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It's been a while since Nintendo's given us a firmware update. It was back in April with the release of the full version of the Internet Channel. Today Nintendo updated the Wii firmware to version 3.0. The improvements and changes aren't very noticeable with respect to the Wii Menu and system settings. It was the Wii Shop Channel that was the main focus of this update as it recieved a mini face lift and a more user friendly interface.
Here is a summary of the updates made in 3.0 firmware from Nintendo:
Wii Menu
A large digital clock has been added to the bottom of the Wii Menu. Nothing more than a basic clock letting you know what time it is which could actually come in handy. Makes you wonder why it wasn't there in the first place.
Faster load times for games, channels and OS bootup. Wii owners will also notice that the transition between a exiting a game or channel and returning to the Wii Menu is much quicker and you will no longer worry that you console may have frozen or been bricked altogther.
The News Channel will now show scrolling headlines while in the Wii Menu. The headlines will come two at time. Once you've selected the News Channel three headlines will scroll across the screen at once. The interior of the channel seems to have remained unchanged.
While in the Wii Menu the Forecast Channel will now display the current weather conditions for your set city. So if it's sunny, you'll see a sun. Raining, you'll get a rain cloud. The tempurature isn't displayed any longer. Like the News Channel, the innards of the Forecast Channel appear unchanged.
The "Playing History" message that would appear in the Wii Message Board has been renamed "Today's Accomplishments". And to make it distinguishable from the rest of your messages it's been given a pasty white envelope as opposed to the yellow other messages will recieve.
Keeping with the Accomplishments message, days on the message board calendar that include only the "Today's Accomplishments" message will not have an envelope beside them. This should make it easier for users to find specific messages if need be.
Still with Today's Accomplishments, at the bottom of the message there will be a place that will let you know who you've sent messages to that day. It will let you keep track of who you've messaged and maybe jog your memory a bit.
Sending an message or e-mail from the message board now says "Sending Message" on the screen after clicking the Send button.
If you recieve a new message while in the Wii Menu you will hear a soft ringing noise and the envelope on the message board button will glow to let you know that a new message has arrived.
Contacts may be now moved around the address book by holding A+B. Strangely, in the Wii instruction booklet, it said that you could already do this but it was never there before. So it would seem natural that this was going to happen eventually.
Wii Shop Channel
A brand new welcome screen was given to the Wii Shop Channel. 4 Recommended titles now appear at the top of the screen. Under them is a box containing Important Info and news about the Shop Channel and new games.
The main shop channel menu now has a button that will let you see what you've already downloaded.
You can now browse Virtual Console titles by system, publisher, and genre and search feature to help you find every Mario game currently available. When browsing under these seperate categories you will be able to see the amount of titles released for each system, publisher, and genre.
Another button that will let you browse popular games. We assume these are the Virtual Console's top 10 most downloaded titles.
When entering credit card information in the shop channel the numbers will now be displayed as *s instead to keep your thieving friends from loading their consoles with games purchased on your card.
Wii Console
When a disc is inserted into, or removed from the console the disc slot light will glow for about a second.
Despite Nintendo's warnings to users before the update was performed, modded Wiis have appeared to continue working (Wiikey at the very least). However, it seems that the update has blocked the use of Freeloaders, whether used legally or not.
The Wii now has limited USB keyboard support. A standard USB keyboard can be used to type in the Wii Shop Channel, Wii Settings Menu, and Wii Message Board. Support has not yet been added to the Internet Channel, however it's a start and I assume that we'll see full keyboard support on the console in the not too distant future. This also gives new hope to those hoping that Nintendo will provide external USB hard drive support.
The Wii Menu and message board defitely look much cleaner while the Shop Channel is much easier to browse through. And I can't help but love the addition of the glowing disc light with inserting and removing of a disc. But at the same time we can't help but feel a few things are missing.
The notice on the Wii Shop Channel that you can now watch videos of gameplay from Virtual Console games is a bit misleading. Only after clicking the notice do you find that to view these video you have to visit the Wii website. Why couldn't they at the very least let you watch the videos through the channel itself? At the very least give us that, if not downloadable temporary demos.
Anything else you guys feel is missing? Let us know. And for those of you without a Wii or who can't get it internet access, the source link has an abundant amount of screenshots to satisfy your curiosity.
- D4rk 
