Monster
Latest
Monster Cable prepping wireless UWB gear
Monster Cable -- the firm famous for grossly overcharging for its wares and suing nearly every company on Earth with "monster" in its title -- is going wireless. Yep, rather than gouging customers for Unicorn-like wiring, it'll now be promising to transmit signals through the purest air -- the kind only a Monster box could attract, most likely. Over at Hometech 2008 in Dubai, CEO Noel Lee affirmed that it would soon be "coming out with wireless," also noting that the elusive product(s) would be based on ultra-wideband (UWB) technology and support 1080p. Beyond that, it looks like we'll be waiting for specifics, as an official announcement of the device won't come until the "second week of June." Lee also stated that it "[wouldn't] be inexpensive," and threw out a $600 estimation for "a pair of boxes," while each additional room would cost $200 to connect. Color us absolutely unimpressed.
Massively exclusive: Inside the mind of Mind Candy's Michael Smith
I recently had the opportunity to sit down and spend some quality time with the CEO of Mind Candy, Michael Smith. I picked his brain about Mind Candy's newest game, Moshi Monsters, how they're going to attract and protect the kids that play it, and what some of Michael's favorite past-time activities are. Plus, we even discussed a little background on Perplex City, and the status of the anticipated alternate reality game, Perplex City Season 2. Interested in what goes on in the mind of one of Britain's most innovative game developers? Read on after the break and find out!
More details on monsters in Tales of Symphonia
Some of you may not be fond of Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World's fighting-with-monsters scheme, but we think it looks pretty neat. Spencer Yip from Siliconera gives us an even more in-depth look into the system than before, reporting that you can ditch your entire party (with the exception of the main character Emil, of course), for a party full of monsters, like in the screen shown above.After you battle monsters, you'll often have a chance to negotiate with them and have them fight for you. It's not as simple as "catching" them all, though, since some monsters will refuse to join your party if they have a grudge against one of your other allied creatures. Since the game provides 200 different species of monster that you can fight with, which we think this can add a lot of depth to this Tales rendition. As long as you don't become obsessed with collecting them, that is, because then you might as well be playing something else.Drawing more similarities from Pokemon, these monsters also evolve. However, you can cause their evolutions by serving them certain foods, so the cooking system in the game should be pretty interesting. We're not sure yet, though, whether these are true, outward-and-inward evolutions, or just stat alterations (as we reported before).Those of you who are looking forward to this title still have a long wait ahead of you. The RPG is set to hit North America in Q4 of this year. Gallery: Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World
In-store demo compares Monster HDMI interconnect to composite cable
It's not like we haven't seen Monster Cables used in "A-B" demos before, but the latest in-store comparison is downright laughable. The image shown above was reportedly captured at a Fry's Electronics in Indiana, and as you can see, some clever bloke / dame figured they'd attempt to pull the wool over ignorant eyes by setting up an absolutely absurd side-by-side demonstration. The only difference between the two rigs is the use of a Monster Power Filter versus a vanilla power strip and a Monster HDMI cable versus a... no-name composite cable. Both devices were piped to a 19-inch 720p LCD, and according to the tipster who snagged the picture, the actual image quality was only marginally different -- presumably due to the "nearly monochromatic ocean scene" that did nothing to show off the differences between the two mediums. Donuts to dollars a coat hanger would've actually proven superior to the Monster.[Thanks, P.]
Monster Cable tries to harass Blue Jeans Cable, fails
Monster Cable's got a pretty shady history for a variety of reasons, but high up on the list is the company's notoriously aggressive legal team, which routinely threatens companies with litigation if they don't pay license fees or otherwise settle over trivial matters. Well, in an ironic turnabout, it looks like Monster's lawyers didn't know what they were in for when they sent a cease-and-desist letter to EHD favorite Blue Jeans Cable recently: the company's founder, Kurt Denke, was a federal litigator for nearly twenty years, and has no intention of backing down. He's making his reply to Monster public, and while it's essentially very similar to what any company's lawyer would have written up in response, Kurt doesn't have to be nearly as polite, which makes it a pretty fun read. Monster's basically saying that Blue Jeans Cable is using connectors that are too similar to Monster's, and Kurt does a pretty good job of taking them to task for being bullies -- all while pointing out that even if they do win, they won't get much, and he'll have made life very difficult in the meantime. Full letter, chuckles included, at the read link.[Via Audio Junkies]
Giant monsters are coming to Japan
There aren't many details about Daikaiju Battle Ultra Coliseum, but Namco Bandai is bringing the game to Japan this summer. All we know is that it's a fighting game, involving giant monsters. While that's not much to go on, it sounds pretty fun to us -- taking a giant robot (like the weird guy pictured to the right) and beating up on a Godzilla-like character or other monster would be too cool. Hopefully we'll see some trailer footage soon. Thanks to the freeloader and the nature of fighting games, if this one incorporates just the right amount of cheesiness, it might be worth the import.[Via Siliconera]
Monster now shipping SL100 speakers, coat hangers not included
Perennial whipping boy in the A/V market, Monster Cable, has launched its compact StreamLine (SL) 100 speakers. Seriously, we've never found Monster Cable products to be bad, it's just the marketing hype and pricing that gets under our skins. Anyways, if you absolutely have to have your cabling and speakers match, take a look. If that's your style, chances are you'll be interested in purchasing a set of the $300 swappable panels (cherry, silver, maple, red or yellow) to make your speakers match your decor as well. The primary tower speakers and the center channel feature 3-inch aluminum woofers and 1-inch aluminum tweeters, and the subwoofer has a 10-inch driver backed by a 120-Watt amp. Prices are $600 (per pair) for the towers, $300 for the center channel, and $500 for the sub. Cables not included, but Monster can cover you there, too.
Post your interstellar rsum at EVE Careers
The second episode of the Drone Bay podcast directed listeners to check out a website called EVE Careers, a sort of Monster.com or Career Builder for players of EVE Online. There are sections where both pilots and corporations (EVE's equivalent to player guilds) can post ads to connect with one another.As the hosts of the Drone Bay noted, one of the big challenges for new players in EVE (and even experienced players, in certain circumstances) is finding a good corp to join. While it's possible to get by on your own to some extent in EVE, you'll be missing out on ... well, pretty much everything interesting about the game if you aren't part of one. EVE Careers presently has an almost 70-page list of corporations for you to check out, making it one of your best bets if you've been going it alone.CCP CEO Hilmar Petursson told the New York Times a while back that EVE is different from other games like World of Warcraft because it's not just a game, it's a society -- at least, to a greater extent than WoW-types are. With its quarterly economic reports from the CCP Fed, its Council for Stellar Management, and now this player-run job board website, that's tough to argue with, even though there are forums for guild-finding in other games as well.[Via Drone Bay]
Monster's iSoniCast wireless iPod bridge finally starts shipping
Monster first started talking this one up way back in August of last year, but the company just now seems to have gotten its act together, with it finally starting to ship its iPod Wireless Audio Bridge out the door. Now dubbed the iSoniCast, the device relies on "proprietary 2.5GHz technology" to wirelessly stream music from your iPod to the home audio system of your choice and, like many other similar products, includes a dock conncetor-attached transmitter to let you use the iPod itself as a wireless remote. As you can see above, the device has also gotten a bit of a facelift since its initial debut, but it's hung onto the same price tag, with it setting you back $100 even.[Via Crave]
Audiophiles can't tell the difference between Monster Cable and coat hangers
We've always believed that the perceived quality boost that comes from using high-end cables is really just a trick of the mind (read: justifying the ridiculous cost of premium cables to yourself) -- if you've dropped enough cash, you can probably hear anything you want. Still, our belief is one thing -- cold hard proof is another, and it looks like a group of 12 self-professed "audiophiles" recently couldn't tell the difference between Monster 1000 speaker cables and plain old coat hangers. Yeah, coat hangers. The group was A-Bing different cables, and unbeknownst to them, the engineer running the test swapped out a set of cables for coat hangers with soldered-on speaker connections. Not a single one was then able to tell the difference between the Monster Cable and the hangers, and all agreed that the hangers sounded excellent. No wonder Monster has to rig HD displays. Still, we bet people still fall for the hype -- oh hey, if you're looking for the ultimate in sound, we've got half a meter of oxygen-free, triple-wrapped double-insulated Sonically Shielded AmpliSized Egyptian Llama cable here that we'll part ways with for just a couple grand.[Via BoingBoing]
Monster brings Speed-Rated HDMI cables to Canada, gross markup likely in tow
We didn't believe Monster's claims when it rolled those Speed-Rated cables out here in the US, and we certainly don't think its savvy marketing will increase picture quality any more up north. Nevertheless, the cabling company notorious for snatching hard-earned dollars from unsuspecting shoppers who fall for glamorous packaging and wild claims is bringing its Speed-Rated line to Canada. Holding down the flagship position is the Ultra-High Speed MC1000EX, followed closely behind by the increasingly sluggish MC850HD, MC750HD and MC550HD. Apparently, the family will run Canucks $59.95 to $149.95 for one-meter editions, but we genuinely hope anyone reading this has better sense than to take 'em up on the "offer."
Plush destruction begets adorableness
Craftster user cristasaurus started to make a plush doll, but discarded the body when she was dissatisfied with it. Left with just a ridiculously cute plush head (with an expression commensurate with having your body thrown out), she did the humane thing and turned the unfinished project into a great DS case.What this little critter lacks in, uh, torsos and appendages, it makes up for in DS-shaped cavities -- cristasaurus is lucky to have made a doll with a head roughly the size of a DS Lite. And stuffed with fleecy material, the little guy remains huggable.
Super Street Fighter II HD Remix developers now remixing monsters
Backbone Entertainment, the developers of the Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo and Super Street Fighter II remakes, as well as the DS Death Jr. game and various other projects, have announced a new original Wii game to be published by Eidos. Monster Lab takes place in the hilariously-named Uncanny Valley, in which the player, as a mad scientist's apprentice, mixes and matches monster parts to create original creations. The gameplay involves finding parts out in the wild, then taking them back to the lab and performing alchemical, mechanical, and biological experiments on them to augment them.Once you've built a monster, you then take it out into the world and control it in battles! Monster Lab even features online battling and trading. With millions of possible combinations, this game could have some serious long-term replayability. Or you could just make monsters over and over.%Gallery-15038%[Via press release]
Monster and Andre Young offer up 'Beats by Dr. Dre' headphones
Here's a rather odd partnership: legendary rapper and producer Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine, Chairman of Interscope Geffen A&M Records, have teamed up with cable, line conditioner, and accessory powerhouse Monster to market a pair of high-end, high-priced headphones. The so-called "Beats by Dr. Dre" were supposedly tuned by the former N.W.A. member and Death Row founder himself (along with a little help from 'Head Monster' Noel Lee), and boast "rich, deep bass" which promises to keep your head ringin'. Scheduled to ship this spring, these over-the-head cans will sport a $400 price tag -- you know, just so you can be sure that this is in fact a Monster product
HDMI cable scam used to fool in-store customers?
We'll be straight with you -- we aren't inclined to believe that this is even remotely close to factual, but considering the lengths big box retailers will go to in order to make sure you leave with a totally overpriced cable or two in your bag, we suppose it's not outside the realm of possibility. Reportedly, GizmoRepublic walked into an unspecified "big box store" and went to check out a display touting the superiority of Monster cabling. Upon further inspection, he realized that the difference in picture quality wasn't due to the gold-plating or fancy braiding, but rather the use of composite cables on the non-Monster TV. Of course, there are photos of the scene posted in the read link, but even still, we've got our reservations about the whole thing. Regardless of what happened in one particular store in one particular setup, one thing's still quite clear: there's simply no need to waste your hard-earned dollars paying for fancy packaging.
Microsoft talks third-party Zune accessories
You can't run around launching fancy new music players these days without a secondary offensive of cases and car chargers following close behind, and Microsoft's new Zunes have a veritable cavalry behind them. In addition to the official accessories we've already heard about from J Allard and crew, the company's lined up a number of third-party manufacturers to crank out 60 different Zune-friendly products, including Polk, Belkin, DLO, Monster, Altec Lansing, Targus, iHome, Memorex and Griffin. Microsoft's new pals will be releasing everything from speaker docks to RCA cables, so it looks like you'll be able to build a happy little home for that new Zune of yours when it launches next month.
Monster's CEDIA booth tour
While we never thought we'd see (legitimate) Monster cabling being sold out of the back of a van (ahem), the company definitely had an accessory-packed ride parked right in the middle of its fairly extravagant exhibit. As you'd expect, there seemed to be enough cable there to wire up downtown Denver along with a dedicated control system kiosk, a section of flat-panel mounts, and yes, even a wall of adapters made specifically for Apple products. More interesting than the items on the floor, however, was the item that wasn't: Einstein. After prodding for details, we were told that Monster has in fact pushed back the launch of its Home Control System in order to "fairly significantly retool" the device, and while everyone was tight-lipped about exactly what changes were in store, on-site reps admitted that it wanted to be "ahead of the curve" rather than behind it when this finally lands. Sadly, that means we'll likely be waiting till "around Q4" for this sucka, so we wouldn't be surprised to see the revamped version in Las Vegas early next year.%Gallery-7097%
Monster Cable producing "speed-rated" HDMI cables
All right Monster Cable, what are ya doing? Speed rating your HDMI cables? We have to be honest, we're a little skeptical about the differences in HDMI speed. Technically, there might be a difference when compared with some special Monster-developed gizmo, but we highly doubt there would be a difference under real world tests. (BTW, we'd love to try it out for ourselves) Besides the obvious revenue answer, if there were a difference in HDMI cables, why wouldn't you just produce the best? Why flood the market with multiple "speed" options and confuse/irritate us consumers when you could just make one uber-high quality HDMI cable? The cables start at $50 for the Standard 1 meter, and go all the way up to $100 for the Ultra-High Speed, with two different speed options in between, along with multiple lengths. Come on Monster Cable, the days of analog interference are gone so hop on the HDMI boat and stop over charging for a digital cable. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Hilton's Sight+Sound suites deliver DirecTV, HD niceties
As the HDTV movement continues to reshape the average hotel room experience, Hilton has made sure it doesn't get left behind. Recently, the chain launched 25 "home theater-like" Sight+Sound rooms at the Hilton Chicago O'Hare International Airport, while 30 guest rooms at the Hilton San Francisco received the makeover. Among the amenities are a 42-inch LG plasma, Yahama's YSP-800 Digital Sound Projector, Monster cabling, DirecTV programming including 14 HD channels and a number of XM radio stations, and a high definition menu system from LodgeNet. Additionally, guests can hook up their DAPs or external audio sources to a unique "connectivity panel," and just in case you forget to pack an extra bag of cables, the specially equipped rooms should provide all the copper you need. Notably, this here setup sounds like one of the most fully-featured HD offerings found in a "standard" hotel, and now that it's been available for a few months, have any of you had an opportunity to indulge?
Monster's latest iPod streamer, the Wireless Audio Bridge
While the iPod remotes have gotten closer and closer to replicating the iPod interface, there's still really no replacement for the original -- which is why we've seen several products that effectively turn the iPod itself into a remote by beaming music from a dock connector-attached transmitter directly to a base station. Monster's new Wireless Audio Bridge brings a dash of style to this approach, with a minimalist black-and-chrome base station and a sleek transmitter. Specs of note include a 30-foot range over the oh-so-popular 2.4GHz channel, and a not-unreasonable $99 pricetag. No word on availability, but we wouldn't be surprised to see these popping up relatively soon.
