Hasta La Gadget!

We’ve seen several reports over the last week about Intel’s set-top box efforts, and an impending CES launch. According to GigaOM, some of those rumors simply aren’t true. The site has confirmed with several sources at Intel that a set-top box (and a whole lot more) is in the works, but a CES announcement has not been planned. Instead, Media, the mysterious Intel division, which is run like a startup with staffers hired from other Silicon Valley companies rather than shifted from different departments, could be unveiled in March, or perhaps even at the AllThingsD Dive Into Media conference in February.

A detailed GigaOM report outlines the company’s plans, which do include a STB manufactured by Intel that would compete with Apple TV, but also solutions for other platforms, including computers, tablets and smartphones. According to GigaOM sources, the company has spent more than $100 million on Intel Media, so it’s clearly taking the effort seriously. Still, until Intel Media has been exposed to the market, it’s too soon to judge its success. Hit up our source link for the full scoop.

Update: Now the Wall Street Journal has chimed in, with its own reports from usual unnamed sources indicating that a launch could be pushed as far as Q4. The reason for the wide launch window? Trouble negotiating content agreements for those unbundled packages (at much higher rates than the channels currently receive) it reportedly wants to offer, although the rumors say Intel has reached at least one content deal — we’re guessing it wasn’t with ESPN. Whether this will ever appear or simply remain vapor like so many other rumored Intel software products remains to be seen, but just like the often hinted at Apple television, the licensing issues will probably be much harder to work out than any software or hardware.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Internet, HD, Intel

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Source: GigaOM, Wall Street Journal

There’s a brand new Ultrabook in town sporting Intel inside from Velocity Micro, with three new models pumped up for the new year. This lineup comes in with three notebooks by the names of NoteMagix U430, NoteMagix U450, and NoteMagix U470, each of them coming in with a unique chassis and no Bloatware at all, whatsoever. These units are pumped up and ready for the big time, too with solid aluminum bodies and less than 4 pounds to any one unit.

Each of the three units here works with a lovely 14-inch 1366 x 768 pixel resolution (WXGA) Anti-Glare display, Panther Point (HM77) chipset, and a 3rd gen Intel Core at i3, i5, or i7, each of their prices reflecting the power. These machines come with 4GB DDR3 RAM and varying hard drives based on the model as well: 500GB 5400rpm and 24gb SSD, 120GB Intel® 520 Series SSD, or 240GB Intel® 520 Series SSD.

Each of these models works with Integrated Intel HD 4000 Graphics, over 6 hours of battery life, and a lovely webcam at 1.3 megapixels. Each unit works with its own ethernet port, two USB 3.0 ports, full-size HDMI out, headphone jack, and multi-card reader. A set of rubbery bumpers on the bottom and a lovely black casing and you’re ready to go!

These machines will be available immediately if not soon online starting at three prices based on model. The lowest-spec’d model is the NoteMagix U430 which will be starting at $799.99, followed by the NoteMagix U450 which starts at $899.99 USD. The biggest and the best in this new lineup is the NoteMagix U470 which starts at $1099.99 USD – that’s the one you want!

[via Velocity Micro]

Velocity Micro reveals NoteMagix Ultrabook lineup is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Intel is counting on lashings of cash to drive its living room ambitions, with a rumored budget potentially in the hundreds of millions helping convince conservative content owners that it’s a safe partner to bet on. The chip company has reportedly green-lit an IPTV investment well in excess of the “hobby” amounts rivals with similar cable-cutting ambitions have allotted, a show of force that has allowed it to negotiate new licensing deals of a sort so-far unseen.

The challenge Intel faces is just like every other company hoping to cater to viewers turned off by channel-swollen cable packages: persuading the content owners to relax their stance on only licensing huge bundles of dozens of channels. That strategy has proved lucrative so far, with cable subscribers forced to subscribe to many channels they don’t actually want in order to get a few they particularly watch.

Intel’s strategy, it’s suggested, is using its heft in chip production to demonstrate quite how committed it is to the home entertainment segment; “since Intel is used to betting billions on chip design, it has allocated a budget significantly larger than Apple or Google’s” Fortune reports. That investment supposedly looks more realistic to Hollywood negotiators used to $100m+ movie budgets.

The chip firm also has an existing legacy in working with, not against, cable providers. It inked a deal in 2011 to power Comcast’s next-gen Xfinity TV boxes, and has been producing STB chips for getting on for a decade. What technological advantages it plans to bring to the streaming TV segment has also been framed in terms of benefiting content owners, too, rather than consumers.

So, Intel is believed to be pushing a monitoring system that can deliver more accurate and detailed viewership data, including rough age range, gender, and a more precise number of how many people are actually watching. That same system is also being promoted among content owners as ideal for targeting advertising, picking more relevant promotions based on who is in front of the TV at any one time.

An evolutionary rather than revolutionary approach to pacify content providers, and more flexibility in choosing channels (or even pay-per-show), re-watching media from the past month with a “cloud PVR,” and throwing in apps and other web-enabled features to lure in viewers, could make the difference where Apple and Google have struggled. Fortune’s sources claim Intel will begin a small-scale beta to customers in March 2013, though the first-gen STB itself will be shown off at CES 2013 next week.

Money not merit is Intel’s web TV strategy is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Google tried it and failed. Microsoft’s spent years putting pieces in place with Xbox, but it hasn’t gotten there yet. And if you believe the rumors, Apple’s been working on it in secret for years. But the living room revolution we’ve been waiting for won’t be coming from the big three, according to a report from TechCrunch. More »

We’re sure that both fans and critics of Apple are eagerly waiting to see what sort of iTV the company could launch, especially after Steve Jobs famously claimed in his biography to have cracked the TV market. While we wait and see if rumors of such a device actually plays out, it looks like the TV market could have another player and this time in the form of Intel, a move which we’re sure some of you guys would not have thought of. This is according to sources in the video distribution industry who shared Intel’s supposed plans with the folks at TechCrunch. (more…)

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Samsung to unveil 110-inch UHD television at CES 2013? [Rumor], Microsoft Works On New Set Top Box?,