Topic: Wii U browser is just awesome

[azeke]

The room where i usually spend all my time with my TV, consoles and PC is kinda cold to be now. I came home today slightly ill from cold and somewhat tired, so i decided not to take chances, moved to other, much warmer room, turned on the heater, poured some tea with lemon and honey, and wanted to read some Barks Duck-stories.
I also took my Wii pad.
First i played around Miiverse, then i opened browser, checked latest media create sales thread, then went to NWR. I've logged into forums, read and answered some posts. Then i moved to podcast discussion, and just for kicks i tried to open the podcast page itself.
It works.
To play NWR podcast on Wii U, you have to click on "download AAC version".
Even more amazing for me is that you can put it to background and keep browsing the web, while listening to podcast.
In a fit of experimentation, i've also tried html5 version of Desktop Dungeons (one of my favourite games of 2011).
It works too. You just have to switch the sound off.

TLDR
NWR podcasts work, as are html5 games, simultaneously. I said "wow" and typed it all on Wii U.
PS Okay, now to read that Carl Barks book...

[Oblivion]

Too bad Youtube site was updated a couple of days ago, and does not work anymore. But there's a workaround. Before the "?" on a video's URL, add "_popup". Tada! Takes five seconds to type in and you still get to use the browser over the app.

[MysticGohan]

Youtube works now on the browser, so all is as it should!

[Oblivion]

Really? I just tried it and it isn't fixed for me.

[Caliban]

It's working for me Oblivion. Now I can go back to watching Youtube on my big screen. Hooray.

[MysticGohan]

lol, yes it's back to normal, so youtube on your Wii U's browser till your heart's contempt!

[ShyGuy]

Carl Barks duck stories! YEAH!

[UncleBob]

In a fit of experimentation, i've also tried html5 version of Desktop Dungeons (one of my favourite games of 2011).
It works too. You just have to switch the sound off.

If you folks haven't tried this yet - GO PLAY IT NOW.

I checked it out based off of azeke's suggestion and have blown so much time on it today.

[Oblivion]

Why am I the only one having issues?

Edit: Nevermind.

[DigitalGreenTea]

The beauty of Wii U is to enter the internet browser in no time, watch a walkthrough and get back to play the game.

[MysticGohan]

You can't see it, but I just +yeah you!

[azeke]

If you folks haven't tried this yet - GO PLAY IT NOW.

I checked it out based off of azeke's suggestion and have blown so much time on it today.

Don't you still owe me a friend request confirmation?

On DD: such a brilliantly designed game. It's too bad that creators got stuck with beta for than a year now, polishing and polishing and adding more and more stuff and going all feature creep, which to me feels like wasting of their and mine time.

Free alpha PC version is still a very playable time-waster, i can't recommend it enough.

[BranDonk Kong]

Has anyone gotten thedailyshow.com or colbernation.com to play video? I'm pretty sure both should do HTML5 video if you don't have Flash, but I just get a Flash error.

[SixthAngel]

Has anyone gotten thedailyshow.com or colbernation.com to play video? I'm pretty sure both should do HTML5 video if you don't have Flash, but I just get a Flash error.

Try to go to the mobile sites if possible.  They have a crappy version that sometimes doesn't have the full episodes that my ipad automatically goes to.  Maybe you can just go there with the browser?

[azeke]

Anyone having issues playing Youtube videos from PC lately?

It keeps buffering when you rewind video even if it's already cached, it constantly keeps pushing flash plugins even if i specifically opted for HTML5 option and it started nagging me some BS how they want me to me to use my real name. Flash plugin mixes up monitors when you go fullscreen (i have HDTV connected as second display) and even hangs up the browser occasionally.

This evening when i was making my dinner i took gamepad to watch (more like listen to) some Chrontendo while i cook, and oh my god the experience is so much smoother - no glitches, no nagging messages, rewind/fast forward is instant.

Just a random observation.

PS i was still watching Chrontendo while typed this post on gamepad, he's talking about Akira game now.

[azeke]

Wii U is slowly replacing my PC. When at home Wii U is now my preferred way to watch Youtube videos -- it's so much better: no ads, no buffering, no jumps to ridiculous 144p resolution.

Even twitch kinda works. I checked it with that stream of speed-runner trying to break Wind Waker HD and it works. But apparently it only works for live videos, videos from archive require flash or something which is stupid becuase i was just watching their videos live.

I wish Justin.tv worked too, their videos are already encoded with h264 and aac and technically Wii U browser can do show just fine. But no, stupid Flash again.

I also grew to love browser itself: copy/paste function helps when you want to insert some image with BBCode, images function that shows image on your tv and lets you copy direct link to that image.

Oh, and also i started using online feed reader so that i could keep track of all new videos on youtube. I simply open channel i want to keep track of, open feed url and copy/paste it to feed reader. Simple RSS reader works okay so far, but i'm kinda annoyed how it forces me to use iPad-like controls to browse feeds.

I need something even "simpler"...

[BranDonk Kong]

I always have issues with YouTube on Wii U, slow buffering for no reason, etc. Then again, I haven't turned on my Wii U in months, so maybe that's gone now.

[azeke]

After watching latest Direct (on Wii U of course), i started playing around with updated browser.
Apparently they added some kind of web development tool. It's web based and doesn't look like working at the moment. Either way, it's cool, will tinker with it someday.
Not crazy about new text input interface - it's kinda hassle to keep the text visible now.
They added support for USB keyboard - thinking to get wireless keyboard (i broke my last one trying to wash it, so i need a new one anyway).
And it just feels snappier in general.

[Gwellin]

After watching latest Direct (on Wii U of course), i started playing around with updated browser.
Apparently they added some kind of web development tool. It's web based and doesn't look like working at the moment. Either way, it's cool, will tinker with it someday.

It does work, somewhat similar to how Mac users can remotely access iOS Safari through Mac Safari dev tools.

What you do for the Wii U is enable Development Mode (it's disabled every time you leave the browser), and it'll give you an IP:port address. Go to your computer (on the same WiFi network) and enter that address in to Chrome or Safari. It doesn't seem to work in Firefox, but that is because it's a different rendering engine and dev tools, which are not compatible.

The tools are the same as the ones you'd get in WebKit browsers, but invaluable to developers who are serious about supporting the Wii U properly.

[ShyGuy]

So this is coming from my Wii U. Interesting... I wonder If I could make a Wii U website.

[azeke]

Testing my new wireless keyboard with Wii U browser. Works okay if a little slow. Too bad it starts and ends on text typing - i wish you could control entire browser with it.


Opera was great about it -- you could do absolutely everything with just keyboard...


Also most of keyboard shortcuts don't work -- all you have is just letters, backspace and arrows keys. No Home, no end, no shift for selecting text, no nothing.


Apart from web tools, latest update also made videos actually play on the page not only in the dedicated window.  This playback for now is the only way to have subtitles work on Wii U. I am guessing it's because youtube subtitiles are displayed through HTML5 over the video element.


Here is a video you can check subtitles on

[Agent-X-]

I really enjoy how well the Wii U handles internet browsing. When playing a game, it's super easy to use the gamepad to browse the internet. My wife and I will sometimes get stumped on finding star coins in NSMBU, so we'll search youtube for videos to help us out. It's pretty nifty how the Wii U switches between game and browser without missing a beat.

[azeke]

After they fixed Youtube app i found myself using it more for longer videos. It's sometimes better when you need to press Home (like check time or some settings or stuff) and after you press Home again you will be back to video.

If i am watching Youtube video from browser it will exit video when you press Home.

The downside with watching Youtube from browser is that with fixing their own app Google also changed with their site to make it unwatchable from Wii U browser (these guys just can't live a day without breaking something).

This can be "fixed" by messing around in browser settings and setting User Agent to say, "Android".

I also found out that videos on Giant Bomb's sites also start to work with "Android" setting which is cool if you want higher quality video.