PC game service operator and game development studio Valve announced SteamOS this afternoon, finally formalizing a PC gaming hardware project known as ” Steambox ” we’ve heard dribs and drabs about over the past few years. The OS will function on “any living room machine, ” and it also streams games from your Mac and PC, as well as offering media playback functionality. “Just turn on your existing computer and run Steam as you always have – then your SteamOS machine can stream those games over your home network straight to your TV, ” the announcement page says. The OS is free and built on Linux; it will be available “soon.” Valve says it’s “achieved significant performance increases in graphics processing, and we’re now targeting audio performance and reductions in input latency at the operating system level, ” with regards to streaming capability. “Game developers are already taking advantage of these gains as they target SteamOS for their new releases.” No specific developers are named, but a job posting from Crytek points at one suspect. The project is intended to compete with traditional game consoles, and it seemingly evolves Steam’s ” Big Picture Mode ” to that end. Valve specifically lists four new features as the pillars of SteamOS: in-home streaming, family sharing, music / TV / movies, and family options. Filed under: Gaming , Software , HD Comments Source: Valve
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Valve announces SteamOS, a new game platform for living room-based PCs
NYPD has a message for you iPhone and iPad folks pic.twitter.com/cxzHLpgh60 — Jim Rosenberg (@jimrosenberg) September 21, 2013 Read more… 
Taco Cowboy writes “‘NASA is calling off attempts to find its Deep Impact comet probe after a suspected software glitch shut down radio communications in August, officials said on Friday.’ Last month, engineers lost contact with Deep Impact and unsuccessfully tried to regain communications. The cause of the failure was unknown, but NASA suspects the spacecraft lost control, causing its antenna and solar panels to be pointed in the wrong direction. NASA had hoped Deep Impact would play a key role in observations of the approaching Comet ISON, a suspected first-time visitor to the inner solar system that was discovered in September 2012 by two Russian astronomers. The comet is heading toward a close encounter with the sun in November, a brush that it may not survive.” Deep Impact has had a pretty good run, though: from its original mission to launch a copper slug at a comet (hence the name), to looking for Earth-sized planets. Read more of this story at Slashdot.