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Opera on the Nintendo DS
dxprog writes "Opera has announced that they and Nintendo are going in together to create a web browser for the DS. The browser, based on Opera's core engine, will take advantage of the system's two screens and the touchscreen to provide on-the-go portable internet access. From the article: 'Within just five seconds of turning on the system, the Nintendo DS is already fully operational. This makes it the ideal device to enable people to swiftly obtain the latest information from the internet, wherever they are.'" Update: 02/15 15:50 GMT by Z : More information about the browser and game announcements available from Gamasutra, and Iwata's aim that they'll hit 10 Million DS units sold is reported on the Next Generation site.
Doing something like this truly shows the versatility of Opera. They sure have come up with a fantastic products. Not only does it work perfectly on desktop systems, rivalling Firefox, Internet Explorer, Konqueror and Safari, but it is also a gem on far less powerful systems.
With all the talk about the flexibility of Firefox, I just can't imagine seeing it run on similar hardware. Enough people complain about Firefox leaking memory that it seems almost impossible for it to remotely support such devices.
Cyric Zndovzny at your service.
there is no such thing as a gameboy ds. its nintendo ds. the gameboy advance sp and gameboy micro are the current gameboy.
Using a soft keyboard is feasible but fairly slow and tedious (I've got a WiFi enabled PDA with both a soft and a chiclet keyboard). Also a lot of sites don't scale well to a low-res screen. I enjoyed the novelty of WiFi browsing on a PDA, but don't use it that much any more.
:-)
It could be handy for quick (read) access to Web mail, sports, weather, etc. Not a Blackberry replacement though.
[Insert pithy quote here]
Obviously this will not be a replacement for pdas for serious mobile internet users, but I wonder just how readable it will be. I have done a bit of web browsing on the psp, and while my eyes aren't perfect, I considered the psp's screen to be the "bare minimum" one really needs to be able to read web pages. The whole 2 screen thing to me would just seem jutting...I love the DS for games, but I don't see it being a great web browser.
Also, will the Opera cartridge contain a firmware update that will finally allow DS units to use WPA instead of the pitiful WEP? Would seem like a minimum for web browsing to me...
Monstar L
I would pay up to $35 (like a game) but not more. Let's hope the browser is not crippled and support secure pages and some kind of web based IM.
It looks like a nice step up from cell phone browsers in both the fact that you gain more screen area, an actually decent input device, and the fact that you're not getting charged for every byte sent over the line (Depending, usually airport wifi access is free).
I'm looking forward to it. Especially now that Google Chat is integrated into their gmail, I can have full IM access with my DS on the go as well. Slick.
for more pictures, check this article with pictures of the Opera browser and also the newly announced Nintendo DS TV Tuner. Other announcements are a new Super Mario Brothers being released in May in Japan, and a budget priced Tetris DS.
I'm assuming that they are going to distribute this browser in the traditional cart form but what about future DS versions such as the DS Lite? Do they plan to integrate it with the built in UI? Also since the cartridges are read/write, will it be possible to upgrade the browser through the net if they discover any potentially harmful security risks (buffer overflows) or new features? I wonder if they plan to market this in traditional gaming stores, personally I would love to see this, but I'm afraid that many consumers that buy the DS for it's simplicity and pick-up and play style may shy away from the technology.
If they could provide a limited productivity suite (Calendar, Contacts, maybe a lightweight e-mail IMAP client) this could be a good alternative to a Palm, especially for a younger generation who doesn't need to have full synchronization with a pc. Although, I wonder if the PC Lan connection for non-WiFi enabled lans could be jerry-rigged to allow synchronization of a productivity suite with a PC... But I don't think Nintendo has interest in programming apps for a PC.
Insert Sig Here
With the lower touch sensitive screen showing the scaled page and the top showing the page at 100% it would be quite comfortable to scroll around using the pen. Use the shoulder buttons to swap screens when you want to use forms or click links it could be pretty usable. I guess it's not going to be that powerful however considering the memory limitations (4MB RAM although I guess code and resources can be run inplace from the cart). I just hope I can put the browser on the M3 (with Passkey2) for convenience.
I've got to admit that I am a convert to the DS after intially being sceptical (but simply being unable to resist the allure of Mario Kart DS). Since then the DS has done nothing but impress, from the limited but flexible hardware to some of the most innovative games I have played in a long time (Trauma Center, Pac Pix, Nintendogs etc all make excellent use of the touch screen).
$2B OR NOT $2B = $FF
Summitsoft were working on a PDA cartridge for the DS called Organizer Plus. If they had that for sale and it supported iSync, I'd likely ditch my Palm.
However, I haven't seen anything more than press coverage about the alleged product, so I'm not sure if it actually exists any more. Their web site doesn't even mention it.
There are also rumors that Nintendo is going to license Palm applications and sell them as V-Pocket, and Miyamoto mentioned in an interview that he sees PDA software as a way to expand the system's appeal. No official product announcements yet, though.
So, I'm sticking with my Palm until there's actual shipping product, or Sharp USA decides to start shipping the SL-C series, or someone else ships a decent Linux PDA, or Nokia fixes the handwriting recognition and speed of the 770.
GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak
According to brianj (Opera employee) on the Opera forums:
"Opera will have two modes: fit-to-width mode (similar to what mobile users are already familiar with their mobile phones using the Opera Mobile browser). This mode will use Small Screen Rendering to fit the page across both screens. Alternatively, there is a DS mode which displays an overall page view on the lower screen (where you may use the touch screen to navigate around a sort of "mini map") and read the text on the top screen in full-sized view."
Don't know about small screen rendering? See here: http://www.opera.com/products/mobile/smallscreen/
Still not convinced? See what your website looks like on a small screen using the Opera Mini Simulator (which probably isn't exactly how it will look on the DS, but it's an approximation. The DS certainly has more screen real estate than my pathetic cell phone, anyway.)
Also, according to DS Advanced:
"The Opera software is currently slated to release in Japan during the month of June at the price of 3800 yen, roughly $30, and will include ATOK Kanji conversion software."
but it's their back-end squashing that makes their 'reduced-platform' offering so nice. For example if you're viewing on your phone having the jpgs squashed by the Opera proxy server cuts your bandwidth cost, dramatically speeds up the browser and reduces the amount of memory required on the client.
My main complaint with the PSP is the damn thing keeps on running out of memory if you load up a single bulky page.
I think it should be very nice on the DS - prefer using it on my SE phone than IE on my PocketPC and I can only see it being nicer with the better screen(s) and a touchscreen.
Seems a bit cheaky charging users for it though - maybe the cart will have some local cache on it..