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Wii Weather Channel Up, Browser Coming
Nintendo's console has been out almost exactly a month, and the company is now rolling out some of the system's additional features. As you are reading this, your Wii should already be capable of giving you the weather forecast. Additionally, this Friday a trial version of the web browser should become available. From the Pro-G article: "The fully featured Opera web browser for the Wii was intended to be available for the launch of the console. Sadly it wasn't, but the good news is that you'll only have to wait until Friday to get a taster of what it can do. A trial version of the Wii Opera web browser will be available for free from December 22. The final version of the Opera browser will be released at the end of March 2007 and will be free for all Wii owners until the end of June 2007. After this date, anyone who hasn't already downloaded the browser will have to pay 500 Wii Points."
...the fact that I STILL HAVE TO TYPE EVERYTHING WITH THE !@#$%@#%^#$^&E$%& CLICKY THINGY???
Why in the world can't I plug my USB keyboard in it and type?
WHY, GOD, WHY???
"Christ what a design! I could eat a handful of iron filings and PUKE a better emergency pump than that!"
Firstly... the browser is _not_ going to be a portal for "finding other Nintendo goodness". The Wii _comes_ with a Shopping Channel that allows you to buy stuff (including retro games... and this browser when it's released).
What I wan't to know is why you think the browser should be free? Opera is the browser of choice here because they have built considerable functionality in for displaying web pages on resolution and input limited devices (cell phones, PDAs, the OLPC and now the Wii). Are you saying that all of their work isn't worth anything? I mean, we are just talking about $5 here...
Also... you make it sound as if Nintendo is the one that made the browser and is selling it. In fact, Opera put money into porting a browser (and by all accounts it works really well) and is selling it through Nintendo's Shopping Channel. I see no problem with this.
Look... I love Linux/OSS/Free software as much as anyone... and I also enjoy getting most of it for free (as in money). But, what is everyone's aversion to paying for some software? As a computer scientist I know how much work goes into making good software, and I don't understand why people around here think it should always be free (as in money).
Friedmud
The PS3's browser is not free, its included in the $600 one off payment you make at the start. Personally, if I was ever going to use my Wii to browse the Internet I'd rather pay $5 for a good browser with a long development history. Since I'm never going to use my Wii to browse the Internet I can save myself the $5, which I couldn't do if it was built in and Nintendo were paying per unit licensing.
(In reality, since its going to be free I can actually have the best of both worlds - but I'm not fooling myself that I am ever going to use my Wii to browse the net, I'm just not going to miss the chance to grab it for free).
Although your comparison between a Wii marked-up on ebay vs. the retail price of the cheaper PS3 is spectacular, I still don't see how this has anything to do with what the GP was talking about. The GP is explaining that the PS3's (retail) price includes the price of development of their browser, whereas the Wii doesn't because they separate the browser from the system as an optional upgrade. It doesn't matter what they are going for on ebay since Nintendo or Sony do not make any extra money from ebay auctions.
You do know that this is not with every console. This also does not drive the price of the console itself right? This is for people who want it.
>The Wii console's browser is not free; you need $5 to buy it
no you don't you freaking retard the whole point of this article is that it is being released soon and it's free if you don't choose to wait until next year. get a clue: " will be free for all Wii owners until the end of June 2007".