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As the first handheld of its type to offer two displays and a touch-screen, similar to the technology found in most PDAs and smartphones, Nintendo DS - from the get go - seemed different than your typical portable gaming device.

Nintendo recently took an important step towards making DS a device that can more successfully keep track of things other than a user's highest scores, for example.

The console gaming giant has inked a deal with Zi Corporation to enable DS developers to employ Zi's Decuma handwriting recognition—used most famously in Sony's now defunct Clie line of handhelds—when creating software for the system.

Although developers will be able to add handwriting recognition to their applications, it doesn't appear - at least right now - Decuma will become a standard part of the DS operating system. The gaming handheld offers an on-screen keyboard, not the most convenient or fastest solution, for text input.

Decuma should be an improvement for the applications who's developers take advantage of the Nintendo/Zi deal. "With Decuma, Nintendo DS users will experience natural handwriting recognition previously only available to PDA and smartphone users," according to Milos Djokovic, CTO & COO of Zi Corporation.

In addition to dual screens, DS offers voice-recognition, built-in microphone, and two forms of wireless connectivity. There are about six million DS machines on the market worldwide. In addition to having games of its own, DS is backwards compatible with more than 500 Game Boy Advance games.

Nintendo launched DS late last November.