Google Reader - Now for Wii!

Thwomp writes "I love using my Wii to catch up on my Google Reader feeds and now that activity is officially supported by Google. It's really great to see that the Google Reader team has created an improved user interface optimized for the Wii's Opera browser and Wiimote. You can also try out the Google Reader for Wii in your browser. Google account is mandatory, of course."

Comments

Re:Why spend the time and resources on this?

[AKAImBatman]

The *only* reason to use a console over a PC is because the games will be optimized for your specific set of hardware, so you can be sure that there are no compatibility issues and it will probably run pretty smooth.

Actually, there's another reason. The Internet Channel in the Wii provides a net-enabled entertainment center. For example, if you browse to video.stumbleupon.com on your Wii, you can watch various "channels" of net videos on your television. Not only does this easily allow you to share the experience with others around you, but it allows you to view the videos on a larger screen. (Most people still have far larger televisions than they do computer screens. Only us geeks use an HDTV as a computer monitor. :P)

You can't share that sort of content on a computer nearly as easily as you can on something like the Wii. Sure, you could hook up your computer with a TV-out, but how many average people are really going to do that? And that's not even mentioning sites that provide homebrew video game content through the web browser.

Re:Why spend the time and resources on this?

[HoneyBunchesOfGoats]

I can't speak of other consoles, but I like the Wii browser because it's easy to use from the couch. The Wii is already hooked up to my TV, so I don't have to fumble about with cables to hook up my laptop, change the display settings to put the image on the TV, and then have to sit right next to the TV while I use it. I could get an older computer to leave permanently hooked up to the TV, and a wireless keyboard and mouse for it, but that'd be a whole lot of hassle, and would still have input devices that are less ideal to use from the couch... and for what, to have a more PC-like interface to pull up Wikipedia when people are over? The Wii isn't going to replace my PC and monitor for most of my web usage, but it's ideal for using the web for casual entertainment.

Re:Why spend the time and resources on this?

[Aladrin]

That's the easiest question ever. Because people want it.

Nintendo tends to be a people company, and they tend to listen to their customers a LOT more than the other console manufacturers. So when it became clear that there was NO way to avoid having things like this on their console, they went ahead and saved everyone the trouble, earning some more money in the process.

Nothing extra exists to stop someone from writing a homebrew version of these features than would have existed anyhow. In fact, the copy protection on the Wii is amazingly weak. It's almost identical to the Gamecube's, and that was weak as well. Everyone else in the industry has put a LOT more effort into protection.

So tell me again why they shouldn't do this? Because you don't want it is not good enough, and you don't speak for the majority of people. You probably don't even have a vague clue how many Wii-owners feel as you do.