SAN FRANCISCO--Nintendo introduced the gaming world to the Nintendo DSi on Thursday at a media event in San Francisco.

The next-generation DSi, unveiled here, sports 2 cameras–one on the back, facing away from the user, and one facing toward the user.

The DSi will feature internal flash memory for downloadable games, which will be available through the Nintendo DSi Shop. The first games available will be redesigned Brain Age games that will take advantage of the new features. The DSi will also allow for music playback through an added SD slot and will support the AAC format.

The features will work in tandem with built-in software that will allow the user to control pitch, speed, and apply filters to the music and to any files recorded from the DS’s microphone. Photos taken by the camera can also be edited.

Nintendo of America President and COO Reggie Fils-Aime admitted at the conference that while the camera and the music player functionalities won’t be the best out there, it will allow for “new forms of entertainment.”

Furthermore, Wi-Fi connectivity will be faster, and the DSi will come with a much-improved version of the problematic Opera Internet browser released last year. 

The latest version of the DS will expand the screens slightly while slimming it down, making it smaller than the DS Lite, though at the cost of losing the Game Boy Advance slot. 

While the DSi will ship in Japan later this year for approximately $180, the new handheld will not be available in the U.S. until 2009 due to still-high demand for the DS Lite. The DS has slipped behind the PSP in Japanese sales charts.