Hasta La Gadget!

The differentiator for the Raspberry Pi mini computer is price. It’s not the most powerful single-board computer around but it’s not trying to be. The platform-makers’ big idea was to make a device that kids could learn to code on — meaning it needed to be powerful enough to do cool stuff like play BlueRay-quality video, but cheap enough that kids wouldn’t have to share it with the rest of the family. And at $35 for the current model B — and $25 for the forthcoming model A (which has less memory, fewer USB ports and no Ethernet) — it’s already got a disruptive price-tag.

But how low could the Raspberry Pi’s price-tag go in future? Eben Upton, founder of the not-for-profit Raspberry Pi Foundation and the man behind the Pi’s design, says that while he can’t envisage being able to make a $10 or $15 Pi, there might be room to shave a few more dollars off the cost. ”I think we’re very close to the minimum possible cost, once you’ve put a board, some connectors, a CPU and a bit of RAM down and allowed for a bit of margin,” he tells TechCrunch. “I could see getting to $20 one day for a very bare-bones product, but not soon, and no lower than that.”

The current $35 Pi costs “somewhere in the $20-$30 range” to manufacture, says Upton, indicating there’s very little wiggle room for squeezing what is already a tiny price-tag that little bit smaller. But even at $35/$25 per Pi the Foundation reckons it’s on course to ship one million units in the first year of sale — an order of magnitude greater than the one thousand Pis they had originally imagined being able to sell. It’s also starting to see interest from developing countries in using the Pi as an affordable general purpose computing device. Add to that, the Foundation this week upped the amount of memory in the model B Pi — to 512MB – without increasing its $35 price-tag. So you’re getting a whole lot more RAM with your Pi for the same amount of money.

The Foundation does not manufacture the Pi itself — it licenses the design to two companies Premier Farnell/Element 14 and RS Components. But Upton says it sets a recommended price in consultation with its partners — thereby keeping the price generally stable but allowing for “some small variation in non-US markets” where distribution costs may be higher.

Google has updated Google Maps to include more detailed building footprints, with 25m new graphics added to mapping across the US thanks to clever use of aerial imagery. The new footprints were not manually created, but instead use computer vision tech to figure out the shape of buildings based on photos normally used in the “satellite” view mode.

Houston, Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami, the San Francisco Bay Area, and other locations have all been updated with the new data, which Google says is part of its attempt to make its product “as comprehensive as possible.” The new mapping will help users to orient themselves, locate landmarks, and general navigate between locations, Google suggests.

Google’s identification system can not only figure out the footprint of buildings, but their height as well. The company is yet to say what it might be using that data for, though some sort of equivalent to Apple’s Flyover could be in the works, overlaying rendered and photographic graphics over the top of more accurately scaled buildings.

The search giant is also calling on users to help it tidy up the data, which it says may still have the odd flaw. Google Map Maker, the existing geo-tweaking tool, can be used to correct bad data, or indeed to draw out the accurate footprint of your home or business and tell Google Maps exactly what that location is.

Google Maps fleshes out 25m building footprints with aerial magic is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Samsung’s new Google Chromebook will have a 3G flavor as well as the originally announced WiFi model, new listings have confirmed, with the cellularly-blessed version promising 100MB per month of free data. The new ultraportable was revealed as a WiFi-only model yesterday for $249.99, but according to both Samsung and Amazon there will be a 3G variant, the XE303C12, priced at $329.99.

That extra hundred bucks gets you integrated Verizon 3G, together with 100MB of mobile data allowance per month for two years. After that – or if you want to use more than 100MB a month, which given Chrome OS’ cloud-centric focus wouldn’t be too unlikely – you’ll have to pay for it yourself. No sign of LTE as an option, unfortunately.

Otherwise, the specifications are the same as what was announced yesterday, so an 11.6-inch 1366 x 768 display, Samsung’s own Exynos 5 1.7GHz dualcore ARM procrssor paired with 2GB of DDR3L memory, and 16GB of solid-state storage. WiFi a/b/g/n is still onboard, as is an HDMI output, one each of USB 3.0 and USB 2.0, a memory card reader, and a VGA-resolution webcam.

All in all, it’s a far cheaper way to get on the 3G-enabled notebook ladder than usual, even if there are some cloud compromises to be made with the OS, and the 0.69-inch thick Chromebook itself is a slick little looker. Samsung’s 6.3 hour battery estimate is impressive for the price too.

No word on shipping dates in the US, though a UK listing – which has the 3G model at £299.99, though claims it’s running Windows 8 rather then Chrome OS in the description – suggests it will hit shelves Friday, October 26.

[via Engadget]

3G Samsung Chromebook for $330 incoming is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Well, this has got us scratching our collective heads. Yesterday, Google was fairly certain that its latest and greatest Chromebook would be a WiFi-only affair. Today, however, and a listing has appeared on the company’s official website and Amazon that shows a 3G-enabled version is available for $329.99. Neither site mentions network options, so presumably you get the same 100MB a month for two years Verizon data that its brethren receive — and given that we described it as being “80 percent of the MacBook Air experience for a quarter of the price,” the 3G version seems well worth the extra $80.

Filed under: Laptops, Samsung, Google

Listing reveals 3G version of new Chromebook on the way for $329.99 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 19 Oct 2012 03:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Transcend has started selling the HUB3 4-port USB 3.0 hub. Compliant with the SuperSpeed USB 3.0 specification, the HUB3 offers data transfer rates up to 10x faster than USB 2.0. This USB 3.0 hub transforms a single USB 3.0 port on your ultrabook or laptop into four ports. It is fully compatible with Windows 8/7/Vista/XP, Mac OS X, and Linux operating systems. The Transcend HUB3 4-port USB 3.0 hub is priced at $34.99. [CDRLabs]