It comes as no surpise, Nintendo have unveiled the new edition to the DS family, now in 3D!

We get up close and personal…

The company that Mario built is trumping up how superior its glasses-free technology is better than others, “a solution that lets you take 3D gaming along with you wherever you go” according to Reggie. The upper screen is surprisingly only 3.5-inches, not the wider that we’d expected. There is a slider on the side that lets you tweak the 3D effect, seemingly enabling you to adjust its depth based on your distance from the screen – or turn it off entirely. As with the current DS, the bottom is a touchscreen, and is not 3D.

That’s what looks to be an analog stick on the side there, as well, that Nintendo is calling a “Slide Pad.” There is a gyro, motion sensor, it’s compatible with DSi games, and has two cameras enabling 3D photos. Nintendo is also talking up partnerships including Disney, games that are said to be playable today, at the show, with one of the highlights being a new Kid Icarus game which looks quite action-packed to say the least — and has better graphics than most of the Wii titles Nintendo has shown thus far. Nintendo has mentioned the 3DS will have the “biggest launch support ever” from third party devs, and a 3D Nintendogs should be a huge seller – if only because it has cats too. Other games include Madden, Ninja Gaiden, Resident Evil, a Batman title, Splinter Cell, and, finally, a Metal Gear Solid entry.

Nintendo is also talking about how the system will seek out WiFi hotspots or other 3DS systems “without you knowing,” which sounds a bit ominous, to be honest. Systems can communicate regardless of which games are being played. It can even pull in new DLC directly from other consoles, all without a monthly fee.

No info on release date as yet but stay tuned, we’ll keep you posted.

The Nintendo 3DS may not be on store shelves for long, or at all, when the company launches an app store to go along with it. With portable gaming on the iPod, iPhone and iPad growing in popularity by the day, the Kyoto-based video game giant appears poised to combat their newest threat by taking a page from Apple’s book and using it against them.

Chief Operating Officer of Capcom, Haruhiro Tsujimoto, says that his company is greatly anticipating a downloadable software service for the most successful portable gaming device on the planet. Notes Tsujimoto, “What we’re looking forward to is the offering of a new business model. Nintendo has been in the hardware business for a long time and I believe they are looking closely at Apple’s recent success.”

And why wouldn’t they? As of March this year, Apple has claimed 5 percent of the market share of mobile gaming in just one year and only looks to be getting started. To fend off possibly their most intimidating competitor to date, Nintendo is expected to revamp their existing DSiWare service. DSiWare has not by any stretch been a failure for Nintendo, though a simpler means for developers to upload and distribute their apps is expected with a service that may have already been spotted weeks earlier.

Nintendo recently secured a trademark on the name “3DSWare”, and while there is no confirmation that this is in fact the very same app store concept that Tsujimoto was referring to, one must believe where there is smoke, there is fire. Nintendo often keeps things simple, and aren’t known for going out of their way to keep their intentions hidden from the public. What remains unclear is just what type of software Nintendo would make available and, as usual, a pricing model.

Speculation may be for a limited time only, with Nintendo expected to make announcements that cover any and all things 3DS at the upcoming Electronic Entertainment Expo. E3 is set to fire up on June 15 at the Los Angeles Convention Center.