Unusual tech idols, so many Raspberry Pis, pioneer mobiles, luxury smartwatches, failed launches: Photos

From the prototype to Pi 3, the Raspberry Pi has been a surprise success among the DIY techie crowds.

Here you see the first Pi to be introduced in February 2012, the Raspberry Pi 1 Model B. The credit card-sized board made an impression for being a usable Linux computer that cost just $35.

See all the Pi photos here.

Rapid growth in the "Internet of Things" space means two things. First, it means that everything we own will soon be internet-connected. Second, it means that hackers will soon have access to everything we own, by virtue of it all being internet-connected.

Read on for 17 of the biggest IoT security risks.

Sure, the Steve Jobs movie is a Hollywood darling, and there's no doubt that the man at the center of the story revolutionized consumer tech. But, given all the hype about Jobs these days, you'd think the guy single-handedly brought us into the 21st century.

Not quite.

Take Heddy Lamar.

A bona fide Hollywood star, she also happened to invent spread spectrum technology in the 1940s, which is the backbone of wireless communication today.

Read on for 16 more fascinating tech pioneers.

Because SimCity was cloud and server-based, "The sheer number of users overwhelmed the back-end systems. Gamers weren't even able to log in half the time, and those that were part of the select and lucky few could barely do anything when in game-play mode. In some cases, large amounts of their created cities were lost, according to user reports," said ZDNet's Zack Whittaker.

Read on for more tech product launches that went wrong.

Over 40 years ago, Motorola engineer Martin Cooper made a call on a phone that was mobile and had no connection to a landline. It would take years before the technology of a cell phone would catch on in the mainstream (and be affordable), but that one call on that one clunky phone changed consumer technology forever.

Read on for more early mobile devices which were ahead of their time.

The future of robotics is open source.

The Solo from 3DR, pictured above, debuted in mid-2015, as the company's attempt to compete head-to-head with DJI and its massively popular Phantom. The Solo runs dual Linux processors.

Read on to find out how Linux helps power these 11 more robots.

If you want a luxurious, not cheap, wearable smartwatch, you can impress your friends with this selection of the best luxury smart watches on the market right now.

The Breitling Exospace B55, pictured above, connects to a dedicated app which enables you to remotely control the watch such as adjusting the time, setting alarms or activating night mode. You can view emails, Whatsapp notifications, call and calendar reminders. The watch can also log data such as lap times and flight times - for pilots and potential pilots.

Read on for five more luxury smartwatches.

Own an Apple laptop?

Here's a list of must-have accessories for this popular mobile notebook. All of these are products that we rely on daily to get my work done, and all have been field tested for durability and reliability.