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Point of View Mobii netbook has Ion inside, psychedelia outside
Just by looking at the Mobii ION 230, you can tell it's a netbook keen on standing out from the crowd. This desire extends through its internals, which rely on NVIDIA's Ion platform to power an Atom N230 CPU, usually a nettop part, alongside an upgradeable 1GB of RAM and 160GB HDD. Hence, while battery life might take a comparative beating, graphical and processing ability should be appreciably superior to your run-of-the-mill netbook. Point of View promises flawless 1080p playback and DirectX 10 and Shader Model 4.0 support, with an HDMI-out if you don't feel the 10.2-inch display at 1024x 600 resolution does those features justice. You'd be wrong to expect anything more than a slideshow in graphically intensive games, but it's good to know the netbook market is getting a juiced-up option, and fret not, there's a conservative black paintjob available too. European prices are expected around the €349 ($495) mark and availability should hit within the next few weeks.[Via Netbook News]
Point of View debuts ExpressCard-accommodating Mobii PC netbook
It's apparently been taking a wait and see approach until now, but Netherlands-based manufacturer Point of View has finally jumped into the netbook waters and, as you can see, it's blended right in. That sameness, as you might have guessed, extends right down to the specs as well, including a 10.2-inch display, a 1.6GHz Atom processor, 1GB of RAM, a 160GB hard drive, Windows XP or LInpus Linux for an OS and, somewhat more uniquely, an ExpressCard slot, which will hopefully become an increasingly standard option in the year ahead. No word on a release 'round here, expectedly, but folks in Europe can apparently pick one up now for a reasonable €280, or just under $400.[Via Fudzilla]
Native iPhone app controls Packbot via WiFi, delivers streaming POV video
Sure, you love your iPhone, but did you ever feel like there was just one application missing from the home screen... besides MMS, IM, or a video recorder? If you're like us, that missing application was a full-featured Packbot control program replete with streaming POV video and a standalone, direct WiFi connection that doesn't require a proxy machine to pass along commands. Rodrigo Guiterrez and Jeff Craighead -- the brains behind this operation -- claim that next up they plan to utilize the phone's accelerometers and a fullscreen video display to deliver a "you are there" experience for bot-steering. Engadget and its team of armed Packbots can hardly wait. Check the video after the break to see it in action.
My Secret Life as a Mage
I've become increasingly bored with grinding on my main character, so it's time for another alt to feel the love. As I play late at night, it makes sense to level an alt while the BGs are out of action and the LFG channel is quiet, though this does make levelling a lonely pursuit.Having grouped with the entire spectrum of mages in the past -- from the extremely incompetent to high-damage-dealers with a deathwish -- it's been interesting to actually get inside the class a bit more. Initially, it was one of the classes I couldn't stomach by the time I hit level 8; seeing their fearsome power at level 60 has possibly changed my mind. (After all, who doesn't want to be their own vending machine?)
