As CES 2010 is now under way, so are the many news and notes that are coming out of the convention. The first event that Brian and I went to was the nVidia Press Conference. As we went to sit down we were given 3D glasses for a part of the conference. As the wait finally ended and the music started to kick into high gear, so did the montage that nVidia put together. The montage began with video games and movies but wasn't in 3D yet. After the montage was over, the President of nVidia, Jen-Hsun Huang came out and talked about not only the evolution of desktop PC (personal computers) but also the evolution of portable PC in general. Continuing in the trend of evolution, he next discussed music from CD to mp3 players - such as the iPod and the Zune - and how the combination both cell phones and mp3 players became the iPhone. Jen-Hsun then said that the iPhone is what took mobile computing to a whole new level, with people connected to the web at all times. The issue with that is the majority of sites are set at 1024 x 768 resolution while most web-enabled mobile devices only display at 480 x 320. This difference is the main limiting factor for full use of the web on mobile devices. In today's world, the internet is viewed more as a application than a resource due to sites like Facebook, which  has become more of an application than a website itself due to the 78 million users harvesting their crops in Farmville. 

So what does this all mean to the rest of us? Why is it important to know all of this information? Well friends, it's because nVidia has decided to make 2010 the beginning of the Tablet Revolution. With the announcement of the Tablet Revolution also came a new type of processor called the Tegra. Eight independent processors, a dual-core cortex-a9 CPU provide you with 10x the performance with 500 milliwatts, but uses the power just like a cell phone. No fan, no cooling device, it only needs electricity. To the everyday user, the claim is that you will be able to play up to 140 hours of music or 16 hours of HD video for those really long trips. 

Mike Rayfield, General Product Manager of Tegra, was trying to demo the tablet to everyone in the room and it wasn't responding to the way he wanted, but at least the device did not Red Ring.  After the tablet was finally up and running on Android OS, it was amazing to see what the tablet could do; they went on Amazon.com and viewed the full website to see how well it handled loading the page. Afterward they showed a trailer of Ironman 2 demonstrating the clarity and crispness of the trailer on the device. The last thing they mentioned was that nVidia Tegra and Adobe Air are teaming up to bring us digital magazines. They didn't mention what magazines have already signed onto this service but the example was in full color just how it would be if you picked it up from the store. 

What does this mean for PC gamers? How does having a tablet affect the PC community? Tim Sweeney, CEO and Founder of Epic Games, came out to discuss how Epic Games has been a major player in the PC gaming community. After a small history lesson it was time to see what the tablet can really do. They did this by showing everyone a demo of a First Person Shooter running on unreal engine. While everyone, myself included, thought the demo was just a video but it was actually being run live on the tablet. 

The last segment of the whole press conference was all about the 3D: 3D games, 3D monitors, 3D everything. So far we know Msi and 2 other companies will be releasing gaming laptops with 3D vision technology. Asus, AlienWare and 1 other will be releasing 3D monitors. Games like Borderlands, Just Cause 2, Modern Warfare 2, Dark Void, Left 4 Dead 2 and Metro 2033 already have 3D capability. To showcase the 3D Vision Technology, they showed their special edition package release of Avatar. With the glasses the game looks simply amazing! nVidia announced that the PC version of the game will come out with the 3D glasses. 

My Take: I think the Tablet will be a cool concept if they do it right. The processor sounds amazing and the press conference was a really interesting experience. But is the world ready to carry another device with them wherever they go? With something like the Tablet I would be able to live with another device. I wonder if the tablet will be the next phone that would turn into a video phone. I guess we will find out in time. As far as 3D gaming is concern, are we really ready for 3D games, monitors and GPUs? Are we ready to spend all that money to be required to wear glasses while playing a game? And no wearing Gunnar Optiks does not count. I was able to experience 3D Vision Technology prior to the press conference.   I stepped up to play Need For Speed: Shift and the driving experience was nothing that I have ever experience before. I guess we will see how 3D gaming will turn out.