U2 fan blog @U2 recently posted an email exchange with an anonymous source from Universal (his or her name was blurred out of the screen shot of the exchange) who said that the new album would come out "this year." But there's been no verification that that exchange is legitimate (nor is there likely to be any such verification).

But there has been some verified recent U2 activity. Last week, French newspaper Nice Martin reported that the group were shooting a video under high security at Rivera Studios in Nice.

The article notes that cell phones were strictly prohibited and one local commented that the security was akin to when President Obama was in France for the G20 summit in 2011.

However, an August video shoot doesn't necessarily point to a 2014 release; the band could be working months ahead of time on a video for a 2015 release.

Still, other signs seem to indicate that a U2 album is getting closer and closer to release. In a recent article, The Irish Times reported that Bono has been playing songs from the new, as-yet-untitled album, loudly, from his beachfront home in the south of France; fans often record the songs and post them online, before getting cease-and-desist orders from lawyers from Universal Music, the band's record label.

The Irish Times also cites a music industry source who predicts that there'll be a "single in September, album September-October, tour announced December, first date April next year," and that "the album has been actually been finished for a few months, but a decision was taken not to release during the summer months because of holidays� There was one last, frantic scramble earlier this year to get a big single, so they got Adele's writer-producer, Paul Epworth, into the studio."