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Chrysler's Peapod EV lets iPod double as ignition key
That unassuming iPod dock we saw in Chrysler GEM's Peapod prototype? Turns out it's got a pretty interesting little trick, allowing your iPhone / iPod double as the ignition key. According to the EV's brochure, the company's got an app that makes all the magic work, and if you wish to start your car in an old-school manner, keys are still a viable option. Sure, it's not the first example of car-phone integration we've come across, it's a welcome addition to the oddly-shaped neighborhood whip that's going beyond concept phase into production this October.
Scattered Shots: A PvE gem and enchant guide for Hunters
Welcome to this week's edition of Scattered Shots, which is dedicated to shiny things and dust.So by now you've seen our normal dungeon gear guide, our heroic dungeon gear guide, our reputation gear guide, and our holiday gift guide. Between all of them, you should be able to put together a nice solid set of gear that should let you tackle 10-man Naxxramas pretty easily. But grabbing the gear is the easy part. To go the extra mile, you need to grab those gems and enchantments. Let's look at some of the best gems and enchantments you can take along to secure your place in the DPS charts in Naxxramas.
Holy and Discipline Priest 3.0.2 spell and ability review
Before continuing to read on, you may wish to refer back to part 1 of the Holy and Discipline Priest 3.0.2 overview. Part 2 will cover many basics including mana management, healing spells, gem questions, and glyphs. It is a very strong bet that patch 3.0.2 patch will activate on Tuesday. For the Priests that are still raiding (I feel like I'm the only one), find out what you need to know after the jump!
GEM becomes Green Eco Mobility, introduces Peapod prototype
While Chevy makes quite a to-do about the upcoming Volt hybrid, GM-cousin Chrysler has quietly continued to produce over 38,000 real, honest to gosh electric cars in its GEM sub-division. In need of a little eco-PR boost, Global Electric Motorcars is re-branding itself as Global Eco Mobility and introducing the Peapod. No, not that Peapod, or that Peapod, but a new Peapod that will travel up to 30 miles at 25 mph on an eight hour charge -- stats that sound suspiciously identical to the company's earlier Neighborhood Electric Vehicle (when not in muddin' guise, at least). But, that car doesn't sport bulbous looks on the outside nor gratuitous iPod integration on the inside (pictured below), which, if you don't have to go far or fast, might make it the perfect accessory for your pod when it enters production sometime next year for an undisclosed price.[Via Register Hardware]
The brilliance of Brilliant Glass
Patch 2.4.2 just threw the gem market in for a loop. Because Brilliant Glass now has a chance of giving an epic gem, the reagents required for the Jewelcrafting ability became scarce and prices shot through the roof. Uncommon gems which used to rot in players' banks or languish on the Auction Houses started disappearing into the hands of Jewelcrafters and cunning businessmen (sometimes both). Blood Garnets, as nice as they are, never sold for more than 1 Gold apiece, even after Brilliant Glass was introduced. Nowadays, on our server, they're about 10 Gold a pop.And why not? It's almost impossible to catch it on the Auction Houses now since it's pretty much an instant sale. Even prospecting has gotten some love because even destroying Fel Iron Ore has become useful for a chance to get some uncommon (and sometimes rare) gems. The chain reaction of profit continues as Jewelcrafters prospect, get uncommon gems, create Brilliant Glass, and sometimes luck out on an epic gem. The irony is, with most servers now having the alchemy lab on the Isle of Quel'danas now open for business, epic gems are starting to find their way into the market, driving prices down. Crimson Spinels, which many guilds rarely put on sale, used to run as high as 800 to 1,000 Gold on our server. Now they have become among the most commonly bought (for badges) and sold (on the AH) gems, averaging about 300 to 400 Gold. Uncommon gems are now bought as a reagent for Brilliant Glass and almost never cut, driving prices up; while epic gems are becoming more and more available, driving prices down. If you're a Jewelcrafter, don't pass up on the chance to Brilliant Glass every 20 hours! It's a crazy time for Jewelcrafting, but it's never been more fun... or profitable.
And you thought that laptop fire sucked...
GEM neighborhood electric vehicle (NEV) burning peacefully on the UC Riverside campus, January 15th, 2008. Bigger version in the gallery below.[Image courtesy of Matt G.]%Gallery-14027%
Making money from Season 3
Tomorrow morning Arena Season 3 is scheduled to start up and, among other things, this will bring a lot of new loot into the game. I'm sure many of you are like myself and have been hoarding up honor and arena points in order to buy the new gear as soon as it appears on the vendors. This season, due largely to the new rating requirements placed on some of the new items, I've decided to actually put forth effort to be competitive in the arena. With that in mind, picking up the new PvP gear becomes a priority, and I imagine other people are going to be in a similar position. Gone are the days of dying in the arena week after week in order to finally pick up that amazing weapon. Of course, for many players, there's a much more important aspect to preparing for Season 3: making money on the auction house.
Leave the glue at home: concept phone lets you bejewel by grid
Picture this doomsday scenario: you've gone and covered the screen of your phone with stylish hearts and esses, only to discover that the design just doesn't fit your mood anymore. With classic methods of bejeweling, that puts you in a bit of a pickle, seeing how your phone's now covered with a nice, thick layer of glue separating the sparkly stuff from the shell of the handset. It's all good, though -- with his new concept, designer Nils Siegel pictures a world where you can change your phone's gems as quickly as... well, popping out and plugging in a couple hundred tiny squares. A fun task? Not necessarily, but in the scheme of things, it's probably cheaper than buying a new phone for every mood change.
Change incoming for new meta gem
Yesterday I posted regarding the odd drop behavior of the design for the new meta gem, the Chaotic Skyfire Diamond. Many readers commented that the gem requirements were too stringent, making the gem undesirable for them. Unlike the majority of other gems, this one required exactly two blue gems in order to activate its bonus stats. Most meta gems have quantifiers like "at least" or "more than" and players found that limiting themselves to a specific number of gems was, well, too limiting.Today a player brought their complaint regarding this requirement to the official WoW forums and was able to garner a blue response. Drysc posted in the thread, mentioning that the gem has already been changed in an upcoming patch. Specifically, the "exactly two blue gems" requirement will be changed to "at least two blue gems". Additionally, he stated that other meta gems with similar requirements are being reviewed as well (although I know of only one other that might fit that category).What do you think? Is there any doubt now that this will be the best meta gem for most DPS caster builds?
Conclusion to The Rift loot guide
We've reached part four of TenTonHammer's guide to the equipment obtained in Lord of the Rings Online's new raid zone, The Rift of Nurz Ghashu. In this final update, it is Hunters, Captains, and Burglars whose eyes will light up, as their new class-specific armor sets are examined in detail. The three classes will receive the "Doom-Hunter" set, the "Armor of the North Star", and the "Thrill-Seeker" set, respectively. As with the other Rift gear we've had a look at, these sets are some of the best equipment in the game. Each gem that is handed in for gear will be needed by each class, and will always result in the same slot of armor. For example, a Sparkling Diamond is what is used for the glove-slot armor of every class. This does make it a bit easier to keep track of than in some other games, where the same quest item may equal different types of armor for different classes, and a whole raid can stall while people struggle to figure out if it's something they need or not.So if the thought of slaying a Balrog isn't enough of an incentive for you to try and assemble your guild at The Rift (it isn't?) then hopefully the lure of these epic lewts will draw you to this exciting new content. Part four of the guide -- for hunters, burglars and captains -- is found through the related story link, and if you didn't get to see our previous posts, here is our coverage of part one, part two and part three.
All-electric GEM vehicle gets off-road makeover
If you've been pondering assembling your own dune buggy to cruise the beaches this summer, here's a swank idea. An all-electric GEM caught parked at the Pismo Beach Classic custom car show had apparently undergone quite a dramatic makeover as it boasted off-road tires and a substantial lift to boot. Sure, enabling it to climb over the punier hybrids on the freeway is bound to hurt those miles-per-watt, but there's nothing like crawling over barricades without even a hint of carbon dioxide being emitted. Catch another snapshot of the whip after the break.
Organizing raids with Raidar
Raidar is a neat little site that claims to let players plan and organize guild raids in WoW. It's pretty clear the site is new, so it's not completely done yet (not to mention that almost no guilds are in the system at all), but in my few minutes' experience signing in, creating a guild, and setting up a raid, it all worked pretty smoothly (and AJAX-y, if you're a web designer into terms like that-- the site works like it was built in Ruby on Rails).So what's still missing? The "planned features" page promises a top-to-bottom guild management system, incluing email raid notifications, character profiles, and even a "Looking for Guild" board. The one thing I missed in setting up a was the ability to set up numbers for class balance on a raid, but over on the site's message board, the creator says that wasn't a priority for him quite yet (seems to me like it would be a big one). But as I said, the site looks smooth-- if he keeps up with it and throws in all the features he promised, it could be the place for raid planners to set up on the Internet.And as far as I know, there is still a hole for one right now. One of my guilds simply uses our Guildportal message boards to set up and plan raids-- members sign up on the board, and our guild leader keeps track of who signs up and who we need. I know Guildportal has a system for it as well, but none of our members seem to have be interested in using it yet. The other guild I'm in, which is a little bigger, uses the Guild Event Manager addon to announce and plan raids ingame. I do like the way GEM works-- it's easy to use and set up, has that min/max feature that I want from Raidar, and keeps up a constant list of who's signed up for a raid in what class roles.But the only real problem with GEM is that, as far as I know, it's ingame only. There's no way for me to check when a raid is or sign up for one unless I'm in-game (not always an option, especially at work). If Raidar can fill out its features, and do the same thing that GEM does (but from anywhere), we might have a winner.
Rumored jewelcrafting abilities
I'm not sure whether I can classify this one as a rumor, since it doesn't come with the requisite blurry screenshot. And while there's no verification to any of these gem abilities, they're certainly interesting if true -- providing a wide range of small buffs that will be interesting to see in different combinations on items. Blizzard's own jewelcrafting information suggests that items will have a a varying number of sockets and that some sockets will be specific to certain types of gems (you'll get a bonus ability for socketing them with the appropriate type of gem). Read on for the specific gem abilities.
