Internet Channel Gets Flash Update, Now Free

Cnet reported today that Nintendo has made the Internet Channel free again for all Wii owners. The Internet Channel, which hasn't been free since June 2007, has since cost new adopters 500 Wii Points to download. This change is likely part of an effort to help more Wii owners get their consoles online, noting in a press release, "Effective immediately, people who want to browse the Internet using their Wii consoles will be able to do so at no added cost."

Those that have paid for the Internet Channel will be reimbursed in the form of a free download.  Sadly, that free download won't come until October:

"Starting at the end of October, consumers who have previously exchanged 500 Wii Points to download the Internet Channel will be able to download, at no cost, one NES game of their choice valued at 500 Wii Points from Virtual Console."

Look at that! Nintendo is working on getting Wii owners online and downloading Virtual Console titles. Smart move, Nintendo.

Flash update

Also according to Cnet, the Internet Channel received a code update as well, with newly added support for Adobe Flash Lite 3.1.

According to Adobe's site, "Adobe Flash Lite® 3 is a highly optimized implementation of the Flash runtime for mobile phones, consumer electronic devices, and Internet-connected digital home devices."

Looking at the feature set of Flash Lite 3.1 compared to what was previously available on the Internet Channel (which had Flash 7), one big change stands out: Flash 8, and even partial Flash 9 support for files developed in ActionScript 2.0 instead of 3.0. Other improvements include faster performance, complex language support (Thai, Arabic, Hebrew, etc.), high quality video, and more.

However, not everything is supported in Flash Lite 3.1; you won't be seeing extra graphical effects like realtime blurring and drop shadows, image blending filters, and advanced video streaming. But from the looks of it, performance should be increased all around, and hopefully some less-accessible games and Flash pages will be available for use on the Wii.

We'll report back on more Internet Channel changes.  Is there anything you are noticing that is now available on the channel to use?