The Wii's Weather Channel went up a few days ago, and now the trial version of the Opera browser is available. Yes, this is just a "demo" that can be downloaded for free until March and will remain free until June. Then it'll cost you 500 Wii points ($5) to keep it, so the story goes. Hopefully by then, the full version will have worked out some of the kinks currently present.
The novelty of surfing the web on your TV (via Wii) is nice but doesn't replace the practicality of using a computer. Website addresses and form fields are filled in by pointing and clicking on letters of an on-screen keyboard. It works but is not nearly as efficient as having a tangible keyboard. Plus, scrolling is handled by holding the B button while dragging the cursor to the side of the screen. It would make more sense to use the D-pad the same way you use it to scroll through messages in your Wii inbox. The default resolution also creates some incredibly hard-to-read font sizes. You can zoom in on where your pointer is by pressing the + button. Unfortunately, there is only one degree of zoom, and it's a little too close.
I'm sure everyone who has already downloaded this instantly went to Youtube to see if it works. And it does. But many of the older videos won't load, instead showing you a message that you need to download the latest version of the Flash Player. Homestar Runner, on the other hand, loads without any problems, so if you've always wanted to watch Strong Bad on the big screen, now's your chance. Even more promising is that you can play Flash games which only use the mouse. Wiicade.com is already taking advantage of this, housing several mouse-only games which work great with the Wii remote.
The Opera browser is not perfect--I will probably rarely use it, to be honest--but it's a cool addition to the Wii interface. If Nintendo can clean up the presentation by the time June comes around, then it'll definitely be worth the measly $5 price of admission. It may even be worth it regardless.
The novelty of surfing the web on your TV (via Wii) is nice but doesn't replace the practicality of using a computer. Website addresses and form fields are filled in by pointing and clicking on letters of an on-screen keyboard. It works but is not nearly as efficient as having a tangible keyboard. Plus, scrolling is handled by holding the B button while dragging the cursor to the side of the screen. It would make more sense to use the D-pad the same way you use it to scroll through messages in your Wii inbox. The default resolution also creates some incredibly hard-to-read font sizes. You can zoom in on where your pointer is by pressing the + button. Unfortunately, there is only one degree of zoom, and it's a little too close.
I'm sure everyone who has already downloaded this instantly went to Youtube to see if it works. And it does. But many of the older videos won't load, instead showing you a message that you need to download the latest version of the Flash Player. Homestar Runner, on the other hand, loads without any problems, so if you've always wanted to watch Strong Bad on the big screen, now's your chance. Even more promising is that you can play Flash games which only use the mouse. Wiicade.com is already taking advantage of this, housing several mouse-only games which work great with the Wii remote.
The Opera browser is not perfect--I will probably rarely use it, to be honest--but it's a cool addition to the Wii interface. If Nintendo can clean up the presentation by the time June comes around, then it'll definitely be worth the measly $5 price of admission. It may even be worth it regardless.
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