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The Nintendo DS Browser is a browser for the Nintendo DS and Nintendo DS Lite, powered by Opera, released on July 24, 2006 in Japan, with it later releasing on October 6, 2006 in Europe, January 18, 2007 in Australia, and June 4, 2007 in North America. After the release of the Nintendo DSi Browser on the Nintendo DSi Shop on the launch day of the Nintendo DSi, this browser was made obsolete.
Overview
The Nintendo DS Browser is powered by Opera and due to the Nintendo DS' limited amount of ram, it requires the Nintendo DS Memory Expansion Pak, which every copy of the browser comes with. Once inserting both into the DS and booting up the browser, the user is required to either connect to a WEP connection, an open connection, or the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection Adapter via a Windows XP or a Windows Vista PC, since the Nintendo DS does not support WPA connections. After connecting, the user is able to browse any website they wish, as long as it is still supported in the browser, since most websites nowadays do not work in the browser.
Features
Controls
The Nintendo DS Browser makes use of the Nintendo DS's touchscreen for input, with an on-screen keyboard as well as handwriting recognition and a stock of pre-set text (for example, the .com and .org top-level domains).
Page viewing modes
The Nintendo DS Browser can render pages in two modes, Small Screen Rendering (SSR) or Overview. In Small Screen Rendering mode, the contents of the page are displayed in a single column fitting the width of the screen - for example, a page featuring two columns of text side-by-side would be displayed as a single column, one after the other. In Overview mode, a scaled-down version of the page is displayed on the touchscreen with a small selection box which can be moved around using the stylus. The contents of the selection box are displayed on the top screen at their full size. This selection can be brought into the touchscreen to perform such actions as click on links or entering text in boxes. The Nintendo DS browser supports JavaScript and SSL in web pages, but does not support plugins like Adobe Flash, or bold text. Due to limited system resources, most other dynamic media, such as videos or sound, will not work in the browser.
Parental controls
Nintendo has partnered with Internet security company Astaro to integrate web filtering technology into the Nintendo DS Browser. Called Astaro Parental Control, the technology acts as a proxy filter, providing the option of blocking inappropriate content. This is provided free of charge and can be activated through a simple menu option.
Search engines
The Nintendo DS Browser defaults to Yahoo! (currently powered by Bing) as its search engine, except the Japanese version, where Yahoo! Japan (currently powered by Google) is the default instead, but can be configured to any supported search engine by editing the URL in the browser settings.
Trivia
- The Nintendo DS Browser cannot be used without the Nintendo DS Memory Expansion Pak, making the browser useless on the Nintendo DSi, its bigger variant, and all models of the Nintendo 3DS, since they all lack Slot-2 for Game Boy Advance games, which is where the Memory Expansion Pak goes on the original Nintendo DS and Nintendo DS Lite.