DS gonna surf the web, and become a portable TV too

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Seems the DS is starting to expand itself more and more from a "gaming machine," to a "multimedia machine," like the PSP.

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6144345.html

Dunno if I'd ever really use the features, of course, thats assuming they make it here overseas, but I still think it's pretty cool. The more the DS can do, the better, at least thats the way I see it.
 
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I kinda dislike how things are becoming more broad in use rather than specializing :(
 
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I agree with Deman. If I want an MP3 player, I probably dont want to pay for a ton of other features that I wont use. If I wanted an all-in-one device, Id get a Blackberry. Besides, all the features theyre offering on things like phones and MP3 players these days are features that my friends' laptops can do much better, and for free.

Unless they come up with something that plays music and makes sandwiches... see, thatd be cool. Id buy that.
 
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[Insert age-old argument of specialised gadgets here]

So yeah. I don't really care about any other functions, I just want it to play my games. D:
 
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An all in one product can appeal to some users, and the special features can come as an extra bonus. Example, someone who has never owned a mp3 player buys a phone with an mp3 player, and then they can listen to a few tunes here and there while they are out. that does come in handy.

As for handheld/portable consoles tryying to replace other items, it's something that is beyond belief and it's jsut to much effort or some will find it at a inconvience since they paid that much extra for that feature & something else they already own and use on a more frequent or day to day basis already does that. The engage from nokia is one such example, and it hardly made any profit of that, a big marketing failure imo.

I frown upon a psp generally, why bother payying for movies that can "only" play on a psp, witch then makes it useless and that is the only use it will ever make, where as if you have a laptop you can make more use out of for playying video files. Imo the ds is also useles in some respect, I don't think i'd ever walk around with a ds and use msn when I am bored since I can do that just about anywhere, at home, at a net cafe or at a friend's place are just some examples. I'd only use the extra features in the odd case if they provide a useful service to me on something I might never really literally buy or something I don't already have, that's about it.

I see people who want music on there phone, but yet they have a stand alone music device such as an ipod or some mp3 player. Sure, it could be useful for listening to music when one of the two runs out of battery, but at times they are lsitennig to music on their phones and when they still have battery left on their music device, it really leaves me to question, is stayying in contact with people, to make use of the battery that way more important then draining the battery of a device souly used (or mostly) for stayying in contact with people via a phone call or a sms? Then you go see them ask a friend if they can use there phone (sure, could be for numerous reasons that I could list, such as no credit left, a thing I see more commonly in my day to day living) but there are also people who have run out of battery and have a phone capable of playying mp3s, and they are putting the span of being contactable when they are out at risk when they waste there battery for the purpose of listening to music.

It's also another factor, that the more the features you use, the more it's gonig to drain on the device's battery.
 
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The thing is they are opening new services and functions, after it's been released. How is this a bad thing in anyway? You've already purchased somthing, and it still gets better. How is that a bad thing, in the least. Using the net isn't gonna drain the battery anymore than usual gameplay, I would imagine.
 
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wheres_warren said:
The thing is they are opening new services and functions, after it's been released. How is this a bad thing in anyway? You've already purchased somthing, and it still gets better. How is that a bad thing, in the least. Using the net isn't gonna drain the battery anymore than usual gameplay, I would imagine.
True. Yes it is a good service, but I can't really see it justifying everything, as for 1 there is teh issues of television reception (in some areas I would imagine). Plus a console is going to be bought to mostly play games (the main thing a console is targeted for), and also considering the fact it is handheld, I can't really see myself wasiting battery life on television if I was a big gamer and the ds had really good titles I enjoy playying or enjoyed playying. I could probably make use of it if I were, let's say camping, but day time tv is boring (atleast here it is, but of the countries that have god day time television then that's a different story). I could only ever see myself only using such a feature at night to be honest. They also should take into consideration raitings for shows on tv to see if the service could really promote there product wisely enough. I could point to a nintendo failure with video based entertainment in the past, such as releasing episodes of pokemon on a gba cart (witch has actually been done, belive it or not), & the biger question is to weather or not this service adds a "booty" to their product (Is this feature going to want to make more people buy a ds).
 
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Well, I'm actually finding myself rather indifferent to the idea. I bought my DS for the games, really. Don't get me wrong - it's neat that there are going to be added features to add a multi-purpose aspect to the DS, however, if it doesn't directly affect the fact that I'm taking people on, world-wide, in Mario Kart, I'm not sure that I'm really interested or concerned about the fact, heh.

As I said - I purchased the DS for the games and, to an extent, for its unique style. Whether or not these new features will be useful (or available, at all, for that matter) to me will be an entirely separate issue. For now, there's only 1 machine that does my web-surfing, and that's my PC ^_^
 
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The thing is they are opening new services and functions, after it's been released. How is this a bad thing in anyway? You've already purchased somthing, and it still gets better. How is that a bad thing, in the least. Using the net isn't gonna drain the battery anymore than usual gameplay, I would imagine.
Because they're going to make you buy it again, just like every other thing they've made the last ten years.
 
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Pride is right. Sure you bought the DS, now you need to buy the gadgets to make the T.V and the web browser work. That's how Nintendo makes their money. Release something, then update it and release it again, then add a bunch of addons that plug into it. It's smart for Nintendo, because they make money. It's bad for the customer because they're getting ripped off.
 
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i actually like the addon idea.
because if you only want to play games you just buy a DS.
if you feel the need to surf through the web with it you can buy this browser module thingy and if you dont, then justn dont buy it.

and the ds is cheaper than the psp because it doesnt have these built in gimmicks. you only have to pay for them if you really want them
 
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I'm afraid I still don't see a disadvantage to this. Even if these functions are made available through addons that must be purchased, it isn't as though you are being forced to get those addons. The DS will still play the games made for it, both single player and multiplayer, just fine without addons that allow web-surfing and the ability to watch TV on it. Frankly, I don't think either should be an area of concern for a portable gaming device, as it subtracts from the focus and actual purpose of the system - gaming. The same can be seen with Apple, for instance, and it's iPods. If you purchased an iPod, but decided, afterward, that you'd like to store some pictures on it, you're pretty much out of luck until you scrape up the money to invest in a newer, more expensive iPod Photo.

In either case - if people are interested in the feature, they will make arrangements to purchase the necessary addons. Otherwise, I don't see how it really makes the DS any more or less of a system, at the moment.
 
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Very Interesting. I wouldn't mind using my DS as a television, hopefully it will work with the older versions. The main drawback I see is that if you are out and you are wanting to play games, go on the internet or watch t.v, it will be rather cumbersome to carry about all of those cartridges...
 

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/me hugs his old game boy with mario land 1 and tetris

Now that was a machine..
 
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As I saw it I always used my past gameboys for games, with pokemon dominating a lot of that in my younger days. It's almost as if this were nearly the same situation as a ngage, pracitically no one bought them because the titles all released for them were all old and already on other platforms, & if it had unique titles written for it, it could of been a different story, but it was a failure. I know If I were to use a phone (as stated in my earlier post) that I would not waste the battery on an mp3 player. What if there was a medical emergency and if you needed to call an aumblance because a relative of sibling had some sought of medical condition or had a heart attack and you had no battery on your phone left and you listened to music on it & if you have no battery left you would be kicking yourself, unless you asked a passing driver for assistance or there was a emergency phone around you would be lucky.

The occasional set of features is nice, but really, if you were to have a device for the means of contact, you would souly want to stick to it's soul purpose, and in the respect of a gameboy, I always saw it's man concept and market segment as gaming, & with the name "gameboy" already known by the whole world, you will see that people will just stick to using it for gaming.
 
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Saiyan_Overlord said:
As I saw it I always used my past gameboys for games, with pokemon dominating a lot of that in my younger days. It's almost as if this were nearly the same situation as a ngage, pracitically no one bought them because the titles all released for them were all old and already on other platforms, & if it had unique titles written for it, it could of been a different story, but it was a failure. I know If I were to use a phone (as stated in my earlier post) that I would not waste the battery on an mp3 player. What if there was a medical emergency and if you needed to call an aumblance because a relative of sibling had some sought of medical condition or had a heart attack and you had no battery on your phone left and you listened to music on it & if you have no battery left you would be kicking yourself, unless you asked a passing driver for assistance or there was a emergency phone around you would be lucky.

The occasional set of features is nice, but really, if you were to have a device for the means of contact, you would souly want to stick to it's soul purpose, and in the respect of a gameboy, I always saw it's man concept and market segment as gaming, & with the name "gameboy" already known by the whole world, you will see that people will just stick to using it for gaming.
You're looking into this too far. Just because it's going to have the ability to access the internet doesn't mean the entire world is going to implode and the DS will never be fun again. If you don't want the internet, don't buy the attachment. Problem solved, horrah!
 
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Majin_You said:
I'm afraid I still don't see a disadvantage to this. Even if these functions are made available through addons that must be purchased, it isn't as though you are being forced to get those addons. The DS will still play the games made for it, both single player and multiplayer, just fine without addons that allow web-surfing and the ability to watch TV on it.
That's what I was thinking, I don't know how anyone can possibly not like this. Sure, maybe you won't ever use the features, I know I probably won't. But unlike say, the PSP, where everything comes with it, I just simply don't have to buy the extra add-ons, and can just have my DS play games. It's a win-win situation, and I can't see how anyone could dislike it.
 
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Saiyan_Overlord said:
What if there was a medical emergency and if you needed to call an aumblance because a relative of sibling had some sought of medical condition or had a heart attack and you had no battery on your phone left and you listened to music on it & if you have no battery left you would be kicking yourself, unless you asked a passing driver for assistance or there was a emergency phone around you would be lucky.
What if you didn't have an ngage OR a cell-phone? Then what.

That's a little dramatic Overlord, it's just the internet, not the apocalypse.
 
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Fire Phoenix said:
Pride is right. Sure you bought the DS, now you need to buy the gadgets to make the T.V and the web browser work. That's how Nintendo makes their money. Release something, then update it and release it again, then add a bunch of addons that plug into it. It's smart for Nintendo, because they make money. It's bad for the customer because they're getting ripped off.
So, when you buy your shiny new processor/graphics card/monitor you're being ripped off?

Yes, Nintendo sell a lot of hardware add-ons but no one is pointing a gun at anyone's head and saying 'Buy This.' Personally I might give this one a second glance. Rather than dragging my laptop downstairs - for a portable device it's pretty heavy - and plugging it in I could just slip a different cartridge into my DS and browse the forum from anywhere in my house.

And for god's sake, it's only $30. In a day when people will pay over $500 for a next-gen console (that's the sorta prices people are seeing over here) $30 isn't exactly breaking the bank.
 

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