pi

U.S. consumers unable to grab a $25 slice of Raspberry Pi yesterday are now out of luck.

The so-dubbed Linux PC on a stick hit the U.S. market yesterday morning. Both the $25 Model A and the $35 Model B versions are listed by U.S. retailer Allied Electronics. But the $25 flavor of Raspberry Pi has already flown off the virtual shelves.

Trying to purchase Model A today triggers a message that says that "this item is out of stock and may not be backordered. Please remove to continue."

Model B is still up for … Read more

If you're a Japanese math geek with romantic inclinations, March 14 is a big day.

Not only is it Pi Day, the international day to celebrate the mathematical constant, it's also White Day, a sort of second Valentine's Day when men reciprocate gifts received on February 14.

Japanese jewelry retailer Brilliance + is cashing in on this coincidence by mixing a love of math with love itself in its "Propose With Pi" campaign.

The idea is that men can compare their undying, eternal love for their ladies to the never-ending digits of pi -- and, of course, express that love with a 0.314-carat diamond ring. … Read more

Some tasks are better left up to computers, like playing "Jeopardy," calculating pi, and mixing cocktails. Wait ... mixing cocktails? If you don't think a computer can whip up a compelling cocktail, then you haven't met Bartendro.

A creation of the awesomely named company Party Robotics, Bartendro is a robot mixologist crafted from peristaltic pumps, Raspberry Pi, custom electronic dispenser boards, and food-grade tubing. It may simultaneously be the least-necessary and most-desirable robot in the world.

… Read more

Math. The very word can conjure painful memories: long division, square roots, the quadratic equation.

Not only do many of us not like math; we're also not very good at it. In an international test of 15-year-olds, the U.S. placed 24th out of 64 countries.

"We don't currently, in this country, have a cultural expectation that yeah, you're going to learn math just like you're going to learn reading," said Glen Whitney. "It's OK to not be good at math."

Glen Whitney is good at math. He's got a Ph.D. in it, and is trying to change the way we think about one of our least favorite subjects. … Read more

Although it didn't earn the critical acclaim of "Toy Story 3," "Up," or "Ratatouille," Pixar's 2012 film "Brave" joined those three hits, as well as three other Pixar predecessors, in winning the Oscar for best animated feature.

Beating out fellow nominees "Wreck-it Ralph," "Frankenweenie," "ParaNorman," and "The Pirates! Band of Misfits," "Brave" became the seventh Pixar film to nab the Oscar since the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences began awarding the honor in 2002. No other studio has … Read more

A new, cheaper model of the Raspberry Pi Linux computer on a stick is now on sale in Europe, delivering a tiny computer for an even more affordable $25.

The "Model A" micro PC is now out in Europe, available to buy from RS components for $10 less than the "Model B" Raspberry Pi. The new model ditches the Ethernet port, but has a single USB socket and 256MB of RAM.

On its official blog, the creators of the U.K.-built device explain that the stripped-down computer would come in handy for tinkerers looking to … Read more

Count computer science Ph.D. candidate Lingxiang Xiang as the latest tinkerer to tap the potential of the cheap Raspberry Pi computer.

The enterprising student fixed a broken R2-D2 toy replica using a Raspberry Pi computer and other off-the-shelf electronics bought online. The toy was meant to be a birthday gift for his girlfriend.

The end result: a robot with face recognition; motion and distance detection (to avoid bumping into obstacles); and the ability to understand voice commands in both English and Chinese.

Like the movie version, the R2-D2 can also record and play back audio messages, though obviously holographic messages aren't in its repertoire. … Read more

The Raspberry Pi isn't just desserts any more. With the announcement today of the Pi Store, a market for apps, tutorials, games and tools for the super-cheap credit-card-size system, the Pi is now looking more like a full meal.

According to a post on the Raspberry Pi blog, the store runs as an X app under Raspbian where apps and other content can be downloaded and uploaded for moderation and addition to the virtual shelves. From the very beginning, the Raspberry Pi project has had a focus on getting kids around the world interested in programming, hence the moderation of the Pi Store. So don't go looking for malware or bikini pic aggregators there anytime soon. … Read more

Despite owning an iPhone 5 for several months, I find myself using Siri only when someone else wants to see how it works.

A video created by a Raspberry Pi enthusiast motivates me to learn about Siri's unadvertised side -- as a place where hackers can use special software to teach Apple's voice assistant new commands. One such person found a compelling use for the $35 Linux-based Pi and Siri: the ability to open a garage door with a push of a button and a simple spoken sentence. … Read more