We have less than two weeks before the Nintendo 3DS will make its way to U.S. and U.K. shores with it’s glasses-free 3D gaming. But there’s one feature you are sure not to like and that is backward-compatibility loading times on old DS games.

The 3DS is cutting edge handheld gaming right? So it should be able to provide faster loading times, even for the old DS games. Nope. Gamespot managed to get its hands on a Japanese 3DS from last month’s launch and they compared the load times of several DS games on the new 3DS with the old DS Lite.

You may be buying a 3DS to play 3D games glasses-free, but the 3DS has another bonus in store for you too. Nintendo has made it tougher than all of their other DS consoles. The 3DS is now easier to open than the DS Lite and it doesn’t have to worry about cracked hinges since there are now 3 layers. This also makes it easier to grip, thus preventing you from dropping the 3DS.

There’s also a new glass-fiber resin to reinforce the 3DS case. Even the insides have been rearranged so that if you drop it, damage will be minimized. Sounds like they went above and beyond with this one. Let’s hope it is as good as it sounds.

Nintendo saw a resurgence in sales during Thanksgiving week. Starting from November 21 and running through this past Sunday, the company shipped 900,000 DS, DSi and DSi XL systems as well as 600,000 Wii units.

It credited the spike to the usual Black Friday push as well as new colors for the devices. The company didn’t say whether or not either figure was a record for the week, but both are well above Nintendo’s average sales results through the rest of the year.

Never heard of R4 cards? R4 game cards are basically blank cards for the Nintendo DS that can be used to load homebrew software on to the DS. They can also be used for pirated Nintendo DS games.

But now the High Court in the UK has just made selling, importing and advertising the sale of R4 cards illegal in the UK. Needless to say, Nintendo is happy about this. They released the following statement:

Thrustmaster is at it again, making the scene with yet another wacky gaming accessory. What looks like a heavy and super thick DS stylus. The reason for that extra girth is that it also doubles as a projector.

It projects a picture of Buzz Lightyear, since Toy Story 3 is all the rage. Don’t worry, it still does touch-input too. The bulb even lets you control where the image is aimed at. Only £4.99 (or $7).

Nintendo Japan announced that they will be unveiling a new 3D version of the Nintendo DS at E3 2010 in June, called the Nintendo 3DS. We’ve found some more details in addition to it being a glasses-free 3D device and backwards-compatible with your DS DSi games.

These are rumors mind you and we probably won’t know for sure until the unveiling in June. There’s talk that the 3DS could have a number of additional features giving new dimensions to the gaming possibilities on the device. These include an accelerometer allowing it to sense tilting and motion, a higher-resolution LCD screen from Sharp, and possibly both the top and bottom displays working together as a single display.

Nintendo has now unloaded a press release in Japan that lets the world know that some new 3D-capable portable gaming is in our future, with an unveiling set for E3 2010 in June. Right now it’s called the 3DS, a glasses-free 3D upgrade to the DS and DSi.

Don’t worry about all of those games that you bought. It will use a “compatible cart” for backwards compatibility. At the moment Nintendo sees the launch of the 3DS sometime around March 2011.

The DS2 development kit is in the hands of a few select companies, the hardware as well. And according to one developer, Nintendo says that the DS2 was the first version, not the final version, nevertheless he’s impressed. Here’s what he had to say:

It’s genuinely the best thing I think I’ve ever worked with. I can tell you that it’s got a ’tilt’ function that’s not dissimilar to iPhone, but does a lot more. We know that The Pokemon Company are getting special attention with it.

EEDAR analyst Jesse Divnich believes that Nintendo will be releasing a new handheld in the next 15 months, and that they will make the announcement within the next eight months. That’s not all that surprising since they have to keep up with all of the other tech out there.

There isn’t any solid evidence here, so take it with the usual grain of salt for now. Though if true, I wonder what the big selling points will be. They have to keep Mario in step with the other handhelds and the DS is in serious need of a refresh.

Satoru Iwata recently announced that the next DS will have a motion sensor, but that isn’t all. He also told Asahi that it will have a higher-resolution screen. An HD screen.

The next DS, after the DSi XL, will feature a 1024 x 768 screen, which close to 720p. Aside from that, Iwata also confirmed that Nintendo is in talks with several networks for connected DS consoles. Obviously they want to compete with iPhone games. Our guess is that an app store will also accompany these upgrades.

You crazy kids and your peripherals and attachments. In my day, we had an Atari 2600 and the only thing attached to it was a joystick. Bah! Now you kids have attachments for everything. Are you playing a game or cleaning with a vacuum? Well, here’s some Band Hero DS attachments.

Players can use the On Tour guitar attachment, sing some vocals on the system’s built-in mic, or use the drum skin attachment above for percussion. However, if you’ve already upgraded to the DSi, then too bad for you. The guitar attachments will not be able to plug into the GBA cartridge port that the system doesn’t have and the drum skin won’t fit on the frame.

Once in a while something truly useful surfaces for the Nintendo DS. This is a blood glucose meter plugs into the DS / DS Lite’s Slot-2. Consistent glucose testing by the diabetic child (or adult?) is rewarded with points in a game that can be used to buy items or unlock levels. Sadly the new DSi doesn’t have a Slot-2, so those kids will be left out.

Bayer’s DIDGET meter was developed in conjunction with Paul Wessel, the parent of a child with type 1 diabetes. Paul noticed that his son was constantly losing his blood glucose meter, but he always knew where to find his Nintendo Game Boy. That inspired Paul and Bayer to work together to develop the first and only blood glucose meter that connects to the Nintendo DS and Nintendo DS Lite.

I like sweets just as much as the next guy, but if you have a case for your DS that makes it look like a chocolate bar, you may have a bit of a candy problem. At least it looks better than the Chocolate iPhone case. And it melts on your portable, not in your hands.

Well, if you are crazy for chocolate, you might as well lay down $10 on the NDS Lite Chocolate Case from gadget4all.com, but it will only make you hungry, so in the end you and your DS will be fatter as a result.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve never had a problem using the Nintendo DS’ D-pad. Apparently some people do, since this gadget now exists. Most people who play the DS Lite won’t find the Cyber Coin Assist necessary. There may however be a few out there who need the extra thumb support.

For those people, putting the Cyber Coin Assist over the D-pad may just make their portable gaming more enjoyable. We don’t have any info on pricing, but it should be out later this July. I’m saying right now that if people are willing to pay more than $2, I’d be really surprised.

The Nintendo DS Classroom will feature around 60 applications which will cover kanji, math, civics, physics and history. These will be available to students in junior high and high school in 2010. The idea is that the students will be able to do their homework, take tests, and even get real-time feedback from the teachers.

The system will be shown off in Osaka at the New Education Expo 2009 this month. This is one DS that you won’t get in trouble with at school, but it’s one that you will not be thrilled to use.