Jan 09

Catching up on Nintendo TVii: an interview with i.TV co-founder Justin Whittaker

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Catching up on Nintendo TVii an interview with iTV cofounder Justin Whittaker

Nintendo TVii‘s road to reality was relatively pain-free until its platform, Wii U, launched in November … without the promised TVii functionality ready for primetime. A month and many ambiguous company statements later, Nintendo TVii went live. But even then, the service went without two of its promised features: TiVo and Netflix integration, promised to launch later this month. Nintendo isn’t saying much about TVii post-Wii U launch, but we did manage to catch up with the company that created (and continues to support) Nintendo TVii, i.TV, during this week’s madness. I.TV co-founder Justin Whittaker stopped by the Engadget doublewide at CES 2013 to chat about his company, what happened (or rather, what didn’t happen) at launch, and what the future holds for Nintendo TVii. Head past the break and find out!

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Nov 26

Nintendo TVii will launch with the Wii U in Japan on December 8th, IR remote costs $1

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Nintendo’s Wii U has yet to launch in Japan, but over there it’s been revealed that the innovative Nintendo TVii app will be available when the console launches December 8th. Interestingly, the IR remote functionality that we’ve already seen packed in will cost 100 yen ($1.21) from Nintendo’s eShop. The TV guide data will be pulled from Rovi’s G-Guide service, ready to pull up even when you’re not using the console, or in the middle of a TV show or video game. We still don’t have an exact release date for the i.TV-based feature in North America (it’s due in “select” European regions next year) but at least gamers can enjoy their Netflix, Hulu, Amazon and YouTube access until then.

Gallery: Nintendo TVii press shots

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Via: AV Watch

Source: IPG.jp, Nintendo Japan (1), (2)

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Nov 16

Wii U’s Nintendo TVii, Amazon Instant Video, and Hulu Plus pushed to December (update)

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When Nintendo’s Wii U launches this weekend, it won’t arrive with most of its primary multimedia features — namely, Nintendo TVii, Amazon Instant Video, or Hulu Plus. All were said to come pre-loaded on the new console, but reviewers found out early that a launch day patch would enable the functionality. As it turns out, that patch will actually arrive at some point in December, bearing Nintendo TVii, with the rest of the apps arriving “in the coming weeks” (no hard date is given for any of the apps). The console is still expected to launch with Miiverse, Nintendo Network, and backwards compatibility with the Nintendo Wii — none of which is currently enabled on the Wii U (presumably still arriving in some form of day-one patch). We’ve reached out to Nintendo to see if those things are still planned for launch.

Update: Netflix reps tell us the app will be available “when Wii U ships,” but won’t be part of Nintendo TVii “until Q1.”

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Wii U’s Nintendo TVii, Amazon Instant Video, and Hulu Plus pushed to December (update) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 16 Nov 2012 09:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nov 12

Nintendo’s Wii U tablet controller and the death of your TV’s remote control

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Nintendo's Wii U tablet controller and the death of your TV's remote control

Turning on an Xbox 360 / PlayStation 3 / Nintendo Wii:

  1. Walk to living room, pick up television controller.
  2. Turn on television, select input / applicable volume / etc.
  3. Put down television controller.
  4. Pick up gamepad. Turn on power.
  5. Select profile.

Five steps. Let’s compare this to Nintendo’s new console, the Wii U.

  1. Walk to living room, pick up Wii U tablet controller.
  2. Press TV button on controller, power on television, select input / applicable volume / etc., power on console.
  3. Select profile.

Just three! At the risk of sounding like late-night TV pitchmen, we must emphasize how important this is. It remains impressive after days of using the console at home. Ever since we (as a society) first plugged computers called “gaming consoles” into our televisions, we’ve been following an archaic process of swapping remotes and pushing buttons and all sorts of needless busywork. Nintendo’s Wii U tablet controller thankfully streamlines that process in a small, but tremendously meaningful way: during initial console setup, you’re prompted to sync your television and the tablet controller, allowing the tablet itself to control the TV’s power, volume, channels, and input directly.

And let’s pause to emphasize the importance of this step as part of the initial console setup, rather than background functionality to be sussed out later on — this fundamentally transforms how the vast majority of soon-to-be Wii U owners will interact with their Wii U. The console instantly becomes the de facto media unit, interacting with your cable box, DVR, and various digital streaming offerings, as well as directly controlling your television.

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Nintendo’s Wii U tablet controller and the death of your TV’s remote control originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 12 Nov 2012 11:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sep 13

Nintendo TVii supported by ‘all’ major US and Canadian cable companies, dish services

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Nintendo TVii will support “all” cable and dish carriers in the US and Canada, Nintendo director of strategic partnership Zach Fountain told Engadget this afternoon. He said that no major carriers are excluded, and the only requirement for signing up is inputting your cable company’s account information to the Wii U. DVR and TiVO functionality are plugged in similarly, where users input information via web, and services resultantly pop up on the Wii U. Nintendo TVii launches with the Wii U on November 18 in the US and Canada for free, and remains exclusive to North America for the time being.

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Nintendo TVii supported by ‘all’ major US and Canadian cable companies, dish services originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 13 Sep 2012 13:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sep 13

Nintendo unveils ‘Nintendo TVii’ for Wii U (video)

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Nintendo unveils 'Nintendo TVii' for Wii U

Nintendo showed off some of the Wii U’s new television functionality during its New York City press event — first unveiled during E3 2012 — including DVR and TiVO, and search across several content providers (Netflix, Hulu Plus, Amazon Instant, and cable television, to name a few). It’s unclear whether the DVR functionality is built into the console or not, but we’ll be sure to find out as soon as possible*. Nintendo’s director of strategic partnership Zach Fountain’s calling the service a “personalized program guide” and he showed off how you’ll be able to interact with content — movies and television shows can be searched via text entry, or explored in a general category sense (movies, tv, sports, etc.). If QWERTY text isn’t your kind of thing, a rotary entry in the lower right corner offers another way to seek out content.

The service is only for US and Canadian Wii U owners for now, but Fils-Aime said the company’s exploring an expansion into other parts of the Americas. Nintendo TVii is free with the purchase of a console this November. Click on past the break for the company’s brief video demo.

Update*: DVR/TiVO functionality is not built into the hardware, we confirmed.

Gallery: Nintendo TVii

Gallery: Nintendo TVii press shots

Joseph Volpe contributed to this report.

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Nintendo unveils ‘Nintendo TVii’ for Wii U (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 13 Sep 2012 10:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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