cool DS apps

I noticed a couple of interesting DS homebrew apps, more for their potential.

First, there’s a compression utility for the DS that carpman is developing. It seems that there are more things to add, such as .zip support, but it’s usable. Now, you might wonder, as I did, why would you want this? It seems useful if you have limited space on your homebrew cart but don’t want to leave files completely off. You can store several compressed files and then uncompress them as needed. Still, I don’t think it’s a common problem, unless you like to store lots of media files like movies and mp3s on your cart, which I don’t.

The second, much more interesting tool [which isn't worth downloading at this point] is Java for the DS from josath. Why? Well, imagine being able to run existing Java apps ported for the DS. And there are lots of Java apps out there. Unfortunately, I’m not smart to figure out if this includes a Java Virtual Machine [JVM] for the DS which is required to run a Java app. I doubt this means running a Java server on your DS, but it could mean the porting of some smaller, useful apps, such as a code editor, another PIM tool like an address book.

One cool app for the DS is a nice theme builder for owners of the R4 or M3 Simply DS carts. It really simplifies the theme building, much easier than working in Gimp or Photoshop [though you'll probably still need to work in those tools to get your images to look the way you want]. I created the following theme in just a few minutes [and it shows]. With a little more time and better graphics, you can turn out some nice personalized themes.