Nintendo DS players in Japan can now exercise their facial muscles to have nicer smiles and livelier expressions.
A digital camera that comes with the new “Face Training” game fits into the dual-screen, handheld machine to show live video of the player’s own face on the right screen while an animation of a woman’s face illustrates exercises on the left screen.
The 16 types of exercises called “facening,” designed by beauty expert Fumiko Inudo, take about two to 10 minutes each to complete. Nintendo Co., the Kyoto-based maker of Pokemon and Super Mario games, recommends playing “Face Training” no longer than 15 minutes at a time to avoid overexerting face muscles or getting them “out of balance.”
Besides the animation that serves as a model for players, an electronic voice resembling an aerobics instructor guides you to twist your mouth, drop your jaw, wink, glare at the ceiling and perform other moves to tighten flabby cheeks and develop that bright-eyed look.
“Open your mouth slightly, one, two, three, four,” the machine says during one exercise.
The game went on sale last week in Japan. Overseas sales plans are still undecided.
San Francisco to ask voters on free wireless support: San Francisco can’t seem to agree if free wireless access to the Internet is such a great idea.
Hoping to break a political impasse, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom has submitted a ballot measure asking voters whether they support blanketing the city with a wireless Wi-Fi system that would enable free Web surfing subsidized by ads from Google Inc.
The November ballot measure is nonbinding, so its approval wouldn’t ensure a free Wi-Fi service would be built.
But a thumbs-up would turn up the heat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors to finally clear the way for free Wi-Fi – a crusade that Newsom began championing in October 2004 as a way to keep the city on the cutting edge of technology while making it more feasible for poor households to get online.
The supervisors could beat the voters to the punch. A board hearing on the Wi-Fi issue is scheduled in September, raising the possibility it could approve or reject the proposal before voters weigh in.
Segway fan club curbing its enthusiasm: The device that was supposed to revolutionize urban transportation seems unable to even hold on to a proper fan club.
The Segway Enthusiasts Group of America is disbanding because of inactivity and an absence of candidates for its board of directors, said the group’s treasurer, Fred Kaplan.
SEG America plans to cease operations at the end of this month. Other small fan groups for the Segway still exist, but SEG America was one of the more active organizations, sending out regular e-mails on various Segway-related gatherings.
Kaplan said his organization wasn’t able to grow in part because it did not have access to e-mail lists of customers from Segway Inc., maker of the pricey self-balancing scooter.
“We had a list that was essentially three years old,” he said.
Segway spokeswoman Carla Vallone confirmed the Bedford, N.H.-based company won’t share the list, but has otherwise been supportive of SEG America.
“We’re certainly disappointed to see this disband,” she said. “We’ve supported them with financial sponsorship and also with some collaborative projects over the years.”
Still, the Segway can be too pricey for even for personal electronics-hungry American consumers. The base model Segway PT i2 carries a suggested retail price of $5,145, and SEG America’s Kaplan says replacement batteries cost about $1,600 per pair.
Kebab crooner has his day in the sun: Lil’Maaz’s path to glory is coated with mutton grease.
EMI, The Beatles’ music distributor, released a debut single this week by the Turkish immigrant who sells kebabs in Paris. The story behind “Eat Kebab” (“Mange du Kebab”) is as unlikely as they come and an example of how the Internet is shaking up the music business.
This is how EMI tells it.
Yilmaz Karaman – aka Lil’Maaz – moved to France in 2003 and got a job at an eatery. A cheerful chap, he composed a song about his work (“Eat kebab, eat kebab my friend!”) to regale his regulars. Fortuitously for him, they included employees from a nearby recording studio, who invited Lil’Maaz to record his song.
A friend shot video of Lil’Maaz dancing and rapping in the restaurant, meat roasting on the spit in the background. Posted on a sharing site, Daily Motion, the video has drawn more than 435,000 views over the past month. That buzz interested EMI, which released the single in stores on Monday.
Lil’Maaz is not the first singer – but is surely among the most bizarre – to get a break via the Internet.
From Herald news service
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