Multi-touch DS patent? And DSOrganize software makes a PDA out of it?

We're certainly not lumping these together out of likeness, but the DS had some news going on this weekend: first, in the form of a patent that surfaced in the USPTO regarding DS multi-touch input, something becoming all the rage these days. Nice, nice, but before we start anticipating too much what the DS might one day do, we'd like to call attention to something it can do now: pretend to be a PDA. Makes perfect sense, though; you carry your DS around with you anyway, and by all accounts it probably has more screen real estate and horsepower than that aging Palm. So why not use DSOrganize, a new homebrew with a calendar app, day planner, vCard support, and (early) handwriting recognition? Because, c'mon here, let's get real, at least your DS has WiFi.

Read - DS multi-touch patent
Read - DSOrganize

[Anarchy03 @ Feb 27th 2006 6:47AM]

/ / /

If your not going to say anything constructive don't say anything at all. And before you call me a fanboy (which you obviously are) I have both systems and enjoy both of them for their merits.

[Shan @ Feb 27th 2006 6:53AM]

To the dummy at the top: Being that the DS has a touchscreen, it can be more PDA-like than the PSP ever could. If I didn't already have a Treo, I'd seriously consider this new DSorganize software.

[Gil @ Feb 27th 2006 7:01AM]

Woah

How much is a DS lite going for these days? This little device has just gone from invisible to a big blip on the radar

[Monkeyman @ Feb 27th 2006 7:39AM]

My Palm got wifi, and excelent handwriting recognition, and infrared (duh), oh and bluetooth. Guess I will stick with my Palm T|X for buisness and the DS for games.

[XGM @ Feb 27th 2006 8:11AM]

Woa didnt Mac patent something of the sort already ? And what about those tablet PC's they have about the same thing. Anyways i have a PDA too and like the one above said i use it for buisness. It has soo much more that the DS can never do in a matter of applications. If i want something to game, no consoles or DS's for me its PC all the way.

[Ben @ Feb 27th 2006 8:52AM]

Have fun typing out an email on your psp, The Father.

DSOrganize could be useful if it were easy to open and close, like the current setting menu for example.

[Synch42 @ Feb 27th 2006 9:25AM]

This is something I've been wanting ever since I got my DS. I will defiantly be checking this out.

[elpunko @ Feb 27th 2006 10:19AM]

well if nintendo is to put this patent to use, they would probably have to ad some sort of suer grease rotector. as touhcing the screen gets it all greasy. u might not ntice how greasy and messed up urtouchads get on computers but that is because you dont need to see trough them. in fact if i am not mistakne the ds manual discourages putting your fingers to the screen. i think this would be a coll adittion o the next ds but they would definetly have to work some things out (and ut th y and x buttons baq, lol)

[elwierdo @ Feb 27th 2006 11:42AM]

Being both a Nintendo DS fan and a Palm fan I want to make a correction. DS has two 256x192 screens for a grand total of 98,304 pixels. A good Palm has at least a 320x320 screen for 102,400 pixels and the bigger Palms have a bigger 320x480 screen for 153,600 pixels. For horsepower, DS probably wins due to its dedicated gfx/audio hardware.

Multi-touch would be great for a 3 Stooges game where you try to do a 2 finger poke at someones eyes.

[Zack @ Feb 27th 2006 5:43PM]

This was first filed for in July 2004..

[Matt @ Feb 28th 2006 9:09AM]

Damn, I was gonna make a multi touch homebrew demo...I guess i still will, it should be easy.

[Mecha: INSULIN 2 @ Mar 1st 2006 10:51PM]

Matt, it won't work: the XY position is returned in a register by an internal function of the hardware. This function will calculate the median point of all the clicked zone so theorically, if you click on the far left and at the same time, at the far right, the calculated touched zone will be at the center of the screen.