Wii-Phone?

[Fox5]

There's no way the Wiimote will function as anything other than maybe a crude chat device for use with the system. It will not be a fun you can pick up to call people. Something like that would be decidely unNintendo, and too complicated and unwieldy to use without the system + TV being on. Nintendo fans have thought Nintendo would do things like this in the past, but it never has. Maybe, just maybe if it was Sega we could see it happening, as they tried to throw just about every buzzword into the Dreamcast. (it was even to have a printer, zip drive, and dvd add on) Look how simple and devoid of user input Nintendo has made their internet play on the Nintendo DS, and it would be a complete 180 of that philosophy for Nintendo to make a Wiiphone as people are suggesting. It'd be neat, and they could possibly corner the Japanese market on a cheap Internet device / VoIP phone, but they're not going to do it because Nintendo is against making convergence devices. (ok, so they have a browser, but all that requires is a port of some software, the investment is very minimal in comparision)

 

[NANOTEC]

I don't get the point of trying to show that Voice Recognition is part of biometrics. So is Finger Print Scanning. Or are you suggesting that the controller will have that?

No I'm not suggesting the controller will have that. I'm suggesting it could if the need for privacy becomes a pressing issue which I don't think it will.

Actually you did have an issue with privacy of your phonebook being seen on the TV. And it's an understandable one.

No you misunderstood that statement which was regarding the separate handset phonebooks.

And cordless phones (like yours and mine) have built-in LCD screens allowing privacy and management of the phonebooks. Wii controllers will not unless you think it's possible to manage everything through Voice Recognition? That would work but I don't know if it would still be as effective or intuitive at times. Privacy would still be compromised at times though once you're forced to speak out loud.

But in the end, I really don't think Nintendo cares much about privacy for devices in your own home.

Yes I don't think Nintendo cares that much about in home privacy either so all of these privacy factors become moot.

That's true. To dial out, it would be somewhat of a pain in terms of time as well. Personally for me, the frustration factor would be worse when picking up the wrong remote but I can see that time/speed could be just as important.

Well worse case is you have 4 of the same color and in no logical order on the table. Best case is if you have 4 of different colors. With a tv the case will always be worse case eg you have to turn on the tv first which takes awhile to warmup.

Either way, you're still connected to your addressbook via the net, and that was my point. Only now the addressbook is less secure and less extensible.

Well like I said since it contains flash RAM anyway, why would you want to have to log in to your Wii console from a remote location to retrieve the phonebook when you could easily just instantly retrieve it from the Wiimote to use it with another Wii console? The remote login should only be a backup procedure.

Guden mentioned that first and I forgot to address that. It IS an interesting prospect depending on how far they manage to run with the idea. Like new shells, pokemon aspects, etc.

The way I see it internal flash in a controller will be standard going forward. It's cheap and allows interesting ideas that may need it down the line.

 

[NANOTEC]

There's no way the Wiimote will function as anything other than maybe a crude chat device for use with the system. It will not be a fun you can pick up to call people. Something like that would be decidely unNintendo, and too complicated and unwieldy to use without the system + TV being on. Nintendo fans have thought Nintendo would do things like this in the past, but it never has. Maybe, just maybe if it was Sega we could see it happening, as they tried to throw just about every buzzword into the Dreamcast. (it was even to have a printer, zip drive, and dvd add on) Look how simple and devoid of user input Nintendo has made their internet play on the Nintendo DS, and it would be a complete 180 of that philosophy for Nintendo to make a Wiiphone as people are suggesting. It'd be neat, and they could possibly corner the Japanese market on a cheap Internet device / VoIP phone, but they're not going to do it because Nintendo is against making convergence devices. (ok, so they have a browser, but all that requires is a port of some software, the investment is very minimal in comparision)

Nintendo has already developed a VoIP software package for DS. All they'd need to do is port it to Wii. Like I mentioned awhile ago Nintendo seems like they're looking at video/voice over IP using a camera attachment. This requires very little investment while having the potential to be the next iPod device for videophone usage.

 

[Ty]

The way I see it internal flash in a controller will be standard going forward. It's cheap and allows interesting ideas that may need it down the line.

Very possible. The Dreamcast didn't really make good use of it (not flash ram per se but rather as an expanded feature controller) unfortunately but perhaps the Wii can.

 

[Fox5]

Nintendo has already developed a VoIP software package for DS. All they'd need to do is port it to Wii. Like I mentioned awhile ago Nintendo seems like they're looking at video/voice over IP using a camera attachment. This requires very little investment while having the potential to be the next iPod device for videophone usage.

And the DS one requires the system to be on. I could see maybe an app to go along with the web browser, or perhaps in game, I don't see Nintendo taking the extra steps needed to make the WiiMote practically a stand alone phone (no tv required) and probably not even having individualize controllers where you could call one of them and not the system. The WiiMote just isn't set up in a way where it would be simple, and Nintendo seems very opposed to doing anything that requires more than a button press to work properly.

 

[NANOTEC]

Very possible. The Dreamcast didn't really make good use of it (not flash ram per se but rather as an expanded feature controller) unfortunately but perhaps the Wii can.

The expanded controller idea of the DC was a pretty cool idea. The fact SEGA pulled the plug on DC as a whole didn't help that idea too much though. It would be nice to have a microSD card slot on the Wiimote itself but I guess that would add unecessary costs to every controller they made.

And the DS one requires the system to be on. I could see maybe an app to go along with the web browser, or perhaps in game, I don't see Nintendo taking the extra steps needed to make the WiiMote practically a stand alone phone (no tv required) and probably not even having individualize controllers where you could call one of them and not the system. The WiiMote just isn't set up in a way where it would be simple, and Nintendo seems very opposed to doing anything that requires more than a button press to work properly.

Yeah I agree, it has to be fairly simple for the average Joe to operate, but since the Wii console will be connected to the net 24/7, it really becomes natural to have the Wii operate like the DS's VoIP app. Videophone capability will just be icing on the cake granted it likely will not be standard since you need to buy a webcam.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

The expanded controller idea of the DC was a pretty cool idea. The fact SEGA pulled the plug on DC as a whole didn't help that idea too much though. It would be nice to have a microSD card slot on the Wiimote itself but I guess that would add unecessary costs to every controller they made.

Why would you want that? Apart from removable phone directories per handset, what other features could it add?

 

[NANOTEC]

Why would you want that? Apart from removable phone directories per handset, what other features could it add?

I don't know maybe a iPod shulffle like device? Voice recorder? Game saves for your particular game character when playing at a friends house? Face/voice maps? Your own vehicle or logo or character designs?

 

[OtakingGX]

Why would you want that? Apart from removable phone directories per handset, what other features could it add?

I don't know that you'd need any sort of SD card to store such information. SIM cards with 32K of memory can handle 200 phone numbers, numerous text messages, and more. I'd wager that the remote will need to have some integrated memory for audio playback. If it is not DRAM and is rather some sort of flash RAM, then I can see part of that being used to store favorites, phone numbers, game saves, etc.