Hardware

If you're one of the 200,000 owners of the ultra-low-cost Raspberry Pi computer, you'll soon be able to buy a camera add-on.

The tiny 5-megapixel camera module attaches to the Raspberry Pi via a ribbon cable and is expected to cost between $20 and $25. Founder Eben Upton revealed this information at the Raspberry Jam event in Cambridge, England.

He also mentioned that the Raspberry Pi Foundation -- a British nonprofit formed to create this tiny and cheap Linux computer for kids -- has been working on improving the software for the computer. According to Upton, there has been a "fourfold" increase in performance since April. … Read more

Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's 3DS sales are going strong in the U.S., according to numbers the two companies released today.

The numbers, gathered by research company NPD Group, show Nintendo maintaining a 75 percent market share for portable hardware and Microsoft's Xbox holding onto the top spot for console sales.

This is Xbox's 18th consecutive month at No. 1, with its sales making up 47 percent of current-generation console sales, Jeff Meisner, editor of the Official Microsoft Blog posted today.

The sales equal 257,000 units sold in June with total retail spent on … Read more

Amazon has planted its flag firmly in tablet land, desktop land, and even streaming-media land, but one faraway atmosphere has yet to be graced with Amazon's shopping presence: Smartphonia.

Never fear, brave app-loving residents of smartphone world, a new rumor suggests that even as you read this, Amazon is sending scouts to your universe to find out what you like and is working with fabled smartphone manufacturer Foxconn -- of iPhone and iPad fame -- to infiltrate your borders and free you from the shackles of...clunky smartphone shopping apps.

What would an Amazon smartphone look like? With the … Read more

Hard-core gamers like a challenge. Just ask gaming business veteran Julie Uhrman.

Uhrman wants to disrupt the gaming industry with an affordable console called Ouya, a name she hopes will become the battle cry of game developers. Her company is soliciting developers to help build an open ecosystem of games on Android, essentially bringing the openness of mobile games back to the TV set.

"It's very ambitious -- it's hardware, it's software, it's building an ecosystem," Uhrman said.

But Uhrman said she believes her team has what it takes to challenge the status quo. … Read more

Pop quiz. You have 12 piezo sensors, Arduino Uno, two speakers, lots of wire, and plenty of duct tape. There is an umbrella nearby. What do you make? How about a musical umbrella that translates raindrops into song?

Two creative Germans, Alice Zappe and Julia Lager, built an umbrella that detects raindrops and interprets them as 8-bit music. This could turn a regular walk down the street into a personalized retro gaming adventure.… Read more

LOS ANGELES--I'm sitting across from a soldier named Garza, trying to get him to open up about why he got caught drinking and driving.

This is a serious offense in the military, and Garza could lose his rank, if not get kicked out of the Army altogether. And it's my job as his superior officer to try to understand that Garza -- who used to be among the best in his unit -- may be struggling with the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder.

This, of course, is a simulation. I'm not in the military, and Garza doesn'… Read more

Google's latest sweet tooth obsession has been unveiled on the Google campus in the form of a giant jelly bean jar shaped like the Android mascot. It's a multicolored homage to the next rev of the Android OS -- version 4.1, Jelly Bean.

The sculpture didn't just download itself into place. It had a remarkable journey from conception as chunks of Styrofoam in New Jersey to its current spot among the pantheon of dessert-inspired Android operating system yard art.

The Jelly Bean sculpture was built by prop-building company Themendous over the course of one action-packed week during a heat wave that left workers covered in sweat as they churned out 160 individual beans to go into the Android-shaped jar. … Read more

As if actual Microsoft product launches haven't been in the news enough this week (ahem, Surface tablet and Windows Phone 8), rumors of the road map for the long-anticipated new Xbox are heating up.

A PowerPoint presentation posted to NeoGAF forums claims to divulge Microsoft's secret product launch plans. No, not the launch codes -- this isn't a nuclear crisis, though the excitement among Xbox gamers is verging on nuclear. (See what I did there?) The document has NOT been authenticated, and Microsoft is mum on the issue, but its contents are in line with previous rumors. … Read more

MONTEREY, Calif.--One after another, the framed pictures on both walls of the narrow hallway tell the story: submarines and naval ships churning white wakes as they slash through open ocean, each photo accompanied by unbidden gratitude.

"Thank you for your team's efforts & hard work! You ensure my safety and enhance my tactical advantage," one reads.

Welcome to the U.S. Navy's Fleet Numerical Meteorology & Oceanography Center. That long-and-hard-to-say name notwithstanding, this is one of the United States military's sharpest weapons in the never-ending battle for survival in rough seas all around the … Read more