Hasta La Gadget!

One of the coolest things about the Raspberry Pi computer is its dirt cheap price of $35(USD). The little computer is certainly no speed demon. You won’t be playing high-end video games on it, but it is more than capable of being a very low cost and small HTPC. One of the biggest downside to the Android-powered device was that it launched with Android 2.3.

Fans of Android always want the latest operating system on their devices. Android 4.0 may not be the latest version of Google’s operating system anymore, as Jelly Bean (4.1) is now available, but Ice Cream Sandwich (4.0) is a major upgrade to what the Raspberry Pi came with. Raspberry Pi has announced that an official Android 4.0 version is in the works for the little computer.

According to the blog entry, the operating system is functional on the cheap computer already and the only thing keeping it from being finished is support for AudioFlinger. Raspberry Pi also notes that it is investigating the feasibility of converging its own Android 4.0 implementation and one that is available on GitHub.

Most tours of Chinese factories at least give workers a heads-up that they’ll be on camera. Not so the exposé that HP inadvertently gave one of its Swedish customers. Reddit user Malplace opened a new laptop to find that a 3-minute webcam video of the factory floor at HP’s contractor, Quanta, was sitting in Windows’ My Documents folder. If you’re looking for scandal from the footage, though, you won’t find it here: Chongqing Manufacturing City’s staff are shown dutifully moving the assembly line along in what looks like fair conditions, if exceptionally repetitive. The instance is most likely just a rare gaffe during testing at a manufacturer that pumps out millions of HP PCs every quarter, so we’ll cut Quanta some slack. It’s still a rare glimpse into a side of technology that’s considered off-limits for much of the buying public.

Continue reading HP laptop comes with webcam standard, peek at Chinese factory as bonus (video)

Filed under: Laptops

HP laptop comes with webcam standard, peek at Chinese factory as bonus (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 28 Jul 2012 03:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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SteelSeries has announced that it is now shipping a new gaming mouse called the SteelSeries Sensei [RAW]. The mouse comes in two versions including a glossy version and a rubberized version. The two versions of the mouse only differ in the covering on top. Either version of the mouse will sell for $59.99 and is available now.

The SteelSeries Sensei [RAW] differs from the previous SteelSeries Sensei gaming mouse in that the [RAW] version lacks the 32-bit ARM processor that the older Sensei about uses. The new mouse has professional grade laser sensor and an adjustable sensitivity range from 1 to 5700 CPI. The mouse has large DPE material feet on the bottom for smooth gliding action.

It also has a 6.5-foot anti-tangle black and white cord covered in braided nylon. Other features include bright white LED illumination in three zones that can be configured with different levels of pulsation. The mouse is designed to be ambidextrous for right or left-handed gamers.

SteelSeries Sensei [RAW] gaming mouse now shipping is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Earlier today we told you that the teeny tiny Raspberry Pi is now available for general order without any quantity restrictions in place, but the Raspberry Pi news isn’t stopping there. A 5-megapixel camera add-on for the super-small and super-cheap computer has been announced as well, and it’s expected to cost between $20 and $25. Not too bad, so long as you’re okay with spending nearly as much on the camera as you did on the Raspberry Pi itself.

For its part, the camera doesn’t seem to add too much bulk to the system, but additional bulk is essentially unavoidable when the computer is only the size of a credit card. The camera – which attaches to the Raspberry Pi through a ribbon cable – should be available sometime within the next three months, so if you’re dying to put the add-on to the test, you don’t have much longer to wait.

Introduced back in April, the Raspberry Pi quickly took the world of computers by storm. It racked up an insane amount of pre-orders in a short amount of time, and even though the Pi is primarily aimed at getting kids interested in programming through inexpensive means, consumers made it clear that they wanted in on it as well. Founder Eben Upton told CNET that there is still a backlog of orders to fill, but with the Raspberry Pi Foundation producing 4,000 units per day, he hopes that it will soon be able to catch up with demand.

Unfortunately, Upton didn’t delve into specifics as far as a release date is concerned when he announced the camera during the Raspberry Jam event in Cambridge, England, so it looks like we’ll be left waiting for more official word on when this camera will become available. Stay tuned.

Raspberry Pi 5-megapixel camera add-on announced is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

The Raspberry Pi made quite a splash by offering a cheap way of computing to students or developings using a 700Mhz ARM11 processor. Now a Korean company has created a similar board utilizing a much more powerful quad-core Exynos processor from Samsung. The ODROID-X will clock the CPU at 1.4Ghz and come with 1GB of RAM, a Mali-400 GPU, six USB ports, an Ethernet port, an SD card slot, micro HDMI, and microphone/headphone jacks.

It’s a very compact solution too at 3.5 by 3.7-inches. Naturally, the processor is compatible with Android, and Ubuntu can also be booted using the board, something that the Raspberry Pi can’t claim. We’ve seen various USB sticks running Android making the rounds, plus smaller media players based around Cortex-A9 processors that run Android too, so this new ODROID-X board should fit quite nicely into that category of computing.

Still, you’ll be paying a lot more for this than you would the Raspberry Pi. While the Pi cost $35, the ODROID-X comes in at $129. Then there’s the matter of putting it in some sort of casing and booting software your software of choice, but it might be an interesting option for resellers hoping to sell a cheap yet powerful media player or mini Android computer.

[via Ars Technica]

ODROID-X trumps Raspberry Pi with quad-core CPU is written by Ben Kersey & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.