New Design Mooted for Nintendo's Clunky DS

Famitsu reports earlier today stirred rumours of a redesigned DS console hitting the shelves of Tokyo's Akihabara gaming district as early as Spring 2006. A report in the latest edition of the Japanese magazine has revealed that some new but unspecified Nintendo hardware will appear. Famitsu clarifies that it won't be a next-gen system, but instead a revision of an existing machine and retailers are strongly hinting at a redesigned DS, possibly with improved functionality. SPOnG thinks it’s a fair bet that it will be an aesthetically upgraded, less clunky-looking DS.

In other words, we may soon see the Nintendo DS SP. SPOnG is of the opinion that a more compact and stylish looking DS cannot come soon enough. Mainly because we’ve ripped most of our trouser pockets trying to wedge the cumbersome current model into them. (Cue all those obvious jokes – is that a DS in your pocket or are you just glad to see me? Etc.)

Outside of the Nintendo Rumour Mill and in other actually really, definitely happening news, Wi-Fi provider and official Nintendo partner The Cloud is planning to roll out city-wide Wi-Fi services across the UK this spring, installing hundreds of wireless broadband hotspots across Edinburgh, Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham, Nottingham, Oxford, Cambridge and three London boroughs, Islington, Kensington and Camden.

Each installation will consist of hundreds of 'hotzones' rolled out across each city, promising virtually blanket coverage in the above areas and giving access to the Internet for anyone using a Wi-Fi enabled Nintendo DS, computer or mobile phone.

"Providing ubiquitous wireless broadband access over a network available to millions of Wi-Fi devices, and to the new generation of Wi-Fi phones, gaming devices and other applications, will have a major impact on the way people communicate, work and play in city centres," said George Polk, chief executive at The Cloud.

The company is claiming that four million people will have daily access to a city-wide service by the end of 2006. Perhaps as a stealth marketing exercise by Nintendo, these four million people could be given free trial DS consoles with copies of Mario Kart, which should pretty much ensure that they will all be hooked on Nintendo handheld Wi-Fi gaming for the rest of their lives.