| nTeresting News June 24, 2011 |
| Saturday, 25 June 2011 | ||
nTeresting News June 24, 2011In this issue
Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 with Tegra: Thin is In "The Tab is the best performing Android device I have used, and that covers a lot of them, both phones and tablets." Lighter and a tad thinner than the iPad 2, Samsung proves you really can't ever be too skinny or too rich - multimedia rich that is. Packing a dual-core Tegra 2 super chip and running the latest version of Honeycomb - Android 3.1 - the Galaxy Tab 10.1 is being praised as a graphics powerhouse and a gamer's dream. Check out what others had to say after testing the Galaxy Tab 10.1, "simply put, BUY THIS NOW" "The conclusion we came to after using the Tab 10.1 Limited Edition mimics the conclusion we've drawn here: this is the best Honeycomb tablet to date" "I have not run across anything I wanted to do on a tablet that I cannot do with the Tab, so it is a viable alternative to the iPad 2." "Resource-intensive games such as the Tegra-optimized Riptide GP and Pinball HD played smoothly, showing off what NVIDIA's GeForce GPU can do." "If you're a gamer, this tablet has everything you need."
Games Are Big Business "...thanks partly to games on new platforms such as Facebook, smartphones and tablets, gaming is more popular than ever. Some observers even see parallels to the early-'80s arcade heyday, when games such as "Pac-Man" became mainstream phenomenons." Last year, video-game software and hardware made more than $25 billion, compare to $7.3 billion in 2004. "Last year's "Call of Duty: Black Ops" didn't just break video-game records. Selling 5.6 million copies in 24 hours and grossing $650 million in its first five days, it was the biggest entertainment opening of all time -- bigger than "Titanic," "Avatar" and every other Hollywood blockbuster." It unseated Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, which grossed $550 million in the same five-day span. In comparison, "Avatar" grossed $77 million in its opening weekend. Here are a few more notes on first week sales, courtesy of Jon Peddie Research:
Optimus Is Still It "I think is fair to say that NVIDIA Optimus is one of the most impressive mobile technologies we have ever seen." Optimus simply turns the notebook GPU on when you need it, and turns it off when you don't. It is all automatic and seamless. "NVIDIA has solved the issue of users having to manually switch a discrete GPU on or off, and in our experience, it worked perfectly. We shifted in and out of graphically intense apps, and each time, the GPU turned on and off without any system lag.." Now it seems others are trying their hand at a similar technology. "In other words, this is not like NVIDIA's Optimus where it switches automatically, but you can force an application to run on a particular GPU. The Catalyst Control Center gives you the option of doing so... but it doesn't actually do it. People have tried a bunch of things with both the HP Pavilion and the Dell Vostro and the discreet card simply will not run OpenGL, even if you try to install old drivers or BIOS versions." NVIDIA GPU today supports NVIDIA Optimus Technology. It is up to the OEM of the notebook to decide if it makes sense for their product. Optimus has quickly established itself as a must have feature. NVIDIA Optimus technology is available now on laptops from every major notebook OEM.
Crysis DX 11 is Coming
Icera Acquisition is Complete "Icera's baseband processors for 3G and 4G smartphones and tablets, combined with NVIDIA's Tegra 2 applications processor, extends the chip maker's reach in the OEM mobile market." Welcome to the fold.
3D Round-Up "But thanks to the magic of stereoscopic 3D, it is possible to get a taste of E3 2011 from the comfort of your home from Gamerlive.tv. Anyone who has an NVIDIA 3D Vision laptop or PC can watch some of the videos below in crystal clear 3D." https://blogs.forbes.com/johngaudiosi/2011/06/11/the-best-of-e3-2011-in-stereo-3d-booth-babes-battlefield-3-and-buffett/ BulletStorm continues to get great reviews in 3D. "This was my first real experience using the 3DVision system and while it did take a few minutes at first for my eyes to adjust to the sensation, I can honestly say after playing Bulletstorm in 3D, not only did it seem to bring out an extra bit of intensity in an already highly intense game, but I struggled to feel as enthused about the game when going back to normal vision from time to time." 3D makes a big difference for Duke Nukem Forever, too. "This is an awesome setup if you have the desk space (and money) for it, but even with my relatively puny 1,680x1050 monitor, the Duke Nukem Forever experience in 3D Vision was a treat. Experiencing real 3D graphics makes the "flat" 3D we've grown used to seem primitive and limiting." Rockstar Games is also bringing L.A. Noire to the PC, and they have a bonus for those with GeForce PCs. "The Rockstar Leeds-developed port will "run on a wide range of PCs" according to the announcement, and feature graphical enhancements, gamepad support and the option for stereoscopic 3D on hardware that supports it." NVIDIA is leading the charge for 3D. "NVIDIA has shown that 3D works out of the box with many games today, and that it can look pretty stunning."
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