Thinking about a great birthday gift? Well, recently I bought one of my friends a Nintendo DSi for their birthday, it features a ton of great games and fun things like being able to maneuver photos with it’s on-board dual digital cameras. (That’s right, there’s TWO!)
The most noticeable feature of the slim Nintendo DSi system are its two cameras – one camera is situated on the external body pointing away from the user, and the second one points at the user when the device is flipped open. As the first truly interactive digital camera in a video game system, the DSi Cameras feature 10 different interactive “lenses” that can manipulate your photos, offering an easy way to take and share your photos with family and friends. The cameras also present people with unprecedented ways to interact with their games, and in the process provide developers with a new tool to devise creative games and experiences. If the touch screen gave Nintendo DS a sense of feel and the microphone allowed it to hear, the two cameras give Nintendo DSi the sense of sight.
I am not much of a Nintendo addict other than messing around with my Wii, but if you know someone who enjoys gadgets, this might just be the perfect birthday gift.
The Nintendo DSi can also wirelessly connect to the internet easily and lets you upload photos/videos to social networking sites like Twitter. I have to give Nintendo kudos for trying to implement Web 2.0 into their gaming devices. It seems more and more companies are getting in this market of a multi-media devices including digital photo frame companies.
The new DSi does has its downfalls though like not being able to play Gameboy games like its younger brother DS.
Perhaps the biggest and most notable difference is that the DSi no longer has a slot to play Gameboy Advance games. If you’re still playing your GBA games a lot, this is probably a pretty big subtraction when it comes to the DSi, no matter how much it includes. If you’re someone who hasn’t used your DS for playing GBA games in a while, it’s probably not a big deal, but I would’ve gladly taken a slightly thicker handheld just to maintain the GBA slot. There is, however, a slot for an SD card to store more data. The first of these is the wi-fi service which you can get on and download some downloadable games for the DSi. Much like the Wii, you’ll spend points (100 points is equal to one dollar) to buy games. There’s also the built in web browser, but this is not something to jump up and down over really, as it isn’t a very good web browser.
Price: $169.99 on Amazon
P.S. Of course, don’t forget that you can always dissect your brand new Nintendo DSi and put it together to void warranty and add some hacking fun. Also refer to the solar powered Nintendo DS if you want to do that too. (Shouldn’t be too different on the DSi versus DS anyways…)
Video review on YouTube:
video://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOu5qhWsd_s
