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Tesla's most affordable Model S returns with bigger battery
Tesla's more affordable Model S 60 is back, and it comes with a more attractive base price of $66,000 (£53,000). That's around $4,000 less for the 60kWh sedan that the automaker originally sold from 2012 to 2015 before it was replaced by the 70D. To sweeten the deal, Tesla added a 75kWh battery pack to the car and the extra power and range can be unlocked via a software update if the owner needs to do so. Of course, there's an added cost involved for the update, but exact pricing for that hasn't been revealed.
Distro Issue 60: Infinitec's rebirth gets Kickstarted in the Dubai desert
Another week has come to a close and that signals the arrival of a brand spanking new issue of our weekly e-magazine. This time out, Darren Murph makes the trek to the United Arab Emirates to chat with Ahmad Zahran about how crowd sourcing has jumpstarted his company, Infinitec, for a second time. We also pay a visit to the Paris Auto Show to take a gander at the latest in transportation tech, while Amazon's Kindle Paperwhite and the Samsung Galaxy S Relay 4G get the full review treatment. "Eyes-on" tackles a suitcase full of sound, "Weekly Stat" offers a look at data consumption amongst Android users and NVIDIA's Nick Stam tells all in the Q&A. Grab a spot in your favorite reading chair because the latest issue is just a few clicks away. Distro Issue 60 PDF Distro in the iTunes App Store Distro in the Google Play Store Distro APK (for sideloading) Like Distro on Facebook Follow Distro on Twitter
The Daily Grind: How long should it take to reach the level cap?
Yesterday Blizzard revealed that World of Warcraft's recruit-a-friend program will undergo some big changes. One of those changes: if you group with a friend whose account was signed up because you invited him or her to play, you'll both receive experience at 300% the normal rate.Blizzard has already decreased the amount of XP needed to reach level 60. When Wrath of the Lich King launches, word has it that an even bigger slash will occur in the 60 - 70 range. How long will it take to 60, 70, or 80 now, we wonder? That probably depends on your personal playstyle. But the question of how long it ought to take to reach the endgame in an EverQuest/World of Warcraft-style MMO has been on our minds ever since Funcom made a statement about how many hours it wants people to invest to reach level 80 in Age of Conan.What's the sweet spot for you? Do you want to get there as fast as possible, or is the journey to the top the real attraction?
Leveling improvements for Patch 2.3
Are you in the midst of leveling a character between 20 and 60? Well right now is the time to stop everything, rush over to this forum post from Blizzard, and sing a happy song while you hurry up and wait! That's right, in answer to the crying pleas of casual alt-oholics everywhere, Blizzard is finally speeding up the tedious leveling curve for old world content in patch 2.3, adding in a bunch of new quests, nerfing a lot of the nastiest bad guys, and buffing a whole bunch of the items they drop.Here's a summarized list of the changes, with the full post by Vaneras copied for you beyond the link below. Amount of experience needed to level reduced by 15% per level between 20 and 60. Experience gained from completing quests increased between levels 30 and 60. Outdoor elite quests will now now be soloable, with the same (or better) rewards. About 60 new quests and a new goblin town based in Dustwallow Marsh (levels 30 to 40) Level ranges for old dungeons to be narrowed down a bit (so that if you are high enough to start them, you are high enough to finish them too) Increased questing experience for dungeon quests. Buffed up item drops from dungeon bosses. As Vaneras says, "Though we've given you a few examples of the things to come, we think everyone will pleasantly surprised when they see the full extent of the changes discussed above." Keep reading to see all the juicy details.
Vizio's 60-inch Maximvs VM60P plasma: $2,999, shipping February
Vizio is back at it again, this time promising a new 60-inch plasma HDTV with an MSRP of only $2,999. Of course, for a 60-inch plasma under $3k, you can't have everything, and this set features a native 720p (1366x768) resolution instead of the newer 1080p, but still compares well in terms of price to other sets in its class. The Panasonic TH-58PX60U, and Pioneer Pro-1540HD are a similar size and resolution, but carry MSRPs of $5,499 and $8,000, respectively. Vizio's Maximvs VM60P set pleases with four HDMI inputs, two component inputs, VGA jack and ATSC / QAM / NTSC tuners integrated into the set itself. The included Genesis Faroudja DCDi scaler can accept any signal from 480i to 1080p to display on the 7,000:1 contrast ratio screen with its 1,200 cd/m2 brightness. Like its popular Black Friday 42-inch plasma and 1080p 47-inch LCD, the company aims to bring HDTVs with attractive features at mass market prices. Comparing the price tags, it looks great next to the competition, but we'll see how the picture quality holds up when they start shipping next month.[Via Cnet]
How to Hit 60 In Style (Or Not)
Yesterday, my Orc Shaman finally hit "the most fun part of the game," according to one of my guildies-- yep, after long last, he dinged 60.Originally, I had hoped to do something really interesting with it-- hit 60 by discovering Stormwind, or finally downing Hakkar for the first time. But in the end, I happened to be in the middle of a Scholo run, and it rolled right up on me. Not that it wasn't exciting-- later that night I used all my new stats on a raid and picked up a great mace, and I couldn't wait to get into AV afterwards and finally put the beat down for real. And my experience wasn't as bad as Belle's over in the WoW Ladies livejournal group-- she hit 60 while AFK and offline.Fortunately, I have another character three levels from 60, so I'm just a week or so away from another chance to make the ding special (I think for this one I'm going to at least try to get my guild to take me to Onyxia for the occasion). Did you try to hit your 60 somewhere specific, or did you just play through until that yellow sparkle showed up for the last time? Or if you haven't reached the holy grail yet, got any plans?
Breakfast Topic: The last few levels
Benig in the late 50s is a tricky position. Depending on your guild, you might start ramping up to the endgame, or you may be trundling with your head down towards 60. If your guild isn't going all-out to get you levelled, then it can get depressing logging in, spending hours mindlessly killing, and not getting a level out of it.A few tricks to break up the tedium of that final stretch include: explore new areas and quests; pick a faction (such as the Timbermaw or Argent Dawn) and grind reputation, focusing on that rather than your level; spend some time in PvP, which has a small experience reward; try farming for money or drops instead of xp; and do some instances. You could also concentrate on your tradeskills if you've been neglecting them.Of course, nothing really changes the fact that it does take a while to level, and if you haven't the stomach for grinding, you may get bored. I've found breaking up grinding with some PvP works well, and I also used the WoWVid player for a while to entertain me through the killing. Have you any tips to make the home stretch go by quicker?
Things to do in Azeroth when you're 60
The official site's recently been updated with a helpful page telling us all about high-level options: the various factions you can grind reputation for, the battlegrounds you can grind honour in, and the professions you can farm materials for. There's also an overview of the high-level dungeons and world events as well as some other tips to try (Tried an "Alt"?).However, the page looks more useful to those who've heard about WoW's endgame and are currently sitting in the level 40-50 bracket wondering "What's the point?" -- it's great that Blizzard are trying to supplement WoW's endgame by providing a handy page of "Things Level 60s Can Now Do", but it all seems a bit desperate to me.
