CES 2011 has brought us tons of innovations this year but perhaps one of the biggest isn’t something that would help you out in your business ventures. Meet the Razer Switchblade, a palm-sized, touch-screen gaming PC with a transforming keyboard that is quickly becoming one of my personal favorites from CES. The Switchblade is powered by an Intel Atom chip and is about the size of a hardback book when folded up, but flip it open to unveil a 7-inch touchscreen display and a smallish style keyboard. The innovation here is the keyboard, which can change on the fly to anything from an English language qwerty keyboard to gaming icons or any picture that the user wants to put on a key. How Razer accomplishes this is by using one 7-inch LCD display located under the keyboard instead of trying to use an array of tiny (and much more expensive)  LCD screens. The display has the ability to show a different picture for each button and there’s no real limit to what the picture can be.

But there’s still a chance that Razer isn’t even going to be able to the Switchblade. Robert Krakoff, president of the computer accessory company, said that a lot is still up in the air about the slick prototype that’s garnering a lot of buzz at this week’s Vegas show. The problems right range from heat issues all the way down to settling on system specs and whether or not the device would be upgradable. On the bright side,  the PC will have USB ports for a mouse and other gaming devices. Its very likely it will be shipped with Bluetooth support, WiFi and hopefully built-in mobile broadband support. Krafoff says that there hasn’t been any deals cut but it would be interesting to see if a branded versions such as a World of Warcraft or Valve are ever to be released. Valve’s Gabe Newell seems extremely impressed with the devices potential, he said. The famed developer wanted to know if the device really worked, if it was doable. Krakoff says that the system is shooting towards playing most games available at the time of its release, nothing like higher games like the latest version of Crysis. Another question is pricing, with notebooks hovering around the $500 range the Switchblade is going to have to be competitive in pricing. Do you think Razer will be able to make this a viable option in portable PC gaming?

Check out video of the Switchblade running a demo below:

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[Source: Kotaku]

When Portal 2 was first announced, it was expected to be released sometime this holiday season, but in traditional Valve fashion, the developer has announced that the game has been delayed and is now expected to launch at some point next year. The new comes via a press release titled “VALVE ANNOUNCES MAKING GAMES IS HARD,” in which the company explained that “even though Portal 2 will arrive slightly later than planned, all life on earth won’t instantaneously stop as every molecule in your body explodes at the speed of light.”

This news comes after the announcement that Valve had cancelled its previously planned Portal 2 event at E3 and replaced it with a “surprise.” It looks like the surprise will be something that is Portal-related.  Valve described it as the “E3 ***PORTAL-2-THEMED-FOR-GOD’S SAKE*** surprise.”

Stay tuned for further details and more E3 coverage by following us on Twitter and/or subscribing to our RSS feeds.

The word is out and it is official, no more teasing, Valve’s digital distribution service, Steam is coming to the Mac OS X and bringing Left 4 Dead 2, Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike, portal, and the Half-Life series (along with Source) with it this April. As a bonus to making Steam Mac compatible, the company also plans to make the Mac a “tier-1″ platform, promising simultaneous releases of games for the Mac OS X, Windows, and Xbox 360. Portal 2 will be the first game that will be released (planned to be released later this year) that will release on Mac and Windows simultaneously. Another feature Valve has mentioned that any games supported by Steam can be played and saved on one, then continued on the other, which is something completely unexpected. Both the PC and the Mac version of any games will come bundled as one price as well so if you’re one of those geeks who has both you won’t have to drop any extra money. Valve’s official announcement can be seen below:

VALVE TO DELIVER STEAM & SOURCE ON MAC

Leading Gaming Service Expands to Mac Platform

March 8, 2010 – Valve announced today it will bring Steam, Valve’s gaming service, and Source, Valve’s gaming engine, to the Mac.

Steam and Valve’s library of games including Left 4 Dead 2, Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike, Portal, and the Half-Life series will be available in April.

“As we transition from entertainment as a product to entertainment as a service, customers and developers need open, high-quality Internet clients,” said Gabe Newell, President of Valve. “The Mac is a great platform for entertainment services.”

“Our Steam partners, who are delivering over a thousand games to 25 million Steam clients, are very excited about adding support for the Mac,” said Jason Holtman, Director of Business Development at Valve. “Steamworks for the Mac supports all of the Steamworks APIs, and we have added a new feature, called Steam Play, which allows customers who purchase the product for the Mac or Windows to play on the other platform free of charge. For example, Steam Play, in combination with the Steam Cloud, allows a gamer playing on their work PC to go home and pick up playing the same game at the same point on their home Mac. We expect most developers and publishers to take advantage of Steam Play.”

“We looked at a variety of methods to get our games onto the Mac and in the end decided to go with native versions rather than emulation,” said John Cook, Director of Steam Development. “The inclusion of WebKit into Steam, and of OpenGL into Source gives us a lot of flexibility in how we move these technologies forward. We are treating the Mac as a tier-1 platform so all of our future games will release simultaneously on Windows, Mac, and the Xbox 360. Updates for the Mac will be available simultaneously with the Windows updates. Furthermore, Mac and Windows players will be part of the same multiplayer universe, sharing servers, lobbies, and so forth. We fully support a heterogeneous mix of servers and clients. The first Mac Steam client will be the new generation currently in beta testing on Windows.”

Portal 2 will be Valve’s first simultaneous release for Mac and Windows. “Checking in code produces a PC build and Mac build at the same time, automatically, so the two platforms are perfectly in lock-step,” said Josh Weier, Portal 2 Project Lead. “We’re always playing a native version on the Mac right alongside the PC. This makes it very easy for us and for anyone using Source to do game development for the Mac.

These announcements are probably words Mac gamers have only dreamt about until now. This also allows other developers to easily create Mac-compatble versions of games without much additional effort, which should open up many doors for future gaming under Steam.

Valve’s update earlier this week for Portal has sparked several hints to what the company is working on such as Steam coming to the Mac OS X. The Portal gaming fans out there have uncovered more information as well, hints of Portal 2 and it’s story line. All of which ended up confirmed thanks to GameStop putting out a Portal 2 pre-order with information attached. GameStop ended up revealing information about a new feature that Portal 2 will have, which is two-player co-op mode . Gamestop has the following information on their site which indicates the new game mode:

“Coming this holiday. Portal 2 is the sequel to 2007′s Game of the Year and draws from the award-winning formula of innovative game play, story, and music that earned the original over 70 industry accolades. Features single and multiplayer co-op modes. The single-player portion of Portal 2 introduces a cast of dynamic new characters, a host of fresh puzzle elements, and a much larger set of devious test chambers. Players will explore never-before-seen areas of the Aperture Science Labs and be reunited with GLaDOS, the occasionally murderous computer companion who guided them through the original game. The game’s two-player cooperative mode features its own entirely separate campaign with a unique story, test chambers, and two new player characters. This new mode forces players to reconsider everything they thought they knew about portals. Success will require them to not just act cooperatively, but to think cooperatively.”

Furthermore, popular gaming magazine, GameInformer, released their new cover for the month of April, indicating that they will have a full-featured Portal 2 article with information on “gameplay mechanics, storyline, and some surprising new twists.” The magazine cover release picture can be found below:

According to MacRumors, Portal 2 will also be available for Mac as discovered with a part of a leaked image from the GameInformer magazine, which can be found below:

Stay tuned for any news regarding Portal 2. What are your thoughts and comments on the whole announcement? Share your thoughts and comments below.

With Portal being updated with a new ending this past week, several gaming fans noticed Max OS X components and other items in the update indicating that Valve is planning on making a move into the Mac platform. Several images were released to various companies such as Macrumors, MacNN, Shacknews, Eurogamer, Rock, Paper, Shotgun, and Macworld indicating the same. The pictures are Valve Software’s game characters with something Mac releated. The teasers generated alot of controversy and conversation amongst the gaming community as well as to those who infamously debate about the ongoing Mac vs. PC argument.

The teasers can be seen below:

Personally, the Steam coming to Mac is a good thing. It should provide Valve with more profit as well as Mac users one less thing to complain about. Games will also be more populated because believe it or not, I am pretty sure not everyone installs Windows on their Mac just to play games such as Team Fortress 2 or Half-Life. Overall, a good move from Valve from my pointo f view.What do you think of Steam coming to the Mac? Share your thoughts and comments below.