Raspberry Pi ships camera module

Raspberry PI’s camera module is now shipping.

The five megapixel fixed-focus shooter — which only measures 25 x 20 x 9mm — can snap 2,592 x 1,944-pixel images and capture video at 1,080p (30fps), 720p (60fps) and VGA (60 or 90fps).

And yes just for $25 from RS Components or from Premier Farnell/Element14

Example command prompts to activate the camera:

Capture an image in jpeg format:

raspistill -o image.jpg

Capture a 5s video in h264 format:

raspivid -o video.h264

Capture a 10s video:

raspivid -o video.h264 -t 10000

Capture a 10s video in demo mode:

raspivid -o video.h264 -t 10000 -d

Here’s a video on setting it up the camera hardware

For more exhaustive documentation head over to the Pi Forums here.

Source: raspberrypi.org

An open source Linux client for Google Drive

Grive. Yes that’s what it’s called. It is an open source implementation of Google Drive client for GNU/Linux. Currently as of version 0.2.0, grive can do two-side synchronization between the Google Drive and local directory. It can download and upload changed files. New directories in Google Drive and local directory will also be downloaded/uploaded.

You can find the directories and details on gitHub here.

Source: github.com

Half a million Raspberry Pi’s sold by Element 14/Premier Farnell

As of today there are only two registered distributors for Raspberry PI. Element 14/Premier Farnell and RS Components. Both out of the UK.

The geeks at element 14/Premier Farnell today however, launched a cute infographic detailing that they have already sold half a million of these $35 boards.

Based on this announcement, Raspberry PI feels that they are well on their way to having sold a million PI’s.

Telling stats for one of the most amazing projects out there right now- a $35 circuit board which can boot directly into a streamlined version of Linux- a mini computer which can help you open your garage door using your phone for starters. 

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Why Tizen ?

Last week was important. Not only was Ubuntu Linux launched for phones, Samsung, of all announced that it would launch its own set of phones based on Tizen. Samsung’s handsets will be based on Tizen Linux, a mobile OS that was launched by the Linux Foundation and the LiMo Foundation in late 2011.

Now that’s interesting. Considering, that when you think of Android, the one brand that comes synonymously to mind is Samsung. Its incredibly popular Galaxy series have almost single-handedly catapulted Android to market dominance as the Mobile OS of choice. (40-50 % of the total Andorid Market) 

The mobile game, however,  is about the eco-system. Whoever controls the eco-system controls profits and the future. Apple has shown the walled garden’s profitability. User’s can take the hassle of converting all their content on to one OS but they need the relevant eco-system to stay there and if they are happy, they don’t really want to shift, because honestly it is a hassle.

So why would Samsung, gun for a new Mobile OS, when Android has worked so well for them ? The answer is simple. As long as they are on Android, Google calls the eco-system shots. They control how the OS works, not Samsung. So tomorrow if they start dropping developer support or any other competitive actions for their own benefit, Samsung has very little negotiating leverage.

And what could be these competitive  actions? 

According to this Bloomberg Report, Byun Han Joon, an analyst at KB Investment & Securities in Seoul says, “Tizen was born as Samsung hoped to lighten its growing dependence on Google on concerns that its top position in the smartphone market may weaken following the Google- Motorola tie-up.” 

As per the Wall Street Journal and MacDaily  Google and Motorola Mobility (which it bought for $12.5 Billion)  engineers are already hard at work to launch a New Google Phone/ Tablet in 2013 - which will truly compete with the iPhone (and you can bet Google will support the development of this Phone to the hilt).

This Phone will be build on Android.

That can only mean one thing- Competition for Samsung from Google on the hardware front.

There is no question Samsung’s mobile phones are their primary revenue engine. And the only threat there is Google and Androids dominance, along with Google’s partnership with Motorola Mobility.

In today’s business world, every one loves a position of leverage. 

A good example of this is the way Amazon runs the Kindle HD on a forked version of Android, which really is nothing like Android but customized to Amazon’s requirements. 

A little research on Tizen tells you that;

“The Tizen mobile operating system is part of the Linux Foundation, with strong support from Samsung and Intel. There has been a long period of development, but version 2.0 of Tizen should be released during January, with an appearance on a mobile device in the first quarter of 2013” 

Now Samsung and Intel coming together on a mobile OS is kind of important.  <Tangent- Apple with the A5 core chip is looking at moving mobile chip building in-house.>

Some additional facts worth pondering:

TIzen has amazing HTML5 cross functionality, and what is even more important is that HTML5 applications run on Tizen without a browser and even offline. 

There are serious questions on whether any brand can catch up with an Apple’s profitability and ecosystem in replicating another app store, and if you don’t decide to go native, then the only other option is HTML5. With advances done on HTML 5 by partners like Sencha e.g.: The Fastbook , it will become more and more mainstream as a viable platform to build mobile apps.

Tizen fits in beautifully with the HTML5 angle.

Also note all Android applications will run on Tizen devices with OpenMobile’s ACL,  (Application Compatibility Layer) which means for people wanting to make a switch from Android to Tizen ( once the phone’s are launched), they would be able to easily run all Android apps, with minimal work. 

All in all very interesting developments in the realm of mobile and mobile OS’s. More innovation. More capabilities. Ultimately leading to more user choice and benefits.

Sources:

Sources for the story include published articles on The Forbes, Techcrunch,Wikipedia, Sencha Blog, MacDaily, Wall Steet Journal, PC World, Bloomberg.