Wednesday, June 06, 2007

Flash and Javascript Support on Nintendo DS Browser

The Nintendo DS Browser is now officially available for U.S. consumers, and many are wondering if it will support JavaScript and Flash (the components that power such sites as YouTube). If it does not currently support JavaScript and Flash (as many are reporting), perhaps a future upgrade or add-in would enable these features. The Nintendo DS Browser has been around in Europe and Japan since last year but has never been equipped to handle JavaScript and Flash components. Some have questioned if the hardware in the Nintendo DS would even be powerful enough to run these features. There has been much speculation in online forums as to whether or not the U.S. version of the browser would support JavaScript and Flash.

Strangely, if you view the Google Cached version of the Nintendo DS Browser description page (http://www.nintendo.com/gamemini?gameid=ZRIHM-K7C6pLPkN--ZjWFInT-vIEngbV), you will see the following text description at the bottom:

"Based on the light and lightning-fast Opera browser, the full-featured Nintendo DS Browser includes Javascript and Flash support. You can access the web via your home wireless internet connection or any hot-spot access point."

UPDATE (6/8/07): Mention of Javascript and Flash support is no longer on the cached version.

But for some strange reason, whenever you load the actual live page, this part isn't there. Initial feedback in certain online forums indicates that Flash is not currently supported and that the browser is painfully slow. We can now only hope for future upgrades and add-ons so that we can watch YouTube and play online Flash-based games on the go (as if actual DS games aren't cool enough already)!

No comments:

Post a Comment