Wii Rally

Well by now you have probably heard either from another gaming blog or via one of the 90 submissions to Digg.com that Nintendo’s Wii News channel is up and running. What better way to talk about this new application than by making it the subject of this weeks Feature Friday.

About Wii News
Announced prior to the console’s launch, Wii owners have anxiously awaited the arrival of the Wii News channel. Not too long ago Nintendo announced that they had entered into a partnership with the AP (Associated Press) news wire service. The deal would make the AP the exclusive supplier of news and content for the Wii News channel.

Getting started
First of all to access many of the Wii’s features you must be connected to the WiiConnect24 service via internet connection.
There are two ways to update your Wii’s OS to access the News channel.

1. Read the message that was sent to you by Nintendo in the Wii message center click on “UPDATE” in the bottom right hand corner of the message.

Or

2. From the Wii Menu click on the News channel which has been inactive until now, again click “UPDATE” in the bottom right hand corner of the screen. After the Wii performs the system update simply click on the News channel, click start, confirm the date and away you go.

How it works
Once you have accessed the News channels you are greeted with a brief statement on when the channel was last updated and a list of sections.

National News
International News
Sports
Arts/Entertainment
Business
Science/Health
Technology

You can either choose a particular section or if you move down to the bottom right again you can choose to view a slide show of news from all over the world, complete with globe. The channel will highlight the dateline cities as the news briefs stream by some even come with pictures, from the AP of course. If you are viewing the slide show and you happen to see a brief that catches you interest simply press the “A” button on you WiiMote and the full story will be displayed. Hit the “A” button once more to return to the slideshow.

If you choose to view news by section you will be presented with a list of all stories for that section. New and unread stories will have a highlighted icon to the left of the headline, which will be lit up in blue or white. For older and stories that have already been read this icon will appear grey. Again if you catch a brief that peaks your interest click on the brief to view and read the whole story.

Navigation
Navigating the pages is very easy. To move the page up or down you can click the up and down arrows located at the top and bottom of the screen respectively. You can also scroll the page by pressing and holding the “B” button and moving the WiiMote Up and down. You can also zoom the text in and out the same way you do on the Wii Browser by pressing the “+” and “-” buttons. Any time you see a picture you can click on it to enlarge it to full screen. To skip a news brief press “right” on the D-Pad and the slide show will move on to the next item to go back press “left”. As always to return to the Wii menu press the “home” button.

Regional Settings
I live in Toronto, Ontario Canada, and my Wii knows that so when I fire up the News channel all my local news appears at the top. They are also the first briefs that float by during the news slide show. Convenient eh?

Well that about wraps up this weeks Feature Friday and my in depth look at the brand new Wii news channel. Please not that this is only first version of the application and I’m sure Nintendo has big plans for future updates. So get ready to view the news in style and to the tune of upbeat soothing techno music.