This ADABOX takes its inspiration from our childhood: spending weekends with computers like the Apple ][, 286 PC, ZX-Spectrum, C-64, Mac Plus and TRS-80. These machines plugged into a TV and blazed our eyes with 8-bit glory as we played games, typed programs from magazines, and patiently waited our turn as siblings and friends loaded the latest programs from cartridges and floppies. We didn't mind too much the constrained memory, simplistic graphics and bleepy tunes, it was amazing to have a self-contained electronic wonderland that could do almost anything.

We turned such wistfully recollections into a new design we call the Fruit Jam. Inspired by the IchigoJam DIY computer kit, this credit-card sized computer can drive an HDMI monitor and mini speaker, with USB keyboard and mouse for input. But instead of running Mac or Windows or Linux, it's directly programmable like a microcontroller. This makes it easy to write your own games or apps with powerful interpreted Python scripts that live on the built in 16 MB flash disk: no complex APIs or compilers required! Use Fruit Jam OS to launch downloadable apps, including a mini text editor for writing your own programs, and an IRC client for chatting with other #fruitjam fans.

As always, we thank DigiKey for their unending support - this year has been a rollercoaster with managing tariffs and inventory and DigiKey has been a rock solid in their support and sourcing capabilities.

Last but not least, we thank all our ADABOX subscribers - your patience is appreciated as we navigate the never-boring-times in manufacturing open source hardware. We're really excited to have you try all of the great projects we've designed for the Fruit Jam! Then, visit adafruit-playground.com to check out and join in on community-contributed projects and code.

-- ladyada, pt, kiddo and newborn

In the Box