Nintendo unveils revamped DS

[notsosilentbob]

Nintendo has announced a revamped version of the DS, the touchscreen games console that has so far sold more than 77 million units worldwide.

Called the Nintendo DSi, this redesigned handheld console follows on from the popular Nintendo DS Lite, the second version of the DS, launched in 2006. Nintendo unveiled the device at its annual autumn presentation in Japan.

The DSi looks similar to the DS Lite, but with its two screens enlarged to 3.25 inches (8.25 cm) each. The new console is also some 12% thinner than the DS Lite, partly due to the space saved by no longer including a slot to play cartridges from the old Game Boy Advance console.

For the first time, Nintendo’s handheld console features a digital camera – a three-megapixel external camera, as well as a lower-resolution front-facing camera.

The DSi also boasts a slot for SD memory cards, a built-in web browser application, improved audio and, like the previous model, wireless connectivity. This connectivity will allow users to download games from a new online DSi Shop.

Early word from Nintendo suggests that the DSi, available in a black or white finish, is intended to offer gamers an alternative to the DS Lite rather than supplant it altogether.

The DSi will launch in Japan on November 1, though UK gamers hoping to get hold of a DSi before Christmas will be disappointed – the European release is slated for the spring of 2009.



Source ~ MSN tech news

[Detomah]

I dunno why, but I get the destinct feeling that all these mobile phones and mobile consoles, mp3 players and all the rest of it are all trying to be far too much and so they lose something along the way.

If I wanna phone someone i'll pick up the dedicated device I own for such things, a phone... If I want to listen to music i'll do the same but with a dedicated mp3 player... If I want to play games i'll use a console or a computer, If I want to take pictures i'll use my camera. I can't comfortably do all 4 things at the same time properly, so I won't try. The quality is never going to be as good as dedicated individual products either. Yeah they may save a little space, but that's besides the point.

Anyway, seems like a bit of bad marketing on the part of Nintendo by not getting the new version in the shops over here in time for Christmas, i'm sure people who may have been keeping an eye out for one may end up getting an iPhone or something instead, in otherwords, one way or another, it's going to cost Nintendo money.

[notsosilentbob]

There where practically no DSLite consoles sold last xmas anyway as there where none available they where rarer than wii consoles in the shops. U would think nintendo would sort their manufacturing problems out by now i mean the wii fit has been out for nearly a year and ive still never seen one in a highstreet shop and im not gonna pay nearly double to get one off some greedy facist internet shop.

[Sash]

Looking to get a ds for christmas, was hoping they'd be coming down in price, prolly next christmas be a better bet

[draganess]

So keep dslight off the shelves to make it look like its not selling then create a new one!! I can see the logic in that.

But Im with det on this one, a phone for phoning, a camera to take pics and a console to play games on. I dont mind carrying things around with me!! Im a woman I NEED things to put on my hand bag

[angelinalove]

Not sure about price coming down it depends on customer demand.

[Seth]

I got a DS for my 20th, and it's a brilliant little handheld.

I was really annoyed with the new PSP Slim+Lite, where Sony basically added in stuff to make it more the all-purpose media platform it was originally pitched as. Still, I hardly play it these days anyway 'cause the battery life sucks.