New Nintendo DS upgrade announced – the Nintendo DSi

There have been rumours flying around about this for the last week or so and finally, this morning at 5am GMT, the Nintendo DSi was announced.

The DSi is an upgraded version of the DS. Apparently it is, yet again, being sold as a separate platform. That is; it's not going to replace the DS and will be a 3rd console. I'm not sure what the point of that is since it will still play DS games but that's besides the point.

Physically it's mostly the same as the DS. It's about 12% thinner (the GBA slot has gone... so what happens to the peripherals that stick in there?) and the screens have been enlarged to 3.25 inches. On the back there's a 3 mega pixel camera and inside there's a lower res vga camera, on the hinge, pointing straight at you. There's also an SD card slot and some internal storage much like the Wii and other big consoles out at the moment, probably useful for the camera facilities, the included music playback... and something else...

There's going to be a DSi shop, and Wii points will be renamed Nintendo points. I guess Nintendo saw the success of the Wii shop and thought they'd try it on the move, it'd be great to get some even more creative indie games on the DS, imagine Lost Winds on the dual screen with the stylus. You will also be able to get a free web browser from the store, hopefully it will be better (read faster) than the Opera one they were selling not so long ago.

Launch date? Japan is getting it on November 1st, so it's only a month away. Everyone else will have to wait