Nvidia has filed patent suits against Samsung and Qualcomm with the International Trade Commission and the US District Court of Delaware, alleging that the companies violate seven of its patents. Nvidia says that it filed these lawsuits after negotiations on a licensing deal with Samsung went nowhere. This is the first patent lawsuit filed by the company, which is surprising given that it reportedly holds over 7,000 patents. The company explains why it took legal action in more detail here.

New documents from the Global Certification Forum and the Federal Communications Commission found by Notebook Italia indicate that a second Nvidia Shield device exists.

Nvidia has a simple enough solution for not having any original games on its upcoming Android-based hand-held or for offering support for thousands of Android games already available on Google Play: simply use their new mapping technology. When the device launched in July it offered support for a couple of hundred Android titles, much to the chagrin of those who purchased the $300 hand-held system.

The beta version of Nvidia ShadowPlay will be available Oct. 28 alongside version 1.7 of the GeForce Experience software, Nvidia announced today.

A newer Nvidia graphics card like the GeForce GTX 600 series or higher is required because it uses the GPUs on those cards that feature an on-board H.264 video encoder Nvidia says that the software is capable of recording footage (in the background) at up to 60 frames per second in 1080p, with a performance hit of between 5 and 10 percent.

Oops! Hardware makers Nvidia accidently disclosed that Grand Theft Auto is actually coming to the PC, and that it will be published this fall. During a financial call last week Nvidia senior director of investor relations Chris Evenden told investors that PC gamers could expect a beefy line-up of decent titles including "Call of Duty: Ghosts, Grand Theft Auto 5, and Assassin's Creed 4."

Nvidia announced today that it will cut the price of its portable gaming device Shield. After "listening to gamers," the company said that it would slash the price of the device from $349 to $299. Customers who have already pre-ordered a unit will pay the new, lower price. Shield is set for release on June 27.

Nvidia said today on its blog: "We've heard from thousands of gamers that if the price was $299, we'd have a home run. So we're changing the price of Shield to $299.

Nvidia Chief Executive Jen-Hsun Huang said Tuesday that his company was open to acquisitions that fit into its business. Huang spoke to the Wall Street Journal about Project Shield and other issues important to the company at Computex, Asia’s biggest PC trade show.

Nvidia today announced pricing and a release window for its hand-held console system, Project SHIELD (now called simply SHIELD), this morning. The system will cost almost as much as the Wii U, which is surprising given that its other Android-based competitors like the GameStick and the Ouya are priced at right around $100.

Graphics hardware maker Nvidia acknowledged that its user forums were hacked last week by unauthorized third parties and that user details may have been compromised. In light of the security breach Nvidia has temporarily suspended all of its web-based services.

The company said that it was forced to shut down its official forums last week, after it identified what it characterized as "suspicious activity" on the site. Nvidia confirmed that hackers accessed usernames, email addresses, passwords and more.

Microsoft founder Bill Gates and Nvidia are working on a joint venture that will use the same chips found in video game consoles to shoot down female mosquitoes. While it sounds like a 1980's sci-fi movie, the project is very real and is meant to shrink the disease carrying mosquito population in third-world countries.

Nvidia is working with research company Intellectual Ventures to build laser fences that recognize and shoot female mosquitoes out of the air, according to San Franisco-based television station KGO.

The fences could sell for as little as $50, according to KGO. It's an interesting use of technology and if it is effective it could eliminate the use of poisons such as DDT in some regions.

Source: Forbes

According to a report on BigDownload, Microsoft and NVIDIA, two key players in the PC industry, have left the PC Gaming Alliance. BD confirmed the news with PC Gaming Alliance president Matt Ployhar. Microsoft and NVIDIA were founding member of the organization set up to champion creating and playing games on PC. Ployhar declined comment on why these companies have left the group.

Ployhar went on to tell BD that his organization will change its focus from research and reports on the industry to assisting game developers, publishers and hardware companies make better PC games.

"Another key thing we'll be doing is creating a more technical based advisory board that you'll all be hearing more about very soon," Plyhar said via his Intel Blog.

The street of dreams is paying attention to video game tech these days, and not just in terms of potential investments.

Wall Street & Technology reports that the same graphics processors (GPUs) employed in modern game consoles are powering specialized financial displays.

Frank Tan, a Deutsche Bank options trader, told WS&T:

With the advancement of computer gaming and graphics technology like PlayStation and Xbox, these graphics cards are a lot more capable [than ever]. The idea is to use the GPUs for financial calculations rather than playing games and generating graphics...

 

First, there is the sheer number of messages and data coming in... Every time the underlying price changes, or if there is a shift in the options quotes, the options prices... have to be recomputed. The GPU has the capability to solve the second computational issue. Before GPU technology came out, in order to solve this problem in real time, you would have to buy supercomputers.