Nintendo's New Network Appliance

As great a device as the Nintendo DS, I've always found the system's finnicky online support to be supremely maddening--I'm simply not willing to downgrade my network security, or buy a special USB dongle, for the sake of trading Pokémon online from the comfort of my own home. Taking another page from the Apple playbook, Nintendo is looking to remove another non-Nintendo variable from the networking equation with its own wi-fi router that guarnatees compatability with both the DS and the Wii, though ironically, from what I could glean from a machine-translated version of the official site, it doesn't look like Nintendo is quite as confident about its router's compatability with PCs.

Based on the nondescript appearance of the router itself, I initially assumed that this was the product of some no-name Hong Kong electronics manufacturer simply looking to cash in on some loose association with the Wii, but no, this is in fact a proper Nintendo device. I guess this could be a useful bit of gear for someone who, for whatever reason, has a Wii and/or a DS and wants to get online, but who doesn't want to fuss around with a PC, which frankly seems like a pretty rare scenario outside of Japan. Actually, that might explain why the Nintendo router is currently only slated to hit Japan on September 18 for 5800 yen ($53).

For whatever reason, all this reminds me of the totally buck-wild rumors that were flying around right before Nintendo unveiled the GameCube, claiming that it was going to be called the StarCube, and that the associated online service would be called Star Road. Seriously, how cool would that have been?