If you're a Wii owner, perhaps you awoke to an eerie blue glow emanating from your system this morning. If so, that would be because Nintendo has just released a brand new firmware update for the system.

So what does the free update provide? Well, according to Nintendo it includes:

Wii Menu
The weather forecast will now be displayed on the Forecast Channel icon in the Wii Menu.
Headline news will now be displayed on the News Channel icon in the Wii Menu.
The current time will now be displayed in the Wii Menu.
The area around the Wii Message Board button will now flash when a message arrives..

Wii Message Board
You're now able to rearrange the order of your Wii Friends in the address book.
You're now able to go into the Wii Friends registration screen by pressing the A Button on a blank spot in the address book.
Envelope message icons will now appear on the calendar only on the dates when a message is received.
Your message sending history will now be displayed in Today's Accomplishments.
You can now scroll the message text by pressing the B button on the message screen.

Wii Shop Channel
The search function on Virtual Console has been enhanced.

All together, it's a nice set of additions to the Wii's functionality. Both the weather and news icon improvements are something I've wanted personally for a while now, and the digital clock is a nice touch. The biggest change though is the overhaul of the Wii Shop Channel, which desperately needed a makeover as the VC catalog continued to grow.

Source: Nintendo