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ALARMclock forces you to seize the day by telling you how many you have left
"Nothing gets you up in the morning like the things that keep you up at night." So goes a tagline on ALARMclock's Kickstarter page. Sure, we've seen other bedside timepieces that encourage alertness by making you use brain or body, but as its creator Fig says, ALARMclock doesn't wake you up, it "efficiently ends dreaming." Hazy images of flying unicorns will soon dissipate as ALARMclock reminds you of your "financial instability, social insecurity and fear of death." Simply made from a bamboo enclosure and 32 x 8 LED display, the heart of the sadistic clock is a WiFi-connected Raspberry Pi. Using a computer or mobile device, you can ask ALARMclock to pull your bank account balance (or other depressing personal finance info), aggregate the number of (virtual) friends you have or, worst of all, estimate your remaining life expectancy. A "morning dose of cold hard reality" is available for the next 20 days to pledges of $85 or more over at Kickstarter. While Fig is listed as the maker of ALARMclock, we can't help but think Aperture Science is involved somehow. Check out the pitch video to see what we mean.
Daily Roundup: Interview with Oculus Rift, G Pad 8.3 review, iPad Air teardown and more!
You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
Make presents: Raspberry Pi Make:Off competition at Expand!
As if there wasn't already enough fun to be had at Expand, with our incredible lineup of speakers and our Insert Coin competition, we've got another treat for attendees. We're gonna have a Raspberry Pi Make:Off hosted by Matt Richardson of Make Magazine! Here's the deal: two teams of four contestants will spend the weekend building a project with tools and components from our electronics "pantry." The competition will kick off at 10 am on November 9th and a winner will be announced at 3:30 pm on November 10th. If you think you have what it takes to take home the proverbial gold (note: we will not be handing out any actual gold), you can enter your name here on Facebook. If you're chosen to be one of the eight participants, you'll receive a Getting Started with Raspberry Pi kit and a free ticket to Expand. What's more, the four members of the winning team will be featured in Make in an article by Mr. Richardson himself, chronicling the build. The submission period ends at 5 pm ET on Monday November 4th, so get your applications in now!
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.
Roll your own iBeacon with a Raspberry Pi and a Bluetooth LE dongle (Updated)
Developers who want to start experimenting with iBeacons don't need to wait for hardware to show up on the market or design their own. Radius Networks has published a quick "how-to" for developers that shows how an inexpensive Raspberry Pi and Bluetooth LE dongle can be set up in a few minutes for experimentation purposes. The post, courtesy of James Nebeker and David Young, provides detailed step-by-step command-line instructions on setting up the RPi, downloading the necessary libraries, configuring the Bluetooth dongle and creating the necessary start and stop scripts. And with that, you can start designing the future with Apple's iBeacon technology. Update: Reader Jason Goldsmith tweeted that "You can also use any BT LE iOS device as an iBeacon, so iOS to iOS beacons are possible." That provides another way for developers to test out the Apple technology, although it's not as much fun...
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.
Intel launches Galileo, an Arduino-compatible development board
Notice how so many maker projects require open-source hardware like Arduino and Raspberry Pi to function? Intel has, and the company is leaping into bed with the former to produce the Galileo development board. Galileo is the first product packing Intel's Quark X1000 system-on-chip, Santa Clara's (designed in Ireland, trivia fans) new low-power gear for wearables and "internet of things" devices. Don't imagine, however, that Intel is abandoning its X86 roots, as Quark's beating heart is a single-thread Pentium-based 400MHz CPU. As part of the new project, Intel will be handing out 50,000 of the boards to 1,000 universities over the next 18 months -- a move which we're sure will make Eben Upton and Co. delighted and nervous at the same time.
Latest Raspbmc update brings speed boost, bug fixes and more (video)
Two months have passed since we last saw an update to the Raspberry Pi port of XBMC, but the tail end of September finally delivered some fresh code. Chief among the changes is a speed boost that makes browsing media libraries on Raspbmc much smoother and snappier. With the new software onboard, boxes now have a bevy of bugs fixed, boast support for Windows Media Center PVR and have a Wake On LAN feature for flipping on remote hardware before XBMC starts. Creator Sam Nazarko notes that folks who rely on AirPlay shouldn't upgrade to iOS 7, as it could introduce some hiccups. Visit the source for the full changelog, or restart your machine to snatch the latest release. If you're wondering just how much pep your Raspberry Pi will get, hit the break for a demo video.
Adafruit tutorial turns your Raspberry Pi into an ad-blocking WiFi access point
Ads can be a buzzkill, especially when they're so pervasive they become distractions. Luckily, Adafruit has a new tutorial that turns your Raspbery Pi into a WiFi access point that doubles as a mighty ad-blocking machine for any device -- be it an iPad or an Xbox -- that connects to it. All you need is a working internet connection, a Raspberry Pi booting Raspbian, a WiFi adapter, an Ethernet cable and the necessary software (which the tutorial breaks down for you). It should go without saying, but Adafruit also includes a reminder to whitelist the ad-supported sites you frequently visit. Blocking ads might improve your online experience overall, but it's always a good idea to support the people who provide you with free content. To get started, check out the tutorial at the source link below.
Google Coder lets you build Raspberry Pi web apps in your browser (video)
It's undoubtedly possible to turn a Raspberry Pi into a web server, but it's not always easy. Thankfully, Google just streamlined the process with its new Coder project. The open source tool lets developers build web apps for a ready-made Raspberry Pi web server using only a desktop browser. Coder manages all the files, including any media. The mini PC, meanwhile, only requires a network connection and an SD card reader to store the server. Beyond the hardware, Coder is free to use; if you've wanted a cheap testbed for web programming, you'll find one at the source link.
Raspberry Pi gets audiophile credentials thanks to RaspyFi Linux distro
Raspberry Pi and the Raspbmc OS already make a solid combo as a media center, but if you encounter music-related limitations then it may be worth giving the RaspyFi distro (v1.0) a shot instead. In addition to supporting Apple AirPlay and a range of lossless file types, this audio-centric form of Linux also works with a long list of external USB DACs, including asynchronous playback, so you can avoid relying your Pi's tiny stock DAC and amplifier. RaspyFi's other big feature is that it comes with its own web-based UI (shown in the video after the break), which ought to make it easy to control playback of both local and streamed content (such as web radio or Spotify) from virtually any browser-equipped device on your network. A quick health warning, though: audiophilia is a slippery slope that may subsequently cause you to develop an unhealthy suspicion towards your Pi's standard power supply.
Instant Wild satellite cameras protect animals through crowdsourcing (video)
Remote cameras are useful to wildlife conservationists, but their closed (or non-existent) networking limits the opportunities for tracking animals around the clock. The Instant Wild project's cameras, however, are designed to rely on the internet for help. Whenever they detect movement, they deliver imagery to the public through Iridium's satellite network. Anyone watching the cameras through the Instant Wild iOS app or website becomes an impromptu zoologist; viewers can identify both animals and poachers that dedicated staff might miss. Maintenance also isn't much of an issue, as each unit is based on a Raspberry Pi computer that can run for long periods on a single battery. The Zoological Society of London currently operates these satellite cameras in Kenya, but there are plans underway to expand their use to the Antarctica, the Himalayas, Indonesia and Sri Lanka.
Daily Roundup: Portable Audio buyer's guide, Nexus 4 price drop, Nintendo 2DS, and more!
You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
Mini classic Macintosh created with Raspberry Pi, runs System 6 (video)
Apple may please fans of diminutive hardware with the Mac Mini, but John Leake of the RetroMacCast has created something that can satisfy fans of miniature and classic hardware: a tiny replica of the original Macintosh. The aptly-dubbed Mini Mac sits at 1/3 the size of the original, is crafted from a PVC board and crams a Raspberry Pi inside. In order for the board to fit however, Leake had to solder wires instead of relying on connectors, trim the SD card and snip part of the USB cable. When it comes to visuals, the box packs a 3.5-inch display, which receives 512 x 384 output from the Pi. As for connectivity, the package supports a wireless keyboards and mice via Bluetooth, plus it exposes two USB ports, an HDMI slot and an ethernet jack. Not only does this slice of the 1980s have the looks to match the era, but it also features some of the old-fashioned functionality. Sure, floppies won't fit into its faux drive slot, but it runs System 6 via the open source Mini vMac emulator. Head past the break to catch a video of the model or visit the source for build shots.
World's smallest working Mac is a tiny work of art
What do you get when you take the host of the RetroMacCast (John Leake), a Raspberry Pi computer, some sheet PVC, a handful of electronics parts and a Linux-based Mac emulator? Mini Mac! Make no mistake -- this is a full working Mac running System 6. In fact, if anything, it's a bit more impressive than the original Mac as it has an Ethernet port, two USB ports and HDMI output. Inside, there are also WiFi and Bluetooth dongles attached to an internal USB hub to provide wireless connectivity. Mini Mac is made at one-third scale, with the exterior pieces lovingly cut from Sintra PVC plastic with an X-Acto knife, filed and sanded to match the bevels and curves around the screen, and then glued together. Leake mentioned during the podcast announcing Mini Mac that it took him about 12 hours to complete assembly, and that if he decides to make more of these little Macs, he'd rather use a 3D printer to create the case. Below is a very short video snippet showing Mini Mac running the After Dark screensaver. [via CultOfMac]
Element14 unveils Raspberry Pi Projects hub and 8GB Model B bundle
While it's comparatively easy to get started with Raspberry Pi programming, it can be tough to find suitably challenging projects afterward -- what's good for rookies may bore seasoned pros. To solve this, Element14 has launched a Raspberry Pi Projects hub that organizes community projects by skill level. First-timers get tutorials for basic tasks, such as loading Minecraft: Pi Edition, while veterans learn how to build home monitoring systems and other advanced devices. Those who want a faster start on their projects can also spend $40 on a new Raspberry Pi Model B bundle that includes both the tiny PC and an 8GB SD card preloaded with six operating systems. There's no guarantee that you'll become an expert through Element14's hub, but you'll at least be saved from getting in over your head.
Raspberry Pi gets its own media center kit: £46 for easy XBMC and controller (hands-on)
Behold, a ready-made answer for those who own a Linux-powered fruit machine but who are still looking for new ways to use it. It's a simple media center starter kit, fresh out and shipping today, which makes it easy to hook your Raspberry Pi up to an HDMI display and use it to play video or music from the internet or your home network through the wonders of XBMC. Known simply as "XBMC Solution," it consists of the Raspbmc software on a bootable SD card (this is an all-in-one install that combines XBMC with a lightweight Linux distro), a rechargeable RF controller with a small keyboard and touchpad to aid navigation (it's generic, unbranded, and even has a "Win" key, but it works fine), plus Ethernet and HDMI cables in case you don't have any going spare. Read on for more.%Gallery-191240%
Raspbmc's June build brings a slew of tweaks: cloud backups and more coming in July
The Raspberry Pi-focused XBMC port Raspbmc's June changelog is a lengthy one. Among the changes are new settings, new skins, support for the Stealth Nighthawk F117A device and changes to make booting up faster, among many other things. Getting this month's update should only require rebooting one's Raspberry Pi, and a few new mirrors that have joined the network should make downloading the updated software even faster. That's not all however, because the July update is promising Linux kernel updates, Raspbmc "Cloud" features with automatic settings backup / restore across multiple devices and an unspecified "special announcement."
Earth, as seen by Raspberry Pi camera attached to weather balloon
The Raspberry Pi camera has been out for less than two weeks, and it's already skirted the final frontier. Armchair astronaut Dave Akerman strapped the $25 shooter to the equally inexpensive Raspberry Pi, put it inside a protective case shaped like the berry that inspired the product's name, and then attached it to a weather balloon. Three hours and quite a few vertical miles later, his experiment was recovered by a stranger not too far from the launch site, who called the phone number written on the side of the Linux powered microcomputer. The resulting photos are beautiful (see more at the source link), and required no help whatsoever from NASA.
Google AirShow streams Google I/O live from several RC blimps (hands-on video)
Yes, there's a fleet of camera-equipped, remote-controlled blimps live-streaming a bird's-eye view of Google I/O on YouTube, right now. It's called Google AirShow and it's taken over the airspace within Moscone Center. We briefly chatted with Chris Miller, a software engineer with AKQA (the company that put the dirigibles together for Google), about the technology used in each aircraft. It all begins with an off-the-shelf model airship that's flown manually via standard a 2.4GHz radio. Each blimp is outfitted with a servo-controlled USB camera and 5GHz USB WiFi dongle which are both connected to a Raspberry Pi board running Debian, VLC and Python. A custom-designed Li-polymer battery system powers the on-board electronics. The webcam encodes video as motion-JPEG (720p, 30fps) and VLC generates a YouTube-compatible RTSP stream that's broadcast over WiFi. Python's used to pan the servo-controlled camera via the Raspberry Pi's PWM output. The result is pretty awesome. But don't just take our word for it -- check out the gallery and source link below, then watch our hands-on video after the break. %Gallery-188534%
