Wii News Channel

[JD]

Looks like Nintendo got the news channel up and running today. Looks kind of OK, and since it's particularly made for the Wii it's something I'd rather use than's let's say Opera (Wii) to browse news websites since most of them don't work really well for such a low resolution and one is busy scrolling or zooming around most of the time.

But please, Nintendo, get a frickin' clue. Why does that thing, like the weather channel, require me to have the WiiConnect 24 stand-by mode to be enabled?

-Julian

[Chris Nahr]

It does, too? Ugh, that's horrible. I guess I won't be using that channel very much then.

Though I do like the paper look of the background. And the little black cat that follows the wiimote pointer with its head, and gives a tip if you click on it.

[Chris Nahr]

Wait a second. Why is the top news item about the Emsdetten shooting from months ago? Why aren't any of the news items dated? Is this channel totally useless or what?

[Moggraider]

I'm sure they'll update it real soon now.

[Wader]

My news channel had current news on it. I didnt check every story though, so it could be certain parts of the world are being updated faster than others...

I do really like the "news globe" view. It was kind of cool to be able to spin the globe around, focus on a city/area and get a listing of stories for that region...

[Moggraider]

I think maybe others had just checked it prematurely. I got the notification just now and am updating.

[zabuni]

It really needs a google news like ability to find important stories. Scooter Libby's trial bumps shoulders with a kid writing a short story about cancer.

[Quaro]

Stuck on the 'Do not turn power off' screen. Fantastic. I'll leave it on until I come back tonight I guess and see where it's at.

[Jamie Madigan]

I totally amazed that this news system, which resides on a video game console doesn't have a gaming news channel. That seems like a no brainer for me.

The globe thing is nifty, though. I'm disappointed that there's no news in Antarctica.

[Dave Long]

Yeah, I enjoyed playing around with News Channel last night. The globe view is especially cool as it gives you a visual cue about where the news is taking place that you don't get from headlines and text. It brings the news "closer" to you somehow.

Anyway, pretty cool. The PlayStation 3 stories about pricing and release dates in the rest of the world were in the Tokyo section too.

...and actually, I'm kind of glad there's no "gaming news". That would be more like marketing than it would be news. Let the major stories appear in the AP news feed and leave it at that.

[RickH]

Odd that it can't tell the difference between the Syracuse and Athens in the US and the one's that aren't.

[ducker]

downloaded the update... checked it out.. I was more impressed with the weather station then the news. For some reason it just didn't feel as friendly as say... a yahoo news page.

[walTer]

I like the globe too-- As for Antarctica....there is also no news from the North Pole.

[Xemu]

The production quality on this (like the weather channel) really impressed me. The paper-like visual quality, quite readable, and the globe integration, all smooth. It's still not really a great way of actually getting your news but I enjoy checking it a bit after playing and before going to sleep.

Anyone know if you can get to globe mode directly? The only way I found to do it was go into a story then navigate over to the side.

[Jeremy Johnsen]

Like the Weather channel and Photo channel, I played with it once and will probably never touch it again other than to show it to friends.

[Andrew Mayer]

The Weather is useful. The news channel is... not.

[Coca Cola Zero]

Neither is really useful. They should have taken all of this effort and put it into working with the opera people on the opera port and/or a free firefox port, and work closely with Adobe to get Flash working.

The web already exists and is better at this stuff than some fixed channel, no matter how cool the spinning globe is.