EVO 2 console promises to bring Android gaming to your TV this fall

EVO 2 console promises to bring Android gaming to your TV this fall
NASA Rejoins Space Race With Manned Deep Space Craft
Go Old School with this Color Palette from the Golden Age of Comics
Go Old School with this Color Palette from the Golden Age of Comics
A Book About Lithium batteries “Bottled Lightning: Superbatteries, Electric Cars, and the New Lithium Economy”
Parkour Pioneer Cole Phelps Wants His Damn Hat Back [Video]
Diablo III's Skill-Transforming Runestone System in Action [Video]
Build a Shelf and Storage Unit into a Wall [Weekend Project]
SunX Sunscreen Towelettes
Sony announces VAIO SA series ultraportable, puts VAIO F series up for pre-order

Posted: 25 May 2011 03:03 PM PDT

Remember the Linux-based EVO game console? We can certainly forgive you if you don't, but it did actually end up shipping, and "sold out" according to the company the behind it. Now that company, Envizions, is back for a second try with another big promise: an Android-based game console dubbed, naturally enough, the EVO 2. First announced earlier this year, the console is now supposedly set to hit the US sometime this fall and, to prove that it's not completely vaporware, Envizions is making EVO 2 developer units available today -- the unit itself is "free," although developers will have to pay an annual $149 software support fee.

As for the console itself, it will apparently pack an unspecified 1.2GHz Samsung processor, a "modified" Android 2.2 OS, and both a TV remote and game controller. Leaving no stone unturned, Envisions says it's also planning to add a motion sensor by the end of the year, and it even has its own points system in mind that will let you buy Android games with "EVO tokens." As you might suspect, however, there's still no word on a price for consumers, but those willing to take a chance can reserve one now for $15 at the link below.

Continue reading EVO 2 console promises to bring Android gaming to your TV this fall

EVO 2 console promises to bring Android gaming to your TV this fall originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 May 2011 18:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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NASA Rejoins Space Race With Manned Deep Space Craft

Posted: 25 May 2011 03:01 PM PDT

Laura K. Cowan writes "NASA is back in the future-tech space race with a new manned deep space craft called the Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle, which aims to take astronauts on longer missions to deep space, eventually to planets such as Mars where only unmanned crafts have previously traveled. The MPCV holds 4 astronauts, is currently capable of 3-week missions, and not only could take mankind to new frontiers but is billed as being '10 times safer... than the current space shuttle.' Maybe there is hope for space travel outside the X Prize."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Go Old School with this Color Palette from the Golden Age of Comics

Posted: 25 May 2011 03:00 PM PDT

Are you a fan of Golden Age Comics or someone who admires the style and look of Golden Age art? Now you can work with the same set of colors that artists from the Golden Age era used for their artwork.

Blogger Ed Piskor has put together a new CMYK Color Guide PSD file based on an old scanned 64 color guide (seen above). The color guide file is available for download at the bottom of the post (comes in a zip file).

Color Chart of Yore [via BoingBoing]

Go Old School with this Color Palette from the Golden Age of Comics

Posted: 25 May 2011 03:00 PM PDT

Color Chart of Yore [via BoingBoing]


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A Book About Lithium batteries “Bottled Lightning: Superbatteries, Electric Cars, and the New Lithium Economy”

Posted: 25 May 2011 03:00 PM PDT

Bottled Lightning

A book about Lithium batteries “Bottled Lightning: Superbatteries, Electric Cars, and the New Lithium Economy”… This looks interesting!

Electric cars are real—see the Tesla Roadster, Chevy Volt, and hybrids like the Nissan Leaf and Toyota Prius—but the drive to create safe, lightweight, and long-lasting batteries to power them has been anything but smooth. Faced with political, technological, and management obstacles, battery technology still lags. In the mid-1800s Fletcher says, clean, cheap lead-acid batteries were developed that by the early 20th century were preferred for use in automobiles over “unreliable, complicated, loud, and dirty” gasoline-powered cars—until it came time to refuel. Thomas Edison tried to invent a safe, longer-duration battery, even experimenting with small amounts of lithium, but then Charles Kettering patented an automatic starter for gas engines, and the battle was lost.

Smog and 1970s gas shortages revived interest in electric cars—and lithium batteries. But obstacles remain: Bolivia, Chile, and China have less than optimal political leadership and minimal infrastructure to safely mine and process the poisonous ore. More importantly, many technical challenges must be overcome before electric cars and buses become everyday modes of transportation. But Fletcher remains optimistic. He balances science and history with a closeup look at business practices and priorities, providing lucid and thorough coverage of a timely topic.

“[Fletcher] follows lithium from the South American salt flats where most lithium minerals are mined to the labs of General Motors, tracing its journey from obscure metal to one of the most sought-after resources on earth—and perhaps the centerpiece of the automotive future.”

Parkour Pioneer Cole Phelps Wants His Damn Hat Back [Video]

Posted: 25 May 2011 03:00 PM PDT

Click here to read Parkour Pioneer Cole Phelps Wants His Damn Hat Back

I forget at what point exactly but in L.A. Noire Cole Phelps remarks that his hat cost $12. How much is that worth in 2011 money? Dunno, but it's worth falling off a house a dozen times in 1947. More »

Diablo III's Skill-Transforming Runestone System in Action [Video]

Posted: 25 May 2011 02:40 PM PDT

Click here to read <em>Diablo III</em>'s Skill-Transforming Runestone System in Action

When it was first explained to me way back in 2008, the power-enhancing rune system of Diablo III sounded like it would lead to countless permutations of every skill and spell in the game. Now it's only five, but they're still pretty spectacular. More »

Build a Shelf and Storage Unit into a Wall [Weekend Project]

Posted: 25 May 2011 02:30 PM PDT

Click here to read Build a Shelf and Storage Unit into a Wall

Depending on your home's style, there may be lots of potential storage space hidden in your walls. Cape Cod-style houses, for example, have pitched roofs with lots of hidden space in the knee walls—perfect for stuffing a bookcase/dresser into. More »

SunX Sunscreen Towelettes

Posted: 25 May 2011 02:23 PM PDT

I have 4 kids and we are outdoors as much as possible. One down side is my blonde kids can easily get too much sun. I have tried almost every sunscreen out there and these sunscreen towelettes are the best. They come in a "baby-wipe" style of dispenser, or as individually wrapped foil packets.

Each towelette has enough sunscreen to cover a person from head to toe. The kids no longer complain about it in their eyes or how cold the aerosol cans are. I also like it because it is fast to apply and easy to carry with us. It's also easy to keep the pack in our car just in case.

-- Scott Newton

[Note: I just discovered these a few weeks ago and agree that they make the normally greasy act of applying sunscreen far more pleasant. It's also easy to throw a wrapped towelette in your bag if you don't want to carry around a leaky bottle of sunscreen. -- OH ]

SunX Sunscreen Towelettes
SPF 30
25 individually wrapped towelettes
$13

Available from Amazon

Manufactured by CoreTex

Sony announces VAIO SA series ultraportable, puts VAIO F series up for pre-order

Posted: 25 May 2011 02:23 PM PDT

Having trouble keeping Sony's slim VAIO S series laptops straight? It's okay, we are, too, especially now that the company's unveiled the SA series, a 13.3-inch ultraportable that's poised to go toe to toe with the skinny Lenovo ThinkPad X1. Although it's got almost the same magnesium-and-alloy chassis as the VAIO SB series we saw at CES, the SA is a hair thinner, at 0.95 inches, and comes standard with AMD Radeon HD 6630 graphics and 1GB of video memory, 1600 x 900 resolution, a 500GB hard drive, fingerprint reader, and a Blu-ray drive. You can also trick it out with a dual channel solid-state drive, which promises to help let you work up to 16 hours unplugged if you combine it with a $100 sheet battery. The catch: you'll have to fork out a minimum of $1,650 just to snag one with an SSD.

If the SA's $1,375 starting price is more than you're willing to spend, there's still the SB series, though the $999 base model naturally has less impressive specs, including 512MB of video memory, 1366 x 768 resolution, a DVD player, and a Core i5 -- not Core i7 -- processor. For what its worth, its color options now include pink and navy, if that floats your boat more than the high-end SA's black, silver, and brown palette.

In other news, Sony's also taking orders for the VAIO F Series, which comes in two flavors: one with a 16-inch 3D display with a 2D-to-3D conversion button, starting at $1,840, and a 16.4-inch 2D model with a more modest $799 base price. But if you want a 2D display with 1080p resolution and a Blu-ray drive, you can expect to pay at least $1,125. Both these and the SA series are up for pre-order today, with gussied-up photos below and full PR and past the break.

Gallery: Sony VAIO SA series