David Carnoy of CNET recently published a column about how to improve Sony’s PlayStation 3. Number three on the list was “Improve the browser – or scrap it altogether in favor of something else.” And he’s right. Anyone who’s ever used the PS3 browser knows its limitations. Browsing to any web page that includes some kind of rich content (special Javascript or embeded Flash videos, for example) causes a prompt to appear asking if the user would like to run external scripts. If you say yes, very often the browser then complains it has run out of space and will not load the page. I’ve gotten into the habit of just saying “no” each time it asks.

But what makes Carnoy’s column especially interesting to us is that he specifically mentions the Opera browser:

A lot of folks would like to see Sony move to an Opera-based browser, which runs on Linux (and the Wii uses). Whether that’s the right solution or not, Sony can do better in the Web-surfing department. Heck, if the iPhone can have good Web browser, why can’t the PS3 and the PSP have good ones?

As a PS3 owner myself, I would, of course, love it if Sony moved in this direction. And for those worrying about Flash content, Haavard makes a good point that Flash Lite 3 would surely work on the PS3.

The ball’s in your court, Sony!

A new version of the Internet Channel for the Nintendo Wii is out today. The Internet Channel is powered by Opera.

Among the new improvements and features are:

• Support for a USB keyboard, which will make typing much easier
• Ability to send web links to your ‘Wii friends’
• Copy and paste text from Webpages
• You could save an additional 9 favorites, bring it to a total of 56
• Widget support. Now you can download Opera Widgets, the same ones that work on the desktop, to the Wii. The widgets you could download include calendars, news readers, Internet radios and other applications.

This update is available as a free upgrade to existing Internet Channel users.

More information is available on Nintendo’s website and on the Opera for Nintendo product page.

(Opera on the Nintendo Wii Internet Channel)

Just 2 more days left… Make sure you get it before it’s gone…

Add these banners to your blog:

• 728 x 90
• 160 x 600
• 120 x 600

Spread the word!

Just a few days are left for you to get the Opera browser free for the Nintendo Wii. Starting on Sunday the Wii Opera-powered browser will cost 500 Wii points or roughly $5 (US) to download.

If you’re lucky enough to own a Wii and haven’t yet downloaded Opera, make sure to do so real soon. Time is almost running out. Do you want to miss out on watching YouTube videos and playing the plethora of Flash games on your TV or even surf the net during commercial break?

This is an open call to all of my readers. Help spread the word on your blogs, in forums, Twitter, MySpace, Facebook, and all other mediums. Make sure none of your friends lose out on this opportunity.

Here at Opera we’re openly encouraging all proud Wii owners to take advantage of free grace period before it expires.

The Wii Opera-powered (a.k.a the Internet Channel) browser can be downloaded through the Wii Shop channel.

July 1st (Sunday) is fast approaching!

Update: Here are some new Wii browser banners for you to put on your blogs:

• 728 x 90
• 160 x 600
• 120 x 600

A couple of my readers (thanks Michael and Phillip) alerted me to the latest Revision3 InDigital episode, where they compared the capabilities of the Nintendo Wii, Sony PlayStation 3, and the Xbox 360. When they mentioned the web browsing capabilities of the Wii, they were very impressed with Opera, saying “[it’s] surprisingly pleasant even if you’re viewing heavy flash sites.” “The internet channel is great. If you want to watch YouTube videos on a full-size TV screen, you can do that.”

The Wii Opera-powered browser talk begins at about 11:15 into the episode. (Watch the video)

I4UNews posted a video showing off the Opera browser on the Nintendo DS. Opera for the Nintendo DS and Nintendo DS Lite was released today to the North American market.

The video shows Opera to be pretty cool on the DS. I’ve owned a copy of the DS browser for about 6 months already, but unfortunately don’t own a Nintendo DS.

(Watch the video)

After only being available in Europe and Asia, the Opera browser for the Nintendo DS is now available in the United States (US) too.

To display webpages on the DS, Opera makes use of both screens, using either Overview mode, which shows the complete webpage on the lower screen with the highlighted area zoomed in on the upper screen, or with Opera’s Small-Screen Rendering technology, where the upper and lower screens are combined to make a single screen.

The browser works on both the Nintendo DS and Nintendo DS Lite.

What’s going on with Apple CEO Steve Jobs?

Last week I read a quote of his regarding Apple TV saying ‘this is the first time users can easily browse, find and watch YouTube videos right from their living room couch.’

As has already been pointed out by other bloggers, Nintendo beat Apple to the punch when it included the Opera browser to the Wii. I’m sure many of you have browsed ‘easily’ and watched YouTube videos on your living room couch. (Did any of the other gaming consoles beat the Wii to playing Flash videos on TV?)

Then today I read in the Wall Street Journal (section B) another quote from Steve Jobs, this time referring to the Apple iPhone, “it is the full Internet in your pocket for the first time.”

With all due respect, what’s he thinking? Is he trying to fool the world again? Hasn’t Opera Mobile been providing the full internet on phones for a while now?

In the past months we’ve been seeing a slew of sites and applications developed with the Wii Opera browser in mind. One of the appealing aspects of the Wii browser for game developers is that it allows them to build games using Flash and simply host them on the web.

So if you’re developing for the Wii browser (or just want to make sure your site works well on the Wii), be sure to check out the new tutorial on how to make Wii-friendly pages on Dev.Opera. Of course, you should always test your sites in Opera, since all of Opera’s browsers (desktop, Opera Mini, Opera Mobile, Opera on the Wii, etc) use the same rendering engine.

Tutorial: Making Wii-friendly pages

Important Update: Oops… It looks like I jumped the gun. Having seen this on Nintendo’s website, I assumed it was legitimate and correct. After being alerted to the possibility that this may be a mistake, I checked with a person familiar with the DS browser developments at Opera, and was told that to our knowledge the DS browser does not support Flash.

The rumors are true. On its website, Nintendo confirmed that the US version of the Opera-powered DS browser will include support for Flash and JavaScript. The browser is scheduled to be released on June 4th.

Say hello to YouTube on the DS browser.

(via N+)

Google released a version of Google Reader specifically designed for the Wii Opera-powered browser (watch the video below). In addition to the styling changes, there are also keyboard Wiimote shortcuts you can you with the Wii.

If you’d like to try the Reader interface in a regular browser, visit www.google.com/reader/wii to go into Wii mode.

If only some other Google teams would work with Opera’s Web Opening team to get their services and products to work in Opera…

On a side note, there are just 3 weeks left for you to download the Wii Opera-powered browser for free.

(Thanks to IceArdor, Bernie, and Dantesoft for the email tip)

In a review on the Computer and Video Games (CVG) site, the Wii Opera-powered browser (Internet Channel) got a praising review for its intuitiveness and ability to quickly load pages, images and Flash video.

The review mentions some nice things about the browser, though I wanted to make a couple comments on it.

First, the reviewer says: “The PSP browser is much like its bigger brother only slower, and the DS browser, which is also provided by Opera, is agonizingly slow. Fortunately for Wii, Opera got its act together and has come up with a far better browser than we expected.”

I’m not sure what is meant by “Opera got its act together”. No comparison can be made to the Opera browser on the Nintendo DS, where Opera has to work around a total memory limit of 4MB of RAM, to the Wii, which has way more RAM. Running a browser using only 4 MB of RAM truly shows the compactness and efficiency of the Opera browser.

In addition, the reviewer seemed somewhat surprised that their site worked and rendered correctly on the Wii browser. It’s no surprise to me – after all, the Wii browser uses a more advanced version of Opera’s rendering engine than is currently available on the desktop Opera. So if the site works well in the Opera desktop browser, it should on the Wii browser too. It’s the same browser.

Yahoo Japan has optimized their search site for the Wii Opera-powered browser.

Wow… even huge companies like Yahoo are paying close attention to the Wii Internet Channel. Other big sites, such as StumbleUpon, have also taken notice of the Wii browser. This is great!

Since I’m not one of the lucky ones to own a Wii, I turned to Firefox and the Tamper Data extension to create the Wii screenshot of Yahoo below. However, for some reason the site is optimized for the Wii, but not for Firefox. It appears to be messed up a bit in Firefox. But that’s the best I’ve got at the moment.

Edit: Robin Zalek, a reader of Opera Watch, was kind enough to make a couple screenshots of Yahoo’s site on the Wii.

Yahoo’s optimized site for the Wii browser

Yahoo’s optimized site for the Wii browser

Quote from an AP article regarding the Wii Opera-powered browser:

“Nintendo’s Internet Channel, developed by Opera Software, is so simple even your computer-phobic, “Wii Sports”-loving grandma can use it. It has a nice, flexible zoom feature that keeps text readable no matter how big you make it, and it’s easy to bookmark or scroll around pages with the Wii remote. The only drawback is the lack of a keyboard, which makes typing web addresses a hassle.”

Opera’s Haavard just answered on his blog the question many have been asking “Why does the Wii Opera-powered browser come with the ancient Flash 7 and not with Flash 8 or Flash 9?”

The simple answer is that it’s out of both Opera and Nintendo’s hands. If you want to run Flash outside of Windows, Linux, or Mac, you need the Flash SDK (Software Development Kit), which is made by Adobe. As a result, the Flash SDK is needed to run the Wii and Opera’s mobile browser on phones. The problem however is, Adobe hasn’t released Flash 8 or 9 on their SDK, and until they do so, there’s nothing we could do about it.

With the much anticipated launch of the Opera-powered Wii browser yesterday, Opera is seeing a positive effect in other areas too, namely with desktop browser downloads and the Opera Community site.

Through Opera’s new Wii browser portal, Wii gamers could easily access the My Opera community site, which resulted yesterday in an all time record high of new account signups for a single day. The MyOpera community site is a place where users can host (for free) blogs, photos, and forums, making the Wii a good place for them to showcase their work.

Another new record for Opera yesterday was with downloads of the desktop browser. According to internal figures I’ve seen, a new record was set yesterday for the number of downloads of the desktop browser on the My Opera community site. There’s a small section on the My Opera site which encourages users to download Opera.

That makes two records in one day. Go Opera!