The Asus G51J 3D is the first laptop to feature NVIDIA’s new 3D vision technology, and it takes advantage of a high performance, 15.6-inch 120Hz LCD that, when coupled with shutter glasses (yup, you still need glasses) garnered these praises from Laptop:

…unlike the TriDef technology that powers Acer’s 3D laptop, titles optimised for 3D vision give you a great sense of depth without negatively affecting gameplay. On first person shooters, for example, we found it difficult to aim when using the Acer 5738DG. On the Asus G51J 3D, you don’t make any compromises in terms of control or accuracy.

For the 3D tech, you’ll take a resolution hit (there’s no 3D 1080P display option) and pay a $US200 premium, making the full gaming $US1700.

Keep in mind that Acer’s system, while utilising only rudimentary polarised glasses 3D, costs under $US800. [Laptop Mag]

The system was built by Bill “Overkill” Owen from mnpctech, based on a winning render by “Cheapskate”. The worklogs of all the finalist mods are fun to flick through, and the hundreds of hours of work that went into the Cube’s CNC milled sheets of aluminium and laser cut pieces of acrylic look worth it to me. [Modders-Inc and Mnpctech]

Full specs:

ION ITX-A-U Specifications
Processor 1.6 GHz Intel Atom 330
533 MHz FSB
Chipset NVIDIA MCP7A-ION
System Memory, Dual channel DDR2 667 DIMM slots
Up to 4 GB of memory
VGA Integrated NVIDIA GeForce 9400M Graphics
Supported Resolution 1920 x 1440 (VGA)
Expansion Slots PCI Express Mini Card (wireless card pre-installed)
Onboard IDE None
Onboard Serial ATA 3 SATA (3 Gb/sec.) connectors (RAID 0, 1, 0+1)
Onboard USB 10 USB 2.0
Onboard LAN Realtek RTL8211C GbE 10/100/1000
Onboard Audio Realtek ALC662 5.1 channel HD codec
Back Panel I/O 6 USB 2.0 ports
1 VGA port
1 DVI-I port
1 HDMI port
1 eSATA port
1 LAN port
1 PS2 keyboard port
2 S/PDIF-out ports (coaxial/optical)
3 Audio jacks: line-out, line-in, mic-in
1 DC jack
Onboard I/O Connectors 3 SATA connectors
4 USB 2.0 via 2 pin headers
1 RS-232 COM pin header
1 Front panel audio pin header
1 Front panel pin header
2 Fan pin headers
4-pin Molex connector (for peripheral power)
BIOS AMI BIOS 8 Mb flash memory
System Monitoring & Management: System power management, RTC timer
Operating Temperature 0ºC ~ 50ºC
Power DC 19 V @ 4.74 A
Form Factor: Mini-ITX (17 x 17 cm)
Includes Driver CD
Backplate
CPU fan
90 W AC adaptor & cord
Wireless antenna
3 SATA cables
1 SATA power cable

Engadget says a credible tipster suggests it currently runs Windows CE and has a resistive touchscreen, but Android and capacitive upgrades (and different screen sizes) are likely. A March 2010 arrival is rumoured, as is T-Mobile’s involvement. Interesting, but definitely still an undercooked rumour at this point. We’ll let you know when we hear more. [Engadget]

[In my home we are] all Apple. Apple uses the best technology for their [computers]. Apple says to their customers: if you buy a computer from us you can be sure we have selected the best technology inside for you. That is their promise to consumers. Their promise to consumers isn’t we’ve selected the best technology for you with the exception of what Intel allows us to use. That’s not their promise. And that’s why Apple uses the best technology where they want whenever they want. And that’s why I’m all Apple! At home it’s just Macs everywhere. It’s NVIDIA’s technology in all of them but I use Macs. My son has two Macs, my daughter has a Mac, there’s an extra Mac just in case and my wife has a Mac. It’s just Mac, Mac, Mac! Because I know it’s got the best stuff inside.

That’s quite an enthusiastic endorsement. So enthusiastic that he crosses the ultra-fanboy territory and gets into the “I’ve got my hockey knee pads here and I’m ready to perform iphonelingus on you if you pick me as your tablet provider, Apple” danger zone. [Shufflegazine — Thanks Ron]

We’ve already seen an Intel motherboard hit the market with USB 3.0, but it’s technically manufactured by Asus, and it’s running a third-party USB (3.0) controller. So we’ll see USB 3.0, especially in the custom PC market, before 2011 (because we already are). But like we said, in terms of the standard arriving in mass anytime soon, things are looking grim. [TGDaily via Engadget]

Both the the Shift: Intel P55 and the Shift: Intel X58 are powered by Intel Core i7 900 processors running Windows 7. ATI Radeo HD and NVIDIA GeForce graphics cards are featured, and I’m sure the discerning gamer expects nothing less.

Storage options include up to six mechanical or 12 SSD drives. The two diverge on memory specs, with the P55 containing up to 8GB DDR3-1600 low latency RAM and the X58 up to 12GB DDR3-2000 or 24GB DDR3-1600. DVD or Blu-Ray drives are options for both rigs while a standard Asetek closed-loop liquid cooling system keeps things chilled.

Pricing begins at an optimistic $US2199 and $US2599, respectively, although with all the options listed above, that can (and probably will) climb much, much higher. Since Shift is the only PC that Maingear is going to focus on selling from now on, I hope it works it out for them.

It’s rumoured that Nvidia has won a contract to supply Nintendo with Tegra chips for the next generation DS. The specific chip Nintendo plans on using is unknown, so we don’t know exactly how powerful the next model could be. Considering the current DS runs on two incredibly slow processors, any Tegra would be a huge boost in power.

As a bonus, the source reports that the new hardware should allow backwards compatibility. Hopefully not à la PSP Go, where backwards compatibility really means you have to buy all the games you already own again. [Bright Side of the News via Electronista]