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February 16, 2006
Nintendo DS TV and Browser
So yesterday Nintendo put together a little press conference to announce a digital TV turner AND an internet browser based off the very powerful Opera browser.
With both these products being directly supported by Nintendo, this officially pushes the DS into the realm of multimedia. Although its function is and will always be primarily gaming, it's nice that consumers now have options to expand their system.
The TV turner will only work in Japan (DOH!) not because Nintendo doesn't want to release it in Europe and America, it's because we aren't as fast as the Japanese. In Japan they have digital signals transmitting from the ground, hence the system's name, "ground tv". The interface is simple. The lower touch screen gives you all the controls schemas while the top screen shows the channel you're watching.
On the other hand, the browser will be released world wide and works in conjunction with Nintendo's free Wifi service. The Opera browser has been specially designed to take advantage of the system's unique specs. The bottom screen provides you with your controls, tabs, and multiple page views while the top screens shows content scaled or magnified.
Now obviously comparison with the PSP is inevitable and even tho the PSP comes with a built in browser (not fully web compliant like Opera is), it's still cumbersome to input text without a touch screen or keyboard attachment (the DS owns the PSP in that respect). Also, the PSP doesn't have enough built in cache memory so you are often faced with page rendering errors. The DS has even less memory so how will it overcome that challenge?
Although Nintendo hasn't confirmed this but I believe the answer lies in the little Gameboy cartridge slot. Nintendo has confirmed the browser application will be purchased separately and comes in a Gameboy cartridge. A cartridge has MORE than enough memory for caching and since there is no latency time for information to pass from cartridge to system bus (about the only advantage a cartridge has over optical media), I can see the DS using the cartridge as the "cache". Take it a step further and the cartridge could also remember recent visits, tabs, and even allow full stream of multimedia such as quicktime, WMV's, and maybe even flash? The possibilities are there.
So now I'm totally excited and more than willing to get a new (another DS). I now have to go spend some time with my original DS so he doesn't feel lonely and outdated.
Posted by tranism at 11:02 AM | Permalink
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