Notifications allow you to see the messages received from SpotPass and StreetPass.

When your Nintendo 3DS receives a message in sleep mode, the Notification LED lights up in green.

On the HOME Menu, the Notifications icon will change when you receive a message.
Furthermore, when new information arrives for a certain software, a mark will be added to notify you of the arrival of the information, just like this.

Although you can enjoy StreetPass and SpotPass at the launch, automatic system updates and software downloads through SpotPass will be made available later at the time of the system updates.

2010 was not only called "the dawn of 3D" but, in the year 2010, the terms "social network" and "social games" were often discussed as social topics.  It has been reported that social entertainment is the key to video games.

But we are wondering if the social play element is anything new in video games in the first place.
Nintendo has been developing social entertainment in the field of video games for a long time.  Social elements tend to be narrowly associated with human relationships through computer networks.  We believe, however, that the essence of social entertainment is that the relationships with other human beings add a social nature to the play and make it more interesting.
NES had two controllers from the start and Nintendo 64 was the first home console system to make four controllers available.  The link cable for GameBoy allowed two players to compete in "Tetris" and later enabled the trades and competitions of Pokémon, and gradually these features were made available wirelessly.  These were just some of the actual examples in the past.

There should be no doubt that Pokémon has spread around the world as a kind of social entertainment.  Also, we have released various series of games in which four players can compete with one another including "Mario Kart" and "Smash Bros."  And recently in 2009, we released "Tomodachi Collection" (Japanese title) and "New Super Mario Bros. Wii" for four players.  Nintendo has been aggressively integrating a structure where the interaction among different people through the games make the game play experiences much more fun.  To Nintendo, social elements are nothing new at all.
I believe that you are also aware of many cases that people without any experience or interest in video games were prompted by others to start to play Nintendo DS and Wii, which have made these hardware systems so widely accepted.  These are some typical examples in which the value of a product was spread through word of mouth, in other words, real human relationships or social networks.

In the conference for our presentation of Nintendo 3DS held last September, I told you that

one mission we have to tackle in order for Nintendo 3DS to spread is the fact that you cannot comprehend the real value of the 3D images unless you view them with your own eyes.

In Japan we have aggressively held several opportunities for consumers to have hands-on Nintendo 3DS experiences, including the tryout event on January 8, 9 and 10, and we were happy to hear strong and positive reactions from most of them.  The Japanese retailers started accepting pre-sale orders the other day, and the situation of the pre-sale appears to be good.
In addition, we have already realized the opportunities for consumers to try Nintendo 3DS at some outlet malls, are installing interactive units at retail shops and are planning to display demo 3D images of Nintendo 3DS at several train stations in Japan.  However, there is a limit to the number of consumers who will be able to try it before its launch no matter how hard we work.

As I mentioned in the conference last September, with Nintendo 3DS, to tackle this challenge, we will leverage upon StreetPass and SpotPass.

And, we are promoting the Nintendo 3DS with the concept of "Carry Around, Affect Each Other and Something New Every Day."

With these messages, we would like to encourage people to realize that Nintendo 3DS is a portable game device that you can carry around wherever you go and that your doing so will expand the entertainment experiences in combination with the wireless communications.  At the same time, we'd like to encourage people to play their Nintendo 3DS with others when they go out.

Nintendo 3DS will have a lot of pre-installed software including Nintendo 3DS Camera, AR Games and Face Raiders.
You can of course enjoy these software titles by yourself, and you can even enjoy them together with those around you when you carry around your Nintendo 3DS.  We hope that the value of 3D images without the need for special glasses will be automatically spread through these experiences.

Some say that the launch software lineup of Nintendo 3DS lacks the variation required to appeal to a wide variety of consumers.  However, we are including the software that can appeal to many into the hardware.  By making it possible that every purchaser of Nintendo 3DS will receive these software titles, we are aiming to establish the stream in which the purchasers of Nintendo 3DS will naturally play the software with others surrounding them.

We anticipate that Mii characters, which were first proposed with the launch of Wii, will play an important role here.  Mii characters were featured in "Tomodachi Collection" (Japanese title) and are familiar to many consumers.

Nintendo 3DS includes StreetPass Mii Plaza, in which you can collect Mii characters through StreetPass.  Every Nintendo 3DS user can enjoy this form of entertainment which uses StreetPass.
In short, this software enables you to enjoy collecting various Mii characters by passing other Nintendo 3DS users.  We have added two small games you can easily play.  One is the game called "StreetPass Quest."
These are such small entertainment features that we are reluctant to call them independent games, but I really feel that they have their own charm derived from passing by other Nintendo 3DS owners.  Some development people in Nintendo carry around prototypes of Nintendo 3DS to test this software inside the office, and many of them even go back and forth in the building, without any business purpose, to collect as many Mii characters as possible or secretly check their Nintendo 3DS during meetings.  In fact, I am also one of them.
Please don't worry about your chances of experiencing StreetPass even if you are not living in an urban area and do not have many chances to pass by others.  As Nintendo 3DS includes a pedometer, you can really enjoy this software through Play Coins you earn by your footsteps, as well as StreetPass.