Joysticks

Nvidia has announced plans to produce its own hand-held video-games console. Project Shield is Android-based and marries a 5in (12.7cm) touch-screen with joysticks, buttons and other controls, in a clam-shell design. It is also designed to link to PCs offering access to more powerful games such as those on the Steam library. The announcement was a surprise, as the US company has previously focused on selling chips and graphics cards to other manufacturers. Intel, another chip manufacturer, is also reportedly working on its own device - a television set-top box. Android apps Nvidia's announcement came at the first major press conference of this year's Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. The company's chief executive, Jen-Hsun Huang, did not reveal a release date or price for the device, but he did show off a working prototype and outline its specifications. Nvidia chief executive Jen-Hsun Huang Nvidia's chief executive said the console had taken five years to develop The console is bigger than an Xbox controller but smaller than the Wii U's game-pad. Its screen resolution is 720p, but the machine is capable of playing out games and video in the 4k standard - which offers eight times the detail - on compatible TVs via an HDMI cable. At its heart is the firm's new quad-core Tegra 4 chip - which Mr Huang described as the fastest mobile processor on the market. As well as keys representing the standard Android commands, the console also sports a "shield" button that ...