Move over CNN, the Associated Press is in town — at least as far as the pending Wii News Channel is concerned. When we all awake here in the States this Saturday morning, we will be greeted with news articles provided by the AP
The Wii News Channel, scheduled to debut Saturday, will primarily feature top news stories and photographs from The Associated Press. Consoles with a broadband Internet connection and the Opera Web browser will be able to access the free news channel, which will offer AP news in multiple languages. Japanese-language news will come from a separate agency. […] News will be displayed through an interactive map, which users can navigate with the Wii’s wireless controller, Kaplan said.”The beauty of it is it zooms in and out of areas of the world,” she said. “So if you really want to focus on regional news or national news versus international, you just blow up the map of the U.S.”
This Channel sounds like it will be a neat feature; something I will look at briefly in the morning while getting ready for work. The icing on the cake for me however, was this line from the half truth queen, Perrin Kaplan:
There were no immediate plans to sell advertising space, said Perrin Kaplan, vice president for marketing at Nintendo’s U.S. headquarters in Redmond.
The AP contract with Nintendo is for two years, but could last longer or even involve more multimedia, said Jane Seagrave, vice president of new media markets for the New York-based news cooperative.
Hopefully the news won’t be a day late, like the weather. Are you guys excited about this feature?
So if (in the future) you don't buy the Internet Channel, you won't be able to use the News Channel? Maybe the News Channel uses a subset of features from the Opera Browser.Regardless, I can't wait to "blow up the map"!
The Weather Channel debuted a day early, not a day late.
I was too vague. Sorry Falco.What I meant was the weather report is always eight or so hours behind when you access it on the Weather Channel. In true blogger fashion, I exaggerated it to a full day.
I need the LAN Connector… stupid college.
No……. 0_0Please….someone tell me that there's some sortof mistake, that I won't need to download the Opera browser to use the News Channel! I've been looking forward to this for TOO LONG. I hate Nintendo.
You don't "buy the internet channel" do you? You will pay for the Opera Browser, although It will be free for the first couple of months, so that should not be an issue for anyone. The only time it would ever cost to use either the Internet channel or the news channel is when your Opera needs upgrading, or if you buy a Wii after the free period is over for the Opera browser (Before Sept. 1st I think.)-Chris in TN
The browser is free at the moment so it's a non-issue for the time being. I wonder why they mention the browser though, hopefully it can work on its own.I agree though, as long as news isn't a day old then I'll definitely be looking forward to it.