If playing video games makes kids less active - and contributes to obesity - why not create more video games that require activity? That’s the question prompted by a Mayo Clinic research study published in the current issue of the medical journal Pediatrics.

The study is the first to scientifically measure the energy spent playing video games. While the study’s scope is small - only 25 children - it was conducted with great accuracy. Fifteen children were of normal weight for their height and frame; 10 were mildly obese. Both groups were tested while sitting and watching television, playing a traditional video game, playing two types of activity-required video games, and watching television while walking on a treadmill.

The results showed that sitting while watching television and playing traditional video games expended the same amount of energy. When participants played with the first activity-oriented video game, one that uses a camera to virtually “place” them in the game where they catch balls and other objects, their energy expenditure tripled. The result was the same for the lean and mildly obese children. Walking on a treadmill while watching TV also tripled expenditure for the lean group, but showed a nearly fivefold increase for the mildly obese group. While using a dance video game, both groups burned the most calories, but it was considerably more for the obese group - just over six times more than sitting still.

Today a free trial version of the Opera browser is available for download on Nintendo’s Wii. The unique Wii Remote has made it possible to surf the Web in a new way with the Opera browser on your TV. Simply point and click to go to a Web page, select a link or input text. Click and move the Wii Remote up, down, left or right to navigate a page.

The pages should not differ from what you see on your computer and this is just another reason not to remove yourself from the Wii. The navigation looks very intuitive and quite fun with the Wii remote.

If you’re really curious or you don’t own a Wii just yet, you can watch a video of the browser in action.

Features overview

• Intelligent Zoom: Opera unleashes its new Intelligent Zoom technology for the first time on the Wii. Point the Wii Remote at an object on the page and zoom in on that object with the + button. Once zoomed in, the Wii Remote allows you to pan around the page while remaining in zoom mode.
• Scrolling with the Wii Remote: By pointing the Wii Remote at the TV and pressing the B button, Wii users can simply move the Wii Remote up or down to scroll a page.
• Favorites: Pick your favorite page and select the star button from the user interface to add it as a favorite. Once in your favorites, edit, rename or delete your current selections.
• Single column mode: To view the Web page in new way, select single column mode to get your content stacked. This mode is similar to Opera’s Small Screen Rendering technology for mobile phones and other small screen devices, and is useful when viewing content from a distance.
• On-screen keyboard: Input text with the on-screen keyboard by pointing your Wii Remote to select the letter. Wii has a predictive text feature to auto-complete words and URLs.
• View AJAX-based applications: Sites such as maps.google.com work on Wii, as Opera offers full support for AJAX-based applications in its browser for Wii.
• Flash-enabled: View Flash content on the Web, including popular sites with video content.

Nintendo is currently offering a free trial of Opera for Wii which is now available for download. The release of the final version of the Opera browser for Wii is currently scheduled for late March 2007. Opera for Wii will remain a free download until June 30, 2007. After June 30, Opera will be available for download from the Wii Shop Channel for 500 Wii points ($5). Users who download Opera before June 30, 2007, can continue to use the browser at no cost for the lifetime of the Wii system.

Since the Wii was released many have uploaded their playing videos on YouTube. The innovative console and outstanding geekery in some of the videos makes just watching someone play a Wii want to get a Wii. Scroll down for a roundup of some of the most interesting videos of people playing the console.

You can get really involved while playing, and I mean really :)

Ever wanted to kick your best friend’s ass at boxing? With the Wii you can get closer to the real thing.

Here’s where the geekery comes in - what does a Wii game look like on a 1.5-inch TV?

Gamers from all around the world are now finally going to get a workout, for real. Here’s some tennis action.