I think some of you noticed the Home-button on the 3DS, below the touch screen between start and select. This confirms that there will be a 3DS Home-Menu.

What is the Home-Menu? (For people who don't own a Wii)
The Home-Menu is an in-game menu. When the Menu is opened, the game is paused until the Home-menu is closed. The Home-Menu can be opened at any time, except when you're playing online or when the game is saving. Inside the Home-Menu are a few options.

The Home-Menu of the 3DS will probably be similar to the Wii's Home-Menu. The Wii's Home-Menu allows you to restart the game you're currently playing or to go back to the Wii-menu. These functions will probably also be in the 3DS' Home-Menu, but are there any other things you would want to have in the Home-Menu? Things like an operations guide for the game you're playing etc. (this was already available for VC games, but not for WiiWare and retail games on Wii) Since the online abilities will become greater on 3DS, wouldn't it be nice to see who is playing which game while you take a break and are in the Home-Menu? Or to view the status of the 3DS or general things (battery life left and time & date)? Discuss!

Remember: Once the handheld is out, the Home-Menu can't be easily changed. So, Nintendo must decide which functions the Home-Menu will have before the 3DS is released.

If Nintendo designs the 3DS well, it'll be perfectly possible to update the home menu down the line. After all, the PSP and PS3 have both evolved quite a lot since release. Just a matter of Nintendo catching up with that concept.

Anyway, based on what that EA guy said, I'd suppose the Home menu would include the friends list. Battery life is also a no-brainer, and the time and date seems perfectly plausible. Not really sure what else would be worth adding, though.

I'm actually worried about just the general apperance of the main menu i mean will it be like that super long menu the dsi had or will we see more then 3 at a time (Maybe 6 boxs at once) and I guess it'll be on the small bottom screen so I have no idea what to expect.

It could be Google and Nintendo's ES Operating System although I think they might have mentioned that in the conference if it was the case.

Hopefully it won't be like the Wii in that when you leave a game it has to re-boot the Wii menu.

I believe, after a bit of logical reasoning, that the 3DS's home menu will contain...

• A battery life gauge
• Options sub-menu
• A reset button
• And a clock

@Stuffgamer1: Yes, that is possible. But I doubt that Nintendo will change the way their OS works. The Wii and DSi had a similar OS, so it seems that that OS is the standard. Then again, Nintendo could also change the design of the OS completely.
@Marzipaz: Agreed, the DSi Menu shows 3 'channels' at a time and that is not much, compared with the Wii Menu (where 12 channels are showed at a time). The higher resolution could make this possible.
@Oregano: I believe the System Menu is one of the last things made when a console is created, so everything is possible. But I think (as you said), Nintendo would have already announced that if it was the case.
@Aviator: Same here. Although the DSi did the same (however, it wasn't noticable since you can't hear any noise coming from a disc drive), I hope nintendo will finally change this.
@ProtoZone: Yes, those things are the least we can expect. It isn't that hard for Nintendo to add them, but it makes some things a bit more comfortable (don't have to exit the game / turn off system to view the time).

I think the OS will always been on since the tag mode and DLC downloads are always active so it means that there's always something running behind the games so the OS might be accessible via home buttons at all times.

Wouldnt it be awesome if you could customize your home menu?

I want 100% ability to customize the thing. Themes, icons, even sound packs would be cool. Some themes could even use the 3D feature.

BTW, what screen do you think the menu will be on? The touch screen or 3D widescreen?

How do you know that the home button won't just go to the home menu, like tapping the DSi power button does?
It's not really "confirmed". It's "possible".

i'd assume it'd be on the touchscreen, yoshdude, so you could tap buttons and rearrange your stuff (3DSware, 3DS camera app, 3DS sound, etc.) as you chose, just like on the DSi. even if it were to pause the game like on the Wii, i'd still expect it to be on the touchscreen so that you could hit the 'exit game' or 'resume game' buttons.

@110percentfull

It's kind of confirmed, just take a look at the 3DS fact sheet...

I thought it was just a button to send you back to the main screen, like on the DSi.

Thats what i thought

Especially if we can have our own custom wallpaper/skin. That would be awesome.

Well it probably won't be able to pause DS games seeing as how the wii can't pause gamecube games. It would be nice to pull use the camera while using the home menu and also changing the brightness if they don't have buttons for the volume. It'll be a nice addition regardless though.

If we can customize what music is played in the background of the Home menu, I want this playing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8VPmtyLqSY

Love it.

if the home menu is different maby they'll update the wiis home menu too.

@theblackdragon - I was thinking, though- if the 3DS only has 3D on the top screen like speculation is saying (Which I find sad), then the top screen would be cool to use. It would change menus FOREVER!