Nintendo to introduce web browser for DS

Following on the heels of Sony's introduction of a web browser for the PlayStation Portable in the middle of last year, Nintendo has announced that the Opera browser will be made available for the DS handheld in the coming months.

Unlike the PSP browser, which was distributed for free as part of an update to the system software in the machine, the DS browser will be sold like a game cartridge, it was announced in a presentation in Tokyo yesterday.

The browser will fully support the features of the system including the dual-screen layout and the touch-screen input method, and will allow users to browse the web from any wireless network - although whether web browsing on the system will be free at locations which have Wi-Fi Connection hotspots remains to be seen.

The Opera browser is also available on a range of other PC and mobile platforms, but this is the first time that it will have been ported to a videogame console. Information about the availability of the browser has yet to be announced.

This isn't the first piece of non-games software to be announced by Nintendo for the DS; at the start of this year, the company revealed that a range of travel phrasebooks for the console are in the works.

The announcement of the browser was made at a special event in Tokyo which was mostly designed to introduce the forthcoming DS Lite console to the Japanese press, but which also served as a forum for a number of new product announcements. Along with the browser, Nintendo also revealed plans to launch a digital TV receiver for the DS in Japan, which will plug into the standard game port and will receive terrestrial digital signals used by Japanese broadcasts.