News Channel goes live early
by David Hinkle 
{ Jan 26th 2007 at 11:15AM }
If you've booted up the Wii today, you might have noticed an update that unlocks the News Channel arrived a little early. Earlier we reported that this was to occur on Saturday, January 27th (tomorrow), so news of an early release should place a feather in the cap of those waiting on it to become available. News available comes via The Associated Press, covering the categories of National News, International News, Sports, Arts/Entertainment, Business, Science/Health and Technology.
[Thanks Dave!]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Zan @ Jan 26th 2007 12:07PM
I'm updating right now! I'm glad all the originally channels are now out (except the full version Opear Browser) and I hope to see many cool new channels in the future.
Ross @ Jan 26th 2007 12:23PM
It's a little buggy, at least on the slide show.
Had a news story from Duluth, GA on the map in MN and a NY story in Syracuse shown in Italy.
sportsracer-5 @ Jan 26th 2007 12:36PM
Aw man, I'm at work and can't try it out until tonight. Bummer!
Zoob @ Jan 26th 2007 1:00PM
I actually just turned my head to the right and noticed that my Wii is glowing blue. It looks so pretty.
I don't know when I'll get around to downloading it, though, as I'm going to be away from my Wii starting one hour from now all the way till Sunday night
Nutman @ Jan 26th 2007 1:22PM
Kinda cool. Although like the internet channel not really useful.
NotAwesome @ Jan 26th 2007 2:11PM
YouTube is still processing the video, so it's not appearing just yet, but I managed to grab some footage of the News channel this morning:
http://notawesome.wordpress.com/2007/01/26/wii-news-channel-launches-a-day-early/
Glennzilla @ Jan 26th 2007 1:52PM
Pretty slick UI... Can't wait for them to add streaming video...
James @ Jan 26th 2007 2:44PM
Well, I would contend (to #5) that the Internet Channel is much more useful than the News Channel -- people can program Wii-tailored Flash games that are worth playing, at least in theory; I also like having an extra place to check my mail if my wife is using the computer. The News Channel is more like the Weather Channel, though IMHO even less useful -- at least the Weather Channel can give you reasonably recent temperature right from your main Channels interface; News is pure gimmick, giving me a neat toy (the globe) on top of something I could have already gotten by launching the Internet Channel and pointing it to CNN...
Jackson Pritt @ Jan 26th 2007 7:26PM
What's with all the hate for the News Channel?
Sure, it's the same content you could get on CNN.com, but it's FORMATTED FOR VIEWING ON THE Wii. Sure, CNN/MSNBC/FOX/Whatever have news on them, but the News Channel brings you all the major AP news stories in a format that you can view easily on your TV.
For me the News & Weather channels are GREAT. My Wii starts up four or five times faster than my computer, and my Wii is set up in my bedroom so I can check the headlines and weather without even having to get out of bed. Sure, I don't NEED it, but it's nice to have.
Gumper @ Jan 26th 2007 10:03PM
Has anyone else noticed that when the Wii is downloading updates that there TV is being magnetized? This only seems to happen when on the internet channel or when downloading updates, so I assume it is the WIFI connection that is destroying my poor RCA. I am gonna have to put some distance between it and the Wii.
Gumper3 @ Jan 26th 2007 10:04PM
Also the new comments service rocks!
Ken @ Jan 27th 2007 2:16AM
I think the Internet channel is amazing. I have a bunch of friends that come over for what's called "game night". And we pull up youtube and watch funny videos (especially the Angry Nintendo Nerd... if you've not watched them, please do.)
So I enjoy the Internet channel. I don't think it's useless at all.
The news channel is pretty cool... You can put it on slide show, and if an article comes up you like, you just press A and read it.
I like the weather channel too, it's pretty neat. People who don't play video games enjoy flying around the globe. I don't know why.
So in conclusion... Keep up the good work Nintendo.
Zachary Hinchliffe @ Jan 27th 2007 9:54AM
My only beef with the news channel is there's no RSS feed reader. They need to put that in.
Phil @ Jan 28th 2007 10:53AM
Here's to that #13, I really don't give a monkeys about general world news- it's the usual typical dull death, murder, disaster, idiot politician doing something idiotic, or idiot civilian doing something idiotic rambling that I make no effort whatsoever to keep up with.
Now, if the news channel allowed me to add Slashdot, Wii Fanboy, Xbox360 Fanboy, PS3 Fanboy, Think Secret, etc, etc then I would probably use it for reading said feeds on my TV... can't have RSS feeds on enough devices, IMO, I already keep up with them on my phone.
As for the other channels, the weather channel is gimmicky but kind-of interesting to play with for the first 5 minutes. The Internet channel demonstrates some pretty dire UI design, why Opera manage to deploy their fairly good desktop browser so poorly onto so many other devices completely eludes me. Besides, it's a LOT quicker just to open my Powerbook and open a new Safari/Opera tab than to turn on my Wii, click on the internet channel, and then click AGAIN to confirm that, yes, I DO actually want to view it and then wait what seems like an age for it to actually start. Can't fault Nintendo for making an effort, but thus far the channels are demonstrating pretty significant amounts of suckage IMHO. Still, early days, eh?