Micro Bit computer becomes a commercial product

The BBC Micro Bit, the tiny computing device designed to get children coding, is going on sale to the general public.

The device is already being delivered, free, to one million Year 7 children in schools across the UK.

Now it will also be available to buy from the various partners in the project for £12.99.

Commercial availability of the Micro Bit follows the signing of a licensing deal with the device's manufacturer, the Leeds-based company, element 14.

The firm says it will only sell them in batches of 90.

But retailers including Microsoft, the Technology Will Save Us organisation and Sciencescope will offer individual devices.

source

Leonardo DiCaprio silent at £11,400 Solarin phone launch

Hollywood stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hardy turned up for the London launch of a new smartphone.

Sirin Labs says its Solarin handset offers such celebrities military-grade security - but its £11,400 price tag may deter others.

source

Facebook copy briefly surfaces in North Korea

A clone of the Facebook social media site has briefly appeared in North Korea before quickly going offline.

Hosted on the StarCon.net.kp address in North Korea it had many of the features of other social networks.

It is not clear who created StarCon but it is thought to be a test project for a future service to be offered by the nation's telecoms operator.

Soon after being discovered, the site was hacked and it is now not accessible.

The site was spotted by Doug Madory, a researcher at network management firm Dyn, who said it was rare to see any websites hosted in the secretive nation. The site's name suggested it was linked to North Korea's Star telecom service, he said.
Parody account

StarCon was built around a commercial software package called phpDolphin and had many of the features, including newsfeeds, messaging systems and personal spaces, seen on other social sites. However, many of the site's pages were unfinished and were filled with placeholder text.

"I don't believe it was intended to be accessible from outside North Korea," Mr Madory told the BBC.

However, he said, Dyn's mention of StarCon on its Twitter feed led people to set up personal pages on the site and start using it to swap messages.

One of the first accounts created parodied North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. Outsiders created about 300 accounts on StarCon during its brief existence. 

source