While Google I/O may have been in the news a lot this week, NVIDIA's Shield handheld console has taken the prize as most talked about. First, the company opened up pre-orders to its newsletter subscribers, and then the device was spotted on ABC's Modern Family sitcom.
This morning NVIDIA announced that it has opened up Shield pre-orders to the general public three days ahead of its previously scheduled date of May 20. For $349 early adopters can secure their all-in-one Android gaming console at Gamestop, Newegg, Canada Computer, or NVIDIA's own pre-order site.
Shield sports a 5-inch capacitive touchscreen with 1,280x720 resolution, NVIDIA's Tegra 4 CPU which supports a maximum resolution of 3200 x 2000 pixels so games can be played at full HD on a TV. Other specs include 16GB of storage, mini-HDMI, micro-USB 2.0, GPS, Bluetooth 3.0, a microSD card slot for storage expansion, 802.11n Wi-Fi, integrated speakers, and a headphone jack.