Nintendo's Wi-Fi Connection certainly has its shortcomings as an online gaming service, but it goes without saying that it has its fair share of ups and downs. Eric Walters, manager of public relations for Nintendo of America explained how the Nintendo WFC's different "barriers" were important with the company's goals in delivering quality online gaming experience for its consumers. You can find out more about what he said in our full article.

Though the prime three have all wired their next generation consoles for downloadable video games, Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony have different ideas on whether demos should be put out for such short bursts of entertainment or not. Microsoft and Sony's perspectives seem to occupy different ends of the spectrum, while Nintendo - who's just coming round to pushing original downloadable games themselves - stands on whatever the developer decides upon. More at the full story.

Would you ever pay for a good service on the Wii? Like it or not, the future seems to have it in store for Wii owners. Nintendo's Takashi Aoyama recently announced Wii Pay and Play to the GDC audience, and it looks as if the service extension will ask people to pay for online services related to particular games.

More on this after the jump!

Long after we last heard of WFCStatus, homebrew developer Kevin has updated his Wi-Fi status viewer application for the Nintendo DS and Wii that runs on PC. If you need an app to track your Wi-Fi activity, head over to the full article for details!






Download: WFCStatus v1.5.0.9

The Wii menu just got XBL'ed and PSN'ed! Wii owners in Japan who also have a Nintendo DS are in luck. Surprise, surprise: a new Wii menu channel has just gone live!

The Everyone's Nintendo Channel gives you access to trailers and interviews, and even turns the Nintendo Wii into some form of DS download station. Yes, the Everyone's Nintendo Channel allows users to download game demos for the Nintendo DS and upload it into the handheld! Sweet!

For those of us without wireless routers, going online with our Nintendo Wii consoles or Nintendo DS handhelds have always involved a clever little device known as the Nintendo Wi-Fi USB Connector. Unfortunately, it seems that future Wii owners will have to contend with the Wii LAN Adapter from now on, as the company recently discontinued the sale of the Nintendo Wi-Fi USB Connector, the product now listed as unavailable for purchase in the Nintendo Online Store. Bummer.

The details at the full article.

The Wii owners may probably remember X-OOM's movie service pack for the Wii from last month. Needless  to say, while it was an interesting idea to be able to transfer DVD movies into a Wii-playable MPEG format via X-OOM's media conversion program, one limiting factor to the whole process was the console's memory card.

We're letting you know that bhv Software's announcing a new product for the Wii, labelled the X-OOM Media Centre. This new program will allow your Wii console to access the digital media that's stored in your PC using the console's WiFi connection.

Put another way, since you're streaming your media directly from the target PC, you eliminate the need for disk or memory card transfers (you still need to convert to the listed compatible formats).

The new X-OOM's interface is reportedly compatible with the Wiimote (for the console's end), and will support MP3, WMA, OGG, DivX, XviD, MPEG 2, MPEG 4, WMV, JPG, and BMP formats. The X-OOM Media Centre is expected to launch this late October, at an expected price of £  29.99 (US$ 60) via the official X-OOM site, and Amazon.com

We finally have the latest version of the nifty app from Michael Descher, MyTunesRSS version 3.0.4. MyTunesRSS is a Java program that lets you access your iTunes library through a local network or through the Internet. The program uses a simple web interface that allows you to download songs, so it's easy to use. Since the program is based on Java, it can be run on any platform supporting Java 1.5, including the Sony PSP (if your PSP has the Java program).

The program allows you to download anywhere from a single song to playlists, and even to entire albums. The program is free but it has limitations. For EUR 15 (about US$ 21), you can unlock the full version. The locked version will only be able to access one computer at a time while the full version can run on multiple servers.

Users are encouraged to go through the Readme file before using the application. The complete changelog from the previous versions as well as the installation instructions can be viewed on the Codewave Software site (just click on the Via link below). Make sure to read pertinent information first before installing these programs.

Thanks to PhoenixBh for the tip!

Download: [MyTunesRSS v3.0.4: platform independent]
Download: [MyTunesRSS v3.0.4: Windows OS]
Download: [MyTunesRSS v3.0.4: Mac OS]

   
 

For the resident coders wondering about the Wii console's potential for web-based development, we've got something for you. geekrecon of the Hullbreech team has just announced a new release of their Wii Opera Software Development Kit (SDK). For first-time readers, this kit uses HTML and Javascript for developing Wii games and features support for the Wiimote's motion-sensitivity (still in development).

The latest release of the Wii Opera SDK comes with increased graphical functionality, which geekrecon is demonstrating via an FPS demo engine. The demo is expected to work on both the Wii's Opera browser,  and other non-IE browsers, although the latter has no controller support (auto movement mode only, screensaver-style). This being an early build, the developer posted some important notes:

Unfortunately, the Wii likes to crash after viewing the demo. It's most likely an out-of-memory error. I am actively working on cleaning up that problem. The end product may be a ray-tracing engine (no complaints there) instead of a quad-texture engine. I don't know how the speed will be, but with high-polygon levels, it will definitely be faster.

The dev further notes that graphics-wise, the engine's polygon-based. There are plans for rewriting it as a ray-tracer. Guys interested in helping build up this dev kit are being invited by the Hullbreech team to join up via the main site. Feel free to visit it via the Source link below. As a last detail, here are the SDK's current capabilities (quoting DRNEUTER at the Nintendo Forums):

• Button detection from the primary Wii Remote
• Cursor positioning from all 4 Wii Remotes
• Z roll sensing from all 4 Wii Remotes
• Z positioning from all 4 Wii Remotes
• 3D polygonal rotation, scaling, and moving
• Z sorting of polygons
• Graphical primitives
• Image manipulation and placement

Techies gather round, for Buffalo Technology has another plug-in wireless device aimed at Wi-Fi-capable consoles (and yes, that would mean you Sony and Nintendo button mashers) which they call the Wi-Fi Gamer. If their joint offering with Nintendo was a treat for Wii and DS gamers with XP rigs, this new device might tickle your fancy. We know you've got lost of love for your current Wi-Fi routers, but check this one out.

Not larger than a pack of playing cards, the Wi-Fi Gamer can work devoid of Windows computers - holding off the idea of port-hogging port on your PC. Instead the AirStation OneTouch Secure System (AOSS) gadget connects to an open port in your home or office LAN and runs its own wireless access point with the press of the "Connect" button.

And while Nintendo consoles have been working with AOSS for significant time now, even Sony has upped the PlayStation 3 and the PlayStation Portable (PSP) to AOSS compatibility levels with their recent firmware upgrades. In fact, Buffalo Technology has worked closely with Sony and Nintendo to ensure the systems feature AOSS push-button connectivity.

You can expect the Wi-Fi Gamer to hit US shores by August, carrying a price tag of US$ 49.99 to US$ 59.99 and sporting multiple connected device handling features. It's range is reportedly comparable to various other 802.11g network devices.