Gadgetory

funny thing happens when the price of a pocket-sized computer comes down to $35 if you're creatively inclined at least you start to wonder what kinds of projects you could make with an almost disposable computer Donal bell and this top five I'm counting down my favorite uses for the Raspberry Pi starting off at number five using as an actual computer I know it's not very creative but if you're looking for the bare minimum excuse to buy a Raspberry Pi just know that you can plug in a keyboard a mouse an HDMI monitor and you can use this as a practical little Linux computer or even dabble in the world of Windows 10 if you want to get creative just make a cool case for it or shove it inside an old Commodore 64 coming in at number four use your Raspberry Pi to power your own photo booth that's right you can up your selfie game by making a dedicated photo booth for you and your friends the digital camera and a photo printer and a couple LEDs on the start button you practically got your own mobile wedding photo business and there's a version of this project that uploads animated gifts to tumblr so just set it up in front of the baby panda enclosure at the zoo and watch the internet break at number three make your own internet radio ones you can buy off-the-shelf or so dole with the pie and a screen and a couple speakers you can retrofit an old jukebox or make your own custom enclosure that you can be proud of because the pie has a built-in audio output the hard part is just setting up the software coming in at number two build a freaking robot especially with the enhanced processing power of the PI 2 a robot based on Pi can do some serious image and spatial processing to find its way around I found a site called Pi board org entirely dedicated to PI robotics everything from little toy BOTS that can scoot around your desk to terrifying doodle that you can actually stand on but I wouldn't which brings us to my vote for the number one use for a raspberry pi a retro game console there's the cup Cade the super game pie the pie girl game boy and about a hundred other retro console emulation projects out there and that's just for the original pie the pie two has already been seen emulating ps1 games so get ready for a whole new wave of pie gaming projects and because the pie works out of the box with USB gamepads HDMI output and built-in audio it's just an irresistible project for gamers so there you go five excuses to buy a $35 Raspberry Pi computer make something cool with it let me know I'm at Donal on Twitter you can also find me in more videos like this at top-5 cnet.com Donald Bell thanks for watching