At the end of last year, I had published that Microsoft Research was working on a prototype electronic platform running on NETMF named Gadgeteer. Well, it now seems that it has moved out of the research phase to “commercialize” this platform: Microsoft .NET Gadgeteer.
GHI Electronics has released the first Gadgeteer kit named GHI FEZ Spider Starter Kit. This kit allows you to code your own electronic module using your favorite language (and I am talking about C# ;) ) without knowing the basics of electronics. In fact, it is a hardware abstraction to allow budding hobbyists to start without learning how to solder or connect various electronic components.
You can see the first two demo applications:
Arcade Console
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Flipbook maker
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So, are you interested?