A wild NUC appears! Intel leaks new mini-PCs

It appears Intel has just leaked the new version of the Next Unit of Computing, or NUC, the pint-sized PC form factor the company started to promote several years ago. New hardware has appeared, unannounced, on the official NUC webpage.

The miniature computers are simple silver and black boxes that measure about five inches wide and five inches deep by two to three inches tall. Each is powered by an Intel NUC board which is only four inches on a side and has a processor soldered to it.

What processor? That’s a key question. NUC is not new; versions with 3rd-en and 4th-gen Intel Core processors have been available for some time. What Intel just posted appears different than the systems and NUC  boards that came before, however, leading to speculation that it’s based on Broadwell (aka 5th-en Core).

Other new features visible in the pictures include a sleep-and-charge USB port and an M.2 SSD slot. The latter is an expansion card format that allows the use of hardware much smaller than a typical SATA or even mSATA drive. Its availability means the new NUCs will be slightly more compact than those that came before.

The board also includes a standard SATA port, USB 3.0 and room for two laptop RAM DIMMs.

While NUC is promoted by Intel, it doesn’t intend to become a system builder. As with ultrabooks, the purpose of the initiative is to popularize a design that might become popular with consumers. Manufacturers and hobbyists can purchase NUC boards for their own builds. A new page on Intel’s site lists eight new kits, but they don’t include hardware specifications as yet.

We’ll probably hear more about the new NUC at CES 2015. Whether or not this leak was intended is unclear, but it lines up with what is likely to be addressed at the Las Vegas show. Intel’s continuing rollout of its 5th-en Core products is almost certain to be a focal point, and a new NUC announcement would fit snuggly into that narrative. Hold on; we’ll know more in just a few weeks.

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Google Music launch appears imminent

Sources say Google has begun in-house testing of its rumored streaming music service, Google Music, which indicates an impending release.

Google’s iTunes competitor, Google Music, may soon be ready for its public debut, reports CNet. The company’s employees have reportedly begun in-house testing of the service, a sure sign that a new product is nearly ready to launch.
The test build of the Google Music app, which is said to stream users’ music libraries that are stored on Google servers, first leaked earlier this month after user “WhiteWindows” claimed on the XDA Developers forum that he had happened upon the Google Music streaming function after installing Android 3.0 Honeycomb operating system, which includes a music app, on a rooted HTC EVO 4G. He was able to access the previously locked “Sync Music” feature, which gave him access to the streaming option.
According to “music industry insiders” who spoke with CNet on the condition of anonymity, “WhiteWindows” did indeed discover the Google Music app. But they said that the final version could differ greatly from that build.
Sources say Google had hoped to debut the service at this year’s South by Southwest (SXSW) music and technology festival in Austin, Texas. That plan was shelved, however, though the exact reason for that has not yet been revealed.
Google is currently in negotiations with “at least some of the top publishers” as well as with the four largest record labels, sources say. Delays to the launch of Google Music are at least partially due to the complexity of negotiating music rights for a cloud-based service (as opposed to standard song downloading rights).
This report is corroborated by comments made by Motorola CEO Sanjay Jha, who mentioned to the Guardian last month that Google had a “music service” in the works. A recent report from Billboard, which named executives rumored to be working on Google Music, adds further evidence that the streaming service is on its way.
Google denied our request to confirm or deny this report, saying only that the company does not “comment on rumour or speculation.” So it’s impossible to verify whether the release of a Google Music streaming service is indeed imminent. That said, past experience tells us that when this amount of chatter percolates in the press around a certain product, it’s a fairly safe bet to assume that the company has something up its sleeve. Until we get an actual confirmation from Google, however, make sure to store this one in your “rumor” file.

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