The already-inexpensive Raspberry Pi, costing $20 to $30, now has an even cheaper new cousin, the Pi Zero that will run consumers just $5.

Aimed at people learning to program or apply computers to creative applications, thousands of units are already in production though their makers expect demand to outstrip supply for a while to come. You can read more of the specifications below, or check out their introductory video.

The specs are impressive: “A Broadcom BCM2835 application processor, 1GHz ARM11 core (40% faster than Raspberry Pi 1), 512MB of LPDDR2 SDRAM, A micro-SD card slot, A mini-HDMI socket for, 1080p60 video output, Micro-USB sockets for data and power, An unpopulated 40-pin GPIO header, Identical pinout to Model A+/B+/2B, An unpopulated composite video header, Our smallest ever form factor, at 65mm x 30mm x 5mm.”

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Although Adobe has always been a leader in creative software, their programs often lose out to good old pen and paper when a creative idea strikes. Adobe is taking a first tentative step into the realm of hardware with a pair of tools they call Ink and Slide. The two come as a set and work with iPad apps Sketch and Line, both designed to make the creative process simple and intuitive.

Ink and Slide are a stylus and a slide rule, respectively. The lightweight brushed aluminum tools are minimalist and futuristic in appearance, matching the Apple products they are meant to be used with. They both have white plastic accents and a single button which changes their settings within the associated apps.

Ink has a pressure-sensitive hard plastic tip that lets it move easily across the iPad’s screen. It works as a stylus with any iPad app, not just Adobe’s creative software. Within Sketch and Line, however, the stylus can be used to draw with a variety of in-app brushes and other drawing tools, and add personalized ink colors to your creations.

Slide sits atop the iPad’s glass and helps you draw perfect lines and shapes with the Sketch and Line apps. Inside, three magnets let it interact with the iPad: two at the ends tell the iPad that the Slide is there while a middle magnet makes contact when the Slide’s button is pushed. It’s a ruler, a drawing aid, and a shape stamping tool that switches functions with a few pushes of its button. The duo of Adobe tools comes in a case that is also a charger with an LED ring that glows when the case is charging. Ink and Slide are available for $199.99, and the Sketch and Line apps are free in the app store.

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In their early days, 3D printers were only used in industrial and specialized business settings such as architectural firms. As they have inched further and further toward the consumer market, they’ve begun to draw attention from individuals who would love to make rapid prototypes and custom objects at home. The problem is that even the smallest and least complex commercially available 3D printers cost upward of $500, with the cost of higher-end models climbing into the thousands. A company called New Matter wants to put 3D printers into every home with a revolutionary $250 machine.

New Matter calls their 3D printer Mod-T, a nod to Ford’s vehicle that finally made it possible for the general population to afford their own cars. With some clever engineering tweaks, the Mod-T’s designers were able to lower the complexity and production price of their machine.

But the company noticed that price wasn’t the only thing holding people back from experimenting with 3D printing. The other hurdles included the need for special skills to operate the machines and the lack of high-quality objects to print. With their revolutionary concept, New Matter would more or less create an app store for 3D printable objects. Designers will be able to upload their designs and Mod-T users can download them with a few taps or clicks.

Unlike current sources of 3D printable objects, there is no special programming, tweaking, or modification to be done before the object is printed. Designers and artists build their printable object files just for the Mod-T so they are already customized to that specific machine and its requirements.

After finding and purchasing an object to print, it truly is just like downloading and app and waiting for your object to be produced. Users do have the option of making small changes like the color of the objects before the file is communicated to the machine via built-in wi-fi. Early adopters can order their own Mod-T through the company’s IndieGoGo campaign for $249.

(via: Wired)

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The pursuit of data security has inspired a ton of inventive devices, but the PE is an exceptional example. This external hard drive from designer Jae-Hoon Lee features a combination lock that won’t allow access to the data stored on it until the correct numbers are entered on the dial.

The clever idea blends the digital and the physical, giving the user a familiar interface with which to unlock stored data. The loop at the top of the device is actually a super-thick USB cable that does double duty as a carrying handle and a data transfer avenue.

In truth, the PE doesn’t do anything a password-protected external hard drive can’t. But it does it in a rather amusing and novel way. The PE is only a concept for now, but it’s surely got a market among people who dig the retro aesthetic.

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If you’ve ever been the victim of a hacker, you know how devastating it can be. According to Google’s security team, passwords are just not sufficient protection for today’s citizens of the web. They say that the future of internet security lies in devices like the one above. Yubico makes a line of small USB cryptographic cards; in short, they’re like car keys and they’re small enough to fit on your key ring like actual keys. Rather than punching in passwords for every website, in the future we’ll all simply plug our USB “keys” in to start surfing.

But internet security in the near future might be even simpler than that. In their paper on the subject, the Google team indicated that security devices might take the form of a ring worn on the finger. A simple tap on the computer with the be-ringed finger would be all that is needed to authenticate a user. Another option involves a user’s smartphone acting as a wireless authentication device. As of now, Google is working on building a protocol that will allow users to authenticate via a device, but until plenty more websites and software companies get on board with the new standard, we’re stuck remembering passwords and typing them in over and over.

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