You might remember a week or so back when a flood of information cascaded across the Internet about Nintendo's upcoming new handheld gaming platform, the 3DS. You read it, you thought about it, you probably commented on it, and now you've moved on to acquainting yourself with Sony's NPG. Right? Well hold up: there's more to be learned about the 3DS and its features, as Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata revealed during a recent investors briefing.
Specifically, Iwata detailed how some of the device's built-in software will function, as reported by Andria Sang. That software includes: Game Memo, Friend List, Notification Applet and Internet Browser. Iwata didn't have anything to say about the web browser, other than that it will be added in a May firmware update, but he delved into serious detail on the rest.
Game Memo seems particularly cool. It is essentially an in-game notepad; you call it up while a game is being played and jot notes down on the handheld's bottom screen while the game remains up top. The memo can then be saved to an SD card as an image. If the usefulness of such an application isn't immediately obvious to you then your gaming diet does not include enough adventure games.
Play basically anything from the Telltale Games catalog, for example, without a notepad handy and you're likely to be lost on some of the more challenging, reference-heavy puzzles. Game Memo lets you record notes directly into the 3DS, which is where you'd want them anyway. When it is open you can even have the top screen handle the load of displaying both the top and bottom displays while you take your notes down.
Friend List is pretty self-explanatory, and should be familiar to anyone who makes use of the community features available on Xbox Live and/or PlayStation Network. The function is the same: you get a list of any of your friends who happen to be Internet-connected and playing at that moment. The 3DS will even let you know when someone signs on, signaled when the device's notification light flashes orange. For those who prefer to ghost, privacy features offer the option of not appearing on people's Friend Lists.
The Notification Applet is designed to work with Spot Pass and Street Pass, which are wifi-centric features that allow the 3DS to automatically find and download updates, news, information on friends' games and the like. It all happens automatically while the 3DS is in sleep mode. The Notification Applet can then be accessed to view what you've gotten that's new. Pretty simple, really.