The Wii, like the XBox 360 and the Playstation 3, can connect to the Internet. By purchasing and downloading the Internet channel from the Wii shop you can install a browser onto your white box (a special version of Opera. The biggest problem with this, however, is having to enter text using the Wiimote, a tiresome and long winding process, especially if you’re trying to write a long email or blog post! Enter the new wireless USB keyboard designed for the Wii.
From Logitech, this keyboard has been designed to make surfing the web from your sofa a whole lot easier. Designed to follow the Wii’s aesthetics, the slim keyboard is white and has a number of extra buttons which emulate buttons on the Wiimote, such as the ‘+’ and ‘-’ buttons for zooming in and out of the page. The keyboard comes with a mini-receiver, which plugs into the Wii, and when you’ve finished on the ‘net, it just plugs back into the keyboard for storage.
I can see the potential of a dedicated Wii keyboard; it really is impractical entering more than a few words using the onscreen keyboard. I’m hoping that this will make blogging and other text-heavy activities practical on the Wii.
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I’m surprised it’s taken this long for a Wii keyboard to be released. Mind you, it’s a good idea, and as you say it could bring in a new wave of Wii bloggers.