New Microcontrollers: Arduino YÚN, Adafruit Trinket and smaller Phidgets
Arduino YÚN
http://arduino.cc/en/Main/ArduinoYUN
Arduino YÚN is the first member of a new groundbreaking line of wifi products combining the power Linux with ease of use of Arduino. The first Arduino YÚN is the combination of a classic Arduino Leonardo (based on the Atmega32U4 processor) with a Wifi system-on-a-chip running Linino (a MIPS GNU/Linux based on OpenWRT). We embedded the Linux machine directly on the PCB of the Arduino Leonardo and we connected the two so that from Arduino it’s very easy to run commands on the Linux side and use it as an Ethernet and Wifi interface. (excerpt from the product page)
At ~52€, it’s not crazy expensive. It will be available starting September 10th.
Adafruit Trinket
http://www.adafruit.com/products/1509
A nice little board to bring ease of use to Attiny85 microcontrollers. It’s a small, cheap (8 USD) and quite capable little piece of tech. It’s compatible by the Arduino IDE we all love (or hate).
Phidgets 2/2/2 and 8/8/8 Mini-Format
http://www.phidgets.com/products.php?category=0&product_id=1011_0 & http://www.phidgets.com/products.php?category=0&product_id=1010_0
Phidgets boards are easy to use, but they are quite large and bulky. It’s not always a problem, but sometimes you wish that these boards would be smaller to ease disguise and packaging. Well, Phidgets recently introduced two smaller boards: one in a dongle format with the PhidgetInterfaceKit 2/2/2 (50 USD), the other in a DIP package called PhidgetInterfaceKit 8/8/8 Mini-Format (80 USD).