@Obsidian: That's not the difference between Megabits and Megabytes. Megabytes are 8 Megabits, so if the flash on the wii was really 512mbit, it would be only 64MB, not 486MB.
The 486MB vs 512MB is due to formatting and possibly due to system reserved space.
Now that we've thrown 'em off the trail, use the form below to get in touch with the people at Engadget. Please fill in all of the required fields because they're required.
@Obsidian: That's not the difference between Megabits and Megabytes. Megabytes are 8 Megabits, so if the flash on the wii was really 512mbit, it would be only 64MB, not 486MB.
The 486MB vs 512MB is due to formatting and possibly due to system reserved space.