Nintendo talks openly about the Wii Opera browser
Published March 28th, 2007 12:37 PM EDT By Daniel Goldman
The people behind the Nintendo Wii Internet Channel had a recent chat about the Wii Opera browser. Among the things they discussed were some of the new features and capabilities in the final version of the Wii browser (to be released in April) and why they chose Opera to power the Internet Channel?
Here are a few snippets (full transcript here):
“On a computer, you use software called a browser to view websites, and the Internet Channel on Wii is based off of a browser called Opera, which is developed by Opera Software. Opera was originally a browser designed for PCs, but seeing how the browser’s performance was being noted for its stability and performance on devices with limited features like a cell phone, we decided to go with Opera because we felt that is was suited for Wii.”
“When it came to displaying all the various websites, Opera Software’s rich experience helped us greatly. As a company that specifically develops browsers, they had an extremely extensive test case knowledgebase.”
“The Internet Channel was created from the concept of bringing the Internet to the living room, from the very beginning of its development. As we were thinking of what would be the best way to display websites on Wii, we came up with a vision where you’re able to casually sit on the couch, and be able to just browse through the websites with one hand. Opera Software understood this vision of ours, and from that point on, the differences we once had regarding our goals had started to drift away.”
Read the entire chat transcript
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using
Nice. I’ve always wondered about the motivation behind Nintendo’s choice.
Also, it almost makes me want to buy a Wii… Almost…
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Any way they can include tabbed-browsing, wiimote gestures, and the latest flash? Actually, especially flash, since Opera and Adobe has an exisisting relationship via the Creative Suite.
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My quess is that you will not see a newer version of Flash for the Wii. In order to get Flash 9 on the Wii, Adobe would have to release a Flash Player 9 SDK, which they may never do. Right now the Flash Player SDK is at version 7, and is still titled “Macromedia Flash Player SDK”. I seriously doubt that we will see a new version, and if we do, it won’t be for a long time.