Here's a simple homebrew utility that'll increase your DS' functionality a little more. Don't you get annoyed that when you change the brightness setting on your DS, it reverts back to another setting when you power off. Well, now you can keep the brightness setting on your DS at what ever level you want with LoveLite. There's also a very sensitive Power Off button so you don’t have to push the power button (the real one) twice.

LoveLite DS has been made open source for educational purposes, but if you do make any modifications to the source code (for better or for worse), send your code to licklick and you may see it in the next version of LoveLite!

LoveLite v1.1 now only saves the setting when the Power Off button is pressed on the assumption that it'll be better for your hardware. If you're still using the old DS Lite Brightness Test Demo, make sure you update to LoveLite v1.1 for the benefit of your hardware. Future updates could include a "Return to Supercard" button so watch this space.

Download: [LoveLite v1.1]

You may hate the pun-ny name, but you can't ignore the genius of the app being built.

On the Licklick blog, the programmer has begun work on what he is calling the Dii, or DS Intelligent Interface. The Dii is meant to be a PC-based server for the DS to make the lives of many homebrewers, and a lot of savvy gamers, easier. He's planning to put a lot of functionality into his finished work, but for now, he says, " what is important, is the Send File function of the PC server." Instead of having to take your MiniSD card in and out of the system to test your homebrew apps, you can use the function to transfer directly from PC to DS.

He's also using a C#.NET 2.0 server for his app, which is supposed to give him a much better-looking interface. For now, though, the intrepid programmer is looking for comments and support. Perhaps our faithful readers with programming experience can give him some helpful hints and advice, so everyone can share in the success of another well-made homebrew product.

LickLick has started developing a platform game for DS that will make some interesting use of the touch screen. Today, he presents us with a progress report along with a screenshot of the said project.

The developer shared some problems in working on this project, "I digged up an old 2d collision library I wrote when I was doing other stuff (for the PC), fixed a few bugs, reordered some things to make them work with the devkit compiler. Then suddenly I noticed that the library isn’t complete! It didn’t check solid objects, but it only checked lines (in my circle triangle intersection code)." Since the problem is easily solved by math, he says he was able to easily find a way to get rid of the problem and everything is now fixed.

LickLick also said he will be using the 3D engine of the Ninty handheld for his latest DS 'brew. He said the decision was made because he truly believed 3D will make the game faster and will allow alpha blending and scaling, resulting to a better game. If you think otherwise, LickLick is willing to listen and he encourages you to tell him quick - so do leave your comments below if you have any suggestions.