I don’t always agree with IGN‘s Matt Casamassina, but his latest blog entry perfectly sums up my frustration with the Wii’s Forecast Channel. Matt writes:
“If you want to know what the weather was like eight hours ago in your city, Nintendo’s Wii Forecast Channel is amazing. But if you want up-to-date information on the weather, you’re in trouble. I don’t know if it’s Nintendo’s issue or if it’s a shortcoming of the data provider, weathernews, but whatever the case, the Wii Forecast Channel is rarely, if ever adequately up-to-date…Nintendo, if you’re going to do this stuff, make sure it works. Whether that means ensuring WiiConnect24 is more timely or going with a different provider, do it. Otherwise, don’t bother at all.”
While our fingers can wag in the general direction of Weathernews, the bottom line is Nintendo chose them, and their lack of updates has turned a neat feature into the most ignored channel on my Wii. My area’s weather is always a good five to six hours behind. Sure, the five day forecast is still reliable, but I need to know current conditions so I can decide if I need to put on pants to go out and get the mail (a letter from my neighborhood’s homeowners’ association has told me that I always should).
Are the updates for your area just as behind or are you too busy capturing Elebits and bowling to notice/care?
Dosn't even matter if you don't live in one of the major cities that are available.
Try the window channel, it's weather is in realtime.
Oh my god, no! There might be a 60 degree drop in temperature in the 4 hours that the channel isn't updated! I might go outside and die because of my Wii! =/ Seriously, wtf? Like Travis said, you have a window, and a sense of touch that tells you how cold it is outside. Don;t like the service, don't use it.
I think the bottom line here is regardless of whether you value the Forecast Channel or not, it does not work properly. While a lot of people may scoff and say it's a minor feature, it doesn't matter how trivial a feature is – it should still work. On that same note, while the Mii Channel is an added bonus to buying a Wii, it's not essential. Yet that hasn't stopped people for criticizing it for different reasons. While none of us bought a Wii for the Forecast Channel, I don't think Matt is being too harsh by asking for it to work properly.Plus, if this simple feature can't work properly, how are we supposed to have faith in Nintendo's online plans? Sorry to those who think this is an overreaction, but I think it's valid criticism.
I think it's a valid criticism too.And if this issue is symptomatic of a larger online trend – Nintendo is stuffed.
well mine's a bit off but that could be due to me not living in any major city. my closest is stoke-on-trent but that's still a 30 minute drive away
Yeah, it's disappointing. I tend to check wunderground.com via the Wii browser instead.I think it also has to do with WiiConnect24 being a fraud. Sure, your blue light pulsates, but it doesn't seem like the Wii has actually downloaded anything until I turn the system on. I don't know how many times I've gone into my messages and Mii channel with no new content showing up for a minute or two. Then suddenly I get a message from Rauru or I-man that wasn't there earlier when my slot was flashing.The slot light is like the blinking red voicemail light on some phones. It knows there are messages for you, but doesn't actually grab them/download them.I'm hoping it's just Nintendo ramping up their servers to handle all the new traffic Wii purchases are shoving their way.
While I agree that the up-to-date-weather feature is the worst I've ever seen (my handeld PC gives me up-to-the-minute weather with a simple refresh), I really only have use for the "tomorrow" and "five day forecast" features.For up-to-the-minute weather, I have windows on my apartment.
I found it more of a fun play thing than something I'll really use. The 5 day forecast is handy, though for some reason it always seems to update other cities before mine.I think the problem is the provider, but let's hope they can fix their system.Still, I'm rather surprised at all the cities they got for Mexico, I thought it was gonna be a handfull but they've got quite a lot in there so props for that.
go outside and check it urself?
I live in Western Australia, and I've found our forecasts have been pretty accurate so far. The five day forecast is most useful for me, but yeah, give or take a degree or two our current temps have been pretty accurate.One thing that doesn't seem to have been factored in for the Wii over here is the heat. It's summer here in Australia, and the Wii doesn't seem to be able to turn on its fans in standby mode, only when its on – one of the power-saving features I believe. Fine for most weather, but for an Australian summer when we have incredibly nasty heatwaves for weeks at a time – in standby mode the Wii gets really, really unpleasantly hot. We've taken to leaving it on instead of standby so that the fans kick in.Obviously not a problem Wii users in the northern hemisphere will have to think about for a while ;P [/end tangent]