This is George from iSmartDS. Yes, the iSmartDS that everyone was talking and guessing and laughing about.
I have been reading the posts here since our site (www.ismartds.com) got spotted and mentioned by GBAtemp member. We had not made any statements here yet because we still had few issues that we needed to take care before we could say anything here.
Now that pretty much everything is being settled, we are here to explain and answer some of the issues people had been asking about.
About our new flashcart (iSmart Premium), here are answers to some of the questions asked.
iSmart Premium is not:
1. This is not one of the cheap R4 clones, we can assure you that.
2. This is not another SCDS2. It does not use powerful CPU and it does not cost as much as SCDS2.
iSmart Premium is at the same level of SC DS1, M3i Zero or EZ Vi. However, it does provide some additional features like:
1. Anti-Piracy Auto Detection. I know SCDS2 was the first one to come out with this, but being the second and offering it at reasonable price is not that bad in our opinion.
2. Enhanced hardware to make it more compatible with wider range of memory cards. Some flashcarts had problems with low speed cheap memory cards. We made some enhancement to the hardware so it is more compatible with the memory cards out there.
3. The kernel source code and SDK will be released to public. This may not mean anything to most of the users, but to some developers, this may be big for them. There are many C, C++ programmers out there who love open source projects. They can take the code to modify it to any way they like it. You like the CycloDS Evolution GUI? you can change the GUI yourself. You do not have to know the game level. You can make changes to UI only without knowing anything of games or our SDK. For those who are into games, the SDK will be available as well. You can totally rewrite it. Write something like AKAIO for Acekard 2 if you wish.
We know we are a little bit late in coming out with iSmart Premium. Everyone is expecting another flashcart to come out to compete with SCDS2 or to offer something that SCDS2 does not offer. However, we do offer another option for the users and we do believe the open source will attract some developers into the flashcart development.
We are also in the process of developing a new flashcart that is at SCDS2 level which will provide direct video playing by using powerful CPU. However, we are still months away from completing the project. More details will be available later.
Our web site is not completely finished yet. However, it was spotted before we would like people to know about us. our designer had a spelling error and members made fun of it here. I would like to apologize for the mistake first and also to let everyone know that it has been corrected. We will be more careful with the contents of our site since a lot of people know our site already.
We will be offering samples for reviewers in few weeks. For those of you who had done reviews in the past, please contact us. Here are some of the information we will need from you so we can decide if we can offer the sample to you.
1. Let us know your screen name at GBAtemp so we know if you are reputable member here.
2. Show us the reviews you had done in the past so we can be sure you are not someone who just likes to have a free sample of flashcart.
3. We prefer both written reviews and video reviews (youtube). Please let us know the reviews you had done in the past.
4. If you own your own web site for your reviews, please let us know your domains.
5. Retailers who like to have a sample before you decide to carry iSmart Premium are welcome to contact us too.
Our contact email is
[email protected]. Feel free to drop us an email for any questions or comments. We are open to any suggestions.
We will also look for developers (in C++) who may be interested in taking up our source code and modify it. Developers who can show us some evidence that you are really into it and that you are experienced C++ programmer, we will consider offering you the free samples as well.
Free samples will be limited in quantity. The final price for iSmart Premium has not been set yet, but it is definitely in the range of the flashcarts like DS1 or M3i0.
Thank you for everyone's interest in iSmart Premium. We certainly hope that we can continue to come out with new products to help the community. We are a new company but we are not new to flashcarts. iSmart Premium will not be the only product we have. We will be here for long time and hopefully we will have something for 3DS in the future as well.
George at iSmartDS.com