AT&T Samsung Galaxy S III in Store July 6th

News at last!

Keeping track of when and where the Samsung Galaxy S III will be available hasn't exactly been the easiest thing to do, but we now finally have one more confirmation for those who prefer to do their business at AT&T's stores. The carrier announced today that the phone will be available in-store on July 6th, where it'll of course set you back the same $200 on a two-year contract. That's also the day that you'll be able to order online with overnight shipping, if the whole pre-order thing isn't for you.

VIA: Engadget Mobile
SOURCE: AT&T Consumer Blog

Accessories: No Phone

Just wanted to make a quick post about the status of acquiring a AT&T Samsung Galaxy S III in Pebble Blue. I have received the case from OtterBox.com and a 32GB Micro SD card from MicroCenter, but I am still waiting to get the actual phone.

Smart Outlet: The Beginning

For a long time now I have been wanting to dabble in home automation but didn't have the avenue to design a system. After becoming familiar with microcontrollers over the last two years I have been mentally designing a system starting with a smart outlet. Recently, before the Maker Faire I was talking with a friend and having seen a few blog posts about some projects in the home automation field I decided to move forward. I now have sometime to work on this in between other projects, mainly waiting for some parts for my new Sbot 2 redesign. With some SparkFun gift card money I decided to pull the trigger and order some parts. I decided to build a 1 channel/plug smart outlet. This would be enough to develop a proof of concept and start to design a software framework. The parts arrived the weekend before the Maker Faire. Boy was I excited to get this project off the ground!

Sparkfun Beefcake relay

Checking out the temperature of a Raspberry Pi

[Remy] has access to a very nice Fluke thermal camera, so when his Raspberry pi came in he pointed the thermal camera at the Raspi (Spanish, Google translation) to see how far this neat computer could be pushed before it overheated. There are three main sources of heat on the Raspberry Pi: the voltage regulator, the USB/Ethernet controller and the Broadcom SoC. At idle, these parts read 49.9° C, 48.7° C and 53° C, respectively; a little hot to the touch, but still well within the temperature ranges given in the datasheets for these components. The real test came via a stress test where the ARM CPU was at 100% utilization. The Broadcom SoC reached almost 65° C while the Ethernet controller and regulator managed to reach the mid-50s. Keeping in mind this test was performed at room temperature, we’d probably throw a heat sink on a Raspberry Pi if it’s going to be installed in an extreme environment such as a greenhouse or serving as a Floridian or Texan carputer.

VIA: Hack A Day
Source: Remy

Samsung Galaxy S III: Still waiting

June 5th 2012 I pre-ordered my Samsung Galaxy S III from Best Buy. Today June 21st, US launch date, still waiting. According to my local Best Buy I could get it tomorrow, only time will tell. In the mean time...

  Samsung Galaxy S III

Blinky POV SMT

A short time after posting about the Blinky GRID SMT build I received an email from wayneandlayne.com. They had seen my build post and really liked it, especially the videos and pictures! I had mentioned that I was looking at getting their Blinky POV SMT kit so to say thanks they offered to send me one. I was super excited! Here's my build.

The Raspberry Pi is Running: Getting You There

Excited, I ripped open the package to find my Raspberry Pi. The packing looked like it had been run over but my Pi was still intact. Yay! First thing I realized I needed to find a power source and a SD card. After some digging I just ended up using an iPad power adapter with a cell phone micro USB cable. I was going to use my Galaxy S power adapter but I didn't want to run it close to the limit of 700ma. For some reason I thought I had plenty of SD cards around, but I guess not. Luckily Best Buy had a 32GB Sandisk Ultra class 10 available in store for $27. Perfect!

Raspberry Pi packaging, amazing it wasn't damaged

The Pi has Arrived

Just received a UPS email that my Raspberry Pi has been delivered! Unfortunately I am stuck at work at my desk. I can't wait to get home and taste my Pi.

I will be sure to post my unboxing excitement and where it takes me. I have no idea what I am going to do with it as this point, but it should be fun.


Comment below if you have ordered one and if you have received it.

Update: The Pi is awesome! I was able to get it up an running and ready to start playing. I will post about it in the next day or two.