It only cost me 6 bucks too! How you ask? By 1. trading in my DS lite for 70 bucks trade in credit (which is only 30 bucks less than they actually sell the used ones for), and 2. trading in some 360 games. If you think about it though, Nintendo is gonna be giving me 10 bucks for thier DSiware store for free so its almost like I didnt pay anything at all. . .

From what I can tell so far it seems like nintendo is going to make some legitimate gaming value for the cameras and flash memory. Because anything that you see on the DSi as of now that you go Awwww man! about just think, now that we have a handheld that is actually UPDATE-ABLE we will be able to see improvements on the system without having to by a new one. . . something sony has been doing with their PSP for a couple years now.

The outside of the DSi is kinda like fine grain sand paper, no lie. There is no way that you are going to just lose your grip on this thing and let it slide out of your hand. . . in fact if you let it slide in your hand it may remove some of your skin. . . okay that may be a slight exaggeration, but only slight. You also have three indicator lights now, (from left to right) Wireless indicator, charge indicator, and the power indicator. Speaking of power you will all be happy to know that the power indicator from the screen on the DSi home actually has an accurate representation of power left! :D

So the buttons are all more clicky and now there is a power button! Which is going to take some time to get used to because I am accustomed to needing to turn the power off and on every time I want to change a setting on My DS. . . But you no longer need to restart your system to change a setting unless you do a system update, which there is already one of when you fist try to connect to the DSiWare store. The buttons are actually kinda loud now and you will always be sure that you presses the button cause you will hear it click.

I also posted this on the 360 message board.

http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/digitaljoystick/archives/132014.asp

   Microsoft keeps improving the 360, making it more reliable, cooler, and quieter. Those of us, like me, that got their 360 before even the Zephyr mod came out are probably getting quite pissed at all this. . . Like me. . .   But that was okay. . . I got over the fact that they cooled down the system and even added in more visual features that I wish I had. 

   After that, they released Falcon, which is an improvement on the cooling performance by replacing the big processor with a smalled 65nm processor with the same processing power.. . once again I got over the fact that I had the inferior system simply because I was one of the early supporters and users of the 360. . .I felt my self "1337" because I had such an old system.

   Now, on the market is the "Jasper," which replaced the still 90nm GPU with the smaller 65nm GPU, this is of course a logical step in this systems evolution.  This increase in system reliability will most likely bring in some more followers that were afraid of the 360's legendary RRoD, and once again I will get over not having it as long as my RRoD warranty is still alive and kicking.

   Then, in the future (2010ish), they are speaking of bringing in a system change that will revolutionize the 360. This change in system specs will be called "Valhalla" and it will combine the CPU with the GPU into a single super powered 65nm Processor.  This change will mean only one cooling system will be necessary.  Thus eliminating a lot of the noise, improving reliability, reducing RRoD, and reducing the PRICE. . .again. By this time I am guessing that I will have replaced my 360 with a new one and will most likely have the Jasper setup. . .

   All of this is fine and dandy, except for when you get to Opus.  Instead of just realizing that it is all their fault and completely disposing of the follies. . . they are going to take the Xenon cases and put Falcon parts inside it. . . and they will use these to replace Xbox's for people like me who have the old Xenon model.  Which means I will still have no HDMI plug.  I think the proper thing to do would to just give back refurbished Falcon systems. . . anything Xenon should be burned when they get it back. . .

   If feels like to me Microsoft is trying to sweep all of us scarred older customers that may have less than great opinions about the xbox, under a rug to make room for the fresh faces that will make it seem like the problems of the past never existed. . . In my opinion Microsoft still has not repent for what they have done. Sure they extended RRoD warranties to 3 years. . . but all they are doing at this point is replacing crap with more crap.