Kotaku: internet channel

BBC iPlayer Now Wii Ready

Mike Fahey — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 08:20:00 MDT

Doctor Who is coming to the Wii...sort of! The BBC has announced that their iPlayer replay service will now be functional on the Nintendo Wii. The service, made available last month on the iPod Touch and iPhone, presents time-limited replays of BBC shows, such as Doctor Who, Torchwood, and whatever else they have worth watching. Wii owners in the UK will be able to browse to the page and grab their favorite shows.

"This exciting alliance with the BBC is yet another way in which Nintendo is looking to broaden the market for its products by offering compelling and relevant content to families," added David Yarnton, general manager of Nintendo UK.

Right now the iPlayer requires the Wii Internet Channel to function, but the BBC is looking into making it a standalone free feature in the future.

Wii gets BBC iPlayer [GamesIndustry.biz]

Internet Channel Free Period Ending Soon

Michael McWhertor — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 18:40:15 MDT

Nintendo just sent us a reminder (read: warning) that the Internet Channel for Wii will be a pay-to-surf affair in just a little over ten days. If you've been snoozing on your download of the Opera-powered browser, make sure you don't forget. In fact, do it right now. We'll wait.

For the rest of you who are already Internet Channel enabled, do you find yourself using it? The extent of my personal use has been solely for initial testing purposes, but I also have three other internet ready devices within a ten foot radius.

The regular price for the Internet Channel will go up to 500 Wii Points after June 30. Michael McWhertor

Google Releases Reader For Wii

Michael McWhertor — Tue, 08 May 2007 16:40:43 MDT

Google has released a customized view of their RSS feed reader, which the marketing guys agreed to dub Google Reader, for the Nintendo Wii. Using the Wii Internet Channel browser, a custom version of Opera, Google has provided console internet surfers who have a taste for breaking news with TV screen readability and Wii remote specific controls.

It's not bad. RSS readers aren't the sexiest of services, but they're indispensable for internerds like us. I messed around with it for a few minutes before writing this up but highly doubt I'll ever touch it again—not unlike the Wii browser and the Virtual Console. Michael McWhertor

Google launches Google Reader for the Wii [ZD.net]

Final Internet Channel For Wii Now Live

Michael McWhertor — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 20:40:10 MDT

Wii owners will be presented with a new System Update today, as the final version of the Internet Channel, powered by the Opera browser has gone live. After a quick update, you'll have the option to download the free browser via the Wii Ware section of the Shop Channel.

The update was a 285 block download for me and I'm messing around with it right now. The final version of the Wii browser will be free until June 2007 at which point the download will cost 500 points.

New changes to the browser include, but are not limited to:

Parental Controls

Improved zooming and scrolling

An improved zoomed font

Shortened startup times

Quicker access to "favorites"

An ability to hide the toolbar

Buttons that will instantly type common preset letters, such as "www" or ".com"

Built-in Yahoo! or Google Search

Everything seems to be in order, but I've encountered one hiccup with the browser, as it locked up my Wii, forcing me to power down. Let us know what you think! Michael McWhertor

Final Wii Internet Channel Delayed

Brian Crecente — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 09:00:44 MDT

The final version of the Wii Internet Channel has been pushed back to sometime in April, according to the people at Opera.

The final version of the Opera-powered Internet Channel for the Wii was slated for a release late this month, but Opera officials said today they are still working on the final version and it will be out sometime next month.

Opera and Nintendo are continuing to finalize what promises to be the ultimate Web surfing experience on the Wii console. The two companies are working closely together to meet user requests for browser features and to enhance the overall Wii Web experience.

The DS version of the web browser will be hitting North America in June. Brian Crecente

Wii.com Demos The Internet Channel

kotaku.com — Fri, 29 Sep 2006 09:40:40 MDT

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]