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Nintendo Announces DS Lite
Conradq writes "Via Joystiq: 'Nintendo President Satoru Iwata today announced Nintendo DS Lite, a slimmer version of the best-selling Nintendo DS. Also featuring brighter screens, Nintendo DS Lite will launch in Japan on the 2nd of March. Nintendo DS Lite will be less than two-thirds the size of the original Nintendo DS and more than 20 percent lighter. Nintendo will announce more information about the availability of Nintendo DS Lite in North America and other territories in the future.'" Additional: by Z : Commentary available via Gamasutra, Next Generation, and The Game Chair. A good move, right on the heels of the news that Nintendo's profits more than doubled in Q3 as a result of the DS's sales success, and that they've hit 3 million online connections via their online component. Also, for the record, they snowed us earlier this month.
Their press release can be found here.
The simple truth is that interstellar distances will not fit into the human imagination
- Douglas Adams
From joystiq comments:
New one:
133.0 x 73.9 x 21.5mm, at 218g.
Old one:
148.7 x 84.7 x 28.9mm, at 275g.
I can't tell you what's missing, if anything, but I can tell you what's added that wasn't mentioned in the recap above: the "Lite" is not only because of its reduced size and weight, but also due to the fact that the backlight is adjustable now to four different settings. Here's hoping that you don't have to reboot and go into the system menus to change the lighting every time.
I can already say...I'll probably get one of these eventually. Once my current DS is more beaten up, I guess. I don't find the current DS's size and weight prohibitive - it fits easier in my pocket than my PSP - but the new one is sweet looking, and my current DS has a few irritating hairline scratches. Not that I can see the scratches, but it bothers me knowing they exist, and that they can be replaced by teh new hotness.
"lite" means that you can adjust the brightness(light) level of the screens; 4 levels of brightness in total, in fact. it's written in the press release. you can use babelfish to get a rough translation of the whole thing.
i like the new mic position, too. it would discourage people from yelling directly into the microphone instead of speaking to it steadily from a good distance. it's more sensitive than you'd think.
plus, they also removed the power button. it's always been an annoyance sitting there on the face, i sometimes accidentally press it when trying to look for the start button with my left hand.
Considering that it is a DS, it will probably be able to run DSLinux. I think they even have the touch screen working, but there's not much you can run considering the unit only has 4MB of internal memory.
It looks like the site is having some database problems right now, I hope those clear up soon.
Why is it that when you believe something it's an opinion, but when I believe something it's a manifesto?
If you want to be able to use your DS online, you have to turn WPA off on your router. Completely. Meaning all of your wireless devices are unsecured. You can use WEP, but the script kiddies next door can break it in a day or less.
~ Aero