Video Raspberry Pi Now Has Distributors -- and Will Soon Have Boards for All (Video) 304
Video no longer available.
In an exclusive Transatlantic Skype conversation with Slashdot editor Timothy Lord recorded on Feb. 22, Raspberry Pi project leader Eben Upton talks about the state of Raspberry Pi, and tells us that yes -- finally -- they now have distributors in the U.S. and other countries instead trying to ship every unit from the U.K. Even better, instead of buying a batch of boards, selling them, and only then ordering another batch, the new distribution agreements mean they can keep a steady flow of orders coming in and going out. One slight downer is that people who have donated to the project may not get their Pi(s) right away; the distributors have spoken for all of the current order. Eben talks about this, and about how Raspberry Pi is going to take care of contributors, starting at about 4:15 in the video. You can also look at an in-person interview Tim did with Eben in January -- or wait until the end of today's video for a list of other Raspberry Pi videos.
Cursor (Score:5, Informative)
Mind moving the cursor somewhere else, please?
Re:Cursor (Score:5, Informative)
While we're all asking for stuff, how about not making the videos autoplay? It's far more an annoyance than a convenience. I had to track down this mysterious droning voice after I opened up half a dozen Slashdot tabs. I'm trying to avoid doing work covertly here, people!
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Doesn't autoplay with the right browser extensions (using ClickToPlugin on Safari; similar should be available for other browsers). I recommend setting up your browser(s) to make avoiding work as painless and pleasant as possible :)
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There are two strategies for that. /. articles with videos in them.
One of them is yours, fix what is wrong.
Mine is to just avoid sites that are impolite to me.
Now I will just avoid all
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Mind moving the cursor somewhere else, please?
Eben's cat did try to remove it to be fair!
Don't play automatically (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Don't play automatically (Score:5, Funny)
They're going for the MySpace Experience. Next step is to add glitter to every page, change fonts mid-sentence and go with a rainbow-on-rainbow color scheme.
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rainbow-on-rainbow color scheme.
Could be worse... [typepad.com]
Re:Don't play automatically (Score:5, Funny)
I present to you, the future of the web: http://yvettesbridalformal.com/ [yvettesbridalformal.com]
Yes, it appears to be a legitimate business website. Check it out in the Internet Archive and you'll see it was once a professional website. I'm not sure what happened.
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My eyes! The goggles do nothing!
Re:Don't play automatically (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Don't play automatically (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Don't play automatically (Score:4, Informative)
What you need is a thing called "flashblock" - it's available for all good browsers and doesn't cost a penny.
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Maybe you mean NoScript. :-)
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If you're trying to reduce bandwidth usage you should use stuff like noscript and adblock plus.
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Click to Flash is your friend.
(or the appropriate plugin for your browser of choice).
I think autoplay videos were at least as big of a reason for installing it as blocking flash adverts. I'll start the video when *I'm* ready thanks.
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Or at least a YouTube video, which the appropriate extensions replace with your preferred video format if available! Embedded Flash self-hosted (or anywhere with only Flash as a video option) is a terrible idea these days.
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Electronics supplier DDoS (Score:5, Informative)
They went on sale this morning, and almost immediately downed the websites of two large electronics suppliers (RS and Farnell). By the time I had got to work, the sites were back up but that is largely because they didn't have anymore Raspberry Pis to sell.
That is the kind of reception that Apple wishes the iPad 3 would get (although it probably won't.)
Re:Electronics supplier DDoS (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Electronics supplier DDoS (Score:4, Insightful)
The hardware is actually based on a mobile phone SOC, not a router SOC. That means more memory and a GPU but it also means the ethernet is stuck behind USB.
I agree though that even given the fact it's less than half the price of the cheapest comparable linux board i've previously seen (the beaglebone) the buzz round the thing is still insane.
Re:Electronics supplier DDoS (Score:4, Insightful)
Well, when you think about it this unit has the potential to be a one-size-fits-all solution for numerous problems. The cost is starting to approach the chip in a toaster and yet the thing can do anything a PC can do (sans horsepower), but potentially do it while running on a few AA batteries worth of juice. Anybody who makes kiosks, DVRs, in-car entertainment, or even cheap PCs should be looking at this.
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Seems the world wants a router that's had it's wings clipped and a DVI port nailed to the top.
Actually this is exactly what I want. I need something like an Asus RTN16, but cheaper. The Raspberry Pi seems to fit this bill quite nicely.
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"That is the kind of reception that Apple wishes the iPad 3 would get (although it probably won't.)"
The delusional noise that comes out of certain dark corners of the universe never ceases to amaze me.
A.
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That is the kind of reception that Apple wishes the iPad 3 would get (although it probably won't.)
From the Raspberry Pi Twitter feed I today read that the Raspberry Pi had been ranked higher than iPad 3 by search engines in terms of news with most buzz.
Donators might have to wait? (Score:4, Informative)
I can't help but think that this is a giant "fuck you, revenue comes first" to those who believed in the project from the start. Yeah, even charities have to pay their staff, and I understand that, and I hope I've just misunderstood. Otherwise, poor form guys.
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Who donated to the project?
Re:Donators might have to wait? (Score:5, Insightful)
I did.
By buying the Raspberry Pi stickers. They said they were overpriced (thus they considered those money to be a donation). I say they were fair-priced. And they sent me 6 instead of the 3 i ordered.
I don't expect any favours for this.
I'm sad i didn't "donate" more as they are now out of stickers and i don't think they will sell them again (each were indivdualy cut and packaged by the members of the foundation)
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Outraged? Really? (Score:5, Insightful)
Those who donated to the project prior to completion have to wait for their boards while the folk who order direct get them shipped first?
Why don't you let the people who donated comment instead of putting words in their mouths? How about this hypothesis: many donors saw a charity with a good idea, one that they liked and wanted to support, and they saw their donation as exactly that and nothing more - there was no guarantee that they would be first in line, and they didn't expect that there would be any such guarantee in the future. They just wanted to show their support for a cool project that had little financial backing.
When you donate to a charity, do you always expect to get something in return? Is that how you think the world works for everyone?
Didn't really work as planned tho. (Score:5, Interesting)
Unfortunately it didn't really work out as planned. Farnell and RS was DDoSed a long time from 6 am to about 12. And there is still problems for people outside the UK to buy the rasp. I'm in Sweden and Farnells liks to the pre-order does not have Sweden in it's list. RS on the other hand requires a company to "express an interest in raspberry" (it says nothing about pre-order). So even now when the sites is working again I'm still unable to order a Rasp.
This makes me wonder why they didn't team up with a firm that is known globally and can handle traffic like e-bay or amazon?
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or dx. there's going to be a clone there in a month anyways.
and those who already donated and paid.. well of course you'll wait for longer! you're already a guaranteed customer. same goes for people who signed up to be emailed when it's available, you'll be emailed when they got surplus stock they'll need to get rid of..
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or dx. there's going to be a clone there in a month anyways.
The concept of clone is inappropriate since they've release gerbers and BoM and all that. Its a clone the same way two 6-32 machine screws that came off different yet identical screw machines are "clones".
They chopped the main site and put up a single page static site to handle the load, if they had not, I'd be including a link to the gerber files etc. You two can become a raspberry pi manufacturer.
My experience with dx is that it might be clone like in that it'll probably have inferior parts on the same
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Hopefully DX will have multiple clones at differing qualities, this happens sometimes :)
Re:Didn't really work as planned tho. (Score:4, Informative)
or dx. there's going to be a clone there in a month anyways.
and those who already donated and paid.. well of course you'll wait for longer! you're already a guaranteed customer. same goes for people who signed up to be emailed when it's available, you'll be emailed when they got surplus stock they'll need to get rid of..
Don't expect clones. There's no magical board design to save costs or increase the power/utility here. What makes this unique is the RP foundation got Broadcom to sell them a cell phone chip at cost. I don't think you'll see anyone else getting those chips for those prices.
Ordered mine (Score:4, Informative)
Managed to order mine from Farnell this morning. Took almost a whole hour of refreshes & timeouts considering that i already had an account on their site. RS Online did not accepted any orders, they only have a "register for updates" page.
The DDoS of the Farnell & RS-Online servers caused by the announcement was massive (and still is for Farnell).
Re:Ordered mine (Score:5, Funny)
Managed to order mine from Farnell this morning. Took almost a whole hour of refreshes & timeouts considering that i already had an account on their site.
I know for a fact that electronics engineers make lousy software developers. You better pray that your "whole hour of refreshes" didn't get you 3600 Raspberry Pis.
Re:Ordered mine (Score:4, Informative)
"Limit of one per person" - reportedly people who ordered 2 or more on the Farnell site received an invoice for a single one (for the cost of a single one). So at least Farnell got that right.
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Found the "Urgent Order Information" in the inbox - mine is due 26 March. I called Farnell this morning and they said they are yet to receive any RPis in stock (in EU), so all their orders were pre-orders, and if they get them faster, they will be shipped faster.
Major disappointment to say the least. (Score:5, Informative)
0700 CET, I hit refresh, again. Suddenly the raspberrypi.org site is alive again.
Huh, who are these Premier Farnell and RS Components companies? I'd expected these in the store on raspberry.com.
Ah well...
Farnell crashes in the first 90 seconds and stays down. RS has a few international sites that occasionally show signs of live. The Raspberry Pi is listed for 27,49 excluding tax. Including tax that $25-$35 computer suddenly sells for $42,50. Ah well.. oh, and 6 euros shipping ex tax. Hm, site crashes again. Hang on, they don't really want to deliver to consumers when an order is less than 50 euros.
Farnell has now been visited by some people and this company is at least as bad. In quite a few countries it seems not to do business with consumers at all.
At almost 1000 I finally manage to stay on a site long enough to actually click something into the basket. By then the feeble stocks have long been depleted.
What I wonder...
- why work with distributors who do NOT want to sell to private individuals?
- why work with consumers who are obviously unwilling or unable to handle a sizeable traffic load?
- Why such a small batch of boards in the first place?
Disappointing all around. I'm sure I'll get one sooner or later but I'm not going to pay a fortune for one.
Re:Major disappointment to say the least. (Score:4, Insightful)
Agreed.
I expected a neat and tidy order form on raspberrypi.org. Instead, I'm directed to search the homepage of two UK electronics retailers for the Raspberry Pi and follow the normal checkout process. At just a fraction of a second after launch, one retailer is completely down and the other is only showing a form collecting names and addresses of people interested in buying the RP - no actual checkout process. Soon it goes down, too.
Following Twitter, it seems one retailer won't start selling the RP until later this week, and the other won't even ship to many international or non-corporate buyers. The Raspberry Pi people are just as in the dark as the rest of us, and it's up to random folks calling the retailers in question to gather this info.
I really respect what the Raspberry Pi Foundation are doing, but they bungled this launch. Yes, their own site was prepared for the traffic, but when you partner with idiots and fail to guarantee those incompetents can hold to promises you made, it does reflect a bit on your own abilities.
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$35 + Netherlands VAT of 19% = $41.65
You are complaining for 85 cents (which are surely from UKP-EURO floating exchange rates) ?
I should be the one to complain that i lost over one Euro on the excange rate to RON in the Farnell Romania store, that my VAT is 24% and shipping is more expensive. But i won't complain and i ordered one.
It was a great idea from the part of the Raspberry Pi foundation, too bad that RS & Farnell underestimated the demand (even after warned by the foundation).
Model A vs Model B (Score:5, Informative)
This seems to have gotten lost in the commotion, but they also announced that the $25 Model A will be produced with the same amount of RAM as the $35 Model B (256 MB). Originally the Model A was only going to have 128 MB, so now the only difference is the Model B has an ethernet port. The Model A is going into production immediately.
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The model B also has 2 USB (instead of 1) ports.
Re:Model A vs Model B (Score:5, Interesting)
Makes me wish I'd picked up a few more of those now-fallen-out-of-favor USB 'docking stations' when Microcenter was blowing them out for $8... As a standalone part, the B is a trivially better product, $10 seems a trifle high for just the LAN9512 and connectors; but a USB hub and ethernet dongle will be uglier, and both for under $10 will be a bit tricky. Connected to a USB docking station, though...
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For any sort of serious use, or for standalone applications, the B is clearly superior; but since(purely as a hobbyist) I already have some old USB 'docking' peripherals kicking around, I might grab
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It's a near-universal in manufacturing that the increased labour/stock-management costs of maintaining differentiated hardware generally wipe out the savings of the cheaper components. This is why the controllers on many high-end consumer cameras are identical to those of their commercial cousins, hence all the hacks that give the consumer the commercial UI, with all its extra tweaks and controls.
Farnell and RS will simply have decided that the decreased production-line and stock-chain complexity of having
Re:Model A vs Model B (Score:4, Insightful)
Where is the gertboard? (Score:2, Interesting)
I was hoping that would be available at the same time as the pi
I know they felt pressure to deliver, but (Score:2)
I don't understand why they didn't make sure they got all the kinks out and delivered on 03/14.
Losing interest (Score:4, Interesting)
The problem is the display. The lack of VGA output means all those cheap monitors that everyone has in their closets are useless. I'm not even talking about bulky power hungry CRTs, I can't even use the older LCDs that I have lying around. That really kills the price advantage this board would have had. I know, I'm not the target market, schools or kids are. Apparently it's the less financially advantaged schools, the one I went to had a computer lab as early as 1994 (and few knowledgeable teachers to take advantage of it). Are they going to be able to buy all these new monitors? I understand there was an idea that kids would take these home. But it's still only going to work for kids with newer TVs in the family (and probably more than one since mom, dad and siblings are busy watching reality TV crap on the main one). Aren't families like that going to already have real computers?
I guess there is the composite out. I've never seen anything on composite out that looked much better than late 1980s 8-bit games. Is that going to get kids of today excited?
By the way, no, converters are not really a practical option. Yes, there are cheap adapters that are just pin remappings. Yes, many of us have even used those adapters successfully on our computers. No, that's not going to cut it for the Raspberry Pi. The cheap adapters work on our computers because they are just remapping Analog output pins that our computers already have active. The raspberry Pi does not have anything attached to those pins. For the Raspberry Pi you need to spend about $90 for a converter that converts the digital output to Analog VGA. That multiplies the money you are spending by over 4! Another option might be a USB to VGA adapter but those aren't much cheaper and would then require a lot of work to get the drivers going.
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The problem is the display. The lack of VGA output means all those cheap monitors that everyone has in their closets are useless. I'm not even talking about bulky power hungry CRTs, I can't even use the older LCDs that I have lying around.
I've had two $10 19" LCDs with DVI in from yard sales. Forget the older LCDs, they're bunk anyway. Donate them to someone even less fortunate, along with some big heavy PC you have in there too.
Pissed people need to calm down (Score:5, Insightful)
Yeah, I did it too. I was there, hitting refresh. They sold out almost immediately, and now whole swaths of folk have to wait to get one just a little bit more.
For that, people are pissed, Eben's a jerk, worst launch ever, etc etc etc.
Guys, they're a non profit. Demand was too great. That's not a BAD thing. Yes, you have to wait. That does not mean that it was the worst launch ever... It means you need to be patient a while longer. Instead of being upset that you didn't get yours, how about taking a step back. You can wait. It won't kill you. This is a good thing. The raspberry pi team did something cool, and that coolness is not diminished just because some of us didn't get one.
Sheesh. Calm Down.
Tony
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Meh, whatever. They still did something cool, we all want a slice, it's not the end of the world if we have to wait. We already waited. Another month won't kill anyone.
Some folks will argue about anything....
Tony
Inconsistent Communication is failing them (Score:5, Interesting)
Furthermore, Farnell doesn't even seem to sell to USA consumers, and RS only has an "express an interest" site, and nothing on their USA site.
So, consumers are very confused about what is going on. Because of the inconsistent messaging, USA consumers have no idea if we'll ever be able to buy them online, at least without significant retail markup.
What I think would improve the goodwill would be for the Raspberry Pi team to:
1.) Contact RS and Farnell and figure out what the heck is going on, particularly for international customers. Put a post on the website to the effect that you're doing this.
2.) Once they do figure out what's going on, TELL US.
If, in two weeks time, when all the traffic has died down, international customers will be able to get them, that's fine, but people currently don't feel like that's the case. The two distributors are ruining Raspberry Pi's goodwill (which often happens when you give this power to someone else) but Raspberry Pi isn't compensating by over-communicating on their end.
Looks like I'm going to wait anyway.... (Score:3)
Newark is taking orders online and by phone (Score:4, Informative)
I'm in the US and had a heck of a time figuring out a way to order. Pre-order links not working, no results searching for Raspberry Pi on partners' site ...
But in a chat with Newark rep, found that you can just enter part # 83T1943 and it will come up. $20 handling fee if you order online, less if you call the order in.
"83T1943 is the Newark Part # for the Raspberry PI and has an approximate lead time of 30-40 daysyou will get charged shipping if you order online, you should call in 800-463-9275"
You will still probably be charged some shipping - but according the Newark rep less.
Disclosure: Not associated with Newark, other than an occasional customer.
Re:Newark is taking orders online and by phone (Score:5, Insightful)
I managed to pre-order one in the USA through the Farnell export site; this was about 8:20am GMT. The page has now gone to a register-your-interest form [element14.com], so probably not much use now.
Price GBP 24.55, estimated delivery date 16/04/2012. No idea what postage will cost, I'm prepared for something horrendous to get it to Seattle.
What people are missing is that they're now build-to-order. Instead of before, where the Raspberry Pi organisation had an initial batch of 10,000, the sale of which would fund the next batch to arrive at some indeterminate point in the future - RS and Farnell are ordering the things from the manufacturers themselves.
I was watching with amazement as both RS and Farnell got nuked off the intertubes within seconds of the announcement. This board is popular. The previous plans for ordering wouldn't have worked at all.
Would Apple have coped better with such a launch? Probably. But as the Raspberry Pi twitter feed [twitter.com] says: "Apple has a market cap of $500bn. We have Liz's collection of fridge magnets and a few coins down the back of the sofa."
I'm really looking forwards to my Pi arriving. Given that I was expecting to wait at least until the summer to get one, things are going well!
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After stumbling about most of the day I can confirm that this is the way to order the Pi from the U.S :
- Go to newark.com and register an account (not really necessary but makes the rest easier)
- Call Newark's sales center @ 800-463-9275
- They will probably know what you want when you say Raspberry Pi but the part number mentioned above is correct for the model B (# 83T1943).
- Tell them you want it shipped from the Gaffney, South Carolina warehouse.
- Final cost will be $35 plus UPS ground to where-ever you
Worst Comments Ever (Score:5, Insightful)
"I couldn't get one immediately! Well, I guess I won't buy one any more!!!!"
Who cares? Certainly not the non-profit you're slating. Voting with your wallet doesn't work against a non-profit with a massively in-demand item. That's you just sitting in the sad corner by yourself.
You know what the foundation want? They want people with intellegence to get into developing, and to get others into developing. Half the comments I've read in this thread show personalities that need more development than the Raspberry Pi.
Re:Worst Comments Ever (Score:4, Funny)
The majority of posters sounds about thirteen, and demonstrate the worldliness to match.
Well, they did say their demographic was schoolkids.
/grin
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You had to realise to find a retailer that sells ("retails"...) stuff from the distributors. I ordered mine from my local electronics retailer and will be getting it in the "second" batch.
I admit rasp pi foundation could and SHOULD have done a lot better in this, explaining the situation better and what to expect from the distributors.
Find a dealer near you (Score:2)
You had to realise to find a retailer that sells ("retails"...) stuff from the distributors.
Would it have been so hard for a distributor to add a "Consumers: Find a dealer near you" button?
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adding that button would be a simple matter, but i suspect that once it's clicked something would have to happen which would be the hard part.
Re:Failed big time (Score:5, Insightful)
According to information gathered from the Twitter stream, the Raspberry Pi foundation was assured by both RS & Farnell that:
- They have world-wide distribution;
- Individual buyers (not companies) will be able to easily order one;
- Their servers will hold.
The failure is on the part of the big companies, not on the part of the "6 guys who mortaged their houses for founding" not-for-profit foundation.
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wow, are you me? Because you almost word for word repeated my comments from another site.
When I tried to comment on the "company only" ordering in Denmark, they kept retweeting comments from british users who said something like "you don't have to fill out the company name". After 3 hours they didn't feel like commenting on the fact that ordering was impossible for individuals in many countries.
Oh, and it took around 1½ hours of F5'ing to GET to the last step in the order process, the part where you ha
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I pre-ordered from Farnell with no issue at all. No minimum amount, no company details (it's geared at that, but I ignored it), and "Home / Hobby" was even an option in the list of job roles.
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What country are you in?
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Ah right, I sit corrected. No minimum that I was affected by :)
There's also the Farnell-owned CPC, which is a lot more open to consumers (they even have a recently expanded shop now in Preston that you can wander around and browse in) and I note that they're using the "register to express an interest" model for those who prefer that to pre-ordering.
Re:Failed big time (Score:5, Informative)
The news here really isn't the retailers that have signed up, it is the fact that the distribution model has now changed. The retailers are licensing the board designs and handing their own manufacturing, which means that the 10,000 order limit and months lead time will disappear, since both were limitations of the Pi Foundation not having enough money in the bank to finance large scale manufacturing.
There is absolutely no reason why other manufacturers can't license the designs, e.g. Foxconn could license it, make it in their factories, and ship direct into their existing shipping channels. Chinese factories can turn this out and ship direct on ebay. If the Pi Foundation is now ready to license to everyone (I presume the licenses with Farnell and RS are not exclusive) this is going to end up making the Pi available more widely and more cheaply than they could ever have done with their direct manufacturing model.
Seriously, look at ARM or any of the other electronics design companies, and then tell me that licensed manufacturing isn't going to work better. This one change to the business model will increased their capacity from 10,000 units every 8 weeks or so, up to whatever is financially viable for third party licensers to invest. It means their manufacturing capabilty can scale to demand, instead of being limited by the fixed amount of money they have in the bank.
Re:Failed big time (Score:5, Informative)
Instead, they gave us company-orders only, minimum order amounts of €50, creditcard only and only to a select amount of countries.
I've just ordered mine as an individual (not a company) for ~£25 (less than €50) using a debit card.
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Paypal is free to use with a bank account. Credit cards can charge significant subscription fees. Combined with the universal acceptance of debit cards and you see relatively few credit cards in this country.
So pay with a debit card.
Re:Failed big time (Score:4, Informative)
I don't think I've ever heard of a credit card charging its customers for transactions or general service - why would anyone use one if they did?
Many cards charge an additional fee for foreign transactions. This might not be a concern if you live and shop in the US, or indeed many large countries (UK, Germany etc). But if you live in a small country there might not be a local retailer for everything.
Stolen credit cards (Score:2)
That must be the first time I've ever heard of someone wanting to use PayPal. In what way does it beat credit cards issued by reputable banks
PayPal does some level of fraud detection. I work for a company that develops the shopping cart software used by an RC car shop, and there were a bunch of Indonesians that used stolen European credit cards and international mail forwarding services to order expensive ready-to-run vehicles. All this fraud came through the credit card payment flow, not the PayPal payment flow.
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Convenience.
International credit card processing can be a bit of a pain, international PayPal payments are easier.
Also, the target audience is children, who can often get a PayPal account more easily than a credit or debit card.
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Uh, the initial target audience is NOT children (and Children would be buying through different channels in many cases- i.e. Schools would be buying these devices...) and more specifically, they're using Farnell- which is a major international electronics distributor (In the US and Canada, you know them as "Newark"...) and takes a substantive amount of that pain away.
And...
- PayPal being accessible to children is technically against the law.
- PayPal costs the vendor nearly as much as a credit card would.
- I
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Oh shit, no, you just hit it right on the head -- this is PERFECT for children.
Throw a Qimo port onto the SD card and now you've got a stand-alone school-friendly PC that plugs into any TV. See, I've been trying to get Qimo into my kids' school but the IT folks don't like the idea of booting from USB. (Long story and their perogative.) If, on the other hand, I get a RPi and a little case from the local electronics shop, it's not a "computer" per se, it's a little educational TV box.
Fucking brilliant man,
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If they'd kept quiet, it would not have looked so bad.
There's a difference between misinformation and things changing.
Re:Failed big time (Score:5, Informative)
You fail at reading the RPi forums:
- 100 empty, unpopulated boards were manufactured. All had a bug. And components had to be hand-soldered.
- The "official" Linux distro - Fedora - is being created by the Fedora guys. So all the delay faults lie with them, not the foundation.
- The foundation is not the one at fault that the UK manufacturers are greedy and lazy
- Yes, sh*t happens
- I am from outside UK, in a 3rd world country and i bought one without issues
- What's the HUB has to do with more RAM on the $25 model ?
They are a 6-person not-for profit foundation - they don't have a hundred-person PR department & co. The launch for the C & D will be smoother :)
Re:I love the new business model (Score:4, Informative)
You know, apart from the 10 they sold via E-Bay, this whole project has been a self funded "Not For Profit" charity...??
They activity REFUSED to do pre-orders (and accept money), stating that they would only take money once they had the physical devices in their hands in the UK.
They said it would be a world wide release and all profits would be out back in to building the net batch.
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actually, they don't have any at the retailers, they're still not in stock. So technically this is pre-ordering, albeit with some kind of guarantee of what you get.
Re:I love the new business model (Score:4, Insightful)
The retailers don't, but the initial shipment was sent directly to the foundations address and they are then being forwarded to RS and Farnell as required.
It's a totally roundabout way of doing it, but think this was due to the timing of everything as well as the foundation wanting to get them into the country as soon as possible.
I was hoping they would hold back a few hundred for sale directly through their own site! but alas! looks like i'm stuck with RS or Farnell for now
Re: (Score:3)
One huge difference though between a typical pre-order from a start-up vs. what these guys are doing is that the actual devices have been manufactured and physically exist at least somewhere on the planet. A typical start-up pre-order is based upon a device that is still "under development" and where the schematics haven't even been sent to a manufacturer, or even that a manufacturing facility hasn't even been decided upon yet.
In other words, this isn't a vaporware pre-order, but something that is merely i
Re:I love the new business model (Score:5, Informative)
These guys have figured out how to get people to just GIFT them money to develop the product, which they can then sell at a huge profit, that they can keep for themselves.
They are a charity registered as such in England.
You can see their accounts (presented to the British Government) here: http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk/Showcharity/RegisterOfCharities/CharityWithoutPartB.aspx?RegisteredCharityNumber=1129409&SubsidiaryNumber=0 [charity-co...ion.gov.uk] (but it seems, as they have had a turnover of less than £10000 so far, they don't need to file detailed accounts).
Re:Pissed off with Farnell (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Pissed off with Farnell (Score:4, Interesting)
For mishandling the launch of a £22 gadget that you're interested in playing with, you'll attempt to destroy the current and future professional relationships they have with company you work for?
I think we've found a new definition for vindictive!
Overreact much?
Re:Is it too much to ask (Score:4, Funny)
Given the amount of "rasberry pi" articles that there have been lately, also the availability of google (which will tell you in three clicks) it's not necessary. Are we supposed to start every hard disk story with an explanation of what a hard disk is as well?
Re:Is it too much to ask (Score:5, Informative)
You mean you've managed to miss all of the Slashdot stories thus far?
http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/12/02/21/1324246/get-a-glimpse-at-the-raspberry-pi-fedora-remix?utm_source=feedburnerGoogle+Reader&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Slashdot%2Fslashdot+(Slashdot)&utm_content=Google+Reader [slashdot.org]
http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/12/02/13/2147203/despite-media-confusion-raspberry-pi-boards-still-on-schedule?utm_source=feedburnerGoogle+Reader&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Slashdot%2Fslashdot+(Slashdot)&utm_content=Google+Reader [slashdot.org]
http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/12/02/07/0332248/first-run-of-raspberry-pi-boards-to-be-completed-feb-20th?utm_source=feedburnerGoogle+Reader&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Slashdot%2Fslashdot+(Slashdot)&utm_content=Google+Reader [slashdot.org]
http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/12/01/31/203229/why-the-raspberry-pi-wont-ship-in-kit-form?utm_source=feedburnerGoogle+Reader&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Slashdot%2Fslashdot+(Slashdot)&utm_content=Google+Reader [slashdot.org]
http://news.slashdot.org/story/12/01/25/1543239/xbmc-running-on-raspberry-pi?utm_source=feedburnerGoogle+Reader&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Slashdot%2Fslashdot+(Slashdot)&utm_content=Google+Reader [slashdot.org]
http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/12/01/17/0014220/raspberry-pi-25-linux-computer-now-in-production-video?utm_source=feedburnerGoogle+Reader&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Slashdot%2Fslashdot+(Slashdot)&utm_content=Google+Reader [slashdot.org]
http://news.slashdot.org/story/12/01/11/1332222/british-schoolchildren-to-get-programming-lessons?utm_source=feedburnerGoogle+Reader&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Slashdot%2Fslashdot+(Slashdot)&utm_content=Google+Reader [slashdot.org]
http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/12/01/09/1413253/raspberry-pi-gertboard-in-action?utm_source=feedburnerGoogle+Reader&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Slashdot%2Fslashdot+(Slashdot)&utm_content=Google+Reader [slashdot.org]
That's just this year.
Re: (Score:3)
Please return your Geek card for a full refund.
Re: (Score:3)
I'd be far more interested to know when they remove a line of code.
One of my most productive days was throwing away 1000 lines of code. - Ken Thompson
Re: (Score:2)
Shipping is included in the Farnell price, but not in the RS price.
Which, as the account sign-up/registration page (when you finally get to it) claims that Farnell offer "free shipping", makes their pricing even more questionable.
Re:first (Score:4, Funny)
Wrong.
This is the first Pi [ebay.com] :)