One nice feature of the Wii is its primary interface.  The operating system is made up of Channels, which add functionality to the console.  Many Channels are included with the Wii out of the box.  Others are free (with one exception) downloads from Nintendo's Shop Channel.  Some are more useful than others. 

Built-in Channels

Disc Channel

This is the launching point for games. If there is no disc in the console, then you'll see a blue Wii disk and a black GameCube disc on the screen when you select it.  When you insert a Wii disc, the launch screen for that game will appear momentarily.  If you insert a GameCube disc, a generic GameCube screen will appear.  If a disc was already in the console when you started up, the preview window will show the game's launch screen in miniature.

Mii Channel

Miis are the Wii's player avatars.  The Mii Channel is used to create and manage Miis.  The initial "lobby" contains your local Miis.  You can create new ones or modify existing ones with the Mii editor.  You can also delete Miis or back them up to a Wii remote.  The other screen is the Mii Parade, which contains other people's Miis that have appeared on your console at some point from the Internet.  This could be players you encounter while playing a game on-line, such as Mario Kart Wii, or Miis that have appeared in other Channels, such as the Check Mii Out Channel (see below).  Many Wii games use Miis as in-game representations of players.  This ranges from simple icons marking save slots (such as in Super Mario Galaxy) to full interactivity (most famously in Wii Sports and Wii Sports Resort). Not all publishers are permitted to use Miis in their games.

Forecast Channel

One very nice feature of the Wii is its Internet connectivity.  Once you have it configured, the Forecast Channel will automatically download simple weather forecasts. To configure it, select the closest city to you and set your desired temperature scale. Forecasts for your location will be downloaded automatically from the Internet, and a summary preview is displayed in both the Channel view and the initial Forecast Channel screen.  To see more detailed information, or to view weather conditions around thee world, launch the Channel.  It will show you current conditions, tomorrow's forecast, a 5-day forecast, and a UV index forecast.  Selecting the Globe button displays the Earth from space, and you can use the Wii remote to rotate the globe and select cities.  A handful of Wii games, most notably Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 and Madden NFL 07, have used Forecast Channel information to simulate real-life weather conditions within the game.

Shop Channel

Officially named the Wii Shop Channel, this is your gateway to downloadable content from Nintendo.  There are several free channels you should download from here, even if you don't buy anything.  This is also where you can purchase Virtual Console and WiiWare games. Games are purchased with Wii Points, which are 1 cent per point.  You can buy them via credit card through the Shop Channel in units of 1000, 2000, or 5000 points.

News Channel

Similar to the Forecast Channel, the News Channel downloads news stories for reading on your Wii.  There are several categories, including national and international news, sports, business, and lifestyle news.  Most stories are from the Associated Press.

Photo Channel

The Photo Channel permits you to view gameplay screenshots certain games allow you to save, such as Animal Crossing: City Folk and Mario Kart Wii.  You can also load JPEG images onto an SD card, insert the card into the Wii's memory card slot behind the front panel door, and view the images.  The stock Photo Channel also supports MP3 audio files.

The Channel was updated in 2007 and made available as a free download through the Shop Channel.  The updated version supports music files in AAC format (sorry, no MP3) to accompany photo slideshows.  A couple of video formats, MJPEG and MPEG-4 (file extension .m4a) are also supported.

SD Card Channel

While not technically a Channel, Nintendo's version 4.0 operating system update unlocked access to the SD card slot to store Virtual Console and WiiWare games, eliminating the storage bind that some Wii owners had found themselves in.  It also upgraded support to the SDHC standard, permitting the use of memory cards up to 32 GB (which pretty much eliminated the need for a hard drive for the Wii).  The SD Card menu is accessed by clicking on the small SD Card icon to the right of the Wii Setup menu button.  Once loaded, you have 20 pages of Channel space.  I highly recommend moving all of your Virtual Console and WiiWare games to the SD card and leave the Wii internal storage (which is only 512 MB) for Channels and game save data.

Downloadable Channels

Nintendo Channel

If you only download one Channel, this should be it.  One of the biggest challenges to the Wii gaming community is how to tell gamers about new games.  Moreso than other consoles, Wii owners tend to use the World Wide Web less to get information about games (this web site notwithstanding, of course!), so the Nintendo Channel delivers a weekly digest video summarizing hot games, and provides a few dozen rotating videos on new and upcoming games.  There is also a searchable game recommendation database, so you can find games that match your style.  Once you've played a game for an hour, you can submit your own recommendation to Nintendo.  Lastly, there's a screen for downloading demo versions of Nintendo DS games.  The Japanese version of the Channel was just updated with a screen that automatically recommends games to you based on your past game playing, and adds a recommendation service for the DS.  Let's hope we get that update here soon.

Internet Channel

The sole pay channel (it costs 500 Wii points), the Internet Channel is a web browser implementing a customized version of Opera 9 (the same browser featured on the new Nintendo DSi).  If you don't surf the web much on your PC, I recommend this purchase.  The controls can take some getting used to, and web surfing veterans may be disappointed by the lack of features, but it's still worth $5.  One caveat is that it only support Flash applets up to version 7 (which is Adobe's fault, not Nintendo's or Opera's, because they haven't released updates for non-PC platforms since then), so some web sites won't work completely.  However, most video web sites like YouTube are compatible.

Everybody Votes Channel

One of Nintendo's methods for getting you to turn on your Wii daily, the Everybody Votes Channel is a fun little gizmo that presents simple survey questions a couple of times a week, and you select one of the two options by dragging your Mii onto a colored shape. Everyone with an Mii on your system can participate, though you have to add them manually.  Once you've all voted, you're also given the opportunity to guess which answer will get the most votes. Your answers are charted onto a Brain Age style graph comparing your personality to others.  It's simple but fun, and we typically run it at least once a week.

Check Mii Out Channel

Many people have had fun creating Miis, including some pretty outlandish ones, simulating celebrities or fictional characters.  Nintendo has capitalized on this by introducing this Channel, which runs contests for people to submit Miis and have them judged by other Wii owners.  Winners here may turn up in your Mii Parade, too. If you like making Miis, then this Channel may be worth your while.

Wii Speak Channel

Finally, if you've purchased the Wii Speak microphone, you would have received a voucher in the package for a free download of the Wii Speak Channel, which provides an audio conferencing facility between you and your Wii Friends who also have Wii Speak.  It's definitely worth downloading if you've purchased Wii Speak, which is available separately or bundled with Animal Crossing: City Folk.

Other Channels

There are several channels that are available in Japan and Europe that are not available in America:

Homebrew Channel

Finally, no discussion of Channels would be complete without mentioning the Homebrew Channel.  This unofficial, grey market Channel is downloadable off the Internet from Team Twiizers and extends the functionality of the Wii in a couple of interesting ways. It requires you to jump through some hoops to install it, since technically you have to hack your Wii to install it.  However, unlike mod chips (which I expressly DO NOT recommend as they will void your warranty, and Nintendo system updates are designed to brick your system if you use one), the Homebrew Channel doesn't appear to have any bad side effects.  There are a couple of specific reasons why I might endorse installing the Homebrew Channel:

Unfortunately, the Homebrew Channel could potentially be used to pirate Wii games as well, which I and everyone at FamilyWii.org specifically denounce.  I am no fan of stealing intellectual property, whether it's music, computer software, or console games.  Piracy is theft, pure and simple. 

We will expand this article as more Channels become available.  Until then, I encourage you to download and use these Channels to maximize your enjoyment of your Wii console.