Intel

Intel announced last March that they were working on developing a "virtual cable provider", offering subscription TV services over broadband to Intel-powered set top boxes. Now, Bloomberg is reporting that Intel is finally close to securing deals with a number of major content providers to help launch the service. Intel's proposed service would roll up live TV offerings, online DVR funtionality, and on-demand content in a manner in which traditional cable and satellite subscription services could never match. It's not impossible to imagine that content providers might see such a service as an antidote to growing discontent with rising subscription TV rates, but it's also difficult to imagine networks such as CNN and NBC that are owned by companies that also own cable service providers rushing toward an Intel backed a la carte future.

Intel is betting it can create a more flexible service, delivered through consumers’ broadband accounts, that gives subscribers more choices over the channels they receive and offers an easier-to-use electronic programming guide, Huggers said. The service would offer live channels and on-demand programming.

Bloomberg

If it weren't for the decidely future technology of Intel's Multiscreen demo, it would definitly be on my shortlist for the most interesting things at CES 2013 because there is something very cool about serving TV content to any device in the house. Click through for a walk through of what we saw from Intel during CES 2013.

TigetDirect.com and Intel are hosting a build your own PC for charity and our own Andrew Van Til has been selected to compete in the journalist race. He is racing for the charity of his children’s school. Here is hoping he wins. There has been regional competitions all around the country and some of the contestants have built computers as fast as 6:30 minutes. You can view the entire completion on www.charitypcrace.com. They are tasked with assembling Intel CPU Based Systems from the ground up. Let cheer on Andrew.

Click Through to Check out the full Press Release

Intel's Next Unit of Computing (NUC) shot to the top of many HTPC enthusiasts' Santa lists when Intel finally revealed the final specs and prices earlier this month. The NUC will be available in two versions, the Thunderbolt-equipped DC3217BY and the DCDC3217IYE, which forgoes the Thunderbolt port in favor of a Gigabit Ethernet port. Our friends at TechReport recently got to take the DC3217BY for a spin and seemed to come away generally pleased with the experience. Certainly it looks like the NUC will have more than enough SFF horsepower to serve as a capable HTPC so long as internal storage capacity is not a major concern.

The Cliff's Notes version is simple: Intel should have called this an Ultrabox, in an obvious play on the Ultrabook name. The guts of the NUC are essentially the same as an Ultrabook's, right down to the 17W dual-core Ivy Bridge processor. This CPU, with the incredibly catchy name Core i3-3217U, has four threads via Hyper-Threading and runs at 1.8GHz, with 3MB of L3 cache. It's not exactly a screamer by desktop standards, but it's vastly more capable than your average Intel Atom or AMD Brazos CPU. 

TechReport

Unfortuantely, the NUC was not without its issues. In particular, the TechReport reviewer, Scott Wasson, noticed issues with the system buckling under the load of large file transfers across a network, with the transfer slowing to a stop and taking the rest of system down with it. In his review, Scott posited some theories about what was occurring, and after reaching out to Intel, posted a follow-up confirming that the issue was a result of thermal issues surrounding the placement of the wirless NIC and the SSD. Intel is reportedly working on a fix and is currently confident that the issue only affects the DC3217BY and not the DCDC3217IYE. With the NUC release imminent, it will be interesting to see how Intel fixes the issue.

In our recent review of Intel's "Next Unit of Computing" barebones box, we explained a snafu we encountered with large network file transfers causing the system to lock up. At the time, we were working with Intel on resolving the problem and suspected it was confined to our particular review unit. After further testing, we have a clearer sense of the nature of the problem, and potential NUC buyers should read carefully from here.

TechReport