90°

Disney puts Nintendo DS to use as interactive tour guide

Posted Jan 21st 2008 5:05PM by Donald Melanson

The DS has already proven some of its versatility by ordering food and dishing out replays at Safeco Field, and it looks like Disney's set to expand those non-gaming capabilities even further, with it now testing a system that turns the handheld into an interactive tour guide.

Dubbed the Disney Magic Connection, the app appears to be fairly extensive, including not only maps of the Magic Kingdom, but details on wait times at various attractions, directions to the nearest washrooms and ATMs and, of course, the odd game.

Unfortunately, at least in its current state, you'll only be able to take advantage of those features with one of Disney's pre-set up DSs and not your own -- no word if that'll change once the system moves beyond the testing phase.

Hit up the read link on Engadget for more pics of the app itself and a first-hand report from one lucky tester.

Notes: The image below is a scan of the instruction guide that was supplied with the test units. The guide illustrates the functions and features of the interactive tour guide.

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engadget.com
RecSpec5931d ago

That actually sounds pretty sweet. Especially if sometime down the line you were able to download the maps straight to your ds.

Plus I never heard of the baseball thing so I read up on it, that is pretty crazy too. Who knew that people would take advantage of the DS like that.

akaFullMetal5931d ago

weird? but i guess some could use this?

50°

LG Gaming Week deals kick off with $500 off this 45-inch UltraGear OLED curved gaming monitor

Save a bucket load on this massive curved gaming monitor- with the potential of even more savings in LG's Gaming Week

80°

Review: GameScent - Now you can smell your games | KnowTechie

KnowTechie writes: "The GameScent is a unique way to add immersion to your games. Thanks to its HDMI and 3.5mm jack, the device is versatile, so you can use it across your consoles and PC. However, it would be great to see a new range of scents since there are only six, and many smell similar to each other."

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knowtechie.com
TheLigX1d 1h ago

Ah yes… whenever I play a game I always think that it would be so much better if my home could smell more like gasoline and burnt gunpowder.

staticall1d ago

Boogerman, Binding Of Isaac, Fallout, Postal and Scorn, here i come, smell away!

Skate-AK23h ago

Can't forget Octodad and Harlod Halibut.

160°

Here's why PC gamers aren't upgrading GPUs as often as they used to

At a time where GPUs are more available than ever, it appears as though PC gamers aren't upgrading as often as they used to.

Vits2d ago

For me, the primary concern with new software is how it's often exclusive to a new series. This not only frustrates me but also raises questions about the lifespan of the hardware. With GPUs no longer offering significant performance boosts, they rely heavily on software enhancements.

However, this reliance is contingent on developer support. When the new 5000 series hits shelves, it's likely that the 4000 series won't be compatible with Nvidia's new software. This would negate any advantage it had over the 3000 series, leaving one to wonder why they upgraded in the first place. And the same will keep happening as we move through the generations.

AMD is a bit better in that regard as they often use open standards, which offer wider compatibility. However, they have even less developer support, and their software solutions tend to lag behind Nvidia by at least one whole generation. So if you have a 3000 series from Nvidia right now, it doesn't really make that much sense to upgrade to the 7000 series from AMD because feature-wise they are pretty similar level.

just_looken18h ago

The huge thing you are missing is display.

If you have a 1440p/1080p monitor there is 0 reason to leave the 3,000/amd 6,000 series those cards are cheap with many years of driver support left and can push those resolutions for you 0 issues well unless you go below the 60 series range or amd's 6400

Right now computer games are having issues because of garbage drm and or just a garbage port that even is trash on consoles like dragon dogmas 30fps BS all versions.

There is 0 reason to get a 5k/amd 7k series card unless you are doing serious rendering and or 4k gaming or you want more vram as yes games are taking up more thanks to higher native textures.

It would be a huge help if these "gaming" consoles used real hardware not some apu/igpu garbage even a 3 year old gaming laptop has better guts. A real cpu/gpu/ram/mb/psu/storage on a console would help so much on game porting/optimization for the devs.

Vits17h ago

I don't think that is a huge thing. Hell, I would even argue that is completely not important.
Pc Gamers in general do not care about resolution that much and therefore I don't see 4K gaming becoming a thing on Pc any time soon. It's just not worth it. Even more when right now there are many better ways to improve the visual quality of your experience before going for the resolution.

From QLED, OLED, miniLED-based solutions, Fast IPS, IPS Black, better VA panels, all of them play a much larger role than resolution in improving game visual quality. Not to mention you don't need to sacrifice refresh rate if you stay in the Full/Quad HD bracket. And refresh rate is a thing that PC gamers care about.

And let's be honest, developers are not focusing on native solutions anymore. So why bother going for higher resolution if the game is going to fake it either way? It's a waste of resources that clearly most PC gamers aren't willing to do.

Furesis2d ago

oh my god, these "Here's why" articles are always about the most obvious shit ever, like do people actually read these?

Neonridr2d ago

because they last for generations. You don't need to upgrade every 1, 2 or even 3 years. I went from a 1080ti which served me so well to a 3080 with years in between. I won't even consider upgrading until the 5000 series at the earliest, but will most likely wait for the 6000 series.

hard joe1d 12h ago

not every gamer have money to upgrade every year

just_looken18h ago

But you do not need too on a pc if you're non 4k gamer 3 year old hardware will work for you.

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