Nintendo’s new DS revision, curiously called the DSi (speculation has the marketing department shooting down the original iDS name for fear of repercussion from a certain media player company), has just been given an official release date: April 5. Retail price has been set at $169.99, and will net you a new pair of 0.3 MP cameras (one inside, one out), as well as an interactive voice recorder and an SD card slot, which will inevitably be exploited by hackers to perhaps forgo game carts like the R4 completely. Other changes include larger screens (3.25″ vs 3.00″), extra brightness settings but reduced battery life (14 hours vs 19 hours), increased processing power (133MHz vs 67MHz), more RAM (16mb vs 4mb), and the removal of the front slot for GBA games, which removes backwards compatibility and connectivity with accessories and games that utilized the slot, such as the Rumble Pak and Guitar Hero: On Tour.

The DSi also brings the addition of DSiWare downloadables, likely to be applications like the ones found in Apple’s App Store. It’s unclear what will be available at launch, or for that matter, what will eventually become available, but with this sort of online feature being made accessible, Nintendo may have just taken another giant stride ahead of the PSP.

More: Nintendo Press Release