CES: "Steam Box" & "Project Shield" - Unnecessary 'innovation' on the horizon?

        Happy (belated) New Year! No Alien invasions, Zombie apocalypse, Nuclear holocaust, or various other epic end-time maladies happened from Dec. 21^st onward. Luckily as well, a narrow avoidance of the Fiscal Cliff , which is definitely giving me – and I'm sure millions more – peace of mind. Unfortunately, That doesn't mean there aren't element son the horizon that threaten our very way of life. I mean, I'm sure there are, but I'm certain technologies such as Nvidia's new venture into the handheld market, or Steams new PC hardware won't be ushering in the dark age any time soon.

         Last nights' Pre-Consumer Electronics Show (CES), which was broadcast live across the web, was not only fairly amazing, it was surprisingly full of innovation – though I think much of that is like a tree branch, growing in the wrong direction. Throughout the rest of CES we'll also get to see Valve's new "Steam Box." All of this is compact, and lightweight it would seem, but I've got to be honest: It's a lot of 'dead weight' if anything.

         Valve's new toy is said to have a higher spec than its sister model, the original Xi3 which, for $500 runs an AMD dual-core 1.8Ghz processor, 2GB DDR2 RAM, and a DX11 compatible video board, albeit only 128MB. What that actually amounts to is an expensive paperweight – by all accounts – in today's market. While it can be upgraded, it doesn't really have any selling points that can't already be entirely met by other relatively similar, and better priced, products. Name most tablets of the last year, which have great functionality for a mobile and small device. While they're not necessarily upgradeable, when you consider the new versions every 6 months to a year, the cost of upgrading Xi3's modular box, is just as much, if not more, than buying the next iteration of say, an iPad, or Galaxy tablet.

         While as of yet, I'm not sure of the specs or potential for Valve's version, other than Big Picture Mode ( rolled out in September, it allows Steam to work on TV, along with controller friendly input and a built-in web browser), I do know that it's an interesting concept. Though, since we don't actually 'need' the Steam Box for it, it's probably safe to say it's really only an item for those who like to be at the front of the technological curve – those guys who bought a $10,000 and even $15,000 plasmaTV when they first came out, or a $1,500 keyboard withall LCD screens, The world is lookin' at you.

        Now, as for the earlier mentioned Nvidia handheld, I'd say like any good New Years resolution – you should be dropping the fun of the idea by the end of cold February. In other words, much like a zombie apocalypse – which I'm still glad didn't happen by the way – you should be running in the other direction. While I've nothing against Nvidia, in and of itself, the fact that their new handheld, so far titled, "ProjectShield" is already being compared to the N-Gage, is clearly not a good sign. Additionally, there's no real function in it that you can't already recieve in gadgets you already own; namely many of your smartphone or tablets.

         The thing to like about the new handheld, is of course, it's Android based design, 720p 294dpi retinal display that's also multitouch. The HDMI supporting, on-the-go streaming ability of the device with the amazing Tegra 4 chip (which is roughly 6 times morepowerful than the Tegra 3), allows for some impressive gaming on the go. Along with the universally shaped controller (for the millions of us who play an Xbox or Xbox 360, this will have us right at home) it's accessible and easy to pick up. The problem is that with all of that, it's still not doing anything that hasn't already been done by our common technology we use on-the-go, now. 
 

         One of the biggest issues regarding the Project Shield in my opinion, is PC streaming requires a PC to actually stream from. It'll have to be strong enough as well as run Nvidia (as some reports seem to believe there will or may be issues with non-Nvidia chipsets) to be functional. I think the biggest headway it makes is that it's far more powerful, due to the nature of it's graphics chipset, than the Ouya, the soon to be$99 independent Android console.   

        I'll be impressed if it can size against that kind of price tag, and likely with a modding community behind the Ouya, it's safe to assume streaming functions between PC and console will be had , rendering another niche in the Project Shield handheld, irrelevant. Even so, if this baby can manage to be used by way of a wireless connection, however, then we'd be on to something – playing my PC games while I'm out of the house. Truly the only viable option for ever streaming your PC games to a handheld device, other than feeling like playing them on your TV outside your room.

         At the end of the day, these are some pretty cool sounding gadgets, the Nvidia Project Shield and Valve's Steam Box. However, I'm just not convinced there is a real market for these products, when faced with a wide array of technology we use already with similar features. How the Steam Box will improve the Big Picture Mode, I'm not sure. Nor am I certain of the potential wireless stream capabilities of Project Shield – what I consider to be it's only defining point if it can indeed be used by wireless connection. Soon we'll learn more and hopefully it'll be something worth looking forward to.