mcdonalds

McDonald's is lead sponsor of Olympics-themed ARG, 'The Lost Ring'

For anyone who follows alternate-reality games (ARGs), it should come as no surprise that the latest entry in the genre, The Lost Ring, is the brainchild of, among others, Jane McGonigal.

Until now, it was only suspected--though with extremely high levels of confidence--that the game, which is centered on helping a fictional amnesiac woman named Ariadne discover her identity, was a promotional vehicle for this summer's Beijing Olympics.

But McGonigal, who is keynoting at the South by Southwest Interactive festival in Austin on Tuesday, confirmed to me that the game was in fact designed in collaboration with the International … Read more

Making sense of the million-dollar iPhone lawsuit

When Apple announced that it was dropping the price of the iPhone by $200, some jumped for joy and immediately headed out to their nearest Apple store. For others--early adopters who had already purchased Apple's gadget--the price drop was nothing short of a slap in the face. Some were satisfied when Steve Jobs said that these loyal customers would be provided a $100 credit toward their next Apple purchase, but many felt the credit didn't suffice. One of these unhappy shoppers has filed a lawsuit against Apple to the tune of $1 million dollars.

It's unclear how the litigant, Dongmei Li, plans to justify a million dollars in damages over a $200 price drop, but Li's argument is that "the price reduction injured early purchasers like herself because they cannot resell the product for the same profit as those who bought the cell phone following the price cut," according to CNN's account. So I guess that comes out to $200 in actual losses and $999,800 in pain and suffering.

'Happy Kid' laughs off scary Webcams

Only yesterday Crave challenged the industry to make a Webcam that didn't look creepy--in particular, we were advocating a "Bubble Head" prototype that had yet to find its way to the market (or so we thought). Lo and behold, nary a day later we see the "USB Happy Kid Webcam" that could be the Bubble Head's long-lost cousin.

Like Bubble, the Kid is flexible with a Cyclops-style lens on its head so it can be posed in a variety of positions. Ubergizmo, which shared our affection for the cheery little guys, notes the Kid … Read more

Robosapiens descend on McDonald's

You know that a toy has achieved official ubiquity when it gets stuffed into McDonald's Happy Meals. And the latest to win that dubious honor is the Robosapien.

But don't expect the giveaways to be anything close to the full-fledged, biomorphic original; remember, these kiddie meals are only a few bucks. From the looks of it on the Happy Meal site (yes, there's a site), we wouldn't anticipate more than some fancy wind-up gizmos, but we hope we're wrong.

At least we can count on variety, which is standard practice to lure kids back to … Read more

Devicescape makes Wi-Fi hot spots cooler

Devicescape is a free Wi-Fi helper service that was announced at the Demo 07 conference this past week. It's designed to take the struggle out of connecting to various commercial Wi-Fi hot spots while on the go. After downloading the low profile Devicescape application to your PC, Windows Mobile smart phone, or Wi-Fi-enabled handset, you can instantly connect without having to manage log-ins or remember passwords.

The Devicescape client works with a number of Wi-Fi services, most notably T-Mobile's HotSpot service, which can be found in over 8,000 locations (mostly Starbucks). Devicescape is at work on interoperability … Read more