Wii browser capabilities: Specifically: chat/JS/Flash/local storage

Question

I've been asked about the specific capabilities of the Nintendo Wii.

• Does it have a web browser? If so, is it suitably enabled with JavaScript/Flash, etc.? I'm thinking could it support a chatroom-type scenario?
• Is it possible for the web browser to save web content onto some form of local storage? I'm thinking chat logs, web pages and/or images/videos.

I don't personally have a Wii and don't know anyone that has who can give me a definitive answer. Hopefully one of you guys will have tried pushing a Wii browser further than most!

Answer 1

The default Wii browser is called the Internet Channel. It has limited support for JS and Flash, but I believe it provides some form of local storage.

Answer 2

The Internet Channel on the Wii is a special build of Opera (9.2, I believe...?) with support for Flash 7 and JS. If you're looking for a great breakdown, check out this Opera article on Wii browser support. Sadly, to my knowledge, the browser doesn't support localStorage - the best you get is Cookies. However, my testing could be off, so I encourage you to check on your own.

If you're looking for a nicer way to interact with the 4 Wii remotes on a given page, I wrote a library that wraps it all up into a nice convenient (and sane) interface. It includes tools to help debug things in the browser as well, which might come in handy for your testing.