back to article Broadcom reveals $20 'Pi in the sky' IoT development widget

Broadcom has released a US$20 Internet of Things thing it hopes will give developers a cut-price way to explore the sensor-tised kinds of applications a wired world enables. The “WICED Sense Bluetooth Smart Sensor Development Kit” packs a gyroscope, accelerometer eCompass, pressure sensor and humidity & temperature sensor into …

  1. Christian Berger

    Uhm, not really

    There are now cheap ESP8266 based WIFI boards around which cost around 5 Euros a piece and have a nice serial port. They contain a minimal TCP/IP stack and can be easily controlled from just about any microcontroller you want. Plus there's a fairly obscure SDK available which should allow you to actually do everything on the board itself.

    1. mccp

      Re: Uhm, not really

      I'm not sure what point you're making here - the ESP8266 looks like it gives you WiFi and serial with the LwIP stack.

      The Broadcom board looks like it gives you gyroscope, accelerometer, eCompass, pressure sensor, humidity & temperature sensor, a small red box, Bluetooth SMART, companion app – iOS for now, Android in October, Windows or Linux SDK, ARM RealView RVDS, CodeSourcery G++ Lite tool-chains and the Eclipse IDE.

      Not really the same thing at all.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Broadcom

    can go screw themselves.

    With nearly 90% of the market, we still have to suffer iOS apps first. Broadcom end user products are now on my shitlist. I now only shop with companies that have their priorities correct.

    1. Frankee Llonnygog

      Re: Broadcom

      To be fair, they are also targeting people willing to spend real money

      1. handle

        Re: Broadcom

        On the other hand, they are targeting people who have no concept of value for money with something based on price.

  3. Tom_

    Is it only blue tooth?

    Does it have onboard storage?

    How big is it?

    How is it powered?

    Why just reprint press releases?

    1. Return To Sender

      Here y'go

      http://www.broadcom.com/products/wiced/sense/

      And I suspect the press release reprint is 'cos nobody's got one yet. 'Leastways, they seem to be on an 8-week lead from Mouser. Piqued my curiosity just enough to do the search, though.

  4. Monsieurmarc

    £££

    To buy one from mouser once you add VAT and shipping its £30

    Not feeling so cheap now sadly.

  5. Mage Silver badge
    Thumb Up

    £30 isn't bad though

    Presumably the tools will allow applications that run on a server and are accessed by Web Clients, Android, Windows, OS X and Linux, not just iOS. I presumed the iOS was only an example?

    1. Monsieurmarc

      Re: £30 isn't bad though

      its the fact that 12 of it is postage that really irritates me

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Or go with Sensortag

    TI's SensorTag was available first, and has iPhone and Android apps. And cheaper to obtain in the UK. And it's not Broadcom.

  7. John Brown (no body) Silver badge
    FAIL

    Totally WICED!

    Ah, it's pronounced wicked, is it? Until I got to that point I was assuming it rhymed with rice. Yet another stupid product name where the plebs have to be told how to pronounce it because they are too stupid to be part of the same clever club the marketers are in.

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