A new SD Card menu to launch Wii Channels, SDHC support, and more...

This morning has seen new firmware now downloadable for the Wii, timed to coincide with Nintendo President Satoru Iwata's speech today at the Game Developer's Conference.

Increasing the Wii's internal software to version 4.0E, new features include the ability to save and load Wii Shop Channel downloads directly to/from an SD Card, meaning easier access and saving of downloaded Virtual Console, WiiWare and Wii Channels.

Additionally, a separate SD card menu is now available to launch Channels from. These Channels do not appear on the main Wii Menu, but a separate one of the same design, but with support for an expanded 240 titles total. SDHC support has also been enabled, allowing for SD cards higher than 2GB (up to 32GB!) to finally be supported by the Wii.

Finally, the Wii Shop Channel now also supports "Virtual Console Arcade" games - Arcade titles from the past. Full details here!

Update: We're now just seeing Nintendo of America's Bill Trinen confirm all these features at the GDC. But they've been available all morning! :)