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Raspberry Pi 3 Brings Wi-Fi and Bluetooth (i-programmer.info)
mikejuk writes: Details of the next in the family of the successful Raspberry Pi family have become available as part of FCC testing documents. The Pi 3 finally includes WiFi and Bluetooth/LE. Comparing the board with the Pi 2 it is clear that most of the electronics has stayed the same. A Raspberry Pi with built in WiFi and Bluetooth puts it directly in competition with the new Linux based Arduinos, Intel's Edison and its derivatives, and with the ESP8266 — a very low cost (about $2) but not well known WiFi board. And of course, it will be in competition with its own stablemates. If the Pi 3 is only a few dollars more than the Pi 2 then it will be the obvious first choice. This would effectively make the Pi Zero, at $5 with no networking, king of the low end and the Pi 3 the choice at the other end of the spectrum. Let's hope they make more than one or two before the launch because the $5 Pi Zero is still out of stock most places three months after being announced and it is annoying a lot of potential users.
I'd rather see faster IO than built-in wireless. I can easily add a dongle for wifi or bluetooth if I want it, but the current architectural constraints mean the Pi's not a great board for a low-end, low-power file server.
Can they instead get direct communication to the ethernet port, not that shitty solution over USB?
It's not just the ethernet-port that is over USB, but it and all four of the USB-ports are all connected to a single, internal hub, meaning they all share the 480Mbps bandwidth. That's kind of crappy, would be nice to have it more like e.g. my Orange Pi PC is, ie. it has 3 USB-ports that are all fully capable of the 480Mbps -- no internal hub, whatsoever, and no sharing of bandwidth -- and the ethernet-interface is actually connected directly to the SoC, too. Though, unlike you, I would definitely want built-in WiFi and I heartily welcome that in RPi3.
As an aside, I wonder if RPi3 will finally bring HEVC-support with it. It's one of those things I care a lot about.