Announcing the... Raspberry Pi 2

The Raspberry Pi 2 is out now – we speak to Eben Upton and James Adams to get the inside story on its development, and the Raspberry Pi Foundation's 2015 plans

Six times more powerful. That’s one of the first things that we heard about the Raspberry Pi 2 and that alone was enough to get us loading the car for a road trip to Cambridge - that and the name itself. We had been half-expecting a Model C to arrive at some point early this year, but a Pi 2 - what would warrant the 2? As it turns out, the Raspberry Pi was upgraded with a mighty new processor: the BCM2836. Arriving at Pi Towers to learn more, we met Liz Upton, head of communications at the Raspberry Pi Foundation, and within minutes we were introduced to the engineering team and on the guided tour, surrounded by prototype boards, 3D printers hooked up to Raspberry Pis, desks strewn with resistor strips and Rubik’s cubes, massive oscilloscopes and all manner of delightful gadgetry.

Epson EcoTank L355

Economical to run, the four-ink Epson EcoTank L355 could be just the entry-level printer you’re looking for, says Vincent Oliver

While continuousink system (CIS) printers have been around for some time, they have tended to be high-end professional printers with price tags to match. However, the entry-level Epson EcoTank L355 printer is aimed at the home user, and features Wi-Fi, a scanner and a USB 2.0 port. It is basically the same printer as the Epson Expression Home XP-225, but with the addition of the EcoTank system.

Alone together

Working from home doesn’t have to rob you of all human contact

You’ve seen it in spam comments on the web, on flyers taped to utility poles, shouted at you from your inbox and late-night TV: Work from home, earn thousands of dollars a week! Ha ha, who would ever fall for... actually, maybe that spam is onto something. After all, who doesn't know someone who works from home? My wife and I moved to San Francisco from New York a year ago, and she still works for the same firm—East Coast hours, meetings via webcam, the whole deal. Our upstairs neighbor is doing pretty much the same thing.

What's inside laser printer toner

Polyester

Toner is mostly powdered plastic. That means it can hold a static charge— and like socks in a dryer, it’ll cling to anything with an opposite charge. Laser printers use that cling to move the toner around: first onto an imaging drum and then onto the paper. Hot fuser rolls then smoosh the stuff into the paper fibers.