Twitter comes to Nintendo's DS, difficulty in tow

There's no two ways about it -- getting Twitter functionality on your Nintendo DS is pretty difficult. In all seriousness, you should probably remain content with sending tweets from your handset and / or computer, but those who just can't turn a blind eye to a hack won't be able to look beyond this one. For starters, the Twitter for DS application is based entirely in Spanish, so unless you're halfway fluent in the language (or are just really good at deciphering Google's translations), you'll likely be baffled. Still, a great reward awaits you if you're able to pull it off -- sending a message to all your devout followers that you just tweeted from a DS.

[Via PMPToday]

[PM1 @ Sep 2nd 2008 3:30AM]

Umm...there is something seriously wrong with an individual if they are THAT addicted to Twitter...

[Wiigee @ Sep 2nd 2008 4:32AM]

agreed......but its still cool.

[Michael Flanagan @ Sep 2nd 2008 8:42AM]

Oi! There's nothing wrong with me :(

[Demios @ Sep 2nd 2008 9:39AM]

It is a novel idea. Tweeting is a nice way to give constant updates about your day or whatever, all day, without having to call or email all your friends. That said, most people that code ds homebrew do it as a hobby.He simply found something no one had done yet, and did it.

[MastrCake @ Sep 2nd 2008 4:16AM]

Here's their main problem (and probably the main reason it isn't writen in Englsih). Twitter can be used with a cell phone. It's that easy. How many people would break out their DS, put in the card, turn it on, tap the screen to start... you get the general idea, right?

Really, it is (normally) as easy as sending a text message to Twitter, and your tweets show up on the internet. After all, if you use twitter regularly, chances are you are very socially accepted (unlike some of us, but we're still cooler) and have your cell phone out almost 24/7 for texting.

[Wiigee @ Sep 2nd 2008 4:31AM]

Id go all in saying that the main reason its not written in English and in Spanish instead is that developer speaks Spanish......... just a wild guess....

[karl @ Sep 2nd 2008 6:19AM]

or maybe you could just use the opera browser on the ds?

[Karl Hackswell @ Sep 2nd 2008 9:06AM]

What the hell is Twitter?

[MastrCake @ Sep 2nd 2008 9:17AM]

I dunno, but apparently Obama uses it :P

[Wwhat @ Sep 2nd 2008 12:10PM]

It's a company that's going to be sued by the former east german government members for stealing their ideas.

It's a short message service for telling what inane stuff you are doing at the moment which then your family/friends/stalkers can subscribe to to keep track of you in a sickly non-social fashion because instead of meeting people and asking 'sup' you can avoid them altogether,

[Nightstat @ Sep 2nd 2008 10:32AM]

Been using it from 1.1. No. It does come in English version. Seems solid. Has a keyboard that works compared to a phone's keypad.

The Opera browser is a joke on the DS.

[CaptSaltyJack @ Sep 2nd 2008 11:50AM]

Whatever. I'm still bitter about the DS not supporting WPA. Get with the f'ing times, Nintendo.

[Wwhat @ Sep 2nd 2008 12:35PM]

Well you can argue that protection is not needed on a device with nothing to protect, and it adds extra processing which reduces batterylife, but the issue is how to connect to a protected system then, so what's needed is routers that can open a separate channel for non-protected streams, preferably with bandwidthlimter, while at the same time having a main protected channel for secure devices.
So with the cheapness of transmitting modules why doesn't a router manufacturer make such a box? Do I have to invent EVERYTHING already? Geez.

[CaptSaltyJack @ Sep 2nd 2008 4:58PM]

Dude, it's not an issue of security. It's the issue that most routers (as long as the owner has any sense) have WPA turned on. I'm not about to disable WPA or downgrade to WEP on my whole LAN just so my DS can play games online. And the worthless DS wi-fi USB adapter doesn't work on Mac.

Ultra, ultra lame. Nintendo had every opportunity to implement WPA with the DS Lite.

[dan diemer @ Sep 2nd 2008 1:53PM]

That's not entirly correct. It is actually very easy to get running if you have an R4 cart, and it does (the current version) have native english. I'm looking at an "Options" button and "Send Twit!" button right now.

[BigD145 @ Sep 2nd 2008 2:10PM]

This is no surprise as a huge number of homebrew applications for the DS are in Spanish, Italian, or French.

[petrov @ Sep 2nd 2008 2:49PM]

when is this twitter fad gonna end. the only people who use it are technology journalists (such as this site) and the older generation who think they are being technologically savey. for everyone else, facebook does the same thing. oh and just being content without receiving "tweets" like "im in line at the grocery store!" or "i just took a subway to my house!". what a p.o.s.

[whiskey @ Sep 2nd 2008 4:15PM]

Or... you could, you know, ask politely your pals at Engadget Spanish (Spain?) to get in touch with the developer and offer him to translate it to English?