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Withings Connected Body Scale remembers what you'd rather forget
More often the object of dread than fascination, the humble bathroom scale has been given a makeover by Withings, which has injected the Connected Body Scale with WiFi and an online progress tracking system not too dissimilar from that used by Nike+. This sleek metallic device is accurate to 100 grams -- oh yes, it's metric, like it should be -- and conducts a body mass analysis that can tell you the uncomfortable truth, should you care to know it. Accessing progress data can be done via a free iPhone app or the company's website, which is also the best place to plop down the €129 ($184) entry fee. And don't tell us you're not interested, somebody is buying up all those Wii Fit boards and it sure as hell isn't us. Video after the break.Update: Withings tells us that pound measurements are also available for you eccentric old schoolers, and September should see a US release priced at $159, so good news all around.[Via Chip Chick]
The Queue: Judgement of Light & Day
Welcome back to The Queue, WoW.com's daily Q&A column where the WoW.com team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Adam Holisky will be your host today.Today's music comes from a viewing of Scrubs I was, at the time, forced to watch by the girlfriend Katie. They had this great band playing at the end called The Polyphonic Spree. Today's featured reading music is the aforementioned band performing Light & Day ("Reach for the Sun").It really doesn't have anything to do with anything, but they're hippies and jump around a lot while making some rather cool and unique music. Plus they have this cultish vibe to them. The Leader is good, The Leader is great, we surrender our will as of this date.Hey look! World of Warcraft related things coming up now...Many people asked... "The PTR you download from the official WoW site is still 3.1! How are people getting on the Patch 3.2 PTR?"
Ulduar vehicles will scale with gear
Here's a little consolation to those of you, like Eliah, concerned about the Ulduar vehicle fights: Unlike some of the other vehicle fights in the game already, Daelo says on the forums that the vehicles in the next raid will actually scale with gear. He says someone in blues will have a much harder time in the vehicles than someone kitted out in Naxx gear.Personally, I've only done Oculus, but I do agree with Eliah that putting us in vehicles takes away a lot of the achievement we've gained by leveling and questing -- it's not fun to fail on a boss just because you're trying to deal with a whole new set of abilities you've had no control over until you jumped in the driver's seat. But the fact that the Ulduar vehicles will scale helps a little bit -- players were concerned that every time you went in there, it'd be the same fight, but with new gear that should change. And obviously Blizzard has heard the concerns about the Oculus, so you'd have to hope they wouldn't make the same mistake twice.Elsewhere on the forums, Zarhym promises, comically, that we'll all enjoy this (and that we'll forget to post how much we enjoy it on the forums afterwards). He says that the fight is different from anything else we've done in the World of Warcraft, and that when all is said and blown up, it'll be an epic encounter. We'll see.Need more news about Ulduar? We've got updates, previews, speculation, and everything else you need to know about the next big raid coming in patch 3.1. If the Titans are hiding it up there, we'll tell you about it here.
Crapgadget: thanks for nothing edition
Here in the US of A, we dedicate today to shoving copious quantities of food down our throats, meeting / greeting long lost family members and -- most importantly -- counting our blessings. Here around the Engadget table, we've found five "gadgets" (we're being gracious here) that we're absolutely grateful to not own. In fact, we're thankful that we don't even have to look at these if we don't want to. 'Course, we're betting that you're curious enough to give up that right to ignore in order to see just how pathetic these crapgadgets really are, but we'd recommend waiting at least an hour after your last gluttonous indulgence before clicking the links below. Obviously, we cannot be held responsible for any upchucking.Read - Scale mouseRead - Dual holster windshield mouseRead - Disney's Pixie Hollow ClickablesRead - Monkey USB hand warmerRead - Red Piggy mouse %Poll-23013%
Ask Cryptic explains how Star Trek Online will handle canon
The latest Ask Cryptic focusing on Star Trek Online addresses a number of questions sci-fi fans have about where the IP is heading in the MMO space. Not surprisingly, many of the questions asked of Cryptic deal with how well they'll adhere to Star Trek canon. The Cryptic Studios devs were asked about how they would handle the iconic story and characters of Star Trek, namely with voiceovers and cut scenes. The devs state that Star Trek Online avoids issues of tampering with Trekkie canon by setting the game in 2409, a good 30 years after Star Trek: Nemesis and Star Trek: Voyager. So while some of the locales familiar to Star Trek fans will be present in the game, players shouldn't expect to bump into any (or many) familiar faces.
WatchScale attempts to become the new calculator watch
Move over, Casio Databank (and similar) -- a formidable opponent just rolled into the ring. While the aforementioned timepiece has been the geek watch of choice for years now, Jennings' WatchScale is all set to give it a real run for the money. This wristwatch not only displays the time in brilliantly blue fashion, but it also weighs lightweight objects (up to 300-grams) with an accuracy of 0.1-grams. We know, you're already bracing for a quadruple-digit (pre-decimal) price tag, but there's no need for worry -- after all, you can procure your own for just $17.90.[Thanks, Nate]
Anti-Aliased: Dr. Podlove, or how I learned to stop worrying and enjoy EVE Online
I've really been stuck in a rut lately. The only game that really appeals to me anymore is World of Warcraft because of the polish and spit shine that Blizzard put into it over the past few years. When you look at the pinnacle of game design that is WoW, most other games sadly pale in comparison. That, or they blatantly rip off of WoW in such a spectacular fashion that it makes the game almost unplayable due to the fact you will constantly compare it to the original, better source material.Lucky for me that a month back, Valve struck a deal with CCP and put EVE Online on sale for a weekend via Steam. With cash in my pocket and a song in my heart, I finally dropped the cash to pick up a game that I played at least 10 two-week trials of. It's here that I'm going to finally introduce the catch to this entire article -- I, up until about a week ago, absolutely, positively, hated EVE Online.
Tanita works out the Ironman segmental body composition monitor
Getting the low-down on your body fat percentages can involve a scale, calipers, calculator, spreadsheet, and lots of math. Enter the Tanita Ironman Segmental and Full Body Composition monitor. This torture device comes with retractable hand-grip electrodes that measure each body quadrant's water, muscle mass, bone mass, BMR, visceral fat, metabolic age, and physique rating. Engadget Fitness Club (EFC) public service note: keep in mind that electrodes of this sort can be a bit inaccurate based on your water weight. Most fitness experts consider calipers to be the most accurate way to get body composition data even though they're a bear to use. That said, this could be a great long-term monitoring tool if the $299 price tag doesn't scare you off and Wii Fit just isn't doing it for you.[Via ChipChick]
JVC lets you know it can bring video to your next party
Never mind the bad headline joke -- JVC took the wraps off its pro-level video processor, the RSVP2 (Reference Series Video Processor), at EHX. If it's good enough for pros, it will do just fine in high-end home settings. Send in video to any of the four HDMI 1.3 inputs and out pops a 1080p-24/25/50/60 signal. The THX-approved magic inside the box will also allow you to remap the color space of the input signal with 14-bit accuracy. Dedicated scalers are definitely in the upper-crust of the market, but getting this kind of functionality for $3695 would have been unimaginable even just a short while ago. Keep the prices coming down, and we'll keep our dreams alive![Via WidescreenReview]
Around Azeroth: A question of scale
Reader Fragile sends us this interesting shot of a graphical glitch in Orgrimmar. My question, however -- is the quest just that big or is the Orc just that small? Interestingly, though I have seen several shots of this nature from the wandering quest NPCs in Ogrimmar, I've never seen the giant quest markers anywhere else. Have any of you run into this graphical bug elsewhere in the world?Do you have a unique shot of Azeroth or Outland that you'd like to show off to the rest of the world? Tell us about it by e-mailing a copy to aroundazeroth@wow.com, with as much or as little detail as you'd like to share with the world! %Gallery-1816%
Sanrio offers up Hello Kitty body fat meter
For those of you still itching to get in on the Wii Sports exercise regimen, but are without any way to measure how many pounds you'll actually melt off, Sanrio's got you covered. Sure, you could waltz right into just about any retailer and pick up a vanilla scale, but the Hello Kitty body fat meter weighs your body in a whole new dimension of cute. Available in a trio of versions ranging from digital to analog to an actual "cooking" version, the device doesn't actually function any differently than the non-adorable varieties, but who wouldn't be motivated to shed a few pounds and have Hello Kitty smile back at you in celebration? The BF-071-KT scale (pictured) should be available in Japan soon for a price (¥6,000; $49) that only the passionate could appreciate.[Via UberGizmo]
Meet Ana, the Xbox 360 hardware scaler
How did Microsoft dodge the scaling issue that has plagued Sony since its launch? Maybe it was the timing -- an HD console in a Standard Def world -- or perhaps it was Ana, the affectionate title for Xbox 360's hardware scaler. Whereas the PlayStation 3 downscales to meet resolution, Ana upscales Xbox 360 titles to 1080p to impressive results, according to Ars Technica's Ben Kuchera. Speaking with Microsoft's Scott Henson, Kuchera learns that Ana was designed at the same time as Xenos, the console's GPU. Though the addition of a PS3 hardware scaler is possible in the future, Xbox Group Product Marketing Manager Aaron Greenberg opines that it would be difficult for Sony to fix the issue with software, leaving first-generation PS3 owners in the cold.However, the truth is, as Kuchera notes, differences between the two console's graphics are minimal to nonexistent. "By [the time PS3 has second-generation titles] we'll have Halo 3," Henson said. "We'll be on the third–generation games. We hope to always be a little bit ahead." When will Sony pull ahead of the Xbox 360, graphically, and to what extent is Ana Microsoft's secret weapon in keeping up?See Also: The second Xbox 360 (with HDMI): introducing "Zephyr" [Thanks, Theo1130; image inspiration]
Patch 1.12: Scaling Rogue Skills
One major rogue complaint has long been the fact that several core rogue abilities did not scale as the rogues' gear and stats improved. Thus, the eviscerate damage you did right after hitting level 60 was the same eviscerate damage you would do when decked out in full epic gear. Come patch 1.12, this will be changing - albeit slightly. Drysc has posted some specific numbers explaining how the abilities rupture, garrote, and eviscerate will scale with attack power. The increase in power looks fairly minor to me, but some increase is better than none. For druids, Drysc has confirmed that the cat form abilities that mirror these rogue skills will also scale based on attack power, but there are no specific numbers on them.
EazyDraw 2.0 - illustration and drawing for Mac OS X
EazyDraw dubs itself as a "balanced vector drawing application," and from browsing its feature list, that sounds just about right. It looks like it has a nice array of illustration tools and abilities including some CAD-related features like wall and window tools, as well as drawing on a grid. EazyDraw can even import and edit old school files from Claris Draw, Mac Draw II and Mac Draw Pro.EazyDraw is a Universal Binary, and a demo is available. Licensing the app, however, is a little strange: a full download license can be had for $95 (CD in the mail is $115), but you can also purchase a nine month license for a mere $20. Take that as you will, but if you've been looking for a solid and feature-rich illustration app, EazyDraw probably has you covered.
