Just when I was about to go to bed last night, the DSi Shop went live. I was pretty beat, but I went for two titles I could grab quickly with the 1,000 free Nintendo Points everyone gets when they first sign on to the shop: Art Style: Aquia and WarioWare: Snapped!. One of these was a horrible, horrible mistake.
But before I get into that, reader questions! Among the questions I received, the Nintendo DSi Sound application is very popular. And I have to make sure that I absolutely stress that while music playing is a function of Sound, Sound is certainly not primarily a music player. It's a sound toy that happens to let you play with your music. I'm going to stick with my Sansa Fuze for that.
And so, here are your questions answered, and DSiWare (all of it) impressions.
A couple readers had questions about what options they had regarding organizing music (which, as I hope everyone understands, is limited to AAC format—i.e. what comes out of iTunes in its default configuration). Your only option is to put music files into folders—and then select either a single folder to play or "Auto" to shuffle all your music.
Nintendo DSi Sound doesn't use tag information to let you play all by an artist, nor does it support nested folders. What it will do is scan your SD card for all folders containing any music files, then put those in a flat list. For example, if you have folder A containing some music files, then folder B containing folders C and D that each also contain music files, you will be able to pick A, C, or D to play music from—or, again, "Auto" to shuffle everything.
Now, when I said those are your only options, I fibbed a little. There are three playlists you can add music files to: "Top 10", "Practice", and "Memories". The first holds 10 songs, the latter two up to 100 each. These will appear in the list of folders when you go into Sound's music player support. It's far from the range of options available in a real music player, though.
I think that Sound itself says it best on its opening screen. The button that brings you into the music player says "Play with your music". It's not a bad choice if you just want to listen to an album or shuffle a bunch of songs, but if you have specific needs in mind, you'd best look elsewhere.
Another reader was curious about how sensitive the DSi's camera is to LEDs. The DSi's lid camera has an LED that lights up when that camera is active; much like the un-mutable camera "click" sound that issues forth when a picture is taken, this is a feature to let people know that, yes, their picture is being taken.
Said reader was curious if the DSi's camera was extra-sensitive to this LED, and did it also pick up the infrared LEDs in the Wii Sensor Bar—questions asked with the thought that it might be possible for DSi to use its camera for position tracking. To the former: I didn't notice any difference in a mirror. It was just as bright and pink in the viewfinder and as I saw it; it's possible the lighting was different in the room you were in. And like all digital cameras, the DSi's camera does indeed pick up infrared light sources. The possibility definitely seems to be there.
We had one more question about cases. Will the DSi fit into the Club Nintendo silver DS Lite case? The answer is... maybe. I have a few of these white DS Lite cases, and while it's technically too narrow for the DSi, it does fit OK—though I don't use the second elastic strap as it covers and might scuff the camera plastic. My advice is only get it if you don't mind finding out that it doesn't fit when your case arrives.
But before I get into that, reader questions! Among the questions I received, the Nintendo DSi Sound application is very popular. And I have to make sure that I absolutely stress that while music playing is a function of Sound, Sound is certainly not primarily a music player. It's a sound toy that happens to let you play with your music. I'm going to stick with my Sansa Fuze for that.
And so, here are your questions answered, and DSiWare (all of it) impressions.
Reader Q&A
A couple readers had questions about what options they had regarding organizing music (which, as I hope everyone understands, is limited to AAC format—i.e. what comes out of iTunes in its default configuration). Your only option is to put music files into folders—and then select either a single folder to play or "Auto" to shuffle all your music.
Nintendo DSi Sound doesn't use tag information to let you play all by an artist, nor does it support nested folders. What it will do is scan your SD card for all folders containing any music files, then put those in a flat list. For example, if you have folder A containing some music files, then folder B containing folders C and D that each also contain music files, you will be able to pick A, C, or D to play music from—or, again, "Auto" to shuffle everything.
Now, when I said those are your only options, I fibbed a little. There are three playlists you can add music files to: "Top 10", "Practice", and "Memories". The first holds 10 songs, the latter two up to 100 each. These will appear in the list of folders when you go into Sound's music player support. It's far from the range of options available in a real music player, though.
I think that Sound itself says it best on its opening screen. The button that brings you into the music player says "Play with your music". It's not a bad choice if you just want to listen to an album or shuffle a bunch of songs, but if you have specific needs in mind, you'd best look elsewhere.
Another reader was curious about how sensitive the DSi's camera is to LEDs. The DSi's lid camera has an LED that lights up when that camera is active; much like the un-mutable camera "click" sound that issues forth when a picture is taken, this is a feature to let people know that, yes, their picture is being taken.
Said reader was curious if the DSi's camera was extra-sensitive to this LED, and did it also pick up the infrared LEDs in the Wii Sensor Bar—questions asked with the thought that it might be possible for DSi to use its camera for position tracking. To the former: I didn't notice any difference in a mirror. It was just as bright and pink in the viewfinder and as I saw it; it's possible the lighting was different in the room you were in. And like all digital cameras, the DSi's camera does indeed pick up infrared light sources. The possibility definitely seems to be there.
We had one more question about cases. Will the DSi fit into the Club Nintendo silver DS Lite case? The answer is... maybe. I have a few of these white DS Lite cases, and while it's technically too narrow for the DSi, it does fit OK—though I don't use the second elastic strap as it covers and might scuff the camera plastic. My advice is only get it if you don't mind finding out that it doesn't fit when your case arrives.