Wii browser - Huge disappointment

[goKi]

It's available in Australia. Quite simply, you have to zoom in on everything to read it, the scrolling is too slow, and the typing is extremely time consuming. Not so hot. Nonetheless, it should be available in all territories shortly

[Dechipher]

Is it just me or has Nintendo been disappointing a lot lately? I mean, maybe it's just an outsiders perception, as I can only go on what people say, but games like Yoshi's Island II and NSMB dont' seem like they have the flare as their predecessors. I own NSMB and it was fun the first time, but I don't want to play it again. Wii wise, it just seems there is so much more they could have made better, just from what I hear. I don't know.

[erm2003]

I do agree that the scrolling could be a bit more sensitive such as moving faster the closer your pointer is to the edge of the screen. I figured you would have to zoom in to read, it will always default to displaying the page on the full screen first. I played with it for a whole four minutes so I can't say much else. I don't plan on using it to do any typing other than addresses and such so I don't see that as being a big deal. It is nice to use that channel as a quick reference however if I needed to look something up. It would be great if they would take suggestions somewhere and make a few changes for the final version.

[Xyvol]

It's no replacement for my computer, but it's ok. The scrolling does get a little faster if you move the pointer off screen. Pushing the 2 button puts the display in single column mode, which eleminates all the crap and puts the text in a screen sized display, so you just need to scroll up and down. As long as it's free, it's a good novelty for reading your favorite pages. Any heavy typing should be done on the computer, as this message took longer than I want to spend typing.

[ShadowTiger]

I'm sure they'll come up with a keyboard plugin or something sooner or later; they already did that with the Pro Action Replay device for easier typing. It's just a matter of time and/or patience and/or willingness to use such a thing, I'd guess.

[goKi]

Since my Wii and PC use the same screen, i can't see myself using the browser channel for anything other than novelty ever again.

[ShadowTiger]

Heh.

I was just in #GU, and apparently, java based IRC chats don't work in the browser. CGI-based chats do though.

From what I heard in there though, it's still better to go with your PC browser. Typing up posts from a Wii is slow going.

[vegeta1215]

Is it just me or has Nintendo been disappointing a lot lately? I mean, maybe it's just an outsiders perception, as I can only go on what people say, but games like Yoshi's Island II and NSMB don't' seem like they have the flare as their predecessors.

I haven't finished the game yet (I'm close), but so far Twilight Princess has been a disappointment when compared to the previous 3D Zelda games (yes even Wind Waker). I'll probably make a post about it once I completely finish the game.

As for the browser, I think it's nice that they're giving it away for free for a few months. After that it'll only be $5 I think, which is not very much. I'm sure it will get updates in the future to improve things too. You also have to remember they're probably targeting a different audience with the browser - it's not for you tech buffs.

[MottZilla]

Since my Wii and PC use the same screen, i can't see myself using the browser channel for anything other than novelty ever again.

Would you rather web browse in something like 1600x1050 or 640x480? It's obvious without HD that web browsing for most of us would be horrifying.

[Warlock]

I wasn't really expecting it to be great. But it's free so whatever.

[Grasshopper]

How can you be disappointed with a console web browser? Its designed to view web pages, reading articles and such, not for communication on the web. They're not that great anyway.

[Kairyu]

Well, they're calling it Beta for a reason, I think. Obviously, it'll never be quite the same as using a PC, but I'm gonna trust Opera to make something out of this by the final release.

[DarkFlameWolf]

Furthermore, I'd rather not take up 278 blocks of precious onboard Wii memory which could be better suited for virtual games! :D

[Saffith]

It's pretty much just a plain, simple web browser. In that regard, I don't really have any complaints. It's more or less what I'd expected.
What I'm disappointed by is the Flash player. The Wii could be great for Flash games, if only the player were improved. The fact that it's a bit slow is unfortunate, if not terribly surprising, but what really sucks is how poorly it responds to repeated button presses. You have to wait a moment after letting go of A to press it again, or it doesn't register. That's a fairly serious problem for a lot of games.

[AtmaWeapon]

I tried getting it to download this morning and got some kind of error so I haven't tried it, but while having the error I got to thinking about what it would be like typing URLs with the Wiimote and pretty much already decided that it would be a hassle. I can't figure out the use of it but hey, one more thing the Wii can do I guess.

[Grasshopper]

To me, anything is a hassle if you have to type it with a remote. I really hope they update the system to use USB flash memory, keyboards, and mice. And fix it so that I can save to an SD card, without having to fill up my internal memory. I haven't played with one yet though, so I haven't been able to try out the Opera browser.

[Thunderbird]

Furthermore, I'd rather not take up 278 blocks of precious onboard Wii memory which could be better suited for virtual games! :D

The Shop Channel tends to overestimate the amount of memory needed for downloads. Everything I've downloaded from there has taken less memory than advertised (in the case of Opera, it only holds 230 blocks, not the advertised 278).

[Modus Ponens]

Its biggest downfall is that I couldn't get Line Rider to run on it.

[AlexMax]

I'm typing this post from the Wii browser. For what it is, it's not half bad. Obviously it's useless if your Wii and computer are in the same room, but it is nice to be able to watch flash movies on a TV.

The autocomplete could use some work though...too many periods turning into .us's, heh.

And, you know...it is a beta, they have time to iron out the kinks.

[Warlock]

omg i'm typing this w/ my wii :p
this wouldn't be so bad with a keyboard :D ALSO the wii assumes I want lowercase and crap - like this :d - CANNOT do a capital D there unless i cheat and type it first.

also, clicking links is horrible

[Warlock]

back on my pc.. apparently the browser is also gay in that you can't leave.. if I hit Home, I lose my cursor -_- I had to turn the system off to get out -_-

I think the browser itself is fine if they iron out the bugs - main ones being the horrible clicking and the Home button bug. If you aren't trying to type out long forum posts and stuff, it's fine just to browse. And if they implement some kind of keyboard attachment it will be perfect.

[Lotus_Eater]

Actually it should be easy to make it compatible with a bluetooth keyboard, as the controllers are already bluetooth.

[Warlock]

Decided to compile a list of annoying things I've noticed so far (some of it repeated from above mostly because I typed it somewhere else originally :P):

-Sometimes you have to click a link 5-10 times just for it to register that you've clicked it. Very annoying.
-Typing takes forever. A keyboard add-on would be nice (though I'm not sure it'd be worth paying for just for this)
-Most of the time if you hit the Wii's "Home" button, the "Back to Wii Menu" button comes up... but no cursor. You have no way to quit the browser except powering down the system.
-The browser has it's own little preconceptions about what words and letters you want to type. For example, I tried to type a smiley - :D It *forced* me to type :d (lowercase D). You cannot type an uppercase letter after a colon for some reason (but you can cheat by typing the letter first, then the colon).. there are also issues with the autocomplete just putting the word in there despite what you want it to do.
-Overall seems very buggy - I've been kicked out of webpages back to the main Opera menu page for no apparent reason. I've also had pages refuse to load when typed as a direct URL, but when I click a link to access it, it loads fine.
-Doesn't save web address, so if you for example make a typo, you have to type the whole thing over again. Very annoying.
-Back only saves about 5 pages worth of history.

[Modus Ponens]

Okay, this is my first (and, probably, only) post from the discomfort of my Wii. I pretty much agree with everything that's been said, although I must say that I actually like the autocomplete quite a bit. (Ironically enough, as I typed that last period, I encountered the very ".us" problem that was mentioned earlier.)

Still perhaps their biggest, dumbest oversight is the lack of a backspace button on the remote. Come on, fhqwhgads, how hard would it be to, oh, I don't know, have the B button be BACKSPACE?! ...idiots.

Anyway, all that said, Homestar Runner cartoons look great on my TV, though I do wish I could control the degree to which I zoom with the + and - buttons, so that I could frame up the videos a bit more nicely.

Well, it is still βeta. [Crosses fingers]

[*b*]

Sounds like a piece of crap so far. Haven't hooked up my Wii to the internet yet, so needless to say I haven't tried it

At the very least, it could be useful for looking up guides or something, maybe

[Xyvol]

You can turn the auto text off with a button above the backspace. Solves the :D problem too. Not being able to highlight or hold a key down is an anoyannce, if I wanted to delete this last sentence I would have to hit backspace for every chatacter.

[Orion]

I'm just trying to figure out why you guys were expecting the browser to end all browsers here. You all have computers, use them.

I've never used a browser on a console or handheld that has ever impressed me, and I wasn't expecting this one to either. I'm actually suprised that it doesn't suck that much. I'm probably never gunna use it, but it was nice to try.

It's funny to see some of you go from "OMG teh Wii I creamed my ppantz0rs!" to "I'm so disappointed with Nintendo cuz their free web browser sucks."

And for the record, Nintendo didn't develop Yoshi's Island 2. :P

[MANDRAG GANON]

Its biggest downfall is that I couldn't get Line Rider to run on it.

Haha, thats the first thing my brother went for when i told him i downloaded the browser.

Also I thought that the browser wasnt supposed to support flash or something.

I went to the World Of Warcraft website and when it loaded it was all over the place, I had no idea what was going on. I still havent used it much though.

Edit:I just wrote a crapload more on my wii about how it sucks to type and the.us thing is annoying and also how youtube videos did not load for me, but over all i wont mind it for reading things and watching videos. just as I go to send the browser froze >.>

I definately would like a backspace button and the zooming should zoom rather than just have 2 options, that way if i want to watch a flash I can make it full screen and not small or too big. A selection zoom would be cool. I also found that while flash videos work, sometimes it only shows certain layers of the flash video so you wont always see the entire thing which is kinda chinse, but might just be a glitch.

[Warlock]

funny, same thing a few nights ago. Was typing up about how it sucks and it froze.us (oh noes!)

I must be wary for secret Nintendo ninja assassins next I think - you know, the ones sent to crash the browser as a warning against talking smack.us

I left the .us's in to drive home my disdane. (see, they are watching - that one didn't do it)

[Modus Ponens]

I left the .us's in to drive home my disdane. (see, they are watching - that one didn't do it)

Could have something to do with the fact that you spelled disdain wrong. Dunno.

[Grasshopper]

Well, Its not as bad as I thought.

Gah! I can't type on that thing. Not as bad as I thought, since I was imagining some horrible atrocious web browser. But it is pretty sleek. Still prefer having a keyboard, and don't really know why I'd want to use my Wii to browse the internet.