Wii Internet Channel Finally Out of Beta!!!!!!

Yes, you read right. Finally, after many months, Opera's Internet browser for the Wii is out of beta!
I got home from school today and opened my Google Reader and scrolled down to the Webware feed from webware.com. I was surprised to see the headline "Wii Internet Channel finally out of beta." I immediately became quite excited and fired up my Wii. I immediately connected to the Wii Shop Channel which told me I had to first do a Wii System Update. I exited out of the Shopping Channel and noticed Nintendo left me a message on my Wii Message Board. I announced to me the Internet Channel was out of beta and provided me a link to update my Wii's firmware and then told me to go back to Shop Channel and access the Wii Ware section. I downloaded it with ease and immediately started it up.
As you select the channel from the Wii Menu it makes a nice little jingle sound greeting you. It loads up much faster compared to the old Internet Channel. Through the settings you can adjust the Toolbar Display either setting it to always display or auto-hide toolbar which is a nice feature if on a small TV like me. A new search feature has been implemented into the browser allowing you to search either Google or Yahoo. The zoom feature has been refined to allow more precise zooming. The Favorites menu is relatively the same with a few graphical tweaks and the addition of more of Nintendo's and Opera's links. Typing seems to be the same with the point and click functionality. Maybe some day the Wii will allow a keyboard to connect via USB or Bluetooth. One feature still missing from the new Internet browser is tabbed browsing. This is a major negative to a very promising browser. Maybe that feature will included in a later update.
All in all the the Wii Internet Channel has greatly improved over the trial version though a few key features are still absent. The Channel will be available for free on the Wii Shop Channel until June 30. Then you'll have to shell out some hard earned Wii Points to get the browser.

-APer