On your mark, get set…Yak Dash

Fans of side-scrolling racing games have a new title available in the Google Play Store for their amusement. Yak Dash: Horns of Glory from Mutant Labs is inspired by traditional Tibetan yak racing as players mount up their steeds and take on 17 levels of racing courses on four different mountain ranges. Like most titles in this genre, the racing is spiced up with a variety of challenges that can help you and your Yak to victory.

Racers have to contend with the challenges of the different courses to avoid sending themselves and their Yak to an early grave. They can also perform a variety of tricks to earn speed boosts and they will have to be on the lookout for shortcuts and prizes like apples that can help them get through a course.

As if this were not enough pressure, players have to contend with other Yak racers, whether it is the game’s AI opponents or other racers from around the world in online challenges. Besides the glory of a well-placed finish, users can earn yak coins which can be used to customize their yak and their jockey gear. As is standard fare, yak coins can also be obtained through an in-app purchase.

Yak Dash: Horns of Glory is free from the Play Store and requires Android Jelly Bean or higher.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Google Play Download Link

Come comment on this article: On your mark, get set…Yak Dash

Engadget giveaway: win a Raspberry Pi 2 and DIY kit courtesy of Element14!

Where to begin? Would you like to make your own PiRate radio station or Pi Microwave? Does a techno upgrade to your Fisher Price Chatter Telephone sound like fun? You can do all this and more with a credit-card-sized Raspberry Pi 2 Model B at the heart of your project. Element14 has been supporting the professional and hobbyist electronics community for years by hosting online groups and supplying some of the requisite gear. It’s shipped a few million of the Raspberry Pi since its 2012 release and to celebrate the second iteration, the company gave us a hefty starter kit — Ben Heck can’t have all the fun. This time around, the Pi is six times faster, has double the memory capacity and if you’ve already been hacking away with an earlier version, don’t fret, its backwards compatible, too. There’s a host of partner products from sensors to NFC to WiFi modules available from Element14 and this week’s giveaway includes 15 of those alongside the new Raspberry Pi 2 Model B for one lucky Engadget reader. You know the drill, just head down to the Rafflecopter widget for up to three chances at winning.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

• Entries are handled through the Rafflecopter widget above. Comments are no longer accepted as valid methods of entry. You may enter without any obligation to social media accounts, though we may offer them as opportunities for extra entries. Your email address is required so we can get in touch with you if you win, but it will not be given to third parties.
• Contest is open to all residents of the 50 States, the District of Columbia, and Canada (excluding Quebec), 18 or older! Sorry, we don’t make this rule (we hate excluding anyone), so direct your anger at our lawyers and contest laws if you have to be mad.
• Winners will be chosen randomly. One (1) winner will receive one (1) Raspberry Pi 2 kit including: The Raspberry Pi 2 Model B, WIPI – wireless connectivity drive, Gertbot – motor/power control add-on for RPi, Pi View – HDMI to VGA adapter, Explore NFC – NFC add-on board, Pi Rack – circuit rack, PiFace Digital 2 – digital I/O expansion board, PiFace Control & Display – alphanumeric display board, Pi Camera Board – add-on camera, Pi Noir Camera Board – night vision add-on camera, Cirrus Logic Audio Card – for capturing audio alongside camera, PiFace Relay Extra – control LEDs and switches with RPi, PiFace Motor Control Extra – control motors with RPi, Bitscope Micro – diagnostic tool for RPi projects, Memory Card – 8 GB NOOBS card, Power Supply.
• If you are chosen, you will be notified by email. Winners must respond within three days of being contacted. If you do not respond within that period, another winner will be chosen. Make sure that the account you use to enter the contest includes your real name and a contact email or Facebook login. We do not track any of this information for marketing or third-party purposes.
• This unit is purely for promotional giveaway. Engadget and AOL are not held liable to honor warranties, exchanges or customer service.
• The full list of rules, in all its legalese glory, can be found here.
• Entries can be submitted until June 3rd at 11:59PM ET. Good luck!

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Global Apollo program wants to make green energy cheaper than coal

A team of scientists wants to quickly drive down the cost of renewable energy to the point that it’s cheaper than coal within ten years’ time. In order to do that, though, they need money — lots and lots of money to the tune of $150 billion. That’s why they founded the Global Apollo Programme, named as such because (in the words of one of the founders, Richard Layard of the London School of Economics ) “The challenge is as big as putting a man on the moon.” The researchers envision the program as a collaboration between several nations, funding research that will make renewable energy a much more feasible option.

In particular, they want to concentrate on developing a more efficient storage technology for solar and wind energy, as well as smarter software for power grids. A battery or any other tech that can effectively store energy for use at night and other periods of heavy demand could lead to a more widespread use of renewable energy. That, in turn, could make keeping global warming under the 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit danger threshold possible. The scientists have recently presented their report at London’s Royal Society, where one of the authors and former UK government chief scientist David King revealed that several countries have already shown “considerable interest.” These include some European Union members, China, India, Japan, Korea, Mexico, United Arab Emirates and the United States

King is hoping to announce the first countries to sign up at the G-20 Antalya summit in Turkey in November this year, before the UN climate talks in Paris begin in December. The program expects each member country to invest 0.02% of its GDP to research and development of new technologies and promises to share results with all the participating nations. Sounds intriguing, but as Danish academic Bjorn Lomborg told Reuters: for renewable energy to become the cheapest way to generate electricity, governments must first end subsidies to fossil fuel companies.

[Image credit: NASA]

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Source: Reuters, BBC, New Scientist, Global Apollo Programme, Bloomberg

Watch NASA test its main deep space rocket in a cloud of steam

If you thought NASA’s recent booster rocket test for the Space Launch System was full of sound and fury, just wait until you see what happens with the main engines. The agency recently conducted a nearly 8-minute burn test for the RS-25 rocket providing the SLS’ core thrust, and the machinery isn’t exactly subtle — as you’ll see in the video below, it produced a gigantic steam cloud that seemingly dwarfed the complex. Of course, this dry run wasn’t really for show. NASA needed to prove that the RS-25’s automated propulsion (which adjusts things like fuel mixture based on throttle demands) will work without a hitch when it’s lifting payloads destined for places like Mars. And it’s important to note that this is just one of four primary rockets in the SLS. When the finished rocket launches in 2018, it’ll put out a fierce 1.6 million pounds of thrust that could make this demo seem timid by comparison.

[Image credit: NASA]

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Via: NASA (Google+)

Source: NASA, NASA’s Marshall Center (YouTube)

Intel: Rezence wireless charging will be in next year’s devices

As we heard from Intel at its Computex keynote, the merger between A4WP (Alliance for Wireless Power) and PMA (Power Matters Alliance) is finally a signed deal as of today, which is a big step towards delivering the next-generation wireless power — one that can transmit further while also covering a wider range of wattage — to consumers. Intel’s SVP Kirk Skaugen, the very same man who’s been pushing for the totally wireless PC since last year’s Computex (the photo sort of explains why), added that we’ll be seeing this magnetic resonance technology aka Rezence being integrated into next year’s laptops, keyboard, mice and other devices. For those who can’t wait, the exec also expects to see Rezence-enabled add-ons for mobile devices during the transitional period. “This will be a journey just like Centrino: we didn’t invent wireless notebooks; we just made wireless ubiquitous.”

Filed under: Wireless, Intel

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Only thunder gods are worthy of handling this PC

Thermaltake’s PC modding community often likes to do things to excess: Taiwan’s biggest tech show is a huge opportunity for such excesses. The PC you see above, unashamedly modeled on a certain Nordic deity’s blunt implement of choice, is a good example. Did we want to try to grap it and see if we were worthy? Sure. Were we allowed? No.

Filed under: Desktops

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