I've always suspected that whole point of the Nintendo DSi - and its online firmware updates - was not to introduce new features, but to curtail piracy. Fat lot of good it's done them.
See, the DS and DS Lite were easy pickings for anyone looking to play homebrew titles or pirate illegal copies of DS games. All you needed was a flashcart - like the R4 - and you were good to go.
But the DSi is different. The R4 won't work in it. Also, because it can update its firmware, every update can - like the Wii - block the latest attempts at circumventing its security. And it's successfully managed to hold out for, oh, a whole six months.
Meet Supercard's DSONEi, a flashcart that is able to get around this by beating Nintendo at their own game. Say you use the DSONEi to play some old Lucasarts adventure games on your DSi. Then Nintendo releases a firmware update, you install it, and your Lucas games stop working.
All you'd need to do is wait for the Supercard team to come up with a fresh workaround for Nintendo's latest update, download new firmware for DSONEi device, and you're back in the game.
Sure, it's not a perfect solution, as you're reliant on Supercard to continue supporting the device. But a flawed workaround is better than no workaround at all if you're a homebrew fan and want to make the most of your new Nintendo handheld.
New flashcart seeks to circumvent future lockouts from DSi firmware updates → [Tiny Cartridge]