Top ten changes I'd like to see made in the next Nintendo DS

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According to virtually every tech or gaming-orientated blog on the internet superhighway, come July the rumour is that Nintendo will be announcing the next-gen DS console at the E3 expo.

As someone who’s rushed out and bought both previous incarnations of the portable gaming console, I can appreciate the huge lead made between the two, and as much as I adore the Lite, I can think of a couple improvements I’d like to see in the next version, which is rumoured to be called the ‘Liter’ or ‘Extreme’.

The rumour mill has already started grinding, with fingers being pointed at ‘larger screens’, with both possibly being touch-screen, and the hardware being ‘lighter and thinner’. So far, the DS fans aren’t really thinking outside the box, so if you read below, you’ll see my hopes for the next version…

1.) Flash memory – I know that game saves etc are saved onto the game cartridges, but if the DS took a few pointers from their rival the PSP (read on below), then they’d be needing a good 4GB of storage capacity at least.

2.) MP3-playback facility – sure, you can get external add-ons that will enable you to play media on your DS, but wouldn’t it be better if it was integrated?

3.) HSDPA chip – it’s not ever going to happen, but goodness, can you imagine? It already has Wi-Fi, so you can use the Opera browser when in hotspots, or play against your friends, but inbuilt HSDPA would allow you speedy web browsing without the need to be lurking outside Coffee Republic. A collaboration between Ninty and a mobile network would prove lucrative, allowing for a cheap monthly subscription to the web ‘n walk style internet service.

Christmas Wii shortage doesn't stop it getting a customers' choice award

wii-2007.jpgAs if it weren’t enough that we’ve already declared it the 2007 winner, and despite stock shortages yet again, Nintendo’s Wii has scooped a Customers’ Choice award from the independent review publishers Reevoo.

The Wii achieved an overall score of 8.78 out of ten, compared with 8.25 for the PlayStation 3 and 7.65 for the Xbox 360, based upon reviews from genuine purchasers.

A Wii AND 360-hybrid console? With HD PVR and an iPod dock? SE2 Labs' Integrated Theater Console says yes

ITC-console.jpgCheck out this behemoth…err…um…what on earth is it?! Some as-yet-untransformed Transformer? Sadly it’s not a character from an edited-out scene, if you look a bit harder, it’s actually an Xbox 360/Wii/HD PVR/home theatre system/iPod dock/Netlinx control box hybrid.

Or the SE2 Labs’ Integrated Theater Console, if you want to get specific. It’s pretty much every piece of kit you…

World of Warcraft definitely, positively, 100% NOT coming to consoles. Ever

wow-console-NONONO.jpgPoor old WoW maker Blizzard must get asked this question 100 times a day, yet the answer remains the same – no. For the love of god, NO.

Speaking once again on the possibility of the massively-popular RPG coming to PlayStation3 or Xbox 360 or even Wii, or phone, or DS, or anything that’s not a proper computer with a mouse and stuff, Blizzard’s vice-president of game design Rob Pardo…