Nvidia Shield Tablet Gets Android Lollipop Update, Half Life 2 EP1 and GRID

MojoKid writes Nvidia's Shield Tablet is only a few months old, but Nvidia is already updating the device with a freshly minted OS, a refreshed Shield Hub and access to the company's newly upgraded GRID Game Streaming service. A number of new Tegra K1 optimized games are arriving as well, as well as a new game bundle which includes Half Life 2 Episode 1. The SHIELD Tablet Android Lollipop update will feature Android's new "material design" interface and improved app performance, according to Nvidia. The update will also come preloaded with a new version of Nvidia's own Dabbler drawing and painting app (Dabbler 2.0). In addition to a new interface inspired by Lollipop's design language, Dabbler 2.0 will offer full support for layers and it'll allow users to share their sessions over Twitch. Previously, accessing the Nvidia's GRID beta meant streaming games from a GRID server cluster on the west coast, but Nvidia is expanding the service with server clusters located in Virginia, Europe and Asia. For the best possible user experience, streaming games from the cloud must incur minimal latency, and adding more servers in strategic locations not only affords Nvidia greater capacity, but minimizes latency as well. Nvidia says the GRID service will be available in North America this month, Western Europe in December and Asia sometime next year. The company's GRID service gives gamers access to 20 top titles currently, including Batman Arkham City, Borderlands 2 and Psychonauts, among others, and Nvidia is planning to add new games every week.

Comments

nVidia sucks

[ArcadeMan]

And their new GeForce GTX 980 graphics card is really fucking amazing!

Hmmm ...

[gstoddart]

For the best possible user experience, streaming games from the cloud

is a dumb idea?

Sorry, but why would I want to stream the damned game every time I play it?

No, I like the model where I download once, and ideally can play while my tablet is in airplane mode. In fact, any game I can't play in airplane mode gets deleted.

I wonder how many people are interested in this tablet, or if it's likely to be a complete failure as everyone things "who cares?".

Re:Hmmm ...

[gstoddart]

Because when we network speeds are fast enough, this WILL be the best possible user experience.

As long as bandwidth is charged for by ISPs, then I disagree.

See, everyone has said "ZOMG, the cloud and teh streaming". Meanwhile, your ISP is thinking "go ahead, suckers, stream all you want, it only makes us money".

Cloud gaming is the way of the future.

We shall see.

Me, I'll stick with an XBox 360 disconnected from the interwebs.

Don' need no steenking cloud. Don' need to steenking interweb connection. Don' need no steenking ads.

Short review

[novitk]

Had it for a month, comparing to Galaxy Tab...
Positives: usable stylus for $300, fast, speakers, minimial bloatware
Negatives: drains battery pretty good even when idle(can't survive 2 days for me), slow charging from PC USB port, glitches in Write stylus app