Wii Warm Up: WiiAIM

by Alisha Karabinus on Feb 11th 2007 10:00AM

Since Nintendo isn't completely focused on turning their living room console into a central media hub like some folks, armchair developers are trying to bring all the functionality of the computer to the Wii. Up today: WiiAIM. Yep, there are some folks working to enable AIM chat on the Wii. We're a little skeptical about the practicality of such an application (navigating the onscreen keyboard to surf the web is bad enough), but we thought we'd ask you what you thought of such a move. Would you get your chat on with the Wiimote?

[Via Digg]

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Tags: AIM, chat, homebrew, Nintendo, Wii, WiiAIM, wwu

Reader Comments (50)

well, if they make it able to detect keyboards on the wii i will probably the first one in line to use it, when i get a wii that is :P

Sounds interesting I might look into it a bit.
P.S I have a wii.

Well it's a start, but wouldn't MSN make a lot more sense? Concidering I know one person that actually uses AIM. Maybe globally AIM is more popular, but in North America something like 5 people use AIM.

the whole web on Wii thing would be so very useful if only there was a wireless keyboard for it. Either an official nintendo keyboard, or the ability to recognize our own.

@ elric:
i don't know anyone who uses MSN messenger. everyone i know uses AIM. so really i suppose it depends on who your friends are, eh?

You know oddly enough I already have a device that will let my check the weather, download RSS streams of the news, and even connect to AIM or any other instant mesanger. I really just need my wii to play games, which it does amazingly well.

@ Elric AIM has a market share of about 57 million users to MSN's 27 Million.

thats funny, because I don't know anyone who uses msn and I live in NJ

All my friends use AIM, so that's not a problem.
The real problem is typing.
Maybe they'll make a wireless Wiiboard? (get it? It's another "wii" pun, this time with Keyboard. I'm a genius :P )

Yeah!! great... Nintendo needs to make a keyboard attachment for the Wii Remote.. I would find that more easier than a long cord attached to the Wii.. also it would be easy to browse on the web!!

Time... it just takes time..

Wii Play!!! 2 / 12 / 07

How about google talk support? Doesn't that wiimote have a mic in it to support calling other google talk users? That would solve the typing with a wiimote problem.

There's a service like this one that already exists. http://meebo.com works with pretty much all popular IM clients. Unfortunately I tried using it just now and it doesn't seem to work with Wii's Opera. :(

EVERYONE i know uses AIM. There is NO ONE that uses MSN where I live.

I don't know anyone who uses MSN. Everyone I know uses AIM or Yahoo. I use Meebo at work (Instant messenger over the web) because I couldn't get the standalone programs to work --- work must have been blocking them. However Meebo didn't work right with the Wii.

Oh.. and the Wii-mote does NOT have a mic. However, maybe at some point you can use the mic on your DS with the Wii.

I use aim, all my friends use aim. I'd probably give the wiiaim a try, but I don't think I'd use it over my laptop... my laptop takes less than a minute to turn on and get into aim, so why do I need to go to a website to log into aim on my wii? It would be cool though, just not too practical...

Who uses MSN? EVERYONE uses AIM.

MSN is teh ghey. :D

Seems that quite a few sites seem to hate on the Wii's Opera browser... AimonPSP works fine for it, so long as you have a steady enough hand and you don't accidentally hit those hotkey buttons.

My Wii is in the same room as my computer, so why would I chat with an impossible to use "keyboard" when I can use my Apple keyboard.

And I don't know anyone that uses AIM...everyone I know uses Windows Live Messenger.

This sort of thing will surmount Nintendo's efforts to keep gamers from getting in contact with each other

Opera Browser will save the Wii Online Community!

I've noticed that in the US, everyone is using AIM. In the UK, everyone uses MSN - n1 uses AIM

Who uses MSN? Here in Europe we use MSN :P who uses AOL? AOL is the worst thing that happened to the internet xD

Some old news, but you get the picture: http://www.comscore.com/press/release.asp?press=800

Elric: Are you insane? Everyone uses AIM in the USA, and no one uses MSN. Most of the MSN users are from Commonwealth countries.

What it comes down to is just your group of friends I say. I've got a few that chat on exclusively aim or msn. I just use gaim and log into both without even thinking about it.

Whats this "AOL" thing you speak about?

Google Talk and MSN Messenger FTW!

Well,not such a big deal...I am able to use this on my ds too :) its gewd
http://ebuddy.com

Um, the on-screen keyboard for the Wii is 10x better than the PS3's text entry (via controller), so NO complaints here. I'd take the Wii's onscreen keyboard over the Xbox 360's too, even though that's where I do most of my online interaction. I quickly became comfortable with wagging the remote back and forth to click on what I want.

The problem is...if AIM isn't accessible in-game (or all the time), then isn't it pointless? Maybe while you're browsing?

Besides, does aim express work through Opera? Probably not.

I think it's actually more of a generational/cultural thing. I'm in college, and most of my friends my age and older use AIM. The friends younger than me use MSN, and most of my friends that never went to college use Yahoo. One girl I know was even using Skype (as a typing CHAT program, not even VoIP) to talk with a couple of her friends, and I had to convince her to install AIM.

It just depends on which friends introduced them to IM and what they used.

It sounds pretty cool, but I'd be more comfortable with Windows Messenger or Yahoo Messenger, but hey, It's a start...

I use Trillian which is AIM/MSN/ICQ/Yahoo/IRC put together. I have AIM/MSN/ICQ all running at the same time.

http://www.ebuddy.com/
works on the wii and lets you log into aim, MSN, and yahoo

for your computer i would suggest gaim, its an open-source program that lets you log into ANY type of screen name

So half you guys are saying aim is never used in the usa and the other half say its all thats used the usa....
in my area I see an equal amount of both.

Maybe some of you forgot. The Wii remote can expand by plugging something in... how about a keyboard that plugs in. I think that most people would agree nintendo wouldnt release something like that but what about third party keyboards and remotes....

@27

On the contrary, I'd be very surprised if that DIDN'T come out alongside the release of the fully-featured Opera browser.

Oh, and for the record, AIM is shit. It stands for AOL Instant Messenger. Doesn't that tip anyone off in the least? AOL? Holy god, what has the world come to when people are actually using that horrible crap?

"Maybe some of you forgot. The Wii remote can expand by plugging something in... how about a keyboard that plugs in. I think that most people would agree nintendo wouldnt release something like that but what about third party keyboards and remotes...."

If Nintendo wasn't behind it, how exactly would it work?

nintendo needs to make a Wii compatible keyboard of some sort. Typing onscreen is a PITA.

i agree w/ elliot. but if someone did come out w/ something like that then it would probably be a wireless bluetooth keyboard otherwise they're gona have to make a 6 ft cord for it. also i really dont see the problem w/ surfing the web on the Wii. its perfectly fine w/ me

There is no way nintendo will use a chating service by microsoft.

I live in North America...I don't know a single person who uses AIM.

@ Freddy, you wouldn't think so, but one of NBC's best shows (My Name is Earl, love it) is made by 20th Century FOX, so its possible

How about instead of a WiiAIM/MSN/YIM we focus on a Wii Pictochat. Downloadable from the Wii Shop Channel Wii Software section it will contain all the features of the DS pictochat with added WiFi support, VoIP, external USB keyboard support and just for the shear hell of it, internaction with DS consoles.

Yeah I know it will never happen, I am allowed to dream arn't I?

AIM - for kids

MSN - for adults

no wonder most of the people flaming on here uses aim, your kids. Grow up and you can learn to use MSN.

Double posting here,

They could always try to use something like Trillian, that way everyone could be happy and stop crying.

one word: #wii

I live in NYC and everyone i know uses AIM. None of my friends use MSN. But i think it would be cool to have AIM on the Wii... if there was a way to hook up a keyboard to your wii

everybody uses AIM where i live. i think this is an ok idea similar to the whole Wii online experience so far. its ok but nothing to make you say "Wow".

i was going to ask if the Wii even supported a keyboard (since i never plugged one into mine) but itd be a pretty fair guess from the responses on here that it doesnt support them. so this will be a good idea when there is keyboard support. otherwise i couldnt imagine having a conversation with that damn on-screen keyboard.

"Well it's a start, but wouldn't MSN make a lot more sense?"
No, MSN has about half the users of AIM. Look it up if you don't believe it. MSN is clunky and lame. I use MSN, Yahoo, AIM, MySpaceIM, Skype, and in the past, ICQ and Trillian. They all suck except for Skype (for voice) and AIM.

It's just more refined, better color schemes, more configurable, better organization for buddy list, etc. Only complaint with AIM is that its webcam implementation is poor. I'm talking about AIM 5.9, the AIM 6.0 is so bad that they still offer 5.9 on the front page, for the first time offering a legacy version because so many people hate triton/6.

Anyway, on the Wii, it's good that they're going with AIM. I hope they make it intelligently, and allow it to run in the background while you are playing games, and then come back to see some IMs. The biggest advantage will be linking it to your Desktop's IM name so you can see your IMs on the Wii, and send back emergency or short replies from the Wii, or go to your PC and have a whole conversation w/ keyboard.

Just my 2 cents.

Well, I guess I should have started with my age, I'm 30 and everyone I went to school with uses MSN, I am also in Canada, and AOL tried to get us to use their stuff, but we don't care much for censorship, so AOL Canada didn't fly. Those stupid CD's were a waste of the Earths resources so maybe in the back of our minds we don't want to use anything associated with AOL Time Warner, Even their music licks balls :)

They really do need to make a keyboard for the Wii. They could even market it as the Wii Internet Keyboard! or something. The Wii already has Bluetooth, so it shouldn't be hard to make a bluetooth keyboard, and use the wiimote as the mouse.

That would make for the ultimate tv web browsing experience!

Everyone I know uses MSN. I know a couple of friends who use AIM, but they use MSN as their primary messenger.

I simply refuse to be friends with someone who uses a different messenger client... :P unless they're very special.

what the hell is msn? and im from chicago, everyone uses aim

I think nintendo should go to far lengths to make the Wii compatable with javascript...like msn, and games that need java to run. if they do this, i think they should make a wii keyboard...im sure if they really try, with their technology, they could make a wireless keyboard just like they have made a wireless controller. i think if nintendo does this it would make alot of people happy...and it'll raise the nintendo wii's popularity b/c thats what alot of people love to do. i know, if nintendo does this, alot of my friends would buy a Wii...they love to use msn/any other IM provider. if they do this, i think they should make it a wii channel that you have to buy with wii points...idc wat the price for the channel would be...i would pay the price in order to IM my friends on my Wii.

-Andrew-

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Wii Warm Up: WiiAIM

Reader Comments (50)

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