It’s not just about Nvidia’s Shield at CES, with another Android based console being launched; the all-singing, all-dancing console/tablet ybrid known as the Unu.
In reality, the cheap nature of Android licensing means that there’s probably fifty different Android consoles rattling around at CES right now — like last week’s Gamestick, for example — but the Unu claims to go a little further than most straight Android boxes. It’s a German-produced Android tablet from a gaming peripheral manufacturer called Snakebyte. They’re positioning it not just as either a 7 inch or 10 inch Android tablet (although details of underlying processor, Android version and so on are a bit thin on the ground; all we know at this point is that it’s running a custom GUI), but one with its own remote control for when docked to a TV, as well as a rather stiff looking gamepad that Snakebyte claims will map to any Android game.
If they’ve cracked getting most touchscreen games working with a controller, it could be an interesting point of differentiation; rather than having to work to get developers to make their apps Unu friendly (as is the case, for example, with the iCade line of products) they’d have a large gaming library out of the box.
It’s a total aside, but having grown up on a diet of Family Ties, every time I type “Unu”, my brain completes it as “Sit, Unu, Sit. Good Boy.” Just me? Oh, very well…
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