Wii Includes Limited Keyboard Support
With the recent update to the Wii’s firmware there have been some pretty obvious updates, such as the
clock. For some reason though, Nintendo felt it would be better not to make some of those improvements so apparent. One of those hidden improvements is that the Wii now has limited USB keyboard support.
The functionality is surprisingly limited. Wii owners can only use it on the message boards and to help search for items on the Wii Shop Channel. It doesn’t even work with the Opera browser for some reason. It isn’t that significant though, personally I’ve found that using the Wiimote to type is actually relatively hassle free, I’d even go as far to say that it’s easier than the iPhone’s keyboard. That could just be me of course.
When it was first revealed that the Wii sported not one, but two USB ports it seemed like keyboard support would be a natural feature to include. Like WiiWare, however, the keyboard support was absent from the system at launch.