Internet on TV 2.0

Well, well, well....fancy seeing me back here again, eh? Well, I keep seeing people getting signed up to get notifications of updates and I thought I'd give them something to talk about. So here's what's been going on.

I have moved on from Microsoft and now work at a little company called Zing that makes connected portable devices. What does this have to do with Internet on TV? Well, nothing really. But I do still tinker with web browsing on the TV and have tried a bunch of ways. I'm going to round up a few of the ways you can access the Internet using your TV and rate each way out of 10.

MSNTV2 via dialup (3/10): What can I say....this will work, but dialup is seriously done. Some of the most compelling content can't really be fully enjoyed over dialup speed. If you're an email fiend, this is the way to go...but honestly you could get much more for the same amount of cash. Heck, even my cellphone has broadband!. Anyone, I hate to rag on you, but if you still gots the dialup, now is the time to look around for broadband. After all, it is the same price or less than dialup now.

MSNTV2 via broadband (6/10): Better, but still troublesome in some cases. I mean there are issues with flash and the like...playing flash video sometimes works but can be a pain to control. Overall, a better experience than dialup. One downside is that it can be more pricey than MSNTV2 with dialup since you have to pay $10/month on top of your internet access fee every month.

Windows Media Center (5/10): What? Why would I rate a full fledge PC down a level from MSNTV2? Well, even though there issues on MSNTV2, it at least is specialized for viewing on TV. IE can be a nightmare to read on TV. Also, I've found the Media Center experience a bit "hackish" at times. It'll flip you out of TV mode to load IE and install stuff and back and forth. That being said, I do LOVE the media center side of things. The nice part is that there are not service fees on top of your internet access.

Anything else? Well...now that you mention it, Yes.

Nintendo Wii (7/10): A video game console? Yeah you heard me. I got my hands on the Wii by waking up at 4am one morning and casually checking the wii stock checker gizmo on my PC. There were some in stock at Sears, I jumped on it and one arrived on my doorstep a while later (a long while later since Sears has a funky distribution channel that marked the item in stock even though it was on a boat from China). Anyway, after grabbing my Wii and downloading some updates, I noticed that the shop had an "Internet Channel". "Hmmmm" I thought. Well, so far, it has been a pretty neat part of the Wii experience to use. The typing is a little slow, but the using the Wiimote is not too bad. I wouldn't recommend writing long emails with it, but it's perfectly serviceable for typing in URLs and the like. I've yet to try this, but there is also wiiminder that adds a very wii-ish looking bit of featues including tabbed browsing and a few other niceties. The Wii Internet Channel is currently in trial, but a full version should be available in April and will probably cost something like 5 bucks.

The Wii also has email capabilities but requires that you do a funky handshaking thing first. Your Wii can send email to any email address, but those you send email to will first get a handshake request sort of email saying that your Wii is requesting permission to exchange emails with you. Once the other person replies, you can exchange emails. The downside of the Wii email system is that it picks some arbitrarily long and ugly email name for you. I haven't found a way to change it yet, but I haven't looked to hard either.

The Wii also has a neat news channel that is easy to use and keeps you posted on the top news of th day. There is of course the weather channel as well. And of course you get Wii Sports with your Wii. My favorite is Tennis, but I also like to play bowling and golf on the Wii too.

Some other niceties of the Wii are that it has wireless built in so you won't need to buy a wifi adapter like with the MSNTV2 or the Media Center PC. Also there is no monthly fee for the Wii. So if you wait a little while, the Wiis will be in stock everywhere for around $250, it'll be a much better deal than MSNTV2 over the long run (and you can have a bit of fun playing bowling in your living room when you get tired of surfing the web).