Wii update Aug. 7, 2007 USB KB Support Added!

[+-^CrossBow^-]

Just a short note to let you know that Nintendo released an update for the Wii early early this morning. I noticed at about 3am CDT that my Wii was glowing in the dark and keeping me up. So i fired it up to see what the updates was.

 

Basically the biggest change is to the News Channel and Wii Shop channels. The Wii Shop channel has been given an updated interface and title screen. Now you can quickly see what the top VC titles are from the main screen and download them directly without browsing to them. In addition Nintendo has added new search options in the VC section to make it easier to find games your looking for. Genre, Alpha, etc options for searching.

 

The News channel's updates are minor but nice. Basically, the news channel will now show you the top headlines from each section of National, International, Entertainment, Science/Tech...etc scrolling across on the main News Channel Wii channel Icon and start page. However, there was a disclaimer that stated you needed to start the news channel frequently for this feature to work correctly. Which, leads me to believe that the news channel isn't grabbing any updates automatically via WiiConnect24.

 

The other changes I've noticed are minor..but one is huge. The other changes appears to be a cleaner looking Wii Menu screen overall, plus they added a digital clock to the bottom center of the Wii channel screens. Previously I don't believe there was a clock at all on the Wii screens. Also some minor changes to the parental options I hadn't noticed before such as the ability to lock out the news channel now in addition to the internet channel.

 

The largest non advertised change I've seen from the update....

 

No more lagging on the Wii when going from channel to Wii menu or game to Wii menu. It seems to be as fast as it was when I first powered up the Wii way back nearly 9 moon cycles ago.

 

UPDATE:

 

Check it out here! I haven't tested it myself yet, but I've no reason not to believe IGN on this..

 

http://wii.ign.com/articles/811/811436p1.html

 

However, as stated in the article, the keyboard support doesn't exist in the Opera browser. Perhaps this could be added as an update in the future, but then we would all likely have to redownload and possibly pay for the new version of Opera. That isn't stated in the article, just my thoughts.

Edited August 9, 2007 by -^Cro§Bow^-

[Lord Helmet]

I noticed my Wii glowing this morning, but I haven't had a chance to power it on. I'll DL this as soon as I get home. Glad to hear that they fixed the menu lag issue.

 

Here is an article with screenshots of the changes:

 

http://www.vooks.net/modules.php?module=article&id=12114

Edited August 7, 2007 by Lord Helmet

[rockman_x_2002]

Here's another tidbit of news for you dialup users out there such as myself. The Wii Shop Channel, apparently, now works with a dialup connection since the 3.0U update. I successfully downloaded the "Everybody Votes" channel without issue. Took a while, but it's nothing dialup folks aren't already used to.

 

Unfortunately this comes almost too late: I was informed just last week that sometime around September or October, we're going to now be offered broadband service in my area.

 

But, at least I don't have to wait another month or two to enjoy what the Shop Channel now has to offer.

[bones]

It's a really nice update, downloaded it last night. The changes to the Shop channel are great, browsing by genre and company just rules. Noticed that Square has a title in there, hopefully more good things to come from them. USB keyboard support has potential...cross fingers for another Typing of the Dead game!

 

This morning my Wii was glowing _again_, so fired it up and turns out there is a free Metriod Prime 3 download available! Currently it's two trailers of gameplay, and two more are slated to be available for download 8/13. Game comes out at the end of this month, woot! Here's hoping they have this kind of feature for other A-list titles, it's nice to see Wii preview content on the big screen TV instead of this tiny monitor

[Steril707]

USB Keyboard support is awesome...And i really hope this will work in Opera in the future.

[King_Salamon]

I'm hoping Nintendo and Opera can work out a revision to the browser to allow keyboard use. It would make surfing a little easier, not that I use it a whole lot.

 

The Metroid thing was nice to see... hope there is more and more of this... I can only imagine the amount of goodies Mario Galaxy will get!

[Albert]

Nice to hear about USB keyboard support. That's one of the nice things about the 360 (and I assume PS3), is that you can plug any USB keyboard in and it works as expected. Seems brain damaged that this was not the default behavior of the Wii, and it's still a bit brain damaged if keyboards don't work in Opera, where you need keyboard support the most!!

 

..Al

[Shannon]

If they add USB support to the browser I'll be happy. But at least it makes entering credit card info every time I'm interested in purcasing more points easier.

 

Thanks for the info on the changes. I didn't really have time to check them out.

[Shannon]

Not sure if the update I just downloaded tonight is this very same one or a new one. I'm guessing this one.

 

But I noticed when you pick the update option it gives instructions on how to not accept the upgrade if you choose not to do so. But the interesting part is it also says the following.

 

If your Wii console has an unauthorized technical mod this upgrade could cause inoperability of your console.

 

Did it always say this? I do not remember seeing that specific text. I'm wondering if Nintendo actually did something to hinder the hardware hack people have been using to play back-up copies.

Edited August 20, 2007 by Shannon

[+-^CrossBow^-]

I don't know about rendering mod chips and the like unusable, but I do know that this latest update kills the Cube's region bypass bootdisk programs that used to work for playing import cube games. Now, you will get an error on the Wii stating that something is wrong with the gamecube disc and to check it.

 

Soooo....it would seem that at least some legals methods to bypass their region checks will no longer work now. So I guess you could say that the Wii is only 100% compatible with the games released in the same region that your Wii belongs to.

[Room 34]

So THAT's what the glowing is about? To let you know there's a new system update? Mine was doing it that day too and I had no idea why. (I did happen to run the update a day or two later.)

 

As far as the keyboard support goes... is there really any point to that OTHER than in the browser? (And does it actually WORK in the browser?)

[Shannon]

From what I understand the keyboard only works in the online store, so for example when you enter your credit card info for the millionth time you can use the keyboard. I think it also works when sending messages to other people. As far as I know it is not currently working with the web browser.

[Room 34]

So... it's even more pointless than I thought?

[Rockin' Kat]

It also works in messageboard.