There have been numerous interviews with Nintendo president Satoru Iwata since E3, all of which have him denying the 3DS is in any way, shape or form designed to compete with Apple's iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad, but the other information about the new handheld he drops continues to suggest otherwise (at least in certain terms of functionality).

Speaking with Japanese paper, Nikkei, Iwata said with the 3DS's wireless push functions could actively "seek out and automatically connect with wireless LAN spots, and download information" which would allow for the sort of functionality "where it will automatically acquire newspaper and magazine articles".

3DS has been gaining some serious momentum since it was revealed at this year's E3, igniting excitement and creativity among games publishers around the world, but leaving a big question mark over the future of Sony's floundering PSP, its closest competitor. Capcom head honcho and former Sony guy, Derek Reeves told Gamesindustry.biz late last week that he'd like to see Sony launching a PSP successor soon in order to stay in the game.

"Sony tried to make the transition with PSPgo, I think that changed some consumers attitudes," he told the site. "But they need to come back with something on PSP pretty quickly to stay in the game because Nintendo are shit hot at getting these things right. And they always get these things right."

Meanwhile, PSP boss Kaz Hirai had a go at the 3DS in a round about way while talking to Sankei Biz at E3 (via Andriasang), while also hinting they'd been playing with the tech themselves, saying "based off internally conducted research, naked-eye 3D for portables does not have high precision, and at present there are limitations."

Sounds more like sour grapes to me.