New videos and updates for the Internet Channel

by Eric Caoili { Mar 22nd 2007 at 7:00PM }

We spent the morning crying into our pillows and refusing to come out of our rooms after we heard about the final version of Opera's Wii browser being delayed. Nintendo eventually called to console us though, directing our puffy eyes to an interview with the company's Internet Channel development team at its Japanese site. We had a really good talk.

There are several videos and screenshots scattered around the Japanese transcript, demonstrating the changes with the Wii browser's final build. It's clear that Nintendo and Opera Software addressed a lot of common complaints users had with the trial version, making sure to implement variable zooming, improved starting times, and faster scrolling. Here's a list of all the other things we spotted on the page, mixed in with Nintendo's announced updates:

new introduction animation
new start page with search button
auto-hide feature on navigation bar
search and address buttons on nav bar
multiple cursors (only one will be functional)
quicker access to "favorites"
an improved zoomed font
buttons that will instantly type common preset letters, such as "www" or ".com"

As we regretfully announced earlier, the release date for the final version of Opera's Wii browser has been pushed back to April. The Internet Channel will be available to download for free until the end of June. After that, users will be able to download it from the Wii Shop Channel for 500 Wii Points.

Tags: browser, channel, internet, internetbrowser, internetchannel, japan, nintendo, nintendowii, opera, operabrowser, shopchannel, shoppingchannel, wiibrowser, wiipoints

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

shadow @ Mar 22nd 2007 7:19PM

One of my favorite features abou thte Wii is the use of flash games. Maybe this multiple cursors will open the door for some multiplayer flash games. You never know, Wiisave.com was able to figure out how to use all of the Wii buttons, so maybe they'll be able to do it with two controllers.

WhatIsThatThing @ Mar 22nd 2007 7:19PM

Ooh. Neat. Maybe these features will inspire me to use the Wii browser more. Also, I just noticed the favicon. Cool.

sphetr2 @ Mar 22nd 2007 7:53PM

Auto-hide FTW! Finally I can watch Scrubs episodes in FULL SCREEN!

Metal_Link @ Mar 22nd 2007 8:46PM

What?! Still no tabs?! Awww...

Oh, and while I'm at it... When can we expect a Wii Fanboy version of the site made for the Wii browser? Will we see it at all?

brian @ Mar 22nd 2007 10:36PM

I have to imagine with more and more retirement homes and older folks picking up Wii's, it would be very prudent for Nintendo to either enable USB keyboard usage, or come out with a special keyboard (I would prefer the first option ). This would really allow users without a keyboard to surf the web almost as easily and intuitively as with a computer.