Nintendo DS Browser

DS Tuner

DS Tuner with channel surfing image

Nintendo held a DS press conference today where they have announced some pretty juicy news. Let me just give you the list:

- Easy to Find Kanji Dictionary
- Calligraphy Training announced
- Cooking Software announced
- Children of Mana video shown
- Xenosaga video shown
- Winning Eleven DS - Wifi Connection Enabled
- Tetris will be released for 3800yen ($43 AUD) as a budget title.
- New Mario Bros will be hitting Japan in May for 4800yen
- Opera DS Web Browser Confirmed (Not Included in Firmware, Purchase Seperately)
- Digital TV add-on. (TV Tuner, uses Seg-1 Technology)

Perhaps even more exciting is an accessory that converts the DS into a television. Starting in April, a service called 1seg (pronounced One Seg) will begin airing digital broadcasts for mobile devices throughout Japan. A number of cell phones capable of receiving the broadcasts have been announced, and now Nintendo is getting in on the action with the tentatively named DS Terrestrial Digital Broadcast Receiver Card.

This card turns your DS into a television capable of receiving 1seg broadcasts. Channels are switched using the touch pen, with the broadcast viewed on the top screen. The prototypes Nintendo had at the press conference were running via the Game Boy Advance cartridge slot, but the final version of the card will plug into the DS card slot.