Today marked the launch of the demo version of Wii’s Internet Channel. The channel is essentially a version of the Opera Browser, that runs on the wii. I tried to make a post to monkeygames from the wii, but about half way through my message, the console froze up. RUH ROH. Maybe long typing entries are a bug on the current version. Ahh well. Its clearly not meant for a long typing session anyway.
Of note:
1) They seem to have added a very nice word complete functionality to at least the entries of the Browser, but possibly to all entry fields on the console (that would rock).
2) The browser itself handles the mismatch in resolution and screen size rather well. You can zoom in and out of a page, scroll with the wiimote, and even change the viewpoint to be more like a mobile device (this messes up the page good, but makes the text nice and big.
3) As for the browser’s capabilities, Gmail worked, google maps did not, You Tube looked awesome, and Flash movies play fantastic.
4) The loading was plenty fast.
5) The favorites page is slow to load, but once in, it is very intuitive with a shot of the front page.
6) One annoying thing, is you have to jump back to the home to enter a new web address. They should have a button jsut open the URL bar.
All in all, considering I would probably just head upstairs to use the internet on a more serious task, it does a nice job for a quick trip to IMDB to settle a bet, CNN for the news, YouTube for some fun browsing, or to Gmail to send a quick note or read mail. While the demo version is free and available today, I will deffinitely buy the full version once its released.
In other news, a couple of nights ago, Nintendo also put their Forecast channel live.
It was simple to setup, and now I can get the weather from my Wii. Sort of useful, deffinitely well presented. Their globe feature is pretty cool, as you can spin the globe and check out the weather from your home town, to the South Pole. It was cool, but after Google Earth, I’m dreaming of THAT on the wii at all times. THAT would be something amazing. At any rate, check out the You Tube below for a walkthrough of it. (make sure to fast forward the part where the user is downloading the app).
Nintendo is offering to replace the original version of the wrist straps for the Wii Remote with a newer version. Because Wii consoles shipped starting in early December already utilized the newer version of the strap, you will need to determine which version of the strap you have before ordering a replacement. To view the difference between the original and the new version of the strap, please click here.
A Playstation 3 owner put together a little video to show what happens to Playstation 2 games when they are played on the PS3. The end result, he says the video appears to show, is that you get more jaggies and artifacts when playing a PS2 or PSone game on the new console than if you were to play it on the PS2.
South Park recently aired an episode involving World of Warcraft in which half of the show featured custom machinima footage. Machinima.com was given access to key members of the animation staff in order to find out more about the creative process behind the episode.Joining us are Frank Agnone, Producer; J. J. Franzen, Technology Supervisor; and Eric Stough, Director of Animation.
A while ago we looked at a really amazing game called PeekaBoom. In the game two people are revealing an image to each other and the magic is that the game itself is learning about pictures based on the input from the humans. Really cool.
Well here is a talk that the creator made at Google, and its all about how using Humans to perform computation can be the wave of the future. Its really awesome.
Seriously.. click it on.. and listen to it if nothing else. Its a fascinating talk on how human computation and gameplaying can yield valuable data.
Nativity Silliness
