Raspberry Pi A+
The Raspberry Pi project has squeezed a bit more juice out of the world’s greatest educational and hobbyist computing platform, producing a new Model A+ that shadows improvements made in the Model B+ announced in July.
The Model A+ uses the same Broadcom BCM2835 system on a chip (SoC) as the Model A but brings the improvements of Model B+ to the Model A which has only 256Mb of RAM (which stays the same on the A+). The most important of these is probably its smaller size, reducing the length from 86mm to 65mm.
On that theme the board now uses a Micro SD card instead if its full-size cousin and the USB ports now sit flush with the edge of the board rather than hanging slightly over it. The audio port has also shrunk slightly with analogue sound quality available through it said to have improved.
Despite this slimming, the number of USB ports has doubled from two to four (making it easier to plug in devices without having to use a USB hub), and the GPIO connector has actually increased from 26 to 40 PINs to give more space for plugging in external devices.
A small but significant improvement is that the new design consumes around 0.5-1.0 watts less than the old one, which doesn’t sound like much but makes it easier to use the board with projects based on batteries. It also adds a little more power for connected USB devices.
The team has also added four mounting holes on the board to make it easier to attach to external cases. Perhaps the biggest news is that the Model B+ is cheaper, and will retail for £20, instead of £25.
Price: £20
VSN Mobil V.360
Now gaining popularity, 360-degree cameras are great for capturing panoramic video and pictures. They won’t replace conventional cameras anytime soon, but could be 
attractive to people who want to take videos of downhill ski runs, bike stunts, surfing or skydiving.
VSN Mobil’s V.360 16MP 360-degree camera can take video at 6480×1080 pixel resolution at up to 30 frames per second.
It has micro-USB 3.0 and HDMI ports. Other features include Bluetooth 4.0 and an SD card slot that can support up to 128Gb of storage. The camera runs on Android 4.4 and has a Qualcomm 64-bit 810 processor.
The camera also captures data through its GPS, barometer, accelerometer, altimeter, and can be immersed in up to 1 meter of water for up to 30 minutes.
For special effects it has multiple shooting modes such as burst, time lapse and loop recording.
Price: $349.99
Amazon Echo
Amazon’a Echo is a cylindrical device that acts kind of like Siri for your house. It works by give it a ‘wake word’ (name) that it listens for and then you can ask it to play music, look up information, set reminders, and read you the news or weather.
Amazon says the seven microphones inside Echo use beam-forming technology to hear you from across the room, even if it’s playing music. The onboard speaker (with a 2.5″ woofer and 2″ tweeter) can stream music from the cloud, including voice control for Amazon Music, Prime Music, iHeartRadio, and TuneIn. It’s also got Bluetooth so you can stream music from any app on your phone or tablet. You can control the volume by turning the light-up ring on the top of the device.
Echo will have a companion app for Fire OS and Android, plus a Web version for computers and iOS devices, that lets you manage the music, alarms, and lists. And because it’s always connected to the cloud via your home Wi-Fi network, Amazon can add more features and services down the line.
Price: tbc
Subscribers 0
Fans 0
Followers 0
Followers