Polish developer RedDeer Games has announced New Operating System, a Switch app that promises to turn Nintendo's latest handheld console into a full-fledged tablet or thereabouts. Compared to even the most impressive Switch UI redesign concepts out there, the nOS app takes things to the next level by focusing on delivering a highly customizable user experience with a plethora of app-like functionality.
Even though the capacitive touchscreen is hardly among the most dated features of the Switch, the developers that committed to taking advantage of this capability are few and far between. And despite its tablet-like form factor and the fact that its internals mirror those of a (now-aging) Android device, Nintendo showed little interest in encouraging non-gaming software development for the Switch over the last six years.
Cue the newly announced nOS that is meant to provide Nintendo Switch owners with a fairly modular piece of software which allows them to add an array of tablet-like apps and features to their handheld consoles. A calculator, notepad, day planner, to-do list, paint app, and a multimedia gallery are just some of the built-in functionalities that the upcoming software—code-named "Fuji"—supports out of the box. The nOS promotional materials shared by RedDeer Games even reveal a sliding puzzle game built into the app.
The Polish studio behind this undertaking says that reliability and accessibility were its main concerns while designing the new app. nOS is still without an official price tag, but the utilitarian nature of its feature set seems to have all the makings of a $10 or $20 app.
While Nintendo is still putting out Switch firmware updates on a regular basis, those releases almost exclusively consist of minor changes to the console's operating system. Given that state of affairs, anyone who is still hoping to unlock the tablet potential of the Switch is likely to see the nOS app as their best opportunity to do so yet.
Doubly so if ease of use is a concern; namely, the Switch has been capable of running Android for years now thanks to its vibrant homebrew scene, but the subset of its users willing to learn how to hack their consoles just to turn them into low-end tablets has never been particularly large relative to its install base. Not to mention that not all combinations of its hardware and firmware variants are hackable, and jailbreaking a Switch can also introduce the risk of having one's Nintendo Account banned.
New Operating System (nOS) is coming to the Nintendo Switch sometime in January 2023.
Source: RedDeer Games