Note: Forecast demo video available at the end of article

Have you yet to go online with the Nintendo Wii? I suggest you give it a try as it is quite worth the experience! Aside from the surfing the Internet through the Opera Browser and Photo Channel, you get to check the forecast world-wide!

If you’ve already connected to the internet then you will have access to the Forecast channel from the main Wii Menu (once connected online, your Wii will update with the latest content). Simply click the Forecast Channel and you will be connected to the forecast of your choice. The first time you do this you will be asked to enter your default location. For myself, I put Toronto so every time the Forecast Channel is loaded you will see the weather for Toronto. You are able to see the current temperature and wind speed. You can also choose to view tomorrow’s weather or the 5-day forecast! The UV index is also included and an option to get to the Globe to see other locations.
When you are in the Globe mode, you can easily zoom in and out (with + or - on the Remote) of the map to see other regions or get more details on a specific one. You have the ability to zoom out completely until you see the entire Earth in the universe. The pointer acts as a way to spin the Earth or move to other locations.

Unfortunately, you are not able to see the 5-day forecast for each location and only major locations are included in the most countries. Nonetheless, this is a great tool to allow those to quickly view the weather in their local area or anywhere they may be vacationing to!
Click here to watch the Nintendo Wii Forecast Channel

If you haven’t already done so, be sure to get your hands on a SD card! You can find really cheap ones at TigerDirect.ca. I myself, purchased a Transcend 2GB card for $35.99 – what a steal! (now: $31.99 CND)
With an SD card you’ll be able to:

1. Store photos
2. Store game saves
3. Store games downloaded from virtual console
4. Store future available download-able content
5. Store mp3’s to play
6. Use as a storage device for any file types, even those not compatible with the Nintendo Wii

It is fascinating how far we’ve come with technology. We’re able to squeeze 2GB’s of storage into a card the size of my thumb. This hard drive from 5+ years ago is also 2GB – notice the size difference?

Once you have your hands on your SD card I would immediately transfer over some photos. You’ll be able to transfer complete folders to keep your albums separate and organize. Unfortunately, the Nintendo Wii won’t recognize the folder structures, but it will know to search for all photos on the device, regardless of how many folders there are.

When you start the Photo Channel, you can see all your photos. If you have more than fits the screen (in my case 700+) you’ll be able to zoom out as far as you like to see all the photos. A neat feature is that it will separate the photos by year. This can be really cool if you plan on showing photos to family from previous years.

The main core of this program is the slideshow. You can start the slide show and chage three preferences:

1. Photo sequence – random or by date
2. Mood – nostalgic, simple or dramatic
3. Music – choose from 6 preset or upload your own mp3’s!

Based on your preferences you can begin to create quite the professional slideshow.

But wait, this is Nintendo, so where’s the fun-factor?? I’m glad I asked myself this question, I almost forgot to share with all of you the possibilities. You can choose a photo and change the brightness, invert the colours, darken it or make it black and white. You can also take individual photos and draw on them with a pen tool. You can use some pre-made pictures (sun glasses, hearts, stars) and splatter them all over your photo.

The real fun-factor in this is where you can take a photo and make it into a puzzle. Nintendo will cut the image up for you into 6 different pieces and using the Remote you will then put it back to the original photo. You do have the option to choose 12, 24 or 36 pieces!! I did the 36-piece puzzle for a Christmas cake which took me about 6 minutes. Those are some tiny squares!
Thanks Nintendo for providing an effortless and fun program to help show off my photos! You’ve made me look like a pro in front of friends and family.

But enough talking, start watching! (Demo)

Note: Video comparison used for article explanation.

I have been playing Nintendo Wii for almost a month now and have been patiently waiting for the High Definition cables to come out. Having an HD television allows me to enjoy rich experiences, but I’m not sure if Nintendo is going to pull through on this one. Me and many others have been waiting for the component cables to be released and to see how the quality of HD gaming.
The Nintendo Wii is capable of outputting 480p (progressive scan) through component cables only. Unfortunately, the High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) cable will not be available since the maximum output is 480p. If you’re not using component cables then you’ll be stuck to use the regular Video Graphics Array (VGA) cables on a 480i (interlaced) output. The TV that I will be referring to is a 50 inch Samsung plasma.

As a HDTV owner, I am always looking to get high definition compliant devices that will allow me to have a complete experience. There is nothing unlike the HD experience - once you’ve been there it is hard to go back. Nintendo Wii was released about 30 days ago and I had not found any HD cables that would allow me to fully enjoy the Nintendo Wii. For the first 20 days, Nintendo announced that they would only be selling component cables through their online store and major online retail stores (such as Best Buy, Toys R Us, etc). I found this to be very frustrating because they would take orders online, but would not deliver them until December 12th (today). I was fortunate enough to walk into my local Best Buy and pick up a third-party version of the component cables. They’re not the same as the “Nintendo” branded cables, but they’ll have to do to appease my HD fix.

After connecting the third-party component cables for a full HD experience, I immediately noticed a sharpness in the picture! I was extremely happy with the first impression and how well Nintendo created the HD experience. I tried my favourite game, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, to see if there was an increase in quality. The colour’s instantly shot out of the TV as bright and vivid as I would ever imagine!! The quality of environments which originally had soft edges had crisp and defined outlines! The only downfall to this experience was character movement. When I would move Link or the horse on screen, you could clearly see pixelation around the edges of the character. Not only that, you could also see vertical lines across the screen until the movement stopped. The HD experience, which I was extremely excited about, turned into a half-HD experience.

Perhaps the third-party cables that I was using were not of good enough to produce the flawless HD experience I was expecting. If that was the case, then the Nintendo Wii interface wouldn’t look good, but it looked the best out of everything. I tried adjusting the settings on my TV and Wii to see if anything would fix this problem, but I realized the HD experience was game specific. You can consider it similar to a TV show that is filmed not using an HD camera - you can’t expect it to be in HD quality. I think the creators of Zelda made a HD experience as best they could, considering this game came was originally ported from the Gamecube.

After much time, I finally did receive my cables and played the Nintendo Wii being exposed to a semi-HD gaming experience. The good news for HD TV owners is that you will be able to play your favourite games on the Wii with either Nintendo or third-party component cables. All cables in North America should be available this week at your nearest retail superstore!

Side Note: I’ve video taped HD and non-HD experience to show off the difference in colour quality. Although, you can really see the high detail, you can indeed see the colour differences. The left side is is the HD and the right is the non-HD. Please excuse the quality! It is mainly to show off the colour differences. You can see how vivid and crisp the HD colours are compared to the blurred together non-HD colours. Watch the video!!!!

Have you ever seen how crazy one could actually get with the Nintendo Wii?? Have a look…this man knows how to enjoy the game!!

Click here to watch the video