I’m working on some "sekrit" stuff right now and need some help from my readers. What I’m looking for is some backdrops for a WFC ID Card system. Some ideas as to what they look like:

As well as the template for how they’re setup:

Now for some notes about the template for those of you who’d like to make some images for me.

• Image size is 300*150px
• Card label area – 157,66 @ 143*84px
• “NAME” label – 166,75
• “NAME” value – 180,87
• “FRIEND CODE” label – 166,99
• “FRIEND CODE” value – 180,111
• “CLAN” label – 166,123
• “CLAN” value – 180,135
• Optional WFC logo (will be placed on my end – 35*35 – grey square on template) – 160,30
• PNG is a must, alpha-blended PNG is suggested (for overlay support) but not required

That should be enough to get you started. If you have something to submit, please reply to this post.

So now NoE has joined into the fray in securing Wi-Fi hotspots at heavily-travelled places. So far, the UK is the first in Europe to get its own set of Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection hotspots. The list of locations that DS users should be able to go to includes:

• McDonald’s
• Coffee Republic
• Hilton Hotels
• Ramada Jarvis Hotels
• Road Chef
• Welcome Break
• First Great Western railway stations
• more than 25 student unions
• city centre BT payphones
• airports
• football stadiums
• The British Library
• Canary Wharf

Quite a nice list of places. Of course, most of these were probably open access points anyway but at least Nintendo is attempting to use them.

Taken from an interview with Jim Merrick (Marketing director of NOE) (en español):
Sin embargo, si lo que queremos es competir contra nuestros amigos, sí que podemos chatear, porque es seguro, cómodo y es alguien al que le hemos dado nuestro identificador. Cada Nintendo DS viene marcada con un código MAC, al que se accede con facilidad desde las opciones WiFi de la consola. Este código será el que tengamos que facilitar a la gente contra la que queramos competir para poder chatear con ellos y establecer partidas mucho más completas y elaboradas.

Real translation c/o Icythus @ #dsdev EFNet:
Nevertheless, if what we want is to compete with our friends, we can chat because it is secure, comfortable, and it’s with someone we have given our identifier to. Each DS comes marked with a MAC code, which you can access easily from the console’s wifi options. This is the code you have to give to people you want to compete with so you can chat with them and establish much more complete and elaborate matches.

Nintendo wants to make its network available to all who have some sort of Internet connection, be it cable, DSL or some other broadband connection. On top of that, they want to make it easy to use for even the most inept computer users. To make up for the “intelligence” of some of the users out there, they’re going to release a USB-based Wi-Fi dongle.

Source: Nintendo

From what I’ve read, this will be from the partnership of Nintendo & Buffalo Tech. I guess it makes sense for us homebrew devs seeing that it’s a Ralink chipset. This should be fairly interesting to play with from the dev standpoint.

Of course, you also have the pairing of Nintendo/McDonald’s/Wayport to provide wireless access points inside all participating McDonald’s restaurants. While I see this as a good start, not everyone wants to go to McD’s so some other outlet may be necessary.

Source: McDonald’s & Nintendo

Sure, you can use any hotspot you’d like (with minimal setup) but the advantage of the McDonald’s ones will most likely be from their use of Buffalo’s AOSS technology in the games as well as the hotspots. One-touch connections & security are very important to Nintendo because they pride themselves on using technology that makes it easier for everyone to use. However, they need to make this infrastructure a little more widespread. Just targeting McDonald’s won’t fully expose one-touch connections to everyone and will be underused unless you either go to McDonald’s or buy the Wi-Fi dongle from Nintendo.com.

Source: apreche @ flickr

Of course, this leads to something else Nintendo should take advantage of. While they’re going to have an existing Wi-Fi infrastructure, this should give them the added bonus of offering demo downloads to their users. A network similar to the DS Download Service (Touch!Try!DS) could be very beneficial to them. Not only will this allow them to send the user demos of upcoming content, they can also offer exclusive games (eg. Game & Watch, Nintendo arcade classics ala Punch Out, etc.). This would aid them in getting user feedback in how well their service performs before they launch the Revolution and its own content distribution system.

Source: Nintendo.co.jp

As an added bonus, this would enable more outlets for Wi-Fi play: toss download kiosks into your major retailers (in the US: Wal-Mart, Target, Best Buy, "EBStop" – pairing of EB Games & GameStop, Toys R Us, etc.) which also double as hotspots for connecting to the Wi-Fi network. Since said hotspots are just Wi-Fi, this could also enable those using “inferior” *coughpspcough* portables to connect to other users around the world. A major drawing point when trying to bring customers to their stores. Of course, it may create a camper/flashmob mentality where people just go there to play and sit there instead of buying games. At least it’s exposing the network to potential new users, especially if they can open their newly-purchased DS unit and be able to try a wireless game right away.

Nintendo: your current and potentially new users are calling you. Make your Wi-Fi network easy to use, easy to access and capable of giving us demoable content. We will be eternally grateful and buy your Revolution when it comes out. ^_^