24 Games We’re Stoked For In March, Great Switch Games On Sale For Mario Day, And More Of The Week’s Top News

This week, we got some insight into what prompted Ubisoft to add a “canon mode”—which strips out all narrative choices in favor of adhering to one set story path—to the upcoming Assassin’s Creed Shadows. Also, we looked at 24 games coming out in this fairly packed month that we can’t wait to try, shared the details on…

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M5Stack Cardputer v1.1 Brings Upgraded Microcontroller and Improved Keyboard

M5Stack has released Cardputer v1.1, an upgraded version of its compact computing platform. The latest version introduces the StampS3A microcontroller, an improved antenna, and a more responsive keyboard, enhancing stability and usability. Additional refinements include optimized power consumption and better RGB LED control, improving overall efficiency.

Google Introduces Debian Linux Terminal App For Android

Google has introduced a Debian Linux terminal app for Android in its ongoing effort to transform Android into a versatile desktop OS. It’s initially available on Pixel devices running Android 15 but will be expanded to “all sufficiently robust Android phones” when Android 16 arrives later this year,” writes ZDNet’s Steven Vaughan-Nichols. An anonymous reader shares an excerpt from the report: Today, Linux is only available on the latest Pixel devices running Android 15. When Android 16 arrives later this year, it’s expected that all sufficiently robust Android phones will be able to run Linux. Besides a Linux terminal, beta tests have already shown that you should be able to run desktop Linux programs from your phone — games like Doom, for example. The Linux Terminal runs on top of a Debian Linux virtual machine. This enables you to access a shell interface directly on your Android device. And that just scratches the surface of Google’s Linux Terminal. It’s actually a do-it-all app that enables you to download, configure, and run Debian. Underneath Terminal runs the Android Virtualization Framework (AVF). These are the APIs that enable Android devices to run other operating systems.

To try the Linux Terminal app, you must activate Developer Mode by navigating to Settings – About Phone and tapping the build number seven times. I guess Google wants to make sure you want to do this. Once Developer Mode is enabled, the app can be activated via Settings – System – Developer options – Linux development environment. The initial setup may take a while because it needs to download Debian. Typically this is a 500MB download. Once in place, it allows you to adjust disk space allocation, set port controls for network communication, and recover the virtual machine’s storage partition. However, it currently lacks support for graphical user interface (GUI) applications. For that, we’ll need to wait for Android 16.

According to Android specialist Mishaal Rahman, ‘Google wants to turn Android into a proper desktop operating system, and in order to do that, it has to make it work better with traditional PC input methods and display options. Therefore, Google is now testing new external display management tools in Android 16 that bring Android closer to other desktop OSes.’

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New research shows bigger animals get more cancer, defying decades-old belief

A longstanding scientific belief about a link between cancer prevalence and animal body size has tested for the first time in our new study ranging across hundreds of animal species.

If larger animals have more cells, and cancer comes from cells going rogue, then the largest animals on Earth—like elephants and whales—should be riddled with tumours. Yet, for decades, there has been little evidence to support this idea.

Many species seem to defy this expectation entirely. For example, budgies are notorious among pet owners for being prone to renal cancer despite weighing only 35 g. Yet cancer only accounts for around 2 percent of mortality among roe deer (up to 35 kg).

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Blood Typers is a terrifically tense, terror-filled typing tutor

When you think about it, the keyboard is the most complex video game controller in common use today, with over 100 distinct inputs arranged in a vast grid. Yet even the most complex keyboard-controlled games today tend to only use a relative handful of all those available keys for actual gameplay purposes.

The biggest exception to this rule is a typing game, which by definition asks players to send their fingers flying across every single letter on the keyboard (and then some) in quick succession. By default, though, typing games tend to take the form of extremely basic typing tutorials, where the gameplay amounts to little more than typing out words and sentences by rote as they appear on screen, maybe with a few cute accompanying animations.


Typing “gibbon” quickly has rarely felt this tense or important.
Credit:
Outer Brain Studios

Blood Typers adds some much-needed complexity to that basic type-the-word-you-see concept, layering its typing tests on top of a full-fledged survival horror game reminiscent of the original PlayStation era. The result is an amazingly tense and compelling action adventure that also serves as a great way to hone your touch-typing skills.

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NASA’s SPHEREx Is Poised To Launch Mission To Map 450 Million Galaxies In Color

NASA’s SPHEREx observatory (short for Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer) is set to launch this week to map 450 million galaxies in infrared, providing insights into galaxy formation, the origins of water, and testing theories about the universe’s rapid expansion following the Big Bang. The two-year mission will repeatedly survey the entire sky and help scientists understand fundamental cosmic processes. NBC News reports: The launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California is scheduled to occur Friday, during a window that opens at 10:09 p.m. ET. Liftoff was initially planned for Feb. 27, but NASA rescheduled it several times, first to “complete vehicle processing and prelaunch checkouts,” and because of availability at the California launch site.

The cone-shaped spacecraft — along with four suitcase-sized satellites that NASA will deploy at the same time on a separate mission to study the sun — will launch atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The $488 million SPHEREx mission, which has been in development for about a decade, is designed to map the celestial sky in 102 infrared colors — more than any other mission before it, according to NASA.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.