It may not look like much, but the Raspberry Pi is actually a tiny computer that’s as powerful as an original Xbox, but no bigger than a credit card. You don’t need to max out your pocket money savings to buy one though – this mini marvel sells for only £25!

To keep down costs, it comes with no monitor, keyboard or mouse – but there’s a place to plug in all these things. The Raspberry Pi (or Raspi to its friends) was designed to be cheap enough for schools to buy a bundle, and get pupils interested in computer programming.

The Raspberry Pi has proved so popular that the first batch of 10,000 sold out in minutes. A prototype put on auction site eBay sold for a whopping price of £3,500! But don’t worry – lots more Raspberry Pis are on the way.

So if you come across one of these nifty gadgets in class, check it out – it could be your first step to becoming a whiz-kid programmer!

If you’d rather play computer games than program them, head straight to the cool games section of Pocket Money!

Photo: Liz Upton