Attaching external storage to create a wireless NAS and using it for media-sharing as a DLNA server is one of the most popular DIY project for Raspberry Pi - the cheap mini-computer which has created a niche of it's own.

Renowned storage solution provider Western Digital has now came up with a USB powered hard-disk, specially designed for efficient and low power usage requirement of the Raspberry Pi. The custom-engineered WD PiDrive offers 314GB of storage space and is compatible with WD PiDrive accessories available at the WD Store.

While Raspberry Pi certainly is a cheap mini-computer, adding accessories to it blows up ownership costs a lot. While adding WiFi is relatively cheap, finding a compatible Bluetooth Low Energy 4.0 (BLE) for a bargain is hard. Luckily, I found the Orico BTA-403 Mini Bluetooth 4.0 Adapter Dongle which comes with CSR8510 Low Energy Chip and is compatible with Linux and Raspberry Pi despite being not listed as such in the description, this is certainly a must-have deal for $8 including worldwide shipping. Instructions for setup are as shared below.

Remote Pi is an application for iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and Google Android which allows users to utilize their mobile-devices as an wireless keyboard and trackpad for Raspberry Pi. Once installed user can send keystrokes and mouse events to you Raspberry Pi computers over TCP/IP via a wired or wireless network, the utility not only saves money for an additional keyboard-mouse but also keeps a USB port free on the Rapsberry Pi.

The small, cheap, hacker friendly, internet-connected Raspberry Pi mini-computer is a perfect choice for numerous electronic projects, and one desirable factor for such an assembly is to have minimum clutter. The IEEE standard of Power over Ethernet (PoE) lets user shoot two goals with a single solution, provide internet connectivity and power over a single Ethernet cable. The new Xtronix Raspberry Pi Power Over Ethernet (PoE) Adapter achieves exactly the same by providing +5 Volts at up to 1 Amp to the Raspberry Pi over the standards compliant IEEE 802.3af POE specification. The add-on adapter plugs directly on to the Raspberry Pi GPIO, and is available for order via eBay now. Demonstration video and buy link posted at the end of this post.