Mobile Productivity the Mario Way

Filed under: Productivity, Mobile Minute

Mobile Productivity the Mario Way - With A Nintendo DS!

by Lee Mathews Aug 29th 2008

With a toddler and a 6 hour drive to the nearest major center to consider, purchasing an iPod touch wasn't really one of my options. However, because my little guy loves Mario it was easy for me to justify buying a shared Nintendo DS for "the family."

Now - thanks to an ambitious homebrew community - my favorite gaming addiction has become an incredibly useful productivity tool. With a $35 transflash adapter and a $40 4gb SDHC card you'll be amazed at what you can do with your DS.

What can you do with it?

Twitter - Yes, the first stop on our list is everyone's favorite (and simultaneously most hated) microblog. Still, it's everywhere, and that now includes your DS. The developer of DSTwitter is Spanish, so at least a cursory knowledge of the language is helpful. It's easy enough to get set up and it works very well.
Get Organized - There's a touchpad. There's just as much screen area as most PocketPC and Palm devices. Why can't the DS be a PIM, too? DragonMinded's DSOrganize is an incredible suite, combining a calendar, address book, to-do list, scratch pad, calculator, file browser and reader, media player, audio recorder, IRC client, and web browser. I've only really ever used basic functions in apps like this, but DSOrganize works just as well for me as anything on my PocketPC did.

Chat - AIM users can stay in touch with their buddies using DSAim. It's not the prettiest interface, but it gets the job done. MSN devotees will have to be patient, as the BeUp client is currently out of comission.
Read POP Email and RSS - What device would be truly useful without access to your feeds or GMail inbox? NDS Mail has you covered, and supports SSL connections to help keep your data secure. Attachment saving support is in the works, which should mesh nicely with DSOragnize when implemented.
Remote Control Your PC - No, tiny screens aren't ideal for VNC use, but they'll work in a pinch and DSVNC will give you wireless command over your desktop.
Check the Weather - It's hard to be fully productive on the go if you don't even know the weather forecast. Fire up DS Weather Report, and you're good to go.
Read eBooks - I suppose you may go blind in the process, but I suppose it's no worse than my pocket copies of The Art of War and Tao Te Ching. Check out DSReader here, as I've yet to find an "official" homepage.
Run Linux - Knowing what can be done with minimalist Linux distros, why not get one working on your DS? DSLinux is a great project, and the list of available applications is impressive - the presence of the TinTin++ mud client creally caught my eye.
Enjoy Your Media - Moonshell is one of the most popular DS homebrew apps, and with good reason. It'll play back MP3 and OGG files and display images. It can play video as well, though only in DPG format, so check the tutorial on Mininova's forums.
Pretend to be an iPod - Maybe Moonshell just doesn't do it for you. Maybe you just like the way the iPod looks. Whatever your reasons, LMP-ng crams a virtual iPod - complete with wheel - into your DS.

Keep in mind that all of this software is homebrew, so it might be buggy at times. Sometimes it might not work at all, but when it does you can really see the DS's full potential.

Tags: anti-iphone, nintendo-ds

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Asok said 3:15PM on 8-29-2008

Not to mention the fact that the DS has some of the best Homebrew games around. They've ported Quake, Doom, Heretic, and Duke Nukem 3D (and maybe other id shooters) and they all work quite well, usually better if you combine a Slot-2 card with them. (If you have the Opera browser for DS, that helps, too.) There's also great roguelikes such as POWDER and Nethack. Warcraft: Tower Defense is good fun, just don't play it when you're in a hurry...it's not going to keep you in a hurry. They've also got a great RTS on the system with A Touch Of War. Finally, they've ported dozens of emulators to the system, but the best ones are nesDS and Lameboy for NES and Gameboy Color emulation. Obviously, I'm a beaming DS homebrew fanatic, but when you've tried all these, it's not hard to see why. And there's much, much more out there, too! DS Fanboy keeps up with it better than I do, but I'm glad to see Download Squad is opening eyes to it as well.

bloodvayne said 10:43PM on 8-29-2008

You forgot #11 : Colors DS. A great little painting program (uses the stylus) that puts even tablet PCs to shame. I use it all the time as a mobile sketch book.

javadog said 2:51AM on 8-30-2008

BUT... the fact that the DS only support WEP protection and not WPA would keep me from using it for any serious online activity. I've got a DS, but never use the Online capabilities from home because all of my WiFi routers require WPA. I think the only way around that is to use the WiFi USB dongle attached to a PC internally and have it route your traffic outside to the InterTubes.

Bryan Nystrom said 2:57AM on 8-30-2008

Big sticking issue for me though is the lack of WPA on their WiFi stack. You are stuck with using WEP, and I refuse to even consider enabling WEP on my WiFi routers. I guess the alternative is the Nintendo WiFi USB dongle. I am intrigued by the transflash adapter and homebrew capabilities otherwise.

iofthestorm said 8:37AM on 8-31-2008

With DD-WRT on a hackable router, you can set up a second virtual WLAN with WEP in addition to your main one with WPA, and then your DS is isolated from the rest of the machines on your network since it's virtually on a separate network. That way, if someone does crack your WEP key they won't have access to the machines on your network, just your DS, which can't exactly be hacked anyway. I bet you could probably even set up that second network to only allow one device to access it and make it your DS, although I haven't actually tried it.

Bryan Nystrom said 2:56AM on 8-30-2008

Bryan Nystrom said 3:00AM on 8-30-2008

(SORRY about the multiple posts.... Damn auto-fill password thingy)

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