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I’ve been having a Wii bit of fun lately, playing Mario Kart on my Wii. It’s addictive. I picked it up after seeing a commercial where the player is using the little steering wheel. Even though it’s wireless, I’m using my strap. I don’t want it to go flying across the room! I totally don’t want it hitting my dog and giving him brain damage.

If you’ve ever played a racing game on a hand-held device or even a controller, you know that you tilt it whichever way you need your car to go. If the controller isn’t built like the Wiimote, it won’t do you any good. Finally, the hardware has caught up with our own deficiencies as humans!

Anyway… I decided to give this a shot to see if it was going to be as fun as I’ve been hearing. Indeed… it is a ton of fun, if you’re not losing. Normally I wouldn’t hold the controller as high as I am now, but I wanted you all to be able to see that my actions have equal reactions in the game. Interesting to note is that even though I lost the game, Nintendo has thought of pretty much everything. Not only can I move up and down the way you’d think I could… I can also press the right and left buttons to go up and down.

You don’t really have to move the Steering Wheel that far. You basically just tilt to maneuver. Of course, visually and audibly, it’s an amazing game. You do almost have a tendency to over-steer with this game. It’s interesting, too, that the character leans when you do. I’m a casual gamer, and I enjoy gaming occasionally. I’m having fun with this wireless Steering Wheel. The game and the controller get a huge “thumbs around” from me… which is far better than a thumbs up.

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Isn’t Mario Kart Wii Fun?

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You know, the Wii is addicting… even without loading up a single game. I have discovered all kinds of cool things you can do. Did you know you can get the local weather… right on the Wii?

The music on the Weather part of the Wii literally makes me want to sleep. It is quite soothing, yes. However… *yawn*. However, if you’re a Weather freak… you’d want to buy a Wii just to have this feature alone. I truly enjoy all Weather things. The Wii Weather is very very cool. It has an excellent interactive capability. I can easily check the UV Index, the current forecast, forecasts from other countries… etc. It’s easy to check weather from other areas. I use the WiiMote to literally “grab” the screen (much like with Google Maps), and drag the map around.

This channel allows you to access local weather forecasts after turning on the Wii console. When connected to the Internet, the Wii automatically updates weather information from your local area and around the world. Use the Wii Remote to spin the globe and view weather reports from across town or across the planet!

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Weather on the Wii

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Now that I’m finding my way around on my new Wii, I am having a great time discovering everything I can do with it. Did you know, for example, that you can get your local news… right on your Wii? I haven’t even played a video game yet, because I’m too entranced by everything else it can do. I found out about getting my weather on the Wii… and now I’ve connected to the news!

Part of the news feature on the Wii is something I could run 24/7 on my screen. This way I could look over at any given time to catch the latest headlines. The Wii displays the news in a very dynamic way. I can go in and dive into a specific area of the news if I choose… such as World news, local news, Technology or even Life. I can simply go in there, and view the newest headlines in that particular section.

Internet Channel changes the way you surf the net forever. No more hunching over your computer. Just download the Opera browser for just 500 Wii Points and within minutes, you’ll be a professional sofa surfer, pointing-and-clicking your way around the web with your Wii Remote. Opera supports Adobe Flash and JavaScript so you can even watch movies on your favorite video sites!
Control the Internet Channel with your Wii Remote. Scroll through sites with either the +Control Pad or the B Button and click on a link by pointing to it and hitting the A Button. Text too small? Video too big? Zoom in and out of the browser with the + (plus) and – (minus) Buttons.
The search button is right on the start page, so you can quickly look up anything you just saw on TV. To start typing, just grab your Wii Remote, point to each letter on the display keyboard and press the A Button. Choose from 2 keyboards: traditional QWERTY or a compact cellphone-style keyboard with predictive typing.

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Get Your News on the Wii

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A few months ago, I had a bit of fun with an Open Source utility called MacSaber. I remember hearing someone saying that the WiiSaber had come along, causing the same sound effects. The WiiSaber author is the same one who created the MacSaber program I had so much fun with. Being a huge Star Wars and Luke Skywalker fan, I HAD to try this!

By the way… did you know Luke Skywalker himself is a Pirillo fan? Mark Hamill… you know you want to play WiiSaber with me.

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Luke Skywalker Wants a Wii

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Minutes after I sliced my finger on the Wii box, I decided to download an Open Source program for Mac OS X. The DarwiinRemote is an application for Mac OS X v10.4 which allows Wii Remote to fully control applications on a personal computer. Essentially, you connect your WiiMote via Bluetooth to any Mac running OS X. The software includes a desktop application and a developers’ framework, allowing for additional functionality. To use the software, the computer must have Bluetooth enabled.

DarwiinRemote employs most of the features of the Wii Remote. All three accelerometers feed information to the computer. All of the buttons on the Wii Remote, including the Nunchuk attachment, can be used, but the control stick is not supported. The rumble features and LEDs are fully programmable. In addition, DarwiinRemote can accept the infrared signals from the Wii Sensor Bar. However, to use this feature, the bar must be plugged into a powered socket on Wii.

If you know of other cool free things for the Wii, please let me know! You can leave me a follow-up comment to this video, or shoot an email to me at chris@pirillo.com.

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Open Source Wii Software