Technabob » lite

Sweet and Sparkly Nintendo Ds Lite Case

Alisha K. — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 11:44:50 +0000

I think we can all agree that Hello Kitty is pretty cute. Hello Kitty floating on a fluffy confection of fake cream and glittery jewels… well, that’s something else altogether. Stunning, certainly. And the gleam might just put your eye out. Sometimes, cute can be risky.

At first glance, this seems to be from the uncomfortable-controls school of gaming accessories, but it looks like all the trim and flounce is limited to the top of the case, which means that for most games, only people unfortunate enough to be standing in front of you are at risk from gem-induced blindness. Playing a few DS games might get uncomfortable, though; anytime you’ve got to turn that bad boy sideways, your fingers are going to hate you.

But hey! The overall effect looks good; everything is carefully placed and affixed, and at first glance, this looks like a retail case–but it was all hand-decorated.

Solar Power Your Nintendo Ds

Alisha K. — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 13:27:36 +0000

The Nintendo DS Lite boasts pretty decent battery life when fully charged… but why charge it at all? Slap a few solar panels on that bad boy and stop worrying where you left your charger. Not sure how to accomplish such a feat? Well, thank goodness for all the people who write up how-tos just for the fun of it!

Solar-powered DS creator dark sponge has just put up a step-by-step guide to making the Nintendo handheld a little more green at Instructables. If you can manage a little soldering and wire-connecting, you too can have your own solar-powered DS, and if not, you can at least look at the instructions and pretend that, some day, you might learn how to do “all that crafty and mechanical stuff.”

The best part about the project is how good the end result looks. As dark sponge points out, the design of the DS makes it perfect for adding solar panels. Of course, when the DSi comes along, we’ll have to work around the built-in camera.

[Solar-Powered DS at Instructables]

Ds Bimoji Training Teaches Handwriting Technique

Technabob — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 11:35:37 +0000

The latest Nintendo DS game to hit the streets in Japan isn’t some exciting new Mario or Metroid game. Nope, it’s Bimoji Training — the game that teaches you how to draw calligraphic lettering (in Japanese, of course).

Also known as Beautiful Letter Training, the game trains you in the proper creation of Kanji and Kana characters. The coolest thing about the game is the included stylus, that looks like a traditional Japanese lettering brush.

With the game’s emphasis on taking tests and getting feedback from your virtual teacher, I’d have to say it looks more like education than entertainment. But with more and more personal development games like Brain Age, Flash Focus and Wii Fit, it’s really not that offbeat when compared to other stuff coming out of Nintendo these days.

Bimoji Training was just released on March 13, and can be ordered from game importer Play-Asia for $39. I just want it for the stylus.