Short Bytes: Kano Inc., a company founded by Alex, Yonatan and Saul, has come up with an amazing DIY computer kit. It’s designed to furnish young kids, and even the adult ones, a better ‘know how’ of the computer hardware and assist them build their own computer, which is as simple as building a Lego game.
It was November 2012, when three men Alex, Yonatan and Saul were trying to imagine, how they can change the world? How they can build something, capable enough to attract kids and teach them some good things at the same time.
Finally, their messiah was Saul’s six-year-old son Micah, who was interested in their thoughts and suggested to build their computer kit “as simple and fun as Legos”, and so marked the beginning of new era of computing.
The technology is a major breakthrough, as described by a former technology advisor for British government, Rohan Silva, he said:
Get VoCore: Mini Linux Computer here.
After getting a proper idea about what they had to build, the three men Alex Klein – a writer and designer, Saul Klein – a venture capitalist, and Yonatan Raz-Fridman – an entrepreneur, were fully determined to transform their dream into reality.
To initiate the development of Kano, they came out with the first prototype build in January, 2013. They conducted workshops all around the world in collaboration with CodeAcademy and Raspberry Pi, and also introduced cost-efficient Kano kits to children in London schools.
On the technical note, Kano Kit is basically an implementation of the Raspberry Pi hardware accompanied by a wireless keyboard with touchpad, a carry case, a WiFi dongle and a speaker. It runs on a home-grown version of Linux, named Kano OS. Kano founders have also put their sincere efforts developing an open-source visual programming language capable of generating the output code in Java and Python.
The Kano kit is not a mere Lego building game, you can stream high definition videos, make your own music, browse the internet, and the most amazing thing, Kano gives you the power to re-code your favourite games like Pong and Minecraft, and make changes you like.
Also read: This Amazing Retro Mini Apple Computer Is Based on Raspberry Pi
Now, in order to push Kano’s development to the mass production phase, the three men Alex, Yonatan and Saul, launched a Kickstarter campaign on November 18, 2013, with a goal to raise $100,000.
But, the enormous response overreached their expectations, and numerous backers helped the three men with reaching their $100,000 goal in the first 18 hours of the campaign, including buyers like Steve Wozniak and Kickstarter’s Yancey Strickler, who pre-ordered the $99 Kano Kit. The campaign concluded on December 19, 2013, and they were able to raise $1.5million from 13,387 backers.
The Guardian writes,
The Raspberry Pi is a fantastic little machine, but not that simple to get up and running if the user has never built a PC or used Linux before. Kano is trying to change that for adults and children alike.
Kano Inc. is very excited about their Kano Kit, but they do discern the hurdles and allegiance they need to perpetuate, and they do indicate their belief regarding the same:
Watch the video and build your own Kano in 107 seconds:
Get your Kano Kit and write your first expression in the comments section below.
