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.

We told you about Ubisoft’s My Weight Loss Coach for the DS in February. Now more info is becoming available on the pedometer that goes with it. Unlike Wii-Fit, this will allow you to get some exercise outdoors.

Just carry it around with you all day, whether jogging or walking, then plug it in to your DS’s GBA slot to download data. Motivation is up to you. After all, quitting is as easy as shoving your DS in a deep dark corner somewhere and forgetting about your goal. Plus it’s easy to get distracted by Mario Kart or Metroid. Just an FYI, the guy in the pic doesn’t need this, he’s not fat. But he could use some Just For Men hair coloring. He does look happy about his little toy though.

Well, nobody can say there is a shortage of designs for the Nintendo DS and it looks like there is another, coming to the folks in Japan anyway, featuring some of the Bape Milo characters on the cover. In fact two new models featuring the characters are expected to be released on April 1 in Japan, one in white and one in gold, both riddled with pictures of the characters. We’ll have to add this to some of our favorite including the bright yellow Pikachu DS and the Zelda DS, but not so much this bedazzled design.

It’s nice to see video game companies getting more into fitness, since they are responsible for much of the lard on couches across America. Ubisoft just announced a new title that should be available this summer called My Weight Loss Coach. The game is targeted at both casual and overweight players. The idea is to use customizable coaching sessions and a pedometer accessory to track physical activity.

The pedometer can be synced to the DS, and will help you keep track of daily physical effort, but it also goes a step further, helping you balance your food intake.

Engineering students from France combined the two best things in the world, Nintendo and robots. The Pekee Robot pictured is controlled using a Nintendo DS Lite. The idea is a control rig based on Nintendo’s portable console. This enables wireless command of the bot with the D-pad, touchscreen, motion sensors, and stylus and also a target mode modeled after Super Mario 64 DS, as well as voice commands with system’s mic.

Check out the video after the jump. I’m sure it has a long way to go in some respects, but the robot is very responsive. It won’t be long at all before we get the nightmare scenario of invading robot hordes, their geek masters controlling them wirelessly from atop high towers, laughing maniacally while they contemplate an end to their virginity and the beginning of their reign. I for one welcome our new geek masters and hope I will be spared.

LeapFrog has a new handheld learning/gaming system, the Didj. It should retail for $89.99 when it arrives this summer. LeapFrog isn’t saying that the device is Nintendo DS competitor, but it happens to be aimed toward 6 to 10 year-olds, a demographic that the DS currently rules with an iron fist.

With the Didj they want to up the gaming and graphics while integrating the fancy learning stuff. It’s sure to be a hit with parents who would rather see their kids being educated rather then simply guiding Mario on his latest quest. The Didj has no Wi-Fi connection but it should work with the LeapFrog Connect Application, which lets children customize game content via USB.

Gametech’s Sound Shell DLite not only gives your sound a boost, but it ensconces your DS in a bulky armor cocoon that makes it look like it’s ready for war. It snaps on around your DS Lite and gives it a serious upgrade in the audio department. The bulk is due to the amplified speakers and the battery compartment that powers them.

Still, it will protect your DS nicely in addition to the sound benefits, so I guess the added size is a trade off. It will cost you about $30. Forget the fact that it’s got a sort of…orthopedic shoe type of fugliness going on. I like the concept, hopefully they can streamline it just a tad.

It sure is looking that way. Rumor is that the Shiny golden DS Lite you see in the lower left of the picture may be headed for retail store shelves soon. That shouldn’t be a big surprise since we are entering into the holiday season. Plus, Nintendo marketing knows that we like shiny objects. Shiny gold objects, especially. Seriously, we aren’t that hard to please.

The above photograph is believed to have been taken at the Nintendo World Store when “Phantom Hourglass” launched. To make things even more interesting, Engadget is claiming that a certain individual is saying that his company has received orders from Nintendo to design graphics for a “BOX, SYST GOLD W/ZELDA: HOUR USG.” Who knows if this is all true. And if it is true, it could just be a limited run for a contest. But since Santa is coming soon, I’m betting an official announcement from Nintendo will proceed him.

Pikachu, one of the most popular Pokemon characters, will be gracing the cover of some select Nintendo DS Lite’s along with spreading its bright Yellow color on the whole system, even the stylus.

This Pikachu Nintendo DS Lite is going to available in limited numbers in Japan, but even the Japanese will have some trouble getting their hands on one. Potential recipients will need to bring themselves to the Pokemon Center in Japan and enter their name in for a lottery drawing. The lucky winners then don’t exactly win a Pikachu DS, but they do win the opportunity to buy one for 16,800 yen ($138). That seems like a little much, but I guess its no worse than people standing in line for hours to get a Wii.

IGN via Engadget