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NVIDIA's yearly CES bash just wrapped up, and once again there's a new SHIELD coming for gamers. Well, "new" in a very limited sense. The new version of the Android TV-powered set top box looks nearly identical to the SHIELD TV that's been available since the summer of 2015. It's 40% smaller than the original - closer in size to competitors like Roku - but inside is the same Tegra X1 system that we're familiar with. (Which is still some of the most powerful "mobile" silicon around.) The big change, as hinted by the leak last month, is in the controller.
Remember when Google published an independent WebView app on the Play Store so that it could update the functionality without waiting for an over-the-air OS update? Today we're seeing the fruit of that particular labor. The tool, which makes it easy for apps to display web content without opening a browser, has been updated specifically to support the Nexus 9 (and any other Tegra-based devices with NVIDIA's K1 GPU architecture) with improved performance. At least that's what the changelog says, and we're in no mood to argue.
It's been a good week for real-time strategy fans on Android. Yesterday a new game from the Anomaly developers was released, SPACECOM, and today gamers without access to NVIDIA-branded hardware can play Z: Steel Soldiers. If you don't recall, this Android port came out back in August of last year - about thirteen years after the original was released on the PC. It's a conventional real-time strategy game about robots killin' robots.
NVIDIA partnered with several game developers to release four premium mobile games last week that were optimized for Tegra chips. Three of those games (Half-Life 2: Episode 2, Never Alone, and Funk of Titans) showed up on time, but Q.U.B.E. was nowhere to be found. Well, it's here now.
NVIDIA is always coming up with new ways to show off the power of its chips, and Dabbler is probably one of the more entertaining. This app is bundled with the SHIELD Tablet, but it has gone through a major revamp since release. Now v3.0 has hit the Play Store to make your doodles even prettier.
If you're wondering what NVIDIA has been working on for the last few months, you'll only have to wait a few more weeks to find out. The gaming and graphics company has sent invitations to technology press, including Android Police, for a presentation on March 3rd in San Francisco. According to the email, NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang will be demonstrating something "5 years in the making" that will "redefine the future of gaming."
The term "chivalry" has somehow become conflated with being gentlemanly over the years, but chivalry was mostly about who to stab with your sword and how to go about it. There's certainly a lot of that in Broadsword: Age of Chivalry. This game has just arrived on Android with Tegra-optimized graphics, but other Android devices can play with somewhat simplified graphics.
NVIDIA has been the first few pebbles of the landslide that is CES for the last few years, and 2015 is no different. To kick off the world's biggest consumer tech show, CEO Jen-Hsun Huang started with mobile. The company announced its successor to the Tegra K1 mobile processor, the Tegra X1. This chip includes an octa-core 64-bit CPU married to a 256-core GPU. And that second chip is the killer: it's based on the same architecture as the latest full-sized NVIDIA desktop graphics cards, Maxwell.
It's been a long wait for the Nexus 9. Of course, that's partially our fault for leaking the device's existence back in June. Since that time, we've seen rumored accessories, accidental confirmation, a trip to the FCC, and even a quick photo of the back of the device, but today it's finally really official.
Look into the eyes of Ira. He can see into your very being. His hypnotic gaze is scouring your soul, peeling away layers of intellect until only chaos and madness remains. He's like the most terrifying of Lovecraftian horrors, except he's bald and has a five o'clock shadow.
Upcoming HP SlateBook 14 Is A Laptop Running Android With A Tegra Chip Inside [Update: Video Pulled]
OEMs have tried a few times to make Android work in the notebook form factor, but the closest anyone has gotten is the Transformer line from Asus. Those are tablets first, though. The HP Slatebook 14 is a straight-up laptop running Android, and it's starring in a video demo posted by HP. Update: It looks like HP wasn't ready to spill the beans quite yet. It pulled the video from its site for the time being.
January is generally held as a gloomy month, a time when there's nothing but slush on the ground and crap in the movie theaters. But it gave us more than a few fine apps, which you should take the opportunity to peruse. If you don't feel like meticulously combing through our massive bi-weekly app roundups, we've gathered the best of the best right here. Dig in, why don't you?
Linus Torvalds Applauds NVIDIA For Posting Early Tegra K1 Open Source Drivers To The Nouveau Project
If the Internet had a pantheon of deities, Linux kernel creator Linus Torvalds would surely be among them, with a big white beard and a laurel wreath. Torvalds has been a vocal detractor of corporations that don't offer support for Linux, including an especially expressive denouncement of NVIDIA back in 2012. But yesterday, Torvalds gave NVIDIA a thumbs-up - which is two whole fingers away from his previous gesture - for posting an early open-source driver for the Tegra K1.
Nvidia's TegraZone app is primarily aimed at Tegra-powered devices, but the new update to version 2.9 opens it up to everyone. You can check out Nvidia's curated game listings if you're using a Snapdragon, Exynos, or whatever else. Keep in mind, not all the games you find will be compatible, but it can be a nice way to explore some good games
If you've been following our CES coverage, you know that NVIDIA is quite proud of its next-generation mobile chips. To make sure you get the message of "unearthly technology," they paid a bunch of artists to create a crop circle outside of Salinas, California with a design inspired by the Tegra K1 and its Kepler GPU. I bet Dell's Alienware division is asking, "why didn't we think of that?"
After explaining why the GPU in the just announced Tegra K1 was awesome from an architectural standpoint, Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang went on to reveal that Epic Games would be bringing Unreal Engine 4 to mobile devices via the Tegra K1. Nvidia is keen on getting game developers to include improved graphics for Tegra devices, but Unreal Engine 4 support could take Tegra gaming to a whole new level.
Nvidia is having its traditional CES press event and has taken the opportunity to reveal some details on its next generation Tegra chip. Nvidia has talked about its mobile plans a little in general terms recently, but now we have a name and some specs to go on. The successor to Tegra 4 will be called the Tegra K1 and it comes in two different versions.
To get an early start to CES 2014, electronics giant Lenovo announced a new 28" Android-powered all-in-one 4K display to add to its substantial line of display products. According to Lenovo's press release and spec sheet, we can expect Android 4.3, a Tegra 4 processor, and a plethora of other features. Here's the official list according to Lenovo's spec sheet:
[Bonus Round] Tainted Keep, Chuck's Challenge 3D, Space Ark THD, Blitz Block Robo, And Sine Mora
Tainted Keep, Chuck's Challenge 3D, Space Ark THD, Blitz Block Robo, And Sine Mora
Welcome to the latest entry in our Bonus Round series, wherein we tell you all about the new Android games of the day that we couldn't get to during our regular news rounds. Consider this a quick update for the dedicated gamers who can't wait for our bi-weekly roundups, and don't want to wade through a whole day's worth of news just to get their pixelated fix. Today we've got a high-end dungeon crawler, a game that combines bouncing and terraforming, a colorful puzzle game, and an absolutely stunning shoot-em-up... on Amazon. Without further ado:
[New Game] Arma Tactics THD Brings Top-Down, Turn-Based Military Strategy To Tegra Devices
Armchair generals, take note: tactical games are making a comeback. This top-down micromanaging genre was once dominated by the likes of Shining Force,
Armchair generals, take note: tactical games are making a comeback. This top-down micromanaging genre was once dominated by the likes of Shining Force, Tactics Ogre, and Final Fantasy Tactics (and just recently by XCOM: Enemy Unknown) but it's surprisingly perfect for touchscreen devices; see the Great Little War Game series. The ARMA series is known for painstakingly realistic shooters, but it's stepping back for Arma Tactics THD to give the player a bird's eye view of the battlefield.