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Joystiq presents

Nintendo considering DS web browser?

Nintendo DS USB DongleAccording to the guys over at Cubed3, Reggie Fils-Aime recently dropped some hints in an EGM interview regarding potential web browsing functionality for the DS. With so many online pieces already in place, it's quite surprising that Nintendo hasn't put more effort into getting the necessary software out. Supposedly, a third-party initially expressed interest in providing a browser and Nintendo thought it best to step back and give them free reign. However, with no real results yet, Reggie suggests that Nintendo is likely step up soon and get the job done.

That is, if someone else entirely doesn't get there first.

[Thanks jah75157, who we stupidly forgot to thank at first.]

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

zverg1

2-10-2006 @ 9:15PM

zverg said...

hooray for that, the touchscreen and having a portrait layout would pwn the web browsing of the PSP.

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Nushio2

2-10-2006 @ 9:24PM

Nushio said...

If they dont do it, the homebrew scene will.

I'm sure that as soon as stephen releases the full sgIP lib, it'll be a matter of time before Opera mini is ported to the NDS

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Probot3

2-10-2006 @ 9:57PM

Probot said...

If I had more hotspots near me, I'd be more interested. But I mainly connect using the Wifi in my apartment, so my computer's broswer is never far away.

On a related note, I'm a little suspect of EGM's interviews with Reggie. The last interview they had, they asked questions like "Will the Rev have a camera or microphone?" and the answer was "I can't say anything about that." And news sites reported it as "Rev might have camera or microphone."

I understand this is different and more direct, but I'd like to see a quote from him to know exactly what he said.

I'd also be very interested in who exactly was the third party company that approached them about it.

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RageOverdose4

2-10-2006 @ 10:47PM

RageOverdose said...

Um, would it work well though? Let's not forget, the DS doesn't exactly have the best of screens, so displaying the web pages in their entirety may not be possible, or just not that great.

I don't visit many flashy sites anyway (no offense DSfanboy :P) so I could pretty much go to all my favorite places. Even though I only really use my Wi-Fi in my house, my mom shares this computer, so I could be online as well as her with browsing features, and we have the bandwidth to spare, I think...

Still, I need more concrete evidence until I get my hopes up.

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jah751575

2-11-2006 @ 1:03AM

jah75157 said...

yeah thanks for the credit of giving you the tip. wtf?

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jah751576

2-11-2006 @ 1:17AM

jah75157 said...

i mean seriously i sent this sh*t in like before 11 eastern standard time. give credit where credit is due, like your sister site, joysitq. i gave them the tip on contraband, they said thanks jah75157. bah!

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Ludwig Kietzmann7

2-11-2006 @ 5:09AM

Ludwig Kietzmann said...

My apologies, I accidentally left out the thank you line at the bottom. It was nothing personal.

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Tom8

2-11-2006 @ 1:00PM

Tom said...

I've often thought that maybe the Firefox team should do this. It probably wouldn't take too much effort to port over Minimo (http://www.mozilla.org/projects/minimo/). The only real conflict I can see is about it being open source. Would Nintendo allow it?

But then the Mozilla Corporation could sell cartridges of the browser for like $20 and call it a fundraiser for the non-profit Mozilla Foundation.

More likely though, the third party involved is Opera. Still not bad at all!

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Another Primate9

2-11-2006 @ 1:12PM

Another Primate said...

Actually, Minimo would be a bad idea for the DS, as it requires too many resources (being branched from the same core that Firefox and Thunderbird come from). Stuff you can get away with on a full desktop PC can NOT be done in a limited, embedded system. Minimo would be an excellent choice for that overpriced, overpowered handheld that many of the kids like. It has the RAM and processor speed for it, and the company behind it has already included a functional web browser in it. A good Open source choice for the DS might be KHTML, the core of Apple's Safari/Webcore and KDE's Konqueror (just google for it).

For the record, this isn't nearly as exciting as DS Voice Chat. I would love Nintendo forever if they would release this as a GBA slot expansion cart rather than a feature in certain games. Like the rumble feature.

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jah7515710

2-11-2006 @ 2:46PM

jah75157 said...

thanks ludwig =)

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Tom11

2-11-2006 @ 4:10PM

Tom said...

Wow, I was all set to say that the DS surely must have enough memory since Minimo is targetted at devices with 32-64MB RAM. According to Wikipedia though, the DS only has 4MB! With that in mind, yeah. Minimo would likely blow.

The reason I suggested Mozilla and not KHTML is that Mozilla has big organization behind it, and a boatload of developers. Although I certainly respect KTHML, I'm just not sure if they are up to the task, nor am I certain they could get Nintendo's help on this. (And is KHTML's system requirements really that much less than Mozilla's? Might take a LOT of work.)

Which leads us back to Opera.

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Dave12

2-11-2006 @ 8:20PM

Dave said...

Unless they include extra RAM on cartridge or something (if this is even POSSIBLE) serious web browsing won't happen on the DS. We'll just get a glorified mobile phone browser at best. ='(

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Rob13

2-11-2006 @ 9:03PM

Rob said...

The best option would be Opera. Actually Opera makes Opera mini wich runs on every java phone, including old low resources one.

By the way Opera is closed source and the mini version is free.

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nissu14

2-12-2006 @ 4:54AM

nissu said...

"The best option would be Opera. Actually Opera makes Opera mini wich runs on every java phone, including old low resources one."

I was thinking about Opera, too. They have a "native" version for Symbian and PocketPC devices already, but maybe a native DS version (since there is no Java runtime for DS) of Opera Mini would be the best option.

For the people who don't know, Opera Mini doesn't render HTML pages itself, the hard work of parsing HTML and rendering the pages to fit a small screen is done by Opera's servers and the browser only receives compressed binary markup. It works suprisingly well even on low-end Java phones.

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HyperHacker15

2-12-2006 @ 10:47PM

HyperHacker said...

FYI, it is possible to include more RAM in a GBA expansion cart.

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mdizzle16

2-14-2006 @ 8:40PM

mdizzle said...

hell yea!!!!!!!!!! mobile internet with touchscreen so we actually have something of a mouse.........psp is being owned with the news of media players, wifi, and actual browsing

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keith17

2-15-2006 @ 6:11AM

keith said...

http://www.opera.com/pressreleases/en/2006/02/15/

Seems as though nintendo are doing much more than considering, Opera is actually coming out on the DS!

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ladyof wind18

3-02-2006 @ 1:03AM

ladyof wind said...

awesome!what operating system does your web browser has?does it runs by DSLinux like the one i've read from http://ds.qj.net/Fist-DS-web-browser-Watch-out-Opera-/pg/49/aid/5323?

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