Gadgetory

what can you do with a nine dollar computer just about anything I'm Bridget Carey this is your CNET update you may start to think differently about computers after you learn about the chip this is a nine dollar computer running Linux that you can program to do all sorts of things and it's blowing up on Kickstarter raising more than seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars and just a few days after debuting on the crowdfunding website the system promises to be easy to learn how to program you can connect it to a screen using composite VGA or HDMI cables you can surf the web over Wi-Fi or play games with a Bluetooth controller it's preloaded with the language scratch to teach programming basics by building games and animations there are a ton of apps that you do things like edit office spreadsheets or edit photos the California creators also have a handheld adapter called the pocket ship to give it a small keyboard and screen on the go together that's going to be fifty dollars but you can get the chip alone for nine dollars which is expecting to ship by January before this tinkerers look to another small do-it-yourself computer called the Raspberry Pi that costs $35 but the lower-priced chip on Kickstarter packs in more perks like Wi-Fi Bluetooth and onboard storage and ship has a better processor than the latest Raspberry Pi in other news Google is taking away the ability to edit Google Maps because too many people are abusing the map maker tool its purpose is to let the community help correct map data but people are spamming it with junk just last month someone created the image of an Android mascot peeing on the Apple logo well google now says it does not have the capacity to review every edit now that there's increased map vandalism so it's temporarily turning the feature off this is why we can't have nice things also The Associated Press reports three of Google's self-driving cars have gotten into accidents on the roads of California and that's along with one other self-driving car from Delphi automotive there are nearly 50 self-driving cars driving around California since September when the state began issuing permits to test cars on the road the AP reports two accidents happened when the car was in self-driving mode traveling at speeds less than ten miles an hour two other accidents happen when a person behind the wheel was driving Google and Elfi said their cars were not at fault and the accidents were minor of course you can expect a few bumps in the road as they figure out this technology over the next several years Google says it wants to see these self-driving cars on the road by 2017 the company has been working on the project for five years already the city Road testing though is still relatively new that your tech news update head over to cnet.com for more from our studios in New York I'm Bridget Carey