Final Version of Wii Browser Now Available

CVG points out that, as of today, the final version of the Wii Opera browser is available for download. Make sure and do the update sometime in the next month or so; as you might recall from the original announcement, it will only be free until the end of June. "You can finally ditch the trial version of the Opera browser and download the full and final package, which comes with added features, such as 'www.' and '.com' buttons as well as improved functionality like a faster boot-up and better zoom capability. You can download it right now for free, first by updating your system, then grabbing the update from the Wii Software page on the Shop Channel."

List of new stuff

• More advanced zoom. You can zoom in extremely close, or extremely far out.
  
• Crisper fonts due to updated font rendering technology.
  
• Optimized for faster browsing and video game playing. (Seriously!)
  
• Other WiiMote cursors are now visible. They cannot interact with pages, but they can be used as laser pointer replacements.
  
• Scrolling has been improved with the arrows only showing while scrolling and a line showing how fast you're dragging.
  
• The arrow keys now scroll rather than navigating.
  
• The so-called "A-button cooldown effect" has been fixed. This was the bug that prevented rapid clicking.
  
• There are now settings for Proxies and other browser features.
  
• The toolbar has been updated with easy access to the URL entry, search, and page information.
  
• The toolbar can now be hidden.
  
• Cursors have been updated with nicer loading and clicking effects.
  
• Sounds are now associated with events like clicking and loading.
  
• The browser now fills the entire screen. You can change the scaling if the browser is clipped.
  

Re:List of new stuff

I always had trouble with flash videos and wmv's playing.

Flash players based on Flash Version 7 work fine. (Adobe refuses to license version 8.) They've actually gotten slightly better thanks to Opera's optimizations.

The browser does not have a media player, nor are there plans for one. I believe they're going to support standard audio files (i.e. WAV; if it hasn't been added already), but that's about it. I wouldn't hold your breath for WMV support.

Besides, WMV sucks. :P

Save the kiddies!

So how long do you think it will be before an inebriated collection of soccer-moms bands together and attacks Nintendo of America for trying to sell these consoles complete with "porn-access" (a.k.a. an internet connection) to their kids...

Re:Save the kiddies!

Wow!
It's like you can see into the past [slashdot.org]!

Still can't get one

Great! Now all I need is a Wii!

(Still searching for one in Toronto)

Yay

Now if only I could disable those new sounds.
B-Button scrolling is a bit too sensitive. I liked it better before. D-Pad scrolling is a nice alternative though.
Opening the address bar does not open it with the current URL. That would have been nice.
It would also be nice if it would make plain text URL's into links. Manual entry is hell without a keyboard.
New font features kick ass! Text is MUCH easier to read now!

Re:Yay

Does the new text rendering also go into things like the news reader and Wii Shop? The text there could use some work too.

My question is

Who's going to pay for it?

Two Things

1. Does Youtube work? Does it handle streaming audio/video? I haven't found anyone who will (or can, see #2) comment on it. If not "interesting" but meaningless if some of the best reasons to browse stuff on a TV doesn't work. No one is dying to read /. on their Wii.

2. When will Nintendo get around to actually selling people a Wii? Again these features are "interesting" but entirely meaningless if too few people actually have to hardware to enjoy it.

Re:Two Things

YouTube works. I've used it. In fact, I heard that was one of the original reasons the browser beta was delayed was so they could update flash and make YouTube work.

They are selling people Wiis. That is just a troll comment. The fact they are so popular they can't produce them fast enough is not Nintendo's fault.

Free until June - unless you can't get a Wii.

The free-until-June deal originally seemed awesome. Until I realized that every store around here still sells out the Wii instantly the moment they have any in stock.

There's a good chance that by the time the deal expires in June, it will still be almost impossible to find a Wii, and those of us that have been TRYING to buy one since launch day will have been screwed by Opera for not adjusting their deal to account for this problem.

No Java support?

The new zooming is a welcome feature, previously I had to adapt my games site to be a better size for displaying on the Wii, but now that is much less of an issue.

Its a real shame that there hasn't been any mention of Java support though, a JVM (and preferably Flash 9.0 too) would have made this far more useful just because of all the content currently out there. If it had featured a fast JVM with an API for the WiiMote this could have sparked off a huge wave of homebrew developments. This is possible with the current support for Flash 7.0, but both have their advantages so why be forced into just one?

Its a shame this won't remain free, the Wii shortage is bad enough already without some people being hurried into getting their console even sooner. In the mean time this is a very attractively priced internet appliance, and with some great games too, bargain!

Downloaded it this morning . . .

I'd say overall it's quite an improvement - it really takes it from a useful oddity to a full-scale tool. My takes:

• The scrolling takes a bit of getting used to, but it definitely works better, and the precise scrolling works very nicely.
  
• Resolution seems better.
  
• Definitely faster.
  
• I saw no hangups this time.
  
• More useful layouts and controls.
  

Now, if there was just a keyboard for the Wii . . .

Wiis in the UK

Gamestation's website (google it, not link whoring) has a "news letter" type sign up for the wii. They will tell you 48 hours in advance of when they put the Wii on their website to order. This is how I got mine the first time I was told they had some in stock.

It's not hard, just requires a little planning.

Doesn't seem to use Nintendo's proxies, either

I was kind of nervous at first that outgoing requests would be sent to Nintendo, who would fetch the page and return a pre-digested version, ala WebTV. I was pleasantly surprised to see from my own server logs, though, that my Wii was directly connecting to remote hosts without going through any proxy. That makes me feel infinitely more comfortable about using it to access my webmail, online banking, etc.

Just throwing that out there for anyone else who had the same concerns.

Wii as a poor man's media player?

I have a few dozen gigs of MP3s on my FreeBSD server. I'd like to run a program that compiles a set of HTML files linking to those MP3s, probably in an iPod-esque setup; click the top-level "Artists" link, choose an artist, and get a list of their MP3s. The goal of this, of course, being to have easy access to my music collection even when lounging around in the living room. If my Wii can play Youtube videos perfectly well (and it can), I'm sure it can manage to play an MP3 from another host on the same LAN.

Does such an application already exist, or is it hacking time?

It works

This post was done with the wiimote. Certain pages however still don't work well. The auto word finisher works great.

Re:Why isnt it (F)ree as in FREEDOM

Um, because they don't want people being able to hack the virtual console, and possibly hack into other people's Wiis and steal their points, or some such?

And by saying you only use Open Source software, that means you don't use any consoles, because none of them are open source. Or use blue ray disks, or HD disks, or office products, or most websites...

Open source zealots really need to be better informed before they go off on these rants, makes the rest of you intelligent OSS people look bad.

Re:Why isnt it (F)ree as in FREEDOM

or office products

It's true. I have been having a really hard time getting full blueprints for my stapler.

Re:Next month or so, Zonk?

It's mid-April! They've got 2.5 months until the end of June.

Yeah, Zonk has a bad floppy on this one. The final version was originally going to be released on March 16th. It was then pushed back to March 30th. Then (a few days before it was supposed to be released) it was pushed back to "sometime in April". Well, it's "sometime in April", so I'm not surprised that it's here. :P

Re:Next month or so, Zonk?

Oh, I almost forgot to mention what *is* in June. June is the release date for multiplayer gaming on the Wii. The Japanese already have it with Pokemon, and the Brits are getting it soon. That leaves us Yanks as the only ones left playing with ourselves. :(

If that's the case, hopefully you'll never need...

...one of the newer pacemakers models that are made nowadays.

Re:June?

So I'm not fully confident that I'll be able to find a Wii by June. Is there any way I can download the browser now and hold onto it until I can get a Wii?

Yes.