For the curious: what does the "i" in "DSi" mean anyway?

Posted Feb 22, 2009 at 9:18AM by QJ Staff Listed in: Nintendo DS Tags: Nintendo

Nintendo DSi - Image 1

Since it seems to be a very slow news day at video game land, let's answer a question I'm sure even the mildly curious among you asked. What does the "i" in Nintendo's new DSi stand for? No, it's not because they were jealous of the iPod. Here's what a Nintendo rep said when asked the question point blank:

The Â“iÂ” is symbolic of the subject Â“IÂ” and its personal aspect.
Plus, the addition of two cameras gives the system its own Â“eyeÂ” on things.
Nintendo hope that the Nintendo DSi becomes more than a game system and more of a personal tool to enrich our daily lives.

If it was anything other than a Nintendo rep, I'd think this guy was smoking something. They did the same thing with the Wii after all, if anyone actually remembers that its original name was supposed to be Revolution. They renamed it to the absolutely non-phallic name because

Wii sounds like 'we', which emphasizes that the console is for everyone. Wii can easily be remembered by people around the world, no matter what language they speak. No confusion. No need to abbreviate. Just Wii.

And that completes today's absolutely useless - but moderately interesting enough for dinner talk but not as pick-up lines - trivia.

Via GoNintendo

45 Jumps Another PSP exploit found, works on firmware 6.20 and all PSP models

32 Jumps Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars announced for Autumn 2010

29 Jumps God Eater has extremely customer-friendly shops

28 Jumps Kojima: Peace Walker will retain classic MGS fun

28 Jumps Square Enix profits up almost 50 percent, FFXIII sells 1.8M units in Japan

26 Jumps Nomura to make Kingdom Hearts III a reality 'as quickly as possible'

25 Jumps GT5 release date spotted at Target?

23 Jumps On Shelves This Week: February 7 - 13, 2010

23 Jumps PSP homebrew - PMPlayer Advance v3.0.8

22 Jumps Spike TV casting call for God of War reality show

Best prices available for:

Mario Kart for DS

Price Range:
$14.00 - $55.00

at 10 Stores

Compare Prices

Pokemon Platinum for DS

Price Range:
$30.00 - $55.00

at 9 Stores

Compare Prices

Super Mario for DS

Price Range:
$29.00 - $110.00

at 6 Stores

Compare Prices

Comments

# DS Idiots — Justingraziano 2009-02-22 05:20

LOL! No actually, its supposed to be yet another Apple rip off (stealing from Apple's i products). Everyone does. Their a bunch of idiots.

# ... — thompo555 2009-02-22 06:24

try reading the post properly..

# . — DarkXCloud 2009-02-22 07:11

And I thought it was "i" for eyeball because it'll be eyeballing you for your entire life.

# .. — thompo555 2009-02-22 07:30

sounds kinda creepy

# Who gives a FCK? — BIH 2009-02-22 08:32

And its they're not their :)

# "i" for Idiotic!... — PSPMAN90 2009-02-22 11:12

Or even better, "i" for imitation!

"Nintendo hope that the Nintendo DSi becomes more than a game system and more of a personal tool to enrich our daily lives."

Like the PSP does with their homebrews (PSPBlind and etc)

and Apple Iphone and Ipods does with his personal Phone that do more than just a phone can do....

Yep, "i" for imitation win by default!

Even tho this DS would be better than the 2 failure prototypes they did to compete with the PSP and still this DSi will be the actual competitor for the PSP , as in Multimedia features, still doubt they improve much more graphics than PSP.... But PSP2 its comming his way and, this wouldn't beat his amazing technology!

WOOT!

PSPMAN90

# . — Redizon 2009-02-22 14:11

I always assume "i" means it has a camera. Like how nokia added the "i" to their early camera phone models.

# lol — Navani 2009-02-22 14:15

I remember when they announced the Wii as the official console name. So many jokes about it flew around in school, and everyone said that Revolution was better. Now we all accept Wii as a name. And it is pretty easy to say.

DSi .. lol .. I thought it meant interactive or something, to emphasize the interactive..ness.. heh

# well — papakep 2009-02-22 16:14

silly me for thinking it stood for a word that started with i

# iDS — Yuuki_Minoru 2009-02-22 21:06

in short, yes, its ripping off the mac "i"

its the same reason macintosh gave for their use of "i"

it should be called the iDS to complete the procedure.

# i — saldude2 2009-02-22 23:49

I dont know why everryone is comparing "i" to ipod

Apple just wasn't creative enough to give their products a name and just put i nfront of everything

# ... — Silver-Tiger 2009-02-23 03:05

"DSi .. lol .. I thought it meant interactive or something, to emphasize the interactive..ness.. heh"

I thought the same thing, but I guess that would be just too easy ;)

# Ok, its a new handheld, but... — natalic 2009-02-23 06:05

Are they going to make better games? Make better DLC? Make anything we haven't seen yet?! Console systems these days are looking a little dry too. I would like to see some old school games like Donkey Kong and the like. I have played the new mario brothers, I liked it. I expect to see some stupid games like we had on the EyeToy. I could be wrong, but we'll see.

Refresh comments list

Add comment

JComments

The QJ.net Network
Site	Feed
QJ.NET	RSS
Nintendo DS	RSS
PlayStation 3	RSS
PSP Updates	RSS
Wii	RSS
Xbox 360	RSS
MMORPG	RSS
Personal Computer Games	RSS
iPhone - iPod Touch	RSS
QJ.NET Forums	RSS

Add QJ.NET

User Favorites - February

Most Commented
Another PSP exploit found,..	(134)
QuickJump QuickLines Tekke..	(80)
Sega goes back to making c..	(67)
Peter Dille: Sony "activel..	(53)
Mass Effect 2 PS3 rumor re..	(29)
Sony quarterly financials:..	(27)
Nippon Ichi operating prof..	(25)
Square Enix: FF7 remake "a..	(23)
Heavy Rain graphics "even..	(23)
Nomura to make Kingdom Hea..	(23)
2K Marin: Console wars is..	(22)
Dead or Alive: Paradise is..	(22)
Gran Turismo 5 set for thi..	(21)
BioWare: There is no Mass..	(21)
Project Needlemouse unveil..	(20)
Namco Bandai posts huge lo..	(20)
Microsoft pulling the plug..	(19)
Kojima: Peace Walker will..	(19)
Fallout: New Vegas drops t..	(18)
Casual games are no threat..	(18)
ESRB pulls down Dead or Al..	(18)
GT5 release date spotted a..	(17)
Final Fantasy Versus XIII..	(17)
This is what a Natal proto..	(16)
Final Fantasy XIII Xbox 36..	(16)

User Favorites - February

Top Jumps
Another PSP exploit found,..	(351)
Sega goes back to making c..	(96)
gpSP v0.9 for the PSP	(90)
Battlefield: Bad Company 2..	(79)
Custom Firmware 5.50GEN-D3..	(68)
Dead or Alive: Paradise is..	(68)
Nomura to make Kingdom Hea..	(54)
PSPlayerMT For PSP - Direc..	(54)
Redsn0w v0.9.2 now availab..	(44)
Resident Evil 5 patch 1.03..	(43)
God Eater has extremely cu..	(41)
dTunes v2.6 - download and..	(38)
Brock Lesnar is the face o..	(37)
Mass Effect 2 PS3 rumor re..	(36)
PlayStation Eye drivers fo..	(36)
Final Fantasy Versus XIII..	(35)
PSP homebrew - NesterJ 1.1..	(34)
Custom Firmware 5.50GEN-D3..	(33)
PSP homebrew - PSP Filer v..	(33)
Lego Star Wars III: The Cl..	(32)
Project Needlemouse unveil..	(30)
Sony quarterly financials:..	(30)
Heavy Rain graphics "even..	(30)
PSP Homebrew Weekend Warri..	(29)
The Tester coming to the P..	(29)

Username:

Password:


Remember Me?

Forgot password
New user registration