Wii News Channel to debut this Saturday
by Jared Rea 
{ Jan 25th 2007 at 12:16PM }
Come this Saturday, Wii owners won't even have to put down their waggle-wand to find out how the Wii has shattered the life of another owner, so long as the Associated Press reports it. In a two-year deal with Nintendo, the Associated Press has agreed to supply the Wii's News Channel with both top stories and photographs from around the world.The news itself will be delivered much like the Weather Channel -- on an interactive map. Should you want the local news in a specific location, you may simply select it on the map. This must be how god in all her infinite wisdom and five thighs views our world.
The free News Channel (aside from an internet connection, duh) has but one requirement: the Opera browser. So if you plan on shunning all forms of communication to the outside world other than your Wii, you'd better download it now before they actually start charging for it.
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
01 @ Jan 25th 2007 12:25PM
This seems a little weird to me... Will there be a front page with top national/international news and the you can drill into the map for more local news? I think this would be preferable to a total weather channel like interface, and would make accessing top news easier. Guess I'll find out in 2 days :-)
Pyronite @ Jan 25th 2007 12:25PM
So this Wii News update is expected to fix the problems with the Weather Channel, right? Or am I confused?
Steve @ Jan 25th 2007 12:47PM
Yea. AP content on my Wii. The other day I was complaining about the fact that the time I spend on my Wii is time that I'm not getting my usual bombardment of leftwing propaganda. Nintendo has solved this problem and getting a healthy dose of socialist dogma will now be just a "home" button click away!
As an added bonus, assuming Nintendo continues with the philosophy used with their weather channel, I'll not only get a hefty dose of leftwing propaganda but I'll also get headlines that are less than 7 hours old! Whoopie!
Shame they didn't choose Reuters though. They chould have combined the Reuters news service with a special VC release of Mario Paint. That way you could doctor photos to fit your agenda just like a real Reuters photo journalist!
Phsycogamer @ Jan 25th 2007 7:18PM
I think this update is suppose to fix the problems with the forecast channel.
Justin @ Jan 25th 2007 12:52PM
what are the problems with the weather channel? Works fine for me.
TheKingInYellow @ Jan 25th 2007 12:41PM
If I can spin like I can spin the globe on the weather channel, sign me up!
Oh wait, if I wanted news with spin, I'd be watching FOX.
Fred T @ Jan 25th 2007 12:41PM
The browser makes this redundant... just make some news site your homepage.
Scott @ Jan 25th 2007 12:53PM
Pyronite,
What problems are there with the Wii Weather Channel?
Feeple @ Jan 25th 2007 11:13PM
5 Thighs?! Thanks God I'm a leg man!
Twinkie @ Jan 29th 2007 4:39PM
As long as I dont have that screen of nothingness that i have now when i put the news channel, then im cool. plus, gives me more reason to play wii!
Bravado @ Jan 25th 2007 1:03PM
There are a few problems with the Weather Channel. First off, if you check it, for most people the current weather is a healthy 5-8 hours behind the actual time. Also, it would sure be nice if the temperature showed up on the channels menu like I remember seeing when they unveiled the channels setup.
Kannon @ Jan 25th 2007 3:46PM
Oh no, 5 dollars is too much, please dont make money off of doing hard work Nintendo, why would you make such a bad business decision?
HotShotX @ Jan 25th 2007 1:11PM
Actually, if I was remember correctly, the first page you get on your local weather on the Wii is your weather at Noon.
If you press up on the D-Pad, you get the UV Index.
If you press down, you get the weather currently.
If you press down 2x, you get tomorrow's weather.
If you press down 3x, you get the 5-Day Forecast.
~HotShotX
Oh, and it's raining in Shanghai.
samred @ Jan 25th 2007 1:12PM
The weather channel often doesn't update certain cities for nearly a day. It'll say that the current temperature is from the previous night, for starters.
Bravado @ Jan 25th 2007 1:16PM
This is what I was talking about:
http://blogs.ign.com/Matt-IGN/2007/01/01/41843/
Wolfe_boy @ Jan 25th 2007 1:15PM
Holy crap some of you people are negative. For fucks sake - it's FREE. If you don't want to check the AP for news, then ...wait for it, it's a novel idea... don't use it!
Christ.
fightinfilipino @ Jan 25th 2007 1:16PM
t HotShotX: i hope you saved.
(
Agent MOO @ Jan 25th 2007 1:19PM
Yay! another useless channel to move off of the first Wii channels page
Pimliconite @ Jan 25th 2007 1:20PM
AP is "leftwing propoganda", "socialist dogma"...
I think the only news sources that could satisfy you are photocopied handouts written by angry, middle-aged libertarians. Don't you have a "fictional" Iraqi investigator to track down? Or maybe a wire service to apologize to, perhaps?
Evorgleb @ Jan 25th 2007 1:27PM
why do you need to have the Opera browser first?
Fhaze @ Jan 25th 2007 1:29PM
Must be a slow news day if the only news is the news.
lol. @ Jan 25th 2007 2:03PM
yeah, the weather channel isn't perfect, but it's something. I don't care really. I usually just check it if I'm playing wii and I wanna go out right after.
What would be cool is a picture in picture feature for the channels. Like, I'm playing twilight princess and I wanna do a quick peek at the weather, PIP the current temp in the corner.
As for the news channel, I'll get it, but I doubt I'll use it, other than the novelty of randomly selecting world news. I, for one, want to know the news going on in easter island.
DJ @ Jan 25th 2007 2:14PM
"Yea. AP content on my Wii. The other day I was complaining about the fact that the time I spend on my Wii is time that I'm not getting my usual bombardment of leftwing propaganda blah blah blah" - STEVE
-
Steve, why don't you just admit that you're a delusional Fox news fan?
I know why. Because even you know you'll be LAUGHED AT. You're just like all the other discredited GW-jockriders, who hang onto your fantasy... but are no longer in a position to defend them without being mercilessly ridiculed by everyone.
So instead you choose to attack Reuters, AP, and anybody who had the common sense to RIP GW, Fox, and the whole bunch of evil idiots.
Don't even have enough pride in your demented world view to speak straight.
-
AP provides a wide breadth of news content. It's not like you can't use the browser to go To other news sites. To call AP socialist is pure fabrication and paranoia on the part of ultraconservatives who are used to FAUX NEWS channel.
beesnipe @ Jan 25th 2007 2:35PM
I just want nintendo to work on the online service, and some games.
....and the online service.
Geo @ Jan 25th 2007 2:46PM
Yeah, I only use the weather channel to spin the globe. If I checked it right now, it'd probably give me the temp at midnight last night. I emailed nintendo about it. Two weeks later they replied saying, "we will forward this to the appropriate department."
Buckshot @ Jan 25th 2007 2:48PM
#19 DJ, I just saw some minorities on the corner, have some of my tax money and quickly take them some free cheese! Give Steve some credit for choosing to disregard the liberal media, to each his own. And Pimliconite, maybe if you learned what a libertarian really was, then you could understand what freedom and liberty means.
Libertarians believe that every person is the absolute owner of his or her own life as long as he respects the liberty of others. Government should engage in the minimum amount of initiatory force (such as levying taxes to provide some public goods such as defense, law, and roads, as well as some minimal regulation), because we believe it helps to ensure maximum individual freedom. We also believe that a free market can adequately provide these functions in most cases when government gets out of the way. Libertarians generally do not oppose force used in response to initiatory aggressions such as direct attack, physical violence, fraud or trespassing subject to the respect for liberty mentioned above.
samfish @ Jan 25th 2007 3:06PM
I'm sorry, but anyone who actually believes in a "liberal media" is a god damned non-thinking sheep.
We've been hearing this claim for well over 20 years and not once has any proof or pattern ever been shown. There are a lot of authoritarian morons (and they call themselves "libertarian"! HA!) who ONLY want to hear news that re-enforces their world view which has been consistently proven wrong over the decade (with the most recent example of conservative ideology failing being Iraq)
...you could, of course, make the opposite case rather easily.
It's the Big Lie concept's greatest victory. Keep repeating a lie enough and eventually enough people will start to believe it.
Anyway, I agree with what someone else said. Another channel to move off the main page.
TwilightKnight @ Jan 25th 2007 3:38PM
You all miss the point entirely about political slant in news channels.
First off it is done delibertly to cater to the group of people that want to see the news that way. To bash news sites because the way they see the world differently then you won't change a damn thing and your opinion on the matter doesn't even warrent merit.
Secondly the news is done this way to calm and point the bewildered herd from more important things like job security, the economy, and social security. When you care more about football and the pointless gossip of famous people then important matters, then you are in the bewildered herd.
Most importantly though when you pointlessly argue over how slanted a media outlet is, YOU ARE JUST BLINDLY FOLLOWING WHAT THEY EXPECT FROM YOU!
If you want to learn more about how you have been lead to think like a herd here is a fun fun link:
http://www.quotes2u.com/histdocs/propaganda.htm
Also the news channel is worth it since it is free. Can't say no to free stuff.
boy1der @ Jan 25th 2007 3:51PM
It doesn seem a bit odd that you have to have the browser installed and the whole globe thing. There should be two aspects to it.
1) the globe idea is really cool in that you can go to the country you want to hear news about
2) a page that you can open with top stories from around the country (and world)
Isn't the point of news to know whats going on in the world not just your hometown?
Other than that I'm glad to hear its not CNN or Fox news providing the stories. If I wanted to read a breif update on Iraq followed by close coverage of the Tom katt wedding I would buy an issue of US Weekly.
Zell @ Jan 25th 2007 3:51PM
Nice. Been wondering when this would hit. I do very much enjoy the weather channel and I've found myself using it more than I even expected. Sure I could wait for the Internet Channel to load and go surf CNN.com but, clearly with the New Channel being just news, it'll be faster and easier.
Khan @ Jan 25th 2007 4:59PM
Damnit, forgot the password
Anyway, anyone else notice the logic failing in requiring Opera to allow News Channel to function?
News Channel is HARDWIRED, you cannot delete it, and it will always be on the Channel menu, while you can delete Opera whenever you please
It would be like Sony saying you had to download Tekken DR before you could play Blu-Ray Movies...
Gavin @ Jan 25th 2007 6:05PM
If this were an addition to the 360 or PS3, people would be mocking it as useless and a waste of time.
Jackson Pritt @ Jan 25th 2007 6:09PM
Yeah I have to agree that having the browser be REQUIRED to make the News Channel work seems kind of retarded. I also hope there's a "WORLD NEWS" or "INTERNATIONAL EVENTS" option so that I can get all the major headlines from around the world rather than having to spin the globe constantly to try to figure out which parts of the planet have important/new things going on.
Well, all will be cleared up on Saturday!
So far the Weather Channel & Wii Browser have been better than I expected, so I'm sure the News Channel will be too.
Pyronite @ Jan 26th 2007 2:16AM
"7. Pyronite,
What problems are there with the Wii Weather Channel?"
I should have been more specific, I thought more people were having these problems; I have come across a few others who have.
My problem isn't with the service, but with the fact that it hasn't worked on my Wii in a while now. Something to do with corrupted data somewhere or another? Anyway, either my roommate did it or it just did it on its own; it fails to load and asks to check for an update before simply giving up. After searching around for a fix on the internet, the only known one so far is to format the data on your console, which I don't really want to do, seeing as I have too much data to lose (and no portable media to transport it on).
So yeah, that's basically it. It's not working and I've read in a few places that this Wii News update will also address the problem I mentioned above.
Pyronite @ Jan 26th 2007 2:17AM
"7. Pyronite,
What problems are there with the Wii Weather Channel?"
I should have been more specific, I thought more people were having these problems; I have come across a few others who have.
My problem isn't with the service, but with the fact that it hasn't worked on my Wii in a while now. Something to do with corrupted data somewhere or another? Anyway, either my roommate did it or it just did it on its own; it fails to load and asks to check for an update before simply giving up. After searching around for a fix on the internet, the only known one so far is to format the data on your console, which I don't really want to do, seeing as I have too much data to lose (and no portable media to transport it on).
So yeah, that's basically it. It's not working and I've read in a few places that this Wii News update will also address the problem I mentioned above.
Pyronite @ Jan 26th 2007 2:17AM
Dammit, I knew it was going to post twice.
Oh well. :(
Cuja @ Jan 26th 2007 3:47AM
Amber alert for kids to keep track of other kids. Have you seen this kid? He was last seen on Xbox live. His mom's looking for him to clean out the garage.
Schwuk @ Jan 26th 2007 10:36AM
Already got it!
Got the blue glowing light on my Wii this morning, opened the message telling me to update, and I did.
First impressions of the News channel sucked, but once I figured out how it uses the globe from the Weather channel I was pretty impressed.
Whether I'll use it or not is a different matter, but it's great to see WiiConnect 24 working.