Obsessed with my new DSi.

Alright. I'm going to be honest. I was seriously considering holding out on the new DSi. But once my DS Lite started to flap when I opened it, I really had nowhere to go but up (as in if I used it for another weak with even the steadiest of hands, it was without a doubt going to break).

The thing that sold me was really the fact that the DSi was, by design anyway, more durable. Plus, I just couldn't live without my self-improvement "game" Brain Challenge for a single day. And I wasn't going to risk having to pay another $125 in 11 months- the time it took for my lone DS Lite to get to its current state. Also another big thing, the fact that half my cartridges took serveral re-inserts to load (and let's be honest, the only place I should have to do that is my Super Nintendo, which is, of course, still ticking), certainly didn't help matters.

I was getting quite flustered with the DS Lite and it's low survivability to my daily grind, and was REALLY hoping that the DSi would be my Godsend.

And I found SO much more. With the lack of a GBA cartridge slot meaning I would *gasp* have to carry my old GBA once again, I was most certainly thinking that there had better be something to justify it! And guess what? All the GOOD rumors about the DSi were true (well, most of them)!

The GBA cartridge slot, in all reality, has a replacement: the SD slot on the right side of the unit is the driving force from which to (FINALLY!) put outside media to use in your DS. Sure, it can't play video like the PSP, and it uses a slightly obscure format (M4A, and it sounds more like a gun than a media format), you can finally put music onto a SD card, and then play it directly on your DSi!

But that's not all. Not by a long shot. Ironically, they took it a step further, by allowing you to edit the music in real time (but sadly, not save the result). How? Well, the DSi has rudimentary editing software built right in. You can speed up, slow down, or even change the pitch of a particular audio track stored on the SD card and it will change to said settings on a whim. And the cool thing is, despite the rather slow processor of the DSi, it will all happen within a split second of your whim. Quite honestly, I dare you to mess with a Van Halen song like Eruption or You Really Got Me with it. The results are just plain amazing, funny, or laughable. In a good way, mind you. I'm sure playing Dragonforce would sound just as amazing in SLOOOOOOOOOW-MOOOOOOO, but I haven't tried it yet. The DSi also allows you to record 16 10-second audio files in internal memory, so you can easily remember where you parked at the local Super Wal-Mart. Yes, that's certain to come in handy for those bastions of forgetfulness like myself that just can't remember what they were doing five minutes (or seconds, for that matter) ago.

Nintendo DSi's most important feature is the ability to download from an online store. You're given 1000 Nintendo Points to spend on what you please in the store. That may not sound like much, considering Microsoft's system, HOWEVER. You should be aware that there is currently Free, 200, 500, and 800+ point categories, and this is the way you will shop in the store- by price. There's no setting to show everything at once, and a little more customizability would have been nice, but let's be honest, not everything can be what we hoped for when it's in its fledgeling stages, can it? Personally, I had bought 3 things which left me with 100 points: Dr. Mario (which is probably THE most immaculate version of Dr. Mario since the original) for 500 points, and two games originated from one of the GBA Warioware games for 200 each.

In all honesty, none of these really stand out from the crowd, but if you're a puzzle lover like myself, then honestly, Dr. Mario for 500 points is a MUST. With the promise of a more compact version of Brain Age and many other unknown titles in the works, we have yet to see an influx of DS ports anywhere. In short, where's my Pokemon ruby/sapphire/emerald? Sadly, not there. Or maybe some third party programs to the marketplace? I doubt it, but at this point, the future of the DSi Ware (which requires an update to use in the first place) is really up in the air. So you never know.

The DSi also boasts two cameras that will increase functionality of the DSi, and allow you to take pictures. Honestly, I love it. The photo section of the DSi actually has most of the options of a full-fledged digital camera would, and a few you wouldn't expect, like a distortion mode that has you touching the screen wherever to distort the picture. However you look at it, it makes full use of the unit's touch screen capabilities. And that's something it has over the PSP. It may even replace your normal camera, if you're using it for everyday pictures: the resolution is obviously much lower than a real digital camera, but perfect for posting pictures to the photosharing site of your choice.

Another feature the DSi has going for it: It boasts the capability the DS and DS Lite lacked (prior to the now rare-seen cartridge), and that is the ability to hop on the web. All you have to do is make a mad dash to the DSi Ware store and download the app from it, and the best part is, it comes at no additional charge. Sadly, it's Opera-based browser design. Expect VERY slow browsing speeds, and to run out of memory quickly on data-intensive websites (which takes on a new definition when browsing). I tried loading Yahoo! Tv, my favorite source for television listings without having to switch to that horrible TV-guide channel and waiting for the desired channel to show up on screen. It took about 10 seconds for anything to show up onscreen, and then, while it was loading the data, it easily ran out of memory. But if you need a Wiki article in a pinch, this is the way to do it. In all seriousness, though, not a viable everyday web-browser, and won't be until they change the platform to Firefox (Firefox nerd crossing: BEWARE!). However, the touch screen was fairly responsive when detecting a "click" on a text box or a link, and in the case of a text box, would display the appropriate dialog, much like the 360 version. If you've got no other method of accessing the net, and you need to look something up in a fairly orderly fashion, then in all truthfulness, this is a very viable solution to using your older cell phone, but probably wouldn't compare to a 3G IPhone in speed (not to mention the abhorred lack of flash, as in the cartridge version). It's pretty bad for everyday use, though. I want to make that abundantly clear. You better have a lot of time on your hands while you wait for each page to load, and although there is a favorites and search functionality, it really doesn't go as far as it could.

That said, the DSi is a well-rounded piece of hardware over all, but if you're looking to still play your GBA games, wait for this one to simmer and buy its predacessor when the old bag of a machine breaks on you (like mine did).