TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home

Opera Web browser cartridge to be sold for Nintendo games machine; e-books next?

By David Rothman

What if games machines, which many literacy boosters loathe as enemy hardware, could actually encourage reading?

The Nintendo DS is now running an Opera prototype, according to Orgs Tech Times (via Mike Cane).

Can e-books be next, via Opera or other software?

The DS sells for around $135, and a Web browser cartridge will hit Japanese stores July 24, retailing for about $33. The view on the browser is supposed to be spiffy and offer plenty of space for viewing Web pages.

Is the day coming when Wal-Mart will sell e-book-enabled versions of these babies for $49.95–with games sales keeping the price of the unit low? And how about the possibilities of a whole range of e-book-enabled games machines?

I know. People worry about computers being used for games playing rather than study. But with appropriate software, you could track and limit users’ Web surfing. The same concept, by the way, could work for hardware for the homeless, who could use the machines for keeping in touch with job programs and other social services. If you can drive the price of the technology down to $49.95, which will happen in time, it suddenly become much less risky to hand out hardware.

The other details would be the WiFi and Net connections. The Wikipedia offers some hope that this could eventually work with most public WiFi networks. And perhaps WiFi in housing projects and homeless shelters?

Now back to the the here and now–here are The Details on the Nintendo’s use of Opera:

Getting online with the Opera software was just as easy as it is with any Nintendo DS game. I simply turned the device on, touched the Opera software picture on the screen to start up the browser and before I knew it I was connected via the DS’ built in Wifi. Upon booting up the browser you are presented with a simple easy to follow guide if you choose, but it’s so simple to use I doubt most people will need it. The navigation is very simple in the browser, along the bottom of the screen you are presented with all the tools you need to perform searches, change the screen layout etc.

Graphically the browser is very eye pleasing. The look is very minimal to give you as much space to view web pages as possible. The little things that could not be without on the browser like the navigation buttons, the scroll bars and other necessities all fit in very well and enhance the overall experience.

When I started it up I was browsing in dual screen mode. Basically the page was fit to the width of the screen and the height spanned both screens. With an easy touch of the stylus you can switch into a “zoom” mode where you are presented with a picture of the web page on the top screen and on the bottom screen you can drag a box around to see in actual size what you need to view. You can also simply swap the screens so that you can type in text as needed where fields or check boxes etc. are presented.

Typing on the DS is a breeze. Basically when you need to go to an address, or you need to enter text in a field you simply tap where you are to enter text and you are presented with a keyboard on the touch screen where you can tap away whatever it may be that you need to spell out. The keyboard is large enough to give you plenty of space so you aren’t tripping over the other letters and mistyping. On the other hand the keyboard isn’t too large so as to block out all of your decadent online pleasures.

All right! Who knows, maybe the dual screens could display dual pages.

I’m hardly an expert on Ninetindo or other games hardware and would welcome e-book-related thoughts from people more knowledgeable.