@rjejr LOL, I've had a worse time trying to remember yours to tag you. I always transpose a letter somewhere. Maybe it's another symptom of Nitneod!

You're right about the whole web browser/facebook thing. I can see why they don't want to get into supporting facebook and browsers, but removing the miiverse browser, etc kills lookup. Then again, Sony invented the "Share Button(TM)", who in their right mind uses the PS4 browser to look up ANY of those websites? Nobody seems to like viewing content others post to socials, they just like posting their own, just KNOWING everyone else is waiting to see theirs! "Ohh, look at my awesome stats, I should post this to twitter so everyone in the world can be amazed! Ewww, Dick keeps posting screenshots of him beating game bosses. Like anyone CARES?!"

There's something of a fun irony with: "I'm not a big user on there - only on my 7" tablet where I use Instagram, FB, Twitter and my web browser ALL THE TIME "

I think that's Nintendo's point. That's what MOST of their potential market thinks. In 2017 that's the normal reaction across most people. Which is exactly why they can comfortably say "use your phone/tablet/laptop like everybody else. That's what those machines are meant for." I do feel for the folks that were using the WiiU as their tablet though. It's not a big group at all, but I could easily see myself having been one of them at various points. I'd be really bummed too. It's a great way to justify buying the Nintendo instead of the Tab 7.

To be fair, we don't know much about the eShop and the fact that they're explicitly not telling us more about it, it could have some sort of "social" experience to it. Not saying it will, but something different than WiiU's shop is certainly possible.

FWIW, evidence suggests the OS is a custom Linux distro, not Android. (granted Android is a custom Linux distro more or less as well...) But if we're talking a relatively normal Linux running an X11 port, and if we're talking a modern browser that could load the bloated socials pages, we're mostly looking at Firefox and its offshoots exclusively. Which is endlessly undergoing updates, and that includes security updates that are essential (meaning more system updates for Switch) and is pretty much a power and cycle hog (not as bad as Chromium based browsers, but still...) There's Opera, but that's commercial, a no-go for a browser on a gaming console. Hardware-wise it would be a cool thing to have, but only for mobile mode, not docked. Using the on-TV browser on Switch would be painful, ruining the walk-through reading convenience the Gamepad had. Software wise, what would the penalty be in available memory and power for the game? Would we have to reserve more RAM for the OS and have to withold it from devs? My average Firefox session on PC is over 1GB footprint. And that's on a light day.

"Not a lack of web browser on it's own, but these things do start to add up - no web browser, no Netflix, short battery life, $300. Why build your console around a touchscreen tablet if you aren't going to let people use it that way?"

You're right to a point, the more features the better in some way, but feature creep is what kills a LOT of consumer electronics. Sticking to your core can be an asset. At least Nintendo is putting it out there prior to launch rather than removing features over time like a certain Blue console maker likes to do. They're starting with the online model: It requires a phone or tablet. From there, why supply a web browser and proprietary video service apps, when you're already telling your customers they need a phone or tablet for online stuff? Maybe it'll backfire. Maybe the "you need a phone" is like Don Matrick's infamous "everything needs an always-on connection, deal with it!" that almost sank the XBox One before it got off the ground. But if most potential customers weren't already using phones and tablets, SMR & FEH wouldn't even exist

$300 is a fine launch price for the tech, though. The short battery life, however might be an issue, that's probably my biggest concern with it. And it's hard to say it's "built around a touch screen tablet" that you can't use as a tablet. It's really built around the Joycons more than being built around the tablet. The "tablet" is just a tiny console with a 6" screen. Yes it happens to have touch, but they went out of their way at first to ignore that it had touch at all. I still think it "has touch" not by design, but because every 6.2" screen in a parts catalog has a digitizer. Just cheaper to mfr them all the same rather than run two production lines.

One point I find funny is all the discussion about web browsers on a console. Maybe it's different these days but I remember on PC years ago when I was last a PC gamer, where alt+tabbing out of your game to get to the web browser led to a 30/30/30% chance of it working, the game crashing or having to be end-tasked, or the whole system freezing with a garbled screen and high pitched squeal from the speakers. If only we had phones and tablets around at the time so I didn't need to use my PC as a PC!

"So now that it's officially a "dedicated gaming platform" I can't wait to hear their excuse for SMR and FEH not being on it. Miitomo isn't much of a game, but the other 2 are games. Nintendo games."

Silly rjejr, don't you know those are games meant for phones and tablets? And since Switch isn't a tablet....

Still, it's a good day. IwonIwonIwon!