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By Chris Meadows

display_new_nintendo_dsi Last April, a TeleRead guest column by Michael Harris asked “Will the next Nintendo DS be a better e-reader?” We may soon find out.

According to this Nintendo press release, the next iteration of the Nintendo DS, the DSi, will be available in the United States on April 5th, at a suggested retail price of $169.99. This DS sports slightly higher resolution than the old version, as well as Internet connectivity and two 3.0 megapixel cameras—one pointing at the user, one pointing away. It can also play music from an SD card.

There have already been a number of e-book applications, both home-brew and official, for the existing DS, turning it horizontal and using its two screen panes much like the facing pages of a book. But it is interesting to note this paragraph from the DSi press release:

In the world of software, Nintendo DSi will be the platform for the most relevant and fun on-the-go games and applications. The Nintendo DSiWare™ application will populate Nintendo DSi with software that can be downloaded using Nintendo DSi Points directly to the portable system, just as WiiWare™ has with Nintendo’s Wii™ console. Developers big and small are invited to create software that makes use of the properties and functions of the hardware. Nintendo DSiWare games and applications will be available at a range of values, starting at 200 points.

image “Games and applications.” “Developers big and small.” Oh, Lexcycle? Have you ever considered putting Stanza on a Nintendo?

For the last few years, the most visible example of hand-held convergence has been the way smartphones have largely assimilated the PDA. But just as Apple has shown that an MP3 player and a PDA can converge with its iPod Touch, Nintendo is adding PDA features to its latest hand-held console.

It remains to be seen how good the new screens are, and how good the e-reading options will be. But if it should become possible to load Stanza or some equivalent e-book reader onto the DSi, it could turn out to be a quite budget-friendly e-book option—not to mention playing all those DS games, too.

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