Wii Transfer, a useful tool for Mac and Wii owners looking to share their movies, music, and pictures between the two machines, has recently been updated to version 2.6, adding a slew of new features and improvements. A note-worthy addition is the ability to copy Miis from your Wii back to your Mac and save them as images.

Using Wii Transfer, users can also browse iTunes playlists and iPhoto albums on their TV sets, convert movies to formats readable on the Wii, and even stream them directly from the Mac for playback in the Wii's Photo Channel. You can also manage your save game files on your Mac using Wii Transfer.

To copy your Wii Avatar, or Mii, you first need to transfer your Mii to your Wii remote using the Mii Channel on your Nintendo Wii. Then, turn off your Wii and make sure Bluetooth is enabled on your Mac. Press the 1 and 2 buttons to start the Mii sync to your Mac. If you are having trouble with this procedure, see the help menu inside Wii Transfer for more details.

The software requires Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) or later. Miis require Mac with Bluetooth. Wii Transfer is a Universal Binary, meaning it is compatible with Intel and PowerPC Macs.

Changes brought by version 2.6 of Wii Transfer include the following enhancements:

- Copy Miis to your Mac and save them as JPEG images.
- Added support for even more movie formats, including most MOV, AVI, MPEG4, H.264, and DivX.
- New movie conversion interface for easily finding movies in iTunes, iPhoto, and your Movies folder.
- Settings to restrict music and photos to specific iTunes playlists and iPhoto albums.
- Improved movie playback including skipping directly to any point on the timeline.
- Batch conversion for processing multiple movies for streaming.
- Preference to change the cache location for converted movies, and ability to delete unused movies.

Besides all these additions, developer Riverfold Software has also included "many bug fixes and usability improvements," according to the changelog.

You can choose to download a demo version of Wii Transfer right now, right HERE on our website, to see if it's worth the 19 bucks. Limitations include no audio in converted movies, disabled "Play All" and "Shuffle" in music playlists and an included watermark over photos in picture sharing. When you purchase Wii Transfer, you will receive a serial number via email the moment you make your purchase. After that, you will be able to use the code to unlock the full functionality of the software.

NOTE: because QuickTime is used for processing the sound, you may need to install the free Perian component for some formats such as XviD.