Update 1: (Now I can say it) Alas! The Wii vs. PS3 video browser was pulled from YouTube before all could enjoy it, but worry not. All of the Opera browser videos are hosted by Nintendo on Wii.com. The text on this site is hilarious -- and I mean that in a bad way. It brings me back to the launch of IE4 when Microsoft tried to get us all to refer to web sites as "channels". It didn't happen then and apparently Nintendo didn't get the memo. Google Maps is not a channel, dammit! WEB. SITE. THANKS.
Lo, the Opera browser shown running in full glory on the Nintendo Wii! Surprisingly, navigating the net with the Wiimote seems quite painless, or at least as comparable to any wireless mouse or pointer experience. The mechanics are intuitive and precisely what you would expect: mouse cursor is driven by your wrist gestures, clicking appears to be done with the Z trigger below or a top level button, and zooming into four quadrants on the page is possible by pressing the joypad in a diagonal direction. What isn't shown is how the keyboard will work, which will presumably be a USB compatible rig or an onscreen virtual keyboard. Judging by the way the Virtual Console works, we can also presume that it will also offer some level of predictive usability such as saving recent sites as automatic bookmarks and letting your parents know exactly how much pr0n you consume.
It just goes to show -- Nintendo may have skipped DVD playback on their new console, but with Flash playback and support for E-Commerce on their console they've left plenty of room for digital distribution with strong online functionality out of the box. My grandmother could do this, even if she can't finish World 8-4.
[ Thanks SumFight and WiiNation ]
Yanier "Niero" Gonzalez is Destructoid's founder and guy-in-the-helmet.After 2,000+ stories posted and years of starting trouble on the front page he's now busy behind the scenes building the future of Destructoid. His story is our motto: "Living The Dream".
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2:43 AM on 09.30.2006
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