Did I miss something? I must have because I thought the whole idea of having portables was to, well have portability. You know, devices where you give up some graphics for the ability to play anywhere. So why would anyone want to make an arcade cabinet that plays DS/PSP games?

Just because they can. And I guess that’s good enough reason for any crazy mod. I may not understand why, but I gotta hand it to them, it’s unique. Check out a video below while I scratch and shake my head.

Revenge of the Fallen, the second installment in the Transformers movie franchise, is out this week and there’s no better way to celebrate than by geeking up your DS with these fancy costumes. If you’re into cosplay, maybe you and your DS can match.

The stylus and armor is available in both Bumblebee and Megatron and will cost you $19.99 for both, or $12.99 for either the stylus or the case.

Jodi Wykle just wanted to get her son a new Nintendo DS for his birthday. Sadly, what he got was a box of rocks. The story goes that the kid opened up his gift only to find bunch of stones and some rolled up Chinese newspaper in place of the popular handheld.

Doesn’t that just suck. Maybe the kid had it coming and it’s the work of Santa, who is sadly a few months behind…Or ahead of schedule. Whatever the case, the mom contacted the local Wal-Mart where she bought the box, but reportedly workers told her it wasn’t their problem and that she should contact Nintendo. Big surprise, Nintendo told her the same thing.

When it comes to pure portable gaming consoles there are two choices — the Sony PSP and the Nintendo DS. You can play games on other devices on the go, like the iPhone and iPod touch, but the DS and PSP are the only dedicated portable gaming systems.

Nintendo has announced that it has now shipped 100 million Nintendo DS consoles since the systems were introduced. The original DS launched in 2004 and offered dual screens and voice recognition, something not offered on other portable consoles.

Nintendo has plans to launch a new version of the popular Nintendo DS handheld game console by the end of this year, and it sounds like they are doing more than just adding new colors this time. The new model, yet to be named, will feature a camera and music player, putting itself in competition with a larger number of portable devices and opening up a whole mess of new game possibilities.

This news does not come straight from Nintendo, or at least not yet. It does however come from the Sunday edition of The Nikkei Business Daily, which is a well renowned newspaper in Japan. The new DS from Nintendo is expected to cost around $190 in Japan compared to the $158 price tag on the current DS. The DS goes for $129 currently in the United States.

If you’re looking to use your DS as a sketchbook or drawing pad, here is a DS paint application that turns your system into one. It’s called colors. All you need are a DS-compatible flash cartridge and a microSD card. It’s a pretty basic program, not even having layers or an undo option yet, but it’s still a pretty impressive app.

More features will be on the way soon, such as DS-to-DS painting that will allow collaboration. You can use a full-size stylus if the DS stylus isn’t doing it for you, and also export projects using Wi-Fi or microSD. Looks like you can create some real masterpieces. Check out a video below.

Nintendo must have had some great feedback about the Metallic Rose Nintendo DS that came in the Nintendogs bundle, or it just didn’t do well and they have a lot of extras without the paw print. Either way the company is launching metallic rose as another standalone color for the lineup of DS’s, not to be confuse with the standard pink.

Some celebs by the names of America Ferrera and Carrie Underwood are going to also help push the latest DS in some commercials starting May 19. No pricing has been released but we would guess this model would be priced the same as the other standalone DS hardware systems.

For some reason it just seems nicer to me when I have some type of cradle, dock or stand to charge my gadgets with instead of just a cord and naturally we were excited to see this charging stand for the Nintendo DS Lite. Sure the docks take up more room on my desk and are difficult to take along when you travel, but with them each items has their own neat and special place.

This stand looks to take up a little less space then it could, holding the DS upright on its side instead of flat. It comes in colors of black or white to match the black and white DS’s, and is expected to be available from PlayAsia sometime yet this month for just under $17 USD.

It seems that the days of drivers ed courses and gory safety videos are becoming a thing of the past. Soon teenagers will be able to prepare for the written portion of their driver’s license exam with the Drivers Ed Portable for the Nintendo DS. It was developed by DreamCatcher Games and JoWooD Productions. The idea is to give people a fun way to study the material. Let’s just hope that this title conveys the seriousness of the rules of the road and doesn’t have teens expecting to shoot red or green shells at their opponents.

The game will feature two modes: Test and Train. Test mode will have some sample tests for the written part of the driver’s license examination for all 50 US states, 13 Canadian provinces and territories, as well as Spain, Italy, France, Germany and the United Kingdom. User progress is tracked, so the player will know where they need to improve in order to be successful in the real life test. Train mode will include three fun and educational mini-games. I think it might be a good idea to get off the road very soon. Damn kids and their Nintendo.

We recently told you about Colorware customizing PSPs and the DS, but as cool as it would be to have them pimp your handheld, some people can’t afford it. Gelaskins has a much cheaper alternative.

Gelaskins is known for doing laptops, iPods, phones etc. but they have branched out to the PSP and the DS. For the PSP, they offer free wallpapers to go with the skin. Similar to what they already do for the iPod Touch. On the DS the skin covers both the outside cover and the inside. It will cost you $19.95. On the DS the skin covers both the outside cover and the inside.

Here’s an interesting rumor. Hirokazu Hamamura, the head of Japanese gaming mag Famitsu’s parent company is predicting that Nintendo will unveil the next-generation DS at E3 2008 this summer. Hirokazu has not commented on the hardware or cost though.

If it were anybody else, we’d dismiss the notion, but Hirokazu should be in a position to know. Should we get a new DS, one bit of speculation is that they will do away with the GBA port. And as Kotaku points out, it took two years between the transition from DS to DS Lite, so a new DS this year might just be possible.

DS owners will love this. Guitar antics are not just for those stay-at-home consoles anymore. According to Video Games Zone, the upcoming Guitar Hero on Tour title can be enjoyed with this Guitar Grip.

It might have four buttons instead of five, but who cares! You’ll be rocking out with your DS by holding the DS upright and tapping the buttons of the peripheral in the GBA slot. You can strum the touchscreen for the pickin’. It may not be a full sized Gibson, but hey it’s portable rockin’ at your fingertips. Of course, strumming on a portable of this size may make you look more like Tiny Tim then Slash.

We love our gadgets to come in an assortment of colors. Hopefully they match our style or say something about us. To that end, Colorware will now spruce up Nintendo’s famed DS Lite. If Nintendo doesn’t offer a color to your liking, now’s your chance to do something about it. If you like, you can send in your current unit and receive it back in a whole new outfit. Or you can get a new DS Lite that’s already modified.

One cool aspect is that Colorware lets you paint the main frame, button pad, front port, bottom, L / R buttons and even the stylus separately…for and added fee. You could come up with some very cool and I suspect, also some very putrid combinations. Like the old Knight said to Indy…Choose wisely.

Bimoji Training isn’t a first person shooter, and Mario doesn’t have a damn thing to do with it. What it will do is teach you how to draw Japanese Calligraphy. It will teach you how to properly draw those neat Kanji and Kana characters. The included stylus even looks like a traditional Japanese lettering brush.

It has an emphasis on taking tests and getting feedback from your virtual teacher, so it might have an educational feel. Still, for anyone who has ever wanted to learn the art of Japanese Calligraphy, this will be right down their alley. You can get one for $39.

Many gaming geeks also lead a double life as musicians and they can now prepare to wet their pants, when KORG releases its DS-10 software for the Nintendo DS. KORG has taken the design concept of their MS-10 synthesizer and added a four part drum module, two analog synth simulators, a 6-track/16-step sequencer and made use of the touchscreen. Plus a bunch of other cool features.

Damn, I wish I had some musical talent. It might also help if I lived in Japan, which I don’t. That’s where they will be releasing it at a price of 4,800 yen ($47) this July. You know, back in my day, music geeks always got picked on. Well, now they are having the last laugh as a lot of cool tech is being made just for them. Video below.