News

Japanese reader needed: what sort of Wireless in the new Nintendo Nitro?

It was nice of Gizmodo to break the unofficial news of WiFi built into the new "Nitro" handheld game player ... but not very informative, because the spec sheet they found seems to be written in Squiggle. Well, more probably, Japanese at least.

The magic letters "802.11" show up half way down the spec sheet, however. Alert NewsWireless readers have pointed this out, implying that the new toy, when it ships, will rival the Tapwave Zodiac, which allows two players to link together to play each other. But where the Zodiac uses Bluetooth, the Nintendo will - apparently - have 802.11 WiFi.

The full page is illustrated at Gizmodo and the bit that matters is probably the spec in Fig.1 which says 802.11 ...

which is, apparently explained by the bit at Fig.2.

Before we get too excited, is there a Japanese-reading expert in the house?

We're particularly curious as to why Nintendo might use 802.11 rather than Bluetooth. For player vs player, it has some (theoretical) advantage in speed, of course; but since most interactive games work just fine over a 56K modem link, the need for 5 megabits instead of around 500 kilobits (WiFi vs Bluetooth) seems irrelevant. Both are far more than a player will be likely to need, even if sending full video back and forth.

The only logical deduction would be that Nintendo intends gamers to play over the Internet, using a hot spot (at home or in public).

But until we get someone capable of doing the translation, we're reduced to guessing and speculation ... or for Gizmodo to reveal more.