IT News and Technology

Apple's Iphone 5 Full Review

12:54

Another year, another iPhone. 2012 brings the iPhone 5, with the usual long lines at Apple stores and lots of hype. But this is actually a very solid upgrade: the iPhone 5 has a 4" Retina display and true 4G LTE. While the 3.5" display on prior iPhones seemed downright old fashioned in terms of screen real estate, the 4", 1136 x 640 display feels like there's room to spread out and read web pages without chronic zooming. The on-screen keyboard likewise is wider in landscape mode and easier to use. There's an extra row of apps on the home screen. Trust me, you'll notice the difference. And at 326ppi and 500 nits of brightness plus high contrast, it's one of the best displays on the smartphone market. Apple claims it has a 44% wider color gamut that covers the full sRGB spectrum (that's pretty impressive). The only caveat? Apps that haven't been updated to support the new resolution will have black bars at the top and bottom (we expect most popular apps will get updated quickly).

Specs mavens will note that high end Android phones have even higher resolution 1280 x 720 displays, but those displays are generally 4.5" to 4.8", and thus the pixel density is lower, making for a slightly less sharp (depending on your visual acuity) display that does indeed show even more of web pages, spreadsheets and the like. I've been using mainly big screen Android smartphones for the past year, and I find the iPhone 5's display a big step in the right direction and finally a usable size (for me 3.5" just didn't cut it). But it still is hard to give up the huge display on other smartphones once you've become accustomed to them.

As ever, that leads to the Apple vs. Android discussion. Both are very good platforms, and nothing has changed (much) in the argument for each. The iPhone and iOS are extremely easy to use with almost no learning curve. It's a very stable and fast platform, and the app and media selection is enormous. Android caters to those who love really big screens, fast CPUs, a customizable UI and a less draconically vetted app ecosystem. It's not so much a matter of which one is better, but rather which one fits your needs.

4G LTE: Really Fast Data

If you're upgrading from an iPhone 3GS or iPhone 4 with the slower HSPDA or EV-DO flavors of 3G, HSPA+ and 4G LTE will make you feel like you're on a fast WiFi network. Our AT&T iPhone 5 units average 24Mbps down and 21Mpbs up according to the Speedtest.net app. Nice! That's on LTE of course, but you should see noticeably faster speeds compared to older iPhone models that had 7.2Mbps HSDPA or EV-DO. For those of you on Sprint and Verizon, which use EV-DO 3G technology, you won't notice the speed difference unless you have 4G LTE coverage in your area. Verizon has large areas of the metropolitan US blanketed in LTE so chances are good that you're covered unless you live in a less urbanized area, while Sprint has only begun the rollout. Note that you can make a call while using the data connection on the GSM (AT&T) version, but you can't do that on the Verizon iPhone 5, which is a sore point versus some Android Verizon phones that can handle simultaneous voice and 4G LTE data.

Given the various network technologies and bands used in the US and around the world, Apple has started manufacturing different iPhone 5 variants for different networks. Previously they tried to roll it all into one SKU, but that's no longer possible with the addition of LTE. That means you shouldn't buy a Sprint iPhone 5 if you wish to use it on AT&T and vice versa. There's still no iPhone for T-Mobile, but those of you who wish to bring one over can do so: just be sure to buy the GSM model (AT&T or unlocked GSM). The iPhone 5 uses a nano SIM; the smallest SIM card yet (Apple came up with the new standard, which was then accepted by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute).

iPhone 5 Variants

iPhone 5 model A1428 (GSM, US): 850, 900, 1900, 2100 MHz); GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz); LTE (Bands 4 and 17: 700 and 2100/1700MHz) AT&T offers this model.

iPhone 5 model A1429 (CDMA): CDMA EV-DO Rev. A and Rev. B (800, 1900, 2100 MHz); UMTS/HSPA+/DC-HSDPA (850, 900, 1900, 2100 MHz); GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz); LTE (Bands 1, 3, 5, 13, 25: 700, 850, 1800, 1900 and 2100MHz). Sprint and Verizon sell this model. It's world capable and can roam on GSM and HSPA+ networks. Word is the Verizon version has unlocked GSM.

iPhone 5 model A1429 (GSM, overseas): UMTS/HSPA+/DC-HSDPA (850, 900, 1900, 2100 MHz); GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz); LTE (Bands 1, 3, 5: 850, 1800 and 2100MHz)

Design and Ergonomics

Apple excels when it comes to build quality, and the iPhone 5 is no exception. Every seam is perfect and the phone looks like a very expensive and elegant piece of hardware. The glass and metal look stunning and feel great in the hand, even if the design is merely an evolution of the iPhone 4 and 4S lines. The phone is no wider than the iPhone 4S, and it's just a little bit taller. It is thinner and 20% lighter than the iPhone 4S (the iPhone 5 weighs just 3.95 ounces). The weight reduction is welcome and noticeable.

The iPhone 5 is available in white with an aluminum back or black with a slate back (very dark gray coated aluminum). Both are good looking, with the white model carrying on the spirit of the iPhone 4 line while the black model has blacked out Darth Vader sides. Early user reports suggest that the black model is more prone to back scratches (ours hasn't scratched yet, but it's only a few days old). The slate back does show some fingerprint oil, though not a lot, while the white with aluminum back stays tidier.

The iPhone 5 uses the new Lighting connector, a much smaller 8 pin, double-sided connector that replaces the ancient 30 pin connector. Some folks pitched a fit over this, but connectors need to evolve over time and we're happy to see something that's much smaller and easier to plug in (since it's double-sided, there's no "this side up"). It does mean that accessories that depend on digital iPod out won't work: Apple sells a pricey $29 8 pin to 30 pin adapter but it provides power and analog audio only.

Apple includes their new earbuds, dubbed EarPods. These sell for $29 if you wish to purchase them separately, and they are indeed more ergonomic than the old earbuds while sounding noticeably better too. They come in a little case so you can keep them tidy when not in use.

Call Quality

Call quality is very good on our AT&T iPhone 5 units. Voice on both ends is full and quite clear. Volume is slightly above average, being just a bit louder than our HTC One X. Reception is likewise good. Data speeds are excellent (we are in a good LTE coverage area). We tried to "death grip" the phone (covering large portions of the sides) and didn't note any drop in reception since the antenna areas are now on the back top and bottom ends. Clearly, Apple has learned their lesson from the iPhone 4 and its "Antenna-gate" issue.

Performance and Horsepower

As you'd expect, this is Apple's fastest iPhone yet. Manufacturers may play marketing games with various specs, but Moore's Law holds fast for CPUs and they really do get significantly faster every year, as do graphics processors. Apple developed the new A6 chip in house, and they've done a tremendous job. Not many phone manufacturers also develop mobile CPUs and GPUs (Samsung is one of the few with their excellent Exynos CPU). It's particularly interesting to see a small company (in terms of R&D employee numbers, not market valuation) develop phone CPUs in-house.

The iPhone 5 has a triple core PowerVR SGX 543MP3 graphics chip and a dual core 1.3GHz ARM compatible A6 SOC (system on a chip) designed by Apple. A 1.3GHz dual core might not sound impressive compared to the quad core and 1.5GHz dual core CPUs used in Android phones and upcoming Windows Phone 8 models, but boy does this thing kick butt. In cross platform benchmarks, the iPhone 5 edges out the fastest Android phones on the US market, including the Samsung Galaxy S III and the HTC One X (the One X actually comes close to the iPhone 5 in Geekbench 2). As a refresher, the iPhone 4S and fifth gen iPod Touch have a slower dual core CPU with dual core GPU, while the New iPad has a 543MP4 GPU quad core GPU and A5x processor. The New iPad needs extra graphics punch to drive its extremely high resolution display.

iOS 6

The iPhone 5 ships with iOS 6, Apple's latest operating system for their phones and tablets. It features the following improvements and additions:

- Apple's new maps (Google Maps is gone from the stock firmware)
- Improved Siri that can now handle queries about location-based things and more
- Passbook: think Keyring loyalty reward card keeper plus tickets for movies and airlines with boarding passes
- Do Not Disturb: turn off all those annoying reminders to play Words with Friends when you want to sleep. Don't worry, your wakeup alarm will still sound. You can schedule DND, so you don't have to remember to enable and disable it every morning and evening.
- Facebook integration with the address book, calendar and the Safari web browser
- Shared photo streams
- Panorama mode for photos

And yes, Apple's maps can be quirky, though it hasn't guided us to Uganda yet for Mexican food. Mostly we've noticed POIs oddities when zooming: with no rhyme or reason POIs disappear when zooming and returning to an old zoom level, but that doesn't bring back suddenly missing POIs. And some landmarks like the Eiffel Tower look foreshortened or squashed. But keep in mind that Google Maps had us going in endless circles around our big box store destinations and told us to drive into a creek when it first came out 5 years ago. Nokia Maps in the US were even more likely to send us two countries away for dinner. I suspect that Apple will hone Maps soon enough, and since all data comes from their servers, they can iterate it quickly and easily. But until then, rely on your carrier-bundled navigation solution (often powered by Telenav) or third party offerings for mission critical destinations.

Above: the iPhone 5 and iPhone 4.

Camera

The iPhone 5's 8 megapixel "iSight" rear camera has a sapphire crystal lens like high end watches because it's much more scratch resistant than glass or plastic. That means the lens cover is less likely to get scratched and reduce image quality. Though the resolution is unchanged from the iPhone 4S, the camera takes photos faster, and you can take photos while also recording video, just like recent high end HTC and Samsung Android smartphones. Video is recorded at 1080p, 30 fps with the usual simple, if not simplistic set of controls. The backside illuminated sensor and 5 element f/2.4 lens are still state of the art for camera phones, and the iPhone 5 takes some of the nicest photos and videos we've seen from a smartphone. The rear camera module is made by Sony (the same is true of the iPhone 4S), and Sony really knows how to do mobile cameras right (just look at the Sony Xperia Ion's excellent camera).

The 1.2MP, 720p front FaceTime HD camera is significantly improved in terms of resolution and quality. It replaces the VGA front camera used on prior iPhones and it delivers very sharp and bright video for FaceTime and Skype chats thanks to the BSI sensor and face detection (both rare on front cameras).

Battery Life

As per usual, the phone's Lithium Ion battery is sealed inside. You can charge the phone over USB or the included 5 volt, 1 amp charger (the same charger bundled with prior iPhone models). Apple claims up to 8 hours of talk time on 3G (currently no US LTE network supports voice over 4G LTE). They claim 10 hours of video playback, 8 hours of web browsing on LTE or 3G and 40 hours of music playback. Apple's battery life estimates for their products tend to be fairly accurate, and in our tests, the iPhone 5 is no exception. Our AT&T unit on LTE had no trouble making it through the day with both push data for iCloud and every 15 minute fetch settings for Gmail and Google calendar.

Technology News

Treating patient, not virus, could beat many flu strains at once

06:23

A radical new approach to fighting influenza could not only save countless lives each year, it could pave the way for other drugs in the future. Called Vasculotide, it represents a paradigm shift in the thinking of fighting deadly viruses. Rather than trying to kill the virus itself, or stop it from infecting the body, Vasculotide simply stops the infected body from leaking fluid into the lungs. That’s all it does — yet, in testing, it was able to save 80% of two types of mice from three different and normally completely fatal strains of the flu.
This is possible because, while Vasculotide completely stops the virus’s ability to enact its single most deadly symptom, the drug does not depress the natural immune system in the process. Our immune systems are almost always capable of killing off invaders, but not always of doing so before the virus kills the host. By simply fighting the onset of respiratory problems like pneumonia, the drugs keeps the host alive so the immune system has the time it needs to beat the virus.

This might not sound like such a big deal; after all, toughening the body against a virus is not a conceptually new idea, and could even theoretically encompass taking vitamins while sick. However, the ability to specifically and reliably prevent a downstream effect of disease — that is to say, the end of the chain reaction begun by the virus — could let it be uniquely generalizable. The tests published this week found success fighting the 2009 Swine Flu pandemic strain, among others.
As mentioned, the drug was tested with multiple species of mice and multiple strains of the flu. All mammalian blood vessels share this basic process of fluid transfer, and the vast majority of flu viruses kill at least some of the infected via respiratory failure, so by modifying that process Vasculotide could protect a wide array of animals — say, humans — from a wide array of diseases, and not just from within the influenza family.
Another great advantage to treating the symptom in this way is that the drug can be administered well after infection, and even after the onset of symptoms, and still be effective. This is said to “rescue” the mice from infection, something even modern anti-viral medication like Tamiflu can’t do with any regularity. And unlike Tamiflu and other major compounds, this one can be mass-produced at an affordable price, which is important when the areas most tormented by influenza are also the areas with the least ability to pay for expensive treatments.

Don’t forget that the flu, in various forms, has been one of the most destructive forces in human history.

That’s because, by targeting the lungs, this approach does not tie its effectiveness to winning or losing a battle with highly evolved replicating viruses. Rather, its success is simply determined by whether it can make a simple modification to the actions of epithelial cells in the lungs — and that change is made independent of the density or replication rate of the virus. Unlike so many wide-focus viral treatments, Vasculotide need not be administered preemptively. This could be a powerful technique, when used in concert with anti-viral drugs to fight the flu more conventionally, depressing its other, less often fatal symptoms as well.
Best of all, since the drug focuses on effects, it could be effective even against drug-resistant strains of a disease. It’s certainly possible that a virus would evolve around Vasculotide’s effect — the lack of respiratory leaking lowers its transmissibility to hosts, lowering its evolutionary fitness — but such an evolved response would be independent of many other sorts of resistances. A resistance to this treatment would have to come in the form of a modified form of lung-attack, rather than a specific resistance to the Vasculotide molecules themselves.

Laptop Reviews

Dell Inspiron 11 3000

06:19

Dude, you got a Lenovo Yoga, except it's a Dell. Lots of companies have copied Lenovo's very successful 360 degree hinge design that turns a laptop into a tablet, and now it's Dell's turn. The Dell Inspiron 11 3000 is their counterpart to the Lenovo Yoga 2 11 inch. Both are mid-tier priced 11.6" full Windows 8.1 machines that are designed for the price and portability minded. We actually like Dell's take on the small convertible: it's actually reasonably upgradable in a world where 11.6" tablets and convertibles are chock full of soldered-on, and thus not upgradable parts.

The Inspiron 11 starts at $399, though you may find it for less at retailers. That base model runs on a dual core Intel Celeron N2830, which is actually part of the Bay Trail platform where the latest Intel Atom processors reside at the lower end. It's clocked at 2.16GHz with burst to 2.41GHz and it's a 64 bit CPU. Though it's not nearly as fast as the latest generation Core i5, it's more than adequate for web, MS Office, streaming full HD video and editing photos. That CPU can address up to 8 gigs of DDR3 RAM, and the good (and rare) news is that the Inspiron's RAM is a standard removable SODIMM so you can upgrade it yourself. Generally, RAM is soldered on and thus not upgradeable, even on Ultrabooks, and we genuinely appreciate Dell's design move. The machine ships with 4 gigs of RAM, which is adequate for most folks, and is an improvement over Intel Atom products that generally have just 2 gigs of RAM. That means multi-tasking is a real possibility with the Inspiron 11 3000. In contrast, the Yoga 2 11's RAM is soldered on and 4 gigs is the max you can get from the factory.

The convertible is also available with the Pentium N3530 quad core CPU clocked at 2.16GHz with boost up to 2.58GHz (this is the model we have for review) for a small performance boost. This comes and goes on Dell's website, but a few of our local retailers sell it for $479. It is otherwise the same as the Celeron model. Other features include Intel HD graphics, decent side-firing stereo speakers, a 500 gig HDD, single band Dell WiFi 802.11n, Bluetooth 4.0 and a very pleasing IPS 1366 x 768 touch screen. The Inspiron has an SD card slot, a full size HDMI 1.4a port, one USB 3.0 port, two USB 2.0 ports and a spill-resistant (but not backlit) keyboard. As we've come to expect from Dell, it's one of the better keyboards you'll find in a small machine, though we wish it were backlit.

The machine looks like a baby Inspiron, though the interior keyboard deck is silver rather than matte black. It's not a bad looking laptop and though it's not insanely thin or made of sculpted metal like the XPS line, it doesn't look or feel cheap. At 3 lbs., it's comparable to the Yoga 2 11 and the lighter 13" Ultrabooks, and the power brick is predictably tiny and light. Stereo speakers fire from the sides and they're relatively loud for a laptop this small. The battery and internals are sealed inside, but it's not hard in the least to remove the bottom cover (several screws hold it on) and then you can access the battery, socketed wireless card, RAM slot and the 2.5" HDD. Unlike the Yoga 2 that uses an unusually slim 5mm HDD with a proprietary connector, the Dell Inspiron 11 has a standard SATA drive connector and works with commonly available 7mm HDDs and SSDs. So if you want to increase storage or increase speed by replacing the HDD with an SSD, you can do so

The 360 degree hinge works well, and as with the Yoga, the keyboard is exposed on the bottom when the Inspiron is in tablet mode. The keyboard is disabled, so input is ignored even though the keys move when you handle the tablet. At 3 pounds, this isn't an iPad Air, and you'll want to rest it on a desk or your lap for extended use. You can also use the Dell in presentation or tent modes, making it handy for presentations and movie watching sans stand.

Battery Life

The Dell has a 4 cell 43 wHr Lithium Ion battery. You'll need to unscrew several Phillips head screws and remove the bottom cover to access the battery. Dell claims up to 8 hours battery life, and with mixed productivity use we averaged 6.5 hours with brightness set to 40%.

Technology Reviews

NVIDIA Shield Tablet

06:17

NVIDIA's line of Shield Android gaming tablets has become much more promising with their first Shield tablet and the introduction of the K1 CPU with Kepler graphics. The 8" NVIDIA Shield tablet is portable enough to take with you, yet it packs more processing and graphics power than any other Android tablet on the market (save the Xiaomi MiPad with K1 that's not widely available in the US). In fact, the GPU surpasses the HD 4000 graphics in the first gen MS Surface Pro on some benchmarks. Nice.

The first Shield was an innovative but decidedly niche device: a gaming controller with a 5" display grafted on top and the Tegra 4 CPU (with fan!) crammed inside. It was much bulkier than an Android smartphone and wasn't the sort of thing you could pull out at work without looking like you were definitely goofing off. The Shield tablet looks like an everyday tablet and despite its gaming prowess, is also a general purpose tablet. Nobody will stare if you take it out at work or on the train. It runs Android 4.4.2 KitKat with very few UI customizations and it works with all Google Play apps including the app store. Anything you can do with an Android tablet, from email to web to watching movies and working on Office documents you can do with the Shield tablet. That helps offset the pain of the $299 price for the 16 gig WiFi model: it's not "just" a portable gaming console.

The NVIDIA Shield tablet has a 1920 x 1200 IPS display with 16:10 aspect ratio. The tablet has 2 gigs of RAM, 16 gigs of internal storage and a microSD card slot that's compatible with cards up to 128 gigs. It supports moving apps to SD cards (handy given how huge 3D games can be), though not all games support moving to cards. Dual band WiFi 802.11b/g/n with MIMO and 2x2 streams should help game streaming quality, and the tablet has Bluetooth 4.0 LE, USB host via the micro USB charge/sync/host combo port, and GPS with GLONASS. The passive DirectStylus 2 is included as one of the best capacitive styli on the market. In September NVIDIA will release a 32 gig model that adds unlocked pentaband 4G LTE.

The tablet is a bit heavier than the competition at 13.4 ounces, but it feels well made. The back is fairly grippy matte polycarbonate, and the tablet has ample front-facing stereo speakers. It has a micro USB port for charging, data transfer and USB host (keyboards, mice, game controllers and flash drives) and a mini HDMI port. It also supports wireless display, though the system is really set up for HDMI output while using WiFi for game streaming and the WiFi Direct Shield Wireless controller. The tablet has front and rear 5 megapixel cameras.

What Sets the Shield Apart?

Clearly, Android games aren't the most interesting thing about the Shield: it's NVIDIA's own game streaming, Grid cloud gaming service and ever-ready Twitch support for the tablet's front-facing 5MP camera and mic. Heck, even the $59 wireless Shield controller has a mic. Steam game streaming (actually the dreaded Origin is now supported too) has come a long way since we reviewed the Shield handheld. It's now a less geeky and tricky experience with good results on a solid WiFi network. NVIDIA Grid means playing a selection of PC games for free. Grid computers in San Jose handle all the computational work and your tablet is a thin client. In layman's terms, that means the tablet is the display, audio and controller interface to that big computer in the sky that's actually running the game. Console mode lets you plug the tablet into your HD TV via the mini HDMI port, so you can use the TV as your gaming monitor (you must have a controller to enable this mode).

Granted, you can play today's most demanding Android games nicely on competing high end tablets like the Samsung Galaxy Tab S that sells for $100 more but nets you an ever higher resolution Super AMOLED display and a slimmer, lighter design. But the game streaming, free PC games via Grid, built-in Twitch support and ShadowPlay game recording are unique to the Shield. If you're a hardcore gamer looking for a mobile, or couch-friendly solution, the Shield tablet has definite appeal. Though it still feels more like a look into the future than a final product with an immense library of high quality PC or NVIDIA K1-optimised games, it's worth the price of admission for an enthusiast. And we must admit that NVIDIA is doing some amazing things here: game streaming has gone from a balky affair to a truly playable system in the past year. I lost an hour of my life playing Tomb Raider 2013 (streamed from my gaming PC) in what seemed the blink of an eye because it played that well and was so much fun.

Yes, the Shield tablet plus the $60 Shield controller will set you back $360, nearly the cost of an XBOX One or PlayStation 4. But you can't take your console on the bus or to work, can you? It's an interesting comparison of what money buys, but it's not really a practical comparison. And if you're on a tight budget and already own an XBOX game controller for PC (the USB wired model), you can make do without NVIDIA's controller.

Gaming

But you're here because you are into games. And the tablet doesn't disappoint in most respects. It's currently the fastest Android tablet available in the US, and we don't expect the Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 with Adreno 420 graphics to dethrone it. The graphics are particularly impressive here, as they should be for gaming: 192 core Kepler graphics gets the job done nicely. That won't be a panacea for 3D games that aren't particularly well optimized for Android; great hardware can only compensate so much for kludgy code. But even balky games like Asphalt 8 and some Valve ports that lack keen optimizations play better than we've seen on lesser hardware.

Game streaming using NVIDIA's list of GameStream-approved games is really a fluid and impressive thing. There's a large number of supported titles and as long as you have a decent 802.11n or ac dual band network. Hint: despite what NVIDIA says about networking requirements, a solid 2.4GHz single band router can do the trick as long as you have a good signal. You must have a gaming PC with an NVIDIA GTX card (GTX 650 or better) and have NVIDIA's GeForce graphics drivers and Experience software installed on the PC. That means you'll already need to be a serious gamer with a decent gaming laptop or desktop to use game streaming. The Shield doesn't do the computing for gaming; rather your gaming desktop does the hard work, then streams the video, audio and controller streams to the tablet.

Display

If you're a long time user or fan of Samsung's Super AMOLED phones and tablets, you might not love the Shield's IPS display at first blush. Color gamut is good but not as wide, and the Shield tablet lacks those hyper-luscious colors. Nonetheless, it's actually a lovely display with good colors and excellent contrast that makes some scenes look absolutely luminous--particularly those with high contrast dark settings and vividly lit main elements. It has a Sony Bravia-like quality with natural colors. The 1920 x 1200 resolution is 16:10, a little taller than standard widescreen full HD 1080p, leaving room for the Android soft buttons at the bottom. Brightness is good at 390 nits, but not super-bright. It's plenty bright for indoor use; though some PC games that tend toward the dark side will have you raising brightness.

Shield Wireless Controller

The Shield controller isn't cheap, but it's a well-made, weighty controller with absolutely posh buttons that are crisp and responsive without being stiff or clacky. It has the usual two joystick, one d-pad arrangement plus requisite shoulder buttons and X, A, B and Y buttons. The controller uses WiFi Direct rather than Bluetooth to reduce latency. In use, we felt no controller lag. The right joystick felt just right in games, while the XBOX 360 controller had too much acceleration (the left was fine on both). NVIDIA makes it easy to connect the controller to the tablet: just launch the Shield controller app and it pairs the two together.

The controller has capacitive Android back and home buttons near the top and a game start button. Press the green NVIDIA logo to wake up the controller and launch Shield Hub (your gaming hub) on the tablet. Shield Hub lists PC streaming titles in your PC's library, has access to Grid cloud gaming, a list of media player apps on the tablet and Android games. It picked up many but not all Android games that we'd installed on our tablet. There's also a mini trackpad of sorts nestled between the two grips and volume controls as well as a microphone for Twitch and Google voice command. That's handy if your tablet is sitting 10 feet away plugged into your TV.

DirectStylus 2

NVIDIA's second-generation stylus (the first was in the Tegra Note) is one of the best capacitive stylus experiences. If you're right handed, it manages to "fake" palm rejection using clever software and the powerful GPU in the Shield tablet to discern capacitive knuckle or hand contact from the included stylus. If you're left handed like me (despite a left handed option under settings) it falls apart and does a poor job of ignoring your left hand touching the screen. If you're right handed it works admirably and makes the tablet a viable note-taking companion.

The pen has a rubbery, angled tip, so you can write or draw fine lines with the pointy tip or wider lines using the entire surface. It also registers pressure so you can achieve variable line width, but the palm rejection and pressure sensitivity don't compare to active digitizer solutions like the Wacom digitizer used in Samsung Galaxy Note Android products or N-Trig used in several Windows 8 convertibles like the Sony Vaio Flip and Microsoft Surface Pro 3. If you're right handed, it's quite useable for note taking and annotations, something we can't say for the average third party stylus for iPad or Android tablets. NVIDIA includes a launcher with a few pre-installed selections including Evernote, two note taking programs and their own capable Dabbler art program.

Battery Life

The tablet has a 6700 mAh Lithium Ion battery that's sealed inside. Battery life is highly variable, given the gaming vs. regular tablet use cases. When using it as you would any 8" tablet, battery life is similar to the competition at 8 hours of mixed use (video playback, web browsing, email, music playback and social networking at 50% brightness with WiFi on). When gaming, be it highly demanding Android titles like the very graphically pleasing Portal, Half Life 2 and bundled Trine 2 tailored to the NVIDIA K1 CPU, or game streaming with a PC or Grid cloud gaming, battery life is 3 hours or less. Thankfully, the Shield Wireless controller doesn't use the micro USB port, so you can play plugged into AC. Temperatures don't get wildly higher when the tablet is both charging and gaming (unlike the Tegra 4 in some Android smartphones). The back of the tablet gets quite warm when playing demanding Android games, but streaming and Grid gaming don't heat things up.

NVIDIA Grid cloud gaming is a free beta service that relies on servers in California to run the games, and there are a few good titles like Borderlands 2, Saints Row 3 and Red Faction: Armageddon. You will need a fast Internet connection of at least 10 mbps with short ping times to NVIDIA's grid server farm. I spent a few hours playing Saints Row 3, and the graphics were high quality with good frame rates and excellent control response times with the NVIDIA Shield controller and the XBOX 360 PC USB controller. The connection dropped once, but the game picked up where I'd left off (yes, you get cloud saves). This is a beta service, and NVIDIA adds new games occasionally. I expect it will remain free for Shield portable and Shield tablet owners for some time.

Technology Reviews

Sony PS Vita

06:10

The PS Vita, Sony's second generation portable gaming console, hardly needs an introduction. It's been 7 years since the PSP launched, and even though the device is about deep gameplay and quality titles, the hardware was more than a little rusty. The world was more than ready for something new from Sony. The PS Vita sells for $249 for the WiFi only version and $299 for the WiFi plus AT&T 3G version. The $349 first edition bundle that includes the WiFi + 3G PlayStation Vita, a nicer than average rigid zipper case, 4 gig memory card, 6 AR games cards and the game Little Deviants went on sale February 15, one week before the non-bundle versions.

The Vita is simply an inspired piece of hardware. This is the Sony of old that made cutting edge hardware with exquisite designs. The Vita's overall design is reminiscent of the PSP with a long oval shape, a relatively large display and analog and digital controls. The Vita adds a second analog joystick for truly excellent console-style gaming. This sets it apart from the PSP, Nintendo DS family and all other mobile gaming platforms. For serious gamers, it's a game changer. The PS Vita is gorgeous to look at, feels solid (I haven't ripped out those analog sticks yet, despite 30 hours of inspired play) and it's loaded with every feature in the book. The Vita has a capacitive touchscreen, a rear touch panel, 6 axis control (gyroscope, accelerometer and a digital compass too), front and rear cameras (great for augmented reality gameplay, not so great for taking stunning photos and video) and wireless access to the PS Store, social networking and multi-player gaming.

The 5" OLED display runs at 960 x 544 pixels and the colors are eye-popping yet not overdone like Super AMOLED smartphone displays. Blacks are rich and the screen is extremely sharp. It's a touchscreen, and that means entering info using the virtual keyboard is easy rather than the tedious affair on the PSP. Games can use the touchscreen, the rear touch pad, gyro, accelerometer, the cameras and GPS. Yes, it has a GPS and Google Maps too along with Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR for headphones and headsets (not HID devices like keyboards and mice). The console has front-facing stereo speakers that provide surprisingly good separation but less than earth-shattering volume. It also has a 3.5mm headphone/mic jack and a built-in mic.

The UI is designed for touch interaction and is very intuitive (watch our video review to see it in action). A child could learn it in a matter of minutes, as could even us less savvy adults. Tap an icon to launch an app. Swipe sideways to switch between running apps. Tap the top taskbar to view notifications, just like Android. It's simple, trust me.

All isn't perfect: the glossy front face loves fingerprints, though it cleans up easily. The glare isn't forgiving outdoors, and while the AMOLED display looks stunning indoors, it's not the best outdoors. A beach buddy this isn't unless you've got some good umbrella shade. There's currently no video out to connect the Vita to a TV, but the as of yet undefined expansion port up top under a door next to the game card slot might provide a future video out solution.

The WiFi + AT&T 3G model has a full size SIM card on the side under a door, and you can get 250 meg (laughably small) or a $30 3 gig/month plans from AT&T sans contract. Personally, I'd pick the WiFi only model and use my smartphone with its mobile hotspot feature for occasional wireless multi-player gaming and social networking, but if you plan to use the feature heavily and frequently, 3G can make sense. Likewise, if you're buying the Vita for your child who won't have access to your smartphone, 3G could be handy. Obviously, you won't download many Vita games using 3G given their average 1 gig + file size. All models have WiFi 802.11b/g/n single band 2.4GHz.

The Vita runs on a quad core ARM Cortex-A9 CPU (as does the Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime Android tablet), and it has a quad core PowerVR SGX543MP4+ GPU (the quad core version of the dual core GPU used in the iPad 2 and iPhone 4S). It packs impressive power and should be plenty good for several years of good quality games. The launch Vita titles run fluently and our only complaint are long load times at game start and when loading new chapters/levels. CPU speed isn't disclosed. The Vita has multi-tasking apps (though you can't run two games simultaneously), and doesn't bog down with several apps running.

The Vita can play PSP downloadable games from the PS Store on the Vita, and there are trial versions of many Vita titles so you can test the game first--nice. You can transfer PSP/PSone compatible games and media to and from a PS3, Mac or Windows PC using the included USB cable (it's a removable part of the charger cabling and is included). Quality games shouldn't be a problem, and the launch titles include Uncharted: Golden Abyss, Marvel vs. Capcom 3, Rayman Origins, wipeout 2048 and the ever-popular Lumines. Game prices range from $9.99 for downloadable-only Vita titles to $39.99 for most tier 1 games (Uncharted is the only $50 title at launch, and Lego Harry Potter will cost $50 when it launches). There are plenty of PSP games available for download from $5 to $20 on average, with a few coming in higher. You can use two devices on a PSN account, so you can download games you'd purchased for your PSP to the Vita. Sony uses a Wallet system, where you'll use your credit card to put funds in the Wallet or Playstation Network cards that are sold in $10, $20 and $50 amounts at retail outlets like Best Buy. The UMD optical drive used in the PSP is gone, instead the Vita uses a small cartridge that looks (and is) like a small memory card. So your PSP UMD cartridges won't work, unlike downloadable games.

The PS Vita has a memory card slot that uses proprietary cards (some things never change). These aren't cheap: a 4 gig card costs $20, the 8 gig is $30, 16 gigs is $60 and 32 gigs is $100. Ouch. And you'll need a card since there's no accessible internal storage. Game saves, downloaded games (1 to 1.6 gigs apiece for Vita titles) and downloaded movies and TV shows require a memory card. I suggest you start with a larger card if you plan to download Vita games or game trials and movies because swapping cards is a minor pain (you must shut down before swapping a card, and who knows where your currently needed game save is stored). Sony has an on-device video store with solid movies for rent and purchase as well as TV shows. Netflix is included, but there's no Adobe Flash or HTML 5 video for the otherwise capable web browser.

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