Nintendo to deploy "Nintendo Spot" -- the Wi-Fi hotspot for DS users.

From an article: "Nintendo to launch the information delivery service to Nintendo DS"

Nintendo announced that the company, along with McDonalds Japan and NTT group, would begin the information delivery service to its "DS", an experiment utilizing Wi-Fi network on May 27.

I once wrote an entry, "iPhone makes wireless LAN revolution," and now comes Nintendo DS -- the service wirelessly deliver contents to the popular gaming handset.

The company plans to continue the trial on 21 McDonalds located in the Tokyo metropolitan area till the end of June. Also the experiment will be continued by December 28th inside the Tsukuba Express trains and all stations along the line.

DS users are required to download a dedicated software to use the wireless access. Once the software is up and runing, you can check train transferring guide, news, info about products and marketing campaigns etc. The service would be provided for free.

With this wireless service, an ordinaly Nintendo DS turns to be an information terminal.

The editor of Impress BB Watch already wrote an article depicting the first impresson of the usage.

Connection speed is rather slow when you access to web pages -- it takes 5 to10 seconds to display a new page. Therefore, it seems much more suitable to use it in between of doing something, just for killing time, rather than try to use it to enjoy the contents to max. Also, inside of the Tsukuba Express, Nintendo Spot works even the train is moving, so one can use it, for example, to check new, while going to/coming back from work.

It seems to be good for time-killing purposes, and I am looking forward to seeing what kind of contents will going to be added.

Translated by Hayashi
(original post on May 27, 2008)