Many of the big names in consoles are currently working hard to move away from the concept that games console are just used for videogames and are adding as many functions as possible to their consoles in an effort to take PCs in the home out of the equation.
The latest announcement from Nintendo that those looking to use the Wii Internet Channel can now use it for free is the most recent move to provide more features for console users. The Wii Internet Channel is the name that has be given to a specially designed Wii compatible version of Opera 9.0 and to make it compatible with the Nintendo DS even more changes were made.
In 2007 the Internet browsing facility was completely free, although after a while a charge of 500 Wii points was imposed by Nintendo. Users will now, however, get a free videogame from Nintendo if they have already spent money in order to access the application and can expect to get something from either WiiWare or the Virtual Console service.
Users that use the Wii Internet Channel will now be able to view content on YouTube and a number of other video sharing websites as the service has now been updated in order to use Flash Lite 3.1. They will not, however, be able to view the more complex applications that deliver copyrighted material, like Hulu and Netflix.
With the Xbox360 from Microsoft now the only console that doesn’t offer users a free web browser for its users to access many believe that this is merely an attack by Nintendo or the Microsoft console. It is also believed that Nintendo are looking to ensure their console remains popular after the price reductions recently announced by both Sony and Microsoft.
Source - Softpedia