ces2013

LAS VEGAS--Who says you can't teach an old chipmaker new tricks? Not Nvidia. At CES, the company announced its own gaming device, Nvidia Shield, which will bear its brand name as well as its quad-core Tegra 4 processor.

Project Shield is small -- smaller than a Wii U controller. Fittingly, it looks like a portable Xbox controller with a small flip-up screen. It's got analog joysticks, buttons, and controllers. Nvidia promises between 5 and 10 hours of gameplay on Shield.

Still a prototype, the final name and design could change before the product goes to market, as soon … Read more

LAS VEGAS--HP continues to deliver one monitor announcement after another. This time, a 23-inch In-Plane Switching (IPS) monitor, the HP ZR2330w.

The 23-inch monitor features an LED backlit screen, a 14ms screen refresh rate, 250 candelas per square meter (cd/m2) brightness, and a native resolution of 1,920x1,080 pixels.

Connections include VGA, DVI, and DisplayPort, with plenty of OSD controls -- brightness, contrast, sharpness, and color temperature: warm, standard, cool, and custom.

Ergonomic options include a 30-degree back tilt and a 5-degree forward tilt. Also included are swivel, pivot, and height adjustment.

HP says to expect a budget-friendly … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Today HP introduced a follow-up to its x2301 Micro Thin monitor, the aptly named x2401 LED Backlit monitor.

The x2401 LED Backlit monitor features a multivertical alignment (MVA) panel, although HP hasn't yet revealed specifically which type of MVA technology the monitor houses.

The monitor features back tilt and L-connectors for cable management. Connections include DisplayPort and HDMI, and support for mounting the display, VESA-style.

Don't expect much more than that, however. The previous entry was fairly simple without much in the way of features.

No price or availability date is currently available.

LAS VEGAS--The HP U160 is a 15.6-inch monitor built to be taken on the go. The monitor connects to a laptop via USB and includes a foldable carrying case that acts as a stand.

I can imagine this being useful when being required to give presentations while traveling, but 15.6 inches isn't much larger than my 13.3-inch MacBook Air. I wonder if it would actually be worth the suitcase space.

The HP U160 is expected to be available in late January for $179.

LAS VEGAS--Glympse, maker of a destination-sharing app by the same name for iOS and Android, announced an integration with Ford's Sync AppLink platform. The integration will let Ford drivers access the Glympse app, running on a smartphone, from their cars' dashboard interface.

Glympse lets users send their current location, destination, and route through Facebook, Twitter, or other Internet outlets. It includes preset messages drivers can include with their location, minimizing distraction. The app is designed to let drivers send their location with very little app interaction.

Drivers with Glympse running on an iPhone will need to cable their devices … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, start your programming engines: Lego Mindstorms EV3 is here.

The third full generation of Lego's programmable robotics platform, EV3 is aimed at both enthusiasts -- young and old -- and educators, and blows past the previous generation with a long list of new features that add speed and power, intelligent programmability, and more ways to communicate with the robots. Lego expects to begin selling the product, which includes 594 Technic pieces that can be used to make five different robots, this summer at a retail cost of $350. It will also release … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Don't let the name confuse you. The HP ProDisplay series isn't so much tailored to the graphics professional, but more the office professional.

The new line of monitors will come in four screen sizes: 18.5-inch, 20-inch, and 21.5-inch. Not much yet is known in the way of specs, but each will house an LED backlight.

Expect them to begin appearing on store shelves in February with prices ranging from $129 to $179.

For more of CNET's CES 2013 coverage, click here.

LAS VEGAS--Chipmaker Nvidia has just ratcheted up the quad-core pressure.

At its CES press conference tonight, Nvidia announced Tegra 4, its next-generation quad-core processor for tablets and smartphones.

Following rumors, Nvidia based Tegra 4 on ARM's latest Cortex-A15 architecture, which means that its processing power will be dramatically faster than the current Tegra 3 quad-core chipset, which is based on ARM Cortex A-9.

In addition to the new architecture, Nvidia's Tegra 4 system-on-a-chip contains a whopping 72 graphics cores -- six times what's built into in Tegra 3. It also includes Nvidia's first 4G LTE modem.… Read more

LAS VEGAS--Nvidia took the wraps off Nvidia Grid, the company's first fully integrated system to enable customers to access their games via the cloud.

Launched tonight at CES, Nvidia Grid pushes the limits of cloud gaming in a server stack that's designed to optimize computer graphics. In the works for five years, the stacks, which are packed full of GPUs, or graphics processing units, enable 3D gaming that can render graphics directly to the cloud.

The upshot is that you'll be able to start playing a game on one device, like a tablet, and pick it up … Read more