The Raspberry Pi is a credit card-sized single-board computer developed in the UK by the Raspberry

Pi Foundation with the intention of promoting the teaching of basic computer science in schools.

It hit the shelves in February of 2012 and since then we have seen a lot of interesting innovations

coming from the humble snack-sized Tech-bit.

But now, the boffins down at the RP foundation have finished their latest advancement with the

miniscule technology, creating a complete, functioning laptop powered solely by the BroadCom SOC

processor chip employed by the Raspberry Pi.

The computer is set to join its brethren on the shelves by May 2015, and the overall cost will be

between $200 and $250. The computer will feature interchangeable parts, allowing for the more

experienced techies amongst us to replace parts with their own hardware. With such flexibility and

a relatively low cost for a fully functioning laptop, we can certainly expect to see interesting, if not

highly promising results from our little bite-sized friend.

Are you going to grab one? Let us know in the comments!

In a much unexpected turn of events, Apple have let slip screenshots of their latest additions to the

tablet market. On Wednesday, screenshots of the upcoming iPad Air 2 and the iPad mini 3 were

made available on the ITunes store for all to see. This has been taken widely as a blunder from

Apple, who had been expected to unveil these new innovations at a press conference on Thursday.

These two additions to the Apple arsenal were supposed to boost sales on the tablet market after

the gradual drop in sales of late; largely due to customers choosing smartphones over tablets.

With regards to the Tablet market, the iPad still remains the king of sales, but whereas smartphones

are updated almost annually, owners of tablets are much more inclined to hold onto their tablets

long after new models have become available to the public.

Images of the new iPad Air and iPad Mini were revealed in a help book published for users of Apple’s

iOS 8 Operating System. The user guide reveals images of both tablets with a new addition of a

Touch ID fingerprint scanner. The leak also reveals that Apple’s “Burst Mode”, which lets users

take “rapid-fire” photos, will be available for the iPad Air 2. Besides these new features, the iPads

appear to be similar to their previous editions, sticking to Apple’s philosophy of slow but gradual

evolution over models.

Here in Britain, where Sanitarium Towers are based, wet weather is a fact of life; and during these more colder months as we approach the end of the year, not one day goes by each week where anyone going outside is liable to get soaked. However, if one goes out with an umbrella this time of the year as would be a sensible solution, one also often has to contend with heavy winds, which can blow an umbrella out of the holder’s hands; or turn cheaper umbrellas inside out, perhaps even breaking them.

An innovative new Kickstarter project is offering an interesting solution to these wet weather woes. Called the Air Umbrella, this unusual device aims to use air as a forcefield to push air away from the user, replacing the need for a canopy altogether. The device also portends to be safer than a traditional umbrella, due to not requiring any sort of metal spokes which always present a risk to the eyes of taller individuals.

Image courtesy Air Umbrella’s Kickstarter page

The Air Umbrella consists of a handle, at the top of which houses not a canopy, but a controller and motor to suck in air and blow it out again at high speed. When lifted above the user’s head – the device’s handle is extendable, so can be adjusted to a comfortable length – the blast of air creates an invisible dome that pushes the rain away. The effectiveness of this technology is yet to be seen as the device has not yet reached the hans of consumers or independent technology – but should it work effectively enough, it should hopefully counteract the silly feeling some people, particularly those obsessed with fashion, may feel holding an umbrella that’s just a handle. The device receives its power through a rechargeable lithium-ion battery held within the handle part of the device.

Sadly for those planning to stay outside for long periods, current specs list the Air Umbrella as lasting just 30 minutes on a single charge, which may well just be a dealbreaker. If you’ve already decided that this sounds like the device for you, however, you can still get your hands on one by pledging $118 (£74) plus $15 (£9) for international shipping. With an expected December shipping date, the Air Umbrella is also releasing just early enough to be an ideal Christmas gift as well – and hey, it’s only going to get colder and wetter by then, so there’s no reason for it not to be appreciated.

Recent;ly there seems to have been a lot of sales of smaller but successful companies to the bigger dominating forces in the media. And if rumours are to be believed, Unity might soon be one of them.

Unity is currently valued at somewhere around $2 billion according to VentureBeat. Inside sources say that the company has been courting the likes of Google to possibly prepare for a sale. There’s been at least one potential buyer they’ve had serious talks with and presentations given to more besides.

Unity of course is a very popular games engine that appeared in 2004 and due to its ability to allow games to be programmed for multiple different platforms, it has especially gained favour in the growing market of indie game developers. Heck, you could even argue that it helped the rise of the indies in recent years.

At the moment Unity is keeping quiet on whether or not there will be a sale of the engine to another company.

Everyone knows the joke about PCs, Mac and viruses. Macs are the superior computer because all the viruses are made for PCs and Windows right?

Err, no.

Seems that a type of worm has been making its way around the Internet and infecting Mac computers with a little program that enables the hackers to take control of the infected computers through a process involving Reddit of all things. The worm is named ‘Mac.Backdoor.iWorm’ and apparently takes advantage of a flaw in Macs OS X operating system to infect the hard drives of Mac computers.

The first chance it gets it will then access the Internet, head straight to the Minecraft sub-Reddit (yes, really) and starts combing the discussion pages searching for certain comments left by the hackers. These contain addresses for the computer to connect to and once connected, the hackers are in control through remote access.

Findings by Dr. Web, a Russian security company investigating dodgy software estimates that over 17,500 Macs are currently infected right now. It’s thought that the hackers are trying to build a botnet which can be used for DDoSing purposes, as well as other things such as bitcoin farming and sending out spam e-mails. Dr. Web doesn’t believe that the Macs are currently being used right now, just that the hackers are building their network for a later purpose.

It’s probably worth making sure you’re caught up with your virus and malware checks, just in case.