In-depth new info on the revolutionary remote, including battery life, rumble, LEDs, built-in memory and more...

Official Wii developer documentation has revealed some of the intricate inner workings of Nintendo's next-gen wonder controller, including one of the biggest - how the Wii-motes would be powered. Two AA alkaline batteries will provide the juice, with 30 hours of precision aim functionality guaranteed, or 60 hours if only the accelerometer functionality is being used.

Wii-mote to Wii communication takes place on a 2.4Ghz band of Bluetooth. As expected, all buttons on the Wii-mote and nunchuk attachment are digital. The sensor bar can be placed above or below the television, and is around 20cm long. The built-in rumble can be turned on or off, though not turned stronger or weaker.

6KB of "non-volatile" memory are on-board the Wii-mote itself, which could be for use with the controller's speaker or for saving personal settings, though Nintendo has not commented on its purpose for sure. Its interesting to note that third-party developers have yet to be offered ways of using the controller speaker.

The Wii's 'Synchro' button, underneath the console's front flap is used to identify the various Wii-motes being used with the console. By first pressing the 'Synchro' button on the Wii, and then a similar button hidden away inside the battery compartment of the Wii-mote (or just the 1 and 2 buttons held down), will assign the remote a wireless ID number so the console can communicate with it. Evidently gamers first press the SYNCHRO button on the console itself and then find and press another SYNCHRO button located inside the battery compartment of the Wii controller.

It appears the Wii-mote's LEDs not only show which remote is communicating, but also to show how much battery power the controller has left. When booting up, the LEDs will flash to signify how much energy the batteries have left: four LEDs will flash for 75-100% power, three for 50-75%, two for 25-50% and one for under 25%.

Fluorescent and halogen lights, and reflections off of plastic or mirrors could occasionally interfere with the remote, though to eliminate this problem the pointer must mark the sensor bar's two coordinates. And speaking of coordinates, it appears the Wii-mote is able to measure them between 0-1023 on the X axis and 0-767 on the Y axis, which IGN comment as meaning that the Wii-mote is more or less 'seeing' a megapixel image. The possibility that the coordinate data could be interpreted as visual information is unknown, IGN speculate that stranger things have indeed happened.

"Classic" controllers are expected to be shipped to developers in early September, for third-party input into the downloadable Virtual Console device. Nintendo's comments were just that "there are many details that we've divulged about the console, but there is also more to learn."

We'll keep you posted.