliance maker Whirlpool Corp. plans to sell its iconic Hoover vacuum business, acquired in its recent purchase of Maytag, to a Hong Kong-based home improvement and construction tools supplier for $107 million.

The chairman and CEO of the buyer, Techtronic Industries Co. Ltd., called Hoover “one of the most recognized brands in the world” and a welcome addition to its floor-care portfolio that includes Dirt Devil, Regina and Royal.

The companies said in announcing the deal on Thursday that it could close as early as the first quarter of next year following regulatory clearance.

Whirlpool acquired Hoover when it bought its former parent, Maytag Corp., in March for $1.8 billion. It also assumed about $800 million in Maytag debt in the deal.