It's been a long and drawn out wait for the Raspberry Pi Model A to be released, but it is finally here and on sale in the US for a mere $25. Surprisingly the Model A is not being launched at Element14 as everyone might think.

Allied Electronics, a Texas based component supplier appears to be the first to market with the new $25 credit card sized Linux computer. The Model A is a dumbed down version of the vastly popular Raspberry Pi model B and differs in just a few missing components such as the LAN interface.

Unfortunately it appears that Allied has already sold out of the Model A's which leads us to wonder, why do these component houses not order several tens of thousands of units. They always blame supply, but Arduino was able to overcome supply shortages faster than Raspberry Pi has seemed to. If you know your product is going to sell in the hundreds of thousands almost overnight, why not scale up production to meet that demand?

In a recently released presentation, AMD has hinted that its new Steamroller micro-architecture is on track to be released this year. This comes at a surprise as most industry insiders thought that the new architecture would not arrive until mid to late next year.

In a presentation slide titled "AMD Opteron Technology: Delivering multiple generations of greater functionality and improved performance," it was hinted that AMD will be releasing server-class Opteron chips based on the new technology later this year.

X-Bit Labs is reporting that AMD has pushed forward its plans for Steamroller and the new chips will be compatible with current sockets and that the new server microprocessors will support PCI-E 3.0. Desktop chip's featuring Steamroller technology will most likely not be seen until next year though.

Ah April first, the day that the entire country tries to prank each other in real life as well as on the internet. The biggest names in tech have decided to join in on the fun as well. Microsoft, Google, Bing, and The Pirate Bay have all released "stories" this morning that no one could possibly take serious.

First up, Google tells us that Youtube will be shutting down and that the entire site has been a "contest" to see who could upload the best video on the internet. Google has also revamped Gmail to better align itself with Windows Blue. Called Gmail Blue, the new user interface is... well... very blue...

Not to be out done, Microsoft has released word that it feels that Bing should be more Google like and has switched its main page to reflect those feelings. In addition to all of these shocking breaking news stories, The Pirate Bay has just announced that it has aligned itself with the US Government and has agreed to take down all of its torrents. This announcement is the direct result of a server move from North Korea to a "Nuclear Proof" data center in the US.

This is probably going to be one of the more 'out there' rumors of the year, but Apple have apparently been playing around with a striking new design for the iPhone.

The Telegraph noticed a recently published patent that Apple have been playing around with an iPhone that features a curved display, with no size bezels or physical buttons to be seen. Apple sees the curved display made with a flexible material that can present "an illusion of depth perception" capable of "mimicking a 3D experience."

Apple explains that users could control the volume on the phone "by holding a finger over the volume indicator" and "expanding the volume control over the entire left side of the device," which takes away any reasoning for a physical volume button.

Update: April Fools from Lian Li!

Lian Li are asking all LAN gamers the biggest question of all: "Do you even lift, bro?" with their latest PC-D8000-LAN chassis - which features some back pack straps, perfect for LAN gamers across the world. Lian Li unleashed the news through their Facebook page, where they've tagged it as the 'No Compromises: The Ultimate LAN Case'.

It looks like it's pretty much their kick-ass PC-D8000 case, with some handy back pack straps. What do you think of the case? Adding back pack straps to an already huge case might be a bit hard to lift, but I really think they should use the marketing piece "Do you even lift, bro" or "Do you even LAN, bro?"

eBay started off as something small, but has grown into something incredibly powerful and profitable. So much so that the Internet auction site is estimated that their total volume of merchandise sold will reach $110 billion by 2015.

The Internet auction site also sees a very large portion of their growth from developing markets, which will see a nice injection of both consumers and profits in the coming years. Bloomberg have noted that they estimate eBay to pull in between $21.5 billion and $23.5 billion in the year 2015 with their current business model.

eBay's continued success is thanks to current CEO John Donahue, who pushed for new features like mobile applications and local shopping tools. These goals have seen eBay's shares surge 75% since he took over from Meg Whitman in 2008. Just last year, eBay's sales grew 21%.

Update:

Mark Rein has talked with Engadget, shedding some light on his comments that Unreal Engine 4 wouldn't be heading to the Nintendo Wii U, where he said:

It looks like the Facebook rumors won't die, and are stronger than ever with the social network inviting the press to an event at the Facebook HQ on April 4th, to "Come See Our New Home On Android."

It looks like the Facebook phone would run a modified version of Android, and may be built by HTC. If the April 4 event does see a Facebook phone unveiled, it'll be an interesting future for Google. Google allow manufacturers to modify the stock look and feel of Android, but the rumors with the Facebook phone are looking to have the Facebook phone see a huge change in the look and feel of Android - which we should expect.

Facebook have a slew of features and apps that they could bake directly into their phone, which would essentially just be a basic Android handset, powered by Facebook. Then we have to wonder about Facebook's App Center, which links to both the Google Play Store and Apple App Store. Then we have to think deeper again, with carriers' opinions on a Facebook phone. I'm guessing we'd see Facebook heavily, heavily subsidize this bad boy, and sell it online and unlocked, ala Google's Nexus 4.

Bitcoins have slowly but surely been plowing their way into the market, where they represent a billion dollar market. Bitcoins are an open source, unregulated peer-to-peer currency, with around 10.9 million bitcoins in circulation on a single marketplace.

Bitcoins, at the moment, have a value of around $90, with the 10.9 million of them creating the billion dollar market. Bitcoins have stayed mostly away from the media's attention, but with the digital currency continuing to grow at breakneck speeds, I'm sure we're going to see some intervention soon enough. This rings especially true as bitcoins are used regularly as the currency of choice for the black market, assassins and drug dealers.

The digital currency does have a big upside, in the way that governments in economic troubles freeze citizens' bank accounts - bitcoins are safe from that. They're also easy to transfer between people without requiring citizens' personal information. There are of course downsides, with the growth of the digital currency possibly creating a bubble which will eventually pop, with people losing hundreds or thousands of dollars.

NASA has an interesting plan that would see them find an asteroid in space, drag it toward the Moon and send astronauts to study it. NASA are requesting $100 million for the mission, which is coming in the middle of their fight over the 2014 budget continues in Washington.

The idea comes from the Keck Institute for Space Studies at the California Institute of Technology back in 2011. Scientists have said that the plan is capable of being played out within the next decade, and would be a very good move for future endeavours by US engineers to plunder asteroids with robotic mining for water and metals. NASA has requested $100 million, with Keck researchers admitting that the actual operation would cost as much as $2.6 billion and it would take at least six years to grab an asteroid close to Earth.

The researchers have said that there could be as many as 20,000 pieces of space debris within a decent distance from the Earth, but it could take astronauts up to six months to travel to the asteroid in order to pull it back toward the Moon.

Piriform have released CCleaner 4.0, which includes a bunch of new features and the usual improvements. Two new tools are available with version 4.0, the first 'Duplicate File Finder' and the second 'System and Browser Monitoring'.

CCleaner 4.0 includes improved graphics and icons, major performance increases and support for new applications. As for the two new features, here's a run down on what they can do for you:

Duplicate File Finder

Samsung's 5-inch Galaxy S4 goes on sale next month and I for one cannot wait to get my hands on it, but a 5-inch screen phone is just too large for some people. It is rumored that Samsung aims to fix that problem by releasing a Mini version of the S4 shortly after sales begin in the US.

Featuring a 4.3-inch screen, the Galaxy S4 Mini will feature a less powerful dual-core processor that will be set at 1.6GHz. However, it is rumored to feature the same 8MP rear camera and 64GB micro SD support as its big brother.

No further specifications were mentioned and we doubt the smaller device will pack the super high capacity battery of the 5-inch S4, but we hope that it will retain the 2GB of RAM. What do you think about a smaller Galaxy S4? Would you buy it over the 5-inch Super AMOLED version?

Google have begun their pilot scheme for a same-day delivery service in the San Francisco Bay Area, where it will potentially open up to other areas in the near future.

The Mountain View-based search giant are offering testers a six-month period of deliveries from retailers in the area, free to the consumer, with all of the shopping taking place in a single online store. Testers of the same-day delivery service will be able to select from a number of local stores, including the big ones like Target, Staples and more.

The deliveries are then dispatched for a specific time, based upon the consumers' delivery instructions. Google are still reportedly working on a pricing scheme, but this could cost below $70 per year in order to compete with Amazon Prime.

Businessweek have a very interesting piece on Samsung, which goes right into the heart and soul of the South Korean company. We know Samsung are willing to try anything and everything when it comes to smartphone form factors, where we see anything from smaller displays (under 4-inch) right up to the 5.5-inch Galaxy Note II.

But on the flip side, it's not just about offering a multitude of devices, it's about knowing when and how to play them out. It was only a couple of years ago that Android didn't exist, and now we have around one billion Android-based devices in the wild.

One of the parts of Businessweek's article is quite interesting, in that they state that Samsung executives are paranoid - but not in a bad way. Being paranoid means you never stop, like other companies I won't mention, and you continue to innovate in the hopes of keeping your existing customer base, and securing more.

Finally a patent judge making some sense. A federal judge has ruled that mathematical algorithms can not be patented, meaning that the lawsuit against Rackspace is no longer valid. Uniloc USA sued Rackspace saying that the processing of floating point numbers via the Linux operating system violated their patent.

Chief Judge Leonard Davis cited a ruling by the US Supreme Court in which they determined that mathematical algorithms cannot be patented.

Rob Tiller, Red Hat's Assistant General Counsel for IP:

BlackBerry has returned to profit after being in the red last year. This morning BlackBerry released its first quarter financial report and there is some good news for investors - Blackberry is in the black again.

The report shows that the company managed to make a profit of $94 million, despite the fact that the BlackBerry 10 not being available in the US during the first quarter. The $94 million of GAAP income stemmed from a revenue of $2.7 billion.

That is a stark contrast to $125 million net loss the company saw in the same quarter of 2012. BlackBerry says that it has sold one million BlackBerry 10 devices and managed to push out five million of its older phones. 370,000 PlayBook tablets were also shipped during the first quarter. We will have to wait until the second quarter reports are released before we find out how well the BlackBerry Z10 is doing in the US, but so far this points a much better picture for BlackBerry.

It's been a long time coming, but ADATA finally has TRIM for its LSI SandForce based SSDs. If you have a SX910, SX900, SP900, SP800, S511, S510 or S396, we recommend you update the drive to the new 5.0.7a firmware today - grab it from source #1 below. Below is a list of the changes.

1. Fixed a power management condition where the device failed to respond to COMWAKE, which might have resulted in the SSD not responding without being reset by the host

2. Fixed the normalized value calculation for SMART Attribute 9 (Power-On Hours)

GDC 2013 - We're still walking the halls of the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, where we popped by the AMD booth to check out an insane 5-screen EyeFinity setup.

What makes this stand out is that the 5 screens were running from a single Radeon HD 7970, pumping out nothing less than 8200x900. This is a weird resolution, as it means AMD are using five 1640x900 screens. I'm sure they're just using Full HD-capable screens with the resolution notched down to handle their huge pixel count in Tomb Raider using TressFX.

You can see our results with EyeFinity running a single HD 7970 and CF HD 7970s right here.

Mozilla are working toward a goal that could see some high-quality games being played in your web browser, powered by Epic Games' Unreal Engine 3. Ars Technica are reporting that Mozilla "has been working on WebGL, in order to bring 3D graphics to the browser; Emscripten, a tool for compiling C++ applications into JavaScript; and asm.js, a high performance subset of JavaScript."

That might not seem like much on the surface, but Unreal Engine 3 powers some of today's best games, such as BioShock Infinite, Mass Effect 3, Batman: Arkham City and many more. Mozilla's biggest issue right now is getting the load times down within the browser, where right now you might be waiting up to half an hour for your game to stream "a gigabyte of map data and texture from a Web server."

Mozilla currently have no ETA on when we could expect UE3 within Firefox, but at least we know it's on its way.

Australian retailers already charge an arm and a leg over their overseas counterparts, but now one particular retailer is stepping over a very expensive line. A retailer in Brisbane is battling to keep customers in their store, so now they're charging people to for "just looking."

We're not even kidding here, as the retailer has thrown up a notice on their door, stating: