Archived copy of A Swedish wolf in Norway

Miscellaneous technobabble from a Swede in Norway.

Nintendo DSi to come bundled with Opera

Published: 2008-10-02 14:10:44

Nintendo today unveiled the DSi as an upgrade to the massively popular Nintento DS. There doesn’t seem to be any official information from Nintendo in English yet, and there are some conflicting reports on what the Japanese information actually states. Unfortunately, Nintendo of Japan’s site is using a Flash animation, so it’s impossible to use tools like Babelfish or Google Translate to translate it, and my Japanese is limited.

There are reports, however, stating that the DSi will have a built-in web browser (such as ITavisen’s article from earlier today). VG goes so far as to state that the browser is made by Opera. Some reports state that the browser is not to be built-in, but a free download. I haven’t seen any official pressrelease from Opera saying that it is Opera that will come with the DSi yet, but since Opera already did the ill-fated Nintendo DS browser, and the Wii Internet Channel browser, it sounds like the natural choice.

And the screenshot on Nintendo of Japan’s site (second-to-right tab, centre image) of the browser does look like a mix of the old DS Browser’s UI with the Wii Internet Channel’s buttons, so it only sounds natural.

I have a DS Lite, perhaps I’ll consider upgrading to a DSi. Having an easily-accessible built-in browser does sound nice, but it have better be faster than on the regular DS/DS Lite. That one has too little memory and is running on a too slow CPU to be very useful beyond browsing very basic sites. Unfortunately. There are limits to what you can make the such a small machine do.

Update: Opera Software confirms that the DSi browser is Opera.

Tags: ds nintendo browsers dsi opera

Comments

The second right tab says "DSi Browser [Free] (can be downloaded from DSi shop)"

From the Nintendo site:
=================
ニンテンドーDSiとは

画面が大きく、本体が薄く、軽くなったのはもちろん、2つのカメラや、SDメモリーカードスロットを新たに搭載し、カメラで楽しみ日常生活を記録する「DSiカメラ」、音を触って楽しめる音楽プレイヤー「DSiサウンド」など、内蔵機能を大幅に充実させました。
本体内蔵ソフトは、「DSiショップ」を通じて提供されるインターネット閲覧のための「DSiブラウザー」のほか、今後登場する「ニンテンドーDSiウェア」を本体保存メモリにダウンロードして拡張することができます。
-----------------
About the Nintendo DSi

Naturally the screen is bigger while the body is thinner and lighter and it also comes with two cameras and a new SD memory card slot. We've greatly improved the DSi's built-in capabilities with the "DSi Camera" to capture your daily fun and the "DSi Sound" music player for audio you can really feel and enjoy.
As for internal software, you can extend the DSi by downloading upcoming "Nintendo DSi-ware" to the internal memory, including the "DSi Browser" for surfing the internet available through the "DSi Shop".
=================

As edvakf says, the browser is a free download but there's no mention of the provider.
A couple of non-browser related items of note - battery life has dropped by 20%-50% and the Game Boy Advance slot has been removed.

It definately looks like its from Opera, its got the old Wii browser icons and the zoom icon looks like its ripped from Opera's classic skin.

Yes, it is Opera. It has been confirmed by Opera. I have updated the blog post with a link (and removed the question mark in the title…) ☺

Sounds like a cool way to use Opera without pulling out the laptop

I bought Nintendo DS Browser (Opera DS!) and is real nice. I dont think the DSi enbedded version will differ that much from the regular one, besides a new skin i dont think it will support java nor flash, and I dont really care that much.

But I still it would be really nice if it was more like Opera Mini, or at least allowed you to sync bookmarks and notes!

peter@softwolves.pp.se

This was originally posted on My Opera at http://my.opera.com/nafmo/blog/show.dml/2606954
Please note that links may be outdated and any information included here may be obsolete.

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