Via the Wii Message Board, Nintendo yesterday announced the availability of a new Wii System Update (which adds gift-giving support to the Wii Shop Channel), as well as an update to the Photo Channel, bringing it to version 1.1. The Wii System Update is separate from the Photo Channel update; the latter is available through the Wii Ware section of the Wii Shop Channel.
As we warned in early November, though, you might not want to update your Photo Channel. As far as we know, Nintendo's plans are unchanged: the new version of the channel removes MP3 soundtrack support and replaces it with AAC support. If you have no use for MP3 soundtracks and/or are fine with encoding your Photo Channel soundtrack music to AAC format, there's no reason you shouldn't upgrade—but be aware you can never downgrade to the MP3-supporting original version.
To our knowledge, Nintendo has not commented on the reasoning for removing MP3 support from the channel—a cross-grade this writer finds substantially bizarre.
Update: It's since come to our attention that Nintendo is offering a downgrade path for those who have updated to version 1.1. If you install the new version, and later decide to revert to the MP3 version, you can do so by removing the downloaded 1.1 version of the channel from your system. New Wii systems that started to become available at retail in December ship with only the new, AAC-supporting version of the channel, and are not downgradable to the old version.
As we warned in early November, though, you might not want to update your Photo Channel. As far as we know, Nintendo's plans are unchanged: the new version of the channel removes MP3 soundtrack support and replaces it with AAC support. If you have no use for MP3 soundtracks and/or are fine with encoding your Photo Channel soundtrack music to AAC format, there's no reason you shouldn't upgrade—but be aware you can never downgrade to the MP3-supporting original version.
To our knowledge, Nintendo has not commented on the reasoning for removing MP3 support from the channel—a cross-grade this writer finds substantially bizarre.
Update: It's since come to our attention that Nintendo is offering a downgrade path for those who have updated to version 1.1. If you install the new version, and later decide to revert to the MP3 version, you can do so by removing the downloaded 1.1 version of the channel from your system. New Wii systems that started to become available at retail in December ship with only the new, AAC-supporting version of the channel, and are not downgradable to the old version.