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Linux on Nintendo DS, Update
fdevliegher writes "Trying to port Linux to various portable devices is hot nowadays. One project is porting Linux to the Nintendo DS, and is making big progress lately. Right after the DSLinux guys had a working bootable 2.6 kernel, they have put lots of effort in making the sash shell work, in which they also succeeded. The latest feature added is the touchscreen keyboard. It allows users to tap in the commands, providing a much easier input method than before (when only the buttons could be used to input text). Only the basics are being worked on for now, but the future uses of Linux on the Nintendo DS are practically unlimited. In other words, it might become a cheap alternative for a PDA, an emulator, movie viewer, maybe even internet browser, who knows."
How about text recognition as an input method? I can do Palm Graffiti fine with my finger, so it should be eminently doable on a DS. Are there any similar open source projects out there?
Media that can be recorded and distributed can be recorded and distributed.
-kfg
A PDA I think would be great - the hard part would be letting me sync it to iCal or something, but that would be excellent for me.
The other would be a Game Boy Color emulator. Yes, I know that the DS can play Game Boy Advance games, but there's still 4 Game Boy games I haven't finished yet (two Zelda games, "Dragon Warrior III" (almost done), and "Metal Gear Solid GBC"). I just want to have the ability to play them all on one device, and then I won't have to keep the GBA SP around all the time.
Not sure if it can do the latter - the processor might not be powerful enough for emulating the GBC, but the datebook might be good.
It makes me wonder why Palm hasn't tried to sell a Palm OS cartridge - I know I'd buy one, and even if it was Palm Light (let you sync up, maybe enter some things, but no major app support) it would almost be worth $50 - $60.
Just my opinion, of course. Congrats to the Linux on DS team, either way!
52 Weeks, 52 Religions with John Hummel
Actually, since it has two screens, it has 28% more pixels than a 320x240 screen.
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Big Blue has spent R&D money thinking about this for us :)
http://www.alphaworks.ibm.com/tech/atomik is a layout for tapping. I used it on my m105, and it's pretty good. Definitely better than graffiti if you're standing still and don,t haveto pay attention to your surroundings, and somewhat better than qwerty or alphabetic (I used paper overlays on the graffiti area).
http://www.alphaworks.ibm.com/tech/sharktext uses the same layout in an ingenious way, where you trace a line between the letters of the word. You quickly remember the shape of frequent words, and it works surprisingly well (I'm using the java demo almost as often as the built-in TIP on my tablet PC).
Try Corewar @ www.koth.org - rec.games.corewar
When I built a simple homebrew OS for the GBA, I used the FITALY layout, which worked REALLY well. I could type quickly on it just using the d-pad, I imagine it would be much faster with a stylus.
http://www.fitaly.com/fitaly/transopt.htm
I have not looked at the site yet...but im wondering. Will this effect normal DS gaming on the unit. Pardon me for my stupidity :)
With how powerful the Nintendo DS hardware is compared to the original (and still useful) old Palm pilots I am not surprised it could be a PDA, but it seems Nintendo already thought of that.
Nintendo had recently licensed Palm OS based PDA software without any details on why they had done it. Nintendo sources have now revealed that the V-Pocket patent filed by Nintendo a few days ago concerns this licensing. E3 2005 will be the first witness of the Nintendo V-Pocket suite: a complete line of personal organizer tools for the Nintendo DS. Nintendo believes PDA software coupled with the already existing touch screen of the DS will put it above its high profiled rival, the PSP.
If someone put the time and effort in, the touch screen and portability of this would make it a wonderful electronic instrument to perform with. How about wifi control of midi devices (with an external box converting info to midi) with a step sequencer controlled by the touch screen? or a DS based LSDJ like tracker? sample editing on the bottom screen, tracker on the top...
Like they said, as a PDA. Compare the price of a DS and iPaq
I am trolling
You're kidding right?
Please explain then why the DS is currently killing the psp in japan right now.
I'll tell you the reason. A must have game!(nintendogs)
Not Linux, not bsd, not emulation.
The average consumer hasn't even heard of linux.