Wii Hack

 

Ok, I have discovered the dark side of the Wii… I was trying to check how to copy a wii game (just by curiosity of course) and I found a all new world.

Here are some web sites:
http://hbc.hackmii.com/
http://wiibrew.org/wiki/Main_Page
http://www.tehskeen.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=98

Basically, it is possible to load a 3rd party soft on the Wii called an Homebrew channel and from there install tons of other software (DVD player, Games, …).

And the best explanation I found about copying wii game:
http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/769824

Never tried it though.

the good news for me is that the hacker scene seems to be well alive on the Wii. Always nice to know.

Wii as a media center

 

[Update September 2009 – See my updated post on this subject after more testing, the post below was written after just a couple of weeks of testing.]

Ok, I bought a Wii last week. My main goal was to get rid off Comcast cable (too expensive). I thought that instead of buying an expensive laptop to stream hulu, It would be better to buy a gaming console. I have 2 daughters (1 and 3 years old so I thought the Wii was the best fit as a gaming console for the next 2-3 years).

Looking at the Console competition landscape: Wii, Xbox 360 and PS3. The Wii seems not, at first glance, the best console as a media center:
- Can't just plug it to a Windows media center
- No upnp capability
- No Hard drive so limited streaming capacity (In fact it is possible through the homebrew hacking scene.)

Anyway, here is my need:
1) Stream my music from my windows PC
2) Possibility to use Hulu
3) Movie streaming from my PC

The only interesting link I found about this subject is this one:
http://www.last100.com/2007/06/25/five-resources-to-create-a-wii-media-center/

But related to Mac only software. I need to build a page like this for windows server.

so far, I have been very disapointed with the Wii quality as a media center. for the following reason:

- Lack of Flash 8 and 9 on the Opera browser (Impossible to watch Hulu, Youtube, Last.fm, Deezer.com, …).
- Quality of movie streaming is *really* bad on the Wii. Impossible to watch a movie on the Wii from your local PC.

Here are the current solution I am using:
Web site usable on the Wii: http://www.liquidicelabs.com/wiiportal/

Current solution that I am testing for browsing streaming content from my PC: Orb, TVersity and Weezo. Those solutions basically let a Wii connect a remote PC with media content.

So far, Orb as the better interface and Tversity seems better to stream video (still not watchable though).

I can’t wait for the playon (http://www.themediamall.com/playon) addon for Wii!

Other application in my radar for testing:
- Ampache (Winamp streaming over http)
- Jinzora

Browsing around about this subject I found those amazing web sites:
http://moblog.net/view/885546/watch-movies-perfectly-every-time-on-wii-best-wii-media-center-solution
http://wiimediacentre.com/
http://www.wiiloaded.com/Announcine-WiiMC-The-Wii-Media-Center-t-5917-wii
http://wiideocenter.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

I will improve this article after some more testing.

I have seen this answer from Orb forum:
http://forums.orb.com/viewtopic.php?t=7982

That’s amazing news!

The new applications I am desesperatly tracking…

 

1) Xmarks for google Chrome. I can’t stand Firefox anymore (too slooowww!!!, eating all my cpu). I still have a firefox running on my laptop for a couple of reasons: Xmarks, websites not working with Google chrome, some other addons.

I need a way to sync my bookmark between all my PCs and between my browser applications (Firefox and Chrome).

Track this: http://blog.xmarks.com/

2) Playon for the Wii. This is coming soon. I can’t wait to see the quality of Hulu on the Wii. If it is good enough, I can at last remove my comcast subsciption.

Track this: http://www.themediamall.com/blog

3) New Iphone 3.0 applications and New iphone. I am using an Ipod touch right now because I just don’t want to pay 30$ a month for the data plan. Beside, it is a good test to see if I can live with only wifi without email pushed after nearly 5 years plugged to a blackberry.

I am planning to switch to a real Iphone sometime around September/October.

Track this: http://www.iphonehacks.com/

and this: http://reviews.cnet.com/iphone-atlas/

and this one: http://www.macrumors.com/iphone/

4) New Wii hardware and software. When Nintendo will take seriously the HTPC market with the Wii??

They should support the latest Flash on their Opera Browser and support the DLNA/uPNP with an external Hard drive. this would be a killer app for the Wii!

Track this: http://www.mywiinews.com/

and this: http://www.n4g.com/wii/default.aspx

How do I use Evernote

First of all, I don’t understand why it is not possible to use Evernote offline on Iphone/Ipod touch. Please, Please, Please Evernote add the offline editing capacity on the mobile application of Evernote!

Evernote processing:

1) As part of my regular GTD process, I process all Evernotes notes:

- Each note should have a tag: Temp, meeting, Task, Blog

- meeting notes should be copied on a txt file. I don’t trust Evernote for long term storage.

- Notes with a Tag “task”, should be treated as an “in basket” object (see GTD).

2) In meeting, I am using the Evernote application to take my meeting minutes. The landscape view is perfect for fast typing. I can’t modify my note though which is a pain but I didn’t find another application to do that.

3) On my laptop, quick Notepad application. Shortcut are a big part of it:

A newest version of EverNote had been released, and how it allowed for a couple of interesting global shortcut keys: CTRL+ALT+V and CTRL+ALT+N. The first would allow you to paste the contents of the Windows clipboard into a brand new note. The second would open EverNote and start a brand new note for you.

4) Tracking Blogs Ideas. Everytime I have an idea for a new Blog post, I just add a couple of lines in Evernotes, tag it with “Blog”. I will update the blog post multiple time until I find the quality of the post good enough.

5) In my everything in the cloud personal strategy (perhaps another post about this one day), I use Evenotes as my data hub. This means, if I loose everything, I can go in a cybercafe, log to evernotes and find everything (where to find everything and some login/password).

First Post

This blog will be used to give some feedback to the community about things I found on the net. I hope it will be useful to somebody oneday...