DS Browser movie

Shifty Geezer

Shifty Geezer

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http://www.eurogamer.net/tv_video.php?playlist_id=699&s=l

Very nice and effective implementation. The touch screen comes into it's own here. I presume the browser card has extra storage, as 4 MB for the DS isn't at all enough for many webpages.

It's also ironic that Nintendo are releasing such an application when for yonks they wee saying DS is all about games. I think they now appreciate handhelds are to be multipurpose devices and just providing games isn't enough these days, not when your rivals offer a dozen functions in one device.
 
The browser consists of two carts, the software on a standard DS card, and a RAM expansion card that goes in the GBA slot. How much RAM is included hasn't been disclosed, but I wouldn't assume it's all that much. There will be separate versions of the browser for phat and lite DSes by the way (the RAM cart comes in a smaller size for the Lite so it won't stick out of the casing when attached), in case you didn't know that already. :)

I don't think Nintendo feels threatened by multifunction devices, I just guess they were approached by Opera, and felt this could be a neat piece of software that leveraged their hardware's strengths - wireless comms, touchscreen and dual displays. Good battery life helps too of course.

It makes sense after all, people on the move can sit at Starbucks, or on an airport waiting for a flight etc and do some casual web browsing. I suppose people in the 20+ bracket mainly are most attracted by this, I dunno if too many (pre)teens think Opera for their DS is a cool thing...
 
as somebody who's spent quite some hours trying to browse from his psp at airports, let me say that what opera seem to have done for the ds totally eclipses the psp in this regard. the psp has a nice screen factor but the conveniences end there. you _need_ a pointing interface if you want to browse more or less adequately.

four thumbs up, opera! ; )
 
Wow. that's pretty damn nice. Really functional, Opera pulled off some really nice things, makes actual browsing look very possible.
 
Nice find, Shifty!

Seems like Opera works like a charm on the DS. They've surely tried to adapt it to the constraints of the DS. Only downside is that it doesn't support Flash as far as I know.
 
I doubt Flash will get supported. Well, maybe for animating adverts on websites. It runs like an overweight snail on PSP and I expect DS would struggle, unless PSP's is just appallingly unoptimized.
 
I haven't tried Flash on PSP yet. But a DS Browser + websudoku.com would pass lot's of time in the airport for me !
 
darkblu said:
as somebody who's spent quite some hours trying to browse from his psp at airports, let me say that what opera seem to have done for the ds totally eclipses the psp in this regard. the psp has a nice screen factor but the conveniences end there. you _need_ a pointing interface if you want to browse more or less adequately.

four thumbs up, opera! ; )
Click to expand...

Unless you mean you need it for typing significant amounts of text, I think you need to learn to use the d-pad effectively (sometimes combined with scrolling using the square - analog combo), because I've found that works great. Often I browse these forums in bed at night, and once you've set the cache properly, you can handle amazingly large pages.

Having said that, I saw this movie earlier today on gametrailers and must admit that I am impressed with what they have managed to squeeze out of the DS, though obviously they needed more memory so they cheated a little bit. ;)
 
I hardly call that cheating. It's a smart move. Sony really need to enable virtual RAM off MemStick to get more out of their browser.
 
Arwin said:
Unless you mean you need it for typing significant amounts of text
Click to expand...

Arwin, if i needed to type in significant amounts of text i would not dare use the psp : ) mind you, i'm rather skillful with TTLIDE and AFKIM (XMB's default text control falls flat, though). no, it's more of a couple of phrases per minute or two in google's textedit control. so it's not the text entry.

I think you need to learn to use the d-pad effectively (sometimes combined with scrolling using the square - analog combo), because I've found that works great. Often I browse these forums in bed at night, and once you've set the cache properly, you can handle amazingly large pages.
Click to expand...

my major two gripes with the psp as a browsing tool are:

1) no good pointing facilities. it's not the panning (which the psp does not need much in the first place due to its wide screen), it's the need to move the focus across all the links/input fields to get to the interactive element of choice on the page, or struggle with the d-pad which offers anything but precise positioning control. i naturally go with the focus craw approach, but those damn pages have way too many controls these days : )

2) browsers memory policy. all the browsers on the psp i've used to date (tenchi, fw2, fw2.5, links2) totally disregard the fact they're not on a desktop - 'erm, setup the caches for flowless experience' - WTF? how about you (i.e. the software) actually keeping an eye on current page's memory consumption and when hitting critical levels evict and deallocate MRU caches in favor of the current page's needs? what's so sophisticated about that?

i get the feeling opera's effort on the ds nicely addresses the latter, and the ds' design addressed the former.

Having said that, I saw this movie earlier today on gametrailers and must admit that I am impressed with what they have managed to squeeze out of the DS, though obviously they needed more memory so they cheated a little bit. ;)
Click to expand...

it's not cheating, it's called 'good design' - creative use of facilities to actually make the experience with the product adequate.
 
darkblu said:
my major two gripes with the psp as a browsing tool are:

1) no good pointing facilities. it's not the panning (which the psp does not need much in the first place due to its wide screen), it's the need to move the focus across all the links/input fields to get to the interactive element of choice on the page, or struggle with the d-pad which offers anything but precise positioning control. i naturally go with the focus craw approach, but those damn pages have way too many controls these days : )
Click to expand...

Well, I like the d-pad system very much, it's very efficient. I think people sometimes just forget how much they've used a mouse before they were fluent with it, and allow for very little time for another device to enter their system. ;)

2) browsers memory policy. all the browsers on the psp i've used to date (tenchi, fw2, fw2.5, links2) totally disregard the fact they're not on a desktop - 'erm, setup the caches for flowless experience' - WTF? how about you (i.e. the software) actually keeping an eye on current page's memory consumption and when hitting critical levels evict and deallocate MRU caches in favor of the current page's needs? what's so sophisticated about that?
Click to expand...

I really don't have memory issues. I can't remember the last time I saw an out of memory, and I even load up pages like pspupdates on the little thing.
 
Any clue if this will have all of those nice bundled features that Opera has? Like IRC client, email, etc? I can hope, and if it does I'm getting me a DS, I might even if it doesnt.

Just watching that movie, the system works so well. I love it.
 
Skrying said:
Any clue if this will have all of those nice bundled features that Opera has? Like IRC client, email, etc? I can hope, and if it does I'm getting me a DS, I might even if it doesnt.

Just watching that movie, the system works so well. I love it.
Click to expand...

Sorry to say, but it doesn't support the built-in e-mail or IRC client.

From their forums
http://my.opera.com/community/forums/findpost.pl?id=1661178

Yes, it's based on version 8.5 of the desktop client...

Except the lack of the following features:

* The ability to play sound files
* The ability to play any form of video file
* Animated GIF files(if you believe the Google Translation(Q 04]
* Popup windows
* Tabbed browsing
* Plugin support(Java/Flash/PDF)
* Right click functionality
* Copy/paste funtions
* Built in IRC client
* Built in RSS reader
Click to expand...

Apparently, Animated GIFs are supported, though.

As for using IRC, you'll have to find a decent webbased IRC client using Javascript, etc.

Ajax is supported as well.

Here's the sticky thread of the DS forum. Everything is in there.
 
I can live without them. I guess the search is on for some decent web pased programs, IRC, and AIM......... hmmm.
 
Skrying said:
I can live without them. I guess the search is on for some decent web pased programs, IRC, and AIM......... hmmm.
Click to expand...

CGI:IRC might work. However, usually you're restricted to certain servers and channel.
 
Just for completion's sake, I wanted to add that recently I ran out of memory on my PSP trying to load up gamespot. That used to work, but apparently it got even heavier ... It still works on Links2 though I think, but obviously that isn't a standard PSP browser that everyone has access to.
 
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