It was revealed today that Nintendo has chosen ACCESS' NetFront web browser to be the internet browser for the 3DS (to be available in late May). I will I personally am not sure how to take this. NetFront was the terribly slow browser present on the PSP and the PS3, so after getting used to Opera's fast browsing experience (especially on PC), I'm hoping that this browser won't be like its predecessors in terms of speed. However, the browser present on Sony's recent consoles were-more or less-older versions of NetFront, so hopefully Nintendo will go with a modfied version of the recent build of the browser, which ACCESS' homepage says has an engine 20 times faster than the previous version.
For visual comparison.
Here are some of the features newest build of NetFront (v4.1):
High Speed JavaScript Engine
{Supported Standards}
Compliant with the OMA Browsing 2.3 specification
{Markup}
cHTML, HTML 5 (Partial), HTML 4.01, XHTML1.1, XHTML Mobile Profile 1.2, WML 1.3, SMIL 2.1, RSS feed (RSS 0.9/0.91/0.92/1.0/2.0, Atom 0.3/1.0)
* ECMAScript 262 3rd Edition
* ECMAScript Mobile Profile
* WMLScript
* DOM Level 1, Level 2
* Dynamic HTML
* Ajax (XMLHttpRequest)
{Protocols}
* HTTP 1.0/1.1
* WAP
* IPv4/IPv6 Dual TCP/IP
{Security}
* SSL3/TLS1.0
* Crypto modules
{Memory Requirements}
* ROM: 2MB-4MB (Kernel +SLIM)
* RAM: 2MB- (Depending on complexity of content viewed)
{Main Features}
* Tabbed Multi-Window support
* Column Rendering
* Stick Navi
* Swift Navi
* PagePilot (Smooth pan and zoom navigation)
* Visual Bookmarks
* Virtual Pointer (Pointing device emulation)
* Smart-Fit Rendering™
* Rapid-Render™
* Intelligent Frame Handling (Select and zoom individual frames)
* Continuously adjustable Zooming/Animated Zoom
* Offline Browsing and Page/Image Saving
* Word Wrap, Line boundary character check
* Streaming Download
* DirectConnect (Secure monitoring and control of devices from the browser)
* Intelligent Pop-Up Blocker
* Integrated Internet Search Menu
* Auto Form-Filling
* Authentication Manager
* International Domain Name
Flash®, Flash® Lite™
NetFront Browser provides a ready-to-use interface to integrate Adobe® Flash® Player supporting Flash content embedded within a Web page.
Now remember, it's highly likely that the 3DS won't get all of these features intact, but if it can keep most of them, we may be in for a good browsing experience, sans-Opera. The possible inclusion of Flash Lite still bugs me a bit, since it killed the PSP's loading. I really hope they go with HTML5 instead, which would still allow YouTube support.
The verdict is still out on the new browser, but hopefully ACCESS and Nintendo can give us the solid internet browsing experience we'd all like.
We'll know more in the coming months.
By @Skittles
@Star Shadow
@The Ram
