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Nintendo joins the e-book parade
NEXT WEEK'S UK release date for Nintendo's fatboy DSi XL handheld draws near and Business Week reported yesterday that it will feature e-book reader functionality.
Nintendo must've been stroking its proverbial beard at the number of e-book hardware devices being put out by Sony, Amazon, Apple and others and realised it could offer its own addition to jump on the bandwagon.
Sony already has Kindle and Comic Store e-book applications for its PlayStation Portable and Microsoft is out of the equation with no handheld gaming device, but the DSI-XL will be Nintendo's first e-book entry. The package from Nintendo will offer a downloadable selection of 100 classic books through its Wii channels. We're not quite sure what constitutes "classic" for the Nintendo handheld demographic. Spot goes to the Cinema perhaps? Where's Wally?
To its credit, Nintendo has given the DSi XL a head start for good e-book viewing with a wide-angle viewing screen and the largest display real estate on a Nintendo handheld - two in fact. It sports two 4.2-inch screens, which are 93 per cent larger than the screen on the Nintendo DS Lite. There's even an Opera mobile browser for Internet surfing.
The hardware should be a good start for its life as an e-book reader but, as always, longevity and consumer adoption will depend almost entirely on how many deals Nintendo sets up with content providers. µ
Tags: Numb thumbs
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I read all the time on my DSi using DSlibris, an open source DS app available on Sourceforge. The main problem is one of resolution. It's nice that the new DS has a larger display, but it's still at the same resolution of 256x192 per screen!
B
I've done some reading on the DS Lite, as part of the brain age game. It works well for me, and the new screen will be bigger so it seems like a winner.
Bill - the DS folds in half, and each side has it's own display; in that respect, it offers more of a 'book-like' experience than any competetor. Perhapse you could try it and then judge. :)
It have 2x4.2" screens, but I bet reading in such screens are probably awful. They are too narrow. And the experience is completely different than a real book reading. A feature that is a must to a succesful e-reader.
A single 10~12" screen would be the perfect reader. Not too small, not too big... Reading in 2 small screens is far from what I consider a pleasant idea.