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Steam Music limited beta coming to SteamOS soon
Valve's Steam Music beta will arrive soon for SteamOS users. The service is a new addition to the platform just announced last week, enabling players to listen to local music files from within the Steam client while playing games. To enter the closed beta, fans will need to join the Steam Music community in hopes of being randomly selected. Valve says beta testers will be "invited in waves" until the feature goes live in full for all players/listeners. The company announced SteamOS in September along with its upcoming Steam Machines and Steam Controller hardware. In mid-January, Valve revealed its ambitions to provide music and video services before launching Steam Machines. We went hands-on with the beta version of the hardware last month and were intrigued by it, even if the Steam Machines term is "nonsense." [Image: Valve]
Steam Machine beta testers start receiving hardware, teasing the less fortunate
Unless you're part of a select group of beta testers (or happen to be handy with Linux), you're probably reading this in a home without access to a Steam Machine. Wondering what you're missing out on? A handful of Valve's 300 beta testers are happy to rub their good fortune in your face and clue you in. The aptly named "SteamMachineBetaTester" Tumblr and Reddit user Colbehr have kindly documented their Steam Machine unboxings, revealing the same form factor we saw last month packed into a well padded wooden crate. Well, there is one change: Valve has drilled out a hole in each of the test units ventilation grates, marking the test device with a representative blemish on one of the vent's 300 perforations. The complete kit comes with the beta hardware itself, a prototype Steam controller, HDMI, USB and power power cables, a USB Steam OS recovery thumbstick and a removable WiFi antenna module. True to Valve's promise, the beta rig is serviceable too, with disassembly instructions helpfully spelled out in the device's instruction manual. It's hard not to be a little jealous, but at least you've got options: check out the tester's galleries at the source links below or, you know, build your own.
Valve's SteamOS will be available for individuals and OEMs on December 13th
In a blog post announcing the shipment of beta versions of the Steam Machine and Controller, Valve revealed that its SteamOS will be available December 13th. This availability coincides with the aforementioned prototype hardware heading out to a select 300 testers. As a quick refresher, this is the software that will allow streaming both games and media from machines in the living room and computers around your flat -- the so-called Steambox operating system. Unless you're an experienced Linux hacker, though, Valve recommends that you hold off until later next year to give it a shot. It appears that an in-home streaming beta is on the way shortly, too.
