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The Daily Roundup for 01.09.2013
You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
Eyes-on with Valve's Steambox prototypes
The Steamboxes are here! Well ... sort of. The prototypes for various Steambox designs are certainly here at CES 2013, and we just spent a grip of time acquainting our lenses very closely with them. The devices range in size and form factor, as well as origin -- several of the devices we saw originate from Valve internal, but inclusions like Alienware's X51 and Digital Storm's Bolt were also being held up as examples of the ongoing "Steam in your living room" initiative (note: all the controllers are off-the-shelf Logitech wireless devices, not prototypes). The idea here, as Valve hardware engineer Jeff Keyzer told us, was to show off a variety of form factors for living room-friendly designs. We'll have more from our meeting later today, but for now you can feast your eyes on the elegant prototypes -- as well as Xi3's Piston, and the aforementioned other two third-party PCs -- that we'll be sure to see more of as 2013 goes on. Terrence O'Brien contributed to this report.
Newell: Valve's own 'Steam Box' will use Linux
Valve is in attendance at this year's CES festivities in Las Vegas, and while its primary mission is to meet with hardware partners like Xi3, founder Gabe Newell is still able to find the time to leak details about Valve's own illusive, as-of-yet still unannounced gaming hardware solution.First and foremost is the fact that Valve's Steam Box will run Linux, regardless of what the company's various hardware partners install on their own machines. "We'll come out with our own and we'll sell it to consumers by ourselves. That'll be a Linux box," Newell told The Verge. "If you want to install Windows you can. We're not going to make it hard. This is not some locked box by any stretch of the imagination."Newell also revealed that Valve's Steam Box will be a networked gaming solution for an entire home, not just the living room. "The Steam Box will also be a server," Newell said. "Any PC can serve multiple monitors, so over time, the next-generation (post-Kepler) you can have one GPU that's serving up eight simulateneous [sic] game calls. So you could have one PC and eight televisions and eight controllers and everybody getting great performance out of it. We're used to having one monitor, or two monitors – now we're saying lets expand that a little bit."This all sounds very exciting, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. As we learned from Valve electrical engineer Ben Krasnow earlier today, Valve has "no current plans to announce anything in 2013."
Valve engineer explains Steambox comments: 'No current plans to announce anything in 2013'
When Valve hardware engineer Ben Krasnow gave a speech at a German technology conference back in December, he spoke to the much ballyhooed "Steambox" concept we've been hearing so much about in recent months (among other, vastly different subjects). Following that speech, a report on Golem.de (translated at the Neogaf gaming forums) posited that Krasnow indicated a reveal of said Steambox at this March's Game Developer's Conference, or perhaps at this June's E3 gaming trade show -- but Krasnow tells us he didn't say that exactly. "With regards to the Steambox news -- there has been a lot of things stated in the media which I didn't say. For example, it's true that we are working on getting Steam into the living room, and are planning for a hardware box, but we have no current plans to announce anything in 2013," Krasnow said in an email. "The box might be linux-based, but it might not," he continued. "It's true that we are beta-testing Left for Dead 2 on Linux, and have also been public about Steam Big Picture Mode. We are also working on virtual and augmented reality hardware, and also have other hardware projects that have not been disclosed yet, but probably will be in 2013." Valve also chimed in with a boilerplate statement, which explained the company's presence at this week's big consumer electronics show. "Yes, Valve will be at the show to meet with hardware and content developers in our booth space. Many PCs optimized for Steam and Big Picture will be shipping later this year. We are bringing some of these as well as some custom HW prototypes to our CES meetings." We saw one such example of a PC optimized for use with Steam's Big Picture Mode last night in Xi3's Piston modular PC -- the first of many of these setups we expect to see in 2013. Valve continued, "These custom prototypes are low-cost, high performance designs for the living room that also incorporate Steam and Big Picture. We will be sharing more information to the press and public in the coming months."
Hands-on with Xi3's 'Piston' modular PC at CES, a kind of 'Steambox'
Remember when Xi3 announced a Kickstarter project for its modular computers late last year? Well, those machines are here today at CES, thanks in no small part to some lofty backing from Valve. We got a first look at its latest mini-PC, code-named Piston, tonight -- and though a more comprehensive demo is to come, we walked away with some impressions nonetheless. Of course, Valve wouldn't back this system if it didn't have some serious graphics chops. It's optimized to run Valve's Steam platform -- and specifically Big Picture Mode -- and to that end it packs a quad-core AMD APU -- likely from AMD's Fusion series. Most other specs remain vague, though the Piston apparently offers up to 1TB of storage. The package is tiny yet rugged, with an aluminum chassis that's made to resist heat (and that will certainly come in handy during gaming sessions). Xi3 is also touting the system's low energy consumption; it runs on just 40W. And it's somewhat future-proof, too, with a modular motherboard that lets you swap out components when newer tech becomes available. Our hands-on gallery will have to tide you over till we get a full walkthrough at Xi3's booth tomorrow. Joseph Volpe contributed to this report.
Gabe Newell hints at possible 'turnkey' Valve living room system, sees others following suit
Valve has been making a visibly deep push into the living room, but in bits and pieces -- controllers here, Big Picture interfaces there. Company chief Gabe Newell may have just hinted at a more holistic, though non-exclusive, approach in the works. Chatting on the sidelines of the Video Game Awards, he tells Kotaku that any Valve hardware would involve a "turnkey solution" with a "very controlled" environment, not unlike a console. While that's not necessarily the confirmation of the rumored Steam Box, Newell only stokes the speculation further through his eagerness to put Big Picture on Steam for Linux and get that much more control when building hardware. The game developer doesn't see his company monopolizing couch-based devices should it get involved, however -- he predicts more companies will be selling PCs in 2013 tailored for the TV in a way that would favor Steam. We won't consider either a Valve-made gaming box or its third-party equivalents to be imminent based solely on award show banter, but the remarks suggest that at least one of the PCs is more than just a dream.
Valve 'jumping in' to hardware market
Valve currently has a job posting for an industrial engineer and, avoiding any definitive statements on what it means, declares it is getting into the hardware business. "OMG, STEAM BOX!!!!11!one!" may be your first conclusion, but let's take a breather."We're frustrated by the lack of innovation in the computer hardware space though, so we're jumping in," the job listing for the "Industrial Designer" notes on the company's site. "Even basic input, the keyboard and mouse, haven't really changed in any meaningful way over the years. There's a real void in the marketplace, and opportunities to create compelling user experiences are being overlooked."So, while the end results could be something simple, the idea of Valve creating the "Steam Box," a piece of hardware that combines the best elements of consoles and PC with full access to the Steam digital distribution library, is the Holy Grail. The rumors remain compelling, even as Valve half-denies it, while skunkworks hardware initiatives keep popping up.
Valve employee spills the hardware beans: wearable computers, ahoy
When Michael Abrash started working for Valve, he expected the higher-ups to hand him a pile of work and tell him to hop to it. They didn't. Instead, he was told to figure out the most valuable thing he could do for the company, and then do it. So, Abrash wound up kicking off an in-house R&D project for wearable computers, and according to a recent blog post, is looking to expand his research team. More than me-too mice and gamepads, indeed. Abrash is quick to put a lid on rumors of "Steam glasses," however, and warns readers not to expect any big reveals at E3 -- this is just an "initial investigation into a very interesting and promising space," he says, and is more "research than development." Rearing to give Google's Project Glass a run for its money? Or maybe you're just itching for a detailed narrative of employee and employer? Either way, you'll find what you're looking at the source link below.
Valve job listing points to hardware plans for 'whole new gaming experiences'
Yes, there are employees at Valve right now who are working on some form of gaming hardware. What that gaming hardware is, however, remains to be seen. A job listing discovered by Engadget this week offers more clues as to what that hardware could be, specifically pointing to job skills like "hardware design, prototyping, testing, and production across a wide range of platforms."Getting more direct, the "electronics engineer" position entails working "with the hardware team to conceive, design, evaluate, and produce new types of input, output, and platform hardware." Wait, platform hardware? That sounds an awful lot like the Steam Box rumors we heard earlier this year (rumors that were later semi-shut down).But don't get your hopes up just yet – just because Valve is experimenting with different types of hardware doesn't mean that it's looking to produce a piece of consumer hardware any time soon. We've reached out to Valve for further clarity, but aren't expecting much beyond silence.
Valve job posting reveals plans for homegrown hardware, promises it won't suck
Rumors fluttering about Valve's entry into the hardware market just got a little less salty. According to the outfit's own jobs page, it's prepping to offer consumers "whole new gaming experiences." A call for an experienced electronics engineer says it all, "For years Valve has been all about writing software that provides great gameplay experiences. Now we're developing hardware to enhance those experiences." The ideal candidate ought to have a hefty load of prototyping experience, a knack for working with embedded systems and microcontrollers, a proficiency in thermal management, high speed serial interfaces, ARM / x86 system design, and more. We're not about to hazard a guess at what this adds up to, but Valve promises it's more compelling than "me-too mice and gamepads." Hit the source link below to apply, get hired, and let us know what's up.[Thanks, Alexis]
Rumor: Valve working on 'Steam Box' console standard with customizable controller, biometrics
Valve has already revolutionized PC gaming distribution with its industry-leading Steam platform, and now it has its sights set on bringing that same level of innovation to your living room, according to a report from The Verge.Valve is said to be working on hardware and software specifications for a "Steam Box;" which will actually be a unified console standard available to interested hardware manufacturers, rather than a specific console produced by Valve itself. Similar arrangements have been tried previously in the home console market, most notably the Philips CD-i and 3DO Interactive Multiplayer standards. Should rumors be believed, the Alienware X51 has already been developed to Steam Box standards and will be retroactively infused with Valve's software once it becomes available. The hardware backbone is currently said to be an Intel Core i7 with eight gigs of RAM and an Nvidia GPU. Devices built on the standard will reportedly run any PC title, and will also support other digital distribution platforms like EA's Origin service.A patent for a controller with interchangeable parts, filed by Valve, has also been discovered by The Verge. Diagrams show functionality strongly reminiscent of the MLG Pro controller by Mad Catz, as well a use case depicting interaction with a local gaming device and a networked "gaming server device." The rabbit hole goes much deeper, however, as "sources" claim that mood-tracking biometric systems will be implemented into the system, either in the form of bracelets or directly into Steam Box controllers. This would allow a game to measure the player's pulse rate and galvanic skin response, the gameplay/design implications of which are numerous.Should all this prove accurate, Valve's official announcement will happen sometime between GDC and E3, and will cause the fabric of reality to fold in on itself.
