Theoretical objects are things that compel us to propose, interrogate and theorize. They counter the influence of approaches that try to define, position and fix. The handheld, mobile screen offers us a specific kind of theoretical object. Smartphones and tablet computers are a rapidly developing type of screen object. Hybrid screen devices that encompass multiple interfaces, they raise questions about the specificity of the screen gadget as object, and about the entanglement of technologies, applications and practices. Moreover, the very speed of the development of this type of technological object demands an assessment of their historicity: how can we understand their specificity if they are changing so very fast? Taking the current moment – in which smartphones and tablets are at the forefront of innovation and commercial marketing – as a provisional halting place and point of departure, I will go back just a few years. Through an analysis of the Nintendo DS game console, launched in 2004 and updated in 2008 to include a camera (the DSi) and re-released in 2010 with a larger screen (the DSi XL), and in 2011 adding a 3D screen (the 3DS), I argue that handheld gadgets like mobile gaming devices, smartphones, and tablets like the iPad are best understood as theoretical consoles: objects that raise theoretical and historical questions, precisely, about their inherently temporary and hybrid status. In order to demonstrate that this function is theoretical rather than object-specific, after the case study in this chapter, I will take this perspective in Chapter 5 to look at the hybrid interface of the iPhone as a theoretical console.

The Status of the Gadget: The Case of Nintendo DS

In 2004, a new handheld and portable computer game console was released: the Nintendo DS. With the DS, Nintendo updated and expanded their successful earlier mobile consoles, the Game Boy and the latest generation to date, the Game Boy Advance with which Nintendo had dominated the market of mobile consoles since 1989. Like any new console, Nintendo's latest version was faster than its predecessors, allowed for more detailed game graphics, and had an updated design. The DS, however, was marketed as a revolutionary console because it allegedly offered radically new possibilities for game play. The new ‘specs’ or technological features of the DS were, indeed, multifarious: voice-control options, WiFi connectivity, touchscreen technology, and last but not least, a double screen.