People Are Starting To Buy Those $35 'Raspberry Pi' Mini-Computers

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/people-are-starting-to-buy-those-35-raspberry-pi-mini-computers-2013-11

Over 2m Raspberry Pi computers have been sold globally since going on sale for around £30 in February 2012.

It took a year to sell the first million of the card-sized barebones computers, but sales accelerated in 2013, with the 2m milestone being reached in the last week of October.

"It took us almost exactly a year to sell the first million Raspberry Pis," wrote Liz Upton from the Raspberry Pi Foundation. "Going on that basis, we calculated that we might, if we were lucky, reach the second million around January 2014, or slightly afterwards – we were confident we’d get there by the end of February 2014.

“It was a bit of a shock at the end of last week when we got the latest sales figures and discovered that the 2,000,000th Raspberry Pi was sold in the last week of October," Upton continued.

A basic computing platform for hobbyists, teachers, pupils and corporations alike

The Raspberry Pi is a credit card-sized, bare-bones computer that uses a smartphone-like ARM processor to provide a basic and extensible computing platform for hobbyists, teachers, pupils and corporations.

The small computer has USB ports for a keyboard and mouse, an Ethernet port, a SD card slot, and an HDMI port for connecting to a monitor or a TV. It runs a variant of the free open-source operating system Linux, which powers many web servers and Android smartphones.

Nearly 40,000 Raspberry Pis produced a week in Wales

In October, it was announced that 1m Raspberry Pis had been manufactured in Britain.

The initial batch of the computer were made in C! hina , but a partnership between the Raspberry Pi Foundation, RS Components and Premier Farnell saw all Raspberry Pi manufacturing moved to a Sony-owned manufacturing plant in Pencoed, Wales, in September 2012.

Since June 2012, production of Raspberry Pis at the Pencoed factory has been ramped up from just 204 a week to nearly 40,000 in April 2013.

'More work to do to ensure that schools are ready for this new wave of mini-computers'

The Raspberry Pi has often been hailed as the affordable, programmable computer for schools, and while it certainly is a step in the right direction, school IT infrastructure isn’t keeping pace.

“Since its launch last year, the Raspberry Pi Foundation has been on a mission to transform the education experience for students, but is it delivering? The reality is that there is more work to do to ensure that schools are ready for this new wave of mini computers," explained Nick Williams, senior product manager at networking specialist Brocade.

“Whilst the devices on offer to schools have taken a quantum leap in affordability and accessibility, schools still exist with 20-year-old networking technology and the sums just do not add up," Williams said.

• In November, an affordable 9in high-definition screen for use with the Raspberry Pi smashed its funding goal in just 50.5 hours

This article originally appeared on guardian.co.uk

SEE ALSO: Here's What People Are Actually Using That $35 'Raspberry Pi' Computer For

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Hands-on with Tablo, a DVR that streams over-the-air TV nearly anywhere

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/11/16/tablo-hands-on/

Many streaming-savvy DVRs either lean heavily on cloud services or are linked to traditional TV -- neither of which is ideal for cord cutters trying to lower their long-term costs. Nuvyyo is promising what could be a more affordable option with its upcoming Tablo DVR. The upcoming, partly crowdfunded set-top box streams both live and locally recorded over-the-air broadcasts to seemingly any internet-capable platform, including Android, iOS, Roku players and web browsers. In theory, it's as cheap and convenient as internet-only video while delivering the wider content selection of traditional TV. We've had hands-on time with a Tablo prototype that suggests the company has at least latched on to a good (if imperfect) idea -- read on to see what we mean.

For a start, the Tablo device and its apps are flexible in both the way you record media and where you send it. There should be dual-tuner ($200 estimated street price) and quad-tuner ($250) DVR models shipping around late January, both of which will have dual-band WiFi, Ethernet and two USB ports for external hard drives. The mobile clients will send video to nearby TVs through AirPlay and Chromecast adapters. While there's no current plans to release native apps for Windows Phone or other platforms, they may not be necessary when the web app is mobile-optimized and streams over HTML5. The company is exploring DLNA support that would make it easy to send video to consoles and smart TVs.

We had the opportunity to try early versions of Tablo's iOS and web apps (the Android version is a month behind, Nuvyyo founder Grant Hall says), and they suggest that viewers will have quite a lot of control. The client not only divides movies and TV shows in its programming guide by channel and genre, but breaks out special content like sports; you'll know when to expect a big game. You can even keep an eye out for show premieres. It's possible to limit whole-series recording to truly new episodes, too. Video quality is good even on the 2-3Mbps internet stream, and the apps are generally polished and responsive despite their unreleased states.

What catches exist with Tablo rest more in the costs than anything else. You'll need to bring your own storage; while Nuvyyo may offer a model with a built-in drive based on feedback, the existing design doesn't include anything. Downloads also won't be available on launch, but they should be coming within a few months of the initial release. You'll likely want to pay for a programming guide subscription after the first year, too, unless you're content with manually scheduling recordings by channel and time. However, Nuvyyo hopes to undercut the pricing of DVR and streaming services that rely solely on the cloud. While subscription pricing isn't final, Hall hopes that it will be around $5 per month or $50 per year -- roughly half of what you'd pay for some streaming-only solutions.

Some will likely be frustrated by the lack of cable TV support (something Hall would like to change), but Nuvyyo is really more of a hardware-based competitor to cord-cutting tools like Aereo and Hulu Plus. It's expensive up front, but may cost less in the long run. It also works in-home without an internet connection, and it avoids the arbitrary waiting time for content that you see through some providers. At the least, Tablo could be a tempting alternative to Simple.TV given its more powerful hardware and a feature set that's less dependent on remotely located services. If you like the concept, you can make a pledge at the source links today.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Internet, HD

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Source: Indiegogo, Tablo

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Report: Apple buys PrimeSense, co-creators of the original Kinect

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/11/17/apple-primesense-2/

Remember that Apple / PrimeSense deal that was rumored to be going down in July? It may have just gone through: according to Israeli news source Calcalist, Cupertino acquired the motion sensing technology firm for $345 million this weekend. If true, it could hint at future Apple products with natural, motion controlled interfaces, integrating the same kind of technology that PrimeSense used to help Microsoft build the first Kinect. In a statement to the TheNextWeb, PrimeSense refers to the report as a "recycled rumor," saying only that it "does not comment on what any of our partners, customers or potential customers are doing." According to the report, Apple is hounding after the motion sensing tech to improve Apple TV, noting that the original deal was delayed due to legal issues. Hungry for more? Brush up on your Hebrew and check out the source link below - but keep your salt shaker handy.

Filed under: Misc, Apple

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Source: Calcalist, TheNextWeb

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Eric Schmidt Has Unveiled Plans For Google's Crackdown On Child Porn

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/eric-schmidt-unveiled-plans-for-googles-crack-down-on-child-porn-2013-11

Google's Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt wrote an op-ed in the Daily Mail this weekend, outlining changes being made to Google's search function in order to block child pornography.

Google has lots of plans to help fix this problem, notably, using humans to review each image to confirm the difference between abuse and what Schmidt called "innocent pictures of kids at bath time."

Schmidt writes:

We've fine tuned Google Search to prevent links to child sexual abuse material from appearing in our results. 

While no algorithm is perfect – and Google cannot prevent pedophiles adding new images to the web – these changes have cleaned up the results for over 100,000 queries that might be related to the sexual abuse of kids. 

Google will roll out changes on a global level in 150 different languages.

You can read Schmidt's entire op-ed here.

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Microsoft's 3D printing app for Windows 8.1 eases you into object creation

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/11/15/microsoft-3d-builder/

Microsoft made a big deal of building 3D printer support into Windows 8.1, and today it's releasing a tool that lets even newcomers create objects of their own. The new 3D Builder app includes a catalog of pre-designed items that virtually anyone can start printing right away. Especially curious users can adjust and combine objects without having to be a CAD expert, and those with access to more advanced tools can import their masterpieces. As long as you've already shelled out for the requisite printer, you can try 3D Builder for yourself at the source link.

Filed under: Peripherals, Software, Microsoft

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Via: Windows Experience Blog

Source: Windows Store

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