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Wii + Warp Pipe = Del.icio.us Tabbed Browsing

Posted by timothy on Tue Dec 26, 2006 05:01 PM
from the bowl-like-it's-the-year-2077 dept.
Wii (Games) The Internet Entertainment Games
An anonymous reader writes "The folks at Warp Pipe have developed a simple yet useful tabbed browsing interface for the Wii with del.icio.us bookmark integration which makes browsing on the Wii more efficient until the fully realized Opera build hits later next year. The web application does not require registration, this video overviews the interface and feature set in this early release."
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Wii + Warp Pipe = Del.icio.us Tabbed Browsing 46 Comments More /

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  • These guys are always doing some good stuff. I was excited when I saw their double dash network piece, and now they're doing some good stuff on the wii. The build of opera currently on the wii definitely could still use some work (i know it's beta, but there's no feedback piece to make this known).
  • You must be new here. (This ain't boingboing)

    • Re:What am I missing here? (Score:4, Funny)

      by eln (21727) on Tuesday December 26 2006, @05:32PM (#17370910) Homepage
      The browser is not for us, silly. The browser is for the Miis so that they'll have something to do when they're not playing Wii Tennis. You do need to be wary of spyware and viruses though, my Mii likes to go to some pretty raunchy websites, and he'll install anything they ask him to.

    • And yet we are hearing more about webbrowsers and weather stuff on the Wii than actual Wii games?
      Why would anyone want to try to use a webbrowser on your TV at 480p rez - that sounds just painful.

      You know, I see headline along the lines of "XYZ now more useful" or "ABC more fun" and I'm sure if slashdot readers have nothing of substance to say, then they'll post a bunch of "hey XYZ is useless anyway" or "ABC sucks!" posts.

      And guess what, it's exactly the case.

      What's the moral of the story? Anyone can be a n
      • But you have to admit the that a lot of the Wii boosters were saying some pretty negative things about all the non game-specific stuff that's built into the PS3.

        I'm one of the guys who likes convergence quite a lot. I like the fact that my PS3 can surf the web and I certainly wouldn't begrudge Wii fans having the same opportunity. But it's about time for the people who have a Wii to make a decision whether they like theis functionality or not. If they think this is cool, maybe they could take just a mome

        • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

          by 7Prime (871679)

          But the difference here is that it is by no means a major selling point, or something very much hyped by Nintendo. The fact is, all the concentration in both marketting, and I'm guessing, to a certain degree, in design, was in game oriented development. The problem is that Sony is trying to sell there system as "Not just a video game console", which is sort of a slap in the face of the gaming community. Also, one also has to wonder whether the high concentration in additional features could have taken away

          • The problem is that Sony is trying to sell there system as "Not just a video game console", which is sort of a slap in the face of the gaming community.

            This I don't understand. People have said similar things about the PSP but I can't quite figure out how this other stuff actually takes away from gaming. The PSP is a fine gaming machine, with(now) plenty of very cool games. It has a great display and plenty of horsepower, and the developers are making great use of it. Some people don't like the controls

            • Are you kidding me? For months, every time a press person would ask a Sony exec about their new game console, the exec would snarf and say something along the lines of, "It's not a game console, its an entertainment center!" I (and many others) took that (and I think rightfully so) to mean that "game consoles are for kids, what we're doing here is FAR above that". I don't think you have to read too much into it to get that out of it, they practically said it themselves. If that isn't a slap in the face of t

              • Sony has shown that they think they know what's best for us, and to hell what we think

                You could say the same thing about Nintendo. Nobody asked them to make the Wiimote, then to build their whole console around it. Nobody asked them to think of moms and little kids and everyone else in their game design. It just so happens it turned out pretty well so everyone is very happy.

                Nobody asked Sony to turn the PS3 into a media center.... whoa! wait! Strike that. We did. We ask them when we praised them for t

                • But at least I don't have to use a "Mii." I'm not a sibling or a mom, but I am a grown up. Nintendo may have made a console for "casual gaming," but I'm not a casual gamer. I'm not a huge fan of being forced to use chibi bullshit or, frankly, of being forced to get up off the couch if I just want to blow off steam blasting at bad guys.

                  You don't have to use a Mii unless you play Wii Sports (and you don't have to act like people who like Miis are little kids). You also don't have to get off the couch for e

                • Now that's a load of bull. I was following you, to a point, up until you started talking about Nintendo as if they only made games for kids. If by kids, you mean anyone not between the ages of 13 and 18, who have an irrational intrigue for blowing people's heads off, then I'll give it to you. I'm sorry, I don't buy it. You're falling for the same "us and them" propoganda the permiates the rest gaming community. The gaming community isn't simply made up of "casual gamers" and "hardcore gamers"... people who

                  • Did you read the post I was responding to? I shouldn't have stooped to the level of the poster, but when I did, I used the exact words he used to describe the PS3, "boring and full of shit," I believe. I'm sorry if you interpreted this as some kind of an out of the blue rant.

                    So, with much nicer language and possibly even some thoughtful(open to interpretation) analysis, I'm going to say the Wii doesn't really fit my style for day-to-day gaming. I want something that was designed more for the "hardcore" g

                    • Well, see it from my point of view... how the hell am I not supposed to be pissed off at your post? You've basically called me a "casual gamer", in so many words, by default. You attest that there are SOME non-casual gamers in the Wii camp, but you wouldn't consider them as hardcore as those not in the Wii camp. WTF? I had a PS2, I had a gamecube, and until the last 5 incredible months of the PS2 lifespan, I'd say that the GameCube had far better games, and quite a bit of them were just as involved as the m

                    • Sure, his opinion matters just as much as anyone elses, but yours doesn't, AC...

                      ...so get an account or bugger off.

            • Are you that guy whose launch day PS1 and PS2 systems still work?
        • None of the non-game specific stuff for the Wii caused the price to increase $200...

          • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

            by LoverOfJoy (820058)
            Exactly! I'm all for adding additional features if it doesn't slow down the games or increase the price. If the weather feature ran in the background and popped up in the middle of games to give me updates I'd be screaming bloody murder...whether it happened on a nintendo product or a sony product. If they had to raise the price another $100 to add in news feed functionality I'd be just as annoyed.

            Adding a browser to the wii doesn't seem to have much of a cost as far as I can see. It probably cut into Ni
              • Yes, but that is ONLY the browser as far as I know. I don't have a wii but I've heard it also has a free weather service, news service, and maybe a few other things. I can't remember exactly but the point is, if a game system has an additional feature, as long as it doesn't decrease the ability to play games or increase the cost significantly I imagine most people wouldn't mind and would be happy with it.

                Even if Nintendo changed their mind and decided to make the browser permanently free I doubt it would
                • Even if Nintendo changed their mind and decided to make the browser permanently free

                  Ok, just to be clear, Nintendo Pays Opera for the browser. It is not Nintendo Charging for it. They are the publisher and get a cut, but Opera sells their product through Nintendo, just like Sega sells Sonic through Nintendo. Nintendo is paying for these upfront as a promotion to encourage early adoption.

            • The PS3 browser is a basically the same browser as they put in the PSP. It's nowhere near as good as Opera, but it shouldn't have raised the price much, if it raised it at all.

              BluRay is another matter entirely, but adding the MP3, digital video and web browsing functionality added little or nothing to the price of the PS3. That's one of the big reasons I like those features so much. Why not use what you have to it's fullest capabilities if there's no other downside?

              TW
              • I agree with you. As long as there's no downside I'd be happy for those features. It wouldn't be a huge selling point (to me anyway) but it's a nice extra. Although, if they tried so hard to add MORE features that they didn't have time to get any of the features anywhere near polished, then I'd consider that a downside. Not necessarily a huge downside if they could quickly improve those features through updates...but it's still a downside to take into consideration.
      • Ah, if only there were people like you for the 360 or PS3. Then there might be some equality on /.
    • The weather stuff utterly kicks ass. I mean, I got the system for games, I play games on it...

      But it's faster and better at checking weather than my regular browser. Sold!
        • I don't use Dashboard. I'm using Firefox.

          Getting to "weather.com" is about the same speed. However, once I'm there, my browser takes a couple of seconds to refresh a page, while the Wii lets me scroll the planet around.

          It really is a better interface than anything I've seen online.
        • Seriously, I have a Wii, but unless you leave it on all the time, I can't see how its faster than using a computer.

          Example: Computer: Squeeze side mouse buttons. Dashboard pops up with weather applet. Total time: 1-2 sec. Wii: Wake Wii up. Figure out where to aim Wiimote to have it appear on screen. Point at weather, and push A. Time: 30 sec (?)

          If you are adding in the Wii boot time into the speed it takes to Check Weather, then you need to include the time it takes you to boot your computer into the e

          • To be fair, I keep my PC on 24/7.

            On the other hand, if I wanted to leave the Wii in standby, I could.
            • To be fair, I keep my PC on 24/7. On the other hand, if I wanted to leave the Wii in standby, I could.

              True; but to compare the 2 you need to compare the same modes (go Apples to Apples), otherwise you are tainting the results.

              Computer Off + Wii Off. Turn them both on, with the purpose of checking weather.

              Computer On + Wii On. While both at "Main menu" (Desktop) check weather.

              Computer in Standby Mode + Wii in Standby mode. "Wake" them both, with the purpose of checking weather.

              Computer in Screen S

      • The weather stuff utterly kicks ass.

        Agreed. I travel alot, and I find the Globe interface (and 5 day forcast cached for my country) to be Quick, intuitive, and Hella Useful. Hopefully the News Channel will help me track stuff like Flight delays...

    • Google video/youtube/etc don't look nearly as painful on my standard-def TV.
  • I notice the tab bar and all that doesn't actually stick at the top with you. Did they do that on purpose or is that just the way the Wii Opera browser works? If they did that on purpose that would seem a bit silly...you don't want your browsing controls to go away when you scroll down the page. Is it a framed page and the Wii browser simply ignores that and scrolls down or something? It would make much more sense to have a frame thats always there so you can quickly switch between tabs and whatnot when

    • Re: (Score:1, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      If you set your user-agent to that of the Wii Opera (Opera/9.00 (Nintendo Wii; U; 1309-9; en)), you can actually go to the website and try it out for yourself in just about any browser. In Firefox, it works exactly that way - the bar doesn't stay on screen. I guess it's not just an Opera quirk.
  • I don't own a Wii, so here a simple question: Can the Wii do multitasking so that I could use the browser to look up a walkthrough while the game is running/paused in the background? Or do I have to quit the whole game to launch the browser as on the PSP?
    • No, to access the other channels (DVD Game/Weather/Browser/Wii Store,) you need to fully exit what you are in. I have not read whether that is a hardware, or software limitation. It would have been handy to be able to pop open a browser in the middle of a game to read a walkthrough on gamefaqs though.

      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        by badboy_tw2002 (524611)
        Its software. Generally on a console you want the game to have full access to all the memory on the machine. Having things like an OS, built in UI, etc. will take away from that sort of thing. On the 360 there is a chunk of ram you don't have access to that the OS holds on to for its deal, and on the PS3 you allocate the space yourself for the various system UI widgets. On the Wii if they made the browser launchable with a system call and you had enough memory you could technically free up space and lau

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by Given M. Sur (870067)
      You have to quit the game to get to the browser.
    • Can the Wii do multitasking so that I could use the browser to look up a walkthrough while the game is running/paused in the background? Or do I have to quit the whole game to launch the browser as on the PSP?

      Currently for any Wii, or Gamecube games you need to save, and Exit out to the home interface to launch the browser. The Virtual Console however, every game I have (9 so far) except Mario64 supports a Suspend function. I pause my game, hit the home menu then punch up the browser. I am still exiting

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