Nintendo DS Browser
Encyclopedia
The Nintendo DS Browser is a version of the Opera
web browser
for use on the Nintendo DS
, developed by Opera Software
and Nintendo
. The Nintendo DS Browser comes in separate versions for the Nintendo DS
and the Nintendo DS Lite
; this is due to differing physical size requirements for the memory expansion cartridge included with the browser. The Nintendo DSi
is incompatible with the Nintendo DS Browser, though a DSi compatible version of Opera 9.5, Nintendo DSi Browser, is available free from the DSi Shop.
company announced plans to develop a web browser for the Nintendo DS.
The Nintendo DS Browser was released first in Japan
on July 23, 2006 and it was released later in Europe
on October 6, 2006 for £30 (the same as an ordinary DS game). The Australian release date was on January 18, 2007 and retailed for AU$69.95. (~US$60) However, in Australia
, only the DS Lite version was released in stores; a limited stock of the DS Original version was only available directly through Nintendo Australia.
The North American release date was on June 4, 2007 for $29.99. Like the Australian release, only the Lite version was available in stores, and the DS Original version was only available online in the US.
for input, with an on-screen keyboard as well as handwriting recognition
and a stock of pre-set text (for example, the .com and .org top-level domain
s).
The browser can render pages in two modes, Small Screen Rendering (SSR) or Overview. In Small Screen Rendering mode, the contents of the page are displayed in a single column fitting the width of the screen - for example, a page featuring two columns of text side-by-side would be displayed as a single column, one after the other. In Overview mode, a scaled-down version of the page is displayed on the touchscreen with a small selection box which can be moved around using the stylus. The contents of the selection box are displayed on the top screen at their full size. This selection can be brought into the touchscreen to perform such actions as click on links or entering text in boxes.
The browser connects to the network through IEEE 802.11
Wi-Fi
access points or hotspots using the built-in wireless capability of the Nintendo DS
. While WEP
encryption is supported, WPA
encryption is not.
Nintendo has partnered with Internet security company Astaro to integrate web filtering
technology into the Nintendo DS Browser. Called Astaro Parental Control, the technology acts as a proxy filter, providing the option of blocking inappropriate content. This is provided free of charge and can be activated through a simple menu option.
The Nintendo DS browser supports JavaScript
and SSL in web pages, but does not support plugins like Adobe Flash
, or bold text. Due to limited system resources, most other dynamic media, such as videos or sound, will not work in the browser.
The Memory Expansion Pak, much like the Rumble Pak for the Nintendo
DS
is a "DS Option Pak". When inserted into a DS GBA slot, the Memory Pak adds 8MB
of RAM to the DS.
Two versions of the Memory Expansion Pack are available. One is compatible with both the DS and DS Lite, although the cartridge sticks out of the DS Lite. A smaller version is available which fits flush with the body of the DS Lite, and cannot be used with the original DS without modification. Two different Browser packages are available, one containing the large Expansion Pak, and one containing the Lite-only Expansion Pak. Availability varies by region - in Japan and Europe, both were available at launch, while in North America and other regions, the version containing the larger Expansion Pak is only available by mail order.
It has slight similarities to the Nintendo 64 Expansion Pak. The Nintendo DS Browser is the only official Nintendo DS software that requires this hardware, but it has been suggested that the expansion could be used for other software, including optional graphical updates that would allow a better experience if the card is inserted, in addition to other games that could require the expansion. However, it has been utilized in various unofficial homebrew software
, such as DSLinux
. It has also been cloned as part of the EZ Flash 3-in-1 SLOT-2 device.
The Nintendo DSi
, a newer model, no longer includes the Game Boy Advance slot (SLOT-2), so it cannot use the memory expansion pak. However, the DSi does have 16 MB of RAM, more than that of the original Nintendo DS (4 MB) and a Memory Expansion Pak (8 MB) combined. This additional memory is used by the DSi for its DSi Browser, which is not included with the system but can be downloaded for free from the DSi Shop. Tests have shown it to be faster than the DS Browser.
support for audio and videos.
Despite criticism to the web browser itself, the reason of the slowness and the lack of features is the Nintendo's system limited hardware as the IGN review suggests.
In August 2007, the Nintendo DS Browser was quietly discontinued in North America, although the Original DS version is still available from Nintendo's online store for the Nintendo DS
.
. It was available since the DSi launched and is preloaded on the Nintendo DSi XL. This version uses the Opera Presto
2.1 engine, which is more advanced and standards-compliant.
test. It nearly passes the Acid2
test, except for fixed element positioning, resulting to two stray squares. It receives a 59% on the Acid3
test in Overview Mode and a 53% in Column Mode, although the page does not display properly in the latter.
The Web browser has support for the HTML5 canvas object. To display images in a canvas, they must be cached in memory. Additionally, only the portion of the image in cartesian sector 2 may display at times, leading to unpredictable results.
Although the Web browser supports CSS
opacity, its usage considerably slows the browser, especially when used with event-driven functionality like mouseOver and mouseMove.
There is support for character sets of Western (including diacritics
), Japanese (hiragana, katakana, kanji), Cyrillic, Greek, mathematical symbols, and several universal symbols (male, female, musical staffs, numbered bullets, etc.). Bold and italic are not supported. The text shadow style is supported. Available font sizes are 6pt to 14pt, even sizes only.
Opera (web browser)
Opera is a web browser and Internet suite developed by Opera Software with over 200 million users worldwide. The browser handles common Internet-related tasks such as displaying web sites, sending and receiving e-mail messages, managing contacts, chatting on IRC, downloading files via BitTorrent,...
web browser
Web browser
A web browser is a software application for retrieving, presenting, and traversing information resources on the World Wide Web. An information resource is identified by a Uniform Resource Identifier and may be a web page, image, video, or other piece of content...
for use on the Nintendo DS
Nintendo DS
The is a portable game console produced by Nintendo, first released on November 21, 2004. A distinctive feature of the system is the presence of two separate LCD screens, the lower of which is a touchscreen, encompassed within a clamshell design, similar to the Game Boy Advance SP...
, developed by Opera Software
Opera Software
Opera Software ASA is a Norwegian software company, primarily known for its Opera family of web browsers with over 220 million users worldwide. Opera Software is also involved in promoting Web standards through participation in the W3C. The company has its headquarters in Oslo, Norway and is...
and Nintendo
Nintendo
is a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel....
. The Nintendo DS Browser comes in separate versions for the Nintendo DS
Nintendo DS
The is a portable game console produced by Nintendo, first released on November 21, 2004. A distinctive feature of the system is the presence of two separate LCD screens, the lower of which is a touchscreen, encompassed within a clamshell design, similar to the Game Boy Advance SP...
and the Nintendo DS Lite
Nintendo DS Lite
The is a dual-screen handheld game console developed and manufactured by Nintendo. It is a slimmer, brighter, and more lightweight redesign of the Nintendo DS, designed to be aesthetically sleeker, while taking styling cues from the Game Boy Advance SP, and to appeal to broader commercial audiences...
; this is due to differing physical size requirements for the memory expansion cartridge included with the browser. The Nintendo DSi
Nintendo DSi
The is a handheld game system created by Nintendo and launched in 2008 and 2009 in Japan, North America, PAL territories, and other regions. It is the third iteration of the Nintendo DS, and its primary market rival is Sony's PlayStation Portable...
is incompatible with the Nintendo DS Browser, though a DSi compatible version of Opera 9.5, Nintendo DSi Browser, is available free from the DSi Shop.
Launch
On February 15, 2006, the Opera SoftwareOpera Software
Opera Software ASA is a Norwegian software company, primarily known for its Opera family of web browsers with over 220 million users worldwide. Opera Software is also involved in promoting Web standards through participation in the W3C. The company has its headquarters in Oslo, Norway and is...
company announced plans to develop a web browser for the Nintendo DS.
The Nintendo DS Browser was released first in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
on July 23, 2006 and it was released later in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
on October 6, 2006 for £30 (the same as an ordinary DS game). The Australian release date was on January 18, 2007 and retailed for AU$69.95. (~US$60) However, in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, only the DS Lite version was released in stores; a limited stock of the DS Original version was only available directly through Nintendo Australia.
The North American release date was on June 4, 2007 for $29.99. Like the Australian release, only the Lite version was available in stores, and the DS Original version was only available online in the US.
Features
Nintendo DS Browser makes use of the Nintendo DS's touchscreenTouchscreen
A touchscreen is an electronic visual display that can detect the presence and location of a touch within the display area. The term generally refers to touching the display of the device with a finger or hand. Touchscreens can also sense other passive objects, such as a stylus...
for input, with an on-screen keyboard as well as handwriting recognition
Handwriting recognition
Handwriting recognition is the ability of a computer to receive and interpret intelligible handwritten input from sources such as paper documents, photographs, touch-screens and other devices. The image of the written text may be sensed "off line" from a piece of paper by optical scanning or...
and a stock of pre-set text (for example, the .com and .org top-level domain
Top-level domain
A top-level domain is one of the domains at the highest level in the hierarchical Domain Name System of the Internet. The top-level domain names are installed in the root zone of the name space. For all domains in lower levels, it is the last part of the domain name, that is, the last label of a...
s).
The browser can render pages in two modes, Small Screen Rendering (SSR) or Overview. In Small Screen Rendering mode, the contents of the page are displayed in a single column fitting the width of the screen - for example, a page featuring two columns of text side-by-side would be displayed as a single column, one after the other. In Overview mode, a scaled-down version of the page is displayed on the touchscreen with a small selection box which can be moved around using the stylus. The contents of the selection box are displayed on the top screen at their full size. This selection can be brought into the touchscreen to perform such actions as click on links or entering text in boxes.
The browser connects to the network through IEEE 802.11
IEEE 802.11
IEEE 802.11 is a set of standards for implementing wireless local area network computer communication in the 2.4, 3.6 and 5 GHz frequency bands. They are created and maintained by the IEEE LAN/MAN Standards Committee . The base version of the standard IEEE 802.11-2007 has had subsequent...
Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi or Wifi, is a mechanism for wirelessly connecting electronic devices. A device enabled with Wi-Fi, such as a personal computer, video game console, smartphone, or digital audio player, can connect to the Internet via a wireless network access point. An access point has a range of about 20...
access points or hotspots using the built-in wireless capability of the Nintendo DS
Nintendo DS
The is a portable game console produced by Nintendo, first released on November 21, 2004. A distinctive feature of the system is the presence of two separate LCD screens, the lower of which is a touchscreen, encompassed within a clamshell design, similar to the Game Boy Advance SP...
. While WEP
Wired Equivalent Privacy
Wired Equivalent Privacy is a weak security algorithm for IEEE 802.11 wireless networks. Introduced as part of the original 802.11 standard ratified in September 1999, its intention was to provide data confidentiality comparable to that of a traditional wired network...
encryption is supported, WPA
Wi-Fi Protected Access
Wi-Fi Protected Access and Wi-Fi Protected Access II are two security protocols and security certification programs developed by the Wi-Fi Alliance to secure wireless computer networks...
encryption is not.
Nintendo has partnered with Internet security company Astaro to integrate web filtering
Content-control software
Content-control software, also known as censorware or web filtering software, is a term for software designed and optimized for controlling what content is permitted to a reader, especially when it is used to restrict material delivered over the Web...
technology into the Nintendo DS Browser. Called Astaro Parental Control, the technology acts as a proxy filter, providing the option of blocking inappropriate content. This is provided free of charge and can be activated through a simple menu option.
The Nintendo DS browser supports JavaScript
JavaScript
JavaScript is a prototype-based scripting language that is dynamic, weakly typed and has first-class functions. It is a multi-paradigm language, supporting object-oriented, imperative, and functional programming styles....
and SSL in web pages, but does not support plugins like Adobe Flash
Adobe Flash
Adobe Flash is a multimedia platform used to add animation, video, and interactivity to web pages. Flash is frequently used for advertisements, games and flash animations for broadcast...
, or bold text. Due to limited system resources, most other dynamic media, such as videos or sound, will not work in the browser.
DS memory expansion pak
Nintendo
is a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel....
DS
Nintendo DS
The is a portable game console produced by Nintendo, first released on November 21, 2004. A distinctive feature of the system is the presence of two separate LCD screens, the lower of which is a touchscreen, encompassed within a clamshell design, similar to the Game Boy Advance SP...
is a "DS Option Pak". When inserted into a DS GBA slot, the Memory Pak adds 8MB
Megabyte
The megabyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information storage or transmission with two different values depending on context: bytes generally for computer memory; and one million bytes generally for computer storage. The IEEE Standards Board has decided that "Mega will mean 1 000...
of RAM to the DS.
Two versions of the Memory Expansion Pack are available. One is compatible with both the DS and DS Lite, although the cartridge sticks out of the DS Lite. A smaller version is available which fits flush with the body of the DS Lite, and cannot be used with the original DS without modification. Two different Browser packages are available, one containing the large Expansion Pak, and one containing the Lite-only Expansion Pak. Availability varies by region - in Japan and Europe, both were available at launch, while in North America and other regions, the version containing the larger Expansion Pak is only available by mail order.
It has slight similarities to the Nintendo 64 Expansion Pak. The Nintendo DS Browser is the only official Nintendo DS software that requires this hardware, but it has been suggested that the expansion could be used for other software, including optional graphical updates that would allow a better experience if the card is inserted, in addition to other games that could require the expansion. However, it has been utilized in various unofficial homebrew software
Nintendo DS homebrew
Nintendo DS homebrew software is unofficial software written for the Nintendo DS by hobbyist programmers, as opposed to software written by a game production company or corporation . The DS homebrew software is typically used on the DS via third-party rewritable game cartridges, or SD cards...
, such as DSLinux
DSLinux
DSLinux is a port of the Linux operating system to the Nintendo DS. DSLinux was maintained until sometime in 2010.-Software:DSLinux runs a modified μClinux kernel. It is based on uCLinux 2.6.14 . It only runs in textmode and which is displayed using a custom framebuffer console driver...
. It has also been cloned as part of the EZ Flash 3-in-1 SLOT-2 device.
The Nintendo DSi
Nintendo DSi
The is a handheld game system created by Nintendo and launched in 2008 and 2009 in Japan, North America, PAL territories, and other regions. It is the third iteration of the Nintendo DS, and its primary market rival is Sony's PlayStation Portable...
, a newer model, no longer includes the Game Boy Advance slot (SLOT-2), so it cannot use the memory expansion pak. However, the DSi does have 16 MB of RAM, more than that of the original Nintendo DS (4 MB) and a Memory Expansion Pak (8 MB) combined. This additional memory is used by the DSi for its DSi Browser, which is not included with the system but can be downloaded for free from the DSi Shop. Tests have shown it to be faster than the DS Browser.
Critical reception
Reviews for the Nintendo DS Browser were generally mixed. Many reviewers noted shortcomings such as extended loading times and lack of FlashAdobe Flash
Adobe Flash is a multimedia platform used to add animation, video, and interactivity to web pages. Flash is frequently used for advertisements, games and flash animations for broadcast...
support for audio and videos.
Despite criticism to the web browser itself, the reason of the slowness and the lack of features is the Nintendo's system limited hardware as the IGN review suggests.
In August 2007, the Nintendo DS Browser was quietly discontinued in North America, although the Original DS version is still available from Nintendo's online store for the Nintendo DS
Nintendo DS
The is a portable game console produced by Nintendo, first released on November 21, 2004. A distinctive feature of the system is the presence of two separate LCD screens, the lower of which is a touchscreen, encompassed within a clamshell design, similar to the Game Boy Advance SP...
.
Nintendo DSi Browser
An Opera browser was released as a free downloadable application for the DSiNintendo DSi
The is a handheld game system created by Nintendo and launched in 2008 and 2009 in Japan, North America, PAL territories, and other regions. It is the third iteration of the Nintendo DS, and its primary market rival is Sony's PlayStation Portable...
. It was available since the DSi launched and is preloaded on the Nintendo DSi XL. This version uses the Opera Presto
Presto (layout engine)
Presto is the layout engine for later versions of the Opera web browser . After several public betas and technical previews, it was released on January 28, 2003 in Opera 7 for Windows, and as of Opera 11 it is still in use. Presto is dynamic: the page or parts of it can be re-rendered in response...
2.1 engine, which is more advanced and standards-compliant.
Standards Compliance
The Nintendo DSi Browser passes the Acid1Acid1
Acid1, originally called the Box Acid Test, is a test page for web browsers. It was developed in October 1998 and was important in establishing baseline interoperability between early web browsers, especially for the Cascading Style Sheets 1.0 specification...
test. It nearly passes the Acid2
Acid2
Acid2 is a test page published and promoted by the Web Standards Project to expose web page rendering flaws in web browsers and other applications that render HTML. Named after the acid test for gold, it was developed in the spirit of Acid1, a relatively narrow test of compliance with the Cascading...
test, except for fixed element positioning, resulting to two stray squares. It receives a 59% on the Acid3
Acid3
Acid3 test is a web test page from the Web Standards Project that checks a web browser's compliance with elements of various web standards, particularly the Document Object Model and JavaScript....
test in Overview Mode and a 53% in Column Mode, although the page does not display properly in the latter.
The Web browser has support for the HTML5 canvas object. To display images in a canvas, they must be cached in memory. Additionally, only the portion of the image in cartesian sector 2 may display at times, leading to unpredictable results.
Although the Web browser supports CSS
CSS
-Computing:*Cascading Style Sheets, a language used to describe the style of document presentations in web development*Central Structure Store in the PHIGS 3D API*Closed source software, software that is not distributed with source code...
opacity, its usage considerably slows the browser, especially when used with event-driven functionality like mouseOver and mouseMove.
There is support for character sets of Western (including diacritics
Diacritics
diacritics is a quarterly academic journal established in 1971 at Cornell University and published by the Johns Hopkins University Press. Articles serve to review recent literature in the field of literary criticism, and have covered topics in gender studies, political theory, psychoanalysis, queer...
), Japanese (hiragana, katakana, kanji), Cyrillic, Greek, mathematical symbols, and several universal symbols (male, female, musical staffs, numbered bullets, etc.). Bold and italic are not supported. The text shadow style is supported. Available font sizes are 6pt to 14pt, even sizes only.