Wii News Channel is online

Jan-26-07, 4:43 pm by Hanford
File under: Video games, consoles, Wii

I just updated my Wii and the new Wii News Channel was available.

The pros

Resizable text. It uses an animated word wrapping system that makes the iPhone jealous, no less.
Interactive Globe UI that shows news stories by location. Not sure how useful it is, but it's got an element of coolness to it.
Once it's loaded there's zero wait.

The cons

Man, does it take forever to load
The articles occasionally feature URLs, but they're not clickable.
Pretty much just standard associated press articles with the occasional photo sprinkled in. It didn't appear to have anything in-depth.
Did I mention it was slow to load?

Overall it's a cool little piece of technology, a great working demonstration of what the Wii can do outside of gaming, and it may appeal to the non-gamer that Nintendo has been chasing with the Wii. But with the exception of their interactive globe, the Internet is a faster and more interactive way to get the same news, hands down. I hope Nintendo isn't putting effort into these types of channels at the expensive of games. The news channel is not going to convert anyone.

UPDATE: subsequent uses of it have been pretty peppy, and it seems to occasionally download news even when the unit is off, which enables its speed.

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