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Google developer Emma Haruka Iwao has calculated Pi to 100 trillion digits
It took 157 days to perform the calculation.
Swiss university claims it broke the record for Pi calculation
A team from the University of Applied Sciences Graubünden in Switzerland claims it has calculated for 62.8 trillion digits of Pi.
Google's Emma Haruka Iwao breaks the world record for calculating pi
Google has something big to celebrate for Pi Day this year: one of its teams has broken the Guinness World Record for the most accurate value of pi. Emma Haruka Iwao and her colleagues used the power of cloud computing to calculate for 31,415,926,535,897 digits of pi. That's 9 trillion digits more than the previous record and a whole novel longer than the 3.14 value most of us know. To accomplish that task, Iwao had to run a pi-benchmark application called y-cruncher on 25 Google Cloud virtual machines for 121 days.
Pi can wirelessly charge your phone from a short distance
Despite Apple finally releasing phones with wireless charging, the technology has actually been around for several years. And the fact is, charging via a pad is still kind of a pain -- you can't really use them when they're being charged and you either need a charging pad for every device or one ginormous pad for all of your devices. There have been other companies that promise long-range wireless power before -- Energous' WattUp says it can charge devices up to 15 feet away -- but these products have yet to come to market. A new startup called Pi, however, aims to offer a wireless charging solution that is somewhere in between.
Raspberry Pi is merging with a coding foundation
Raspberry Pi's credit card-sized computers have helped kickstart a coding revolution. Thanks to their low cost, major companies like Google and VMWare have distributed thousands of the DIY boards to children all over the world in the hope that it'll inspire the next generation of computer scientists. The Raspberry Pi Foundation routinely works with educational partners to get its computers in the right hands, and its latest announcement is set to boost that outreach even more. Today, the foundation confirmed that it is to merge with CoderDojo to form what it believes will be the biggest code-promoting organization on the planet.
Raspberry Pi has now sold 10 million computers
There's no doubt about it: the Raspberry Pi has changed the game for tech hobbyists and tinkerers alike. In four and a half years, we've seen the company expand its line-up to cater for smaller budgets, incorporate more features into its computing boards and inspire kids all over the world to get into coding. In February 2015, Raspberry Pi Foundation CEO Eben Upton confirmed 5 million units had been sold -- today, he announced that figure has doubled. That's right, 10 million Raspberry Pis have been now shipped to customers all over the world.
PINE A64 is a $15, 'high-performance' take on the Raspberry Pi
Thanks to boards like the Raspberry Pi, DIY computing projects are no longer reserved for enthusiasts who can afford to sink hundreds of dollars into them. As the new $5 Pi Zero demonstrates, picking up on a new project now costs the same as a cup of coffee. It also means that if a new entrant wants to make an impact, it needs to include a better range of components or beat its competition on price. Or both. And that's exactly what PINE64 Inc. is looking to do.
This Raspberry Pi handheld wants to be every gadget in the world
Chances are, you've already got a versatile computer in your pocket -- smartphones play music, record video, play games and more -- but what if it was smaller, open source and completely hackable? Then you'd have something like the Poco "supercomputer," a portable media device with the footprint of a credit card and the heart of a Raspberry Pi.
ICYMI: Zero-G booze glass, exoskeleton walk of fame and more
#fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-703008{display:none;} .cke_show_borders #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-703008, #postcontentcontainer #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-703008{width:570px;display:block;} try{document.getElementById("fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-703008").style.display="none";}catch(e){} Today on In Case You Missed It: The Open Space Agency designed a zero-G whiskey glass for Ballantine whiskey, aka enabling astronauts and other space travelers to swirl (but not sniff) with refinement no matter where their travels may take them. Raspberry Pi has a new touchscreen display that will let people make new uses for the credit card-sized programmable computer. A paralyzed man is walking around in an exoskeleton with ease after undergoing a spinal cord stimulation program at UCLA. He's the first paralyzed person to regain enough feeling in his legs to walk confidently in an exoskeleton and we are all in awe.
Pack your Raspberry Pi into an underpowered laptop for $100
The Raspberry Pi has already found its way into a number of unusual applications from DIY cell phones to Gif-capturing cameras. Now, a recently launched IndieGoGo campaign aims to put it somewhere more familiar: your lap. The PiKasa is essentially a laptop shell. It doesn't sport a 3D-printed chasis like the Pi-Top but does feature a 7-inch LCD display over a ruggedized keyboard, a smattering of connectivity ports and charging cables -- basically, everything you'd need except the actual computer bits and power supply.
Recommend Reading: The extra special Pi Day edition
Recommended Reading highlights the best long-form writing on technology and more in print and on the web. Some weeks, you'll also find short reviews of books that we think are worth your time. We hope you enjoy the read. What better way to celebrate Pi Day than with Darren Aronofsky's 1998 film. If you haven't seen it, it's really quite good. The movie chronicles a number theorist who obsesses over numbers in an attempt to decode a pattern behind the stock market. I won't divulge any more info, but if you're looking for some weekend viewing, give this a shot. Oh, and here are a million digits of Pi. Amazon Google Play iTunes Netflix Hulu
Raspberry Pi gets its own sound card
When UK Prime Minister David Cameron gave a speech at CeBIT this year, what examples did he use to highlight tech innovation in Britain? Yes, ARM and Imagination were on his list, but he also referred to the tiny, Linux-based computer called Raspberry Pi, which has now sold over 2.5 million units. In a timely fashion, the Pi's makers, element 14, have just announced a new $33, Wolfson-powered audio card that should give the device a broader range of functions.
'Web' beta promises a modernized browser for the Raspberry Pi
The Raspberry Pi single-board computer may have started as a simple educational tool, but over the past year users have revealed it's capable of much more. From drones to smart TV hacks to supercomputers, the $35 PC can be manipulated for almost any task, and now the team behind it is working on a better web browser. Developed over the last few months with the help of open source consultants Collabora, the unimaginatively named "Web" is promising an up-to-date experience designed for the hardware's limitations and strengths alike. Future Raspbian releases will come standard with this HTML5-capable browser, promising ARMv6-optimized 2D rendering, a smooth tab experience and accelerated image and video decoding. At this point it takes some technical savvy to get online and cranking, but if you know your way around a command line then just follow these instructions.
Meet Raspberry Pi NoIR, an infrared camera board for low light photography
If Raspberry Pi owners wanted to use the device's camera board for nighttime photography, they had to engage in some extremely delicate tinkering, as the unit's IR filter was firmly attached. Until now. The folks at Raspberry Pi took to their blog today to announce the debut of Pi NoIR, an infrared camera board designed with low light situations in mind. The NoIR stands for "no infrared," a reference to the nonexistent IR filter. Previously, the supplier of the existing camera package didn't offer an infrared option, but so many users, including wildlife photographers, requested the ability to use their Raspberry Pis in a wider variety of situations that the company was eventually persuaded to build the new camera. The team is aiming for a November launch, but so far, no release date is set in stone. To see footage shot with the Pi NoIR, check out the videos after the break.
Raspberry Pi celebrates a million boards made in the UK
The Raspberry Pi foundation has just announced its one-millionth board manufactured in the UK at Sony's Pencoed facility and said that 1.75 million total boards have been built so far. Production initially started in Asia in order to keep costs down and supplies up, but shifted to the UK in September last year thanks to Sony's "lean manufacturing techniques." The Pi group lauded Sony for the quality of the boards, and said the millionth unit will be kept in a gold-plated case at "Pi Towers" in Cambridge. Despite the success, Raspberry's Eben Upton told the BBC that many Pi boards given to kids end up "stuck in a drawer" and that the foundation is now focused on education, particularly for teachers. We're firmly behind that idea, especially if it results in more tech like this.
Researcher breaks Pi calculation record with the help of NVIDIA
Yesterday's self-congratulatory pat on the back to anyone reciting Pi to ten digits might feel a bit inadequate compared to Santa Clara University's Ed Karrels. The researcher has broken the record for calculating Darren Aronofsky's favorite number, taking the ratio to eight quadrillion places right of the decimal. Given the location of the University, you'll be unsurprised to learn which hardware maker's gear was used to break the record. Karrels will be showing off the new digits at the GPU technology conference in San Jose, demonstrating the CUDA-voodoo necessary to harness all of that Kepler-based computing power. [Image Credit: Ed Karrels]
It's March 14th: we're gonna make you a pi with a heart in the middle
Ladies and gentlemen (and nerds), today is Pi Day. You know what that means: tons of math and pie/pi puns flooding your newly spartan News Feed. Not too mention, a few more creative celebrations of the date that so closely mirrors the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter. Lets not kid ourselves though, after several years of internet-fueled and fruit-filled fun Pi Day is starting to lose its luster. So, the question is, are you doing your best to restore the original meaning of the holiday and take it back from those who have turned it into a crass meme-athon? Oh, and don't worry if you forgot to send us a card, you can always make up for it on June 28th.
So you got a Raspberry Pi: now what?
When the Raspberry Pi was released earlier this year, the credit-card-sized Linux machine became an instant hit. The night it became available to order, both Premier Farnell/element14 and RS Components, the official distributors of the Pi project, exhibited the signs of a late '90s Slashdot effect: you could barely even get the two sites to load. Fast forward to today, and you can finally get your hands on one within three weeks. The Raspberry Pi is truly the Linux device of the year, if not the past decade. Follow past the break and we'll show you how to set yours up now that you've actually succeeded in snagging one.
Adafruit wants to help you hack your Raspberry Pi
So you shelled out a cool $25 to get your hands on the Raspberry Pi -- and, after some hiccups, the thing actually shipped. Now what? Adafruit's got your back. The DIY-friendly company announced that it's getting ready to release its Prototyping Pi Plate Kit, which will help you leverage the little Linux box for some of those home-baked embedded computer projects you're itching to start. Nothing yet in the way of pricing or availability for the product -- not until Adafruit's done testing it on shipping Raspberry Pi units. In the meantime, you can always add it to your hacking wish list by clicking the source link below.
Google bids pi for Nortel's wireless patent stash, brings comedy to places you never thought possible
Enabling surfers to play Pac-Man instead of actually initiating the search they showed up to complete? Taking a stroll through an episode of Burn Notice? Throwing internet on a magical Indian bus? All relatively normal things from one Google, Inc., but it seems that Larry Page's deadpan demeanor is actually covering up quite the character. During the outfit's recent attempt to outbid the likes of Apple, EMC, Ericsson, Microsoft, RIM and Sony for a sliver of Nortel's coveted wireless patent portfolio, Reuters is reporting that Google's plays were... less than conventional. Reportedly, the company bid $1,902,160,540 and $2,614,972,128, better known by mathematicians as Brun's constant and Meissel-Mertens constant, respectively. Funnier still, Google decided to offer $3.14159 billion (you know, pi) when the bidding reached $3 billion. One of the unnamed sources summed up the bizarreness quite well: "Google was bidding with numbers that were not even numbers. It became clear that they were bidding with the distance between the earth and the sun. One was the sum of a famous mathematical constant, and then when it got to $3 billion, they bid pi. Either they were supremely confident or they were bored." Or, perhaps they're just supremely awesome?
