Opera on the DS always looked almost completely unusable to me, so I was a bit skeptical about the announcement that Opera would be the browser of choice for the Wii.

Amazingly, though, this video of the Wii's internet channel looks just amazingly slick and easy to use. The zooming function is butter smooth; I love the way the cursor automatically leaps between links. Flash works extremely well. It all looks great.

But does anyone notice something missing from this video? No, not how the Wii handles porn. Like, how text entry will work? I assume it'll be done by soft keyboard, but I think almost everyone knows that will be pretty nightmarish. And letter recognition is similarly problematic.

I assume that's the worst part of using the Wii to browse on the internet, and it bodes ill that Nintendo's trying to hide it in their video. Florian Eckhardt

Wii.com Internet Channel Video [Official Site]

Our good pal Josh Zimmerman decided to follow-up his first, already-pretty-dang comprehensive video review of the DS Opera browser with a second, even-more-dang-comprehensive one.

His full review can be found here at his homepage, including everyone's favorite... words! Florian Eckhardt

Nintendo DS Browser Review [Josh Zimmernan]
Previously: Opera DS Can't Render Kotaku, Otherwise Okay

The irony, of course, is that if you're using the DS Opera Browser to surf Kotaku right now, you can't actually see the excellent YouTube video review Josh Z. sent us of his Japanese import version.

Wait until about the five minute mark to see how Kotaku displays on Opera DS. In short? It goes into full freak out mode trying to render us. Our images overlap the sidebar, which means you have to turn them off and actually read us. Here's a word of advice: don't even try. The pictures are there for a reason: to distract you from the abortive quality of our prose.

Overall, this doesn't really change my opinion of the DS Opera browser, which is that it's about as usable as a completely unusable product can be. Although those rendering load times are brutal. Still, for some of our critics, 'Can't render Kotaku' really ought to be a bullet point on the box. Florian Eckhardt

A demonstration of Opera DS. It looks obnoxious and unusable to me. That sounds like a critique, but really, it's just an observation of the limitations. Opera looks like they've made the experience of browsing on a Post-It sized screen as palatable as possible, but this would still become a browser of last resort for the likes of me. Florian Eckhardt

Opera DS, by all accounts, looks remarkably usable. But there's got to be trade offs in any portable browsing solution like this: PocketPCs haven't mastered portable web browsing yet, so we can hardly expect full usability from Opera DS. So what, exactly, can't we expect?

The browser won't be capable of displaying Flash and PDF, nor will it support video and sound. While you can save bookmarks to your favorite pages, you cannot save images or other elements of pages.

No one's going to miss PDFs, but not being able to watch YouTube vids is a bit of a blow. And no sound? How will you enjoy those delightfully braying YTMND sites now?

Actually, outside of YouTube, no flash, no sound and no PDFs sound pretty much like the abstinences of my dream browser: the one that stops the internet from causing my fillings from spontaneously and bloodily ejecting. Florian Eckhardt

DS Browser Sited [IGN]

Before I got the magic beams of WiFi invisibly oscillating through the air of my apartment, I couldn't have cared less about Opera for the DS. But now that my router is irradiating me with ominous WiFi beams (of which the full horrible knowledge of my future offspring's WiFi-related deformities I still remain blessedly unaware) I can't wait to give it a go. My mind constantly cogitates around a single question: How little can web browsing on the DS suck?

According to one of Opera's own IT guys, it sounds like the answer to that question might be "very little." Jon of Opera IT has posted a review of the Opera DS prototype. The Dual Screen mode (in which a smaller version of the full web page is displayed on the top screen, where as the bottom is a zoomed-in, draggable rectangle) continues to sound like an excellent usability compromise. But no handwriting recognition? Boo, Opera. Boo. Florian Eckhardt

Opera on Nintendo DS: Hands on Review [Orgs Tech Times]

On PSP is a cool little site that allows you to save your list of favorites under self-created categories for easy browsing on your PSP.

While you can do this on your PSP's browser already, it's nice to see them featured on a single page. The site also has suggested PSP-friendly pages and a news feed. The only thing I wish they would add is the ability to save sign-on info, because using the PSP keyboard is such a tremendous pain in the ass.

On PSP [Official Site]