Gizmodo: McDonalds

Do You Want Wi-Fi with That? Zune Users Get Free Net Access at McDonalds

Kit Eaton — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 08:10:00 EDT

Zune owners are getting free Wi-Fi access at McDonalds, as well as the 3.0 software today. It's using the Wayport Wi-Fi system at about 10,000 stores, and as a Wayport spokesman puts it, it lets them "attract new customers whose digital lifestyle extends beyond their home and office." Yep, out of the home and office...and into the burger joint. Great if you've got a Zune, and were jealous of the Starbucks/Apple Wi-Fi tie-up (which, and it may be just me, is a far "classier" deal, no?) [Zuneboards. Thanks Joel!]

Korean McDonald's Becomes First Restaurant to Offer RFID-Based Transactions

blongo3 — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 14:30:12 EDT

Soon you'll be able to skip the lines at Korean McDonald's. Instead, just sit down, pull out your cellphone and pop in an RFID adapter to place an order. All you need is a phone that is compatible with the RFID adapter and can download the McDonald's ordering application. The idea of a fully autonomous Mickey D's is getting closer and closer every day. [KoreaTimes via The Raw Feed]

Gates Foundation Announces Investments in McDonald's, Confusingly

Adam Frucci — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 11:15:00 EDT

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which is dedicated to global health issues among other philanthropic causes, revealed yesterday that it just so happens to hold 740,000 shares of McDonald's stock. Wait, the same McDonald's that contributes to the obesity epidemic in our country? Doesn't that seem, I don't know, counterintuitive? You're paying for both the problem and the solution. That's just poor business sense, Bill. [Reuters via The Raw Feed]

Weird Combo of the Day: NTT DoCoMo Teams with McDonalds

Travis Hudson — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 14:30:59 EST

This definitely falls into our Weird Combo of the Day category. It seems Japan's two largest and highly unrelated companies have joined forces. Japan cellphone giant, NTT DoCoMo is teaming up with the always (not) delicious McDonalds restaurant. No, it won't be McDonalds-branded cellphones, but this agreement with promote DoCoMo's IC-card e-cash system in McDonalds restaurants. If you are part of Japan's McDonalds "membership club" (??) you can begin paying for food using your cellphone's contactless IC card system. Now you can just swipe your phone to receive a heart-attack, to go. –Travis Hudson

DoCoMo and McDonalds join hands in Japan [Gearfuse]

Robosapiens Invade McDonalds Happy Meals

Jason Chen — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 16:00:39 EST

Our favorite robot toys have gone mainstream, as WowWee and McDonalds are teaming up to put tlittle miniature versions of the toys into Happy Meals.

The mini robos consist of regular Walking Robosapien, Roboraptor, Talking Robosapien, Running Roboreptile, Walking Robopet, Chomping Roboraptor, Standup Robosapien, diabetes and obesity. Oh wait, sorry, those last two come with every McDonalds meal, not just Happy ones. – Jason Chen

Happy Meals [via Robo Community]

Microsoft Prepping Zune Filling Stations

Jason Chen — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 14:50:24 EST

According to Microsoft's business chief Chris Stephenson, the company is planning on working with retail chains to provide "filling stations" for the Zune. Such classy places as McDonalds and Starbucks would be the idea place for Zune owners to hop in and download a song or two.

Imagine going to your late teens/early twenties clothing store, hearing a great song over the speakers, and being able to immediately download the track to your Zune right there. No need to walk up to the snarky cashier and ask her what the song is. Cool, eh?

This definitely jives with what Stephenson said before about shrinking down Zunes and releasing one with "true" Wi-Fi. – Jason Chen

Microsoft wants Wi-Fi 'filling stations' for Zune II [The Register via Uber Gizmo]

McHacking: iZ IR Repeater

Mark Wilson — Sat, 23 Dec 2006 10:00:34 EST

It's no secret that I occasionally frequent the golden arches, but now I've found a more reasonable excuse to partake in the greasy goodness than long term suicide. Apparently some of their happy meal toys can make a fun weekend project if you have a screwdriver and soldering iron.

One clever father hacked the iZ toy. Generally, these toys have twisting arms that generate noises when manipulated, and other desirable traits for a father who just wants his Sunday nap. So he opened the toy up, drilled out the belly and stuck an IR receiver inside. Then, he found the LED already in the toy can be easily hooked up to light up upon signal reception. But the best part was that by destroying all of his children's toys, he made whole house IR repeater to control his Tivo from any room in his Mcmansion.

Hit the jump for some sweet McHack footage of the "TiZo" receiver in action.

– Mark Wilson

iZIRRepeater [via MAKE]

McDonalds: "I'm Lovin' Malware"

Mark Wilson — Sat, 14 Oct 2006 12:10:24 EDT

McDonalds Japan recently ran a contest giving away 10,000 MP3 players preloaded with 10 songs. However, the players were preloaded with QQpass malware - which transmits usernames, passwords, etc. off your computer. McDonalds set up a 24-hour hotline to troubleshoot the problem. Most conversations go something like this:

"Hi, welcome to McDonalds."
"My identity has been stolen because of your shitty MP3 player."
"Ok sir. Is our food unsafe for consumption?"
"Well...uhh...yeah, I guess."
"But that's why it's so tasty, no?"
"Sure, I guess."
"McDonalds also thought that unsafe music could be extra good, too...but if you're watching your credit line..."
"No, no, I'm not."
"Then would you like to try our new McSledgehammer. It's really, really bad for your computer."
"Sounds delicious!" – Mark Wilson

[newlaunches]

Mickey Dee's Harnesses McSun for Chicago Billboard

Charlie White — Wed, 12 Jul 2006 09:05:22 EDT

We once knew a girl whose face was so ugly it could stop a sundial, so if she lives near Wrigley Field in Chicago, she won't have any way of knowing that it's time to stop eating Egg McMuffins and start digging into Big Macs. Ad agency Leo Burnett dreamed up this idea for a McDonald's billboard that takes us fast food junkies back to the ancient days of sundials, casting a shadow on a cup of McCoffee at 6 a.m., and moving along to other various delectable breakfast items until 11, when those scrumptious McDonald's fries are given the nod by the shadowy arches.

As the breakfast competition heats up in the Chicago markets and beyond, the McDonald's ad agency figured it could turn to the power of the sun for its billboard marketing, and searched far and wide until it found a billboard with just the right angle to take advantage of the sun's rays. The billboard made its debut on Friday, and it will stay in place until next month; by then the shadow angles will have changed so much it will cease to work properly. Great idea, unless it's a cloudy day, where the billboard will make absolutely no sense at all. But who needs it anyway—as if we depend on the McSun to tell us when we're hungry. – Charlie White

McD's launches next strike in breakfast war - in Wrigleyville [ChicagoBusiness] (Thanks, Gavin!)

Digital Happy Meals Make Kids Annoy Parents More Than Ever Before

tgrumet — Tue, 13 Dec 2005 11:17:27 EST

Like they needed another reason to go to McDonalds, kids may be bothering their parents even more to hit the greasy fast-food chain if a recent patent application actually comes to fruition. The patent would involve both Disney and McDonalds and reveals plans to release a portable player that would feed kids bits and pieces of programming every time they came back to eat. Such an incentive could be included along with a Happy Meal, let's say. So you buy three Happy Meals and you get a full installment of a certain game, music album or movie. Forget the Star Wars action figure, this baby's going digital. All McDonalds needs is WiFi (coming soon...) and the actual hardware to make this scheme a reality. The patent suggests the product will have a memory card slot and will allow you to swap content with other devices, including your PC. Maybe they should also include coupons for a treadmill.

Happy Meals to go digital? [Arstechnica]

Gizmodo Ink

Noah R — Tue, 18 Oct 2005 11:32:37 EDT

A Detroit Free Press writer has a huge crush on Tablet PCs. So does Bill Gates. The two of them shared a moment.
[Detroit Free Press]

Following the lead of Disney, Fox becomes the latest studio to get with the times and commit delivering its films to movie theaters digitally. The money-saving economics of going digital are finally beginning to sink into the heads of the bean-counters: new digital projectors and servers will cost a mint but studios won't have to pay $1,000 per print to get the flicks to theaters (something that hurts even more when that print happens to be for a movie like Deuce Bigalow 2). [WSJ (reg)]

Nintendo DS users will be able to play games over Wi-Fi in 7,000 McDonalds locations in the U.S. Nintendogs with fries—I'm lovin' it! [NY Times]

"Pr t- -porter" and "gadgets" are words you still don't expect to see together, yet increasingly-smaller portable electronics have found a permanent spot in the hearts of the fashion world. If you're a designer, how can you not love a $300 Louis Vuitton cell phone case? [Washington Post].

You know all of those ringtones, games, and wallpapers you download from your cell phone provider? Believe it or not, people have to play test each and every one of 'em. [Chicago Sun-Times]

Repetitive-stress injury, tendonitis, computer-vision syndrome, Blackberry thumb... How do gadgets cripple our frail bodies? Let us count the ways. [Union Tribune]

McDonalds And Nintendo Partner For WiFi, Big Macs

gizmodo.com — Tue, 18 Oct 2005 10:39:51 EDT

Nintendo has been making all the moves lately. Now that WiFi for the DS is slowly approaching us from behind, Nintendo decided they needed more fat kids playing DS with WiFi, so they turned to none other than McDonalds. Nintendo has partnered with WiFi provider Wayport to provide free internet access to DS users who are down with going to a McDonalds in the US. Want to hear something funny though? Check this:

This agreement with Wayport will bring countless people together to play games in a single, simultaneous wireless community," says Reggie Fils-Aime, Nintendo of America's executive vice president of sales and marketing.

Oh. So you expect me to head on over to the local Mickey D's every time I want to play my DS with these countless numbers of people? Sure thing. I'll try to make my way through the packed doors of my local homeless shelter/McDonalds, but I can't guarantee anything.

Free DS WiFi at McDonald s [Kotaku]
DS Goes Wayport [IGN]