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Nintendo & McDonalds Providing WiFi
redemtionboy writes "According to IGN, "Nintendo of America on Tuesday will announce a groundbreaking partnership with Wi-Fi provider Wayport to make available free Internet access to DS owners at McDonald's restaurants across the nation." " There are so many potential jokes here that I'm gonna just leave it to you guys to make your own.
...it's free for DS owners, how long will they limit it from people using laptops or other WiFi enabled devices?
Would you like a portscan with that?
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Hmm, I would guess that you're jealous it's not in Taco Bell restaurants. Though frankly I don't see what's so funny about this. It's a step in the right direction. McD's restaurants cover about 10% of the earth. That's a lot of wireless.
I'm a bit fuzzy with the DS specs, but if Nintendo is going to provide free WiFi and the WiFi follows one of the 802.11 standards, how do they keep people without Nintendo DSes from accessing it with a laptop? Will the DS have some sort of special software-based key?
When I lived in DC years ago, all of our McDonalds had these little kiosks in them when the Nintendo 64 came out. There were 4 small TV's built into the thing with 4 consoles with 2 controllers each and you could try out the system there. I don't know if that was a national partnership with all McDonalds but they were in all of the ones I went in. The consoles were in there for quite a while (about 6 months if I recall correctly) and then were suddenly gone. Anyway, these two companies at least have some history of working together in the past so I'm sure that made it a little easier to get something like this set up.
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It'll be the healthiest thing on their menu :)
This could bring the obesity problem to a whole new level. Congratulations - you've reached level 4! You can go up to the counter and pick up your FREE icecream sundae! Level 5 wins a free value meal. Level 6 is a large softdrink.
The more you regulate a company, the worse its products become.
It'll be good in the short run, but when the table turnaround (profit/table) drops because someone is occupying that space 'playing games' and a (new) paying customer has no place to sit, McDonald's may just decide to 're-evaluate' their position.
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pushing crappy food and inactivity all at once? What a combo!
What they need to sponsor are DDR competitions. Get enough people dancing and bopping, and bipping and hopping and they'll get in shape soon enough.
Tom
Someday, I'll have a real sig.
...for exercise on the playground AFTER a greasy Happy Meal. Now we're just taking out the exercise and letting the kids wallow with their WiFi and Nintendos after their Happy Meals. Nice...
IronChefMorimoto
This would be pretty good a providing a pool of other players in about the same age group etc. for kids to play with. The only thing that bothers me is that rather than going to eat shitty food then running around in the play area, these little tubs of soon to be lard will be eating shit then sitting on their asses playing video games.
Knowing the average parent today, as long as little Timmy shuts up, that will work just fine.
Using the words McDonalds and restaurant in reference to one another.
Deleted
Before: Take children to Mcdonalds and put them in the bouncy ball room for 10 mins, before giving children Big Mac combo.
Now: Take children to Mcdonalds and give them Big Mac combo, then let them surf..
The world is slowly getting so fat it's going to spin out of orbit..
~jennifer.k~
It's quite simple to make money out of this: In Spains tourist lots, the restroom is looked by a numer key lock. The access code is changing on a regular basis (e.g., hourly). If you want to use the restroom, you have to buy something, because the code is automatically printed on the receipt.
:-)
They will do the same for the wireless access. They print the current access code (user & pass) on the receipt and reset the system every 30 mins. Btw. if you think, you just buy something small, that's exactly where McD has huge margins. So a Coke or ice cream every 30 mins for surfing generates enough money for maintaining the WiFi net.
However, it will be fun to see all gamers run for an ice cream at the same time every 30 mins
Can you imagine what a DS is going to look like after 30 minutes playing in the hands of a kid eating a Big Mac, fries and ketchup? Maybe McDonalds is planning to make a profit on with a DS cleaning service?
Personally, I wish McDs would just go out of business so I wouldn't have to put up with that horrendous smell of grease permeating every shopping centre.
I am pretty much forced to go to McDonald's once a month (it's the only place open late in London's financial district that does take-outs). The food is better than going hungry (just) but I'd rather starve than actually eat in the "restaurant". I certainly wouldn't spend long enough there to play Mario Kart without a HazMat suit on.
The Japanese, realizing that they could never beat physically fit Americans in war, have covertly set out for the past 30 years to make Americans fat. The current generation of American children will get to harpoonable size by the end of the decade. This is the final phase of their fiendish plot before they initiate their Pear Harbor Invasion Part Deux plan. I'm estimating sometime in 2011 Hawaii and part of the West Coast will be under the Rising Sun flag. Dead, bloated children and teenagers will litter the ground clutching onto their DS's and Big Macs. This is how liberty dies...with thunderous fatness.
-Dipster
What if you happen to get your receipt ten seconds before the reset and don't make it to the restroom in time?
Allow the current code and last code to have access: everyone is guaranteed a minimum access time.
Can be put into 4 categories.
1. Arrr, MacDownaldz is teh suck and ewww! Who'd go there just for wifi?
2. How will they keep laptops from connecting?
3. They're gonna make people fat!!!
4. Kids will get fat playing DS and eating Bigmacs
Let me adress these.
1. McDonalds, although i know a lot of people don't like it, is wildly successful and profitable, and there are a ton of people who go there anyway.
2. From what i read, DS's don't have TCP/IP, so there won't be any TCP/IP for laptops to connect to the internet with. they'll have to translate back and forth between ni-fi and TCP.
3. People make THEMSELVES fat. People think for themselves and make their own decisions. You can choose to have the Big Mac, you can also choose to have the McSalad.
4. Parents are responsible for the eating and play habits of their children, not Nintendo and not McDonalds.
That is all.
You like your new Mac more than you like me, don't you, Dave? Dave? I asked...She said Yes.
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I use RDRAM, you insensitive hamburgling clod!
Eloi are stupid, throw morlocks at them!
I doubt that this will be modded up, but there are plenty of trolls having a big laugh about "Ni-Fi" on Slashdot today. So let me set the record straight:
Ni-Fi is what's used for local games. If you are at the mall with some friends and want to connect for Nintendogs or Bomberman, the DS will be using Ni-Fi. It is proprietary. It is not used for playing on the Internet.
If you buy Mario Kart DS and you're at the mall with some friends, it will use Ni-Fi. If you stumble upon an unsecured wireless node at the mall and want to play on the Internet, the Mario Kart cartridge will fire up its own TCP/IP stack. This is how online play is going to work on the DS.
So, Ni-Fi = LAN, Wifi + TCP/IP = Internet.
Frankly this whole McDonald's thing is not surprising. There are lots of McDonaldses in my area with "free" (with purchase) wireless Internet access. On top of that, every McDonald's in Scarborough has at least four Gamecubes in the kids area.
What does it mean in the end? Another reason to go to McDonald's. Damn you, with your McFlurries and your Big Macs and your Mario Kart and free drink refills...
Aha! Free DS online play + unlimited pop for $1.50...
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