When the department store A.J. Freiman announced in May 1950 its plan to bring “push button” shopping to the small town of Pembroke, Canada, newspapers across North America were baffled. The New York-based Women’s Wear Daily informed its readers that “no indication is given as to what precisely the project is, and inquiries at the Ottawa store elicit no further details for the time being.” The only information the reporters received was a cryptic press release that noted A.J. Freiman’s pride in presenting “for the first time anywhere this great retail innovation.” The new brand of store, the press release added, would be dubbed the “Vis-O-Matic.”
Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, or even use Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for MakeCode, CircuitPython, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell with Google Hangouts On-Air is every Wednesday at 7:30pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat – we’ll post the link there.
