Personal Computing

There's good news for those itching to get their hands on a Raspberry Pi. After a short delay, the Raspberry Pi Foundation has confirmed that the first batch of the US$25 computers is due to roll off the production line February 20. Shifting production eastwards caused some delay, as the cheapest available quartz crystal package selected when manufacturing was planned for the UK proved harder to source in China, where the Pi will now be manufactured. The first batch will be freighted by air to the UK, where the wee beasties should be available before the end of the month. Previously, the first batch had been slated for completion by the end of January. Read More

The Telikin is a new touchscreen family computer designed to make everyday tasks as easy as possible. It is clearly aimed at the older user, which explains why its most vaunted features are social in nature, and make a lot of sense for grandparents with distant relatives. Video chat (thanks to a built-in camera), photo sharing and email are first among its advertised features - all of which come ready to use out of the box, provided an internet connection is available, of course. Read More

Change your password day falls February 1 (tomorrow, in other words), and it's a day as good as any other to add some beefy heft to your online security regimen. One thing to strongly consider, if you haven't done so already, is to apply unique passwords across all your log-ins. That might sound daunting, but tools now exist that make it unnecessary to remember a password again. Unfortunately, a lot of the password management software out there isn't as painless as it might be, with cluttered interfaces full of empty text fields asking for a wealth of unnecessary information. And often, they don't come cheap. But there is another, simpler way - one that involves encrypted text files and painless data-syncing. Read More

Consumer-level 3D printing technology has moved ahead in leaps and bounds in recent years with the release of devices such as the Thing-o-Matic, the Replicator and Cubify 3D printers. Proponents of the technology envision a not-too-distant future where users will be able to download designs and print everything from car parts to ... well, a new and improved 3D printer. The folks at The Pirate Bay are obviously on board with this idea. The file-sharing site better known for allowing users to share multimedia, games and software via BitTorrent has now added a new "Physibles" category. The new category will contain digital files for objects that can be physically created using a 3D printer. Read More

This morning at New York City's Guggenheim Museum, Apple announced the launch of its iBooks 2 for iPad system. The technology is intended to replace traditional paper school textbooks with interactive digital textbooks, that students would access on their own personal iPads. Educational publishers including Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, McGraw-Hill and Pearson will supply content on the iBookstore, with most titles priced at no more than US$14.99. Mac users will also be able to create their own digital textbooks, using the authoring tool, iBooks Author. Read More

Eye control innovator Tobii introduced and demonstrated its latest eye control technology at last week's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The Gaze interface for Windows 8 is said to take advantage of the operating system's large tile layout to offer users a superior interaction experience, that neither touch nor mouse alone can provide. Read More

Design consultancy and BMW Group subsidiary DesignworksUSA has been collaborating on projects with PC case and components manufacturer Thermaltake on various projects, such as the Level 10 concept PC, since 2009. Now the two have teamed up again with Thermaltake asking DesignworksUSA to develop a series of design concepts for its upcoming range of Level 10 gaming accessories that will be created for its e-sports division. The first product out of the blocks is the Level 10 M Mouse that gamers will be able to get their palms on later this year. Read More

Not all that long ago the availability of a 1TB solid state drive (SSD) was big news, now you can fit them in your pocket … or in this case, your pocket-knife. Shown last week at CES, the Victorinox SSD features two interchangeable bodies - one with traditional Swiss Army Knife blade, scissors and nail file/screw driver combo, plus a second flight-friendly casing without any pointy bits. When the 1 TB model hits the market later this year Victorinox says it will be the world’s smallest high-capacity SSD drive available … but it won't come cheap. Read More

The bloggers among you will be aware of that ongoing, nagging, internal monologue as to whether our chosen blogging platform offers the optimal combination of features, cost and reliability for our particular blend of needs. Depending on where that silent debate presently rests, you may be either pleased or frustrated to hear that another contender - scriptogr.am - has entered the fray, though it's one with a markedly different take on the very process blogging, using text files from a user's Dropbox account to generate a simple, elegant weblog. Read More