iTouch - am I daft in thinking this would be a better idea than an Nintendo DSi?

[MmeLindt]

For the DC's Christmas.

DD has a Nintendo DS which rarely gets played with since I upgraded my iPhone and let the DC have my old one for games.

The games on the iPhone are either free or cost a couple of ?.

Games on Nintendo are about ?30 - not many places to buy second hand or reconditioned games around here.

There is a price difference of about ?60 for the actual devices, but even buying the Nintendo plus one game would reduce that difference by half.

I also think that the iTouch is more fun for playing with, much more intuitive and less clunky than the Nintendo.

Am I wrong in thinking that the DSi's time is nearly up and an iTouch is better value?

And if anyone has an iTouch, can you tell me how it works with the internet? I know you can connect it to the wifi, can you also put a SIM card in and connect to the Internet on the go? (not that I am keen for the DC to use this function at the moment, but in the future it might be good.

Do you have the new iTouch? What is the camera like? DD talked about a camera for Xmas, would this be a do-all gadget that would cover all bases?

And the face-to-face phone thing - how does that work?

angry birds is my current obsession too

erm, will have to prise ipod out of dd1s hands have a think as to games otherwise - have barely laid hands on my ipod for weeks

Thanks MmeLindt, will have a look at them. He's trying to talk me into getting him the Lego creations game for the laptop at the moment, which I am a bit about.

Ah, and yes, if I let him near the iPad, I'd probably never see it again, and I can't have that as it has all my books on it!

lilystar - havig just opened itunes to sync dd1's ipad, they seem to have added a few categories - if you hover over app store, a drop sown menu appears, and "game centre" is at the top. a quick browse through that has thrown up a good few games that look good to me.
Stoneloo[ps of Jurassica was another favourite of mine, but it has since been withdrawn. my dsd has a similar game, though, so I could ask her what that is.

anyway, fwiw, thye ones that look good to me are:

Empire story
Treasure Seekers
Kiko the last totem - all on the first page.

Zenonia is often recommnded as a game similar to Zelda. I have downloaded, but been unable to get inot it as I rarely have my itouch.

there are also a numbe rof simpler games, like drawrace, tumbledrop, air control etc that are very addictive.

hth

Thanks for the info, Silverfrog. I will have a look later. Always handy to have loads of new stuff up your sleeve for all the boring Christmas car trips!!

oh, and leap sheep is great too!

have just been browsing a bit more - there is an app called "pocket frogs" which is about acquiring various different frogs, in a collection manner, all with different trademarks, abiliites etc - might be a bit similar to pokemon? (although I have limited knowledge of pokemon!)

Will have a look at what DS (very nearly 7) likes playing and report back :)

Bump

Mollie
Here is the link

"can you also put a SIM card in and connect to the Internet on the go? " - no, that'd be the iPhone (!) but I suppose if there is a suitable network in your area a MiFi (combination unit which has 3G and SIM for mobile network, plus 802.11 kit for 'local' wi-fi users) might do the trick.

It's designed to allow several wi-fi devices to share a single 3G mobile connection, which would allow for iPads, laptops, and mobiles on contracts without data facilities, to all use the one 3G SIM and network connection.

Of course, as it is shared, speed drops if someone else tries to view something on YouTube and data allowance gets used up faster, so could become quite expensive unless people are doing limited things and not downloading Windows Updates, listening to internet radio, etc. Ideal for a bit of browsing, checking web-mail and maybe downloading some Flash games or similar (onto a laptop, say, or Android phone).

In the UK, Three is selling them, but on Ebay there are also people selling ones which are not locked to Three network. Typical cost is 70-80 pounds when new. Not really searched on Ebay but spotted there were some a while ago when looking for SIMs with data for Three network (eg 3 GB for 9 pounds).

DS has a DSi and plays games on our iPhones as well.
They're a very different type of game. You play differently. I'd stick with the DS or DSi tbh.

why ahvent you got an illegal memory card for the ds ?

"why ahvent you got an illegal memory card for the ds"

Because it is illegal?

Showing children that it's OK to steal is hardly the best of examples to set either.

Unprune
That is the thing. We have about 7 or DS games and they really don't play much with them. Either we have the wrong games or the DSi is really so much better?

ForlornHope
Nope, not doing anything illegal. Am a goodytwoshoes.

NetworkGuy
Oh, I have been searching for info about the Mifi doodahs for using with my iPad. I have not been able to find one in Switzerland yet. Could I buy one is UK and put a Swiss card into it? Would it be a pay as you go SIM card for internet use, ie. like one you would use in a dongle in a laptop?

what phone do you have, mmelindt? (and what contract allowance?)

I have an htc desire, and use that as a wifi hotspot if I need to connect dd1's ipad up when we are out and about (rare, tbh - most things she needs it for are either apps or video, so pre-installed, or I can show her on my phone anyway. but the option is there)

"Would it be a pay as you go SIM card for internet use" - I'll see if I can find out for you (by asking some of the sellers on Ebay, as to whether it is a miniSIM [type we have used for last 6+ years] or microSIM [as used in iPad and iPhone v4, I think]).

I have an iPhone 3GS. I believe naughty Apple have done something to prevent users being able to use the iPhone to get the iPad online.

I don't really need it often, mostly we use the iPad at home but it would be handy to have for the occasional time.

Yes, that's a good point silverfrog - an Android phone may be capable of acting as a hot-spot these days, since Android v2.2 was released earlier this year... So long as the network someone is using has not blocked the facility from use!

However, I suspect MmeL is using an iPhone and they have blocked it from that function, perhaps.

I wouldn't really see the iPod touch as a toy. Dd got one for her birthday (age 10). She uses it for email mainly and she has some games on there that she likes.

The camera on the dsi is great - they can take pictures then modify them, add colours, add graphics. It's not a high spec camera but they can play with the pictures which they love

If they are bored with the nintendo, no point in buying another though

MmeLindt - I'm not sure there's that much difference between the DS and DSi - the DSi has the camera and is a bit bigger, but it still needs the games to make them want to play.

My ds does go through phases of being more interested, but it's rare to go more than a couple of weeks without him playing something on it - he mostly plays Pokemon, Lego Batman/Star Wars or Fifa, platform type games. He'll have days where he'll play Sonic Olympics or Mario Kart, but he prefers the more immersive games. My dd doesn't play it much, she's almost 5 and isn't really reading yet, which does restrict her, but she'll play Peppa Pig or Dora for about 15 mins at a time. She'll also sometimes play Mario Kart with her brother, or one of the Littlest Pet Shop games (not reading helps here, as I bought the game on ebay v cheap and it turned out to be the French version, so she makes it up as she goes along!)

I suppose if you are not sure they will be that interested in playing games a lot, then the Touch is the better option as it has the other functionality which they may find useful.

I got an ipod touch recently so that we could put videos on it for DS 3.0 to watch on the plane/on holiday.

He played a Thomas game and some other toddler games - and it kept him busy - he calls it "Mummy's little computer" .

I will add games to it as he gets older and personally think it is a much better and more economical gaming device that a DS.

I really like it for myself though! I like to MN on it and just find that I use the internet more efficiently - i.e. just look at what I was meant to be looking at and I love the apps etc.

I would like an iphone but I have nice Nokia E75 under contract and I decided I didn't want DS using my phone all the time so went for ipod as it is so much cheaper.

However seeing how much easier it is to use internet on it than on my Nokia I decided to find a way to get on line out and about and this is what I did:

Joiku wifi hot spot app I have this app on my Nokia which uses the 3G signal and broadcasts out wifi which the ipod can pick up.

I have unlimed internet on my nokia so no extra cost but it is slower than normal wifi.

The Joiku app is free but that it an unsecure wifi - I am planning to upgrade to the full version which can be secured - this is a few pounds I think.

I think you need a Nokia though and not an iphone.

That is interesting, Tabouleh. Not sure if I want to go to the expense of buying another mobile though.