Raspberry Pi Restrictions Lifted, True Mass Availability

The Raspberry Pi, that very small critter that somehow manages to browse the web and play 1080p video, finally has no supply problems.

Raspberry Pi is an ARM-based system the size of a credit card. It was envisioned as a platform for Linux programming, but it caught on with the public in such a way that the press has been keeping its eyes on it like a hawk. It helped that the device can turn any TV into a Smart TV, as long as the display has an HDMI input. That said, the product sold out on several occasions. Even we had to wait for many weeks before our order reached us. Huge pre-orders played a significant part in the lack of availability. About 350,000 models were requested, even with a limited number of Raspberry Pi per customer.

There should be more than enough in stock now though. The Raspberry Pi foundation now makes around 4,000 a day. “Customers worldwide can now order multiple quantities of the Raspberry Pi Model B board, along with the associated accessories, including SD cards pre-loaded with the latest Raspberry Pi operating system and Raspberry Pi cases for safer storage. Customers will be provided with a forecast future delivery date when placing their order, and these orders will be fulfilled after all orders placed before 16th July have been shipped,” said a spokesperson from RS Components. To place an order, all it takes is a visit to http://pi.rsdelivers.com, so if you're a student, an HTPC enthusiast or just a curious experimenter, you can let loose, assuming you don't want the Odroid-X instead. 

As a recap, Raspberry Pi has a 700 MHz ARM11 processor, a bunch of ports (mini HDMI, USB, LAN, etc.) and 255 MB RAM (not that much but, then again, this is small enough to hold in a palm, so it's still quite a feat). “Element14 are pleased to announce that we will now be taking volume orders for Raspberry Pi Model B, on an expected delivery lead-time of 4-6 weeks, as our order backlog improves and our production capacity continues to increase,“ said element14/Premier Farnell.

Raspberry Pi 
Image credits to Raspberry Pi Foundation

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LibreOffice for Raspberry Pi

The LibreOffice free office suite is now available for the credit card sized single-board computer developed by the Raspberry Pi Foundation.

The Raspberry Pi Foundation and The Document Foundation have announced that a complete version of LibreOffice is now available for Raspberry Pi, the credit-card sized computer created with the intention of stimulating the teaching of basic computer science in schools. Raspberry PC is a mini PC that is capable of connecting a TV and a keyboard, which can be used for many important tasks, such as spreadsheets, word-processing and games. “The availability of LibreOffice, the best free office suite ever, on the Raspberry Pi – the most affordable PC ever, targeted to hardware and software enthusiasts, and schools – is extremely important for The Document Foundation, because it will contribute to the growth of the brand awareness in key market segments,” comments Bjoern Michaelsen, a Canonical developer and a deputy member of the Board of Directors of The Document Foundation.

LibreOffice is the first complete office that can run on a 40 dollar credit card sized PC, without any compromise on features and performances. The LibreOffice package has been ported to ARM by multiple contributors from Canonical, Debian and RedHat, and was packaged for the Raspberry Pi by Rene Engelhard as a part of his work as the Debian maintainer for LibreOffice. “I’m very impressed that the LibreOffice team didn’t have to make any changes to the code in order for it to compile and smoothly run on Raspberry Pi”, said Eben Upton from the Raspberry Pi Foundation. “It’s also great to have a comprehensive office suite available in the Pi Store at launch, making people even more aware of the potential of this device,” he continued.

LibreOffice for Raspbery Pi can be download from the official Pi Store and users can find comprehensive installing instructions there.

LibreOffice installation
Image credits to Libre Office

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Raspberry Pi Minecraft Edition Runs at a Blazing 40 fps [Video]

Minecraft: Pi Edition was announced a few days ago, at the MineCon convention in Disneyland, Paris, and the first videos are starting to pop-up.

This is not your ordinary Minecraft, it's actually the Pocket Edition ported for Raspberry Pi. It was ported a while ago for Android and it already runs on a large number of devices. Minecraft: Pi Edition comes with an extra feature. Users can program the world. The process is quite simple: set up a network connection to the running game and then send text commands to control the world. This means that users can program the game in any language that supports network connections and they can access the game from any computer connected to the Pi. Daniel and Aron from Mojang, the studio responsible for Minecraft, haven't been working long on the Minecraft: Pi Edition, but they have reported that it runs smoothly on all versions of Raspberry Pi. No overclocking is necessary.

Moreover, Daniel reported seeing 40fps with a 256MB Pi, although the development work has been done on a set of 512MB boards. The current working features aren't much, but they are off to a good start. Users place any block, at any location, ask what type of block is at any location, and keep track of events such as the player's movements. The Raspberry Pi is promoted as an instrument for children who want to learn programming, but there is no greater incentive than a game. Minecraft will certainly provide a boost for Raspberry Pi and we can't hardly wait to see what the community will be able to achieve.

Raspberry Pi relies on an ARM processor with a clock speed of 700 MHz, 512 MB of RAM, an SD card slot and a 5V Micro USB connector that supplies the power. It also features RCA and HDMI ports.

Raspberry Pi running Minecraft
Image credits to raspberrypi.org

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Raspberry Pi Burned by Counterfeit Apple Chargers

Raspberry Pi is a great tool for Linux developers, but it also suffers a little bit because of users’ ignorance.

The Raspberry Pi Foundation, the developers of this amazing mini PC, has seen a rising trend of broken Raspberry PIs because of counterfeit power supply units. “Returned units used in the UK has noted a problem out there with some power supplies, all of which appear to be counterfeit Apple chargers. Some of you are using chargers you’ve bought in good faith which are not the real thing, and which don’t behave like a safety-tested, properly engineered piece of hardware,” said Liz Upton, a representative of The Raspberry Pi Foundation.

If you have a Raspberry Pi, don't use a look-alike Apple charger for it. You might ruin it. Raspberry Pi relies on an ARM processor with a clock speed of 700 MHz, 256 MB of RAM, an SD card slot and a 5V Micro USB connector that supplies the power. It also features RCA and HDMI ports.

Raspberry Pi
Image credits to Raspberry Pi Foundation

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Odroid-X: A Small Board PC To Send Raspberry Pi Reeling

The Raspberry Pi is the only ARM PC, the only mini PC of this sort really, to became famous so far, but it might not have this monopoly for long.

There are noticeable differences between the Raspberry Pi and the Odroid-X, some of which might not be overly favorable towards the latter. Odroid-X is about twice as wide, for example, and it is, naturally, a bit heavier, although weight doesn't really matter for such small things. The other disadvantage of Odroid-X is the price. Raspberry Pi goes for around $35, or €28.66, give or take, but the newer gadget sells for $129 / €105.66. Once onlookers finally take a close look at the hardware though, the reasons for all this become obvious: Odroid-X is, quite simply, better than Raspberry Pi. One asset is the quad-core Samsung Exynos 4412 processor, with a clock speed of 1.4 GHz (Pi has a 700 MHz single-core). Another is the Mali 400 GPU (graphics processing unit).

Just as important is the amount of RAM. Where Raspberry Pi makes do with 256 MB, Odroid-X possesses one full Gigabyte. As for connectivity, six USB 2.0 ports are present, along with an SD card reader, a micro HDMI output, an Ethernet jack and audio in and out. Finally, Odroid-X can be bought with several addons, such as a Wi-Fi module, a webcam and an LCD panel (10 inches or 13 inches in diagonal). Hardkernel, the company behind the product, allows orders to be placed on this page. Both Android and Ubuntu 12.04 should run fine on it, leading to quite a bit of potential uses (Android Kiosk computer, HTPC, programming tool, etc.). Of course, if you want to stick to the Raspberry Pi, there are various accessories for that thing too, like the Prototyping Pi Plate.

Odroid-X mini PC
Image credits to hardkernel

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Raspberry Pi Gets CE Certification, No Modifications Needed

After delays and more delays, the Raspberry Pi foundation has finally eliminated the last barrier between it and free sales of its eponymous PC. 

About two weeks ago, we reported on the latest barrier that had lowered itself in front of the Raspberry Pi Linux computer. 

Then again, it might be more accurate to say that the Raspberry Pi foundation finally hit the obstacle it should have been able to foresee. 

Basically, the product could not be sold in Europe because it lacked compliance with CE quality guidelines. 

Now, though, the foundation is happy to announce that its small computer passed all the tests and didn't even need to go through hardware modifications for it. 

“We just received confirmation that the Raspberry Pi has passed EMC testing without requiring any hardware modifications,” the company wrote. 

“The Raspberry Pi had to pass radiated and conducted emissions and immunity tests in a variety of configurations (a single run can take hours), and was subjected to electrostatic discharge (ESD) testing to establish its robustness to being rubbed on a cat. It’s a long process, involving a scary padded room full of blue cones, turntables that rise and fall on demand, and a thing that looks a lot like a television aerial crossed with Cthulhu.” 

While the foundation was at it, Raspberry Pi also went through the effort of making sure the computer complies with FCC regulations and CTick guidelines too. 

In other words, when the Pi finally makes its way to the United States of America and Australia, respectively, history won't repeat itself. 

All that remains is for people to check their retailers in case they want to buy this thing (the price is $25 / 19 Euro), or wait until schools, colleges and universities get it through educational programs (at some point later this year).

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Wheezy Raspbian: Debian for Raspberry Pi

The Raspberry Foundation managed to deliver their own Linux distribution for the Raspberry Pi hardware, called Raspbian, based on Debian.

Until now, the developers of Raspberry Pi have recommended a Debian Squeeze distribution for their platform, which worked great, but now they have built their own distro that seems to work really great. Raspbian “Wheezy” is the first Linux distribution to take advantage of the Raspberry Pi’s floating point hardware for, amongst other things, much faster web browsing. At least this is what the developers are saying.

Raspberry Pi relies on an ARM processor with a clock speed of 700 MHz, 256 MB of RAM, an SD card slot and a 5V Micro USB connector that supplies the power. It also features RCA and HDMI ports. Download Wheezy Raspbian 2012-07-15 right now.

Raspberry Pi
Image credits to Raspberry Pi Foundation

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Raspberry Pi Model B, with Double the Memory at No Extra Price

Hardware upgrades almost always result in price increases, but the Raspberry Pi Foundation has decided to live outside that rule.

Meet the Raspberry Pi Model B, the credit card-sized PC that, even with double the random access memory (512 MB rather than 256 MB RAM) still sells for the same sum as before ($35 / 27-35 Euro). The change has happened after customers suggested that the mini PCs should offer enough horsepower for things like Java. Raspberry Pi is keeping the low price even though the ones who made the suggestions implied that they would be willing to pay extra for the benefits.

All current and outstanding orders for Raspberry Pi Model B will ship with the new specification, and the foundation will release a firmware update in a couple of days, to enable access to the new memory. Custom hardware programmers should have a lot of fun after this, as will those that buy the item as a means to turn their TVs into Smart HDTVs.

Raspberry Pi Revision 2
Image credits to Raspberry Pi Foundation

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Raspberry Pi Now Has Open Source ARM Drivers

The Raspberry Pi Foundation has revealed that the drivers stack powering their mini PC have just went open source.

Users of the Raspberry Pi mini PCs can rejoice because this is incredibly good news. So far, developers have been somewhat limited on what they could do with Raspberry Pi, but now the development gates are wide open. “As of right now, all of the VideoCore driver code which runs on the ARM is available under a FOSS license (3-Clause BSD to be precise). The source is available from our new userland repository on GitHub,” stated the official announcement.

Broadcom is the first company to provide open source drivers for their hardware and we can only hope that, further down the line, a lot more companies will make the same gesture. Raspberry Pi relies on an ARM processor with a clock speed of 700 MHz, 512 MB of RAM, an SD card slot and a 5V Micro USB connector that supplies the power. It also features RCA and HDMI ports.

Raspberry Pi Mini-pc
Image credits to Raspberry Pi Foundation

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Raspberry Pi Fedora Remix 14 Available for Download

Raspberry Pi, a miniature computer with an estimate cost of just $25 (€18.5) that is capable of running a Linux distro or RISC OS, has just received a version of the Fedora OS. 

Dubbed Raspberry Pi Fedora Remix, the distribution produced by Seneca Centre for Development of Open Technology which hosts the Fedora ARM build system, is now available for everyone to test.

According to the developers, The Raspberry Pi Fedora Remix is a distribution that contains software packages from the Fedora project (specifically, the Fedora ARM secondary architecture project), packages which have been specifically written or modified for the Raspberry Pi, and proprietary software provided by the Raspberry Pi Foundation for device access.

The current version available for download is Raspberry Pi Fedora Remix 14, but version 17 is already on its way.

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Raspberry Pi Delayed Due to CE Certification

Raspberry Pi is getting a much harder start than previously predicted. After some problems with the hardware, it now seem that the CE compliance testing will be setting the launch date a little but further than expected. 

According to the developers of Raspberry Pi, from The Raspberry Pi Foundation, both RS Components and element14/Premier Farnell have informed them that they are not able to distribute the Raspberry Pi until it has received the CE mark.

The Raspberry PI Foundation hoped that if the board is not a finished product, given the fact it has no casing and it will probably be used mostly in development, they would not need a certification, but the volume of the first shipment, 2000 pieces, is too large for this exemption.

As some of you might already know, all electronic products must undergo some specific testing which determines the levels of EM radiation and other measurements, in order to make it compliant with the European Union regulations.

Raspberry Pi relies on an ARM processor with a clock speed of 700 MHz, 256 MB of RAM, an SD card slot and a 5V Micro USB connector that supplies the power. It also features RCA and HDMI ports.

We will keep you informed with further information on release dates and other issues as soon as they become available.

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Raspberry Pi Revision 2.0 is Ready

The Raspberry Pi foundation has finished developing the second version of the Raspberry Pi PC, based on feedback from customers who bought the first one.

Saying that the foundation has released a new version is a bit of a stretch though. After all, the miniature system has the same processor, the same overall design, and no extra memory compared to the original. True to form, the product is not being marketed as a distinct device. That means that those who place an order for a Raspberry Pi from this point on may or may not get it. Waiting for a few weeks, or months, before the originals clear out may be a good idea, especially now that, with Sony's involvement, manufacturing is moving to the UK. Depending on luck and if specimens constructed according to the original specifications are still around, one of the “old” ones could reach buyers' front door. That said, Revision 2.0 lacks the resettable fuses (which protect USB outputs on some early 1.0 boards) with fuses.

Another change is that the primary and secondary 12C channels have been reversed, much in the same way that two GPIO pins have been interchanged. Speaking of which, the GPIO pin out adds ARM JTAG support. Moving on, the HDMI port used to interfere with the operation of CEC for other devices. This is no longer the case. Furthermore, there are two 2.5mm non-plated mounting holes (for easy permanent installation) and the SMSC 1V8 power has been disconnected from the system supply. Finally, for those who know about DIY hardware projects, a new reset circuit is part of the Raspberry Pi, for adding a header to P6. Shorting P6 pin 1 to P6 pin 2 will cause the BCM2835M Broadcom SoC to reset. Go here to get acquainted with every little detail pertaining to the release of the new board computer.

Raspberry Pi revision 2.0
Image credits to Raspberry Pi Foundation

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Raspberry Pi Model A Now Shipping

Even though some may not have thought there would be room for a downgrade of the Raspberry Pi, the Raspberry Pi Foundation has its own opinion.

Here is the Raspberry Pi Model A, almost identical to the Model B but equipped with only 256 MB of RAM (B has 512 MB) and one USB port (B has two). Most interesting is that the Model A completely lacks Ethernet connection, meaning it can't be used as a Smart WEB TV creator. It should, however, be a cheaper ($10 / 7.68-10 Euro cheaper) means of creating mods and gadgets, like a certain pocket-sized MAME arcade cabinet. The lack of an Ethernet chip significantly cuts power use as well.

“We’re seeing demand for the Model A from people making industrial control modules, from roboticists, from people doing automation, for a bunch of headless operations – and, significantly, for people who want to use the Pi as a very cheap media center,” Liz Upton wrote.

Raspberry Pi Model A
Image credits to Raspberry Pi Foundation

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Android Debug Bridge (ADB) Now Woking on Raspberry Pi

Raspberry Pi is one great piece of technology, not to mention cheap. Developers from all over the world have done wonders with it, but now it has been listed on XDA Developers and people have staring do to a lot of serious work for it.

Opening a new thread on XDA Developers for Raspberry Pi seems like a logical choice. It's not exactly a mobile device, but due to popular demand, the thread is now online. Shortly after going online, the developers have started hacking and tried to port the ADB (Android Debug Bridge) for it. After a few developers collaborated on XDA, a successful port was made, making all future development endeavors much easier. Android Debug Bridge is a command line tool that permits users to communicate with an emulator instance or connected Android-powered device.

Raspberry Pi relies on an ARM processor with a clock speed of 700 MHz, 512 MB of RAM, an SD card slot and a 5V Micro USB connector that supplies the power. It also features RCA and HDMI ports. More details about the ADB hack can be found here.

Raspberry Pi Mini-pc
Image credits to Raspberry Pi Foundation

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RISC OS Is Now Available for Raspberry Pi

The Raspberry Pi mini PC is a very popular platform and already a lot of developers have ported distributions for it, including RISC OS.

RISC OS is one of the oldest operating systems still around and it was initially developed by the team that built the ARM processor. According to the developers, RISC OS is owned by Castle Technology Ltd, and maintained by RISC OS Open Ltd. This version is made available free of charge to Raspberry Pi users. Keep in mind that it's not a final version, but a release candidate. It might have some bugs and it should be treated as a development version.

Raspberry Pi relies on an ARM processor with a clock speed of 700 MHz, 512 MB of RAM, an SD card slot and a 5V Micro USB connector that supplies the power. It also features RCA and HDMI ports. Download RISC OS for Raspberry Pi 2012-11-01 RC6 right now, here (torrent).

RISC OS in action
Image credits to Raspberry Pi Foundation

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Raspberry Pi Will Only Ship at the End of March from RS

Not long after the Raspberry Pi foundation revealed its unfortunate manufacturing hiccup, we get a clear idea of when the small PCs will start shipping.

We didn't expect to learn about this so soon after the problems revealed by the developers of the Raspberry Pi, but here we are.

RS Components, one of the two retailers that have signed on to distribute the credit-card-sized PC, now know when it will start shipping them.

Apparently, it hasn't even received the first batch of boards. That will only happen at the end of the month (March, 2012).

That means that people who placed pre-orders still have to wait for a few weeks, especially since the deliveries will be carried out on a first-come, first-served basis.

“We have never experienced this level of interest in a product and it has been challenging to address the unexpectedly high levels of demand. However, rather than simply rush Raspberry Pi to market, our priority is to ensure that customers receive a product of outstanding quality and reliability,” said Glenn Jarrett, head of electronics marketing at RS Components.

“I know it’s frustrating for those waiting to receive a board but I’m certain they will be delighted when they get it. We’d like customers to know that RS is working on a number of initiatives to help them get the most from these innovative, educational computer boards and we’ll be announcing these over the coming weeks.”

Basically, if you are one of the people who got lucky and ordered one early on, you'll get it soon, while everyone else will have to keep waiting.

“We’ve every confidence that our chosen distributors are doing everything possible to satisfy the amazing demand for our first product,” Liz Upton said on behalf of the Raspberry Pi Foundation.

“The level of demand has really taken us by surprise but we know that RS has committed all available resources to ramp up production and deliver Raspberry Pi boards to eager customers as soon as possible.”

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Raspberry Pi Running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich

While people may have made their own ports, the Raspberry Pi credit card-sized PC doesn't actually come loaded with the Android 4.0 operating system out of the box.

This has now changed. After months of work, the Raspberry Pi foundation has finally finished the first Raspberry Pi loaded with Ice Cream Sandwich. It was a chore to get the OS to recognize the VideoCore IV GPU, but both GPU-accelerated graphics and video should be working now. Only AudioFlinger is still non-operational, but it is only a matter of time before that loose end is tied.

That said, we don't know for sure when Raspberry Pi will add Android 4.0 ICS to the OS list, but we hope it won't be more than a few weeks from now. After all, 12 to 17 weeks (because of orders number and shipping distances) is already a long enough waiting time. Of course, if you can't wait, Raspbian will turn your TV into a smart one just fine.

Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich  running on Raspberry Pi

Video credits to narensankar

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$25 Raspberry Pi Mini PC Registers Amazing Sales

Raspberry Pi, a miniature computer with an estimate cost of just $25 (€18.5) and that is capable to run a Linux distro or RISC OS, has been officially put on sale. 

Raspberry Pi is being developed in UK and built in China. The mini PC has managed to produce quite a stir at launch, bringing down (temporarily) the websites that were selling it, and the official website.

Raspberry Pi Foundation, the developers of this amazing mini-computer, have funded their work by selling mini-motherboards (ten models). They went on Ebay for ridiculously high prices, some people even paying $5000 (€ 3900) for one item.

Raspberry Pi relies on an ARM processor with a clock speed of 700 MHz, plus 128 MB or 256 MB of RAM, an SD card slot and a 5V Micro USB connector that supplies the power. It also features RCA and HDMI ports.

The Raspberry Pi is available at either Premier Farnell or RS Components. Some people might find that the device is now available in their region, but things might change in the next hours, at least according to the developers.

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Control Robots with Speech Recognition and Raspberry Pi

We've been talking about Raspberry Pi for some time and people have found a lot of uses for this amazing little device. The ingenuity has gone a little further than anyone could imagine and it seems it will be possible to control robots using the mini PC.

In a blog post on the official Raspberry Pi blog, the developers of the mini PC have presented the work of Aon², an aerospace engineer that tested a speech recognition system using the Raspberry PI, in order to control a robot. The speech recognition technology is called an LVCSR – a Large-Vocabulary Continuous Speech Recognition decoder. In this case, Raspberry PI is running Debian and has an USB microphone attached.

Detailed instructions about the process can be found on his website. Raspberry Pi relies on an ARM processor with a clock speed of 700 MHz, 256 MB of RAM, an SD card slot and a 5V Micro USB connector that supplies the power. It also features RCA and HDMI ports.

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Credit Card-Sized PC Raspberry Pi Debuts in January 2012

There aren't many personal computers that can stand out nowadays, not with tablets and consumer electronics drawing the eyes of customers, but those few that do manage to enrapture onlookers do it in style. 

The Raspberry Pi is one of these few that we have been keeping track of for the last couple of months. 

Even a video of it in action surfaced just at the beginning of December. 

Now, this computer that has the same size as a credit card is almost ready to start selling. 

In fact, contrary to what some may fear, the compactness does not involve a higher monetary cost than what regular PCs sell for. 

If anything, the item is very cheap, priced at as little as $25, or about 18.5 Euro according to exchange rates. 

The Raspberry Pi Foundation envisions a world where the Raspberry Pi is found in schools, homes, at work, everywhere really. 

Now, something almost concrete has been said about when mass production will start: in January, 2012. 

The credit card-sized computer is the result of five years of planning and development. 

It relies on an ARM processor with a clock speed of 700 MHz, plus 128 MB or 256 MB of RAM (random access memory). 

There is also a SD card slot (for storage, obviously) and a 5V Micro USB connector that supplies the power. 

Speaking of ports, in order to communicate with displays, Raspberry Pi is designed with RCA and HDMI ports. 

It should easily plug into a TV and perform any and all casual computing and web surfing tasks on its own. It even supports playback of 1080p videos, which is no small feat. 

Raspberry Pi is loaded with a version of the Linux operating system and is the foundation's way of proving that a PC doesn't have to be expensive and big in order to be versatile and easy to use.

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