There's a new version of the insanely cheap hobbyist computer Raspberry Pi - and it finally has Wi-Fi
The Raspberry Pi 3, which goes on sale for $35 (£30), brings a markedly faster processor than its predecessors - and built-in Wi-Fi for the first time.
Raspberry Pi devices, launched exactly four years ago, are a cult phenomenon. Originally intended as an educational tool to encourage children to get into coding and computer science, they have proven wildly popular with hobbyists, and have sold more than eight million units.
Of that eight million, "three to four million" sales were to hobbyists, with the remaining being fairly evenly split between educational and industrial buyers, Raspberry Pi creator Eben Upton said at a media event in London to announce the Raspberry Pi 3's launch.
The Pi 3 comes with a 1.2 GHz quad core processor - which the company says is 10 times more powerful than the original Raspberry Pi 1. It also comes with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth support built in - meaning users no longer have to buy external hardware if they want wireless capabilities.
The reason Raspberry Pi devices are so cheap is because they strip away absolutely everything that isn't essential. there's no keyboard, mouse, or screen included - it really is just a chip with a few ports in the side. Users can then customise according to their needs, and its small size also makes it suitable for "Internet of Things" (or "IoT") applications.
