Wednesday, March 30, 2011

3D Batteries Boost Output, Speed Recharge

By R. Colin Johnson


Whether it's your smartphone, your electric car or the backup batteries for a server farm, a new kind of 3D battery electrode is aiming to boost both their output and recharging speed by up to 100 times.

3D structures are adding the third dimension to a whole array of applications today, and now battery electrodes are following suit, increasing their ability to deliver lots of current quickly and speeding up their recharge time. 

Batteries have long been the weak link in the forward march of technological progress, mainly because the chemistry of their reactions is fixed by the laws of physics. However, by adding 3D patterning to the battery electrodes where these chemical reactions take place, recharging can be accelerated by as much as 100 times, according University of Illinois Professor Paul Braun, who performed the work with doctoral candidate Xindi Yu and postdoctoral researcher Huigang Zhang.

Many applications today are limited by the amount of instantaneous current that can be delivered, such as medical devices like defibrillators that deliver pulses. Today, such applications have to include a large capacitor that charges up from the battery. They then use this stored charge to deliver a big jolt. However, Braun's team claims its 3D battery electrodes not only allow faster recharging, but also can provide big jolts on demand. As a result, the researchers claim the new batteries will not only allow cell phones to recharge in seconds and vehicles to recharge in minutes, but will also allow instant-on defibrillators that work without a delay to power-up between pulses.

Current manufacturers of lithium-ion (Li-ion) or nickel metal hydride (NiMH) batteries offer quick-recharge modes, but the performance of the battery is degraded as a result. Thin-film batteries have been proposed that can recharge very quickly, but their lack of bulk material means their absolute capacity must be downsized too. Braun's approach combines the best of both worlds, by wrapping a quick-charge thin-film battery onto a three-dimensional electrode structure that combines high on-demand current-jolt capabilities as well as the high capacities of a bulk material.


Ion transport and electronic conduction is boosted 100 times in three-dimensional cathodes during battery discharge and charge. (Source: University of Illinois)



The electrodes are formed by using self-assembly techniques to tightly pack nanoscale spheres made of a sacrificial material onto a conventional battery electrode superstructure. A liquid metal is then poured between the spheres. After it cools, the spheres are dissolved, leaving behind a highly porous 3D scaffolding, like a metal sponge. Electropolishing then etches away surface structures, thereby enlarging the pores and creating an open framework with a vast surface area, which can then be coated with a thin film of the active battery material. 

In demonstrations, the researchers have shown 3D thin-film battery prototypes that can quickly charge and discharge large currents without degrading the performance or longevity of the battery. And even though these large capacity batteries can be replenished in under a minute with a special recharger, they can nevertheless be used in existing standard electronic devices, according to the researchers.

Funding was provided by the U.S. Army Research Laboratory and the Department of Energy.


Project 'Highlander': A Hybrid Creation For BlackBerry OS 7

By Zack Whittaker 


BlackBerry OS 7, about which we have heard very little recently, is to be codenamed “Highlander”, except for a leaked slide a month ago indicating it would be released by the end of this year.

According to sources, it appears that instead of going for the full-blown QNX experience that we expected in OS 7 - with the BlackBerry PlayBook being the benchmark ‘testing’ environment - the next generation smartphone will run an amalgamation of BlackBerry OS 6.1 and QNX.

It does raise some confusion, mind you, as it appeared late last year that QNX would “entirely replace” the BlackBerry operating system as it stood now.




BerryReview seem to think that BlackBerry OS 7 will have a QNX-core, and the look and feel of the existing BlackBerry OS 6.0 operating system.

It would be a mistake, after all, to change the look and feel of the BlackBerry user interface, as so many people of the younger generations really do not like change.

And with faster smartphones with greater memory and increased power from the dual-core mobile processor, it would be a logical progression to move from a Java based kernel to a QNX-based one.
But in the meantime, we must not forget that for now, the next generation of the BlackBerry operating system lies with 6.1, which will see an entire generation of smartphones emerge into the market.


4G Won't Solve 3G's Problems

By David Goldman



NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- LTE stands for Long Term Evolution, but it isn't a long-term solution to the nation's wireless problems.

As a fourth generation, or 4G, wireless technology, LTE promises speeds of between five and 12 megabits per second. That's 10 times the speed of most 3G connections, and probably faster than your home broadband service. It can even be made, theoretically, to go 10 times faster than that.

Some early customers on Verizon's recently launched LTE network say they've clocked speeds of double the 12 Mbps maximum target that the carrier advertised. Verizon (VZ, Fortune 500) and HTC named the first LTE smartphone "Thunderbolt" for a reason.

LTE's blazing-fast speeds are made possible by the technology's much more efficient use of wireless spectrum than 3G. With LTE, wireless companies try to cram the maximum possible amount of data into radio waves. That lets them save on spectrum and, ultimately, costs.

Among many different flavors of 4G, LTE has received the strongest support from wireless carriers. After an early "Betamax vs. VHS"-like debate between LTE and another 4G technology known as WiMAX, LTE won out. It could become the world's first universal wireless standard by the end of this decade. That means mobile devices like smartphones and tablets could eventually be used interchangeably on any network and around the world.

So what's the problem ?

Mobile data traffic has more than doubled in each of the past three years, according to Cisco (CSCO, Fortune 500). With the mass adoption of smartphones, tablets and wireless modems for laptops, the company expects traffic to continue growing by an average of 92% in each of the next five years. The majority of that new traffic will be online video, which requires massive bandwidth.

That hockey-stick like growth has already overwhelmed 3G networks -- as anyone with an AT&T (T, Fortune 500) iPhone in New York or San Francisco can attest. AT&T's data traffic has grown 8,000% since it started selling the iPhone four years ago. 

4G-LTE offers up to 20 times the capacity of some 3G networks. But by 2015, when LTE networks are fully built out, Cisco estimates that mobile data traffic will have grown by the same factor of 20. 

Without any improvements to the network, 4G's capacity would be maxed out too -- in less than four years.
"By the time 4G-LTE is mass market, all it will have done is allow wireless companies to keep up with the problem," said Patrick Lopez, chief marketing officer for Vantrix, a bandwidth optimization company. 

The reasons are two-fold: The amount of spectrum made available to U.S. wireless companies is limited, but the carriers have also been sluggish in buying up enough backhaul to support their capacity requirements. 

There is only so much data that can be crammed into wireless spectrum -- and only so much spectrum available to wireless networks. Thanks to rising mobile data demands, a current wireless spectrum surplus of 225 MHz will become a deficit of 275 MHz by 2014, according to the FCC.

That's one of the main reasons why AT&T wants to buy T-Mobile: if the two companies are combined into one, the mega-carrier could make better use of redundant spectrum for LTE deployment.

The lack of wireless backhaul -- transmission routes between the network's core and its edges -- is mainly a cost issue. Wireless carriers are already spending $200 billion at year to maintain their networks, according to Alcatel-Lucent (ALU), and margins are getting thinner by the quarter.

"Networks tend to be built to carry the traffic that is anticipated in the near-term, so as not to waste precious investments in underutilized capacity," said Dan Hays, telecom consultant at management consulting firm PRTM. "The continued growth in data traffic is keeping pace with network capacity, and 4G is not likely to be any exception." 

But even if the backhaul was there, that alone wouldn't solve the problem.

"There is definitely going to come a time when backhaul is capped and wireless companies are gong to have to explore more efficient ways of getting data back to the towers," said Ari Zoldan, CEO of Quantum Networks, a developer of WiMax products and services. "As LTE grows out and subscriber numbers increase, what's going to happen when spectrum limits are reached?"

Ways Out of The Jam

There are some potential solutions and actions already in progress to help address these problems.

The government has pledged that it would free up 500 MHz of spectrum for mobile broadband use, which would nearly double the amount of available spectrum for wireless companies. Though some experts say even that may be insufficient to keep up with customers' demands, it would at least delay the problem.

Mobile companies have also learned many lessons from 3G. For instance, both Verizon and AT&T bought large chunks of spectrum in the same band. That's a very different approach from the patchwork they had with 3G, which delivered good reception in some locations and poor reception in others.

Network providers are also scrambling for ways to make data more efficient. Companies like Vantrix and Cisco believe that optimized video can help cut mobile traffic by as much as 50%. For instance, by predicting what a user wants to watch, networks could physically place videos closer to the user so that there is no buffering and less usage of the overall network.

Wi-Fi solutions are also being sought out, including the deployment of hotspots and devices that automatically switch to Wi-Fi when a network is detected. Cisco estimates that 16% of mobile data traffic will be offloaded to Wi-Fi by 2015.

Smaller cells like lightRadio are also a potential part of the solution. The Rubik's cube-sized antennas can be deployed almost anywhere to make more efficient use of spectrum and reduce networks' costs.

The problem is that most of the solutions will take years to be fully realized. With LTE deployments already under way, they may not come soon enough to keep up with our growing data deluge.


Gigabyte "Unlocks" 3TB+ Hard Drives on 32-Bit Systems

By Anton Shilov


Gigabyte Technology, one of the world's largest makers of mainboards and graphics cards, has announced a new utility, which will help to utilize large hard disk drives on 32-bit systems. At present the utility allows to utilize drives with 3TB and higher capacity on the most advanced mainboards, but eventually it will support all shipping platforms from Gigabyte.

The hard disk drives (HDDs) with higher than 2.19TB capacity have to use 64-bit operating system, new logical block addressing (LBA) standard along with new UEFI (universal extensible firmware interface) replacement for BIOS (basic input-output system) and sometimes 4KB sectors (up from 512 bytes on the vast majority of current drives),. While it is not hard to install a 64-bit operating system onto any more or less new personal computer, changing a mainboard with BIOS onto a mainboard with UEFI (which are not available widely) is a problem for a majority of PC owners and transiting from BIOS to UEFI is a headache for motherboard manufacturers. One of the solutions to make 3TB and similar drives work under 32-bit operating system, or on a PC that does not support UEFI is to utilize a special controller for large-capacity hard disks. Another one is to use special software that lets users to split the large drives into partitions and create virtual drives.




The Gigabyte 3TB+ Unlock Utility allows Gigabyte motherboards without Hybrid EFI to recognize and use unallocated space on new 3TB and larger hard disc drives (HDDs).

The utility lets the user to create a virtual drive with space that exceeds 2.19TB, the maximum amount of storage recognized by 32-bit versions of operating systems, such as Windows XP. The virtual drives are limited to 2048GB, and the user can create up to 128 partitions, as long as there is additional unallocated space on the HDD. 3TB+ Unlock supports both GPT (GUID Partition Table) and MBR (Master Boot Record) partition styles, however with MBR the number of partitions are limited to 8. The utility is similar to the one that Seagate ships along with its 3TB desktop HDD.

The 3TB+ Unlock currently supports new high-end motherboard models based on the Intel X58, Intel 6-series and AMD 8-series chipsets, and is in the process of being ported to older chipset models so that it will support all motherboards that are currently shipping. Even though end-users of mainboards featuring latest core-logic sets will hardly use 32-bit operating systems, far not all modern mainboards support EFI in thus may not support 3TB hard drives, which is why the utility from Gigabyte seems to be a useful one.


Monday, March 28, 2011

Intel Announces 320 Series Third-Generation SSD

Java Founder Takes Job at Google

By Chloe Albanesius


James Gosling, creator of the Java computer language, announced Monday that he has accepted a position at Google.

"Through some odd twists in the road over the past year, and a tardis encountered along the way, I find myself starting employment at Google today," Gosling wrote on his personal blog. "One of the toughest things about life is making choices. I had a hard time saying 'no' to a bunch of other excellent possibilities."

Gosling quipped that it's odd to be "taking the road more travelled by, but it looks like interesting fun with huge leverage."


He didn't provide - or appear to have - many details on his role at the search giant. "I don't know what I'll be working on. I expect it'll be a bit of everything, seasoned with a large dose of grumpy curmudgeon," he wrote.

Gosling resigned from Oracle in April 2010, an announcement he also made on his blog. "As to why I left, it's difficult to answer: Just about anything I could say that would be accurate and honest would do more harm than good," Gosling said at the time.

When Oracle sued Google in August over Android Java use, Gosling wrote that it was "not a big surprise."

"During the integration meetings between Sun and Oracle where we were being grilled about the patent situation between Sun and Google, we could see the Oracle lawyer's eyes sparkle," he said.

Gosling later blogged about a New York Times op-ed that said Google was "getting perilously close to some of the dystopian nightmares that should stay in the pages of fiction." Gosling suggested that "one small act that can help avoid the dystopia is to keep the pressure on Oracle to do the right thing."

In June, Gosling also said he had counseled Oracle employees who decided to jump ship. "They need a place to vent, and I try to be a good listener. The exodus has been a thundering stampede. Pretty soon, all [Oracle CEO] Larry [Ellison] will have left is an IP portfolio."


Asus Eee Pad Transformer : Is It A Tablet, A Netbook ? Both ?

By Nicholas Deleon


Asus has made its Eee Pad Transformer official. Never heard of the device? It’s been floating around for a few months now, including making a secretive appearance back at CES in January. To quickly describe it, it’s part tablet, part netbook. And here I thought tablets had replaced netbooks.




The Eee Pad Transformer’s biggest thing is that you can use it as a standard, Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) tablet. Surf the Web, fiddle about with apps, that kind of thing. But Asus decided that wasn’t good enough. 

“This isn’t good enough!” one of their engineers might have shouted once. So in addition to being a fully featured, as-you-like, tablet you can also use it as a netbook.

By setting the tablet in a small dock, you can then use the attached keyboard to use the device more like you’d use a netbook. Perhaps you find it’s easier to type when at as desk using a normal keyboard? That’s your call, I suppose.

The point is, it does both.

(No, there’s nothing stopping you from hooking up your iPad in similiar fashion, but let’s not dwell on that for now.)

The hard specs aren’t bad: Tegra 2 dual-core processor, 10.1-inch display (Gorilla Glass, mind) at 1280×800, built-in 5-megapixel camera for recording HD video (or whatever else), HDMI output, etc.

It’s a tablet. You won’t be rendering video on it, but perhaps reading this or that forum, tweeting this or that bit of wisdom, etc.

Oh, and it has a 16-hour battery. So says Asus, at least. That’s fairly substantial.

It’ll be released in Taiwan today (or it already has, timezones being the pesky things that they are), and Asus says it should be around $400-$700 (depending on accessories) when makes its way around the world.

Nokia Looks To Make Windows Phone 7 Hottest Mobile OS On The Planet

By John Cox


Nokia fully expects, and plans, to do what Microsoft and its handset partners have so far been unable to do: make Windows Phone 7 a must-have mobile platform.

Nokia fully expects, and plans, to do what Microsoft and its handset partners have so far been unable to do: make Windows Phone 7 a must-have mobile platform.

Nokia is in a unique relationship with Microsoft, contributing a range of its own assets, ranging from global scale, distribution, marketing and retail expertise to online services such as Ovi Maps and slick turn-by-turn navigation. That, combined with Microsoft experience as a platform vendor, and the strengths of the radically redesigned mobile UI, will "move the needle," says Kai Öistamo, Nokia executive vice president and chief development officer.

Nokia, which has a small market share in the United States, had a more visible presence at this week's CTIA Wireless conference in Orlando, with a booth on the show floor and an announcement at the show by T-Mobile about a sleek new smartphone, the Nokia Astound. The new phone may be among the last to run a version of Nokia's trademark Symbian mobile OS, and a harbinger of what users can expect in a Nokia-branded Windows Phone.

That's because in February, Nokia and Microsoft announced a wide and deep alliance around Windows Phone 7.

The handset maker, which has been struggling in the past three years in the exploding smartphone market, chose the Microsoft OS as the firmware for all future Nokia smartphones. To do so, Nokia will pay Microsoft a licensing fee.

But Nokia's relationship with Microsoft is different from the other Windows Phone licensees, who launched the first crop of handsets, HTC, LG, and Samsung. Nokia alone has the right to customize the Windows Phone UI. Neither Microsoft nor Nokia has gone into detail about what that means.

But according to Öistamo, it means that Nokia is going to be very careful that any changes will not break Windows Phone applications or disrupt the development environment for programmers.

"Even if we have the right to change it, it would be unwise to change it in ways that cause problems," he says. Instead, Nokia plans to exploit the underlying OS to leverage both on-device features and a range of Nokia services: imaging, cameras, maps and navigation, to name just a few. Many of these changes, as well as the services themselves, are intended to flow back into the Windows Phone platform, to become accessible to developers.

Windows Phone 7 creates an opportunity for Nokia to add value to the mobile platform, whereas that would not be the case with Google Android, Öistamo says. For example, Nokia's navigation and mapping services would be in direct conflict with Google's similar offering. "We asked 'what is the value [to be added]?'" he says. "That's what you get paid for."

"We are contributing mapping and other assets across Microsoft," Öistamo says. "We get rewarded for that."

Another revenue opportunity is exploiting the two companies' combined assets to create new revenue sources. Öistamo cites the example of Nokia's mapping technology married with Microsoft's Bing search engine to create highly local and specific advertising impressions.

Öistamo says, as have others, that the future of online search will be driven by mobile users. That's a critical issue for Microsoft, he says. "It's extremely important for Windows Phone 7 to be successful to make Bing successful," he says. "And the same is true for Microsoft Office and Xbox."

Though generally well-reviewed, Windows Phone 7 has not yet been a breakthrough hit. Öistamo is not shy in claiming that Nokia can make it so. By leveraging Nokia's global scale, its retailing expertise and experience dealing with mobile end users, "We believe we can 'move the needle' in terms of making a competitive offering," Öistamo says. "No [other] OEM has placed a primary bet on Windows Phone." 

Nokia asounds debuts
Nokia has consistently said that Windows Phone handsets will appear in volume in 2012, but they could begin to appear near the end of 2011. As an example of what to expect, Öistamo points to the Nokia Astound, developed for T-Mobile USA and unveiled at this week's CTIA Wireless show.

The combination of glass and stainless steel makes for a sleek, stylish phone, almost like a jewelry setting for the crisp, clear, bright 3.5-inch capacitive touch AMOLED display, at 360 x 640 pixels resolution.

It has an impressive 8-megapixel camera with dual-LED flash and 720p HD video capture, a Nokia strength. It has the latest version of Ovi Maps, and supports free, voice-guided turn-by-turn navigation. It's pre-loaded with "automotive grade" maps for the entire U.S., Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean. It's priced at $80 after a $50 mail-in rebate, which is pretty astounding itself. 

It's not difficult to visualize the Astound running the distinctive Windows Phone 7 user interface.

Overall, Öistamo says, Nokia can do a much better job of getting phones like this into the hands of consumers, leveraging its distribution expertise, in-store retail experience, and other strengths. "This is the expertise that Microsoft has been looking for," Öistamo says. 


The First Plastic Computer Processor

By Tom Simonite


Two recent developments—a plastic processor and printed memory—show that computing doesn't have to rely on inflexible silicon.

Silicon may underpin the computers that surround us, but the rigid inflexibility of the semiconductor means it cannot reach everywhere. The first computer processor and memory chips made out of plastic semiconductors suggest that, someday, nowhere will be out of bounds for computer power.


Plastic power: This microprocessor is made from organic materials. It is puny compared to most silicon processors, but is flexible and cheap.
Credit: IMEC


Researchers in Europe used 4,000 plastic, or organic, transistors to create the plastic microprocessor, which measures roughly two centimeters square and is built on top of flexible plastic foil. "Compared to using silicon, this has the advantage of lower price and that it can be flexible," says Jan Genoe at the IMEC nanotechnology center in Leuven, Belgium. Genoe and IMEC colleagues worked with researchers at the TNO research organization and display company Polymer Vision, both in the Netherlands.

The processor can so far run only one simple program of 16 instructions. The commands are hardcoded into a second foil etched with plastic circuits that can be connected to the processor to "load" the program. This allows the processor to calculate a running average of an incoming signal, something that a chip involved in processing the signal from a sensor might do, says Genoe. The chip runs at a speed of six hertz-on the order of a million times slower than a modern desktop machine-and can only process information in eight-bit chunks at most, compared to 128 bits for modern computer processors. 

Organic transistors have already been used in certain LED displays and RFID tags, but have not been used to make a processor of any kind. The microprocessor was presented at the ISSCC conference in San Jose, California, last month.

Making the processor begins with a 25-micrometer thick sheet of flexible plastic, "like what you might wrap your lunch with," says Genoe. A layer of gold electrodes are deposited on top, followed by an insulating layer of plastic, another layer of gold electrodes and the plastic semiconductors that make up the processor's 4,000 transistors. Those transistors were made by spinning the plastic foil to spread a drop of organic liquid into a thin, even layer. When the foil is heated gently the liquid converts into solid pentacene, a commonly used organic semiconductor. The different layers were then etched using photolithography to make the final pattern for transistors.

In the future, such processors could be made more cheaply by printing the organic components like ink, says Genoe. "There are research groups working on roll-to-roll or sheet-to-sheet printing," he says, "but there is still some progress needed to make organic transistors at small sizes that aren't wobbly," meaning physically irregular. The best lab-scale printing methods so far can only deliver reliable transistors in the tens of micrometers, he says.

Creating a processor made from plastic transistors was a challenge, because unlike those made from ordered silicon crystals, not every one can be trusted to behave like any other. Plastic transistors each behave slightly differently because they are made up of jumbled, amorphous collections of pentacene crystals. "You won't have two that are equal," says Geneo. "We had to study and simulate that variability to work out a design with the highest chance of behaving correctly."

The team succeeded, but that doesn't mean the stage is set for plastic processors to displace silicon ones in consumer computers. "Organic materials fundamentally limit the speed of operation," Genoe explains. He expects plastic processors to appear in places where silicon is barred by its cost or physical inflexibility. The lower cost of the organic materials used compared to conventional silicon should make the plastic approach around 10 times cheaper.

"You can imagine an organic gas sensor wrapped around a gas pipe to report on any leaks with a flexible microprocessor to clean up the noisy signal," he says. Plastic electronics could also allow disposable interactive displays to be built into packaging, for example for food, says Genoe. "You might press a button to have it add up the calories in the cookies you ate," he says.


A Quantum Communications Switch

By Kate Greene


The device could one day let superfast quantum computers talk to each other.

Switch it up: The components shown here can reroute entangled photons.
Credit: Prem Kumar

The Internet is made of photons that zip through fiber-optic cables and flow through devices like switches, modulators, and amplifiers. But those standard devices would be inadequate for superfast quantum computing or communications—experimental approaches that exploit the peculiar properties of particles at the quantum scale to carry out complex calculations incredibly quickly or to prevent anyone from eavesdropping on messages. 

Commercial switches have various problems that make them unsuitable for rerouting entangled photons. Those that are made of micro-electromechanical components keep entangled states in tact, but operate too slowly. Other opto-electronic switches either add too much noise so that single photons are difficult to detect, or they completely destroy the quantum information.

Prem Kumar, professor of electrical engineering and computer science at Northwestern University, has developed a quantum routing switch that can shuttle entangled photons along various paths while keeping the quantum information intact.

The device could be particularly useful for quantum computing, says James Franson, professor of physics at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. "To build a quantum computer using photons, we need the ability to switch [entangled] photons," says Franson. A quantum switch could also someday allow entangled photons from different quantum computers to be shared over long distances—like cloud computing, but with quantum information.


Review : The Nintendo 3DS, The Next Step In Portable Gaming Evolution

By John Biggs





Nintendo has long defined the rules of childhood. In Nintendo’s world, logic and whimsy are intermixed and there is always a bigger boss and another castle. We learned from Nintendo that you can always turn your enemy’s weapons against them and that evolution is a fact. We learned that the best stories are played out in your head and even when you don’t have a lot of friends you at least always have Mario.

Nintendo also defined video gameplay. Their NES console, while seemingly underpowered, sat under millions of Christmas trees and at millions of birthday party tables for almost a decade. Their audience grew up, new members joined, and the SNES, Nintendo 64, GameCube, and Wii pushed the envelope ever so slightly with each generation. The Game Boy grew up too, morphing into the GBA, the DS, and now something else entirely.

The Nintendo 3DS isn’t hard to love. It’s a cute little handheld aimed at an interesting demographic. Because children under 7 shouldn’t use the 3D feature, it seems Nintendo has made this for tweens and, more important, early adopters in the 18-36 market.

Many of the devices’ unique features place it closer to a smartphone than a game console, and the new UI and home screen point to a richer experience outside of the game system. I worried, initially, that Nintendo was trying to do too much with these changes – and we’ll assess that later on – but in all it is a solid (if slightly flawed) device that will change the way you and your kids think about 3D.

What Is It ?

The 3DS costs $250 in the United States and is currently sold out in Amazon pre-sales. It comes with a 2GB SD card, AR gaming cards, a stylus, a charging dock, and a power cable. It is available in black – really a sort of grey/black mix – and blue. IGN believes that the divices running two 266MHz ARM11 CPUs and a 133MHz GPU. It’s powerful enough to drive Nintendo-style graphics on the special screen, a deceptively demanding task as there are in fact twice as many pixels to render as it “looks” like.

The two most interesting features, however, are the two front cameras and the 3D screen. We’ll discuss the screen shortly, but if you’ve never seen the 3DS’ screen in 3D mode, imagine that you’re looking into a little box containing the action. Planes fly around in 3D space while Monkeys in their Balls roll backwards and forwards amid realistic ancient ruins. Also hidden inside the case is a gyroscope and accelerometer that allows you to tilt and move the 3DS in supported games.

The 3DS plays older DS games, but does not play GBA games. The 2GB card is for media and save-game storage. You cannot play 3DS games on a DS – they don’t fit – but it is compatible with the DS for all wireless multiplayer titles like Mario Kart DS.




The 3DS has two controls on the left side – an analog stick/pad like the PSP’s (or really like the NES Max controller) and the D-pad that’s been present since the original NES, which I rarely used. There are also the traditional four buttons in a diamond configuration on the right side (X,Y,A, and B) as well as Select, Home, and Start buttons along the bottom. The lower screen is touch sensitive and there is a sliding volume switch on the left side along with the SD slot. On the right side is a physical Wi-Fi control. There are two shoulder buttons as well as a small, collapsible stylus near the cartridge slot.




The home screen is a bit complicated. The top screen, when not playing a game, displays the current Internet status (on or off), the number of StreetPass coins collected, as well as the number of steps taken during that period. That’s right – this thing includes a pedometer. Presumably Nintendo is feeling a karmic debt for all the obesity it caused and therefore is encouraging 3DS players to, you know, go outside.

Built-in apps and games include Nintendo 3DS Sound, a simple sound recorder (this one is in 3D but is little different from the DS version), a Mii-maker that actually allows you to design a Mii based on your own face (it didn’t work well for me), as well as an Activity Log that tells you (or your parents) how much you’ve played the 3DS. I, for example, played 17 titles (including DS games) and took 7,435 steps with the 3DS. You can view a calendar of steps as well as current play time, thereby allowing granular assessment your child’s play. 

Speaking of granularity, the 3DS also has parental controls built-in allowing you to set a maximum software rating, control over the Internet browser and shopping services, and, most important, control over 3D image viewing. Because kids under 7 aren’t supposed to use the 3D features (more on that shortly), Nintendo has made it dead easy to cut off 3D controls entirely. They’ve also place an ostentatious “warning” app (after an update the warning app is replaced by a 3D version of White Knuckles by OK GO, a fairly fun bit of piffery) on the home screen to ensure they aren’t sued if a generation of kids goes blind playing this.

The 3DS also includes AR Games and Face Raiders, two augmented reality silly games that demonstrate the 3DS’ 3D camera. AR Games is a card-based AR title that lets you shoot things the seem to crawl out of the cards sitting on a table while Face Raiders lets you take pictures of friend’s faces and then shoot them with balls as they fly around your environment. They are time-wasters, although Face Raiders does have a very clever age detection system that tells you the sex and age of the faces.

The 3DS also has a “suspend” feature that only works with new games. The suspend system allows you to drop to the Home screen to access your Friends list, notifications, and the web browser (not yet enabled on this build.) The Friends interface allows you to show which games you’re playing now and, potentially, begin wireless Internet gameplay with connected friends. Most of this I was unable to test simply because I had no friends to play with.

There is also a clever feature called Game Notes that allows you to take notes while playing games. Sadly, because you can’t drop into suspend mode on DS games, this does not help with more complex, older games. However, you can scribble a note or two on the games that do work with the 3DS.
On the whole, the new 3DS is a massive step up for the portable console. It is very small – about five inches on the long edge – and the screen is quite nice and bright. Resolution, in some cases, could be improved but it is a step up from the DSi the various controls and home screen features improve and, in fact, mature the DS experience. The 3DS is the DS grown up, and that could put off younger players. However, in the extensive testing I performed with a 5 year old and his 2 year old sister, kids are just as fine with this device as they are with any other

The 3D Thing




Now to discuss the elephant in the room 3D There are two ways to use the 3D feature on the 3DS – in gameplay and with the camera. You can turn 3D off entirely with a slider or you can lock it so younger children can’t activate it. 




The camera takes 3D pictures an also allows you to add wild 3D effects – 3D hearts, bumps, and even deep holes – to 3D images. The images themselves are recorded at 640×480 and are stored on the SD card as JPGs and MPO files (This is the MPO of the image above). The image, when decoded, looks something like this, provided you have anaglypic glasses :


 


Or this if you have an old-timey stereo pair viewer (or just cross your eyes).




If you have neither, believe me when I say that this is an interesting – if not deep – 3D effect. Greg made this, an animated GIF of the two images that just barely shows the 3D effect but is fun, nonetheless.




 
As for gaming, the 3D is hit or miss. Occasionally I will notice that the 3D is engrossing and rich and sometimes it causes almost constant focus problems, resulting in a doubled image. I personally have noticed some very minor after-effects from 3D gameplay, most notably a sort of “blurring” in the center of my vision when I lift my head away from the game and look into the distance.

I spoke to optometrist Dr. Justin Bazan about the potential problems associated with 3D viewing and he stated, with no uncertainty, that you can’t permanently damage your eyes by viewing the 3DS for extensive periods. He recommends a 20/20/20 habit – lifting your eyes and focusing somewhere 20 feet away every twenty minutes for 20 seconds. However, you will not go blind or suffer long-term damage. 

“Moderation is beneficial,” he said. “Some people will feel sick or nauseous and in some cases the 3D could point to an underlying binocular vision disorder.”

He said that 3D images require both “sides” of the image to be perfectly clear. If one side of the image is blurry – meaning one of your eyes is seeing it incorrectly – this could mean a more pressing vision issue. He recommended that parents visit an optometrist if children cannot see the 3DS’ 3D features.

“If there’s a problem, go in for an eye exam, don’t just take the game away,” Bazan recommended.

The 3D is not a gimmick. It is a significant step in a fascinating direction for game play and I can only imagine how amazing some of the more popular franchises – not to mention a true FPS – would be in 3D. Playing a 3D game, as mentioned, is sometimes hit or miss experience but as manufacturers get things right (Pilotwings is an excellent example of a fairly staid game brought to life with 3D) the platform and, dare I say, genre will improve immensely. 

Interestingly, the situation 3D is in right now on the 3DS is not akin to the situation motion control was in during the first months of the Wii. On the Wii, motion controls were gimmicky and, in a word, broken. 3D interaction on this device is far more fluid and seamless.

I also wonder what will happen once we start familiarizing ourselves with 3D photography. Like the Kinect hacks we so often cover here, 3D photography could open new vistas for artists and creators. Like so many ostensibly kiddie devices (the PXL-2000, most notably), I believe it will come into its own once it becomes more familiar to non-gamers, and will end up being much more than it is now at launch.

Gameplay

Gameplay is smooth and the improved brightness and resolution makes games pop. The perceived clarity takes a slight hit in 3D mode. The lenticular grill display shows two images at once (400×240 each, a total of 800×240 pixels), one to each eye, and so any movement outside of the 3D sweet-spot (in some games) can gravely effect gameplay.

Otherwise, this is just a Nintendo DSi with 3D features. The games play extremely well, even older games, and the launch titles, described below, are all middling to strong. Even if you turn off the 3D function you’re still getting a device similar in size to the DSi with a few interesting upgrades.

The Launch Games

The full list of potential titles is here but the games I was able to play should be all available at launch. These include:




Rayman 3D – One of the worst launch titles. The 3D is difficult to focus on and the gameplay is gimmicky. Stay away.




Ghost Recon Shadow Wars – This one will frustrate fans of run and gun shooters. Made by the creator of X-COM, this is a turn-based title that requires quite a bit of ramp-up before you get into it. Sadly, the back box copy is severely misleading and if you go into this expecting something like an FPS you will be sorely disappointed. I believe this change in the Ghost Recon cannon will polarize fans but the isometric, Diablo-like 3D was excellent and very viewable.




Super Monkey Ball 3D – I’m not a big Monkey Ball fan but the 3D and controls are well done enough to amuse die-hards. Like Ray-Man, the 3D is a little hard to focus on, at least for my aged eyes. You can control it using the joystick or by tilting the 3DS. It’s fun, if that’s what you want to hear.





Asphalt 3D – Essentially a Burn-Out/Need For Speed racing game, Asphalt 5 features a set of cars racing each other to the finish line in three laps. There is a fairly unrealistic damage and power-up system but it’s fun enough. Some of the animations are bit jerky but the cars themselves are darling. In fact, you can “see” inside the rear windows into what looks like a little 3D Matchbox car. It’s a clever and compelling effect.




Steel Diver – The other “adult” game available for the 3DS, Steel Diver is a submarine sim that displays two views of your submarine. One is through the periscope and the other is a sideways view of what looks like a little sub in a fish tank. Because of the size of the sprites on screen, everything in 3DS games looks “cute” and the submarines are no exception. This is another game that really showcases the 3DS’ interface.




Lego Star Wars III – One of the most interesting games on the console, this is exactly what you would expect: a Lego version of Star Wars in 3D. The game play is very fluid and smooth and very fun. Puzzles, fighting, space warfare, and platform play make it an excellent launch choice. Some I talked to have complained about lag but I didn’t experience any in the levels I played.





PilotWings Resort – The premiere launch title. If you get anything, get this. As I mentioned in my initial hands-on, PilotWings is the definitive 3DS title. Gameplay is simple but addicting and the 3D is almost perfect. The three vehicles you fly – a plane, a jetpack, and a glider – move realistically and couple with the 3D effects you actually feel like you’re breaking the surly bonds of earth. Excellent stuff.

The Battery

I saw about five hours of continuous use out of the 3DS and I was, once, able to leave it in sleep mode overnight and still have about ten minutes of juice left. The battery is the 3DS’s Achilles heel but I suspect that aftermarket battery packs should improve things slightly.

Problems And Solutions

As I mentioned before, there are some lingering after-effects when using the 3D mode. I only noticed this with my eyes and, as Dr. Bazan pointed out, they could point to an optical abnormality rather than a Jerk-like Opti-Grab situation.

The battery is also going to be a big deal, especially if you drop the 3DS into sleep mode often instead of turning it off. Although StreetPass functionality – the ability to “fight” or play with other 3DS owners when you walk past them in the street – is not yet fully-baked, I suspect leaving a device like the 3DS constantly polling for players is a drain on the battery. 

That said, those are the only two complaints I have about the console as a whole. The 3D is exciting, the launch titles, while not earth-shattering, definitely showcase the 3DS’ talents, and the console itself is compact, portable, and quite fun.

Bottom Line

I’ve tried to offer a through overview of the 3DS in this review in an attempt to explain why the console could become one of the most interesting developments out of any electronics company in this decade. Like it or not, the 3DS normalizes 3D gaming and will make children accept and even embrace 3D as an interactive medium, be it games, photography, or movies.

Rather than an general improvement, Nintendo has decided to build the 3DS as an evolutionary successor to its previous handhelds. The 3DS is an entirely new way to think about portable gaming and I believe it will change our perception of the value of 3D content.

It’s hard to tell where the 3DS is headed right now but this is definitely not a Virtual Boy. Imagine the 3DS as an initial step to a holographic future. As Wintermute said in Neuromancer, “The holographic paradigm is the closest thing you’ve worked out to a representation of human memory, is all. But you’ve never done anything about it. People, I mean.” The 3DS is one step on the road to that paradigm change and it’s aimed at those most willing to embrace it: our children.