Yesterday cIOS 222/223 and first-time 224 rev5 has been released. Unfortunately they are not supported by USB Loader GX yet, but here are some info about it. Apparently 224 was introduced for merging IOS38 with IOS57, which -if I'm not wrong- is used for the camera game "Your Shape". Something also new to the cIOS/uLoader is

- It have a new FAT / FFS module that emulates the saves of the console (see Configuration -> Edit CFG#2, select a connected device
and folder (it support "nand", "nand2", "nand3" and "nand4"). You can export from the NAND the saves (if you have) one or launch directly
and teh game creates one. If the folder countain datas, you can see it in Green and Red without any datas. SD is protect for Game access
if you are using it (remember you need a SD with 32KB per cluster to work in optimus conditions)

The only thing we can do for now is to wait for USBLGX to support it. And while we wait for that, why don't we wait for the release of cIOS249 rev18?

cIOS rev18 is scheduled to be released in 1 week minimum. It's going to be the BIGGEST update ever (almost everything got changed).

For those that haven't heard it, waninkoko seems to be more active than ever as you can see at his twitter page. He had released the source for his programs, he added fat support to cIOS, he released a cIOS nightly build, he gave us a hint "FFS plugin + FAT module == NAND emulator" for the feature? and he is about to release a new cMIOS with a new installer. Maybe the new installer will use The STM Exploit, which is used by the Homebrew Channel installer, and make easier the installation to an unpatched Wii. Anyway I haven't tried the nightly build yet, cause I'm in the middle of exams at the University, nether I have looked further into it.

But the news don't stop there. I was thinking to create a Wii Scene news portal here at koureio. A preview can be found at http://wiiscene.koureio.net/ but as you can clearly see it's not fully active yet. When it goes live I'll post here about it. Please leave your comments for that project at it's first post.

Last, but not least,  Wii Game Manager 1.5.0.1 has been released and it's now fully portable. Also a lot new features has been added. Here is the changelog since 1.4.0.2:

Changes to 1.5.0.1
Changed settings file to settings.ini located in the application directory
Updated the language routine to validate language files by version. The program will still allow older file use but will give an error message that the file is for the wrong version.
Fixed the statusbar would sometime be the wrong size on program start


Changes to version 1.5.0.0
Updated wbfs_file.exe to version 2.9
Fixed extract iso from WBFS partition
Added second Game List
Fixed error checking for format WBFS option
Finally found the WBFS drive size bug, it is fixed
Some routines have been rewritten to be more efficient
Added compare list A-B functionality
All menu functions have been rewritten to work based on the currently visible list
Added Drive To Drive Copy
The program should now properly prompt for Administrator access to run
Better handling of corrupted game files
All games will now be given a static index number when they are added to the list. This allows for the list to autoupdate when a function finishes (ie: delete will now remove the item from the active list after the title is deleted)
***Since the game lists are not locked and can be refreshed manually at will, if the item to be processed is queued and the list is manually refreshed, it will not be removed from the list as its index will have changed.
***This index will continue to grow until the program is restarted, at that time the index will start again at 0. I'm sure there is some max number that can be counted by the PC, I dunno what it is but I seriously doubt anyone will ever reach it
***Deletes and moved titles will take advantage of this feature. Keep in mind that this will only remove them from the list. If you move an item it will be removed regardless of the location you move it to. If you want it to show back up in the list, you will still have to manually update the list.
Made some changes to the way the WBFS drive selection window is populated, you will now recieve a message if all WBFS partitions are being used when you attempt a function that requires access to them. The drive is inaccessible when it is being used so you will need to wait until whatever is using it is done before proceeding.
Added the ability to use F5 to refresh the currently visible list
Added a seperate popup window to allow for the display of all available covers at one time and still keep the cover functionality and flow of the main form

**Some known issues with version 1.5
The print routine works well for most languages, however some languages like Chinese will display incorrect spacing and others will dispaly with overlapped text as the translation from english is too long. This will be fixed eventually.
XML game info has not been updated at all, this is a back burner project. I will update it more eventually, but it is not a main priority. I am working towards displaying more of the info and also allowing for multi language display as well.
I have yet to track down the random queue bug. If anyone can give me some specifics as to when this happens it will help alot. (The queue will randomly stop processing for no reason for those of you who didn't know)

The program I introduced to you, not so while ago, for the games management with fat32, changed it's name. The following is a part of the creator's post

What is this program:
If you are here probably already know but, this is a program for managing a Wii game collection on your PC.
Previously Simple WBFS File Manager this program has been completely rewritten form scratch and renamed to something more suitable.
It is written to add a GUI to wbfs_file.exe written by Oggzee.It will also be available here at the downloads. The link will be sending you to the official post of the creator so you can always get the latest version. ;)

UPDATE: Version 1.3 is out ;)

For those that haven't notice, Waninkoko's cIOS reached version 16 and you can found it at Downloads

Remember, fat32 and NTFS support still needs cIOS 222/223 ;)

Merry Christmas to everyone. :p

I hope you were good boys and girls.. :p

r867 and r868 are out and they brought the initial NTFS support
Here is the changelog

* Added initial NTFS support
* Added load system based on fragments

This commit is made possible for Oggzee and his great work on supporting other
filesystems!

We already had fat32 support (check previous post)
What does this mean?

- Your drive is fat32 formated and can be used from Windows, Mplayer CE, Homebrew Channel, USBLoader GX settings and covers AND for .wbfs game files
Also check this faq

Why would we want NTFS?

- It's the most common default format for large HDD at the moment. You could use any HDD without worrying what is it formated to ;) Plus fat32 doesn't allow files bigger than 4GB

If you need a manager for the .wbfs files (to convert iso files or extract games as .wbfs files from a WBFS partition) CFG-Loader has a command program wbfs_file (v2.1 for linux, mac os, windows) which is used by
Simple WBFS File Manager
http://www.mediafire.com/file/mgx4tzzy2oz/Simple_WBFS_File_Manager2.5.0.0 + wbfs_file_2.1.zip


PS: For the Greek visitors there is a beta greek hacking guide now (for now it's hosted at the forum)
http://shorty.koureio.net/greek

So what did it change in the program through the last revisions?

First of all, we now have at the settings the BETA upgrades option (which downloads the latest revision at google code site). The old update progress will use only safe revisions ;)
Actually r851 added a lot of important stuff

* Added BETA upgrades option (to download the latest revisions from google code)
* Added Wii Parental Control support
* Added gui numpad
* Changed GuiText to support password character
* Added lock/unlock icon in the titlebar (to unlock Parental Control)
* Added new wbfs_fat from Oggzee (further speed improvement)

as well as r847

Lots of changes in this revision:
* Added MEM2 support by Hibern
* Better partition support (by oggzee)
* Support for subdirectories in FAT32 (by oggzee)
* Added support for cios 223 and 250
* Added BCA support (go to Settings->Custom Paths) to change the path of the BCA
files (by Hermes)
* Fixed issue with hairless mode
* Fixed issue with IOS_ReloadIOSsafe (by giantpune)
* Added setting to save games in a subdirectory
* Fixed slow startup when loading from FAT (WiiTDB required!)
* Changed handling of new titles a bit (speed improvement)

The loader also now supports headless mode via argv
Of course we also had a lot of bug fixing, and one of them fixed cheating when using alt dol from sd/usb (r856)

Have fun playing until the next update

The forum has been updated. Because of the abuse of shoutbox, it's now seen only from members as well as the posts at problems and requests
IRC embeded client has been added (the same with the one here)

Regarding USB Loader GX

* Added a visual mark for new installed games. The first time this revision is started no games will be marked!

This comes with rev 839+

As you would have noticed, USB Loader GX had it's pace slowed down (but now it's again on fire!). That, plus my job, led the news section a little back.

To sum up the what's new since I last posted

• Loads game from *.wbfs file on FAT32 partition (works only with Hermes cIOS) more
  
• mp3, ogg and various other formats are supported for background music more
  
• New Super Mario Bros Wii had a new protection and a patch was added at the USB Loader GX (Thanks WiiPower)
  
• Added BannerSound playback
  
• USB Loader GX has a theme downloader now
• Added support for larget WBFS drives, as found by Wiimm
  
• Favorites now use a 5 stars system
  
• Fix for games which need a disc in the drive to play (like MP3 and De Blob).
  
• Alt-dol selection promt for games like Metroid Trilogy
  
• A lot of bug fixes
• A lot of language updates and additions

And the most important of all, this site was added at the meta.xml file used for infos by Homebrew channel!!! :p

Oh, and of course Waninkoko's cIOS v15 was leaked 4 days ago. I won't add it here yet, to check how it works.