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Apple CarPlay review: A useful companion, even in its early stages
It's been two years since Apple announced its plot to put your iPhone's core features inside the dash of your car, but only now is its CarPlay software becoming available in lots of new models. In brief, CarPlay allows you to connect your trusty iOS device to a vehicle's infotainment system to make things like texts, maps and music accessible from the console. Sure, the goal is to provide an easier way to use your phone on the road, but it also nixes the distraction of swiping through screens on the phone itself. To put CarPlay through its paces, I hit the highway for a 7.5-hour road trip in a 2016 Camaro SS, a model that'll arrive soon at your local dealer. From Philadelphia to Raleigh, North Carolina, I used it to navigate, find food and stream in-car entertainment along the way. This first version of Apple's software for the car is certainly useful, but as I found, there's room for improvement.
Another Mists daily screenshot appears on WoW community site
Blizzard has released yet another picture from Mists of Pandaria featuring a new tauren model with yak-like features. Could this be our first look at a new race of tauren much like the taunka from Wrath of the Lich King, or even a look at a brand new tauren model? Only time will tell. For those of you looking at every pixel of the image, notice the new boot, belt, and legplate models on the tauren as well as the new architecture and environments. Check out a larger version of the picture for increased detail. %Gallery-150647% World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria is the next expansion, raising the level cap to 90, introducing a brand new talent system, and bringing forth the long-lost pandaren race to both Horde and Alliance. Check out the trailer and follow us for all the latest MoP news!
Blood Pact: All about soul stones
The Moon has aligned with Mars, and the cosmic energies have infused this week's Blood Pact with diabolical tidbits of Warlock-related content that will sear the souls of mortal men! This week, Blood Pact invites you to sit in on an actual gaming session...Nick W.: I'd like to roll a Craft(Writing) check to make a column. Game Master: Alright, make your check. *Click clatter of rolled dice...* Nick W.: I rolled a four... Game Master: You create an episode of Blood Pact. Nick W.: Damn! Though it may have been watered down by the "bring the player, not the class" mantra, Warlocks are a utility class at heart. We can rock the DPS as hard as anybody else, but our real value comes in our summons, our debuffs, and our Soul Stones. That's what I'd like to talk about this week. Proper Soul Stoning is an important topic. One which I've never seen covered to my satisfaction. The general one line of advice everybody gives to new Warlocks is "make sure the healer has a Soul Stone." But that's about as helpful as "cast spells at things to make them die." Sometimes it's not true, and even when it is true, the fact of the matter is a great deal more complicated than the single sentence of instruction can convey. So what is proper Soul Stoning procedure? Soul Shards are easy enough to come by these days that there really isn't any excuse for not being prepared to Soul Stone whenever it's appropriate, but when is that? And when it is appropriate, who is the best candidate for having the stone cast on them? The latter question is far too often ignored, particularly in raid situations where there's more than one healer to choose from.
Toshiba's Dynabook SS RX2 with world's first 512GB SSD
With 512GB SSDs already announced it was just a matter of time until OEMs slapped that slim slab of solid state silicon into a laptop. Now our patience has paid off with Toshiba's 12.1-inch Dynabook SS RX2/WAJ; a world's first laptop to feature Toshiba's own 512GB SSD. Oh sure, ASUS announced its S121 with 512GB SSD back at CES but Toshiba's laptop is the first to actually ship. Remember, the Core 2 Duo SU9400-based SS RX2 is already the mother of ultra-portable badassery with a 12-hour battery stuffed into a slim 19.5 ~ 25.5mm sled weighing just 1.1-kg (less than 2.5-pounds). But with the SSD alone priced at about $1,500, well, you can guess how much the SS RX2 will cost configured (hint: over $4,000).Update: As noted by tipster Grovester, the US version of this RX2 -- the Portege R600-ST4203 -- with the same 512GB SSD lists for just $2,999. Not bad.Update 2: Toshiba contacted to let us know that the $2,999 listing (see Google cache) was apparently a mistake -- the real price is $3,499. Not so good.
Toshiba's new SS M40 and Satellite J63 laptops keep it basic
Toshiba seems to be on a serious roll as of late, at least in the world of laptops. Just following the launch of the Dynabook SS RX1 and a whole slew of new Qosmios and Satellites, the company is delivering two fresh, middle-of-the-road models (at least on Japanese shores). Both new laptops boast wildly predictable configurations, consisting of an 80GB or 120GB HDD, up to 4GB of RAM, an ATI Radeon Xpress 200M graphics chipset, and 802.11a/b/g -- with the 13.3-inch SS M40 rocking a Celeron 540 or Core 2 Duo T7100 processor (at 1.8GHz or 1.86GHz, respectively), while the 15-inch J63 sports a 1.73GHz Celeron M530. In Japan, the SS M40 ranges in price from around $1531 to $1789 while the J63 sells for $1496 to $1651. No word, however, on when or if these puppies will be making it Stateside.
SC2 gameplay pics
Yes, folks, this site is going to be Starcraft 2 Insider for the next little while. Somehow I don't think you guys'll mind too much -- we're all Blizzard fans here, right? Anyway, I turned up a few gameplay pictures from the Starcraft 2 announcement, and here they are! IGN also has many excellent official screenshots over at their site [thanks, Rich]. Although that seems to be getting hammered right now, they're definitely worth checking out. The game looks a lot more like Starcraft 1 than I would have expected, which is a good thing, in my opinion.%Gallery-3309%
