Personally, I thought wii speak was fine through the wii speak channel. I never used it it with any games though, but I would assume the sound quality would dip if it was being used in conjunction with a game.
Anyway, back on subject. Some of the things I would like to have included in future updates follow, pretty much all taken from the wii and 3DS.
Photo, news, and weather channels to be replaced, maybe as apps from the eshop.
Wii mode needs to have the friends list and messaging replaced. I would have liked to have been able to have kept my friends from the wii as not all of them have a wiiu yet.
Some of the iPlayers from BBC, ITV, and other tv channels.
If the photo channel, gets replaced, it needs to have some of the same features as the 3DS where you can save pictures from the internet to it. upload photo's, mii pictures and qr codes, view photo's from an sd card.
A better messaging system for the wiiu, I know you can send messages through miiverse, which i fine, but I preferred the 3DS and wii messaging where you can send web links, pictures, sound clips too, and have an alert like the blue light flashing on the gamepad when a new message arrives.
Being able to join a friends online game from the friends list.
The over scan in SD needs to be sorted. I ain't paying out for a HD tv until my old one decides to die on me. I bought a scart lead for my wiiu, and the difference in picture quality isn't much between 480i and 570i, but it is noticeable.
On miiverse, having a community for every single game and app is going to be silly if it doesn't get organized properly. In the next 5 - 6 years, there could be in excess of 700 games between the VC, eshop downloads, and retail games,

additional levels for nintendoland attractions - mario chase and luigis mansion mostly. additional "floating circles" in wara wara plaza and the ability to walk over to them. more communities in miiverse, specifically an artist community for drawings. tabs in miiverse.

To update the Mii Maker. Wished they would do this already.

I just want them to do everything possible as long as it makes sense. I think Wii U can already do PCM 7.1, but no games have actually used it.

Not an attack, but I'm wondering why you think this - is it mentioned in the system specs? I ask because something like sound-encoding is probably going to be hardware-based, so if it's not there already it isn't going to appear unless they update the kit.

Also do many people have this kind of setup? I'd be surprised to see support for that many speakers in a game even if the system did support it. I downgraded myself and dumped my Sony DD receiver for a Yamaha amplifier which supports subwoofer connectivity and am enjoying my 2.1 setup a lot more than my old 5.1 and 3.1 arrangements. Much better for music as well. Long Live Stereo!

A folder system. Preferably not like the 3DS, I want to name them what I want (sure, there probably has to be a maximum letter cap).
Also, more levels for Nintendoland attractions. ^^

Also, being able to "gift" eShop games to friends/other Wii U owners would be nice, especially since the Wii had that option for Virtual Console/WiiWare titles.

I just think that the surround option in the sound settings can just count as any surround sound, so I don't know why it couldn't. It doesn't always have to have the right hardware FYI, too. Dolby Labs for one, develops sound decoders such as Dolby Master(or whatever there best decoder is right now), that can output 'lossless' audio in 7.1. Calling it 'lossless' isn't really true. It is just the best available form of decoding in 7.1, but PCM is better than any Dolby program regardless. I was playing the God of War Ascension beta, and it puts out Dolby 7.1. You will get 7.1 channels, but the quality is not as good as PCM 5.1. You are sacrificing quality for quantity. This is the perfect argument against quantity vs. quality. TRULY lossless audio from PCM 5.1, or lossy Dolby 7.1. I still get sound from all 7 channels in PCM 5.1, but the 2 sets of rear/front high channels will just copy the other set of fronts or surrounds using Dolby Pro Logic IIx/z. PS3 can put out 7.1 sound and Xbox 360 can put out 5.1 sound through an optic cable, which is technically impossible unless there is compression of the sound files which is what Dolby and DTS decode.
There's a differece between the programs on the reciever, and the programming on the media.
It probably takes up 33% more sound data to get PCM 5.1. The issue is more so memory, than it is hardware. Even if Nintendo's sound chip isn't strong enough process PCM 7.1, we can always rely on sound programming to get the extra channels anyway.
It's really not hard to get a 5.1 setup. You can probably find a receiver for your PS3/Xbox 360 for $50, but you basically need to buy a new one with HDMI for Wii U. I was playing my Xbox 360 and PS3 in 5.1 for years on a 2007 Yamaha through optic, but decided to upgrade, because I wanted my Wii U to sound it's best instead of through stereo which was my other option. Stereo doesn't suck, but I just wanted surround. I can confirm surround sound sounds better on Wii U than PS3/Xbox 360.
In conclusion, sound in media is being researched and enhanced all the time even without optimal equipment, so it's not impossible.

I see so basically you're saying HDMI can carry the 7.1 signal; not that the Wii U is necessarily doing the decoding. That makes sense.

Exactly. Only PCM 2.1 can travel through fiber optic and composite cables in FULL form. Dolby basically gets hardware to run content in surround sound, when the hardware can't actually handle it by using compression. I think Wii U should be able to handle as far as 7.1 PCM before needing to use compression to get 9.1 PCM for example, soley based on the hardware. It's rare that media goes past 5.1, and I don't think 7.1 PCM even exists outside of any kind of decoder yet.

Just about all of my ideas have been stated already, but higher resolution image boxes on Miiverse would be nice. I mean seriously, it could at least be large enough so that the lines could have anti-aliasing...or at least an option to switch between low/high resolutions (low for the people who like making pixel art)

Also an undo button would be nice.

Well, bigger drawing boxes in Miiverse and a bigger limit for text (they could add a button that say "tab to see the rest" or something) and adding whole system voice chat would be great, too.

Oh yeah I agree with the bigger limit for text
Even SMS texts and Twitter allow more characters in the textbox
And USB keyboard support would be nice too

How about we have a list of all the posts we "yeahed?" That would make a really good gallery of favorite drawings. It's puzzling why Nintendo hasn't done it yet.

That would be a useful feature!
Another cool thing would be the ability to save screenshots to the console memory. That way you could save your drawings and post them on the web

Yes, I just found out they added my "yeah" idea! Now I can enjoy my epic art gallery!