We may finally find out what the NX will look like early next month.
According to the Wall Street Journal, analysts predict that Nintendo will unveil the NX gaming system in early October.
With Nintendo’s current console, the Wii U, nearing its final stages, Nintendo is poised to give some more concrete details about the NX. Set to launch in March, rumors about what the console will offer have been rampant. It is currently believed to be a console/handheld hybrid. It’s rumored to have almost as much power as the current PlayStation 4, which some gamers may find disappointing. Since it’s apparently being built to be used on the go, battery life is expected to be a key issue. It will be powered by Nvidia’s next line of Tegra chips, the X2. The Tegra chips have traditionally been used for mobile devices, only adding to the swirl of handheld rumors. It’s also rumored that the NX will be region-free, something that Nintendo has never done with its previous systems.
Nintendo has seen a wave of consumer excitement and positive press this summer. First it launched Pokémon Go, a mobile game that allowed players to catch Pokémon in the real world. It quickly became a global phenomenon, with mobs of people running after monsters. Shinzo Abe, prime minister of Japan, then dressed up as Mario during the Rio Olympics closing ceremony to hype the 2020 games in Tokyo. Then on Wednesday, Shigeru Miyamoto, the creator of Mario, walked onstage during the iPhone 7 press event to unveil Super Mario Run. With this string of announcements, Nintendo has seen its stocks jump up 13 percent since Wednesday.
Acer’s Predator Atlas 8 finally has a US release date and price, several months after the company first showed off the handheld in May. The highlight is the Intel Arc G3 Extreme chip inside, which has been adopted by only a couple of other consoles besides the Atlas 8. This version will go on sale exclusively at Best Buy on November 1 for $1,299.99.
Acer originally said the Atlas 8 would arrive in North America in October, but left pricing open at the time. The launch came amid the ongoing DRAM crunch, which has made memory more expensive across the PC industry and complicated pricing for hardware makers.
Gaming laptops and I have a complicated relationship. One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it. I was a broke college kid, and that was the best I could afford. So trying out high-end gaming laptops is always fun. But ASUS' ROG Zephyrus G14 is a lot more than a laptop that can run AAA games. It is portable, so you're not lugging around a 2.5kg machine everywhere you go. It is built well, none of that plastic chassis, and can even function as a normal laptop outside of just gaming.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.