MOST MID-RANGE PIECES of technology, be it a smartphone or a laptop, can cost a pretty penny.
You’re looking at a couple of hundred for a low-end laptop, and up to at least €700 for the latest iPhone.
Cheap, basic computers already exist – most famously the Raspberry Pi, which costs in the region of €25 – but a new Kickstarter project aims to beat that.
Meet CHIP. It will cost around $9 (€8).
This tiny device has some decent specifications, with 512MB of memory and a 4GB hard drive along with both WiFi and Bluetooth capabilities.
This gives it all the capabilities to act as a personal computer, with all the basic functionality you would expect, but at a fraction of the cost and size.
With 27 days to go to raise $50,000 on Kickstarter, it has already raced past this target, currently inching close to the $400,000 mark.
Like the Rasperry Pi, which has been used to create everything from robots to cat feeders, CHIP could have a wide-range of applications. Its creators have already gone down one particular route with this, and created the Pocket Chip.
It costs more than the basic model, but has a touchscreen, keyboard, and a battery that can last as long as five hours.
That’s it. We’re getting rid of our smartphones.
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