monsters

Just yesterday I wrote about a running game based on the viral video Baby Monkey (riding backwards on a pig). It's a fairly simple running game, but it got me to thinking about what would be the best games in the escape/running/survival genre (I'm not sure there's a standardized name for this genre). When I saw that a new game came out (the third in this collection) that added even more to the escape genre, I knew I had the theme for this week's post.

Escape games are not for everyone. Regardless of the setting, these games are the type that get you worked up, with your heart beating fast, trying to get as far as you can to beat your high score. All it takes is one mistake and you'll need to start over, so those with video game rage issues may want to skip this collection--we don't want anyone throwing their iPhones across the room.… Read more

First things first: I think most in-ear headphone designs are pretty uninspired-looking things. Sure, ear-canal headphones are so tiny there's not a lot to work with, but I have to say Bowers & Wilkins' new C5 is a stunning piece of industrial design. The tungsten and aluminum headphone is the prettiest in-ear design I've seen to date.

The headphones' proprietary Secure Loop cable is a unique design element and can be adjusted to fit in the inner ridge of your ear to help secure the tip in place. My ear canals are bigger than average, so I don'… Read more

RZA aka Bobby Digital aka Prince Dynamite aka Ruler Zig-Zag-Zig Allah of the seminal Wu-Tang Clan is next in line for a headphone collaboration with WESC (We are the Superlative Conspiracy), a clothing company that already has its own line of flashy headsets.

Continuing the legacy of hip-hop headphone team-ups started by Monster's Beats by Dr. Dre and followed most recently by Ludacris's Soul series, the Brooklyn producer and MC will launch his Chambers line on August 26 starting with two models: a mobile-friendly street design and a full-size model for DJs and audio engineers.

Check out this interview with RZA … Read more

Looks like we may have finally found the ultimate gearhead.

An Austrian man has scored a point for freedom of religion, or at least for the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, as well as for kitchen gadgets. Niko Alm was allowed to wear a pasta strainer on his head for his driver's license photo by claiming it as a piece of "religious headgear," according to the BBC.

Alm planned the stunt after reading that Austrian authorities prohibit wearing of headgear in official photographs except for religious reasons. … Read more

Beats by Dr. Dre and Monster have rolled out a new set of Heartbeats earphones designed Lady Gaga that the company says were "inspired by leather and studs."

There's a tremendous amount of marketing garbage in the press release with all kinds of celebrity name-dropping, but suffice it to say, Monster is touting the Heartbeats' unique styling and "unprecedented level of audio performance."

All kidding aside, these Hearbeats do have a much more appealing design than the previous model, which featured a triangular, earring-like outer cover that people either loved or hated (I strongly suggest … Read more

Cut the Rope is an inventive, addictive, and extremely polished arcade puzzler, in which you interact with increasingly complex, physics-based puzzles to get a piece of candy into the mouth of a cute monster named Om Nom.

Cut the Rope's interface starts out simple: you just swipe your finger to cut a rope, which drops an attached piece of candy into Om Nom's mouth. Soon, you're cutting multiple ropes (occasionally more than one at a time), trying to maneuver the plummeting piece of candy to pass over stars on its way to Om Nom (between one and … Read more

It's hard to believe that it was almost two years ago when I dove into a tangled mess of wires and gadgets to perform my first public wire box cleanout. At the time, it looked like order and organization had won the day, and my future would be full of neatly bundled cables and perfectly sorted AC adapters.

Sadly, two years later, the forces of entropy and clutter have again reduced my wire box (actually four stacking plastic crates) to a jungle of old parts and useless accessories. This time, the motivation to clean out my wire box shantytown is an impending move, which is nature's great catalyst for discarding old junk. (And, as I prepare to move all the way from New York's SoHo neighborhood to, well, slightly farther east in SoHo, stay tuned for a series of articles on how I plan to construct my new midsize Manhattan apartment multimedia man cave.)

As I went through the four boxes of tangled wires and accessories, things were sorted into three categories: keep, trash, and give away. Click through the gallery above for a step-by-step tour of what I found, from vintage gaming gear to more sets of components cables than I know what to do with. If you're interested in any of the items that get placed on my giveaway pile, tune in to a future episode of the Digital City podcast, where I'll try and find a good home for any discarded gear.… Read more

Obviously, the big Apple news this week was the announcement of the iPad 2 (watch our First Look video here). Just as most people expected, the new device offers front- and rear-facing cameras, a faster processor, and FaceTime capabilities, and even has a slightly different design than the original. The iPad 2 will be available on both the AT&T and Verizon networks March 11 and comes in both white and black, and there are several different models and price points to choose from.

Even though I mentioned in an earlier post that I probably wouldn't buy the new iPad 2, now that I've seen it, I can't help but try to think of ways to afford it. I'm thinking of selling my original iPad, or maybe I'll try to use my tax refund to foot the bill, but I bet I'm not the only one making these calculations. My question to you is: did any of you plan on not buying the new iPad, but, after the unveiling, couldn't help but change your mind? Let me know in the comments.

This week's apps are both games. The first challenges you to escape the fiery clutches of a volcano, and in the second you direct a band of heroes to battle fearsome foes.… Read more

editor's notebook You'd think with all the cell phone cameras out there snapping away at every inch of the planet, quaint little mysteries like Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster would be cleared up in a, um, flash.

Well, perhaps that'll turn out to be the case. According to the U.K.'s Telegraph newspaper, a kayaking IT professional recently used his mobile device to grab a photo of "Bownessie," the less-famous, English cousin of Scotland's spotlight-hogging Loch Ness Monster. The grainy snap shows four humplike shapes breaking the surface of a misty-looking body … Read more