Version 2.0 - as revealed to GameReactor - will feature a new button layout for the virtual navigation bar and will be Wii Speak compatible. Users will be able to use a built-in mail client to access their Wii Mail. Tabbed browsing will be supported by a floating 'tab cube' that will show thumbnails of up to 6 open tabs.

The browser should be available for 500 Wii Points, but existing owners should be able to get a free upgrade once the app is released in December.

Wii - Opera Browser 2.0 - details [GoNintendo]

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

The DS Browser hit stores a couple of weeks back with nary a splash. I think having experienced web browsing on the fly (PSP and my cell phone) and on consoles (PS3 and Wii), I'm pretty much over the geewiz factor. If you still haven't had your fill and are considering picking up the cart, here's a video showing off the browsing in all of it's vanilla glory. Brian Crecente

Operatic pop singer Sarah Brightman will be belting out the theme to Poket Monster Diamond & Pearl the Movie: Dialga vs. Palkia vs. Darkrai. Brightman is best known as Christine in Phantom of the Opera — The role was tailored especially for her by her ex-husband Andrew Lloyd Webber. The ballad, Be With You: Itsumo Soba ni (Always By Your Side), was recorded for her next album, and the single will be out in Japan on July 11th. This is the ninth installment in the Pokémon feature film series, and the previous movies have raked in over 38 million attendees and taken US $347 million at the box office. Long title or not, expect Poket Monster Diamond & Pearl the Movie: Dialga vs. Palkia vs. Darkrai to make lots and lots of money. Brian Ashcraft

Sarah Brightman Sings Pokemon [AnimeNewsNetwork]

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

A developer from the Opera Desktop Team has announced that they have a "ppc-linux.6" package available now for the Playstation 3. This means for any of you who had the cojones to pry that thing open and install Linux on to your Playstation can tinker around with the coveted Opera Browser. Kim Phu

Approaching 9.2 [Opera desktop Team]

In light of today's news that the Wii Browser by Opera has been pushed back to next month, Nintendo has released a statement explaining the upgrades that will be coming with the Wii tool.

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"

More details about these and other functions will be announced in the near future. To ensure that the browser incorporates all of these enhancements, the final version will be available for download in April, a few weeks later than previously announced. The browser will remain free for Wii owners to download through the end of June. After June, users who haven't already downloaded the Opera browser can go to the Wii Shop Channel to download it for 500 Wii Points.

Good news I suppose, but I'm still not going to be using my Wii for web browsing. Brian Crecente

Internet Channel Intro Video

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

Opera Software just confirmed that a Nintendo DS Browser powered by their software will be released to North America on June 4.

The haven't confirmed the price yet, but the same browser hit Europe late last year for Euro 39.99. Am I the only one who thinks they should call the thing the Nintendo Bowser? Brian Crecente

Sony is sponsoring a production of Puccini's La Boheme at the London Coliseum and somehow managed to convince the hall to let them set up the console in the foyer for play testing. Classy!

"We don't want the PS3 to be pigeon-holed as a video game console," Carl Christopher from Sony PlayStation UK, told The Times. "We want people to look at PlayStation as a brand in a different way."

Someone, please, go to this opera a get a picture of women in evening gowns playing Resistance: Fall of Man. I must see this picture. Brian Crecente

Playstation 3 goes to the Opera [Hexus]

What's the final version the Opera browser for the Wii like? Don't ask Opera reps, they don't know reports Wired's Chris Kohler. Of course, they'd love to add things like widget support and tabbed browsing, but it's not exactly Opera's decision to make. It's Nintendo's. And why isn't the Opera browser for the DS out in America? Once again, that's up to Nintendo. So, the point of involving Opera was what again? Brian Ashcraft

Wii Opera Browser Issues [Game|Life]

Kotakuite and mad computer genius LiquidIce has created his house of the future, sans Pierce Brosnan, with the help of the Wii's Opera Browser and a little web hack that he created. He can control the lights, thermostat, security camera, music playback, cable DVR, and other parts of his house through a self created flash interface that he can actually access through any device that connects to the internet. Check out the video below for a demonstration, but if you want a more detailed explanation, check out LiquidIce's website.

Now if he can just add that area for the mother-in-law and Pierce Brosnan's voice it'll be perfect. Flynn De Marco

Nintendo Wii Controlled Smarthome

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]

Get your free Wii web browser while you can. Opera has announced that its browser will be available globally for a limited time. The Wii's version of Opera will support Flash, AJAX content and everything else on their current free version of Opera 9 for desktops. Download the free Wii Opera by June 2007. After that, you're shit outta luck and must pay. Brian Ashcraft

More Here [1Up]

A touching tribute to a dying 360 backed by Madame Butterfly's Un Bel Di Vedremo. A tear trickles down our collective cheek even as Puccini sits bolt upright in his grave, hits his desiccated skull against the coffin lid, then dies again when his head explodes in a cloud of cockroaches and dust. Florian Eckhardt

Nintendo has launched its official site for the Wii console. As of right now, only the Japanese version is functional. There are clips of the different "Wii Channels". There's the "Nigaoe Channel" ("Cariacture Channel") in which players can create in-Wii versions of themselves, friends and family. There's also the "New Channel," which has, well, news. And likewise, there's a "Weather Channel" with national and international forecasts. There are two more clips that Nintendo has yet to reveal, but up closer look at the "Wii Menu" clip, it's easy to see that there is a "Photo Channel" and an Opera-based "Internet Channel" as well. Brian Ashcraft

Update: Hit the jump for embedded versions of the clips.

More Here [Wii.com]

More Here [DD]

Opera DS has been out long enough that the initial enthusiasm has worn off and we're starting to get some rather blunt appraisals of what it's like to actually use:

The verdict? Surfing on DS is just as lousy as it is on PSP.

Ouch! But at least it can do porn. Of course, not well...

it's hard to imagine anyone over the age of twelve being titillated by naked girls who appear to have been chopped in half by a magician's trick gone horribly wrong. But then, it's also difficult to imagine anyone with access to a real computer wanting to surf the web through a slow, clumsy handheld system that takes painful liberties with page rendering and lacks support for half of the Internet's current standards. But hey, at least there are no pop-ups.

The smut test really sums up the DS Opera experience in a nutshell: why even bother? Sony's the only one who should really care, frankly. Furtively browsing porn on a tiny screen in public has been one of PSP's few unique offerings for this console cold war, and Nintendo has just closed the Booby Gap.

If a web browser can't even do porn correctly, then I'm afraid it merely ranks a 7 on my IGN style ratings scale of 8-10. Florian Eckhardt

A Night at the Opera [1UP]

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