So while we in NA slept, Nintendo had its press conference and announced the new Nintendo DSi.
I’m sure at this point in the day, this is No Longer News to anyone reading this blog. But in case you just woke up or something, I am now blogging that Wired’s Chris Kohler live-blogged the live-blogging of the press conference. You can read his live-blog of the live-blogging here. It feels very satisfying for me to blog about this.
For a more bullet-pointy rundown, check out DS Fanboy.
One VGA camera in the hinge facing you for video chat (?), one facing the world. The latter takes 640×480 shots. SD slot on the right.
Also comes in matte-black.
This product is potentially interesting to me, but I don’t see myself running out to buy one on launch day. Bigger screen is nice, thinner is nice. Lack of GBA slot not so nice: I do still have some GBA games on my “To play” list (though I can’t fault Nintendo for finally leaving that format behind).
I can’t find a reason to care about the cameras, or the web browser (I don’t use the browser on my PSP…I can’t imagine I’ll use on on a DS with a still-smaller screen), and I have an iPod for listening to music. Stick a 30 gig drive in the new DSi and we can talk.
The big wild card is the downloadable programs. So far WiiWare has been pretty lackluster in terms of software. DSWare is going to have to be much more compelling to get me to upgrade my DS to take advantage of it.
When my current DS breaks, I can see spending a bit more to replace it with a DSi, but unless DSWare has some real killer apps, I don’t think I’ll be tossing aside a perfectly good DS to upgrade.
“…I don’t think I’ll be tossing aside a perfectly good DS to upgrade.”
Hon, said with all due respect and the utmost affection, when have you ever been able to resist the siren’s call of a new gadget?? 😀
I’m with you though on the GBA slot. I still play FF:Tactics fairly regularly on my DS, and until something DS comes along that keeps that longevity with me in terms of playability, I can’t see letting it go. I’m also not keen on the web-cam bits + kids. Seems too tempting for my experimenting pre-teen to take pictures of naughty bits to shock his friends. From the “bare butts are funny” its a short road into teen years and budding erotica, and I’d just as soon his DS not add to those temptations.
OK you’ve got a point about me and gaming gadgets. But since (as far as I can tell) this is going to play the same games as the old DS, I think I’ll be able to resist… there’s no feature that really excites me. Like the PSP-2000 I wanted because of the TV-out.
Again, it’ll come down to how compelling the DSWare titles are. 🙂
I was a little disappointed… being a techie that I am, I was hoping for some boosted horsepower to go along with the new gadgets. As it is, the DSi will be a replacement for me as well, only if my current one breaks or if my wife wants to steal it.
We both have the original DSes, been tempted by the Lites but amazingly neither one of us has caved. LOL! Jevvim has the Guitar Hero On Tour (?) game which needs the GBA slot for the controller, so I don’t see him giving it up for the new model any time soon.
I surfed the internet one time on the PSP while waiting 4 hours in an airport (that amazingly had free wi-fi), but that was before I got an iPhone, so I really don’t see myself needing any other portable browser, either.