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Security writer recovers from massive revenge cyberattack
Journalists are no stranger to making enemies bent on retaliation. However, it's becoming increasingly difficult to survive that retaliation in the internet era... just ask security writer Brian Krebs. An unknown party knocked his website offline last week with a massive distributed denial of service attack (620Gbps of non-stop data) as revenge for exposing two major cyberattack sellers who've since been arrested. He's only back online after taking advantage of Alphabet's Project Shield, which protects journalists against censorship-oriented denial of service campaigns. His previous anti-DDoS provider, Akamai, had little choice but to drop him -- the company tells the Boston Globe that a sustained attack on that level would have cost the company "millions."
Google's Project Shield helps any news site beat DDoS attacks
The distributed denial-of-service attack, better know as a DDoS, is one of the more basic but effective ways of shutting down a website you might want to torment. Often, hackers use them to silence sites who hold viewpoints they disagree with, making it a popular tool for internet censorship. A few years ago, Google launched Project Shield, a tool that would let small sites route their traffic through Google in an effort to avoid such attacks -- and today, Wired is reporting that virtually any news site can sign up to be part of Project Shield and use Google's technology to stay online in the face of a DDoS attack.
Daily Roundup: Surface 2 review, Google's Project Shield, LG's Chrome OS fixation and more!
You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
Google's Project Shield helps small websites stand up to DDoS attacks
Yes, it shares the same codename as NVIDIA's portable Android console, but Google's Project Shield has nothing to do with gaming -- it's all about helping the little guy. Created in response to a Google Ideas request -- a think tank that provides tech solutions for social issues -- made by Middle Eastern activists, Shield aims to allow small site owners to "serve their content through Google" in order to withstand malicious DDoS (distributed denial of service) attacks and not go offline. It's a critical initiative for areas of the world that don't exactly thrive on free speech; where political unrest and social injustice can be better communicated to a global audience from special interest sites. Currently, the initiative is in a closed, testing phase, so interested parties will need to hit up the link below for an invite.
Weekly Roundup: Moto X preview, Nexus 7 review, Chromecast review, and more!
You might say the week is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workweek, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Weekly Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past seven days -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
NVIDIA Shield review (update: video!)
More Info Hands-on with NVIDIA Shield NVIDIA Shield now $300 NVIDIA Shield ships July 31st NVIDIA Shield is a truly strange device. It combines an eight-button console-size gamepad with dual analog sticks, and a 5-inch "multi-touch, retinal" screen. It runs stock Android 4.2.1. It touts wireless PC game streaming as its main selling point. It plays Android games, it plays PC games, it does the Twitter and the Gmail, et cetera. With Shield, NVIDIA is aiming to be the Swiss Army Knife of handheld game consoles. It slices! It dices! ShamWOW! It also costs $300, weighs nearly 1.5 pounds and takes up quite a bit of bag space. Its main selling point -- PC game streaming -- is dependent on the user already owning a PC with a relatively fancy ($140) NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 GPU or better. Let's be honest, though: you already know this stuff, right? If you're reading this review, you either already own all the necessary gear and wanna know if this is a worthwhile peripheral for your PC, or you're morbidly curious about NVIDIA's (admittedly bizarre) console experiment. Let's all head below and try to find satisfaction. Update: We've added our full review video below -- please excuse the lateness! We ran into some technical glitches on our end, but we seem to have conquered them. Enjoy!%Gallery-195041%
NVIDIA Shield ships July 31st, barely meets delayed launch window
NVIDIA has confirmed that its upcoming Android gaming handheld, Shield, will start shipping on July 31st. The Tegra 4 testing platform was originally scheduled to hit online retailers in late June, but was delayed due to "a mechanical issue that relates to a third-party component." Now, the company is writing to customers with pre-orders thanking them for their patience and assuring them the product will be on its way by the end of the month. The finalized ship date puts the product within its delayed July launch window by technicality, but due to the nature of snail mail, most buyers probably won't receive their unit until after the first of August. Frustrating for eager buyers perhaps, but at least NVIDIA's email strikes an apologetic tone -- assuring customers that the delay was a quality assurance measure. Can't wait until the end of the month? Check out our hands-on with the final hardware right here. Didn't pre-order? You'll find the company's official statement after the break. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
NVIDIA Shield retail launch delayed to July due to third-party component issue
NVIDIA's Shield won't arrive on its previously announced date of June 27th, instead moving its launch date to an undetermined point in July. A statement issued by NVIDIA explains the delay ambiguously, citing "a mechanical issue that relates to a third-party component" -- the company confirmed to Engadget it's an internal component, but wouldn't go into any more detail. "We want Shield to be perfect, so we have elected to shift the launch date to July," the statement reads. We pushed the company for a specific date but were rebuffed -- "We'll update you as soon as we have an exact date," was all we were told. We'll have a full review of the Shield just ahead of its July launch; for now, we've got a hands-on with the final version from mid-May to tide you over. Head below the break for that video.
NVIDIA's Shield now $300, arrives on June 27th (video)
Even before hitting store shelves, NVIDIA's Shield is shedding $50 from its original $350 asking price -- the little Android portable gaming console will cost $300 when it arrives at retail on June 27th. NVIDIA revealed both the new, lower price and release date today in a blog post which cited gamers asking for a lower price as the reason for the change. "We've heard from thousands of gamers that if the price was $299, we'd have a home run," the post reads. As such, the company's aiming for "a home run" with the new price point -- despite $300 being $50 more than a new PlayStation Vita, and just $100 short of a new PlayStation 4. Folks who pre-ordered aren't out of luck, they'll just be charged $300 when their unit ships rather than $350. As for where you can pick a Shield up outside of NVIDIA's official website ... well, we're waiting on word from the company on supported retailers. We've dropped the video of our hands-on with the final Shield just below, should you wish to relive those memories with us. Update: NVIDIA tells us that Newegg, GameStop, Micro Center and Canada Computers will all have Shield on the 27th.
NVIDIA Shield drops by the FCC, gets ready to fill pre-orders
Eager to get your mitts on NVIDIA's first Tegra 4 device? Cast your jealous eyes upon the federal government -- they've already got one. NVIDIA's Shield gaming handheld dropped by the FCC to get its label approved, betraying its original code name, Project Thor, in the processes. Hardly a surprise to see the device passing federal muster, of course, as it's slated for release at the end of next month. Unfortunately, the filings don't reveal any hidden goodies (that is, no cellular radio), just a standard WiFi antenna. Still, if label location drawings and test reports are your thing, check out the FCC link below.
NVIDIA pushes up Shield public pre-order date, lets you hop in queue today
NVIDIA newsletter subscribers have been able to pre-order the Shield handheld console for several days now, but the rest of us were due to wait until after the weekend. Considering that $349 price tag, we're not entirely sure we want to commit without having a chance to take the final hardware for a spin, but the option now exists nonetheless. Beginning today (instead of the previously announced date of May 20th), early adopters can hand over their cash at Gamestop, Newegg and Canada Computer, along with NVIDIA's own pre-order site, which we've linked for your convenience just below.
Project Shield becomes NVIDIA Shield, launches for $350 this June
NVIDIA's "project not a product" just became a product: Project Shield is now NVIDIA Shield, and it's arriving this June for $350. The specs haven't changed -- it's still rockin' a Tegra 4 processor with 2GB of RAM, a 5-inch "retinal" IPS display (1280x720), and 16GB of storage (expandable to 64GB via microSD). The concept remains nigh identical with what NVIDIA head Jen-Hsun Huang introduced back at CES: a console-quality controller with an HD screen mounted to it for on-the-go and streaming PC gaming. Beyond the price point and release window, the Shield is also getting a few new game announcements in Double Fine's Broken Age and Costume Quest, not to mention a new iteration of Chip's Challenge named "Chuck's Challenge." The AR.Drone folks are also adding in support for the Shield, enabling controller-based inputs over the motion-based usual. NVIDIA's also promising monthly OTA updates for the system, including the latest version of Android (the system ships with Jelly Bean 4.2.1). The company also warns that not all Android apps will work out of the box -- specifically, any that don't support landscape mode (the Netflix login screen, for example, has an issue here). Kinks aside, should you wish to be the very first to get a Shield, it's available for pre-order starting right now on NVIDIA's website (if you're on the mailing list, that is), or on May 20th everywhere else. Or you could sign up for the mailing list, of course.
Hands-on with NVIDIA Shield: NVIDIA's project turned product
NVIDIA's Project Shield now has an official name (NVIDIA Shield), a release window ("by the end of June") and a price tag ($350). That's a full $100 more than the PlayStation Vita -- arguably the most competent competition for Shield's hardcore skewing demographic -- and even a smidgen over the cost of various full-on game consoles. Despite the high barrier to entry, NVIDIA tells us Shield will follow the same annualized model that its mobile phone counterparts do: a new internal upgrade each year to keep up with the times. And we already know what that future looks like. Given all that baggage, we can't help but approach our last hands-on before launch with an eye toward whether or not this is a worthy purchase. Is NVIDIA's Shield worth getting in on early? %Gallery-188226%
Gaming's New Frontiers liveblog
Want to know what the future of gaming will be? Odds are that the panel we're hosting now at Engadget Expand has the answer. Our very own Ben Gilbert is sitting down with NVIDIA Product Marketing VP Ujesh Desai, Oculus VR Product VP Nate Mitchell and Razer Systems Product Group VP John Wilson to see their latest hardware and how it will impact the way we play. Hop past the break for a vision of gaming's new frontiers as it unfolds. March 17, 2013 5:30 PM EDT Follow all of Engadget's Expand coverage live from San Francisco right here!
Project Shield's origins and rapid prototyping detailed by NVIDIA
We got our first look at Project Shield -- the NVIDIA-built gaming handheld -- during CES 2013, where the company surprised everyone with the previously unheard of device. It's essentially the marriage of an Xbox 360-style GamePad to a 5-inch screen, all powered by NVIDIA's brand new Tegra 4 mobile CPU. But the device's origins aren't quite as glamorous as its form, even in prototype stage. "The first prototype, assembled in early 2012, was little more than a game controller fastened to a smartphone with wood," reads NVIDIA's boldly worded blog post detailing the history of Project Shield. That initial prototype saw heavy iteration across 2012, eventually culminating in the device unveiled last month. However, just 10 days prior, the device was still locked away in NVIDIA's Silicon Valley development offices, shrouded in secrecy. Even the models we eventually tried out were what NVIDIA reps repeatedly referred to as, "a project, not a product." To take the device from prototype to production, NVIDIA's modeling assembly on work its lead engineers did by hand just before CES. "Over the holiday break, NVIDIA's engineers took over a small piece of floor space at a Silicon Valley contract manufacturer to assemble the units that would be shown off at CES," the piece says. Of course, NVIDIA's engineers won't be hand-building the "tens of thousands more units" that arrive later this year -- a team of "quick-turn manufacturing specialists" at NVIDIA is handling that. We assume the former group will be catching up on much needed sleep. [Photo credit: NVIDIA]
CES 2013: Gaming roundup
Ultra High Definition TV and -- surprisingly -- gaming took the spotlight at this year's Consumer Electronics Show. Who'da thunk it? Certainly not me, Engadget's resident gaming dude. But here we are, with NVIDIA's first game console, Razer's modular PC rig, Valve's Steambox prototypes and Xi3's first example of third-party, Valve-backed Steambox hardware and, and ... maybe we're getting ahead of ourselves. Let's look back to January 3rd, before NVIDIA's press conference, before Razer's Project Fiona unveiling and before Valve surprised us with hardware prototypes. Those were simpler times -- times when Valve hadn't yet launched its multi-front attack on what we're still calling console gaming. It seemed unlikely that we'd see such a concerted effort to move PC games from the exclusionary world of desks and home offices into living rooms this early in the year. Yet, again, here we are.
Project Shield won't be sold at a loss, says NVIDIA
NVIDIA's Tegra 4 powered handheld looks a lot like a typical game console, but it isn't. You could say that its operating system sets it apart, or its knack for streaming PC games, but that's not it -- it's that Shield won't be sold at a loss. Although many consumer game devices eventually turn a profit, they often hit the market as a loss leader, herding gamers into a closed ecosystem and securing a revenue stream for the manufacturer -- every Nintendo, Xbox or PlayStation game made funnels a small licensing fee to the owner of the platform. NVIDIA, on the other hand, isn't a game company, it's a hardware manufacturer. "We'll make our money by selling the device to gamers," NVIDIA stated on the company blog, explaining how Sony and Nintendo do business. "This time-honored approach isn't one we're taking with Project Shield... ...our goal with it is to design and sell a truly great piece of hardware, one that fits comfortably in your hand, delights your eyes and blows out your ears." NVIDIA's still dancing around the subject of price, of course, but the message is clear: Shield is probably going to hit your pocketbook more like a tablet than a portable games console.
The Daily Roundup for 01.07.2013
You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
Hands-on with NVIDIA's first game console, Project Shield (update: now with video!)
NVIDIA surprised the world last night by transitioning from hardware component manufacturer to game console maker in one fell swoop, introducing the world to its portable game console, Project Shield. A 5-inch "retinal" HD multitouch display sitting atop a full-on game controller that resembles a blend of the Xbox 360 gamepad's curves and the PlayStation 3 DualShock 3's unfortunate analog stick placement, all powered by the newly revealed Tegra 4 quad-core cortex A15 processor. The console's set to ship in Q2 2013, and it promises stunning graphics for the Android games it's made to run, as well as a direct streaming option employing NVIDIA's GeForce Experience application. That means not just Android games, but also full-on PC games, with built-in Steam Big Picture Mode integration. It is, frankly, an impressive package. But the proof's in the pudding, right? We got our first chance to go hands-on with the device this morning -- our first hands-on with any Tegra 4 device, mind you -- and came away impressed. Beyond being a speedy handheld, the 5-inch LED makes high-def PC games look even more visually stunning. Sheer pixel density alone meant that our test run of Need for Speed: Most Wanted looked even better on Project Shield than it did on the PC running it. More importantly, there was zero perceptible lag. As for controls, Shield is a bit on the unwieldy side of things. In an effort to make the screen foldable, clamshell-style, with the full gamepad underneath, the analog sticks are sunk into the body. While it didn't make any of the games we tried unplayable, it did feel a bit less comfy than, say, an Xbox 360 controller. The DualShock 3-esque placement of those analog sticks isn't helping either, but sadly that doesn't look like it's changing -- the sticks are where they are for function's sake. Follow all the latest CES 2013 news at our event hub.
NVIDIA unveils Project Shield, a Tegra 4-powered Android gaming handheld
A video shown on-stage during NVIDIA's press conference just unveiled "Project Shield," a gaming controller / portable console running the just announced Tegra 4. The controller looks an awful lot like a PlayStation 3 DualShock 3, albeit with an HD screen attached. NVIDIA's promising 38 hours of gaming 5 to 10 hours of gaming, and 24 hours of HD viewing out of the 38-watt rechargeable lithium ion batteries built-in, a swanky audio system "on par with" jamboxes, and a full-on Android gaming experience. A micro SD sits next to an HDMI output, one USB port, and a standard eighth inch audio jack, directly below the customizable 5-inch "retinal display" touchscreen. Update: It's a 1,280 x 720 screen at 294 dpi, for the record. NVIDIA's hoping Shield will replace your average controller as well -- perhaps with that newly detailed Grid system? -- and company CEO Jen-Hsun Huang showed off its use in-tandem with a swanky LG 4K television on-stage, navigating through media without pause. He also gave us a taste of a few games running on it (Blood Sword: Sword of Ruin and a boxing title) via NVIDIA's Tegrazone gaming store. But beyond just Android games we've already seen, still-in-development Unreal Engine 3 title Hawken was also given a multiplayer run, and looked notably more attractive than the previous two titles. As good as the handheld's newfangled Tegra 4 chip seems to be, it still can't hold a candle to Nvidia's own GTX 680 -- Huang explained that the Shield can play more than just Tegrazone games -- it can take over your gaming PC, too. He explained that Nvidia's GeForce Experience software can pipe PC gaming to the handheld over your local network, giving Shield owners access to their Steam library (navigatable by Big Picture Mode, of course) directly from the device. It looks like users will be able to purchase PC games through Tegrazone, too. Huang showed the crowd Need for Speed: Most Wanted running in real-time on the device. It's ... well, it's really impressive. There's little (if any) perceptible lag, and this is a racing game we're seeing (as in that lag really matters). The next game up is Assassin's Creed 3, which looks similarly impressive on the Shield's 5-inch screen. Finally, we're seeing Steam launched directly from Tegrazone, and it launches directly into Big Picture Mode. Beyond just playing games via streaming, it looks like we'll be able to buy them directly on Steam, through Shield. We'll be getting a closer look at Project Shield later this week, and we'll be sure to put it through its paces. Oh, and we'll ask for a price and release window, as we've yet to hear official word on either. Can't wait? Tide yourself over with NVIDIA's official press release after the break. Update 2: NVIDIA tells us Project Shield's roughly in the beta stage of development, and currently doesn't include an LTE radio (WiFi only). It's running Jelly Bean at the moment, but may change by the time it's expected to ship, in "Q2 2013." Still no word on pricing, sadly. Follow all the latest CES 2013 news at our event hub. Joseph Volpe and Sean Buckley contributed to this report
