The Pi Wire

Pi as Droid

Android developer Peter Yoon, also known as peyo-hd, has released a port of the recent Android 7.0 "Nougat" mobile OS for the Raspberry Pi [1]. Source code for the Nougat port is available now at GitHub [2].

Other developers have created Pi-ready versions of Android in the past, but this version is the first Android 7 port to appear in the wild. Deep down, Android, like Raspbian and most other Rasp Pi operating systems, is just another variant of Linux, so in theory, it should run on any system that runs other Linux distros. The complexities of a mobile OS, however, mean that Android is a little different from other Linux distributions and often requires more tinkering to port it to alternative hardware.

If the Rasp Pi community succeeds in finding a way to maintain and support a stable Android version, Pi users would have access to a huge trove of Android applications and games, as well as voice recognition software and other special features of the Android environment.

The Nougat Raspberry Pi port is still experimental. Users report issues with stability, and the Rasp Pi version will probably never reach the status of an official release. Still, if you like to play, now is the time to make your Rasp Pi 3 behave like an Android device!

Raspberry Pi Seismograph

Creators of the Raspberry Shake seismograph have announced that the Kickstarter project [3] has surpassed its $50,000 goal and raised more than $99,000 from 597 backers. The funding is enough for the developers to get started using the Raspberry Pi and Raspberry Shake to measure earthquakes. The Raspberry Shake is a "professional-grade seismograph" that mounts directly onto a Raspberry Pi and measures ground motion, which could come from footsteps, truck traffic, or an earthquake. The Shake, which was developed by Angel Rodriguez and the geophysical testing vendor OSOP, has been around in prototype form for a year or so, and the recent funding drive is intended to help the company bring the product into production.

The possibility of simple, ultra-low-cost seismographs could be a boon for earth science researchers. But perhaps equally interesting are the possibilities for hobbyists. Will the Raspberry Shake launch a whole new subculture of amateur geologists who watch the earth the way amateur astronomers watch the stars with home telescopes and amateur archaeologists poke around historical sites with metal detectors? Stay tuned for updates.