Hasta La Gadget!

Following its successful Kickstarter campaign, Adapteva flashed the production versions of its Parallella “supercomputer” boards in April, penning in a loose summer delivery date. Today, the company reports that the first “beta” units have begun winding their way to backers who pledged at the DEVELOPER, 64-CORE-PLUS and ROLF levels. Other backers should receive their boards by summer’s end “after some final refinements.” For those who missed the crowd-funding window, you too can get a Parallella, as Adapteva has now opened up general pre-orders for the 16-core version on its website. While all Kickstarter-bought boards will bear a Zynq-7020 SoC, new pre-orders are configured with a 7010 as standard, though you can upgrade to the 7020 if you lay down a little more dough. However, newcomers will be treated to “Gen-1” boards, which will offer slight improvements over earlier versions, such as reduced power consumption and an added serial port three-pin header. You’ll find the basic 16-core board going for $99 over at Adapteva’s store, with an expected October delivery date. The company tells us the 64-core version will also be available for public consumption, with pre-orders beginning in Q4 this year.

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Source: GitHub (Gen-1 board specs), Adapteva store

As a wannabe science nerd I’ve always been fascinated by oscilloscopes, wave generators, and sensors of all types. Sadly, because of my inability to add simple figures (even with a calculator) nobody ever let me play with their lab equipment. That’s about to change.

Red Pitaya is a Slovenian-born sensor system that can turn any computer into a real lab-quality tool. To be clear, you have to be pretty smart to use it but, out of the box, the board acts as an oscilloscope, spectrum analyzer, waveform generator, and a frequency response analyzer. The group responsible is also building an open source “app store,” called the Bazaar, where users can grab programs to use with the board.

It has a dual core ARM Cortex chip on board and features two analog inputs and two analog outputs as well as four lower-speed I/O ports. It supports Ethernet and includes a Micro SD slot.

Clearly this is some hacker-grade stuff and if you don’t know what you’d do with a Red Pitaya you’re probably not the right market. However, given the $299 price tag and unique functionality, it would be definitely interesting for, say a hackerspace or educational environment. They are looking for $50,000 and have already raised $6,000 and, I suspect, there will be quite a bit of demand for this thinger. It’s rare to see something this powerful available for, what I assume, is a pittance so it may be worth picking up a few, if only so you can finally get your hands on a darn oscilloscope.

Electric bikes can be expensive and sometimes just plain ugly, which really sucks, because if you are lazy, you want one. There are some conversion kits available, but they make the bike look too weird. Rubbee to the rescue!

Rubbee recently-launched as a Kickstarter project and the idea is that it turns your regular bike into an electric one. Even better, it does this in mere seconds. It is an electric motor drive that you mount on your bike. Just attach the motor pack, connect the throttle, and you’re done. There is a friction wheel at the back tire, which turns when the electric motor is on. The Rubbee will give you about 15 miles of range on a 2 hour charge. Best of all, it looks nice and doesn’t get in the way.

All done with your electric bike and need some exercise? Just flip a switch.

Then full Rubbee electric drive package will cost you a minimum pledge of £699 or about $1,070(USD). While this is as expensive as some standalone electric bikes, the Rubbee lets you use your existing bike, and keeps weight to a minimum.

[via C|NET via Oh! Gizmo]

Ever since the OUYA has entered production, the makers behind the console have been dedicated to getting exclusive games for the OUYA in order to raise the appeal of the Android-powered mini console. Today, the company is announcing a huge program at getting game devs to make games exclusively for the OUYA, and they’re willing to pay developers to make it happen.

OUYA is setting aside $1 million for getting game developers to make games for the new console. They’re calling it the “Free the Games” fund, and essentially, OUYA will be matching funds that game developers raise on Kickstarter. This means that if a dev raises $20,000 for an OUYA game, OUYA will match that and give the developer $20,000 more to make the game.

However, here’s the kicker: Kickstarter projects looking to make an OUYA game have to reach at least $50,000 in order for OUYA to pitch in a match the price, but the company is stopping contributions at $250,000. We’re not sure exactly why OUYA has set a minimum, but it’s most likely to make sure that successful projects actually get made (instead of being underfunded).

However, if OUYA backs your project, you have to agree that the game remains exclusive on the mini console for at least six months. After that, it seems you’re free to do whatever else you want with the game. That doesn’t sound like a bad deal to us, especially if OUYA doubled the funds raised for a new game.

Ouya raised over $8.5 million in its wildly successful Kickstarter campaign, and have shipped out over 10,000 developer consoles. The console has since seen a retail launch, which was quickly sold out, so if you’re a game developer and worried about the success of OUYA, we have to say that there’s probably nothing to be worried about at this point.

OUYA “Free the Games” fund invests in even more exclusive titles is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
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The OUYA Android gaming console has been met with mixed reviews. The console blew up on Kickstarter, and in the months leading up to its recent release, the hype has turned into slight concern over whether or not developers will build out its game library.

To answer that question, OUYA today announces the $1 million Free The Games Fund, which will match the funding amount received by developers on Kickstarter. So, if a developer is building an OUYA game and launches that game on Kickstarter between August 9, 2013 and August 10, 2014, OUYA will match whatever funds are received on the crowd-funding platform between $50,000 and $250,000.

According to the press release, OUYA currently has over 20,000 registered game developers. That’s up from 12,000 in May, around the time that OUYA closed its $15 million funding round.

Here’s the official word from CEO Julie Uhrman in the release:

There are two reasons why OUYA is on retail store shelves today: we had an innovative idea to build an affordable and open game console for the television, and we found fans who supported our idea and provided the funds to make it happen. Since then, we’ve seen dozens of great games launch on Kickstarter, and now we are in the enviable position of being able to give back AND secure the best, exclusive games for OUYA.

OUYA reminds us that some of the console’s most popular games, like Fist of Awesome (I Fight Bears) and Saturday Morning: RPG (Mighty Rabbit Studios), enjoyed their inception on Kickstarter.

Hopefully, the Free The Games Fund will ensure a steady stream of awesome content for OUYA gamers.

The $99 OUYA gaming console is available for retail purchase now.