Nintendo Wii + Web Surfing = Porn for the Whole Family?

The Nintendo Wii is quickly becoming a serious convergence machine - offering not only video game play, but also News and Weather updates, audience polling and an Internet channel. Much like WebTV had tried to do a decade ago, the Wii moves the Web from the little screen (your laptop) to the big screen (TV).

Now, one content stream doesn't just get accessed by multiple operating systems and multiple browsers, but the Web is now being accessed by a multitude of gadgets, from Blackberry handhelds, to iPhones, the iPod Touch, and the Wii, to name a few.

This evening, I spotted a Nintendo Wii checking in on the blog, and not exactly from a visitor looking for news on technology, sports, or even pictures of my beagle. Instead, the first Wii visit I've noticed was your typical lonely Web surfer looking for a late night porn fix, searching for "free girls on webcams without giving address". Interesting.

The Wii browser is an Opera derivative, version 9.30. And I have to assume there is a pretty good chance that whoever is looking for these Internet-living ladies with loose morals is doing so without their parents knowing. Time to turn on parental controls!

Wii Steals Show In Family Weekend Visit

My wife and I got home a few hours ago after the 150-mile drive from Folsom, California, after a quick two-day visit with my parents and youngest sister. While we enjoyed one another's company, saw their new house, swam in their pool, visited with my grandmother, played cards and went out to dinner, among other things, there was a clear winner for attention - our Nintendo Wii.

With four controllers, the entire family moved furniture aside, and we battled against one another in tennis, bowling, golf and baseball, without leaving our living room. With Kristine and me acting at first playing the part of the more experienced pair, we quickly saw our mediocre skills matched and trumped - especially by my mother, who somehow managed to average more than 200 a game in bowling when I could barely break the 125 mark. As I battled to pick up splits for spares, she would methodically knock all the pins down - at one point, scoring five straight strikes, much to our joint delight, disillusionment and annoyance.

All told, our Wii was happy to report it was (ab)used to the point of 5 1/2 hours on Saturday, and almost 3 hours Sunday, before we had to turn it off, pack it up and drive home. And while it definitely sounds silly that we racked over eight hours together in front of the video game console, it brought us all together doing a shared activity that was at least mildly physical, and certainly competitive. Also, I'd be lying if I said my right shoulder wasn't a bit sore after the weekend workout.

We enjoyed our trip and seeing the family, finally getting time on our busy schedules, and we were lucky enough to, this time, have brought the entertainment with us. I, for one, know I need to practice some more before we have a rematch.

New TAB Post: Apple Remote Could Slow Apple TV Gaming

With the Nintendo Wii on board, I've been thinking a lot about how intuitive and fun it is to play the console, and how, in contrast, my Apple TV has found a lot of idle time. I think Apple's hobby has a lot of potential as a game platform, but Steve Jobs is being quiet, and I think the focus on minimalism, from the box to the remote, offers up challenges to developers and potential game players.

After all... the Apple Remote simply doesn't even have enough buttons to play Tetris, let alone Mario Brothers. Would it be a major impediment to Apple expanding the platform? I think it would.

That's the background behind my most recent contribution to The Apple Blog, titled Would Apple's Remote Deny Proper Gaming?. Per agreement with them, I will not be cross-posting the piece, but instead, have provided a link. Enjoy.

Wii Offers Original Mario Bros. for Five Bucks

While the Nintendo Wii is still new to me, I'm sure some of its more advanced features are sure to prove me late to the game. Yesterday, while browsing the Wii's Shopping Channel, I found that you can download classic original Nintendo games directly to the Wii's hard drive, without buying a game disc. For the equivalent of $5, I was able to download the original Super Mario Bros. video game, helping me reestablish my dominance over Goombas and gain the opportunity to save The Princess, all for less than the price of a McDonald's Happy Meal.

Like any good NES user back in the late 1980s and early 1990s, I played my unfair share of Mario Bros, and know all the hidden tricks. But while it's been a long time since I've played the game on an NES console, I had the game fired up and ready to go on our 42-inch plasma TV last night, a brand new experience.

Engadget posted a story yesterday calling for Nintendo to enable DVD playback on the Wii - a laudable effort, to be sure. But for me, I continue to get geeked out by the fact this slim console has the ability to move beyond DVDs, and can grab new games from the cloud for near-immediate playing. It's a lot like video games on demand. For an extremely small cost basis, I was able to pull down one of the world's classics, a game which doesn't get any less fun with time, and one I likely would have paid ten times as much for the first time around. That's almost as fun as finding a hidden "1 Up" mushroom!