Nintendo 3DS might update itself over WiFi, still won't cook you breakfast
Careful, gamers on the go: your next handheld might be a hotspot hunter. Along with the "tag mode" Nintendo revealed earlier this week, where the 3DS can seek out other similarly depth-endowed handhelds and exchange information automatically, comes a system called SpotPass, which enables connecting to any open hotspots -- even while sleeping like a baby. The purpose was ostensibly for passive downloading of game content and the like but, according to Nintendo prez Satoru Iwata, the company is pondering lumping automatic firmware updates into the mix. This would mean the 3DS would re-flash itself even while in suspended animation, in theory keeping software pirates and firmware buccaneers on their toes. As serious gamers who only purchase legal software (twice, just to be safe) this seems like a reasonable enough thing to do -- assuming we don't get any bogus firmware sneaking onto our $300 handhelds.
