More in-depth look at DSi

The DSi is Nintendo's redesigned DS unit with added wifi, photo and music-playback functionality.
There were and still are many nay-sayers on the DSi that think that anything beyond the DS lite is not nessissary, looking back on the Gameboy Micro. The Micro was concidered a flop by most people. It removed Gameboy and Gameboy Color backward compatability and shrunk the screen size by 1/3. Nintendo promised a number of accessories for it that never saw the light of day (there was never any additional face-plates, link cables or wireless addaptors released for it).
But rather than being just a slimmed down DS lite (which it is) it adds all kinds of new functionality to the unit.
The feather in the DSi's hat is the dual cameras, one inside the unit, between the screens and one on the back of the unit on its outter shell. The inner camera is less powerful, comparable to most low end cell phone cameras at 0.3 megapixles. The outter camera is more of an all-purpose lens that has a much higher 3.0 megapixles. Photo editing software will also be built-into the DSi, much like the Wii. Photos players manipulate can be sent to friends online.
As for music play-back, so far Nintendo has only said it will play AAC format music files so you can "easily move songs from your computer to SD cards". That was the only format mentioned for the music playing function, no word on MP3s. The DSi music software will also allow players to manipulate their own music by speeding up and slowing down the tempo as well as other things such as being able to break down the song so you can listen to only the vocal track or just the instrumentals.
Nintendo's plans for the camera and music player goes beyond simply making the DS into a portable multimedia player.
"You have to understand that we didn't set out to create the world's best camera or the world's best music player," said reggie Fils-Aime, president of Nintendo of America.
The idea behind the camera and music player is to push innovation in gameplay farther. Incorperating the camera and your own music into games much like they already have with the mic and touch screen on the older model DS systems.
What this also means is in the future we can expect a line of DSi exclusive software that can not be played on the DS or DS lite.
Beyond that it will have added online functionality. While the DS can play on the Nintendo Wifi Connection for online gameplay the DSi will also feature a modified version of the Opera web browser on the Wii and a game download service called DS ware, which will use Nintendo point cards like the Wii ware and Virtual console. DS ware will feature new games for download with prices ranging from free to 800 points.
There was no mention of Pictochat yet which means that it will either be removed or completely unchanged.
No word as to when the DSi will be available here in North America except that it will be "well into the 2009 calender" year which sounds like it will likely be sometime this spring. Hopefully at the turn of the new year Nintendo will give us a more solid release date.