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US DS Web Browser Impressions

M

MiketheBSG

Member
Hey guys. I know that some of you were interested in the US version of the DS web browser. Well I happened to pick it up a few hours with it. Unfortunately the rumor that the browser supports Flash and Java are incorrect. It's the exact same browser that was released in other territories. Though it takes sites that are image heavy a while to load it's not as long as previously mentioned, probably because the US network is up. CNN took a little over a minute to load and NeoGAF was less than half a minute. Probably the best way to browse is to turn off the images, then once you're where you want to be, turn it back on.

Like the PSP, it's a nice portablee free browser you can use in hotspots or you're at home and too lazy to get to the computer, or just some quick info.

Oh, and for people that use AIM, www.aimonpsp.com works like a charm on the DS.

Alright, time to play Planet Puzzle League.
 
N

nubbe

Member
Lazy web site browsning barley work on Wii... The DS would probably be pretty horrible to surf on since all my lazy surfing is kinda flash and image heavy.
 
T

Tsubaki

Member
Just curious, does the US one support -writing- Jp font?

That's the main reason I got the import. (And the fact that it came out many months earlier.)
 
T

takotchi

Member
Tsubaki said:
Just curious, does the US one support -writing- Jp font?

That's the main reason I got the import. (And the fact that it came out many months earlier.)
Click to expand...

I haven't had much chance to play with it, but I haven't seen the option to input in Japanese. It displays Japanese sites fine. Can't even display Arabic, Hebrew, and a few other languages.
 
Brofist

Brofist

Member
A Link to the Snitch said:
I think the tc means "no monthly fees".

EDIT: ****.
Click to expand...

since when would a browser have a monthly fee. I mean I suppose if it was possible MS would be charging for IE :lol

takotchi said:
I haven't had much chance to play with it, but I haven't seen the option to input in Japanese. It displays Japanese sites fine. Can't even display Arabic, Hebrew, and a few other languages.
Click to expand...

probably have to have the system language set to Japanese
 
A

A Link to the Past

Banned
whatdidyousay said:
Um, PSP brower has no monthly fees either.

Seriously, what did he mean by free?
Click to expand...

"Like the PSP" - he already said that the PSP browser is free, too.

That's the only thing it can mean. It's certainly not free to buy, so he obviously means "free to use".
 
T

Tobor

Member
I'm posting this from my DS. I'll have more impressions later, but this works fine for GAF. Better than my smartphone to be honest. Typing is far easier than the PSP. It's not perfect, but it works nicely. :)
 
T

Tobor

Member
Well, it works. It doesn't do flash, but I knew it wouldn't. It does do animated gifs, so GAF's most important "feature" is intact. It is reasonably fast for a portable browser.

Sure beats the pants off my old Tapwave Zodiac. It doesn't do some of the stuff the PSP does, but the user interface and typing is better. It beats the pants off pocket Internet Explorer.

Let me know if anyone has any questions.
 
F

fernoca

Member
So, in general (sadly) is like the generic browser on my T|X Palm..no Flash and no Java..


Oh well..I'll stay with my Palm for "mobile Internet", since I can still use MSN Messenger on it.
 
T

Tobor

Member
imastalker co. said:
i don't understand how this things been out for over a year, and i've yet to see any pics of GAF running on it.
Click to expand...


DSBrowser1.jpg


Sorry for the quality, phone was the only thing handy.
 
F

fernoca

Member
A friend of mine wants to know two things:

01. Does it have 'memory restrictions' like the PSP?? (on which pages just stopped loading because there wasn't enough memory)

02. Does it support WAP encryption?
 
T

Tobor

Member
fernoca said:
A friend of mine wants to know two things:

01. Does it have 'memory restrictions' like the PSP?? (on which pages just stopped loading because there wasn't enough memory)

02. Does it support WAP encryption?
Click to expand...

1. It can but I haven't run into it yet. There is a check box in the settings for "Show dialog on low memory?".

2. It handles security through the DS Wifi menu, just like any DS game. You meant WEP right?
 
A

Azure Dream

Member
No improvements? No Flash at all, or Java? That's... pretty pathetic. So basically the importers win, and those that waited to support their home territory's laggy ass in the hopes of receiving an improved product? Just foolish, in the end.

I guess we're "lucky" it was released here at all. Like the stripped down MP3-only version of the Play-Yan.

Edit:
KevinRo said:
Can someone explain to me why this doens't work on the regular DS?
Click to expand...

It will, it's just that it comes with a RAM Cart required for the browser, that goes in the GBA slot. There was two versions released previously: one for the DS, and one for the DS Lite, the latter being smaller to be flush with the console's more shallow port. The DS one will work in the DS Lite one, it'll just stick out a little. So NOA decided that they'll only offer the DS Lite version in stores (which is too short to work on a regular DS), but you can buy the original DS version off their site online.
 
A

ant1532

Banned
KevinRo said:
Can someone explain to me why this doens't work on the regular DS?
Click to expand...
The GBA cart(Memory expansion since DS doesn't have sufficient space for support) isn't compatible with regular DS phats.(Smaller cart)
 
F

fernoca

Member
Tobor said:
1. It can but I haven't run into it yet. There is a check box in the settings for "Show dialog on low memory?".

2. It handles security through the DS Wifi menu, just like any DS game. You meant WEP right?
Click to expand...


Thanks. :)
Now my friends just hates it.. :lol

I'l send you sex through PayPal for answering.. :)
 
T

Tobor

Member
Kulock said:
No improvements? No Flash at all, or Java? That's... pretty pathetic. So basically the importers win, and those that waited to support their home territory's laggy ass in the hopes of receiving an improved product? Just foolish, in the end.

I guess we're "lucky" it was released here at all. Like the stripped down MP3-only version of the Play-Yan.
Click to expand...

Again, anyone expecting Flash to work given the hardware is the one being foolish. No chance. And we did receive an improved product. It's now in English. That's kind of important to me.

fernoca said:
Thanks. :)
Now my friends just hates it.. :lol

I'l send you sex through PayPal for answering.. :)
Click to expand...

No problem at all. Why does your friend hate it?
 
A

Azure Dream

Member
Tobor said:
Again, anyone expecting Flash to work given the hardware is the one being foolish. No chance. And we did receive an improved product. It's now in English. That's kind of important to me.
Click to expand...

Perhaps Flash is too much to ask (yet I don't think it's that out of the realm of possibility), but some improvement on what was deemed a pretty underwhelming browser versus what can be done on even a common cellphone was expected. Especially when Nintendo of America dragged their feet for so long bringing this over here, the expectation was that they had a reason for doing so. You think "it's now in English" is an improvement for the US? It was in English for the European release on October 6th, 2006.
 
T

Tobor

Member
Kulock said:
Perhaps Flash is too much to ask (yet I don't think it's that out of the realm of possibility), but some improvement on what was deemed a pretty underwhelming browser versus what can be done on even a common cellphone was expected. Especially when Nintendo of America dragged their feet for so long bringing this over here, the expectation was that they had a reason for doing so. You think "it's now in English" is an improvement for the US? It was in English for the European release on October 6th, 2006.
Click to expand...

I've been using portable browsers for years. Palm, Windows Mobile, Tapwave Zodiac, Razr(both built in and Opera Mobile).

Opera Mini on a full Windows Smartphone can do more, sure, but they are $500 phones. You simply can't expect that from a $129 video game handheld. My Samsung Blackjack chokes on the animated gifs in avatars, yet the DS just painted them perfectly on both screens(one small, one zoomed in). I have no idea what you would consider a "regular cell phone", but the DS browser is not underwhelming.
 
A

Azure Dream

Member
Tobor said:
I've been using portable browsers for years. Palm, Windows Mobile, Tapwave Zodiac, Razr(both built in and Opera Mobile).

Opera Mini on a full Windows Smartphone can do more, sure, but they are $500 phones. You simply can't expect that from a $129 video game handheld. My Samsung Blackjack chokes on the animated gifs in avatars, yet the DS just painted them perfectly on both screens(one small, one zoomed in). I have no idea what you would consider a "regular cell phone", but the DS browser is not underwhelming.
Click to expand...


I'm mostly going off of other people's reactions, I admit. I've seen the equivalent of "my phone can do just as well, maybe even better" a few times by now. Couple that with the descriptions of the load times given for pages I know I've loaded faster on more common cells, and, well...

I'd have had a more accurate perception of the matter, but I was, you know, waiting for this version to come out in the first place. So I didn't buy the other ones, so I didn't have a first-hand experience.

It's not that I'm not happy to have the product available, but the realistic expectation was that Nintendo of America (and/or Opera) wasn't just sitting on their hands for eight months, and with the improvements made with the Wii Browser between the public beta and full release version, that this version might see some similar enhancements and benefits. To receive a product with no added functionality (and potentially less, if you count the Japanese character handwriting recognition) and maybe a little Americanization to the English released eight months ago, with the original browser approaching a full year of release by now... It's just a disappointing sign of how little NoA thinks of this this type of market in the US.
 
T

Tobor

Member
Kulock said:
I'm mostly going off of other people's reactions, I admit. I've seen the equivalent of "my phone can do just as well, maybe even better" a few times by now. Couple that with the descriptions of the load times given for pages I know I've loaded faster on more common cells, and, well...

I'd have had a more accurate perception of the matter, but I was, you know, waiting for this version to come out in the first place. So I didn't buy the other ones, so I didn't have a first-hand experience.

It's not that I'm not happy to have the product available, but the realistic expectation was that Nintendo of America (and/or Opera) wasn't just sitting on their hands for eight months, and with the improvements made with the Wii Browser between the public beta and full release version, that this version might see some similar enhancements and benefits. To receive a product with no added functionality (and potentially less, if you count the Japanese character handwriting recognition) and maybe a little Americanization to the English released eight months ago, with the original browser approaching a full year of release by now... It's just a disappointing sign of how little NoA thinks of this this type of market in the US.
Click to expand...

I just don't think the hardware is capable of much more. No amount of dev time is going to coax Flash out of the DS Hardware.

Anyway, I'll have to play with it some more, but it seems decent enough for what I wanted to use it for.
 
E

Evlar

Banned
ant1532 said:
The GBA cart(Memory expansion since DS doesn't have sufficient space for support) isn't compatible with regular DS phats.(Smaller cart)
Click to expand...
At one point you could order a DS Phat version of the Japanese browser. It came with a memory expansion that was the same size as a GBA cart, so it was deep enough to work on the Phat. You could still presumably buy that version for the memory expansion, buy the US version of the browser for the actual software, and get it to work.

But that sounds like way too much trouble.
 
T

Tobor

Member
The Sphinx said:
At one point you could order a DS Phat version of the Japanese browser. It came with a memory expansion that was the same size as a GBA cart, so it was deep enough to work on the Phat. You could still presumably buy that version for the memory expansion, buy the US version of the browser for the actual software, and get it to work.

But that sounds like way too much trouble.
Click to expand...

Or you could just buy the regular DS version here.
 
Y

YYZ

Junior Member
I was at EB when two small boxes of these were delivered. The fanboy behind the counter went nutso with excitement. I read the European impressions a while ago and had a little mental chuckle. It's not worth using, too slow. Is the PSP browser any good?

Just wait a few years for a real robust portable web browser and more hotspots around the cities.
 
E

Evlar

Banned
YYZ said:
I was at EB when two small boxes of these were delivered. The fanboy behind the counter went nutso with excitement. I read the European impressions a while ago and had a little mental chuckle. It's not worth using, too slow. Is the PSP browser any good?

Just wait a few years for a real robust portable web browser and more hotspots around the cities.
Click to expand...
I'm hoping iPhone delivers.
 
T

TJ Spyke

Member
Tobor said:
Yeah, only through the Nintendo Store. I can't imagine there will be too much demand for it.
Click to expand...

I don't have a DS Lite (I want one, but my financial situation doesn't allow me to pay $130 for basically a system I already own).

This does interest me, but I don't go anywhere that has a hotspot and when I am at home I can just use my laptop or Wii.
 
T

Tobor

Member
YYZ said:
I was at EB when two small boxes of these were delivered. The fanboy behind the counter went nutso with excitement. I read the European impressions a while ago and had a little mental chuckle. It's not worth using, too slow. Is the PSP browser any good?

Just wait a few years for a real robust portable web browser and more hotspots around the cities.
Click to expand...

The PSP browser has more robust features like RSS, but the DS wins hands down in user interface and data entry. Qwerty touch keyboard wins every time. As far as speed goes, I'd call it a tie.
 
N

NintendoGal

Member
From my brief time with it today I didn't think the loading is as bad as people say. Sure the images take forever but for READING it's not bad at all.

Still, $50 is pretty steep for a text reader... :/
 
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