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Why no wifi option? Running cords is very 1990s, why does my phone have wifi but the Raspberry Pi PC doesn't? Yes I know I can buy a usb wifi dongle but they really need a version with wifi built-in.

Also the version with no ethernet port is worthless. It's 2011, any computer without network access is worthless.

I read the FAQ and I understand their reasoning for not including wifi ("we’re trying to build the cheapest possible computer that provides a certain basic level of functionality") but you're really hurting the people you're trying to help by forcing them to pay more for a wifi dongle elsewhere or do without and be cut-off from the world and why would you want to cut-off the people you're trying to help from the rest the of world?

Seems like the price is really $40+ because the $25 version is worthless and you have to buy a wifi usb dongle to get going which pushes the $35 version above $40.

I'd like one just for the low power usage of only 1w and being only $25 it makes sense to replace other devices, just need a usb wifi dongle and external hard drive. If there was a way to add a little more RAM it could be really useful and replace a lot of PCs which would save a lot of power but 256mb just doesn't go very far now days.

Here's to hoping for a ~$40 version with wifi and 1gb RAM or maybe someone else will see this project and decide to do it the right way.

Why no wifi option? Running cords is very 1990s, why does my phone have wifi but the Raspberry Pi PC doesn't? Yes I know I can buy a usb wifi dongle but they really need a version with wifi built-in.

Also the version with no ethernet port is worthless. It's 2011, any computer without network access is worthless.

I read the FAQ and I understand their reasoning for not including wifi ("we’re trying to build the cheapest possible computer that provides a certain basic level of functionality") but you're really hurting the people you're trying to help by forcing them to pay more for a wifi dongle elsewhere or do without and be cut-off from the world and why would you want to cut-off the people you're trying to help from the rest the of world?

Seems like the price is really $40+ because the $25 version is worthless and you have to buy a wifi usb dongle to get going which pushes the $35 version above $40.

I'd like one just for the low power usage of only 1w and being only $25 it makes sense to replace other devices, just need a usb wifi dongle and external hard drive. If there was a way to add a little more RAM it could be really useful and replace a lot of PCs which would save a lot of power but 256mb just doesn't go very far now days.

Here's to hoping for a ~$40 version with wifi and 1gb RAM or maybe someone else will see this project and decide to do it the right way.

at least for high power mains projects

"The device should run well off 4xAA cells"

Although I agree Arduino probably will use less power. Different design goals.

The other informative thing to check is their previous post - scroll just past the pictures.

In the comments relative to running Quake 3 on the Raspberry Pi, they state the OS running in the video is Debian.

http://www.raspberrypi.org/?p=106#comments

You are totally wrong, robotics are mention as sort of a "wow, great teaching tool, bet we could use that in our robotics"

From the foundation website:

The Raspberry Pi Foundation is a UK registered charity (Registration Number 1129409) which exists to promote the study of computer science and related topics, especially at school level, and to put the fun back into learning computing.

We plan to develop, manufacture and distribute an ultra-low-cost computer, for use in teaching computer programming to children. We expect this computer to have many other applications both in the developed and the developing world.

http://www.raspberrypi.org/?page_id=2

I was doubting the "robotics" claim because all I could see in any of the descriptions was that it has USB and Ethernet. Usually to control motors one needs more low-level I/O than that.

I was wondering if they would consider having analog inputs or PWM outputs, but I don't think it's the case. Having to use a tx/rx to shell out these services to a small microcontroller would be a crappy, inefficient solution.

However, I found in one of the comments that one of the developers claims they have "roughly 16 3.3V GPIO lines, 2 3.3V I2C and a 3.3V SPI." So you'll need to add your own driver chips, which makes sense, but at least high-speed interchip communication will be available.

The provisional specifications include an SD card slot.

I'm not sure where it is in the picture, or if maybe it's planned or it's an option in place of HDMI, but the site of the foundation says it has composite video, too.
http://www.raspberrypi.org/
Now, if it has NTSC as well as PAL, I'm definitely on board.

That's not wireless. That's a camera. The D-Link USB to wired Ethernet adapter is the networking.
http://www.raspberrypi.org/

If he expects it to get any sales, it will have to use standard mechanical connections. The HDMI and USB ports need to be stock. People on the make for $25 thin-client terminals are not going to want to have to buy special keyboards or USB-USB adapters.

But I don't think anything is non-stock in this.

The other 5 wires are probably for a JTAG debugger. I don't recognize the box he's using for that, but that just makes me want one.

A close look at the picture shows that the through-holes the wires are soldered into are labeled "TPxx". A little cop-show enhance mode would help, here.

This reminds me I need to look up the name of the dude who invented JTAG and see if we can't get a national holiday named in his honor or something.

From the pictures, it is a USB device port (literally what is on a flash drive) I wonder if they include the cable to turn it into a USB device port.

http://www.raspberrypi.org/pcb.jpg (link to that pic)

The right hand side looks like USB device plug, and the left hand side I guess is the HDMI. I would rather they reversed the sex of both of those, I would rather a HDMI socket to plug into the TV, and a USB socket for plugging in a USB hub.

Except that looking at the specs It can decode h.264 high profile, something that most ultra-cheap players cannot handle. And as it runs linux, it can probably do so from a lot more container formats than vanilla .mp4 (finally, s standalone mkv player that can handle soft subtitles, ordered chapters and multiple audio tracks reasonably).