The Nintendo DSi system software is a set of updatable
firmware versions, and a software
frontend on the
Nintendo DSi
The is a dual-screen handheld game console released by Nintendo. The console launched in Japan on November 1, 2008, and worldwide beginning in April 2009. It is the third iteration of the Nintendo DS, and its primary market rival is Sony's ...
(including its XL variant) video game console. Updates, which are downloaded via the system's Internet connection, allow
Nintendo to add and remove features and software. All updates also include all changes from previous updates.
Technology
User interface
The user interface of the Nintendo DSi has been redesigned from the
Nintendo DS and
Nintendo DS Lite
The is a dual-screen handheld game console developed and manufactured by Nintendo. It is the second iteration of the Nintendo DS and is slimmer, brighter, and more lightweight than the original. It was announced on January 26, 2006, more than a ...
. The DSi's user interface is a single row of icons which can be navigated by sliding the stylus across them. When the DSi is booted for the first time, the system snaps a shot of the user's face which is then displayed on the home menu's top screen. From the home menu, the user can take a picture at any time by pressing the shoulder buttons. While the system is on, the power button acts as a soft reset button that returns the user to the home menu.
The Nintendo DSi provides some built-in applications. Initially, users are able to access five programs from the main menu: DSi Camera, DSi Sound, DSi Shop, PictoChat, and Download Play. The DSi's menu is akin to the Channel interface of the
Nintendo Wii
The Wii ( ) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released on November 19, 2006, in North America and in December 2006 for most other regions of the world. It is Nintendo's fifth major home game console, f ...
in that new programs can be downloaded and added to the interface. The DSi Camera application allows for taking images and applying various filters. The DSi Sound application is thematically similar to DSi Camera, serving as a sound recorder and editor (along with an low bitrate AAC music player). Features include themed equalizers and modulators that modify a user's voice to sound similar to a robot or parakeet (
Toy Story 3
''Toy Story 3'' is a 2010 American computer-animated comedy-drama film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. It is the third installment in the ''Toy Story'' series and the sequel to '' Toy Story 2'' (1999). It wa ...
is the only DSi enhanced game to use the DSi's audio modulator engine). The DSi Shop would serve as the DS version of the Wii Shop Channel.
Multimedia features
Unlike Nintendo's previous
handheld console
A handheld game console, or simply handheld console, is a small, portable self-contained video game console with a built-in screen, game controls and speakers. Handheld game consoles are smaller than home video game consoles and contain the cons ...
s such as the Nintendo DS and Nintendo DS Lite, the Nintendo DSi has built in music playback support. The DSi Music program is split into two modes: voice recording and music playback. Both offer plenty of entertainment value because of the tools and gimmicks Nintendo has included. The recording mode lets users record at most 18 clips of maximum 10 seconds length. Once they have recorded a clip, they can play around with it in various ways. For example, users can make the clip play backwards or forwards, isolate small sections using A-B repeat, and modify the speed and tone by dragging a pointer around on a 2D graph. They can also apply 12 effects to the clip, which can be used to transform the sound. The music playback mode also has many play options. Once a song has been loaded up, users can change the speed and tone just like with the recording mode. They can also overlay the recordings that has been made in the recording mode to songs at any point. In addition, Nintendo has provided a set of sound effects which can be selected quickly by using the stylus, then inserted freely using shoulder buttons.
Unlike the built-in DSi Camera application, which would not read any files that were not generated by the DSi itself, the DSi Music application does not have this restriction when it comes to files and directory structure. When files are stored in a multi-level directory structure into the root directory of the SD card, the DSi parsed through them instantly and displayed all the internal directories for quick access. During playback, users have access to features such as forwarding, rewinding, and volume controls. Nintendo presumably envisioned DSi Music as being a substitute for a real music player. However, there is an important drawback of the DS Music application, that is, it does not support the popular
MP3
MP3 (formally MPEG-1 Audio Layer III or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III) is a coding format for digital audio developed largely by the Fraunhofer Society in Germany, with support from other digital scientists in the United States and elsewhere. Origin ...
format. Instead, the player only supports the
AAC format
Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) is an audio coding standard for lossy digital audio compression. Designed to be the successor of the MP3 format, AAC generally achieves higher sound quality than MP3 encoders at the same bit rate.
AAC has been standar ...
with
.mp4
MPEG-4 Part 14 or MP4 is a digital multimedia container format most commonly used to store video and audio, but it can also be used to store other data such as subtitles and still images. Like most modern container formats, it allows streami ...
,
.m4a
MPEG-4 Part 14 or MP4 is a digital multimedia container format most commonly used to store video and audio, but it can also be used to store other data such as subtitles and still images. Like most modern container formats, it allows streami ...
, or
.3GP
3GP (3GPP file format) is a multimedia container format defined by the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) for 3G UMTS multimedia services. It is used on 3G mobile phones but can also be played on some 2G and 4G phones.
3G2 (3GPP2 ...
filename extension
A filename extension, file name extension or file extension is a suffix to the name of a computer file (e.g., .txt, .docx, .md). The extension indicates a characteristic of the file contents or its intended use. A filename extension is typically ...
s. Furthermore, compared with
Sony
, commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professiona ...
's
PlayStation Portable it is more difficult to interface the DSi with a PC, as there is no
USB
Universal Serial Bus (USB) is an industry standard that establishes specifications for cables, connectors and protocols for connection, communication and power supply (interfacing) between computers, peripherals and other computers. A broad ...
port on the system. In order to transfer music and podcasts over, users will need to remove the SD Card and plug it directly into their PC.
Internet features
One of the major updates the Nintendo DSi brings to the Nintendo DS line is full network connectivity. Unlike the original
Nintendo DS and
Nintendo DS Lite
The is a dual-screen handheld game console developed and manufactured by Nintendo. It is the second iteration of the Nintendo DS and is slimmer, brighter, and more lightweight than the original. It was announced on January 26, 2006, more than a ...
which only featured minimal network connectivity, download content and firmware updates are at the core of the DSi experience, similar to the
Wii and Sony's
PlayStation Portable consoles. For example, when users first power up the system and click on the DSi Shop icon from the main menu, they are immediately prompted to run a firmware update. The Nintendo DSi supports
WEP,
WPA
WPA may refer to:
Computing
*Wi-Fi Protected Access, a wireless encryption standard
*Windows Product Activation, in Microsoft software licensing
* Wireless Public Alerting (Alert Ready), emergency alerts over LTE in Canada
* Windows Performance An ...
(
AES/
TKIP), and
WPA2
Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA), Wi-Fi Protected Access II (WPA2), and Wi-Fi Protected Access 3 (WPA3) are the three security and security certification programs developed after 2000 by the Wi-Fi Alliance to secure wireless computer networks. The All ...
(AES/TKIP)
wireless encryption; only software with built-in support can use the latter two encryption types, as they were not supported by the DS and DS Lite.
With the DSi Shop application users can purchase various
DSiWare
This is a list of games and applications, collectively known as DSiWare, for the Nintendo DSi handheld game console, available for download via the DSi Shop and unplayable on earlier DS models. An update released for the Nintendo 3DS in June 201 ...
titles. The cute music and blocky interface are somewhat similar to the counterpart on the Wii. Users can permanently login with their Club Nintendo account to track purchase rewards, and the main shopping interface also lets users add DSi Points and read the DSi shop manual. As with the firmware updates, the DSi shopping experience is quite similar to that of the Wii, although a big problem with the DSi Shopping is the slow speed.
Furthermore, like the previous Nintendo DS and DS Lite, the Nintendo DSi includes a
web browser
A web browser is application software for accessing websites. When a user requests a web page from a particular website, the browser retrieves its files from a web server and then displays the page on the user's screen. Browsers are used o ...
, which is a version of the
Opera
Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a libr ...
browser. It has support for the
HTML5
HTML5 is a markup language used for structuring and presenting content on the World Wide Web. It is the fifth and final major HTML version that is a World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) recommendation. The current specification is known as the HTML ...
canvas object and
CSS opacity. However, there are limitations for these features and web surfing on either of these platforms as a whole is not a good experience. In addition to slow download speeds, the browser has difficulty rendering pages. For example, many pages would not load completely, and it is not compatible with movie files, music files or
Adobe Flash
Adobe Flash (formerly Macromedia Flash and FutureSplash) is a multimedia software platform used for production of animations, rich web applications, desktop applications, mobile apps, mobile games, and embedded web browser video players. Fla ...
on multimedia content sites like
YouTube
YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...
.
DSiWare and backward compatibility
On the Nintendo DSi, there are a collection of games and applications specifically designed for the Nintendo DSi handheld game console and available for download via the DSi Shop, known as DSiWare. Since these games and applications are specifically targeted for the Nintendo DSi, they are not compatible with the original
Nintendo DS or
Nintendo DS Lite
The is a dual-screen handheld game console developed and manufactured by Nintendo. It is the second iteration of the Nintendo DS and is slimmer, brighter, and more lightweight than the original. It was announced on January 26, 2006, more than a ...
consoles. The Nintendo DSi is Nintendo's first
region-locked handheld; it prevents using certain software released for another region,
unlike original Nintendo DS models. But as a member of the Nintendo DS line, the Nintendo DSi is backward compatible with most original Nintendo DS games, and cartridge software compatible with previous models including original DS games, Internet browsing, and photo sharing are not region-locked.
Later, its successor, the
Nintendo 3DS consoles also adopted this approach, and as a result all Nintendo DSi and 3DS-specific games are locked to a certain region, while original DS games are still region-free. In addition to DSiWare, which are DSi-exclusive (although later they can also run on a 3DS), there are also "DSi-enhanced" games containing DSi-exclusive features, but can still be played with earlier Nintendo DS models. While most original DS games can run on the DSi, the DSi is not backward compatible with
Game Boy Advance
The (GBA) is a 32-bit handheld game console developed, manufactured and marketed by Nintendo as the successor to the Game Boy Color. It was released in Japan on March 21, 2001, in North America on June 11, 2001, in the PAL region on June 22, ...
(GBA) games or original DS games that require a GBA slot, since the DSi itself lacks of such a slot, unlike the DS and DS Lite. Because of this absence, the DSi is also not backward compatible with
accessories
Accessory may refer to:
* Accessory (legal term), a person who assists a criminal
In anatomy
* Accessory bone
* Accessory muscle
* Accessory nucleus, in anatomy, a cranial nerve nucleus
* Accessory nerve
In arts and entertainment
* Accessory ...
requiring the GBA slot, such as the Nintendo DS
Rumble Pak
The is a removable device from Nintendo which provides force feedback while playing video games. Games that support the Rumble Pak cause it to vibrate in select situations, such as when firing a weapon or receiving damage, to immerse the player ...
.
Homebrew flash cards designed for previous DS models are incompatible with the DSi,
but new cards capable of running DS software (or even DSiWare) on a DSi were available.
While users cannot transfer purchased DSiWare on Nintendo DSi consoles between units, most DSiWare can be transferred to a Nintendo 3DS, although not saved data.
Like the Nintendo DSi, the Nintendo 3DS is backward compatible with most Nintendo DS and Nintendo DSi software.
History of updates
This is a list of major system updates of the Nintendo DSi.
References
{{Video game console system software
Nintendo DSi
Game console operating systems
Proprietary operating systems