Raspberry Pi 2 announced with substantial hardware upgrades

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2015/02/02/raspberry-pi-2/

While Raspberry Pi fans were told to expect a brand new board somewhere around 2017, it turns out that wasn't quite true. This is the Raspberry Pi 2 Model B: a substantial upgrade from the Model B+ that will go on sale later today for $35/£25. The new board has some fundamental upgrades that could well warrant the upgrade for existing Raspberry Pi dabblers -- that is, if smaller wasn't better. Raspberry Pi Foundation lead Eben Upton told The Register that the new Model B "is a usable PC now." A fact borne out by official support for Windows 10.

"You could use a Raspberry Pi 1 as a PC but you had to say 'this is a great PC in so far as it cost me 35 bucks'. We've removed the caveat that you had to be a bit forgiving with it. Now it's just good."

How much better? Well, the team's upgraded the processor on-board to a 900MHz quad-core chip and have loaded in 1GB of RAM, which the foundation reckons will offer at least six times the performance of the old Model B+. It may look the same, but the board (with that processor which has apparently been in development for years), also has a special a tweak connecting to the quad-core brains to ensure it handles the gig of RAM on board. Naturally, it'll be up to the Raspberry Pi community and makers to show what is possible with this sequel PC -- but we're assuming the specification bump will mean "a whole lot more". Older boards will likely get cheaper over time, but the Raspberry Pi 2 will still go on sale for the same price as last year's B+; $35/£25. Just like its predecessor, at launch, it's only available via a limited number of partner outlets on either side of the Atlantic.

Filed under: Peripherals, Science, Internet

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Via: The Register

Source: Raspberry Pi

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A British company has invented a boiler that generates electricity as well as heat

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/flow-energy-launches-boiler-that-produces-electric-power-2015-1

A British company has launched an innovative boiler that could totally change the way people pay for their energy and heat their homes.

The Flow boiler provides both hot water and heat for the flats and apartments it is installed in but, on top of that, it also produces electric energy that can power household appliances.

It aims at covering several energy needs with one single energy source, potentially allowing customers to generate their own power inside their homes. The more people will be able to generate electricity on their own, the less demand there will be on the national grid.

Flow believes that its boiler can reduce a household's emissions by 20%.

By switching electricity sources from an external service to the Flow boiler, a family can save up to £80 a month, according to the developers.

Here is how it works: In a traditional boiler, gas is burned to heat water, which then passes through the home's pipes and radiators.

The Flow boiler instead uses the gas to heat a high-pressure liquid coolant that is sealed inside the system. The vapour created then moves through a dynamo called a "scroll expander," which spins and acts as a mini electric generator.

The hot vapor then moves through a heat exchanger, heating up the hot water for the house. The vapor returns to the boiler as the hot water is pumped around the house.

The Flow is using gas from the national grid to do two jobs (create heat and drive a turbine) where a normal boiler does one, in other words.

The product was 10 years in development. Flow CEO Tony S tiff is looking forward to seeing how it performs in the market. "I think it is a game-changer for a family," he said to Business Insider. 

Stiff said that the company has stocked up interests for 15,000 boilers prior to launch, but the company has the capacity to produce 200,000 units per year. If that is the case, the company will be able to hire 700 people at its headquarters in Ipswich, the Ipswich Star reports.

The boilers are also produced in the UK: in Livingston, Scotland, by the American manufacturer Jabil.

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Google's 3D-Scanning Project Tango Just Got a Little More Real

Source: http://gizmodo.com/googles-3d-scanning-project-tango-just-got-a-little-mor-1682894029

Google ATAP (that's Advanced Technology and Projects) is where wonderful things are born. Things like the animated magic of Glen Keane's Duet or the modular Project Ara smartphone. It's all great stuff, but it's also all experimental—if a project doesn't make enough progress in two years, it's dead. But Google's Project Tango is alive and well: it just graduated from ATAP.

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Google's 3D-sensing Project Tango is no longer an experiment

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2015/01/30/project-tango-is-no-longer-an-experiment/

Yet another project is graduating from experiment to proper part of Google. Only two weeks ago, Glass left the confines of the Skunk Works-like Google X and became its own division headed up by Nest co-founder Tony Fadell. Now Project Tango, the 3D-sensing and -mapping concept, is moving on from the ATAP (Advanced Technology and Projects) labs to become a part of the company proper. Unfortunately what that means for the technology or what products it might eventually end up in isn't exactly clear. Will the next Nexus sport a depth-sensing IR camera? Maybe. Or perhaps they'll be used to build more advanced home automation and home monitoring tools for Nest. All we do know is that Tango will live on, even if the name "Project Tango" eventually fades away.

Filed under: Cellphones, Cameras, Tablets, Google

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Source: Google ATAP (Google+)

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Article: IBM joins forces with Mars, taps genomics, to boost food safety

Tech heavyweight IBM has joined forces with food manufacturing giant Mars in an attempt to boost global food safety. Scientists from the two companies have founded the Consortium for Sequencing the Food Supply Chain, tapping advances in genomics to gain a better understanding of food safety. IBM ...

http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2015/01/29/ibm-joins-forces-with-mars-taps-genomics-to-boost-food-safety/

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