How the hell am I going to update 5 GB without stopping? Not everyone lives in no-power-cut country.

I have to ask this, but is he a noob???

If you are lucky in future, when you buy a new game, it will have that update inside it. I know 360 and PS3 games include OS updates in them.

Yep, that is about the only main problem I see with this.  I am pretty sure it warns everyone (just like the Wii) to not power the system off during update.  However, a loss of power due to the power company is a factor that one can't prevent.  I lost my first saved data file on Super Mario RPG because my iguana walked behind my TV area and stepped on the power switch to my multi power adaptar while I was in the middle of saving it.  I had to replay the first part of the game but since I already knew what to do it didn't take too long to catch up to where I was (luckily only that save file got corrupted).

That must be a huge iguana.

When the initial update occurs the wii u displays that the 1 hour timer is disabled but I can understand:

1. the 5GB download is insane
2. countries/people with data caps and slower internet.

360 OS update is only 100MB, PS3 OS update is 200MB.

That's a huge difference to the 5GB WiiU update.

Well, WiiU has 25 GB space so maybe they will use them lol.

I guess that wont be a problem for me as i cant get the damn thing to connect to the internet!!

The Wii U update is in the range of 2GB, not 5GB. It takes up 5GB of space when installed.

The system will not turn off on its own when the update is being downloaded or applied.