Force Your Kids to Code With This Raspberry Pi Laptop

This inexplicably-named laptop is the all-in-one electronics toolkit you’re probably looking for. Powered by a Raspberry Pi, the CrowPi2 features a screen and keyboard as well as a panoply of inputs and outputs that hearkens back to the 100-in-1 electronics kits of yore.

The laptop is fully-funded on Kickstarter and will ship this month. The CrowPi2 is a successor to, naturally, the CrowPi and this model features 22 sensors and buttons as well as lessons in programming Scratch, Python, Minecraft, and even facial recognition using the built-in camera.

You can even “make a piano using different fruits.” I mean…

The new model is far more laptop-like than the original CrowPi and if the Kickstarter is to be believed you’ll be able to play arcade games and even interact with beginner IDEs using the entire complement of inputs, allowing you to play Flappy Bird with the touch sensor and measure sound levels using the built-in microphones and LED array. Because this doesn’t look like a toy, I suspect parents will have an easier time convincing their younglings not to dump this onto the floor like they do every other STEM product.

The basic model costs about $210 for early birds. If you figure out how to make music with a kumquat, do let us know.