[17R3W]

The often debated multi-touch feature of the DS has just been patented.
Additionally new calendar, day planner, vCard support, and (early) handwriting recognition may give your aging palm a run for it's money.

Originally Posted by engadget

We're certainly not lumping these together out of likeness, but the DS had some news going on this weekend: first, in the form of a patent that surfaced in the USPTO regarding DS multi-touch input, something becoming all the rage these days. Nice, nice, but before we start anticipating too much what the DS might one day do, we'd like to call attention to something it can do now: pretend to be a PDA. Makes perfect sense, though; you carry your DS around with you anyway, and by all accounts it probably has more screen real estate and horsepower than that aging Palm. So why not use DSOrganize, a new homebrew with a calendar app, day planner, vCard support, and (early) handwriting recognition? Because, c'mon here, let's get real, at least your DS has WiFi.

Originally Posted by DS FanBoy

Proving that it can boost productivity as well as destroying it, the homebrew scene has churned out a DS organizer suite for us to download and arrange our overly complicated work schedules with. Cleverly entitled DSOrganize, the software boasts a calendar, an address book with vCard support, a day planner, multiple languages, a file browser and rudimentary handwriting recognition. The latter part is excellent news, what with my handwriting being so very rudimentary indeed.

Now, presented with this homebrew creation, you may recall a rumor about Nintendo filing a patent for something called V-Pocket, supposedly stemming from them licensing the Palm operating system for the DS. However, unless we missed something, it doesn't look like anything ever came of that. Given its stylus-based interface and Wi-Fi capabilities, the DS seems like it could be an ideal (and cheap) alternative to other handheld organizers, with an added benefit of playing some stellar games. With web browsing taken care of, would you be interested in an official organizer package for the DS?

Originally Posted by JoyStiq

A patent application filed on Jul 29, 2004 which was granted to Nintendo on Feb 2nd, 2006 reveals Nintendo's aborted plans for a multi-touch capable DS. The design of the DS (pictured on the right) doesn't resemble any previous DS designs (although it looks strikingly similar to one of our reader's redesigns) and lacks X and Y buttons. The main additional feature is the capability of the touch-screen to read multiple inputs from two chopsticks fingers or more, similar to the idea we suggested recently.

We'd say that this design is most likely an early prototype that was canceled in favor of the original phat DS. The lack of X and Y buttons rules out the possibility that Nintendo could use this exact design in any future iterations of the console. As for the lack of a multi-touch screen on current DS models, the company could have found that the component was too costly when a single-touch capable screen would suffice. For this reason we think it's unlikely Nintendo will include a multi-touch screen with the next DS revision which Reggie hinted at in Engadget's interview, although we'd love to be proved wrong.

Sources:
http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/27/m...s-a-pda-out-o/
http://www.dsfanboy.com/2006/02/25/d...ets-organized/
http://www.joystiq.com/2006/02/26/pa...i-touch-capab/

See also NintendoPunks news on a DS Desktop: http://www.touchds.com/forums/news/ds-desktop-2980.html