If you enjoy (or even tolerate) surfing your way around the Web via the Wii Remote, God Bless you and your steady hands. For the rest of us, navigating those little square letters imitating a keyboard on our screen is just about enough to keep us away from the kindly Opera browser, happily surfing the internet from machines which offer us an actual keyboard to hammer away on. However, hope is in sight for we non-Wii net surfers, in the form of new system and Wii Browser updates. Dig yourself some “System update 3.1″ and “Wii Browser Update (dated Oct. 10)” action, and you are ready to rock out your USB keyboard via the USB ports on the back of your system.*

Of course, you’ve always got to keep your eye on compatibility issues; Nintendo isn’t guaranteeing any old keyboard from Joe’s Computer Hut and Bait Shop will play nice with their Wii System. However, the helpful folks over at CNet point to a rather useful (if pricey) list of compatible keyboards, and also share a compatibility experiment of their own. Your best best is probably to pirate the keyboard from your home PC and give it a quick test. If it works, hooray — either buy the same model for your Wii or swap it out and buy a new model for the PC, leaving your Wii with the one you know is compatible. If it doesn’t work, consult the aforementioned list or start borrowing keyboards from friends to test. And let us know if you find any nice, inexpensive options, okay?
*If you’ve got other devices already occupying those ports — say maybe a cooling system — I suggest a cute little USB hub. Cheap as anything, and small enough to not get in the way.