Wii system update brings final Opera browser to your Wii

by David Hinkle { Apr 11th 2007 at 10:22PM }

Many of you perhaps saw that spectacular glow on your Wii's disc slot and found yourself hypnotized, falling to your knees and drooling out of your mouth like you had just been witness to the Hypnotoad. Upon battling your way out of hypnosis and installing the system update and checking out the Shop Channel, you might've found that the final version of the Wii's Opera browser is available for download. Well, we did and we managed to take some pictures for you (it should be noted we have no way of taking direct feed snapshots, so they aren't the greatest images).

Check them out after the break.

First we have the start up screen, which has a quick little animation now.

This is the new front end for the browser.

And here is the favorites section, where we keep only the most necessary of bookmarks.

This is, we admit, a pretty bad picture of the settings screen.

The browser's controls are explained.

Finally, we get to browsing! We'll say that the zooming here is a lot more crisp and generous, allowing us to zoom out and in with great results.

Tags: channel, internet, nintendo, nintendowii, opera, operabrowser, wii, wiibrowser

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

The_Wind_Waker8 @ Apr 11th 2007 11:02PM

Last time I saw my Wii glow was earlier today, some friend was bragging about a Mii. And now I take a look at my Wii again, accross the room; and there it is, right on cue... It starts to glow again.

This is the long awaited updated I've long awaited for.
You guys are very timely.

grantalias @ Apr 11th 2007 11:05PM

I've been waiting for this update. But i thought that the final version was going to be 500 Wii points. Not that I'm complaining.

The_Wind_Waker8 @ Apr 11th 2007 11:21PM

Get it while you can still get it for free!

Sooo much faster!

dukemeiser @ Apr 11th 2007 11:28PM

The Opera browser is free until July, then it is 500 points.

brian @ Apr 11th 2007 11:52PM

The Wii Stop servers must be getting hit up heavily right not - I can't get into the store at all, just get an error message instead.

Rubyguy @ Apr 12th 2007 12:06AM

It's Free till June 30th! Anyone who got it before then gets to keep it for Free. Anyone who did not download it before then has to pay 500 points!

Barry @ Apr 12th 2007 12:24AM

This was a much needed update. Great job Nintendo!

vidGuy @ Apr 12th 2007 12:52AM

You may want to change the headline. There is a key distinction between software that is made available through updates and those you "buy" on the Shop Channel - Wii Ware.

When a channel is part of an update - users CANNOT choose to delete it. When a channel is purchased from the Shop Channel, a user can delete it anytime he or she wishes.

The Internet Channel is available from the Shop Channel, is NOT part of an update (though there is one to the core system), and is deleteable.

vidGuy @ Apr 12th 2007 12:54AM

I guess I'll give the examples of how I determined the distinction:

The Forecast and News Channels were part of System Updates - you can't delete them. Everybody Votes and Internet Channels are purchased from the Shop Channel; you can delete them or move them to an SD card.

liamog @ Apr 12th 2007 12:56AM

And yet it required a system update to install them :-p

Nushio @ Apr 12th 2007 2:55AM

The system update is only for parental control for whining parents/Nintendo covering their arses.

For some reason, I can't connect to the shop channel after applying the update.

Bad boy Nintendo! I wanted to buy a game! (Their servers must be clogged at the moment :P)

theLoneYoshi @ Apr 12th 2007 4:02AM

This update fixed so many things: the slowness, the slightly buggy keyboard, and the zoom among many others.

The only thing I didn't like too much was the B button scrolling. It now works like the 3rd button of a mouse (when you press the wheel). At least the D-pad can also be used for scrolling.

Now, if they only upgraded to Flash 9... At least Youtube works better.

theLoneYoshi @ Apr 12th 2007 4:04AM

Damn, my comment was duplicated... Oh well... Sorry for the unintentional spam.

homesickalien @ Apr 12th 2007 4:54AM

Much faster too. I like that.

nftyw @ Apr 12th 2007 6:36AM

typing this out on thre wii.now can someoe tell meif fyou can use a usb keyboarddoing it with the remote ki d of sucks :[

Brad Root @ Apr 12th 2007 7:17AM

And... pornotube and youporn still don't work. Old flash version and all that. LAME!

Grey Acumen @ Apr 12th 2007 7:41AM

crunchyroll works pretty well now. I can watch flash movies and still read the subtitles, they had been just barely unreadable before, now they're just barely readable.

Now I really can watch TV, on the Internet, on my TV. Woot!

LI Wii @ Apr 12th 2007 8:18AM

Very very cool - I suggest http://mapwii.com as your Wii Browser homepage. Online wii gaming is coming next month - CAN'T WAIT!

Jonathan @ Apr 12th 2007 8:39AM

This update rocks! I'm typing this on the browser.

Neal @ Apr 12th 2007 9:33AM

I love the new Internet Channel. It takes up the entire screen on my HDTV (and screen width is adjustable). That said, the browser locks up on me after listening to the new Vigin Radio stream. Anyone else have this issue? http://www.virginradio.co.uk/listen

Cold Chilli @ Apr 12th 2007 9:45AM

I ran the update.
I've been waiting hours!! for it to finish. It stuck at about 60%

If I turn off the Wii will it brick it?

vidGuy @ Apr 12th 2007 10:28AM

@liamog,

I'm pretty sure the update adds new parental controls for the channel, since those aren't included in the channel download itself.

Cold Chilli, I'd what it out. It's surprising it's taking so long, mine updated in less than 3 minutes.

vidGuy @ Apr 12th 2007 10:28AM

That's wait it out ;)

Phace @ Apr 12th 2007 11:26AM

Delete WoW posts from erxiao. He's a gold farmer trolling this topic!

John @ Apr 12th 2007 10:36AM

I'm really impressed with the new update. The only thing that disappoints me is that it doesn't have the lastest flash player. Any idea when we might see a flash player update?

Erik @ Apr 12th 2007 10:48AM

Go here to see a video of wii internet channel features: http://www.opera.com/products/devices/nintendo/wii/features/

Go here to see a video demo (Quicktime neeed to view): http://www.opera.com/products/devices/nintendo/wii/video/wii-demo.mov

Go here for main info pager from opera about internet browser: http://www.opera.com/products/devices/nintendo/wii/

Kdawg @ Apr 12th 2007 11:21AM

I also could not connect to the shop channel after the update, it reset my internet connections and I had to go into the settings and set it up again before I could download the channel... no biggie though, and spent most of last night playing on the wiinternet

Loban @ Apr 12th 2007 12:18PM

I would highly suggest everyone try out Orb with the new browser. (www.orb.com/wii/). I've been using it with the trial version for a while now to look at all my pictures and stream movies and music to my home theater for free using the Wii. And now with the updated browser it's much faster. I can access all my files on my PC on my HDTV and home theater. It's freaking great.

Wor Bud @ Apr 12th 2007 1:18PM

@Brad Root

"Old flash version and all that. LAME!"

Blame Adobe for refusing to update the Flash SDK to a more recent version. Anything that is not a PC has to use Flash 7 due to Adobe's stupidity.

Skippy @ Apr 12th 2007 3:37PM

After EVERY system update there is a notice about Parental Controls being available. It's just a reminder to parents. It doesn't necessarily mean that the parental controls have been changed in any way.

jacksonpritt @ Apr 12th 2007 2:27PM

I'm glad they made the update, but it still seems unfinished. I noticed on several pages that when I was looking at a frames layout that had very large pictures sometimes the pictures would remain on the screen even after I navigated away from them, blocking my view of the page I was actually looking at.

Jayenkai @ Apr 12th 2007 9:34PM

As some people here are suggesting, there were actually TWO updates, today.

Reconnected my Wifi, which strangely requires a PC reboot every so often.. Go figure?

The Wii reconnected, (I went into Wii Settings/Test Connection) and it wanted to download an update.
The Browser hadn't updated, so I went to the Wii Shop and downloaded the updated browser.

So, any guesses on what the system update did?