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Nintendo DSi
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The is the third iteration of the Nintendo DS handheld developed and manufactured by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on November 1, 2008 and is scheduled for release in Australia on April 2, 2009, Europe on April 3, 2009 and North America on April 5, 2009.
The handheld was first announced during the Nintendo Conference on October 2, 2008 in Tokyo, Japan. The character "i" in DSi is symbolic of its two cameras representing an "eye" and also the subject "I" and its personal individuality.
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Encyclopedia
The is the third iteration of the Nintendo DS handheld developed and manufactured by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on November 1, 2008 and is scheduled for release in Australia on April 2, 2009, Europe on April 3, 2009 and North America on April 5, 2009.
The handheld was first announced during the Nintendo Conference on October 2, 2008 in Tokyo, Japan. The character "i" in DSi is symbolic of its two cameras representing an "eye" and also the subject "I" and its personal individuality. The console's official slogan is "What will you and i do?"
History
The Nintendo DSi was conceived at the end of 2006, as the Wii began to ship. Masato Kuwahara from the Engineering Department began development on the DSi project per instructions from his supervisor. It is the third iteration of the Nintendo DS handheld whose development was on a short schedule. One of the first major features added to the DSi that separated the handheld from its past iterations was the cameras. When working on the DSi, Masato Kuwahara said one of the difficulties involved how to market the handheld, since it was based on and meant as a supplement to previously existing hardware. "We have to be able to sell the console on its own. It also has to be able to meld into the already-existing DS market."
The original concept of the DSi consisted of the device to have two slots for DS games due to demand in-house and by fan requests. This caused the device to be approximately thicker than the final version. The designs were unveiled within the company in October 2007. Kuwahara said "The response wasn’t that great, and, to tell the truth, we’d sort of been expecting that". This led to the removal of the extra slot to make the final product slimmer.
Launch
The console was first released in Japan on November 1, 2008 for ¥18,900 (tax included; ¥18,000 before tax) in matte black and matte white. In Japan, Nintendo had shipped 200,000 DSi units for its launch. During its first two days on sale in Japan, the DSi sold 170,779 units according to Enterbrain; or 171,925 units according to Media Create. In its first month on sale, the DSi sold 535,379 units in Japan, according to Enterbrain; in comparison to 550,000 DS Lites sold in its launch month. In its first two months of availability, the DSi has sold 1,280,000 units in Japan, according to Enterbrain.
The DSi will be available in Australia on April 2, 2009 for AUD$300 and in Europe on April 3, 2009 for £149.99 in matte black and matte white. It will be released in the United States on April 5, 2009 and will be available in matte black and matte blue, for US$169.99 and CAD$199.95 in Canada.
Demographic
Nintendo launched the Nintendo DS in 2004 to target a wider demographic and the DSi is meant to further expand its market. A Nintendo representative said the company "hope[s] that the Nintendo DSi becomes more than a game system and more of a personal tool to enrich our daily lives".
Hardware
The Nintendo DSi is about 12% thinner (2.6 mm) than the Nintendo DS Lite. The new handheld has two VGA (0.3 megapixel) digital cameras; one on the internal hinge pointed towards the user and the second one in the outer shell. It also has larger screens (3.25 inches, instead of the previous 3 inches) and improved speakers. Yui Ehara, the designer of DSi's outer shell, wanted to keep the unit "neat" and "simple" with its new features. The power switch has been replaced with a power button, as the original DS had, now located next to the bottom left side of the touchscreen. For DS software its power button also serves as a soft reset to return to the main menu. While for DSi software, Kentaro Mita who is responsible for relaying ideas from the company to the team commented "you can move around, return to the menu, or play a different game, without shutting down the power every time". Once at the main menu, DS cards can be hotswapped. The DSi has a matte surface to prevent fingerprints from showing up, as opposed to the glossier finish the DS Lite has. The speaker apertures were altered due to the redundancy of circular perforations on its shell and since the change can be noticeable while keeping the unit neat. Ehara pushed for this alteration to also make consumers see more of a distinction between the DSi and its predecessors. Excluding North America, Nintendo will release the handheld in both matte black and matte white. Japan will receive pink, lime green and metallic blue colors on March 20, 2009.
The DSi has five brightness settings compared to the DS Lite's four; however, battery life is reduced to 9–14 hours on the lowest brightness setting compared to the 15–19 hours of its predecessor.
Nintendo stated that, to improve portability without sacrificing durability, the front slot for Game Boy Advance (GBA) cartridges has been removed. Thus removing the unit's backward compatibility with GBA Game Paks and its compatibility with accessories that require the GBA slot, such as the Nintendo DS Rumble Pak; as well as the Guitar Hero: On Tour and Guitar Hero: On Tour Decades grip, which is required for those games.
Technical specifications
Nintendo has released few technical details regarding the DSi system. Nintendo has also improved some of the DSi's hardware (compared to the DS Lite), such as the main CPU and the RAM.
- CPUs: The main CPU is an ARM processor clocked at 133 MHz.
- RAM: 16 MB of RAM (four times more than previous models)
- Storage: 256 MB of internal Flash memory
- Wireless: 802.11 internal wireless connectivity
Features
An SD card slot hides behind the cover on the right-side of the handheld. The SD card can be used for external storage of pictures, downloaded software and to play AAC audio. The built-in audio player feature serves as a voice recorder and music player of AAC audio, but does not support MP3s. This media player can also adjust pitch, playback and add filters to the aforementioned audio. Using the handhelds' internal microphone, the audio player can save and modify up to eighteen ten-second sound clips from voice recordings then apply them to songs. Photos taken using the DSi can be synced to the Wii's Photo Channel.
Similar to its competitor, the PlayStation Portable, and Nintendo's own Wii console, the DSi has upgradable firmware; a first for a Nintendo handheld system. All existing homebrew flash cards for the Nintendo DS and DS Lite are incompatible with the DSi, but cards that can run DS software on a DSi are now being produced – the first one was created by Acekard.
Nintendo has reported that the DSi uses region locking for DSi-specific software, since the handheld provides Internet services tailored individually for each region and it uses rating-based parental controls, which differ by country. However, certain elements are region-free: Internet browsing, photo sharing and Nintendo DS software. The WPA and WPA2 support is not backward compatible with original DS games. Only DSi services can use WPA.
DSi Shop
The Nintendo DSi is able to connect to an online store similar to the Wii Shop Channel, called the DSi Shop. Here, using Nintendo Points (previously known as Wii Points), users will be able to download DSiWare games and applications to the internal memory or the SD card of the user's DSi system. Each DSi that accesses the DSi Shop prior to March 2010 will receive 1,000 Nintendo Points. The applications will either be free, or cost 200, 500, or 800+ (marked with a 'Premium' tag) Nintendo Points.
The DSi Shop was launched with the DSi Browser, a web browser available for free download.
External links
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