New Steam Machine Dubbed “Jetpack” Attaches to your TV

When most of us think the word “Jetpack” we envision a person flying through the sky like someone, well out of the Jetson’s movie , but nope not this time, this time around it’s a new version of the growing Steam Machine movement.  The really unique thing about this though, is that it mounts to the back of your TV instead of taking up real estate somewhere else. Other 3^rd party Steam Machines have already begun to surface on the market, but Piixl’s Jetpack is a rectangular flat unit that sits on the back of your television instead of taking up space on your entertainment center.

In other news IBuyPower has revealed its new Steam Machine, a sleek unit, but one that still remains the same size as today’s current console machines, which is not how the original plans were said to be, as Steam Machines were suggested to be much smaller. The IBuyPower Steam Machine is also slated to come to market at about the same price as the current crop of consoles at a suggested price of $500.00, which is also the cost of an entry level gaming PC. Many companies will soon be following suit and now that the initial movement has begun we se Piixl releasing their “Jetpack model to a waiting audience.

Some of the other excellent features of the Piixl Jetpack are its amazing expandability options that include Overclocked i7 CPUs and the latest graphics cards from NVIDIA including the Titan and GTX 780Ti. You can also opt for a whopping 1TB of internal SSD storage if you want to go all-out in your configuration, but the ability to do all this makes the Jetpack, more like a PC, and less like a console in many important ways. Even though this product should be optimized to run the new Steam OS, it will also have the ability to run other operating systems as well, just in case the Linux-based OS is not hearty enough for you.  The Linux based OS should however be able to run supercharged with such tasks as gaming.

Due to the relatively slam and small size of the Piixl Jetpack if you have a 32-70-inch TV, the unit sits between the VESA mount and the TV so you can still mount your TV on a wall if you so desire. Piixl makes the claim the Jetpack can mount on any desktop TV as well regardless of a VESA mounts maximum weight, but I would be very wary of making sure of the VESA mounts strength before putting my TY at risk.  To get to all the parts inside of the Jetpack and to make changes the chassis of the unit extends so all of its ports can be accessible, and when you look inside you can see the centrifugal fans that Piixl says keep the unit cool as well as remaining silent running during operation. All the specs look absolutely great, but there is a catch to have this cool new device on the back of your TV.

The IBuyPower Steam Machine is coming to market at around the $500.00 mark, but Piixl’s Jetpack starts off at $1000.00, which is double the cost of many of the other machines we have heard about as well as IbuyPower’s latest entry.  Here is the thing though, the Jetpack has more expandability options and is really a high-powered PC that attaches itself to the back of your TV. This is totally ergonomic as far as space is concerned and offers something a bit different than your average PC or Steam Machine we have seen thus far. The Piixl Jetpack will become available for you to buy in January of 2014, and you can use it as a PC or HTPC, but Valve has yet to officially set a release date for either the Steam Machine or the Steam OS so you may be sitting in your hands awhile waiting on Valve. When it first gets released you will however be able ton see just how well you like it for your HTPC and not feel the need to install a STEAM OS at all. Thanks for reading Tech Of Tomorrow, we bring you all the Tech, All The Time!