Raspberry Pi camera hardware for 25 Euro

After months of waiting and after significant delay, the camera hardware for the Raspberry Pi is now available at retailers for just under € 25 excluding postage and is almost the same price as the Raspberry Pi Model A. Several guides have also been posted as well as some examples of uses. It has been nearly six months since the camera for the Raspberry Pi has made its first appearance for the general public, it was in November 2012 at the Electronica 2012 show. It was a question of finalizing the software part that was clearly not yet ready. This now seems to be the case since the two official distributors of Raspberry Pi and RS Components, offer this small module for sale. Rate side, it takes a little less than 25 € in both cases excluding postage. As a reminder, this optical sensor has a resolution of 2592 x 1944 pixels, 5 megapixels for photos. On the video side, the 1080p is supported at 30 frames per second (fps) and can go up to 60 fps in 720p and 90 fps at 480p.In order to exploit at best the Raspberry Pi Foundation offers us a short guide detailing how to enable support for the camera Raspbian the Linux distribution dedicated to this mini machine. You will also find some examples of how to simply capture a photo or video. For its part, the company has made a small DesignSpark video "Time-Lapse" which gives a small idea of what it can achieve.

AMD unveils Radeon HD 8970M

 

After an announcement of its Radeon HD 8000M earlier this year, AMD has finally decided to market the chip the more upscale; the Radeon HD 8970M. But as before, more than a novelty, this is a chip that has changed its name and won 50 MHz more. The graphics chips are often the scene of disappointment at the ads, especially when the period is not conducive to real innovations, like now. Blocked by 28 nm, the manufacturers keep their new architectures for later, and simply play marketing during this time. We thus have criticized the range of Radeon HD 8000M in the New Year. If they had the advantage of the household for the cheapest GPU, unifying around the GCN architecture, on top of the cart is entitled to what were already a few details. This is exactly what just happened with the HD 8970M which is presented as the new "flagship" brand when it is only a Radeon HD 7970M with a sprig of Turbo. In fact, the GPU does not change because it is again a Pitcairn with 1280 processing units. The base frequency is 850 MHz and the memory is clocked to 1200 MHz for its part, as above. In fact, the only thing that seems new is the presence of a Turbo mode to increase to 900 MHz in some cases, and thus announce 2.304 TFLOPS of computing power against 2.176 TFLOPS above. In short, nothing is really appealing; but AMD uses this opportunity to indicate that the solution would be more efficient than a GeForce GTX 680M, which does not eat bread. It will be interesting to see what they will face the GTX 780M soon to be announced ... if it is not there also a simple name change. Anyway, MSI launch partner and used it to indicate that it will market its GX70 3BE using this graphics chip and an APU A10-5750m of Richland generation. Performance will announce revised upwards compared to the previous generation (9.8% in 3DMark Fire Strike 1080p). Remains to be seen what will happen in practice.

Firefox 21 available now!

The new version of the Firefox browser which is more social on the workstation, and improves compatibility with HTML5 on Android is available now. Up-to-date for your Firefox on PC (GNU / Linux, Mac OS and Windows) and Android is available right now. The news was announced yesterday by Johnathan Nightingale, vice president of software engineering on Firefox. The feature most highlighted is a system called "Firefox Health Report". It must "save the basic information about the health of your browser (launch time, total operating time, the number of crashes, etc.), and give you the tools to understand this information and repair any problem." In a blog post by Mitchell Baker, head of the Mozilla Foundation, we learn what measures have been put in place to enable these new features while maintaining the confidentiality of personal data of users, the traditional point of work and communication Mozilla. The 21.0 version of Firefox, however, may provide anonymous data on Mozilla browser usage information regularly.

The feature can be easily disabled, but Mitchell Baker hopes it will remain enabled by default on most workstations. No personal information is collected, she assured. The Social API, appeared with Firefox 17.0, is enriched by several connectors. While Facebook was launched as the most significant "use case", the Social API is now compatible with Cliqz (recommended reading), Mixi (Japanese social network) and msnNOW, according to a blog dedicated separate the social use of the browser. And for Android special new fonts and HTML5 is available. For Firefox users on the workstation, the up-to-date is automatic or can be done manually via the Help menu (Help> About Firefox) if necessary. Depending on the preferences of each user, it will automatically or manually on Android, or can be downloaded from the Google Play Store.

SimCity Updated!

Maxis and Electronic Arts announced recently that the next update of SimCity will be deployed soon. 3.0 stamped this new version bring once again focus on traffic problems, the players complain since the launch of the title. The updates of SimCity are very similar to that of the previous version. After version 2.0 deployed in late April, with a lot of bugs, it has taken a few extra days to see the land version 3.0. At this rate, SimCity will soon catch up with Chrome on the numbering of its updates. The program for this new version has many features many bug fixes, including addressing trafficking, and management indicators RCI. On the first point, the main addition is from a modification of the routing system. U-turns and the attitude of the vehicles have been reviewed and are expected to improve traffic flow. Similarly, the working hours of different businesses and industries of the cities will be slightly offset to avoid peak traffic. Finally, the vehicles will turn right when the traffic lights are red, again to facilitate traffic. About RCI indicator changes are minor but annoying bugs fix. For example, some abandoned buildings could not be reoccupied ... because moving trucks do not have access. Finally, some more surprising bugs are also deleted. For example, the university will now be able to cross the road when walking, which was clearly not the case so far, and the buildings will no longer overlap. The rating upgrade is available here in English. Still expect the deployment of this update before declaring victory, the latest of which brought its share of surprises.

A Guide to Renting a Kiosk in a Shopping Centre

Touch screen kiosks have been around for a few years now, but recently their popularity has exploded, with more and more businesses deciding to invest in the technology to help increase their customer satisfaction, and in turn increase their sales.
One of the more popular places to put a kiosk is inside a shopping mall. This is an especially good decision for a small business, particularly if they have only recently opened. Renting a kiosk is so much cheaper than renting an entire store, for more than just the obvious reasons.
For a start, a kiosk takes up much less room and uses much less energy, meaning your monthly outgoings on overheads will come right down. Another reason is that a kiosk is self-manned – you don’t need to hire any staff or spend your own precious time behind the till; the kiosk does it all for you.
There are even more advantages to using a kiosk, touch screen or not, so what are you waiting for? Here’s an easy guide to renting one yourself.
Do Your Research
Find your local shopping mall and start researching the shopping trends. If you are going to rent kiosk space there, you’ll want to make sure there is a steady flow of human traffic the majority of the time; how are you going to turn a profit without potential customers walking by?
If your local has a lower amount of foot traffic, you don’t want your kiosk going there – it’s that simple.
Look at Locations
If you’ve found a suitable shopping centre, the next thing you have to do is start looking at locations for your kiosk. For a kiosk to be successful, you need to carefully consider where you’re going to place it.
You want somewhere with fairly constant traffic flow, preferably near some popular shops. Kiosks placed in the back end of the mall next to the two empty pods, the closed GameStation and the 99p Store aren’t likely to attract the big bucks.
Plan Your Business
It’s probably wise to assume you already know which services or products your kiosk will be selling, so make sure you feel it’ll fit in well at the mall. Speak to the shopping centre’s manager to let them know your plans – give them financial details to prove that it’s viable and that you can afford the rent.
Ask the management lots of questions; prepare these in advance. Ask about rent, fees, insurance, location and if anything is provided for you, as well as any other enquiries you might have. It would be wise to find out how much the deposit will set you back.
Lease and Permits
Once you’ve got hold of the lease from the management, it is time to double check that you have all of the required business permits. You will probably need a sales tax permit, which states that you will charge sales tax on any items bought from your kiosk. You may also need your National Insurance number. Ask the management if you’re unsure what you’re required to get.