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Cellphones Businesses Nintendo

Must Nintendo Make a Mobile Phone? 155

Posted by CmdrTaco from the what-a-strange-question dept.
Hiroshi writes "Earlier this year Engadget uncovered a patent filed in 2001 for a Nintendo cell phone but as we all know, nothing came of it. Now CNET is highlighting the Nintenphone once more, stating that it must be built if cell phone gaming is ever going to get better. Interestingly, CNET Photoshopped a DS Lite with Android and a virtual keypad, and while this probably wouldn't be what a Nintenphone would look like, I can't help feeling like the DS would make an awesome phone."
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Must Nintendo Make a Mobile Phone? More

Must Nintendo Make a Mobile Phone?

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  • Doomed to repeat history? (Score:5, Funny)

    by stoolpigeon ( 454276 ) * <bittercode@gmail> on Wednesday November 21, 2007 @10:40AM (#21435477) Homepage Journal
    Of course Nintendo doesn't have to do this. I'm somewhat shocked that a tech site like slashdot would be so woefully unaware that this problem has already been completely solved by Nokia with the N-Gage [amazon.com]. If you check the reviews you will find that it is " A great multi-function device that plays games too! [amazon.com]". So let's get with the times slashdot.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by phase_9 ( 909592 )
      Apart from the fact that Nokia aren't exactly renowned game makers... well, bar Snake [wikipedia.org] that is.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by techpawn ( 969834 )
      Exactly, (IMHO) the mobile game market is mostly quick pick up and put down games like bejewled and the like. Nintendo has pretty much been good with keeping game platforms as game platforms. Yes, overspecialization breeds slow death, but at some point we have to say "ya know I don't want my DS to make phone calls. I want a good game system and a good phone not a half ass of each"

      I like the ease of 1 device, like the iphone, but the N-Gage was proof that you can do it completely wrong.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by DECS ( 891519 )
        It's pretty comical that CNET was outraged that Apple--an electronic device designer that develops integrated software--would attempt to deliver a phone, while it thinks it is mission critical for Nintendo--which has only made game consoles--to deliver one.

        Perhaps the real business model in danger is that of CNET offering manufacturers advice. CNET doesn't seem to be doing very well at that at all.

        UnWired! Rick Farrow, Metasploit, and My iPhone Security Interview [roughlydrafted.com]
    • Feature-wise the original N-Gage gave an absurd amount of bang for the buck, but the games were missing and it competed against the GameBoy Advance that was half the price and had lots more games. I think adding a phone to a game system with the kind of game industry backup Nintendo has is far more likely to be successful than a phone maker attempting to make a phone into a GameBoy.

      An "entertainment" version of the Communicator [nokia.fi], with games, decent movie and mp3 playback, might be a better option for Nokia.
      • Excellent point. I've been wondering why a DS "cellphone cartridge" hasn't been made available yet. It would seem like the easiest and cheapest way to get this off the ground.

        Come to think of it, an intrepid hacker could probably pull this off with the right cellphone parts.

        • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

          by Constantine XVI ( 880691 )
          The Game Boy Color had a special link cable to hook up to your cellphone to play against other people in one of the Pokemon games (Crystal IIRC). It was pulled out in the US and EU releases, which Im guessing is for 1 of 2 possible reasons:
          1) The cell network in America and the EU didn't yet have the horsepower to sustain the speed they wanted (keep in mind Japan's WCDMA network was/is very advanced compared to the GPRS, CDMA, and TDMA of the time)
          2) It just wasn't very popular
    • That was my first thought at the suggestion of the DS as a phone. "Side-Talking 2.0!"

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by LWATCDR ( 28044 )
        I would say that a wired or bluetooth headset would be the way to go even for the iPhone.
  • ...and it's bigger than my watch.
  • they could stick wheels and an engine on it to make a car for gerbils. That would be as likely.
  • Nintendo don't do convergence they do gaming. If they can't even be bothered to get a DVD player for launch into the Wii then I don't see why they would want to converge phones and the gameboy. The only reason they would bring in a phone element is to add a gameplay element, and frankly I wouldn't want to speculate beyond that.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by aichpvee ( 631243 )
      You're making a mistake if you think that they couldn't get DVD playback on Wii in time for launch. The reason they pulled it is because Nintendo is made up of greedy bastards. They saw that demand for DVD playback would cause minimal blowback at the worst (has it caused any?) and it'd save them on the DVD licensing fees, not to mention actually developing the software or paying someone else to do it. So yes, Nintendo doesn't do convergence devices. But not because they can't, but because they won't. T

      • Re:No (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Torvaun ( 1040898 ) on Wednesday November 21, 2007 @11:43AM (#21436365)
        Yes, how dare they take profits into account when deciding how to design their products? If not putting a DVD player in will cause minimal blowback, then it clearly doesn't need to have a DVD player. How does maximizing profits by not including extraneous crap translate into greedy bastards in your head?

      • Re:No (Score:4, Insightful)

        by LWATCDR ( 28044 ) on Wednesday November 21, 2007 @12:21PM (#21436923) Homepage Journal
        And it really wasn't needed. Right now I have no less then three devices that can play DVDs hooked up to my TV. AA, PS2, a DVD changer, and an HD-DVD player I just got. If the Wii could play DVDs I think I would use as much as I use my PS2 to play DVDs.

        • If the Wii could play DVDs I think I would use as much as I use my PS2 to play DVDs.
          Really?! I doubt it. I have both and if my Wii played dvd's I'd use it in a second. The Wii has a great remote/controller and is slot load, while my ps2 is a fliptop (a la old school cd player) and the remote is optional (and it doesn't look as good on the coffee table).

          With the Wii you could have really cool control over movies via moving the remote, and pointing the controller would be a lot easier than the 4-way keypad

      • The Wii needs a DVD player about as much as my Microwave needs to have a clock.

        DVD players are cheap. This might have been an argument when the PS2 came out. It's not an argument anymore.
      • Just to give some feedback to the argument that Wii does not need to have a DVD player: I would have bought one if it had a pretty decent DVD player from start. I don't need all those power and resource sucking devices in my home. Now I've bought just a DVD player. And it is not just because of cost either: browsing through DVD menus and such might be pretty nice with the remote of the Wii. Hell, you could adjust volume by pressing the trigger button and rotating the remote. Storing the last point of play w

    • The only reason they would bring in a phone element is to add a gameplay element, and frankly I wouldn't want to speculate beyond that.
      But I could see it even if only as a side effect of extending the reach of Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. What has more bars in more places: EDGE [wikipedia.org] or Wi-Fi?

  • meh (Score:2, Informative)

    by ilovegeorgebush ( 923173 )
    Listen, Nintendo saw the N-Gage flump too...
  • FTA: "You only have to look at the DS to realise that it already has the potential to be a PDA. At the moment you can use your DS (via an extra cartridge) to listen to music and browse the Internet over Wi-Fi using an Opera-based browser. Would it be that much of a leap to turn it into a mobile phone?"

    But would the DS really be the best competitor for other PDA devices? When one looks at the already existing lineup of converged devices (Blackberries, Treos, nearly the entire lineup of HTC devices that are

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by geekoid ( 135745 )
      You make it an easy to use PDA, but sell it as a game device.
      So people playing games would intuitively start using it for other things. Capture the 12-17 audience and keep it going. When they are in there 20's you will own the market.
      You are right, it would be very difficult to muscle into the current entrenched users.

      • You make it an easy to use PDA, but sell it as a game device.
        Would it be subsidized or not subsidized? If you don't subsidize it, DS and PSP win on price. If you do subsidize it, you'll have to lock out hobbyist developers of freeware games or they'll "unfairly" compete with licensed game developers.

    • Flip phone? (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Comboman ( 895500 )
      Additionally, I'm not sure how many people would want to have to open the phone to dial.

      You mean like on the flip-phones that currently make up about 50% of the market?

      • Exactly... but what you do is you simply add voice dial so that calls can be made with the touch of a button... and stick bluetooth on it...

        Ian

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by p0tat03 ( 985078 )

      The DS is a long way from a PDA. For one thing, it has 4MB RAM and a 33MHz ARM CPU. I toyed with coding with the NDS a while back, and gave up simply because I didn't want to be watching every byte of memory usage, and optimizing my code to hell just to get responsive performance out of my apps. It's one of those platforms where, if you wanted to badly enough, you could make cool apps with it, but it's a long way from being an attractive development platform, which it must be if it's to make a name for itse

      • the only disadvantage being the lack of tactile feedback
        Yes, but some might consider that a very big "only" disadvantage. It was one of the things people seriously disliked about the Sinclair ZX81 [wikipedia.org], for example.

        I'm sure some enterprising people will work out techniques that improve the feedback/feel, but in the meantime don't dismiss it as a minor issue.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by tepples ( 727027 )
        Full disclosure: I have developed [pineight.com] for the NES, GBA, and DS.

        The DS is a long way from a PDA. For one thing, it has 4MB RAM and a 33MHz ARM CPU.

        Correction: a 67 MHz ARM9 CPU and a 33.5 MHz ARM7 IOP. (This 67 MHz is twice the clockspeed of the Dragonball in the Palm m-series, and ARM is more efficient per cycle than 68K anyway.) In addition to the 4 MiB main RAM, the DS also has 660 KiB of dedicated VRAM. And don't complain; the GBA was even more limited.

        but it's a long way from being an attractive development platform, which it must be if it's to make a name for itself as a PDA.

        The only thing unattractive about the DS as a development platform is Nintendo's recent attacks [slashdot.org] against importers of flash adapters to ru

  • Phone service (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Why doesn't somebody just find a way to better integrate phone service into a laptop(e.g. a USB or PCMCIA SIM adapter, etc.) I'd rather play real games (using a real screen).

    Otherwise it'd just be a toy, and those are best left to teenage Japanese girls.
    • You can get EVDO(Sprint/Verizon), HSDPA(AT&T), and EDGE(T-Mobile) PCMCIA cards from all the major providers, and I know Dell and Lenovo will sell laptops with these integrated

  • A little behind the times (Score:3, Informative)

    by Spad ( 470073 ) <slashdot@ s p a d . co.uk> on Wednesday November 21, 2007 @10:57AM (#21435727) Homepage
    The DS already has VoIP [gizmodo.com].
    • looks like that is only for hacked DS's :(

      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        by Krilomir ( 29904 )
        Actually, there is no need to hack a DS to run homebrew software on it. All you need is an unofficial flash card to boot the software from. The most popular device is the Revolution 4 / M3. It stores the software on a microSD card and fits right into the DS game slot.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Aladrin ( 926209 )
          While not a truly hardhack, it is still basically a mod chip and questionably legal since it helps skirt around the copy protection of the games.

          The M3 (at least the M3 Simply DS) doesn't boot like a regular game, but instead takes advantage of some aspect of the boot process to hijack the booting. Instead of making you press a button and showing the regular DS menu, it goes right to the ROM of the M3. This means it -is- still a hack as it alters the typical functioning of the device.

          • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

            by edwdig ( 47888 )
            The M3 (at least the M3 Simply DS) doesn't boot like a regular game, but instead takes advantage of some aspect of the boot process to hijack the booting. Instead of making you press a button and showing the regular DS menu, it goes right to the ROM of the M3. This means it -is- still a hack as it alters the typical functioning of the device.

            There's a flag in the DS ROM header that tells the DS to skip the normal boot sequence and boot directly into the game. I'm not sure if Nintendo has ever used it, but t

          • While not a truly hardhack, it is still basically a mod chip and questionably legal since it helps skirt around the copy protection of the games.
            If it bothers you, buy Datel's inexpensive "Games n' Music" card, which runs only homebrew and not commercial games. I've seen it for 20 USD at Wal-Mart next to Action Replay products.
      • You probably don't need to hack the DS, just get something like an R4 or M3 which allows homebrew. I really don't think you need to hardware hack the DS to do anything on it.
  • Of course they shouldn't make phones. They should make more Wiis so that I can get one for my wife who wants one for Xmas.

    Who has time to play games?
    • I've seen them all over the place. It's easy to get one here, but I'm in Ottawa Canada. That seems to be the biggest problem to me, is distribution. There's places where you can go buy 5 right now, no problem, and there's places where you can look for weeks and never find a single one. This is the problem that needs to be solved, not simply producing more units.

  • Of course, this would be a massive financial risk, and could potentially bring the company to its knees if the 'Nintenphone' didn't live up to expectations. Too many games companies have fallen by the wayside after ill-advised hardware development.
    As if Virtual Boy and Super Game Boy and weren't ill-advised hardware.
    • I wished the Super Game Boy would have continued for GB Color/Advance/etc... I had one for the original game boy and loved it. After a couple of hours I'd get a really jacked up neck from looking down at the GB, but had so many games (as they tended to be a little less expensive and we traveled a lot), it was awesome to play them on the regular TV. In fact a lot of the Super Game Boy "ready" games, colorized really nicely with the device, to where they were pretty close to NES games (still commonplace at th
      • I wished the Super Game Boy would have continued for GB Color/Advance/etc..

        I guess you're not aware of the Game Boy Player for GameCube [wikipedia.org], then?

        If we're talking about Nintendo's hardware failures, though, I think the Game Boy Color ought to make the list. It was pretty stingy of them to release a handheld in 1998 that was designed around a by-then-23-year-old Z80 CPU, with the same sound circuitry as the by-then-9-year-old original Game Boy, and graphics hardware capable of showing fewer than 64 colors simul

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by edwdig ( 47888 )
          I don't think you can call the GameBoy Color a failure. It probably had an extremely high return on investment for the development costs. They just did minimal tweaking to the existing GameBoy and got to resell it. And most GBC games also worked on the old GB, so you didn't fragment the market that much.

        • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

          by ersgameboy ( 571332 )
          So few? I'm pretty sure the GBC had several hundred games released for it in America alone. In addition, it + Pokemon finally made portable gaming respectable to the average gamer. Failure indeed.

        • It was pretty stingy of them to release a handheld in 1998 that was designed around a by-then-23-year-old Z80 CPU
          Most of Texas Instruments' graphing calculators are still based around a Z80 CPU core. Your point?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by edwdig ( 47888 )
      As if Virtual Boy and Super Game Boy and weren't ill-advised hardware.

      Virtual Boy certainly had its issues, but the Super Game Boy was a smart move. It was basically a stripped down version of the GB dev tools, released due to demand. It cost them very little to develop, so really had little downside to it.

  • The Code (Score:5, Funny)

    by busydoingnothing ( 794514 ) on Wednesday November 21, 2007 @11:06AM (#21435855) Homepage
    In order to call someone using Nintendo's new phone, you not only need their phone number, but you also need their unique 15 digit code. This will prevent random phone calls from child molesters and guys named [666]SatanCock420.
    • I would actually call that a feature. No more telemarketers!!!. In order for you to call me, I have to add you to my list. If I don't add you to my list, my phone doesn't work. Seems like a good idea to me.

  • Low battery... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by RavenMaster ( 1192119 ) on Wednesday November 21, 2007 @11:07AM (#21435869)
    Unfortunately the problem nowadays isnt the hardware nor the software, but the power supply of both mentioned above. It's a fact: Lion batteries are not anymore enough. Ppl who use their cell phone much know what I'm talking about. I've reached the point that I carry a 2nd battery in my pocket as if it were a spare clip for a gun... So imagine a phone that also plays games...

    • Re:Low battery... (Score:5, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 21, 2007 @11:26AM (#21436111)

      Lion batteries
      Rawr!

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by 4D6963 ( 933028 )

      So imagine a phone that also plays games...

      Wrong (well kind of). Nowadays they make SoC's more powerful than a PSP's with processes that make them efficient enough to be used in phones. What springs to mind is TI's OMAP 3 series. They're the most powerful SoCs out there, and they're low enough on power consumption to find their way into mobile phones. Considered how powerful these things are, you can play some pretty nice good stuff (SNES emus or Quake I) at a third of that normal clock, and therefore not

  • DS? on a phone? What about the micro? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by oneiros27 ( 46144 ) on Wednesday November 21, 2007 @11:11AM (#21435923) Homepage
    I can't see the DS being turned into a phone ... but the game boy micro's about the right size for a cell phone.
    You just gotta figure out where the keypad would go. (and it can't go outside of the d-pad or ab buttons, because that'd affect how you hold it when playing a game)
    If you made it thicker to add a slide-out keyboard, I could see it as a cell phone.
  • If the amount of regulation/hassle/bureaucratic red-tape associated with cellphones (read contracts / improper billing) disappears, then Nintendo might consider it.

    As a few other posters have pointed out, Nokia's N-GAGE was somewhat cool, but didn't last. Nintendo is under no pressure to release a device with hand-held gaming and cellphone features. It's not a race yet, so why should Nintendo run?

    That being said, Nintendo is company and has responsibility to be profitable for its shareholders. If a prospect

  • Wii phone (Score:5, Funny)

    by CaligarisDesk ( 1189113 ) on Wednesday November 21, 2007 @11:17AM (#21436007)
    Could you imagine what would happen if Nintendo put out a motion sensing phone. We'd have people walking around the street swinging that thing in the air, looking like they are going to seizure... And I thought it was creepy to see people talking to themselves via hands-free headsets.
    • And talk about broken wrist strap-induced projectile injuries [wiihaveaproblem.com]... instead of Wiimotes merely embedded in TV screens and walls, we'll have Wiiphones embedded in car windshields and the sides of buildings.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by mpe ( 36238 )
      Could you imagine what would happen if Nintendo put out a motion sensing phone. We'd have people walking around the street swinging that thing in the air, looking like they are going to seizure... And I thought it was creepy to see people talking to themselves via hands-free headsets.

      Maybe they could use the motion to power the device. Thus you'd see people saying "My battery's getting low" then suddenly start running.

  • Its not about Nintendo (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Kuj0317 ( 856656 ) on Wednesday November 21, 2007 @11:17AM (#21436009)
    The fact that X company should make a phone is indicitive of one thing: THE CURRENT SITUATION OF CELLPHONES (Esp. in the US) is MISERABLE. As technology evolves, we need progressive thinking companies (like Apple, Nintendo) to design better UI's for these devices, rather than backwards-thinking companies (Sony, Motorola) trying to leverage existing UI's onto new techology. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't (for both types of companies). Also, having an assertive company make the phone (like Apple) means that the carrier cannot modify the firmware so that the default option when I take a picture is to have a print sent to everybody I know at a cost of $4 per print. Even RIM has conceded in this field, disabling GPS for Verizon so Verizon can sell VZNavigator.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Kuj0317 ( 856656 )
      The fact that X company should make a phone headlines crop up is indicitive of one thing:

      THE CURRENT SITUATION OF CELLPHONES (Esp. in the US) is MISERABLE.

      As technology evolves, we need progressive thinking companies (like Apple, Nintendo) to design better UI's for these devices, rather than backwards-thinking companies (Sony, Motorola) trying to leverage existing UI's onto new techology.
      Sometimes this works (iphone, wii), sometimes it doesn't (NGage, Virtual Boy).

      Also, having an assertive company

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Khuffie ( 818093 )
      we need progressive thinking companies (like Apple, Nintendo) to design better UI's for these devices

      I would hardly call Nintendo good at designing UIs. The DS resets after an error connecting to WiFi (or something stupid like that), the Wii's download progress bar is a Mario running across the screen (giving barely any indication of progress), I could go on and on...

      Also, having an assertive company make the phone (like Apple) means that the carrier cannot modify the firmware so that the default opt

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by mpe ( 36238 )
      The fact that X company should make a phone is indicitive of one thing: THE CURRENT SITUATION OF CELLPHONES (Esp. in the US) is MISERABLE.

      But things like poor coverage cannot be addressed by the companies making handsets.

  • Cell phone gaming must get better? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by HalAtWork ( 926717 ) on Wednesday November 21, 2007 @11:23AM (#21436081)
    I don't understand why cell phone gaming has to get better. Look at a mobile phone, it's in no way comfortable to hold one of those to play games properly. Then look at a DS. What, are we going to bring back side talking? Nobody wants to play the next Mario with a number pad, and nobody wants to have to carry around a cell phone that's larger than necessary.

    Maybe if they don't just make a Nintendo Phone, but rather make a cartridge that you can slap in the DS to communicate with the cellular phone network and add bluetooth compatibility then THAT could be viable. At least if you get the DS Next, you can probably use the same cartridge and never have to worry about switching phones.

    But if you're asking people to adopt a gaming platform that they have to subscribe to a monthly service to use, I don't think they'll go for it. As for plugging a game controller into your cell phone, that's something else you have to carry around. Part of what makes video game systems attractive is that the media is removable, you can share games, sell used ones, or rent them. It's also important to collectors and hobbyists that it's something tangable in your hands, the game. Part of what makes a phone attractive is its simplicity, unless you're just throwing money away anyway, and then you're not the target market for this. Or are you? It seems like a waste of money anyway.
     
    Outside of Tetris, gaming + mobile phones probably shouldn't mix.
    • I guess I see why you wouldn't want to play games on a phone, but some people like it and do it. I have a 2gig SD card in my Treo 750wx with a ton of NES ROMs (All of games that I actually own, of course) and I play them with PocketNES or Morphgear. They look fantastic, they play at full speed with no hiccups, have full sound support, and by changing around the button bindings, they are actually very playable. I've beaten MegaMan 2 like five times on that thing, beaten Metroid, and run a good number of oth

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Aladrin ( 926209 )
      Adding a cartridge to the DS for TV works great because you don't want to watch TV all the time.

      Adding a cell cartridge to the DS doesn't work because you can't receive calls while you play games. Phones have to be a phone first and have the smarts to pause a game while you answer a call.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by mpe ( 36238 )
      Nobody wants to play the next Mario with a number pad, and nobody wants to have to carry around a cell phone that's larger than necessary.

      Actually there is a large potential market for phones with large buttons and/or large clear displays, which is not being well catered for. There is also a minimum size requirement dictated by the requirement for the microphone to be near someone's mouth at the same time as the speaker is near to their ear...

  • Won't happen (Score:4, Insightful)

    by rlp ( 11898 ) on Wednesday November 21, 2007 @11:33AM (#21436211)
    Nintendo views itself as a game company. They like to contrast themselves with their competitors that they are not making a home media system, a PC extension, they are about the games. And it's worked out very well for them. The only gaming unit consistently outselling the Wii is the DS. They've ramped Wii production from half a million per month to 1.8 million per month and still can't keep them in stock. Going into the highly competitive wireless phone market would be a distraction. I just can't see them doing that.

  • iPhone games (Score:3, Interesting)

    by papasui ( 567265 ) on Wednesday November 21, 2007 @11:38AM (#21436273) Homepage
    I bet we see some Nintendo iPhone games that take advantage of the accelerometer. Would fit right in with their current Wii control style trend.
  • The issue isn't with bad code, it's with game play on something the size of a cell phone. Yes, there are games you can play that are fun on that scale, but anything much more involved than Pacman is just an academic exercise. I've seen game ports to mobile devices, and while the porters do great jobs you're still dealing with a tiny screen and limited, awkward controls. Of course, I could be lacking imagination.
  • I understand that people enjoy having multifunctional devices, but at some point people are going to say, "Do I really need another phone, mp3 player, ect.?" If I already have an iphone, would I run off to replace it with a nintendo phone whose phone component I would never use? Adding components increases the price, and if I am not going to use the phone, then I am essentially paying more for nothing. The PS3 is a good example of the problems of combining expensive and extraneous blue ray hardware with

  • Pii? (Score:3)

    by night_flyer ( 453866 ) on Wednesday November 21, 2007 @11:55AM (#21436535) Homepage
    well someone had to say it!
  • They will... eventually. Right now cellular is just to expensive for data transfer or serious voice. When the cellular fee structures change Nintendo will be able to slide into the market. Remember when AOL, Prodigy, Compuserve, Netscape, changed their billing, for a wile it was 25 hours a month for $20 dollars then it become unlimited for $35. Eventually cellular will move to this type of billing then Nintendo can step in but right now, Google, Nintendo, and other cool companies who need a different cellul
  • Not that Nintendo has taken many chances lately, but if they were to design, say, a Dual Screen Phone...

    The DSP: a RAZResque flip-phone design featuring two 2.5"x4" multitouch sensitive screens on either side. The right hand screen, when held vertically, would also provide the keypad/controls for the cell phone aspect, while the top (left) would provide the traditional display. Other killer features would be a decent camera, motion control (vertical would make a good driving game, horizontally a rail shoo
    • There's already a phone like this for sale in Japan, the FOMA D800iDS:

      http://www.nttdocomo.co.jp/product/concept_model/d800ids/

      The 'DS' ostensibly stands for 'Direct & Smooth', not 'Dual Screen' or the like, but functionally it's got a main screen on the top and a touch screen on the bottom just like the Nintendo DS does.

      You can hand-write the characters in e-mail by drawing on the screen with a stylus pen:

      http://www.nttdocomo.co.jp/product/concept_model/d800ids/topics_02.html

      I've never used one myself,

  • Game Boy Micro (Score:2, Insightful)

    by ThirdPrize ( 938147 )
    on one side and a phone on the reverse. Now that would be neat.
  • I don't think it will bring back the N-Gage's side-talking feature.

    Instead, I think it will be modeled after the Wiimote: it won't have any buttons; to dial or compose messages, you draw the numbers/characters in the air. There will be an optional plug-in keypad attachment that you can use to dial.

    This phone would certainly be a revolution.

    - RG>

  • Now CNET is highlighting the Nintenphone once more, stating that it must be built if cell phone gaming is ever going to get better.


    Even if that's true, who cares? I mean, really, are many people concerned about the sad state of cell phone gaming?

  • as in the logical fallacy by that name. Here's CNet's basic argument: Mobile gaming will only get better if Nintendo makes a phone. Mobile gaming must get better. Therefore, Nintendo must make a phone. While the first predicate is debatable, the second is clearly contentious. Why should mobile gaming get better? Why is this necessary? To whom is this necessary?
  • I can't help feeling like the DS would make an awesome phone.

    Then your Nintendo Whoredom truly knows no bounds...

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