D800iDS
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NTT DoCoMo's D800iDS takes a note from Nintendo's DS
While an opaque white clamshell doesn't really demand much special attention these days, opening it up only to discover two LCD screens is most certainly something to write home about, and considering that one of them accepts touch / stylus inputs, the correlation here simply can't be ignored. In what appears to be a spinoff of Nintendo's dual-screened approach on the DS / DS Lite handhelds, NTT DoCoMo's D800iDS handset sports twin internal displays, "one of which is a touch-sensitive screen that lets you input data via a stylus instead of a conventional keypad." Interestingly, the phone's name is even flanked by a "DS" moniker, but the carrier insists that it stands for "direct and smooth" (saywha?) and doesn't have "any relation whatsoever to any Nintendo product." While we won't readily believe that the engineers on this one have been oblivious to the DS all this time, it does manage to recognize handwritten input and sport a 1.3-megapixel camera (and probably some form of kid-tracking kit) as well. There's no word on pricing just yet, but it should launch exclusively in DS fanboy territory Japan next month.
DS phone, not by Nintendo
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/gaming_news/DS_phone_not_by_Nintendo'; Imitation is the best form of flattery: Japanese mobile phone operator NTT DoCoMo has unveiled the Mitsubishi-built D800iDS, yes, a dual-screened celly that features a touch screen in place of a keypad. The D800i will even include a PictoChat-like utility, allowing users to exchange hand-written messages and crude drawings. As pictured, games will also be a key component of the new phone, which will debut in white, just as DS Lite did.DS Lite has owned Japanese sales charts since its launch (the thing prints money, really). But can Nintendo's success be so easily duplicated in the mobile phone market?
