The Mysterious Nintendo DS MP3 Player

Nintendo's set to release an official MP3 player for the Nintendo DS, making it not only a game machine and a web browser, but a music playing device too. The above picture was seen in a brocure from the Leipzig Games Convention in Germany.

We suppose this is close enough to an official announcement, but there will probably be an even more official announcement from Nintendo soon. The specs:

For Nintendo DS (to be inserted into slot 2) and Game Boy Advance hardware

To store music you need SD cards. Up to 2 GB cards are supported, this equals to 500 songs (best sound quality)

Choose between different skins (including one with Mario)

The interface shows all important information

The unit itself features another headphone port

The tentative price and release date are 29.99 Euros ($38) and October 8, respectively. – Jason Chen

Official Nintendo DS MP3 Player - Is There a Point? Homebrew Does it BETTER! [MaxConsole]
MP3-Player For The DS? Sounds Interesting... [Carpe DS Blog]

7:17 PM on Sat Sep 2 2006
By Jason Chen
37,717 views
36 comments

Comments

Sockatume at 06:27 PM on 09/02/06
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Our survey says: rebranded Play-Yan Micro.
Mio at 07:06 PM on 09/02/06
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There's been a lot of 'Mysterious' stuff going on lately. Was Gizmodo coded on top of an Indian burial ground?
weatherman at 08:48 PM on 09/02/06
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A handheld game machine that plays games, has a web browser, and plays MP3s. All for less than $200. Hot. Can't wait. If only it played video...
jrghoull at 09:03 PM on 09/02/06
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nintendo what are you doing!? you havent won the grand prize yet!! its only after you have both music AND video on the DS that u get to personally take a shit on sony's face.
Justapspfan at 09:14 PM on 09/02/06
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Hey stop bashing Nintendo at least its a start, I bet video playback is right around the corner.
h00ligan at 09:24 PM on 09/02/06
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you guys are sure having a "mysterious day"
Sockatume at 10:08 PM on 09/02/06
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If it is the Play-Yan, video playback should only require a firmware update.
Big B at 10:17 PM on 09/02/06
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It's been said before, add video with playback controls on touch screen, and you're in business. Now you won't have to be a l33t hax0r to add music playback to your DS. If only it had a slightly bigger 16:9 screen. Heaven.
Lv99Slacker at 10:19 PM on 09/02/06
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"...I bet video playback is around the corner."

Wow. You guys didn't know about GBA Movie Player/M3? MoonShell?

http://www.m3adapter.com/main.htm
http://www.m3-forum.com/index.php?sid=b71dcc5891cf229f3a7f... (M3 Adapter forum)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vp8TYqNZC5Q (GBA Movie Player/MoonShell demo)
RiceBandit at 10:51 PM on 09/02/06
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Big B, the DS has a cumulative 9:16 screen(s). Can't that make you happy as it is?!? :P

lol
shinkaide at 12:20 AM on 09/03/06
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Man, this is certainly making things more interesting. I might finally pick my NDS up again. (I haven't had the time to play games, but I can listen to music while doing stuff). And certainly cheaper than other mp3 players, since I 've got most of stuff save for the player add-on.
Monty at 12:35 AM on 09/03/06
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Boy, if it works as well as the web browser, all of your MP3 music will play like a 45 vinyl playing at 33. I can't wait to see what their version of video playback looks like.
Kent at 12:44 AM on 09/03/06
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see, that is what they are supposed to do: make a game system and add things instead what sony is doing is saying "it can play games too"
thespunk at 01:07 AM on 09/03/06
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aaaargh!!!! Why do I even read Kotaku when Gizmodo has the best news first?

Seriously. The Kotaku crew should be embarassed.

Just saying.
bluespacetiger at 04:33 AM on 09/03/06
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Has annyone else noticed that Gizmodo posts seem to allways begin with "The Mysterious" at the moment?
d-Fect at 06:21 AM on 09/03/06
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Nintendo looks better and better.

Never thought I would buy one, buth with the new DS and the Wii coming up, I am not so sure anymore.
jetstar7 at 10:36 AM on 09/03/06
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It's the Play-Yan. It plays video ut does not have touchscreen capabilities cos it behaves like a GameBoy cartridge.
WE_DELIVER at 02:53 PM on 09/03/06
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Next up:
THE MYSTERIOUS BOSCH POWER BOX!
TheZodiac at 03:48 PM on 09/03/06
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Why would you need to ATTACH something to it for functionality? What a waste.
LittleBigPlaneteer at 07:35 PM on 09/03/06
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As long as it doesn't stick out and comes in black, I'll probably get one to match my upcoming black DS lite.
Sockatume at 08:19 PM on 09/03/06
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Of course it sticks out, it's meant for use in the GBA as well as the DS. In fact the Play-Yan sticks out on the GBA, so overall it's a bit of an eyesore on the Lite.
KsprayDad at 01:45 AM on 09/04/06
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Weatherman...

So a DSLite with Browser Cart and MP3 Cart (which you can't use at the same time) will run you over $200 and provide less functionality (even if you get video running on a DS its not going to run well) and ease of use compared to a PSP for $200.

I don't own either but I think I would lean the PSP way given those choices.
weatherman at 08:52 AM on 09/04/06
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kspray; no, I agree with you. I was being facetious. Too subtle by half, I guess.
KsprayDad at 08:56 AM on 09/04/06
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weatherman: hard to seperate the fanboy's from the sarcasm! Now that I re-read your post I can see you were going the same place I did!
Awesom-o at 01:34 PM on 09/04/06
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This is getting ridiculous. I like both the DS and the PSP. The DS plays little kids games well, but it doesn't do anything else well at all.

How can they even think to release a web browser like the one they did? They must have known how useless it was.

Seriously, no one can even bash the PSP in it's useful overall functionality compared to the DS. The DS plays games well, and that's it.

The PSP plays games well, and does a bunch of other crap relatively well also. It's not perfect, but I use all it's functions all the time, and I never really have any major gripes with it.

Fanboys, whether for Sony or Nintendo piss me off...
Fuzzystyle at 02:29 PM on 09/04/06
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If it can play games and music for 38 bucks, thats quite a catch. I doubt the sound quality would be as good as the ipod, but I plan to buy this when if/it comes out anyways(for 38 bucks it seems a pretty good deal.)
Video sounds nice too.
Blue at 02:35 PM on 09/04/06
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This comment is mysterously lacking content.
ltlu at 04:22 PM on 09/04/06
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Why do we need another MP3 player? Make something new please!!!
Geraldaut at 04:24 PM on 09/04/06
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Hi Gizmodo, we do not not pay yet to not blog anymore! Come on, what's the news? bored......
hezz at 05:14 PM on 09/04/06
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My weekend never felt so empty, I never knew I depended on you guys to bring some humor to this otherwise awefully serious industry.

I hope you guys enjoyed the weekend!
ericearlyang at 06:32 PM on 09/04/06
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i'm 'mysteriously' beginning to think there's a pattern to these headlines... but maybe it's just my 'mysterious' self.

keep up the good work gizmodo staff.
LittleBigPlaneteer at 08:17 PM on 09/04/06
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Sockatume, don't they make certain GBA slot add-ons for the DS Lite that don't stick out? I could've sworn they do.
Muskrat at 09:55 PM on 09/04/06
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ssjmichael:

Regular GBA carts won't stick out, but if this thing is going to have an SD slot and a headphone jack, I don't see how it can't.
bungee at 11:42 PM on 09/04/06
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ssjmichael, I think you were referring to these http://eng.supercard.cn/ MiniSD or MicroSD versions. Of course, these are not Nintendo endorsed GBA add-ons but they do handle video too.
bluespacetiger at 06:21 AM on 09/05/06
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On a ds lite the gba carts stick out but nintendo have made a special "rumble pak" for it that is a less long cart so that it doesnt.
Danjimaru at 04:43 PM on 09/11/06
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Ok so for the noobs in here: There are several versions of M3 and Supercard flashcards out. "Lite" versions of these can only be used on DS Lite (they won't fit on fat DS) and don't stick out. DS Link and the soon to come "Ninja DS" are both slot1 based flash carts - this means they run from the DS SLOT and DSLink uses MICRO-SD cards for that.

All of the above cards support "Moonshell". Being a free software it's also the most advanced technology to playback movies and supports all movies you can playback with your media player - but you have to CONVERT them
THERE IS NO WAY A DS CAN EVER PLAYBACK ANY AVI
LET ALONE ANY DIVX COMPRESSED AVI!

Moonshell plays back MP3, OGG, and other audio formats FLAWLESS out of your favourite flashcard. It also displays JPG, GIF, PNG and a number of other things

IT's FREE

All you need is a flashcard and a 1 time method to flash your DS (using a 20 bucks Passcard3 for instance)

I myself use M3CF with 16GB CF card that hit ebay a while ago. 16GB is a lot for a portable device to more precise 90 minutes video = around 240MB which means I could store over 60 movies on my card.

Bottom line is Sony can't even compare to this