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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?
More
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.
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.
Shhh! Don't say anything! They might not notice...!
:)
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.
I thought this was mentioned on /. before, but McDonald's offers free Wifi for laptop users anyway. I don't know how widespread this is, but it's already offered in my small town.
The funny thing is that they are supposed to give you a 30min user/pass for while you eat, but somebody screwed it up here. Right now they are giving out a single permanent user/pass combinations instead of temp ones... McDonald's, while out of my way a bit, is still a pretty convenient hotspot for me.
I just pooped your party.
Using the words McDonalds and restaurant in reference to one another.
Deleted
From TFA:
... to play online games with or against each other."
"Nintendo and Wayport will offer complimentary Wi-Fi hotspots... enabling DS owners
The DS does not have a TCP stack and has no native support for IPv4 or IPv6 (from http://www.darkain.com/nintendo_ds/nifi.php):
"The DS does not internally support a TCP stack or any IPv4/IPv6 communications at all. This is why the DS cannot be played online without the use of tunneling... Ni-Fi is a layer 3 protocol on top of 802.11."
802.11x is a network layer, not a magical gateway to "Teh internets"
So it goes to reason that the McDonalds hotspot for the DS won't support regular tcp/ip, as its a hotspot for DS users to play with each other. You probably won't be able to connect your laptop to it.
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
The article doesn't mention anything about being able to, use the web or other internet services using your DS, only to play games using Nintendo's proprietary internet gaming servers. So, while I don't know if they will, McDonalds certainly could implement an extremely restrictive firewall that only allowed communication through ports 8483 and 10554 (for example), and also restricted outgoing traffic to a handful of DS gaming servers.
of course, if they've got the technical capacity to provide free wifi for all devices, it certainly seems like a worthwhile "value-added" service to offer, so who knows?
You wouldn't even need a list. Just filter by the first three bytes (manufacturer).
-mkb
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
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.
Help! My PC is 0wn3d by the Hamburgler!
or
Mayor McCheese just busted me for stealing music!
Best Buy can have you arrested
I've heard they have created a new character to join Ronald McDonald et al. The Packet Pincher, who wears black and white and carries a sack with 'Bandwidth' written on it, is in a homosexual relationship with the Hamburglar and will be used to teach kids the danger of using bandwidth that they are not entitled to. McDonalds executives believe that the Packet Pincher will be a hit at birthday parties, as kids will be encouraged to boo him away when a costumed employee interrupts the party carrying the characters gold-coloured Laptop of Leeching and asks the kids for the latest torrents.
Mother, do you think they'll like this sig?