Flu season 'bad one for the elderly,' CDC says

The number of older people hospitalized with the flu has risen sharply, prompting federal officials to take unusual steps to make more flu medicines available and to urge wider use of them as soon as symptoms appear.

The U.S. is about halfway through this flu season, and "it's shaping up to be a worse-than-average season" and a bad one for the elderly, said Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

It's not too late to get a flu shot, and "if you have symptoms, please stay home from work, keep your children home from school" and don't spread the virus, he said.

New figures from the CDC show widespread flu activity in all states but Tennessee and Hawaii. Some parts of the country are seeing an increase in flu activity "while overall activity is beginning to go down," Frieden said. Flu activity is high in 30 states and New York City, up from 24 the previous week.

Nine more children or teens have died of the flu, bringing the nation's total this flu season to 29. That's close to the 34 pediatric deaths reported during all of the last flu season, although that one was unusually light. In a typical season, about 100 children die of the flu and officials said there is no way to know whether deaths this season will be higher or lower than usual.

The government doesn't keep a running tally of adult deaths from the flu, but estimates that it kills about 24,000 people most years.

So far, half of confirmed flu cases are in people 65 and older. Lab-confirmed flu hospitalizations totaled 19 for every 100,000 in the population, but 82 per 100,000 among those 65 and older, "which is really quite a high rate," Frieden said.

"We expect to see both the number and the rates of both hospitalizations and deaths rise further in the next week or so as the flu epidemic progresses,'" so prompt treatment is key to preventing deaths, he said.

About 90 percent of flu deaths are in the elderly; the very young and people with other health problems such as diabetes are also at higher risk.

If you're worried about how sick you are and are in one of these risk groups, see a doctor, Frieden urged. One third to one half of people are not getting prompt treatment with antiviral medicines, he said.

Two drugs — Tamiflu and Relenza — can cut the severity and risk of death from the flu but must be started within 48 hours of first symptoms to do much good. Tamiflu is available in a liquid form for use in children under 1, and pharmacists can reformulate capsules into a liquid if supplies are short in an area, said Dr. Margaret Hamburg, head of the Food and Drug Administration.

To help avoid a shortage, the FDA is letting Tamiflu's maker, Genentech, distribute 2 million additional doses of capsules that have an older version of package insert.

"It is fully approved, it is not outdated," just lacks information for pharmacists on how to mix it into a liquid if needed for young children, she said.

This year's flu season started about a month earlier than normal and the dominant flu strain is one that tends to make people sicker. Vaccinations are recommended for anyone 6 months or older. There's still plenty of vaccine — an update shows that 145 million doses have been produced, "twice the supply that was available only several years ago," Hamburg said.

About 129 million doses have been distributed already, and a million doses are given each day, Frieden said. The vaccine is not perfect but "it's by far the best tool we have to prevent influenza," he said.

Carlos Maisonet, 73, got a flu shot this week at New York's Brooklyn Hospital Center at the urging of his wife, who was vaccinated in August.

"This is his first time getting the flu shot," said his wife, Zulma Ramos.

Last week, the CDC said the flu again surpassed an "epidemic" threshold, based on monitoring of deaths from flu and a frequent complication, pneumonia. The flu epidemic happens every year and officials say this year's vaccine is a good match for strains that are going around.

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Online:

Flu vaccine finder: http://www.flu.gov

CDC flu info: http://www.cdc.gov/flu/index.htm

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AP Photographer Bebeto Matthews in New York contributed to this report.

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Wall Street Week Ahead: Earnings, money flows to push stocks higher

NEW YORK (Reuters) - With earnings momentum on the rise, the S&P 500 seems to have few hurdles ahead as it continues to power higher, its all-time high a not-so-distant goal.

The U.S. equity benchmark closed the week at a fresh five-year high on strong housing and labor market data and a string of earnings that beat lowered expectations.

Sector indexes in transportation <.djt>, banks <.bkx> and housing <.hgx> this week hit historic or multiyear highs as well.

Michael Yoshikami, chief executive at Destination Wealth Management in Walnut Creek, California, said the key earnings to watch for next week will come from cyclical companies. United Technologies reports on Wednesday while Honeywell is due to report Friday.

"Those kind of numbers will tell you the trajectory the economy is taking," Yoshikami said.

Major technology companies also report next week, but the bar for the sector has been lowered even further.

Chipmakers like Advanced Micro Devices , which is due Tuesday, are expected to underperform as PC sales shrink. AMD shares fell more than 10 percent Friday after disappointing results from its larger competitor, Intel . Still, a chipmaker sector index <.sox> posted its highest weekly close since last April.

Following a recent underperformance, an upside surprise from Apple on Wednesday could trigger a return to the stock from many investors who had abandoned ship.

Other major companies reporting next week include Google , IBM , Johnson & Johnson and DuPont on Tuesday, Microsoft and 3M on Thursday and Procter & Gamble on Friday.

CASH POURING IN, HOUSING DATA COULD HELP

Perhaps the strongest support for equities will come from the flow of cash from fixed income funds to stocks.

The recent piling into stock funds -- $11.3 billion in the past two weeks, the most since 2000 -- indicates a riskier approach to investing from retail investors looking for yield.

"From a yield perspective, a lot of stocks still yield a great deal of money and so it is very easy to see why money is pouring into the stock market," said Stephen Massocca, managing director at Wedbush Morgan in San Francisco.

"You are just not going to see people put a lot of money to work in a 10-year Treasury that yields 1.8 percent."

Housing stocks <.hgx>, already at a 5-1/2 year high, could get a further bump next week as investors eye data expected to support the market's perception that housing is the sluggish U.S. economy's bright spot.

Home resales are expected to have risen 0.6 percent in December, data is expected to show on Tuesday. Pending home sales contracts, which lead actual sales by a month or two, hit a 2-1/2 year high in November.

The new home sales report on Friday is expected to show a 2.1 percent increase.

The federal debt ceiling negotiations, a nagging worry for investors, seemed to be stuck on the back burner after House Republicans signaled they might support a short-term extension.

Equity markets, which tumbled in 2011 after the last round of talks pushed the United States close to a default, seem not to care much this time around.

The CBOE volatility index <.vix>, a gauge of market anxiety, closed Friday at its lowest since April 2007.

"I think the market is getting somewhat desensitized from political drama given, this seems to be happening over and over," said Destination Wealth Management's Yoshikami.

"It's something to keep in mind, but I don't think it's what you want to base your investing decisions on."

(Reporting by Rodrigo Campos, additional reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak and Caroline Valetkevitch; Editing by Kenneth Barry)

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China Objects After Shell Is Fired From Myanmar

BANGKOK — China said Thursday that it had expressed “grave concern” to the Myanmar government after a shell, apparently fired during fighting between Myanmar troops and ethnic rebels, landed in Chinese territory, and a Chinese government spokesman called for an immediate cease-fire.

The Chinese response was unusually strong given the close ties between the two countries in recent years, and it suggested that China was growing increasingly impatient and nervous about the fighting between ethnic Kachin rebels and Myanmar government troops.

“China has lodged urgent representation to Myanmar over the incident, to express grave concerns and dissatisfaction,” said Hong Lei, a spokesman for China’s Foreign Ministry, who called for a cease-fire, according to the official Xinhua news agency.

Xinhua said the artillery shell was the fourth “bomb” dropped inside China in recent months. Three others landed on Chinese territory on Dec. 30.

Myanmar troops are pressing toward the headquarters of the Kachin Independence Army in Laiza, a town along the border with China.

Myanmar’s government has repeatedly said that it wants to negotiate with the Kachin rebels. “We want to reduce our offensive and return to talks,” U Ye Htut, a spokesman for President Thein Sein, said in an interview with the online news site The Irrawaddy that was posted on Thursday.

But the military appears to be accelerating its campaign against the Kachin, using heavy artillery, attack helicopters and other aircraft to flush out guerrillas from their positions surrounding Laiza.

The Kachin rebels still control portions of territory along the border with China, including areas where Chinese companies own plantations.

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The aggressively priced Lumia 620 is Nokia’s make or break model

Nokia (NOK) has started pricing the Lumia 620 in Asia nearly 20% below the rival Windows mid-market model, the HTC (2498) 8S. This is remarkably aggressive considering the 620 has a higher pixel density and twice as much internal memory. The 620 is the keystone phone for Nokia. It is launching before RIM (RIMM) gets its new budget BlackBerry phones out and before Samsung (005930) or LG (066570) enter the mid-priced Windows phone market. This is the phone that will make or break Nokia’s summer.

[More from BGR: BlackBerry 10 browser smokes iOS 6 and Windows Phone 8 in comparison test [video]]

Nokia has started rolling out the Lumia 620 in several key Asian markets by the third week of January. It now looks like its European debut could happen a few weeks earlier than expected, perhaps by the end of January. In one of the earliest launch markets, Thailand, the launch price of the Lumia 620 is set at 8,250 baht, or $ 275. The only direct Windows mid-range model, HTC’s 8S, is priced at 9,990 baht. The Lumia 620 is priced at 800 RM ($ 266) in Malaysia, one of Asia’s key mobile markets. HTC’s 8S launched in Malaysia at 999 RM.

[More from BGR: Clash of the bantams: The bloody smartphone battle that will take shape in 2013]

Nokia is the stronger brand in South-East Asia and HTC’s budget Windows model was expected to be at rough price parity during the 620 launch, not 20% above. Nokia’s Lumia 620 features display pixel density of 246 pixels per inch, a touch above the 233 pixels per inch that HTC’s 8S offers. The 620 also packs 8 GB of internal memory, twice as much as the 8S. Camera and video quality are roughly similar.

This is the golden opportunity for Nokia. It will probably take at least until June before RIM rolls out new BlackBerries priced under $ 300 in Asia; possibly late summer or autumn. Samsung and LG are a step behind Nokia in rolling out their Windows Phone 8 ranges. HTC’s first mid-range model doesn’t quite measure up to the 620 in value for money comparison. Apple’s (AAPL) rumored cheap iPhone is unlikely to arrive before September.

Nokia now has a shot at recapturing some of the power it used to have in the mid-range smartphone market. Back in 2006 through 2008 Nokia dominated the smartphone markets of Asia and Europe with absolute sovereignty, capturing market shares as high as 70% from India to Germany. Those days won’t return, but if the 620 clicks, Nokia just might have a shot at pumping the Lumia volume to 10 million units per quarter by autumn.

The relative market softness in the sub-$ 300 category due to the current weakness of RIM, LG, Sony (SNE) and HTC has opened the door. This February is going to be an absolutely crucial month for Nokia as it ramps up its most important Lumia phone during the traditionally dead period in Asia and Europe. If consumers don’t connect with this model at this price, the entire Windows Phone camp will face some very tough decisions.

This article was originally published on BGR.com

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See Personal Pics of Rosie O'Donnell's Daughter Dakota

After welcoming her fifth child, the comedian gives fans an intimate glimpse into her mommy joy in a series of personal photos

Credit: Courtesy of Rosie O'Donnell

Updated: Thursday Jan 17, 2013 | 12:00 PM EST
By: Shanelle Rein-Olowokere

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Will Obama's order lead to surge in gun research?

MILWAUKEE (AP) — Nearly as many Americans die from guns as from car crashes each year. We know plenty about the second problem and far less about the first. A scarcity of research on how to prevent gun violence has left policymakers shooting in the dark as they craft gun control measures without much evidence of what works.

That could change with President Barack Obama's order Wednesday to ease research restrictions pushed through long ago by the gun lobby. The White House declared that a 1996 law banning use of money to "advocate or promote gun control" should not keep the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other federal agencies from doing any work on the topic.

Obama can only do so much, though. Several experts say Congress will have to be on board before anything much changes, especially when it comes to spending money.

How severely have the restrictions affected the CDC?

Its website's A-to-Z list of health topics, which includes such obscure ones as Rift Valley fever, does not include guns or firearms. Searching the site for "guns" brings up dozens of reports on nail gun and BB gun injuries.

The restrictions have done damage "without a doubt" and the CDC has been "overly cautious" about interpreting them, said Daniel Webster, director of the Center for Gun Policy and Research at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

"The law is so vague it puts a virtual freeze on gun violence research," said a statement from Michael Halpern of the Union of Concerned Scientists. "It's like censorship: When people don't know what's prohibited, they assume everything is prohibited."

Many have called for a public health approach to gun violence like the highway safety measures, product changes and driving laws that slashed deaths from car crashes decades ago even as the number of vehicles on the road rose.

"The answer wasn't taking away cars," said Dr. Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association.

However, while much is known about vehicles and victims in crashes, similar details are lacking about gun violence.

Some unknowns:

—How many people own firearms in various cities and what types.

—What states have the highest proportion of gun ownership.

—Whether gun ownership correlates with homicide rates in a city.

—How many guns used in homicides were bought legally.

—Where juveniles involved in gun fatalities got their weapons.

—What factors contribute to mass shootings like the Newtown, Conn., one that killed 26 people at a school.

"If an airplane crashed today with 20 children and 6 adults there would be a full-scale investigation of the causes and it would be linked to previous research," said Dr. Stephen Hargarten, director of the Injury Research Center at the Medical College of Wisconsin.

"There's no such system that's comparable to that" for gun violence, he said.

One reason is changes pushed by the National Rifle Association and its allies in 1996, a few years after a major study showed that people who lived in homes with firearms were more likely to be homicide or suicide victims. A rule tacked onto appropriations for the Department of Health and Human Services barred use of funds for "the advocacy or promotion of gun control."

Also, at the gun group's urging, U.S. Rep. Jay Dickey, a Republican from Arkansas, led an effort to remove $2.6 million from the CDC's injury prevention center, which had led most of the research on guns. The money was later restored but earmarked for brain injury research.

"What the NRA did was basically terrorize the research community and terrorize the CDC," said Dr. Mark Rosenberg, who headed the CDC's injury center at the time. "They went after the researchers, they went after institutions, they went after CDC in a very big way, and they went after me," he said. "They didn't want the data to be collected because they were threatened by what the data were showing."

Dickey, who is now retired, said Wednesday that his real concern was the researcher who led that gun ownership study, who Dickey described as being "in his own kingdom or fiefdom" and believing guns are bad.

He and Rosenberg said they have modified their views over time and now both agree that research is needed. They put out a joint statement Wednesday urging research that prevents firearm injuries while also protecting the rights "of legitimate gun owners."

"We ought to research the whole environment, both sides — what the benefits of having guns are and what are the benefits of not having guns," Dickey said. "We should study any part of this problem," including whether armed guards at schools would help, as the National Rifle Association has suggested.

Association officials did not respond to requests for comment. A statement Wednesday said the group "has led efforts to promote safety and responsible gun ownership" and that "attacking firearms" is not the answer. It said nothing about research.

The 1996 law "had a chilling effect. It basically brought the field of firearm-related research to a screeching halt," said Benjamin of the Public Health Association.

Webster said researchers like him had to "partition" themselves so whatever small money they received from the CDC was not used for anything that could be construed as gun policy. One example was a grant he received to evaluate a community-based program to reduce street gun violence in Baltimore, modeled after a successful program in Chicago called CeaseFire. He had to make sure the work included nothing that could be interpreted as gun control research, even though other privately funded research might.

Private funds from foundations have come nowhere near to filling the gap from lack of federal funding, Hargarten said. He and more than 100 other doctors and scientists recently sent Vice President Joe Biden a letter urging more research, saying the lack of it was compounding "the tragedy of gun violence."

Since 1973, the government has awarded 89 grants to study rabies, of which there were 65 cases; 212 grants for cholera, with 400 cases, yet only three grants for firearm injuries that topped 3 million, they wrote. The CDC spends just about $100,000 a year out of its multibillion-dollar budget on firearm-related research, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has said.

"It's so out of proportion to the burden, however you measure it," said Dr. Matthew Miller, associate professor of health policy at the Harvard School of Public Health. As a result, "we don't know really simple things," such as whether tighter gun rules in New York will curb gun trafficking "or is some other pipeline going to open up" in another state, he said.

What now?

CDC officials refused to discuss the topic on the record — a possible sign of how gun shy of the issue the agency has been even after the president's order.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said in a statement that her agency is "committed to re-engaging gun violence research."

Others are more cautious. The Union of Concerned Scientists said the White House's view that the law does not ban gun research is helpful, but not enough to clarify the situation for scientists, and that congressional action is needed.

Dickey, the former congressman, agreed.

"Congress is supposed to do that. He's not supposed to do that," Dickey said of Obama's order. "The restrictions were placed there by Congress.

"What I was hoping for ... is 'let's do this together,'" Dickey said.

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Housing, job data push S&P to five-year high; Intel down late

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stronger-than-expected data on housing starts and jobless claims lit a fire under stocks on Thursday, pushing the S&P 500 to a five-year high and its third day of gains.

A pair of economic reports lifted investors' sentiment. The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits fell to a five-year low last week and housing starts jumped last month to the highest since June 2008.

Strength in the housing and labor markets is key to sustained growth and higher corporate profits, helping to bring out buyers even on a day when earnings reports were mixed.

Gains were tempered by weakness in the financial sector, with Bank of America down 4.2 percent to $11.28 and Citigroup off 2.9 percent to $41.24 after their results.

In other negative earnings news, shares of chipmaker Intel fell 5.2 percent to $21.49 in extended-hours trading after the company forecast quarterly revenue that fell short of analysts' expectations. Intel had ended the regular session up 2.6 percent at $22.68.

The S&P 500 ended at its highest since December 2007 and now sits just 5.6 percent from its all-time closing high of 1,565.15.

"Having consolidated really for the last two weeks, the fact that we broke out, I think that that is sucking in quite a bit of money," said James Dailey, portfolio manager of TEAM Asset Strategy Fund in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> was up 84.79 points, or 0.63 percent, at 13,596.02. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> was up 8.31 points, or 0.56 percent, at 1,480.94. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> was up 18.46 points, or 0.59 percent, at 3,136.00.

Better-than-expected earnings and revenue reported by online marketplace eBay late Wednesday helped the stock gain 2.7 percent to $54.33.

In the housing sector, PulteGroup Inc shares gained 4.9 percent to $20.29 and Toll Brothers Inc advanced 3.1 percent to $35.99. The PHLX housing sector index <.hgx> climbed 2.4 percent, reaching its highest close since August 2007.

Semiconductor shares <.sox> rose 2 percent to the highest close in eight months.

Financials were the only S&P 500 sector to register a slight decline for the day.

Bank of America's fourth-quarter profit fell as it took more charges to clean up mortgage-related problems. Citigroup posted $2.32 billion of charges for layoffs and lawsuits.

Energy shares led gains on the Dow as U.S. crude oil prices jumped more than 1 percent. Shares of Exxon Mobil were up 0.8 percent at $90.20 while shares of Chevron were up 0.7 percent at $114.75.

S&P 500 earnings are expected to have risen 2.3 percent in the fourth quarter, Thomson Reuters data showed. Expectations for the quarter have fallen considerably since October when a 9.9 percent gain was estimated.

Volume was roughly 6.5 billion shares traded on the New York Stock Exchange, the Nasdaq and the NYSE MKT, compared with the 2012 average daily closing volume of about 6.45 billion.

Advancers outpaced decliners on the NYSE by about 22 to 7 and on the Nasdaq by about 2 to 1.

(Additional reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak; Editing by Kenneth Barry and Nick Zieminski)

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Netanyahu Issues Veiled Barb in Response to Reported Criticism From Obama

JERUSALEM — Days before an Israeli election that he is expected to win, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday directed a veiled barb at President Obama, who was quoted this week as denouncing Mr. Netanyahu’s policies.

Relations between the two leaders have long been marked by tension that has erupted on occasion into open hostility, particularly over the handling of the Iranian nuclear issue and Israeli settlement plans. Israeli commentators said the latest exchange of messages seemed to suggest that future relations between Mr. Obama and Mr. Netanyahu could be equally fraught.

In a column published by Bloomberg View on Monday, Jeffrey Goldberg, an American journalist who is well acquainted with Israel, wrote that in the weeks after the United Nations General Assembly voted to upgrade the status of Palestine to nonmember observer state, “Obama said privately and repeatedly, ‘Israel doesn’t know what its own best interests are.’ With each new settlement announcement, in Obama’s view, Netanyahu is moving his country down a path toward near-total isolation.”

Responding to a journalist’s question about the comments and the timing during a televised visit to a military base on Wednesday, Mr. Netanyahu said, “I think everyone understands that only Israeli citizens will be the ones who determine who faithfully represents the vital interests of Israel.”

Many Israelis regard Mr. Goldberg as being well connected to Mr. Obama, citing a widely publicized interview by Mr. Goldberg with the president that was published in The Atlantic last March. Mr. Obama said then, regarding Iran, “I think that the Israeli government recognizes that, as president of the United States, I don’t bluff,” and, “In terms of Israeli politics, there’s been a view that regardless of whether it’s a Democratic or Republican administration, the working assumption is: we’ve got Israel’s back.”

Asked for a response to Mr. Goldberg’s column, Tommy Vietor, a spokesman for the National Security Council, said: “I can’t confirm that specific comment or what was allegedly discussed in private meetings.  The president has been clear in stating what he believes is a realistic basis for successful negotiations, and we will continue to base our efforts on that approach.”

The stinging criticism attributed to Mr. Obama made headlines in Israel, not least because of the timing. Months ago, Mr. Netanyahu was widely perceived as meddling in the American presidential campaign in favor of the Republican nominee, Mitt Romney. Now, some Israeli commentators posited, it was payback time.

Others suggested that Mr. Obama’s criticism could only help Mr. Netanyahu, a conservative who is battling political parties further to his right.

Tensions peaked last fall, before the American election, when Mr. Netanyahu publicly criticized the Obama administration for refusing to set clear “red lines” on Iran’s nuclear progress and said that as a result, the administration had no “moral right” to restrain Israel from taking military action of its own.

The Netanyahu government’s frequent announcements of plans to build more Jewish homes in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and the annexed East Jerusalem have been another continual source of friction. Washington has long viewed settlement construction as an obstacle to peace. With the Palestinians demanding a settlement freeze before returning to the negotiating table, Israeli-Palestinian talks have been stalled for years.

Mr. Netanyahu blames the Palestinians for the stagnation, saying he is ready for talks without preconditions.

Soon after the General Assembly voted in November to upgrade the status of the Palestinians, the Netanyahu government announced that it would advance plans to settle a particularly contentious area of the West Bank known as E1 in response. Mr. Obama “didn’t even bother getting angry,” Mr. Goldberg wrote. “He told several people that this sort of behavior on Netanyahu’s part is what he has come to expect, and he suggested that he has become inured to what he sees as self-defeating policies of his Israeli counterpart.”

Moshe Yaalon, Israel’s minister of strategic affairs, told Israel Radio on Wednesday that Mr. Netanyahu had led the country responsibly, and that some of his actions found favor with the United States and Europe while others did not. Asked about the timing of Mr. Goldberg’s column, so soon before Israeli elections set for Jan. 22, Mr. Yaalon said that perhaps the journalist had chosen this “sensitive time” to publish it.

Mr. Goldberg, a columnist for Bloomberg and a national correspondent for The Atlantic, dismissed speculation that his column was timed to influence the Israeli election.

“Think of the column as coming out after the E1 announcement rather than before the election,” Mr. Goldberg said by telephone. Arguing that American criticism of Israeli settlement building was nothing new, he added, “My column just reflects the ongoing concerns of the administration.”

Tzipi Livni, a former Israeli foreign minister and leader of a new centrist party that is focused on resuming the peace process, said Israelis should consider the comments attributed to Mr. Obama as a wake-up call.

Barak Ravid, the diplomatic correspondent of the liberal Haaretz newspaper, wrote on Wednesday, “So far, it’s looking like Netanyahu’s term, too, will entail confrontation with the White House.”

Mr. Obama, he added, “doesn’t intend to waste his time on Middle East peace as long as he doesn’t think Netanyahu is a serious partner.”

Mark Landler contributed reporting from Washington.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: January 16, 2013

Because of an editing error, an earlier version of this article referred incorrectly to Palestine’s status at the United Nations. It is a nonmember observer state, not a nonvoting member state.

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NVIDIA’s ‘Project SHIELD’ Console Faces Three Challenges

Despite being announced at last week’s Consumer Electronics Show, NVIDIA’s Project SHIELD isn’t the first game-console-in-a-controller to be announced this year. That honor goes to the GameStick, an indie project being funded on Kickstarter. As relative newcomers to the gaming scene, GameStick‘s creators face an uphill battle for acceptance, from both potential buyers and game developers.

But despite NVIDIA‘s established position as a gaming hardware company, it may have a struggle ahead of it, too. Here are three problems which may hinder Project SHIELD‘s adoption.

The size

Unlike GameStick, which is sort of like a classic NES gamepad with a detachable memory stick that plugs into the TV, Project SHIELD is a completely self-contained console. It’s thick and bulky, enormous compared to any of today’s controllers, or even Nintendo’s 3DS XL game console. The closest thing it compares to is an original Xbox controller, before the redesign, but with a flip-up multitouch screen that’s five inches across and has 720p resolution.

You’re not going to be able to just toss Project SHIELD in your pocket, like a smartphone or iPod or very small tablet. It’ll be portable in roughly the same sense that an iPad or netbook is portable, in that you’ll need a handbag or carrying case to put it in. This puts it in a separate size category from most of its competitors, and makes it less convenient to carry around.

The cost

Project SHIELD’s Tegra 4 processor will let it play Tegra-enhanced HD Android games straight from the Google Play store, as well as stream PC games from gaming PCs running Steam and equipped with certain types of NVIDIA graphics cards. Besides that, it’s a full-fledged Android device running Jelly Bean.

But at what cost? Google’s $ 199 Nexus 7 tablet lacks a built-in game controller, doesn’t have a much bigger screen, and uses a less powerful Tegra 3 processor. Dedicated game consoles like the 3DS XL and PlayStation Vita are priced in the same ballpark as the Nexus 7. NVIDIA has yet to announce how much Project SHIELD will cost, or even when it will be on store shelves.

The Tegra-enhanced HD graphics

For many, this will be a plus. There are a lot of Tegra HD (or “THD”) games on the Google Play store right now which boast improved graphics over the versions that run on other graphics processors.

It complicates things for game developers, though, who have to write a separate version just for Tegra processors. Unlike normal ARM processors and Android itself, Tegra is owned solely by NVIDIA, which means there are a lot of tablets and smartphones out there which can’t run those versions of these games. It also means gamers may have to repurchase certain games for Project SHIELD, in order to get the enhanced versions.

Looking towards the future

Things aren’t all gloomy. So far, NVIDIA’s managed to keep developer interest in the Tegra platform, and has gotten a lot of people excited about Project SHIELD. Its partnership with Valve also puts it in position to take advantage of the excitement surrounding Big Picture mode, and the upcoming gaming PCs (like Piston) designed to work with it and connect to a television.

Finally, a wireless game controller can cost upward of $ 50 by itself, so seen in that light Project SHIELD may not turn out to be so expensive — assuming gamers buy Tegra HD titles and NVIDIA graphics cards to use it with.

Jared Spurbeck is an open-source software enthusiast, who uses an Android phone and an Ubuntu laptop PC. He has been writing about technology and electronics since 2008.

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Mariah Carey Reveals Who Impressed Her During American Idol Auditions

TV Watch

By Patrick Gomez

01/16/2013 at 06:30 PM EST

Mariah Carey

Mario Anzuoni/Reuters/Landov

Mariah Carey is famous for her amazing five-octave vocal range – but did any contestants on American Idol have the guts to sing a Carey song right to the diva herself?

Last year's Idol runner-up, Jessica Sanchez, told PEOPLE "I would pee my pants" if she had to sing in front of Carey, but other hopefuls went for it with gusto.

"There was this one time a girl sang one of my songs [and] I thought she was really good," Carey said during a panel last week to promote the Fox show's upcoming 12th season, which premieres Wednesday. "I thought, 'This girl has a chance.' I was proud that I had written a song that she was inspired to sing."

But the Grammy winner admits to cringing during some lackluster performances of her hits.

"Sometimes I'm, like, 'Is this for laughs? Are we doing this for fun?' " explains Carey.

Aside from contestants who could nail one of her own songs, Carey was intrigued by contestants who wrote their own material.

"To me, that adds to them as an artist. Every time someone would [sing a good original song] I was really impressed because that is my thing," she said. "I love to write songs."

Fellow new judge Keith Urban commented that it was more risky to sing Carey's material than original music – as long as the music was good.

"There was a girl in Hollywood week, she's 15 and she played the piano and sang [an original song]. I told her, 'If you release that song tomorrow, people will buy it by the boatloads,' " said the country singer, who described the new judging panel as a "dysfunctional family."

The final new judge, Nicki Minaj, had simpler advice for auditioning hopefuls, "Flash me!"

Joking aside, Minaj said she was looking for "an all around entertainer, someone who is going to captivate people with or without music."

Not that there wasn't a little flashing during the audition rounds. "There was one boy who came in and pulled off his shirt trying to be sexy," Minaj recalled. "And I signed a [girl's] boob!"

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