If you can get past the boring first half of the above clip, at the 1:15 mark, you’ll see some remarkable technology demonstrated with the DSi’s camera — the ability to attach cat whiskers and ears to your subject, no matter how hard they try to evade your system’s gaze!

The DSi’s camera is a lot like the always vigilant Eye of Sauron, except instead of piercing your soul with its cold stare, it makes you look like a cute kitten. Also, check out the new music visualizer around the 1:35 mark.

Since we’re talking about the DSi — and because you likely don’t want to see another DSi post pop up right after this one — I’d like to note that, yes, I’m one of those fools who put in a $300 ($325 with s/h) preorder for the system.

That sounds like a crazy amount of cash to spend on a somewhat region-locked device, especially in this economy, but it seems more sensible when you consider the following:

• the strong yen (and declining dollar)
• some Japanese shops ran out of preorder tickets within 20 minutes of making them available
• Rakuten’s online shop has the DSi listed at $321, plus shipping and handling
• middleman World Select Market is selling the systems for $393 through Amazon Japan
• in addition to buying the systems, import shops need to pay homeless people (and Chinese nationals) to fill up launch lines, then pay to have the product shipped to their warehouse before they can send it to you
• the DSi’s expected U.S. release is six months away

That all said, I still feel like a guy who does not make wise decisions about spending money.

[Via Siliconera]

tags / cat / dsi / import / upgrade / visualizer / ec