Nintendo DS and DSi are both great gaming platforms made better by homebrew software. A common misconception is that homebrew software is only used by hackers and pirates to play illegal and pirated content. Despite the poor reputation, homebrew software continues to prevail on the DS and DSi as a legal and ethical way to expand the functionality of your Nintendo DS and DSi. Many different software solutions are released via homebrew that enable the DS and the DSi to complete more functions that are perfectly legal and ethical.

The DS homebrew community in the United Kingdom is bumming! London's high court has just made R4 flash cards illegal. The R4 flash card cannot be sold, advertised or imported into the United Kingdom. What will the UKers do without their R4 cards? Are all DS flash cards illegal or is it just the R4? R4s are so old, people should really be using a more modern flash card like the Supercard DSTWO anyways.

The R4 Nintendo DS flash carts have been changing the way gamers view their DS since 2007. With the aid of Micro SD cards for storage, the Nintendo DS finally lived up to its portable nature. Instead of carrying around dozens of cartridges, you could store all your games, software and media files onto one, tiny chip. As Micro SD cards progressed, so did flash cart technology.

The Nintendo DSi is now available in the USA and it seems like the flash cards didn't take much time to follow. There are now 4 flash cards that work with the Nintendo DSi: R4DSi, DSTTi, Ez Flash Vi and Acekard 2i.

So here we go again - Nintendo just released the new Nintendo DSi in Japan and there's news flying around that it has already been "cracked". History has proven that handhelds are relatively easy to crack so this came as no surprise. Acekard is the first company to release a storage device that'll work with the new Nintendo DSi - the Acekard 2i :) The Acekard 2i (AK2i) is just like all the other storage devices (R4DS, DSTT, etc) in that it'll allow DSi owners to run homebrew and backup their original cartridges onto a microSDHC card.

Are you sick of lugging around all of your Nintendo DS cartridges? Do you wish you can put all of your cartridges on one Nintendo DS cartridge? Wish no longer - the iTouchDS will allow you to copy all of your DS cartridges onto ONE cartridge! Like the R4DS/DSTT/N5DS and the other DS storage devices, the iTouchDS is fully compatible with microSD and microSDHC cards up to 32GB. Not only can you combine all of your game cartridges together, but the iTouchDS also plays MP3s, reads TXT books and run a bunch of homebrew applications.  If you're looking for a good all-in-one DS solution, then the iTouchDS is what you need for your Nintendo DS.

Looking for info on the new Acekard 2i for the Nintendo DSi? Click here.

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The AceKard 2 is the newest Nintendo DS storage device by AceKard. Unlike the AceKard R.P.G, the AceKard 2 supports SDHC microSD with no memory limit! You can get a 32gb microSD if you want to drop that kind of cash -- Most of the time, a 2gb microSD will do the job as it'll hold around 50 games.

It seems every time we blink there's a new Nintendo DS storage device that emerges. This time the device is called the N5DS Revolution for DS. The N5DS site shares the same design as the R4DS, but we're not sure if they're the same company. The N5DS seems to also use the same firmware as the R4DS. We've put in an order just to see what this device is all about.

The M3DS Real is another slot-1 storage device for the Nintendo DS. It's similiar to the R4DS and DSTT whereas it will allow you to play DS Roms, MP3s, Videos, ebooks, etc..

Team R4 has finalized the newest version of the R4DS and has released it into the wild! The version 3 of the R4DS is set to be released on March 10, 2008 and will support microSDHC cards and multi-language support! This means you'll be able to buy a 8gb microSDHC if you want. This top of the line DS SLOT-1 cartridge is an amazing little device that will allow you to play movies, mp3s, read comic books, surf the web, cheat codes and many more! We've put our pre-order in for this device and will write a review for it once it arrives. If you need more info on the R4DS, read our previous post on the v2 of the R4DS.

It seems to be getting harder to find the R4DS - Revolution for DS these days. So we found the DSTT! The DSTT does everything the R4DS does, plus some. One of the main differences is the DSTT supports SDHC microSD cards. The DSTT also seems a bit cheaper as it comes bundle with your choice of microSD. Here are some good deals on the DSTT:

We finally received our R4 Revolutions for DS today! After playing the R4 for a few hours, we decided the default skin had to be replace with something more Mario friendly. :) Here are a few skins we slapped together. All of the skins below are available for download.