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Nintendo unveils brand new DS News
DS News by Ellie Gibson
Nintendo has unveiled the next iteration of the DS at a press conference in Tokyo.
The DSi, as it's called, will have 3.25-inch screens - that's 17 per cent bigger than the current model. It will also feature a 0.3-megapixel camera.
You'll be able to take pictures with the DSi, save them to SD card and view them on your TV via the Wii. The GBA cartridge slot is being done away with.
The DSi will have a built-in browser, and you'll be able to download games - known as DSiWare - and store them on the SD. Some titles will be free, while others will cost either 200, 500 or 800 Nintendo points (GBP 1.70 / 4.25 / 6.80). There will be a special deal offering customers 1000 points which must be spent before March 2010 - but it's not clear yet what the terms are, or whether the deal will be available in Europe.
A separate DSi Shop selling downloadable software is also being launched. Customers will receive 1000 free points to spend at the shop
The handheld's audio capabilities have been improved - you can now adjust the pitch and playback of sound. This is designed to help with language study and improve the experience of listening to music, apparently.
Thanks, Kotaku.
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Engadget's reporting the two screens are touchscreens! If so, it's a seriously lovely bit of kit, but they'll have the problem of different SKUs- which one do you develop for?
Any news if they're both touch or not? If not, then it seems like a 'nice oddity but no thanks' for me.
Edited 1 times,
most recently on 02/10/08 @ 06:45
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spookyzombie
02/10/08 @ 06:44
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The article says that the camera is .3 megapixel. Is that supposed to read 3 million megapixel?
Anyone heard about a possible UK release date? |
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The_Inquisitor
02/10/08 @ 07:35
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A nice and reasonable update, something to consider if you really need it, but not enough to make those who don't feel left out.
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ChrisOTR wrote:
Engadget's reporting the two screens are touchscreens! If so, it's a seriously lovely bit of kit, but they'll have the problem of different SKUs- which one do you develop for? Any news if they're both touch or not? If not, then it seems like a 'nice oddity but no thanks' for me. Only one touch screen. |
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Yeah, like others said, it's a 0.3 and not a 3 megapixel camera. It's worse than my webcam.
Also, you messed up while copy-pasting or something. You talk about the DSi Shop and the 1000 free points twice. It's weird, every site is telling something slightly different. Translation problems I guess. |
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I'd let it slip as a typo on Eurogamers behalf, but both their source (Kotaku) and their source (Famitsu) Say .3 megapixel camera. Kotaku even clarify with the exact resolution of 640x480.
And besides, SD card transfers not withstanding, 3 megapixels wouldn't do you much good on a DS-screen.
Edited 1 times,
most recently on 02/10/08 @ 09:50
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"Some titles will be free, while others will cost.]..[ it's not clear yet what the terms are, or whether the deal will be available in Europe."
Just to confirm, the details for Europe are as follows: Dear European scum. Any titles that we eventually see fit to release to you will cost twice the Japanese price. UK-scum add another 15 percent, because we know enough of you mugs will still go for that. |
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@ Moggsy
My thoughts exactly, actually. 640x480 is ridiculously outdated if you want to use the pictures anywhere else than the DS-screen. However, I Babelfish-translated the Famitsu-article on the DSi, and it clearly says 300,000 pixel camera. No more. :( @ Suasexed I suppse we can always hope. Though to be honest, if i want to take pictures in a decent resolution that are worth showing people, I'll stick with a real camera. I've never been one for all these multimedia devices that try to do everything. The poor state of the image sensors in most mobile phone cameras is the prime example of why it just doesn't work when it has to be mass marketed at a reasonable price. |
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Rev. Stuart Campbell
02/10/08 @ 09:55
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On a Firefox tab, this page is titled "Comments - Nintendo unveils bra"
Snurk! |
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Rev. Stuart Campbell
02/10/08 @ 10:38
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Worrying stats about severely curtailed battery life here:
http://uk.gamespot.com/pages/forums/show... The quoted numbers are around a whopping 40% down on the Lite, and since the quoted figures for the Lite on that page are wildly optimistic, that suggests a troublingly low battery life for the DSi, maybe 3-4 hours if you're lucky at middling brightness. |
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I bet Activision are a bit peeved over this seeing as Guitar Hero: On Tour requires the GBA slot to work. Also what about the rumble pack? As for the god-awful camera that seems to have come from the original GB-Color I just don't know what Nintendo are thinking with this thing. Especially when you consider my newly bought Nokia N96 has a 5 MP camera with auto-focus and flash. This is one SKU I won't be touching with a 10 ft barge pole.
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looks great - might be finally time to upgrade from my original fat edition (never bothered with a lite one).
what sells it for me is the promise of downloadable games. hopefully we might get the ability to transfer VC stuff we've already downloaded on the wii onto the DS, via SD card. please nintendo, let me run super metroid on it! |
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Methinks people are taking this a little bit too seriously. It's a gaming device, not a Digital-SLR. 0.3 megapixel is perfect for video chatting/webcamming on a portable device - taking pictures is just a throwaway extra that they had to include otherwise everyone would've flipped the tits bitching about that, and the only people who will use it are little Japanese girls taking pictures of their chihuahuas.
If they ever decide to get fancy and have the DSi able to be used by Wii games as a webcam for the Wii over WiFi (like a wireless Xbox Live Vision camera) then 1.2mp would've been nice, but again, not essential by any means. I can tell my mate is mooning me just as well in 640x480 as in 1280 x 960 (1.2mp) I'm interested in whether the integrated browser will have flash support - if so then if Nintendo provide access to the mic and cam via Flash then we could see internet voice and video chat on the DS. Even better would be if they added that functionality themselves, but you know it's going to be gimped with friend codes if it's even allowed in. Battery life's a concern too. We'll see. |
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Mentalist(air)
02/10/08 @ 12:14
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Until some clever sausage cracks it and we can run emulators from the SD slot or something
Nintendo have decided to eradicate the market for DS hacking tools by just building in the SD card reader themselves! |
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Regarding the camera, yes it is 0.3 mega pixels which is 640x480. All is explained here Megapixels explained !
Does this DS have a CPU upgrade, as some of the graphics in the video don't look capable on the current DS. Nintendo don't obviously want to trump on about cross compatibilty on the DSi's first day. But I doubt the original DS can run any of the DSi's software. Updated: • Software Source Nintendo DSi: Software for Nintendo DS, Software for Nintendo DSi. Nintendo DS Lite: Software for Nintendo DS, Software for Game Boy Advance So their not cross compatible both ways. So how fast is the CPU, the DS was akin to a Nintendo 64, will this be akin to a GameCube? Will we see Luigi's Mansion, Wave Racer and Pikmin etc on the DSi, if so maybe I'm sold.. Finally what with the camera being such low res, I can assume it's main reason is for a video chat system to be announced sometime soon.
Edited 2 times,
most recently on 02/10/08 @ 16:02
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NonnyMouse
02/10/08 @ 16:48
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A prediction for you - the camera is not for taking pictures, it's for motion detection - i.e. it is yet another whacky input device. You can wave at your games! Games can do face detection, smile detection! Your face or your home can be pasted into games! You guys counting pixels are fighting the wrong war. Nintendo don't do media, they do games... fewer pixels = reasonable chance of real-time processing.
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I may be late to this piece of news but the DS'i' is pretty rubbish really; I expected a slim design DS without the GBA slot sitting at the bottom - instead we get a laughable 0.3 mega pixels camera built-in and a slightly bolder screen.
The new PSP looks more appealing to me and I'm not even interested in that either. |
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InternetRed
02/10/08 @ 19:27
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Regarding the camera, it could be like phones with two cams, one for pictures, one for video. I'm hoping anyway. I know it's not meant to be a digital camera, but it would be nice to know that if I forgot my camera, and my phone's charge is very low, I have something to take a picture with.
The DSware stuff sounds good though. |
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TBH im not bothered about the camera as that is just something that they put in to please peeps that wud otherwise have bitched about it...
what i wanna no is wheter it will have WPA support... if it does then i am getting it 4 sure cos i cant use my current ds online cos ov virgin medias stupid coding built in browser is pretty useful ne1 got ne idea 4 a Uk release date? |
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furrycheeky
02/10/08 @ 23:42
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Not as good as I hoped. Lots of old school technology(small cameras, old wifi protocols etc) and not much immediate Nintendo brilliance and wow factor new ideas.
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