Catching Real Fish With Your Mobile Phone

from the don't-play-with-your-food dept

Well, here's an amusing one. Some folks in Japan have put together a game for mobile phones that lets you go fishing for virtual fish. That, alone, isn't particularly interesting of course. What makes it worth writing about is that when you catch a virtual fish, you then can get a real fish delivered to your door from a local fish wholesaler. There's a bit of luck involved, as once you've "caught" the fish, you then have to have numbers match up on a virtual slot machine, but it could get people thinking about more creative ways to make ordering any kind of product more fun. We've already seen various crazes for "virtual pets" come and go -- but why not attach them to real life outcomes? Need fish? Catch a fish. Need bread? Manage a virtual farm to successfully grow wheat. Want a dog? Successfully take care of a virtual one first. Obviously, some of these ideas are a bit silly, but you could see some more interesting ideas developed out of them, potentially offering people discounts on the actual products if they partake in some of these games that either have subscription fees or advertising.

Filed Under: fish, games, japan, mobile phones

GPS Devices Damaging Thousands Of Bridges?

from the ignore-your-navigation-system dept

In the past, we've seen stories of GPS navigation devices not knowing enough about local roads that the directions were often inappropriate for the type of vehicle -- especially trucks. It had resulted in signs being placed on roads, begging drivers to ignore their own navigation devices. Engadget now points us to a report from the UK suggesting that bad directions from navigation devices was responsible for damage to about 2,000 bridges. That seems like quite a lot. The claim is that the devices direct trucks who are much too heavy to go over bridges not designed for that kind of load. Work is now being done to get the navigation companies to at least understand the types of roads and bridges, and how that corresponds to different types of vehicles.

Filed Under: bridges, gps, navigation, uk

Is Annoying Young People With A High-Pitched Buzz A Violation Of Their Rights?

from the the-right-not-to-be-buzzed dept

Back in 2005, we wrote about the Mosquito device that some shopkeepers were using to ward off loitering teens. The device supposedly emitted a high-pitched buzz that was inaudible to older folks whose hearing range had decreased. Generally, the noise could be heard by teens and some folks into their early twenties. Amusingly, some teens figured out a way to turn this noise to their own advantage, recording it and turning it into a ringtone that adults couldn't hear. Yet, The Raw Feed now lets us know that UK politicians are looking to ban the Mosquito device for violating the rights of teenagers, noting that it indiscriminately targeted all children and young people, even if they hadn't been doing anything wrong. That's certainly true, and it does seem rather silly to use this device in the first place, but does that mean it's actually violating anyone's rights? Is it illegal to play a noise that annoys people? Does it matter that it only annoys a certain age group? What if a store simply played music that annoyed a certain age group? Would that also be illegal?

Filed Under: loitering, mosquito, teens