nvidia

Nvidia Shield preorder date moves up, starts today

Preorders for Nvidia's Shield will begin today, May 17, at Newegg, GameStop, and Canada Computer. Preorders are also available on Nvidia's Shield site.

Earlier this week, Nvidia announced that preorders for Shield at the aforementioned retailers would begin on Monday, May 20, but now cites "growing buzz" as its reason for making the portable console available sooner.

The Nvidia Shield is an Android-based portable gaming console using the company's Tegra 4 processor. The device is scheduled to ship in June. You can check out my hands-on impressions here.

HP goes Android with x2 hybrid

Hewlett-Packard has a newfound affinity for Android.

After announcing the Slate 7 in February, HP announced Tuesday that it is adding a second Android tablet, the SlateBook x2.

The SlateBook takes its well-received Envy x2 design and loads Android 4.2.2 and Nvidia's brand-new Tegra 4 chip inside a sleek 10.1-inch tablet that can double as a laptop.

An Android laptop, mind you, not a Chromebook.

"With an advanced magnetic hinge design and dual battery system -- one battery in the base and one in the tablet -- users can easily switch from notebook to tablet … Read more

Tesla's path to the upgradable car

At Tesla's sunny headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif., I asked CTO JB Straubel when to expect the next model upgrade for the Model S. He quickly dismissed the automaker cliche of updates based on model years, saying that Tesla would release new features for the Model S as his team finished creating them.

One of the Model S' great strengths, beyond its zero emissions, minimal running costs, excellent driving character, and luxury appointments, is that Tesla can deliver over-the-air updates to its cabin electronics.

And those updates can be very extensive, as the Model S features few hard controls. … Read more

The 404 1269: Where rad goes viral (podcast)

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- Follow Spotify's Shanon Cook!

- More on the Deadpool videogame.

- The story goes deeper on The Bureau: XCOM Declassified.

- Nvidia's Project Shield comes closer to reality.

This week's Viral Top 10 list from Spotify:

1. "Royals" by Lorde 2. "#Beautiful" by Mariah Carey 3. "Alone" by Falling In Reverse 4. "The One" by Tamar Braxton 5. "Rattle (Sexy Lady)" by Bingo Players 6. "Blurred Lines" by Robin Thicke 7. "Young And Beautiful" by Lana Del Rey 8. "Spring Break Anthem" by The Lonely Island 9. "Get Lucky - Radio Edit" by Daft Punk 10. "Dear Mama" by 2Pac… Read more

Nvidia Shield slams into stores in June for $349

Nvidia's Android-based portable gaming device known as Shield will be released in June with a $349 price tag, the company said Tuesday.

Preorders for Shield -- no longer dubbed "Project Shield" -- began Tuesday for those who had signed up to receive Shield updates from Nvidia. The general public can preorder Shield starting Monday, May 20.

Nvidia debuted Shield at CES 2013. The portable gaming system comes in the shape of a console gaming controller and includes a 5-inch capacitive touch screen with 1,280x720-pixel resolution. The device runs all Google Play apps and can stream full … Read more

As Android disrupts, tablets beat cheap PCs: Nvidia

Nvidia is banking on new computing devices to replace "cheap" PCs and Android to drive that disruption, according to comments from the chipmaker's chief executive on Thursday.

"A great tablet is clearly better than a cheap PC," said Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang during the company's fiscal first quarter conference call.

"New computing devices are becoming increasingly like your personal computer, [so] performance matters and this is where we can add a lot of value....disrupting the entry-level PC," he said.

Nvidia sees Android as the agent of disruption. "Android is really … Read more

Why your next Android tablet will be more powerful

Your Android tablet sucks. At least compared with what's coming. Later this year we'll see the release of three new Systems on Chip (SoC). SoC is simply the name used for the collection of silicon that makes up the brains of the tablet and includes the CPU, GPU (graphics processing unit), onboard memory, and other processors.

The new chips will no doubt be used to power many high-end Android tablets and are expected to deliver better-looking games, faster Web surfing, increased battery life, and in at least one case, could allow you to take better-looking photos.

Of course, … Read more

Nvidia's Tegra mobile chip business hits a wall with growth

The market has pretty high hopes for Nvidia's Tegra mobile chip business, but this year is shaping up to be a disappointment.

Chief Executive Jen-Hsun Huang said that while Tegra has been growing "very quickly," the business will be "about flat" this year. That's because Nvidia pushed back the launch of its Tegra 4 chip by a quarter in order to ready its 4G LTE capabilities, he said. The company introduced Tegra 4 at the Consumer Electronics Show in January and then launched its chip that integrates LTE with its app processor,Tegra 4i, … Read more

The best Windows 8 gaming laptops

We recently complained about the lack of a single best-case gaming laptop for the Windows 8 era. That was largely because of the handful of portable PCs with higher-end graphics cards we'd reviewed in the six months since Microsoft's new OS took over, none thought to include a touch-screen display. That's a feature not particularly called for in even current-gen PC games, but it's one that Windows 8 practically begs for during the hours when you're not using your laptop for gaming.

Since then, we've finished reviews of a couple more gaming laptops -- … Read more