Review videos from the BBC, CNET Asia
Fortunately for us all, I did find some coffee on arrival in America (not to mention a macrobiotic breakfast involving a surprising amount of raw cabbage – you’ve got to love California). A whole day away from the network means I’ve got a great big heap of email, so I’ll be a bit quiet on the forums and Twitter today while I deal with it and this afternoon’s meetings.
Our friend Rory Cellan-Jones at the BBC has been tinkering with a Raspberry Pi with the help of Isabell Long, an 18-year old A-level student. Thanks to both!
CNET Asia calls the Raspberry Pi a “very inedible pocket-sized computer”. We’d say that was pretty much on the money.
More reviews are popping up at the moment as more people get their hands on units (we notice that many element14 customers have been getting delivery date emails today). I’ll be putting some of the more interesting ones up here as they appear.
23 comments
texy
First
Keep up the good work over the pond.
Texy
Kevin Wiltshire
Second
Ditto
Fang
Hey Liz,
When can I order a Raspberry Pi? I missed the first batch. I waited for response from RS Online, as Farnell sold out pretty quickly. I haven’t heard from RS Online since then. I am in the UK. Is there a chance for me to order and receive it before the end of June? I am going back to China in July.
psergiu
Fang – have you registered interest in March with Farnell or RS ? If not – you have slim chances of getting one before the end of June. The ones who are shipping now are for people who ordered in the 1st hour of availability on February 29.
Fang
I have registered interest with RS on the first day. I still have the email with me. They sent me one email per week for the first two weeks, and I have never heard them back since then.
I am really really jealous of all the people who have already managed to get a Pi. I am pretty sure my lecturer feel the same way. :P
W. H. Heydt
Where in California? If it’s the SF Bay Area (and the breakfast you got suggests Berkeley), any chance you be somewhere to meet R-Pi “fans” some evening?
liz
Unfortunately not – we’re in SoCal, and while we’re visiting some old friends over the weekend, all the rest of the time is taken up with meetings and schmoozing. We’ll be around the SF area at the end of next month for Maker Faire, though – not promising anything, but perhaps we could try for a SF meetup around then if I can organise some time for it!
W. H. Heydt
I see in the news today that even the S. Cal. geology is happy to see you. (An R4.1 might be exciting you you, but it’s a yawner around this state.)
sirspudd
I hope you have fudged the quote and did not actually mean it as quoted:
“very inedible pocket-sized computer”
especially since you reinforce their conclusion!
ukscone
oh i don’t know. dip it in chocolate and i’m sure it would be quite a nice crunchy snack for elevenses
lol768
Got my element14 delivery date today for mid may. Pretty excited for when I get it. Thanks for your hard work so far :)
Andy Cater
Date from Farnell for last week of May :) Torrenting the Debian release :) 14 year old daughter is keen – without even her geek dad really egging her on. This can _only_ be good
Matthew
No offence intended, but couldn’t they have picked a student that did not conform to the stereotype of computing students as “different”. I mean she’s probably a perfectly nice person but simply showing the most common stereotype isn’t going to help anyone in the long run
Anony
really, you just said that?
Ingramator
the girl clearly lacked any programming knowledge or linux knowledge in general…
shaurz
It had to be said…
dbojan
it was nice.
Jamiethehutt
Well I’m glad we’ve got the BBC, in CNET seems to have forgone having a knowledgeable presenter for a pretty one; “2.5 em em audio jack” “2 5 6 em be of RAM”. No one at (what’s supposed to be a tech site) could of told her it’s millimeters and megabytes?
Andy Langdon
I’m sure Rory is a nice bloke but his IT knowledge is deplorable. I would expect a BBC IT correspondent to be able to set up and use a Raspberry Pi and have enough programming knowledge to print “Hello!” in Pyhton without getting an 18 year old IT student to help him.
JamesH
Why on earth would a IT journalist be expected to know how to program?
oninoshiko
well CLEARLY eveyone, no matter their profession should know programming inside and out. (to clarify an IT journalist’s most important field of knowladge is journalisum. IT knowladge is secondary, programming is tertiary at best.)
Seriously though, with the froundation’s objective of encouraging programming amongst youth, it’s clear getting a student involved is inline with those efforts.
Simon
An IT journalist should know something about IT. He doesn’t.
winkleink
I watched both videos.
Great to see the coverage.
I did find it interesting that the Rory… conclusion was that R-Pi was “quite difficult and quite complicated”. I would love to hear the why. What was difficult and complicated.
Or was be teeing up a compliment for Isabell.
The CNET ASIA video I just went to the R-Pi bit and it was entertaining. I have a feeling the reporter didn’t really know what she was saying, but the facts were correct.
All good coverage.