CheckinDJ is the Foursquare for Spotify
photo: Lancaster University
CheckinDJ uses music preferences from social network profiles to create Spotify playlists for coffeeshops and other venues. Read more »
Can chip companies profit off the maker movement? TI is betting on it
photo: Texas Instruments
Chipmakers are eying the maker community as a possible development community for the internet of things. Texas Instruments has two new offerings for this crowd. Read more »
Following Raspberry Pi, the $89 Odroid U2 continues small, cheap computing movement
As chips for smartphones and tablets improve, there’s a growing market for small computers running on this silicon. Take a look at the $89 Odroid 2 and what it can do. Read more »
Faceless sensors and tiny routers needed for the internet of things
photo: smartthings
Connecting sensors as well as connected devices to build an Internet of things-style service isn’t easy. But new products from vendors that range from Texas Instruments to ThingsSquared and Mobiplug make it easier for product vendors and consumers to build internets of things. Read more »
What happens when computers are cheaper than LEGO blocks?
Thanks to Arduino kits and the Raspberry Pi Linux computer, computing now can cost less than LEGOs. So today’s kids — and a generation of enthusiast hackers — are creating a movement that might incubate the next Woz. What will cheap computing build? Read more »
Britain’s $25 computer is coming by Christmas
Raspberry Pi, the British outfit trying to build and sell low cost computers to help teach children how to code, has garnered plenty of attention in the past few months. Now director David Braben says the first devices will be on the market in weeks. Read more »
BBC mulls new effort to kickstart computer education
The BBC played a huge part in the British computer boom of the 1980s by supporting local manufacturer Acorn. Now, with the U.K.’s computer education under criticism, it is considering whether to take on a similar role in the 21st century. Read more »
Eric Schmidt challenges teachers: get with the program
Google chairman Eric Schmidt says that Britain’s schools should focus on teaching kids not to use programs, but to build them — an allegation that increasingly faces Western education. So how do we get better computer teaching? And what happens if we don’t? Read more »
Meet the $25 Computer — But Is Low-Cost Computing Enough?
British researchers have built a cheap, fully-functioning computer the size of a USB stick. But while efforts to bring low-cost computing to the masses are laudable, do they misunderstand the reality of the way the world uses computers in the 21st century? Read more »
