Opera DS Browser Interview

[Kaspian]

The Armchair Empire (http://www.armchairempire.com/) has posted an interview (http://www.armchairempire.com/Interviews/opera-nintendo-ds-browser.htm) with Opera's Executive VP of Devices, Scott Hedrick, discussing the company's new browser slated for the Nintendo DS.

Who approached whom to create this software? Did Nintendo approach your company, or did Opera pitch it to Nintendo?

Nintendo came to Opera and requested that Opera work with them to port and optimize our browser for the DS.

[copasetic]

Good to see nintendo having their priorities in line.

[Neosho]

Sweet...opera based browser on DS? SOLD.

[thecrazyd]

Good to see nintendo having their priorities in line.
Silly me. I thought focussing on having awesome games was their top priority, as it should be. This will be a neat little extra, however.

[Harlan Hoyt]

I know it's wishful thinking, but wouldn't it be cool if Nintendo would include this browser as a firmware update for the DS Lite? I would like to be able to hop online without taking out whatever card I have in. Also: please allow me to leave the options screen without turning the damn thing off.

[Worldcrafter]

I do enjoy the 'games first, fun extras later' mentality Nintendo has.

[ChaosDent]

To be fair thecrazyd, there is no shortage of awesome games on the DS platform from both Nintendo and third parties. "Having their priorities in line," I take to mean seeing the potential for the system and finding a first class technology partner to implement it right. They did this with the Play-Yan for GBA too.

[Nite_Moogle]

Whatever happened to the productivity tools for the DS? I want an excuse to carry it around at work, dammit!

[Bone]

Yep, gimme my PDA software and include support for a writable GBA cart, so we can swap out media while keeping the main software in place!!

[cppcrusader]

Whatever happened to the productivity tools for the DS? I want an excuse to carry it around at work, dammit!

I've been waiting for that as well. They were supposed to make an announcement about them at last E3 but didn't. Maybe we'll get lucky and they'll add them to the Opera card.

[copasetic]

Silly me. I thought focussing on having awesome games was their top priority, as it should be. This will be a neat little extra, however.
Yes, silly you. When I say priorities, it means there is more than one. Plural. Look it up. I dont remember saying what their top priority was. Where did that come from?
And I do think it is good that nintendo is improving the DS outside of the game lineup, which is, of course, already very solid.

[Royal Fool]

I bet Reggie walked into their offices and threatened to take down their names.

[Entropy Effect]

I know it's wishful thinking, but wouldn't it be cool if Nintendo would include this browser as a firmware update for the DS Lite? I would like to be able to hop online without taking out whatever card I have in. Also: please allow me to leave the options screen without turning the damn thing off.

Amen, the current DS firmware is severely lacking.

[ChaosDent]

A total web browsing solution is probably out of the question for any DS firmware, even pairing it down to the fewest possible features, Opera can take up to 1 MB of space. Don't forget that the DS is limited to 4MB of physical ram, and the Opera cart is apparantly a two part solution with the softare on a DS card and a RAM expansion on a GBA cart.

[Pumped'Up]

Is EvAv attempting to be the greatest new hardcore Nintendo fansite?

This news item has been posted exceedingly far too many times in 2 days.

very disappointing to see EvAv prominently becoming an unbiased gaming news site.

Edit: removed "EvAv selling out" as it is a prejudgement...perhaps it isn't!?

[Groo]

Is EvAv attempting to be the greatest new hardcore Nintendo fansite?

This news item has been posted exceedingly far too many times in 2 days.

very disappointing to see EvAv prominently becoming an unbiased gaming news site.

Edit: removed "EvAv selling out" as it is a prejudgement...perhaps it isn't!?

But Nintendo is the BEST!!11!!111 :rolleyes:

[YoungAlCapone]

Good to see nintendo having their priorities in line.


Silly me. I thought focussing on having awesome games was their top priority, as it should be. This will be a neat little extra, however.

Contracting somebody else, with experience, to develop thier browser seems like an indication of having thier priorites in line. Rather than try to make one themselves and take away from internal development resources, they have hired an experienced external contractor to make it for them.

[Metal Jesus]

The PSP browser runs out of memory often on pages with lots of images and flashy content. I would think this would be even worse on the DS. If so, it would make it almost useless.

Still, it's a great idea and I look forward to seeing it in action.

[bboy]

OperaDS = get!

[Kamalot]

Opera DS even runs Flash.

StrongBad on the DS?

[copasetic]

The PSP browser runs out of memory often on pages with lots of images and flashy content. I would think this would be even worse on the DS. If so, it would make it almost useless.

Still, it's a great idea and I look forward to seeing it in action.

Im thinking maybe Opera could use its own ds cart for memory. It seems like it would make sense. speculation though

[ChaosDent]

No speculation, the Opera software comes on a DS card and includes a GBA cart RAM expansion. The RAM cart has two models designed to fit flush with either the old DS or the Lite model. I'm sure the RAM expansion is generic enough that it might be used as a standard upgrade like the N64 RAM expansion later on, though Nintendo hasn't confirmed that any games are currently being developed for it.

[copasetic]

No speculation, the Opera software comes on a DS card and includes a GBA cart RAM expansion. The RAM cart has two models designed to fit flush with either the old DS or the Lite model. I'm sure the RAM expansion is generic enough that it might be used as a standard upgrade like the N64 RAM expansion later on, though Nintendo hasn't confirmed that any games are currently being developed for it.
The world makes sense!
thanks and hurray

[ChaosDent]

The world makes sense!
thanks and hurray

Yes, the news of this RAM expansion has justified the decision to keep the GBA port on the DS-Lite. It should provide an inexpensive yet noticeable graphical boost for games in about a year or so, right about the time new GBA releases dry up for good.

[TKO]

I know it's wishful thinking, but wouldn't it be cool if Nintendo would include this browser as a firmware update for the DS Lite? I would like to be able to hop online without taking out whatever card I have in. Also: please allow me to leave the options screen without turning the damn thing off.
Yup, agreed that it would be cool. But I don't think they could make the whole browser package small enough to fit the memory available for firmware. Besides which, having a good bit of cache memory (preferably non-volatile) will help the browsing experience a lot ..hopefully the cart has this too?

I'll be real interested to see how this turns out. If it had a slot for an SD-card to plug into the Opera cart (is that possible? how big are DS carts?) for downloading to, and for writing html code too? (nice simple html editor?) ..okay, now I'm just dreaming. :D

Edit: Oops, I go and have a meal and now I'm way behind on the discussion: A RAM pack in the GBA slot? W00t! Overall this just sounds brilliant. I wonder if the DS version of Opera would include the e-mail client. Wouldn't that rock? ..and that HTML-coding application ..and telnet ..and (ok, I'll shut up now.) :D

[alienchild]

Is EvAv attempting to be the greatest new hardcore Nintendo fansite?

This news item has been posted exceedingly far too many times in 2 days.

very disappointing to see EvAv prominently becoming an unbiased gaming news site.

Edit: removed "EvAv selling out" as it is a prejudgement...perhaps it isn't!?

actually, this place used to be more anti-Nintendo than any other gaming site Ive been visiting, and afaik it wasnt until Nintendo and third-party publishers started pushing out AAA titles and hardware that shit changed around here. It isnt because some 15-year olds jump in to the forum and start praising Nintendo all of a sudden, for no appearant reason. Nintendo earned it.