Both companies unveiled new gaming devices at CES this year. Nvidia unveiled a mobile handheld called Project shield: http://www.theverge.com/2013/1/7/3845282/nvidia-announces-project-shield-handheld-gaming-system It is essentially a controller with a 5 inch flip screen on it. The most important aspect of this is the new Tegra 4 CPU which is a quad core ARM A15 based chip with what I'm assuming 72 Kepler based CUDA cores (the next nexus 7 should be pretty awesome should they use it). The device itself runs android 4.1 and will allow users of Nvidia's 6xx series GPU stream games to this device via local wifi. Now, my question is one of why would I want to buy this? Its literally a 5 inch tablet with a unattachable controller that will either not fit in a pocket or be really uncomfortable which defeats the mobility aspect. On top of that, what incentive do developers have to make games for this thing? Furthermore why would I want to stream games from my more powerful and higher res PC to a controller? All of that being said, I could see this doing really well for emulation but if that's all you're getting it for a Pandora may suit you better. One last little tidbit, the audio system rivals laptops equipped with beats by dre. I can't imagine that being hard to do but whatever.

If you find that device not particularly useful, it gets better. Razer, the gaming mouse company behind the Blade, has announced a 10.1 inch gaming tablet: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2413967,00.asp Apparently, those who purchase Razer products really wanted a 10 inch dockable tablet for playing their extensive PC game library on the go because laptops are just too inconvenient. I mean I don't get the Shield, but I could probably find a use for it. This thing however... Why? What is the market this thing is targeted for? People who literally cannot find a 13 inch laptop with a dedicated gpu? I seriously don't understand the purpose of this. Okay, its lightweight but that doesn't really matter as I'd have to carry "docks" to play games on it. Sure, I can plug another battey into it, or I could just get a larger laptop battery. To top it all off, the base model is $1 short of a grand. One thousand dollars for a 10" tablet you can play games on. Or, you could buy a laptop and be better off if you don't mind a few extra pounds.

To end this on a good note, I'm going to change subjects a bit. Canonical has announced that it is working on Ubuntu for cell phones:

I'm excited for this. Very much so. Whether or not it succeeds I can't say. It is a bit clunky right now and definitely needs some more polish. However, I like the way it looks. I love the fact that its pure GNU/Linux without Java on top which by default means better performance and battery life. I especially like the fact that its ubuntu that I know with a seperate mobile interface. I.e. the way it should be done *cough* microsoft apple *cough*. Now I'm just pulling this one out of the either but what if their "dock" mode they've been working on is used here? What if I can run Ubuntu on my phone, dock it via usb & hdmi, get a full desktop experience without losing phone features like telephony and GPS, and then undock it when I'm done and still be in 1 OS? If that were to happen, I would joy puke everywhere while crapping bricks. I always wanted a true pocket computer and this could be the deal.

But enough of my diatribe, what do you think of all this?