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Nintendo With Possible Palm OS Capabilities
Sammy writes "According to GamerCentric, Nintendo has licensed Palm OS software although there intentions are not clear. "Well there seems to be some clues about this. "Nintendo had recently licensed Palm OS based PDA software without any details on why they had done it. Now Nintendo sources have revealed that V-Pocket trademark concerns this licensing. E3 will be the first witness of Nintendo's complete line of personal organizer tools for its Nintendo DS." So there is a possibility that we could see a Nintendo device with Palm OS organizer capabilities."
I bet Nintendo has new management which are trying to look like they add valuable by making 'moves.' This is a decidedly US style manover which to me is surprising from a Japanese company.
Kids play nintendo.
Adults use palm.
They do not mix. To be sure, I am an adult and I do both. But never at the same time...
Now I can finally play a game using the highly efficient Graffiti writing.
I'm a big tall mofo.
That was one of the worst articles posted.
All I see is possibility, rumored, without any details etc.
All from as far as we know, an unreputable site.
I would agree completely with your point, young kids have no need for that kind of crap. It only makes them spend more time with their gadgets instead of going outside and getting exercise, or playing with their friends (in person, not online). However, the PalmOS could be used for a lot of things. One simple thing it could be used for is to keep around your "buddies" in a convenient matter so kids can use the fun little wireless chat thing that the unit already does. Also, it could be used to maintain high score lists (both local and online) and to simply provide for a powerful (for a game unit) interface for browsing your firmware/game menus. Just because they licensed the PalmOS doesn't mean it will be a full blown PDA. Of course it could, and I can't say for sure that it won't be, but it could just be for a code base that they want to use for their own design.
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F*** the children! I want a Game Boy with integrated PIM and cellular!
According to GamerCentric, Nintendo has licensed Palm OS software although there intentions are not clear.
I have no idea what there intentions are, but i'm sure their up to something good. They're are many cool things they could be planning.
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"So there is a possibility that we could see a Nintendo device with Palm OS organizer capabilities."
You will see the DS with Palm OS capabilities, and they will be provided in a cartridge. The DS already has what all other PDA's have, except much better gaming ability.
This is a pretty smart move by Nintendo. Basically, they give you a simple, handheld game system, and then allow you to decide what add-ons you want through carts. Keeps the "I just want a gaming system" folk happy, while appealing to the "everything and the kitchen sink" folk interested.
Of course, I am a Nintendo fanboy, so my view could be a bit biased.
The world moves for love. It kneels before it in awe.
Do they really need to kill the n-gage?...
I have a DS, and frankly, the number of good games released so far is disappointing (but there are a few winners, like Feel the Magic, and Band Brothers in Japan).
I no longer have a Palm, but had a VII and Palm Pilot Professional a while back.
If Nintendo released essentially a Palm cartridge that turned your DS into a fully functional Palm OS machine, I would buy it in a second -- ESPECIALLY if it included a browser that took advantage of the DS' built-in wireless. I DO miss having a handheld computer -- I just can't justify it, when I already have a SE T-610 phone, and iBook G4 w/ BT and 802.11b/g. But $50 bucks or so for a Palm that uses my nice DS hardware (when it's sitting idle for lack of games)? Hells yeah!
Many adults are kids at heart.
I have a Palm, and I have multiple Nindendos of different generations. Most of the males from my generation (late 20s) have a better opinion of Nintendo than they do most other consumer electronics companies.
The Nintendo DS has a touch screen on it, that might be useable for writing input -- There comes bundled a little communications package, which accepts 'writing'.
When I first got my DS, I saw how nice it would be to use it as an organizer. Imagine -- being able to claim your nintendo as a tax write-off! [and well, it'd be one less thing to carry with me when I'm travelling].
I'm not much of one for bundling -- I've moved back to an older phone, just so I don't have to wait for java and crap like that to load. But I could see a benefit in this particular combination, provided that the palm wrote out its memory to non-volitile RAM, in case I ever drained the battery from playing games.
And whoever said you'd use them both at the same time? It's possible these days that Nintendo could pack enough memory into one of their cartridges to place the Palm OS on a Nintendo DS cartridge, rather than into the handheld itself.
Although, it'd be rather inconvenient to quit your game, so you could check your address book, it's still a possibility -- but licensing doesn't mean it's going to ever go anywhere. It's good business practice to keep your R&D going, so you can be ready to move in interesting directions. I didn't see anything in the article (which was rather short), saying they were planning on putting it into a specific product, or that we might see it in use in any sort of time frame.
Build it, and they will come^Hplain.
I don't know why people think that Nintendo is going to launch a new line of hardware. This is clearly meant as an add on to the DS. Really, the only thing holding the DS back from being a decent Palm replacement now is the software, which of course, this license takes care of. The beauty part is that both the DS and the Palm use an ARM processor, so porting the code shouldn't be too awful.
The DS already has a built in touch screen and 802.11b. Once they have the Palm OS added to it, you'll be able to run Palm software relatively easily, which means the DS will gain a web browser, IM client, etc. So, for everyone who's already shelled out their $150 for a DS and gotten bored of Mario 64, this is great news. This unlocks an extra bit of functionality on this versatile bit of hardware. Of course, most kids won't need it, but for those of who game and want to web browser wirelessly on a PDA, it could be pretty cool.
Now, can we please knock off the "Let's play the Graffiti game" jokes?
The nintendo ds IS NOT THE NEXT GAMEBOY if you read some of their reports, they said this is not the new gameboy, their working on that, this is the nintendo DS, a completely new console... Old uninformed people shouldn't talk about stuff that kids want either... I am infact a high school student, and me and quite a few of my friends have nintendo ds's, we have spent lunch playing eachother, and we have even cheated on tests by talking to eachother via pictochat... And if we were to get internet, either by using ds and school network or ds and network running from my locker, then i would pay any sum of money for that!
Your skill in reading has increased by one point!
Maybe they're leasing Palm's software just for their handwriting recognition? Really, all they need to do is integrate an AIM client w/ handwriting recognition from Palm and they'd have a MAJOR hit on their hands. Of course, it would be nice to have the Palm software too. But adding an AIM client to the package would make it a killer ap IMO!
Wise men say, "Forgiveness is divine, but never pay full price for late pizza."
My favorite text input method for videogames is the "Shoot Your Initials" method found on light-gun games.
After reading a lot of replies I see a general theme.
/ask/ my kids where they are rather than a GPS device of some sort like many parents want to use these days.
/don't/ have cell phones already! ...and why shouldn't they have phones? PDAs?
Most people seem to think the DS is for kids. It isn't. Nintendo has stated clearly that the Game Boy Advance is for the market of the original Game Boy (6 to 25 years old or so) and that the DS is for the young adults that had the original Game Boy and are grown up now. The DS is intended for a 16 to 40 market. It's not for kids.
Nintendo has also previously announced plans to launch a VoIP service for the DS that will only work with other Nintendo DS units. I think this was even covered on Slashdot.
To the people saying 12 year olds don't need cell phones, I have to say this:
I was using experimental (read: pre-Newton and Newton-era but not the Newton itself) PDAs when I was as young as 12. I loved them. They helped me in school immensely and kept me entertained, as well. I loved communications equipment at that age, and when I wasn't busy hacking the local BBS I was often on the CB radio with my buddies. If we had cell phones, we would have used those.
There were plenty of times I was out in the middle of the woods or in town with friends that I'm sure my parents would have loved to get ahold of me. I know that when I have kids I will enjoy the piece of mind that comes from knowing you can get ahold of them while they're out playing and having fun.
Yes, I'll still ask them where they're going, but you simply can't lock your 12 year old in the house 24/7. So, a cell phone is often the best thing you can do.
Frankly, I'd rather it be a cell phone that I can call to
From what I hear from parents I know, there are few kids these days in middle school or high school that
Isn't giving a kid a piece of technology and teaching them how to use it responsibly a GOOD thing?
If you think the answer is no, I'd like to say you have a rather anti-Slashdot (or simply anti-hacker) mentality.
There were plenty of times I'd take a long hike in the woods and sit down in the middle of the woods on a log and program on my PDA for a few hours. Hey, it might of been strange, but I was active physically and I was learning, too. I got a good programming job fresh out of high school when a lot of my peers were still at fast food jobs, so it couldn't have been all bad.
Parent isn't a troll. I'm pretty sure he was talking about masturbating.
"They'll probably add cell phone components too."
You jumped to this conclusion like Frogger into a VW Beetle.
"So Nintendo wants to turn the Game Boy line into N-Gage."
Then you got up again and jumped into a Mack truck.
Stop it with the heroic leaps of doom already. If everybody in the world thinks adding actual cellphone functionality to the DS would be a bad idea, they probably aren't going to do it. I mean, it's fun to play "I'm smarter than Nintendo," but you have to hit pause on that game at least sometimes, so rationality can kick in. Plus, it's not as easy as "I'm smarter than Nokia." So I'm going to venture a guess that, regardless of whether the DS takes a turn towards PDA functionality, mobile phone functionality is strictly out.
That said, the N-Gage was marketed as a gaming device first and foremost, but hell if it had anything worth playing on it. It was expensive at launch. It also launched with several key design flaws that even huge revisions to the hardware couldn't fix in the minds of gamers, such that even at its current price, almost nobody wants one. And for your purposes of direct comparison, it doesn't even have a touch screen. That puts it in the same boat as other cell phones and the PSP when it comes to functional PDA potential: text input is same-old cellphone crap, and interfaces have to be designed around joypad navigation and multiple key presses. Messy and impractical.
In comparison, the DS has a touch screen and a second screen, which instantly multiplies its potential. Stylus-based text entry (whether via onscreen keyboard or OCR) and cursor navigation are simply better tools for PDA use, something every PDA maker has known since the birth of PDAs - and Nintendo DS is technically capable of all these things. Built-in 802.11x compatibility simply puts it over the top.
If true, this could be a killer app for many people. I would buy a good Palm kit for my DS if it were the right price and included a TCP/IP stack that would enable me to use my DS as a web browser and email client via WLAN. My DS already goes almost everywhere with me (yay for being able to hold a DS game and a GBA game at the same time), so why wouldn't I buy this? It's not like I'd have to switch my cellphone out, or deal with some joypad-controlled monster of a hybrid device. I'd actually expect a DS/Palm wireless hybrid to work very well.
"The problem is that N-Gage is not successful, so what makes them think that Game Boy with PDA and maybe phoning will be successful?"
A.) The DS is already successful.
B.) The DS already has the components to make a decent PDA. Add a sprinkle of software and you're done.
C.) Although I'm not terribly impressed with the idea of turning it into a phone (unless they made a new all-in-one-unit), phones are very simple very standard devices so it really wouldn't (shouldn't?) hurt the machine.
" I don't think that a 12 years old kid needs a PDA in his Game Boy, nor do I think that he should have a mobile phone."
I don't think you've got a clear idea of who all bought a DS.
"Derp de derp."