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Wii + Warp Pipe = Del.icio.us Tabbed Browsing
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."
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).
How Jaded Are You?
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 negative sissy, but it doesn't mean you gotta be. Take the news for what it is: Wii browsing made easier. Noone forces you to browse on your Wii, noone forces you even to own a Wii.
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 moment to consider that full web browsing functionality out of the box really is an added value to the PS3.
TW
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 from other areas.
At least, publicly, Nintendo's approach has been: here's a great videogame console, and we put a lot of thought into making it fun and intuitive... and oh, btw, we're throwing in a web browser with it. Whereas Sony has been yelling and screaming, using the additional, non-game related features as an excuse whenever people heckle them about the price, as in:
It's all in the presentation, and Sony leaves you with an uneasy feeling that game-related content (including pricing it like a game console) was sacrificed a bit to make room for this other stuff. THAT'S what concerns us.
Multiplayer Gaming (defined): Sitting around, discussing single-player games with my friends, at the bar.
None of the non-game specific stuff for the Wii caused the price to increase $200...
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 Nintendo's profit much more than it added to the final price of the wii. They'd sell it for $249 with or without a browser. The deal they made with Opera just bought them goodwill not a real justification for a higher price.
But the PS3 probably could have cost a lot less without the blu ray. Personally, I'm fine with them including it. Let them be the high end system that I'll buy cheap years down the road...but I can understand why others might be annoyed or complain about it.
The PSP is another matter. It seems that the addition of movie capabilities actually hurt the GAMES and not just the price. I don't own one but I've heard that the UMDs seriously create a load time problem for games. It's hard for me to see how any serious gamer would think that the additional functionality is worth it.
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 change the price of the system or the quality of the games. I guess it uses up a certain amount of memory but I'm also guessing it's fairly negligible and you probably also have the option of removing it.
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 whenever you want like the real Opera.
:)
Either way though, its pretty damn cool.
"Those who would sacrifice essential liberties for a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - BenF
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?
Ah, if only there were people like you for the 360 or PS3. Then there might be some equality on /.
Would you kindly mod me +1 insightful?
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!
My blog: http://www.seebs.net/log/ --- My iPhone/iPad app: http://www.seebs.net/seebsfrac/
Google video/youtube/etc don't look nearly as painful on my standard-def TV.
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.
My blog: http://www.seebs.net/log/ --- My iPhone/iPad app: http://www.seebs.net/seebsfrac/
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 out, but the fact that I can suspend the game in progress and go right back where I was after I punched up GameFAQs does accomplish what I think you're looking for...
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...
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 equation. Either that or assume they are both on. Not everyone keeps their PCs on 24/7.
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.
Strongbad E-mail!
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, but you'd have a very difficult time making the case that they're bad because of the media stuff. Good or bad, they're all about gaming.
The PS3 has very similar non-gaming functionality to the PSP, and much like the PSP it's courting game developers to make great games. Sure, there aren't a lot a launch, but lets face it, launch titles are never quite as abundant as us gamers would like. At least one of the launch titles is pretty cool. More are to come. So how does this hurt the gaming community?
I can understand why many people might have preferred just core gaming functionality for less money, but it's also arguable that not a single piece of hardware went into the box that wasn't intended to enhance gaming. The hard drive has already showed it's usefulness in the original xbox and the BluRay drive is at least partially there to avoid disk swaps on games like Final Fantasy that have huge amounts of data. I know this might seem like a stretch, but looking three years into the future it might not be as big of a stretch as you think. How many CDs did you load up for Battlefield 2 or Half-Life 2?
Either way, how does a decision to give great gaming functionality, plus a lot of other stuff equate to a "slap in the face?" It's the equivalent of complaining that Lexus offers way more features than you'll ever use. So what? It's not like the car is going to do a poor job getting you to work.
By all indications, the PS3 is going to be a great game machine. It doesn't look like anything was taken away in the process of also turning it into a nice media hub. There is no "slap in the face," unless you're making "expensive" into the same thing as "slap." If you think it's too expensive, I agree with you. But that's quite far from it actually being bad for gamers.
TW
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
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 the gaming community, I don't know what is. If you didn't see that, then you're wearing blinders. I used to be a huge Playstation fan... look where I am now? You think this newly found cynicism agianst Sony, by myself and a large percentage of the formerly pro-Sony community comes just because they priced a game system too high? No. It's because they've completely dissowned their fanbase. Funny that the company who seems to respect the gaming community the most is the one that's been trying the hardest to reach out to non-gamers.
IE: Sony has an interesting way of trying to directly target gamers, and only gamers, while disrespecting and ignoring them completely. Nintendo has an interesting way of reaching out to non-gamers without appearing "holier than thow" in the eyes of the gaming community. A company's perception of itself and its consumers has a large roll in dictating the quality of material they produce. Sony has shown that they think they know what's best for us, and to hell what we think. And from what I've seen, the resulting product is as shallow as the typical American ethos: all glitz and glam, stupid, boring, and full of shit.
Multiplayer Gaming (defined): Sitting around, discussing single-player games with my friends, at the bar.
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.
Are you that guy whose launch day PS1 and PS2 systems still work?
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.
My blog: http://www.seebs.net/log/ --- My iPhone/iPad app: http://www.seebs.net/seebsfrac/
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 Saver Mode + Wii in "Screen Saver" (burn in prevention) Mode. "Wake" them both, with the purpose of checking weather.
I feel that would be the accurate test to say which is quicker. I'm sure the computer would still be quicker in some of those scenarios, but not all.