RedDeer’s nOS is an interesting and thoughtful idea by turning the Switch into a basic pocket organizer like a Palm Pilot from a couple decades ago. Although it doesn’t really do anything exceptionally well, it deserves some credit for being creative and trying something different.
There are ultimately 6 apps within this digital download, all accessible from a computer desktop-like interface.
Calculator is just that. However, it is a plain, basic calculator. It is not a fancy graphing calculator or even one of those more detailed scientific models with those extra options. Even dumb phones have one of these installed.
Notebook let’s you awkwardly type notes using the Switch’s digital keyboard. If you had a USB keyboard inserted it would help, but that would ruin the entire portability aspect of using this app on Switch. Can you imagine busting out your Switch during a big business meeting and taking notes on this bad boy?
To-Do let’s you make a list and then check it off when completed, again, using the tedious Switch digital keyboard.
Paint is like a basic version of MS Paint. So now you can draw penises on your Switch using the pencil, pen, spray paint, and eraser tools along with adjusting the brush size. There is no paint can or detailed copy/paste abilities, but drawings can be saved. Once saved, they move to the Gallery section for future viewing. Strangely, if you wanted to load any of your phallic artwork, it needs to be opened from the Gallery app, not the Paint app. So it isn’t the most intuitive.
Finally, Puzzle is one of those simple sliding puzzles where you need to complete the picture without lifting tiles. Puzzles can grow to a 5×5 size if you wanted to take time away from tediously typing notes in the Notes app.
nOS wouldn’t be totally useless if there was a way to export the To-Do list, the Notes pages (as .txt), and even the artwork (other than using the Switch’s screenshot feature and saving to an SD card). Unfortunately, since all these things are proprietary, it restricts the full potential of productivity.
It is cool that your Switch can now be your pocket organizer, but your smart phone (or even a dumb phone) does all these things better and through apps that come pre-installed. I am not sure who would benefit from using nOS when your phone, PC, tablet, or laptop does all these things but way better.
While it is appreciated that developers are releasing programs that are considered to be an “app” instead of a game, nOS doesn’t really serve a purpose other than being slightly novel.
SCORE: 3.5/10
Not As Good As: using any other electronic device from the last 10-15 years
Better Than: getting fired for pulling out your Switch during a work meeting
Also Try: PictoChat on any DS system
By: Zachary Gasiorowski, Editor in Chief myGamer.com
Twitter: @ZackGaz
Please consider supporting me on Patreon.
0