That’s right folks, Nintendo saw fit to not only grace us with the Forecast channel a day early, but has also given us a big update to the Opera browser.
Forecast Channel
I actually got to play around with it this morning. It’s actually a pretty nice and smooth interface. You just put in your state and city, and you are instantly shown the current temp, today’s forecast, the 5 day forecast, and even the UV index. You can even zoom out and view the entire globe displaying current weather conditions, or current temperature. All the information is provided by weathernews. I can’t see myself checking it on a regular basis, but it was pretty fun to grab the globe and spin it around with the Wii remote.
Internet Channel
Opera used a very strange way to break the news of their Wii Channel debut. They put the news in a webcomic (as seen above, click to enlarge). The trial edition of Opera’s browser will be released on Friday (12/22), with the full version launching sometime in March. Not really sure why it is called the trial edition, since the full version will be free (limited time), it’s probably just a beta thing. So why didn’t they just call it Beta? Anyway, from the press release, it looks like the trial version will definitely support Flash (YouTube, here I come), but no word on AJAX. I really like this, but I hope Nintendo lets us use USB keyboards soon. On screen keyboards get old quick, and that USB port ain’t doin’ a thing.
From the Press Release: “The final version of the Opera browser will be available at the end of March 2007, and will be free for all Wii owners to download through the end of June. After June 2007, the browser will be available for download in the Wii Shop Channel for 500 Wii Points. ”
[Update 1: At least the US Press Release correctly calls it a beta, although it was a little late. Also for some reason, it says the Forcast channel is coming tomorrow, after it had already launched.]
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