There is like very little info out right now, but from what I can tell...
-It's lighter than DS.
-Larger screen!!!
-300,000 pixel cam.
-Improved sound quality.
-Software for download. (DS Ware)
-SD card slot!!
-Play music from games and SD cards!
-Released in Japan on November 1st for 18900 yen (about $180), two colors: White and flat black.
Hmm... I wonder if this will be released in the US. Somehow, I doubt it, but I'll buy one if it is probably since I held off buying a DS Lite. I'm excited about the SD card support. I've always thought that MP3 players should have them to add a bit more music to a player once it's full. If the sound quality is good enough I could definitely see using this, combined with a 4 GB SD card, as an MP3 player.
Nobiyuki77 wrote:I'm going to try and get one while in Japan, since it launches the day before I leave.
Good luck. I know how popular the DS is in Japan. It would definitely be a very cool thing to have and practical too since there's no region-blocking for the DS. You should try to pick up a copy of Mother 3 if you don't have one already. It seems like the (fan) translation for that should be finished in another few months.
Meh, I don't even like the current DS. Slapping a camera onto it and giving it SD Card support really doesn't sweeten the deal any.
The DS wouldn't be so bad if they didn't get rid of the gorram GBA design (not the lame crappy retarded GBA SP design either). That one I could play for HOURS and even then my hands would be uncramped and feel very nice.
- "Sometimes life smiles when it kicks you down. The trick is to smile back."
I have to say... the DS has been my favorite system since... probably the PS1. There's just been so many good RPGs (in both the form of remakes and original games), adventure games (Phoenix Wright and some others), and games that focus mainly on the touch screen capabilities (Kirby Canvas Curse springs to mind). I can understand not liking the DS from a design standpoint (which seems to be your main beef, Phyco, although, I have had no problems with the way it feels), but I still think it's a great system.
Back to the topic at hand...
I've learned something that make me leery of the new DS. It doesn't use MP3s. It uses AAC files. This isn't too big of a deal of course since it would just mean transferring file types (which would decrease quality, but I'm not sure by how much). This inconvenience though will probably deter me from buying it for music player capabilities.
However, if they announce the ability to play VC games from the Wii on the DSi, I'm completely back on board. Portable Sonic 2 sounds really good right about now (I get the urge to play old school Sonic during the fall. Don't ask me why).
Werefrog wrote:However, if they announce the ability to play VC games from the Wii on the DSi, I'm completely back on board. Portable Sonic 2 sounds really good right about now (I get the urge to play old school Sonic during the fall. Don't ask me why).
Without a significant bump in processing power, the DS is not capable of emulating at least some of the systems.
Benevolent_Ghaleon wrote:No GBA slot means no R4 and no GH on the DS....then again...who the hell cares about guitar hero on the DS?
Ha ha... No matter how hard I try I cannot understand the concept for GH on the DS. I mean come on w/o the fake plastic guitar how can you even feel like you are making music? I don't know how Nintendo manages to sell the DS GH.
Because it's Nintendo! They can slap their name on a jar of aids and someone will buy it.
So the new DS doesn't come with a GBA slot eh? That's a shame, that just lowered the viability level on the thing by several points.
Don't get me wrong, I own a DS and I play it. But I still think that it doesn't deserve the fanfare it got of it being "significantly better than the GBA." People refere to the GBA as a piece of junk, crap, waste of technology. The GBA was advanced for it's time, could play TV shows, and was VERY egonomic. The DS just flaunts technology and graphicing power. There is no ergonomics, at least for me.
- "Sometimes life smiles when it kicks you down. The trick is to smile back."
Yeah, but you couldn't even see the games on the standard Gameboy Advance.
I preferred my Game Boy Color over the GBA. Anyway... that's not the topic. The topic is the NDSi. Why wouldn't it have MP3 capabilities? A website I went to said it was probably due to licensing fees. Then why not use Ogg Vorbis? It's open-source and I believe free in the other sense of the word. Is AAC really that popular? The only people I know that use AAC are people who buy from the iTunes store. In that case, the files are generally copy-protected (.m4P). And, I'm sure that it won't play the protected format... since Apple's DRM is better protected than the Colonel's recipe (I thought I'd throw in a pseudo-folksy saying in honor of Sarah Palin).
I never had a problem seeing games on the GBA unless I was outside. If I was outside playing a GBA, I would assume that there is something wrong with me. Nintendo fixed that by slapping in a back light into the GBA. For whatever reason, that never made it to America.
Edit: By the way, I highly doubt that the picture we see that where taken by the DSi cam will be that kind of quality with only 300,000 pixels.
- "Sometimes life smiles when it kicks you down. The trick is to smile back."
Another f**king DS model, with an even cheaper built system and more gimmicks. The original model was solidly designed, better sounds, but a crappy screen. DS Lite: better screen, lighter weight, lower sound quality, more uncomfortable, crappy plastic power and volume switches.
DSi: Lighter, possibly bigger screen if those screens are correct, crappier buttons and switches, supposedly better sound, camera, and SD Slot. I have no interest in taking pictures or using my DS as a music player so no thanks. This is designed for Japanamaniacs.
