Details on Wii U Operating System, Internet Browser, Nintendo TVii and more...
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By Allison Wallace
ON SEPTEMBER 19TH, 2012 IN NEWS
Nintendo has released some details on the web browser bundled with the Wii U operating system. The web browser is based on WebKit — the same framework that powers Apple’s Safari and Google’s Chrome browsers — and includes HTML5 support, with tabbed browsing, HTML5 video, and more. The Wii U Internet Browser will be built-in software and ship with the Wii U console on launch day. The WebKit-based browser can be accessed via the GamePad screen or on the TV, and you can browse the internet while playing games and watching TV. The Wii U brings some additional features to the web browsing experience. For example, when using YouTube, players will be able to watch videos on the TV, while continuing to browse videos on the GamePad controller.
There are even more advanced features. When you pause a game to do some Internet browsing, the Wii U will remember what game you played and automatically copy the title of the game, making it easier to search for the game online (when looking for tips, cheats, etc.). To scroll up or down pages, users simply tilt the GamePad up or down. Screenshots taken of TV and games can be shared with the Internet Browser.
However, the Wii U Internet browser will not support Flash. The reason not to include Flash support is pretty obvious: it would allow users to play Flash-based games online for free, which wouldn’t be good business for Nintendo (or any console maker, for that matter). Nintendo doesn’t support Flash in the Wii nor the 3DS. However, there some HTML5-based games out there, although they’re not as advanced as their Flash-based counterparts.
Nintendo’s also revealed some Wii U specs.The system will include 2 GB of total system memory. 1 GB of memory will be available for games, while another 1 GB will be available for the Wii U operating system and background applications. 1 GB of memory for the OS is definitely a lot for a home gaming console — the current generation systems use about only 1/20th of that. To put things in perspective, the Wii U’s 1GB of accessible game RAM is almost double that of the Xbox 360 and quadruple of PS3, although both include 512MB of RAM — meaning Nintendo’s latest machine should be able to easily manage the workload of streaming a video signal to the Wii U GamePad’s screen display.Perhaps the OS includes a lot more than are we currently aware of? Or some of the background applications take up a lot of resources, such as Miiverse and its many features.
For the disc-storage, Wii U games arrive on proprietary optical discs that can keep up to 25GB of data — more than enough to store huge library of high-definition 1080p games. Wii U can clock discs at a 22MB/s compared to Xbox 360′s 15.85 MB/s (DVD) and the PlayStation 3′s 9MB/s (Blu-ray) speeds, which means game loading times should see a big cut.
Nintendo announced a brand new media service for the Wii U. Called Nintendo TVii, the new service comes with every Wii U , and offers a TV/DVR-like service for the console. You can browse shows, TV channels, you can set your DVR (TiVo) to record shows, and a lot more. You can browse what’s on the TV, select a show, then select which service you want to use to watch the program. The same goes with movies: players will browse all sorts of movies, and select which movie to watch. Afterwards, a menu will pop up, offering all the sources where the movie is available (e.g. Netflix, Amazon Prime).
Other features include live-scoreboards for sports, where the GamePad can display additional information such as player stats, plays, and so on. You can also browse your DVR, see what your friends are watching and recommending, and more. The Wii U GamePad also has a built-in remote that can be used with many devices. Nintendo TVii was demoed during the event today, where a show played on the TV, while the tablet controller records thumbnails and takes notes of what’s going on. You can then Tweet and share those pics and notes with your friends.
Nintendo TVii will be included with every Wii U console and will be free of charge.
Nintendo’s Reggie Fils-Aime recently spoke to Kotaku about the upcoming Wii U console. He touched up on several aspects of the console and its online connectivity. For example, Fils-Aime said that as soon as players turn on the Wii U, Miiverse will show up (provided users are connected online), and will show what your friends are doing, what games they are playing etc. That’s the “start screen” of the console, the first screen players will see — which is a radical departure from the start screens we see these days.
The start screen in Miiverse will display what your friends are up to, what games they are playing, and if you have the game, you can join in. With the new Nintendo TVii, you can also see which movies your Miiverse friends are watching, according to Reggie. To get to the menu or play a game, you simply hit the “Start” button.
Miiverse will be integrated into Wii U games (it’s optional, though). Reggie gives the example of New Super Mario Bros U, where players walk through the world map and can see messages and hints left by other players.
On the topic of Nintendo Network and the Wii U eShop online store, Reggie didn’t give any specific details, but did say, “We have spent a lot of time and invested a lot of money to get our connected experiences right”.
Finally, when it comes to Friend Codes, which is quite frankly the worst online friend system ever made, Reggie offered some hope. “We’ve heard the community feedback on friend codes and we’re making it dramatically easier for you to connect with your friend”. It’s nice to hear that they’ll make it “dramatically easier” than Friend Codes, but then again, that’s not so hard — it cannot possibly be worse than the Friend Code system we’re using today.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08O0G9CjcI8
ON SEPTEMBER 19TH, 2012 IN NEWS
Nintendo has released some details on the web browser bundled with the Wii U operating system. The web browser is based on WebKit — the same framework that powers Apple’s Safari and Google’s Chrome browsers — and includes HTML5 support, with tabbed browsing, HTML5 video, and more. The Wii U Internet Browser will be built-in software and ship with the Wii U console on launch day. The WebKit-based browser can be accessed via the GamePad screen or on the TV, and you can browse the internet while playing games and watching TV. The Wii U brings some additional features to the web browsing experience. For example, when using YouTube, players will be able to watch videos on the TV, while continuing to browse videos on the GamePad controller.
There are even more advanced features. When you pause a game to do some Internet browsing, the Wii U will remember what game you played and automatically copy the title of the game, making it easier to search for the game online (when looking for tips, cheats, etc.). To scroll up or down pages, users simply tilt the GamePad up or down. Screenshots taken of TV and games can be shared with the Internet Browser.
However, the Wii U Internet browser will not support Flash. The reason not to include Flash support is pretty obvious: it would allow users to play Flash-based games online for free, which wouldn’t be good business for Nintendo (or any console maker, for that matter). Nintendo doesn’t support Flash in the Wii nor the 3DS. However, there some HTML5-based games out there, although they’re not as advanced as their Flash-based counterparts.
Nintendo’s also revealed some Wii U specs.The system will include 2 GB of total system memory. 1 GB of memory will be available for games, while another 1 GB will be available for the Wii U operating system and background applications. 1 GB of memory for the OS is definitely a lot for a home gaming console — the current generation systems use about only 1/20th of that. To put things in perspective, the Wii U’s 1GB of accessible game RAM is almost double that of the Xbox 360 and quadruple of PS3, although both include 512MB of RAM — meaning Nintendo’s latest machine should be able to easily manage the workload of streaming a video signal to the Wii U GamePad’s screen display.Perhaps the OS includes a lot more than are we currently aware of? Or some of the background applications take up a lot of resources, such as Miiverse and its many features.
For the disc-storage, Wii U games arrive on proprietary optical discs that can keep up to 25GB of data — more than enough to store huge library of high-definition 1080p games. Wii U can clock discs at a 22MB/s compared to Xbox 360′s 15.85 MB/s (DVD) and the PlayStation 3′s 9MB/s (Blu-ray) speeds, which means game loading times should see a big cut.
Nintendo announced a brand new media service for the Wii U. Called Nintendo TVii, the new service comes with every Wii U , and offers a TV/DVR-like service for the console. You can browse shows, TV channels, you can set your DVR (TiVo) to record shows, and a lot more. You can browse what’s on the TV, select a show, then select which service you want to use to watch the program. The same goes with movies: players will browse all sorts of movies, and select which movie to watch. Afterwards, a menu will pop up, offering all the sources where the movie is available (e.g. Netflix, Amazon Prime).
Other features include live-scoreboards for sports, where the GamePad can display additional information such as player stats, plays, and so on. You can also browse your DVR, see what your friends are watching and recommending, and more. The Wii U GamePad also has a built-in remote that can be used with many devices. Nintendo TVii was demoed during the event today, where a show played on the TV, while the tablet controller records thumbnails and takes notes of what’s going on. You can then Tweet and share those pics and notes with your friends.
Nintendo TVii will be included with every Wii U console and will be free of charge.
Nintendo’s Reggie Fils-Aime recently spoke to Kotaku about the upcoming Wii U console. He touched up on several aspects of the console and its online connectivity. For example, Fils-Aime said that as soon as players turn on the Wii U, Miiverse will show up (provided users are connected online), and will show what your friends are doing, what games they are playing etc. That’s the “start screen” of the console, the first screen players will see — which is a radical departure from the start screens we see these days.
The start screen in Miiverse will display what your friends are up to, what games they are playing, and if you have the game, you can join in. With the new Nintendo TVii, you can also see which movies your Miiverse friends are watching, according to Reggie. To get to the menu or play a game, you simply hit the “Start” button.
Miiverse will be integrated into Wii U games (it’s optional, though). Reggie gives the example of New Super Mario Bros U, where players walk through the world map and can see messages and hints left by other players.
On the topic of Nintendo Network and the Wii U eShop online store, Reggie didn’t give any specific details, but did say, “We have spent a lot of time and invested a lot of money to get our connected experiences right”.
Finally, when it comes to Friend Codes, which is quite frankly the worst online friend system ever made, Reggie offered some hope. “We’ve heard the community feedback on friend codes and we’re making it dramatically easier for you to connect with your friend”. It’s nice to hear that they’ll make it “dramatically easier” than Friend Codes, but then again, that’s not so hard — it cannot possibly be worse than the Friend Code system we’re using today.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08O0G9CjcI8 Comments
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Sep 18, 2012
When you run out of your paltry 8gb or even the slightly better 32gb of space on your brand new Wii U, what are you to do? The answer is simple, and hopefully one that will be adopted by all consoles from now on. Nintendo is taking a decidedly open approach to expanding memory: add your own. "You can plug in a full-on three terabyte hard drive if you want. I'll love you as a digital consumer," Nintendo America CEO and president Reggie Fils-Aime told us during a post-press conference investor Q&A. The Wii U allows for expansion of non-proprietary memory via USB, whether that memory be Flash or otherwise. Fils-Aime explained that, with the continuously dropping price of memory, there was little reason to offer pricing for the Wii U tied to an evolving hardware model.
"The reason we did it that way is that the cost of that type of storage memory is plummeting. What we didn't want to do is tie a profit model to something that's gonna rapidly decline over time. Why would you charge consumers more to have 100gb internal storage now when most people have external hard drives anyway or SD cards lying around, and even if they dont its so cheap to buy now. We'll let the consumer buy as much as they want, as cheaply as they want," Fils-Aime said.
http://www.ign.com/videos/2012/09/14/reggie-fils-aime-answers-burning-wii-u-launch-questions -
Sounds good. Looks like Nintendo is moving away from the "gaming system-only" model and offering a media hub system.
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Wow sounds impressive, they really are banking on this to work. Good Read.Sep 18, 2012
When you run out of your paltry 8gb or even the slightly better 32gb of space on your brand new Wii U, what are you to do? The answer is simple, and hopefully one that will be adopted by all consoles from now on. Nintendo is taking a decidedly open approach to expanding memory: add your own. "You can plug in a full-on three terabyte hard drive if you want. I'll love you as a digital consumer," Nintendo America CEO and president Reggie Fils-Aime told us during a post-press conference investor Q&A. The Wii U allows for expansion of non-proprietary memory via USB, whether that memory be Flash or otherwise. Fils-Aime explained that, with the continuously dropping price of memory, there was little reason to offer pricing for the Wii U tied to an evolving hardware model.
"The reason we did it that way is that the cost of that type of storage memory is plummeting. What we didn't want to do is tie a profit model to something that's gonna rapidly decline over time. Why would you charge consumers more to have 100gb internal storage now when most people have external hard drives anyway or SD cards lying around, and even if they dont its so cheap to buy now. We'll let the consumer buy as much as they want, as cheaply as they want," Fils-Aime said.
http://www.ign.com/videos/2012/09/14/reggie-fils-aime-answers-burning-wii-u-launch-questions
Wait so hold on fam, forgive my ignorance with technology, I'm not the most technical ? around LOLOL - but is he saying that we'll be able to hook up USB, SD Cards or even a separate terabyte hardrive to save games if we run out of space for games ?
If that's what he means then that's dope.
Yep, that's what it means. -
I'm copping a Wii U. Book it.
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Cant you do all this on a Xbox/Ps3??
Copping when SSB is announced. -
YepLou Cypher wrote: »Lou Cypher wrote: »Cant you do all this on a Xbox/Ps3??
Copping when SSB is announced. -
No Flash though?
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Lou Cypher wrote: »Cant you do all this on a Xbox/Ps3??
Copping when SSB is announced.
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not getting it right away but def gonna get it
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Wii U keeps looking better and better
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Looks like it could be a fun console. This Nintendogs have shot themselves in the foot a few too many times though.
Families are gonna love it anyway.
Seems more geared to the ? than the family friendly Wii. -
At 1/60 of a Second, GamePad Latency Won't Ruin the Wii U
by Jon Fox OCTOBER 15, 2012
If Nintendo had allowed a quarter or even a tenth of a second of lag on the Wii U's Bluetooth GamePad, the console may have been irreparably crippled out of the gate. And with an on-board touchscreen, motion sensing, microphone and camera, latency factors could have added up fast.
But as Ubisoft's Michel Ancel reportedly told Nintendo Power this month, the tiny amount of latency present should be practically unnoticeable.
"It's crazy because [on the TV] the game is running in full 1080 HD, we are streaming another picture on the GamePad screen, and it's still 60 frames per second," Ancel said about the most recent build of Rayman Legends. "The latency on the controller is just 1/60 of a second, so it's one frame late. It's crazy, it's so fast. It's almost instant."
When using a second GamePad, the frames per second will drop to 30, though we'll have to wait to see how discernible that is, as none of the system's North American launch titles feature dual-GamePad compatibility.
http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/10/15/at-160-of-a-second-gamepad-latency-wont-ruin-the-wii-u
