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."

Comments

List of new stuff

[AKAImBatman]

• 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

[AKAImBatman]

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!

[Philomathie]

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!

[Kimos]

Wow!
It's like you can see into the past!

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

[CogDissident]

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.

Still can't get one

[CokeBear]

Great! Now all I need is a Wii!

(Still searching for one in Toronto)

Re:Yay

[Erioll]

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

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

[drinkypoo]

or office products

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

Re:Two Things

[MBCook]

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.

[Guspaz]

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.

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

[SighKoPath]

Get friendly with the people at wal-mart. Learn when they normally get their shipments, how often they come, how many they get, and what time the sale of new shipments starts.

For example, I learned that my local wal-mart ALWAYS gets them in on Sundays, and they start selling at 8 am. Also, they do not put 'em out in electronics, but hide them over in Customer Service. As soon as I learned this, I was there the next Sunday morning at 9:30. They had 4 Wiis sitting there in the counter in CS (out of 5 received that day). I walked out with one, then went over to electronics to pick up some games, and directed a few people over to CS. They came back and thanked me after.

It's all about asking the right questions of the people who know the answers.

Re:Two Things

[gasgesgos]

One of the major things I use the Wii browser for is Youtube, it works pretty well. Also wiiarcade.com has a handful of games that will work well with the Wii remote. I haven't tried other streaming sites, but I imagine that they would work as well (provided they use flash and not WMP). One warning, it seems that the browser only supports up to Flash 7.

Re:Two Things. 1.) YouTube works and...

[trdrstv]

1. Does Youtube work?

YouTube (and google video) has worked since the beta in December. There was even a site created to help autoformat it so all videos display nicer on the Wii. This is just a front end to YouTube's site so you can bypass it if you don't care for how they are formatting it. Of note Strongbad, and Foamy work great too.

Does it handle streaming audio/video?

The beta didn't do shoutcast, but I have been using Finetune for quite some time.

Re:It's not final, still labeled trial

[The Moof]

After you run the system update, go to the Wii Shop Channel. There is an upgrade available for the Internet Channel making it the full version.

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

[Just Some Guy]

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.