The Tech Futurologist

Nintendo 3DS: The Details

Nintendo Japan has announced that they will present the newest portable console, the Nintendo 3DS, in June. The new handheld will offer 3D viewing without glasses. Here's all the information we have gathered so far:

• With the announcement slated for E3 in June, Nintendo's shooting a bit early in their Japanese press release by saying it will go on sale sometime between April 2010 - March 2011.

• You won't need to wear 3D glasses to enjoy the 3D effects. This may work likeRittai Kakushi e Attakoreda, the Nintendo DSi game that uses the frontal camera to track the viewer eyes. By tracking the user's eyes—a trick first shown by Johnny Chung Lee's Wii hack—the machine can alter the perspective in the game to make it look as if the player is looking into a 3D virtual space.

• It's unclear if this would be the only 3D element in the console.

• Backwards compatibility will be incorporated for DS and DSi games support.

• It may have an accelerometer for tilt-controls with motion-led gaming, just like the iPhone/iPod Touch.

• The screen might be higher-res than anything we've seen from Nintendo before, maybe reaching 720p—and measuring around the same size as the DS.

• It'll have two screens just like previous portables, but they'll be used in conjunction as one giant screen, according to RPAD.tv, who convinced developers to talk to them at GDC.

• A Tegra chip could be powering it.

• Nintendo might put a 3G sim in, for over-the-air downloads.

• Those over-the-air downloads might include ebooks, something already seen on the DSi XL.

UPDATE

• It'll include two cameras (one backwards-facing, one forward-facing), just like the DSi—for DSi backwards compatibility support.

• The Japanese publication Asahi is claiming it'll use one of Sharp's parallax barrier LCDs.

• 3D control sticks may help with gaming, if Nikkei's report is correct, and the 3DS itself could vibrate like an old Rumble Pak.