Touching Is Good
Nintendo and Opera are announcing that they’re going to ship a cartridge with a version of the Opera web browser, enabling DS owner (like your trusted narrator) to surf the web using the DS’s WiFi connection. I’m extremely excited about this possibility honestly.
Admittedly, being able to surf Slashdot or Fark on the go will be a cool application, but it only scratches the surface of the possibilities this opens. With properly designed web tools, you’ll be able to use your DS as a proper PDA. You’ll even be able to edit a wiki on the go. If this web browser cartridge can keep a locally saved web page, then you open the door for TiddlyWiki, and even the issue of having a WiFi connection becomes meaningless.
For years people have been telling us about how the web isn’t just a new technology. It’s a platform for development. This is the realization that Microsoft fought so hard to hide back in 1997. It’s the realization that the Mozilla Foundation and Google are using so effectively to their advantage. By giving the DS a web browser, they’ve opened the door for it to be pretty much anything else we want. If Opera DS has a Java interpreter, then we have even opened the door for emulation of older systems.
And that is why I’m extremely excited.
Technorati Tags: World-Wide Web, Nintendo Wi-Fi, Nintendo, Nintendo DS, Opera