From Droid Life: Chrono Trigger Lands in Google Play, Cult Classic for $9.99

There are games that have cult followings and then there is Chrono Trigger. In a class by itself, this game has sold more copies on different systems than pretty much any other game that was released during its time. Able to stand the test of time and ports to different systems, the game still lives on and can now be played right on your Android device.

This particular port is the one from the Nintendo DS a few years ago, which means this game includes 2 additional areas: The Dimensional Vortex and The Lost Sanctum. The game has been optimized for Android so you can expect a smooth playing experience even if the game is almost 20 years old. If you’re a fan of the series you will definitely want to check this classic in the link below, if you can stomach the price.

Play Link ($9.99)

Click here to view the embedded video.

from Droid Life

From Ars Technica: $99 Raspberry Pi-sized “supercomputer” hits Kickstarter goal

A prototype of Parallella. The final version will be the size of a credit card.

A month ago, we told you about a chipmaker called Adapteva that turned to Kickstarter in a bid to build a new platform that would be the size of a Raspberry Pi and an alternative to expensive parallel computing platforms. Adapteva needed at least $750,000 to build what it is calling “Parallella”—and it has hit the goal.

Today is the Kickstarter deadline, and the project is up to more than $830,000 with a few hours to go. (UPDATE: The fundraiser hit $898,921 when time expired.) As a result, Adapteva will build 16-core boards capable of 26 gigaflops performance, costing $99 each. The board uses RISC cores capable of speeds of 1GHz each. There is also a dual-core ARM A9-based system-on-chip, with the 16-core RISC chips acting as a coprocessor to speed up tasks.

Adapteva is well short of its stretch goal of $3 million, which would have resulted in a 64-core board hitting 90 gigaflops, and built using a more expensive 28-nanometer process rather than the 65-nanometer process used for the base model. The 64-core board would have cost $199.

from Ars Technica

From Engadget: Apple publishes ‘Samsung did not copy’ statement through gritted teeth

Apple publishes 'Samsung did not copy' statement through gritted teeth

Whatever you think of the continual legal tussles between Apple and Samsung, a UK court’s decision to force the former into publicly acknowledging that the latter did not copy its design will have seemed a little egregious even to the most ardent sammy-sympathiser. Well, that post is now live — on Apple’s site at least — and as you might expect, is studiously manicured to almost not feel like an acknowledgement at all. The opening legalese notes that Samsung did not infringe “registered design No. 0000181607-0001,” before going on to point out in perfect lay-terms the positive comments Judge Colin Birss made about its own slates. While Apple does confirm that the UK decision was further upheld by the court of appeal, it is also keen to remind you that other European legal jurisdictions (namely Germany) don’t share this opinion. Head to source to read the statement in full.

from Engadget

From Popular Science – New Technology, Science News, The Future Now: Video: Blue Origin Tests Its Rocket Crew Launchpad Escape System

Blue Origin’s Pad Escape System Going up. Blue Origin
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’s private spaceflight endeavor, usually quite secretive about its West Texas operations, gives us a peek at its latest test launch.On Friday, private spaceflight venture Blue Origin conducted a successful test of its Pad Escape system, demonstrating that its pusher escape motor system can effectively put daylight between its crew capsule and an imperiled launch vehicle (read: out-of-control rocket booster) should anything go awry during a potential future crewed space launch aboard Blue Origin’s technology. Today, we got our hands on the video.

In it you can see the crew capsule arcing upward some 2,307 feet from a simulated launch vehicle as it travels another 1,630 feet laterally downrange, ensuring that in the case of an actual ascent emergency it not only separates from a malfunctioning rocket but also gets out of its way as well. It then safely parachutes back to down to the West Texas desert floor.

The Pad Escape system is a key part of Blue Origin’s spaceflight scheme, which aims to field a completely reusable manned spacecraft as part of NASA’S Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) program. See it bail out below.

 

from Popular Science – New Technology, Science News, The Future Now