If you'd been frustrated thanks to all the Raspberries having been picked, and had even considered the bitter taste of other fruit, there's hope for you yet. The tiny computer's maker has just announced that production is now at 4,000 units per day, and the previous restriction of one purchase per person has been lifted. Good news. In addition to this is the announcement of a new camera board in the works. The 5-megapixel module (as expected, dropping a few notches from the 14MP prototype) is expected to cost around $20-$25, and be available in around three months. So now you can have your fill of the sweet little berries and look forward to your next upgrade too. Now you just need to think of a suitably sweet application for it.

Filed under: Misc

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The ledgers of history are littered with the rotting corpses of well intentioned, but ultimately unsuccessful, attempts to put computers in the hands of the young, underprivileged or severely impoverished. Some, like Intel's Classmate wanted to put cheap, durable Wintel machines in every American classroom, while others, like the OLPC program, focused their efforts on developing nations. Okay, perhaps it's a bit hyperbolic to compare those initiatives to decomposing bodies, but there's no denying they haven't exactly flooded the world with low-cost PCs the way they were envisioned. So, here comes the Raspberry Pi, another effort with lofty goals, both in terms of purpose and price. Of course, the approach is different here -- more barebones, with a healthy dose of inspiration from Arduino and the DIY movement. The question is, what has it learned from those that have come before it? And, most importantly, where does the Raspberry Pi go right and where does it go wrong? To find out, keep reading after the break.

Gallery: Raspberry Pi impressions

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Unless you've been hiding under a rock lately, we're pretty sure you've heard about the Raspberry Pi by now -- a $25 credit-card sized PC that brings ARM/Linux to the Arduino form factor. As a refresher, the system features a 700MHz Broadcom BCM2835 SoC with an ARM11 CPU, a Videocore 4 GPU (which handles HD H.264 video and OpenGL ES 2.0) and 256MB RAM. The board includes an SD card slot, HDMI output, composite video jack, 3.5mm audio socket, micro-USB power connector and GPIO header. Model A ($25) comes with one USB port, while Model B ($35) provides two USB ports and a 100BaseT Ethernet socket. Debian is recommended, but Raspberry Pi can run most ARM-compatible 32-bit OSes.

This past weekend at Maker Faire Bay Area 2012 we ran into Eben Upton, Executive Director of the Raspberry Pi Foundation, and took the opportunity to spend some quality time with a production board and to discuss this incredible PC. We touched upon the origins of the system (inspired by the BBC Micro, one of the ARM founders' projects), Moore's law, the wonders of simple computers and upcoming products / ideas -- including Adafruit's Pi Plate and Raspberry Pi's prototype camera add-on. On the subject of availability, the company expects that "there will be approximately 200,000 units in the field by the end of June". Take a look at our hands-on gallery below and our video interview after the break.

Gallery: Raspberry Pi hands-on

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Gallery: Roku LT hands-on

Filed under: HD

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