I never thought I’d manage it before next Christmas, but with the help of Wiipreorder.co.uk and wii-consoles.co.uk I ordered one last Friday and it arrived the next Tuesday. They only had bundles available, but Game allow you to return unopened software for a full refund. Warioware and Super Monkey Ball will be going back thank you.

Wii Sports on the other hand, is 100% brilliance. The Wiimote really is something genuinely new in gaming; possibly the only new thing since 3D graphics and networking in the 1990s.

The opera browser is a bit cramped on a standard definition TV, but it’s super-smooth and looks good. Gmail works. Flash works. Youtube works, but you can’t remove the large browser interface for truly full-screen playback. It’s also slow to start up, and awfully slow having to type in everything using an on-screen keyboard. I wonder if a gestural Palm-Graffiti-style interface might be faster.

(The Wii does have two USB ports on the rear, but doesn’t support USB keyboards. Or, in fact, USB anything. I’m not aware of any USB accessories planned.)

The Photo Channel only reads JPEGs from an inserted SD card. This isn’t much fun if you’re a CompactFlash kind of person. That’s where things like Wii Media Center X are supposed to come in. MP3-via-Java-via-Flash-via-Opera-via-Wii works about as smoothly as it sounds. WMCX doesn’t actually work at all under Linux. Change line 1 of /mediacenterx_jar/software/Music/files.jsp from:

< %@page import="redKawa.mediaCenter.Music.*"%>

to:

< %@page import="redKawa.mediaCenter.music.*"%>

in order to run it long enough to discover the next bug. I got up to 3 this way before deciding to wait for a non-alpha release.

(Is using the Wii a moral hazard? If I am ethically obliged to share software with my neighbours, but am unable to do so (the Wii doesn’t use standard DVDs, doesn’t allow access to its internal memory, and I don’t know anybody else with one anyway), is it ethically equivalent to using firmware?)

Finally, Wii elbow is real. My arm hurts. Of course the rest of me hurts too; I’ve never had a cold this bad. Ugh.