It’s taken a while, but YouTube has finally released a Wii (and PS3, etc) optimized interface to their site, which they call “YouTube TV“.

The new YouTube TV interface plays a similar role to sites like moowee.tv, which has been providing a slick Internet Channel Wii-optimised frontend to YouTube (and other video sites) from essentially day one.

I really like this new offering from YouTube; it feels a bit simpler and more reliable than moowee.tv, and switching to fullscreen mode is seemless. It’s quite watchable for some of the higher quality videos. I can see YouTube TV becoming my preferred option for the odd occasion when I want to veg-out on the couch and watch some stupid viral videos.

If you want to check it out without firing up your Wii, you can install the Switch User Agent Add-on for Firefox, and add the User-Agent “Opera/9.00 (Nintendo Wii; U; ; 1038-58; Wii Shop Channel/1.0; en)”. Go to YouTube TV, and you will see the Wii optimized interface in all it’s glory. For the definitive experience, check it out on your Wii.

So, hopefully this will be the first in a series of regular posts highlighting Flash games for the Wii. But not just any Flash games … only the ones that actually work well (ie legible fonts, no keyboard requirement) in the Wii Opera browser. Oh, and they have to be fun. Or a least mildly fun.

Here’s one that seems to work okay, despite being, well, about as nerdy as you can get:

Within Range challenges you to correctly file books on the library shelf, using the Dewey Decimal system (play it now!). Yeh … sounds kind of silly, but so did Cooking Mama, and that turned out to be a fun distraction. Proudly brought to you by the Carnegie Mellon University Libraries.

(and via the ubercool and totally un-nerdy dudes at The BBPS.)

Want to keep up with the latest Nintendo Wii news ? Need a news reader (RSS and ATOM feed reader) that works nicely in the Wii Internet Channel ? WiiRSS could be what you are looking for.

WiiRSS currently tracks most of my favorite Wii news sites and blogs, and shows articles in the past 24 hours. I’ve bookmarked it in my Internet Channel Favorites so I can quickly catch up on Wii related news each day. WiiRSS is based on the Gregarius feed aggregator, but has a Wii-optimized theme. The sidebar region containing the list of feeds can be collapsed using the little “<<” arrow button, and you can also search for specific articles with the Search button. Notice, that even on a crappy small TV like mine, the text is readable.

Feel free notify me of any Wii news sites that aren’t included that you think should be there. I’m happy to take suggestions in the comments.

(Pssst … this blog is Wii-optimized too … check it out, it will look different on the Wii )

WiiCade have released version 3 of their Wii Remote API that enables developers to create Flash games using all the buttons on the Wii Remote (well, except “Home”), and the “C” and “Z” buttons on the Nunchuck (but no analog stick control). Control by up to four Wii Remotes is supported, allowing simultaneous multiplayer Flash games on the Wii !! The Flash source code has been released under the free-as-in-freedom LGPL software license to allow any game developer to make use of these great features and allow them to share their homebrew games with the world. Read the rest of this entry »

(see update below)

Knibble.com has been getting a little bit of buzz in the last few days for releasing “5000 Flash games for the Wii”, at wii.knibble.com. I’ve always figured that a small industry of Flash games targeted specifically to the Wii would develop over the next few years, since there a so many Wii’s happily integrated into living rooms all over the world. The market is there to be filled, it’s just a matter of someone working make a decent product. Take for example my favorite Flash application specifically designed for the Wii, moowee.tv. The interface of this social video application fills up the screen nicely on the Wii, doesn’t require any zooming in a out, allows control via Wii Remote buttons and just works.

Sadly, wii.knibble.com is not like this at all. Read the rest of this entry »