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'Hey, Disney' voice assistant comes to Disneyland in 2022
The Amazon-powered 'Hey, Disney' voice assistant will be available in Disneyland hotel rooms in 2022.
‘Behind the Attraction’ traces Disney's theme-park tech advancements one ride at a time
'Behind the Attraction' is a snackable look at your favorite Disney rides and shows.
An animatronic Spider-Man will soon swing over Disneyland
Spider-Man will soar over Disneyland's Avengers Campus in summer of 2020, DisneyParks announced, despite an ongoing dispute over the film version of the character. According to a video released by the park, Spidey will swing high into the air over the attraction, do some cool flips and other moves, then disappear below the buildings. What's more, he'll be wearing a new suit designed by Marvel's head of visual development, Ryan Meinerding.
Recommended Reading: The making of Star Wars Galaxy's Edge
A journey to Galaxy's Edge, the nerdiest place on Earth Adam Rogers, Wired By now, even people who aren't Star Wars fans have heard something about Galaxy's Edge: the massive and detailed new attraction at Disneyland. Wired spoke to "Imagineers" who created the 14-acre expansion at the park to offer a glimpse at the work that went into making it a reality.
Disney’s 'Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance' ride opens December 5th
Disney's new Star Wars-theme park, Galaxy's Edge, will get its second ride before the year is up. Today, Disney Parks announced that "Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance" will arrive in Florida at Walt Disney World Resort on December 5th -- Walt Disney's birthday. Immediately after the ride debuts in Florida, the team will head to California, where they'll unveil it at Disneyland Resort on January 17th.
Disney's 'Star Wars' theme park trailer takes you inside its rides
Since it snagged LucasFilm for $4.05 billion in 2012, Disney's churned out Star Wars movies, shows, toys, VR experiences and games. But in the background it's been tinkering away on something even more immersive: a full-blown Star Wars theme park. On Christmas Day, Disney dropped a new trailer for the Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge theme park and two of its main attractions, "Millennium Falcon: Smuggler's Run" and "Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance" -- with Disney describing the latter as "the biggest and most immersive Disney Parks attraction ever."
Disney will show the sights, sounds and smells of 'Star Wars' in VR
Disney is teaming up with virtual reality gaming centre The Void to launch an immersive Star Wars experience at two of its sites. Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire lets you step inside the intergalactic world of the hit films through a VR headset. You'll also be able to touch, feel, and even smell your surroundings (which may not bode well if you end up chilling with Yoda on Dagobah). Built in collaboration with Lucasfilm, the new experience hits Disneyland Resort and Walt Disney World Resort this holiday season.
Lyft's ‘Minnie Vans’ will drive guests around Disney World
Earlier this month, Lyft teamed up with Taco Bell for a new Taco Mode service that lets riders add a stop to the fast food chain on their late night route. Now, Lyft is partnering with another brand -- Disney. As of today, guests staying in Disney World's Boardwalk, Yacht Club and Beach Club resorts can call a Lyft to drive them to wherever they want to go within the Walt Disney World Resort. And the best part is that the vehicles are painted to look like Minnie Mouse's dress and are called "Minnie Vans."
Disney’s ‘Star Wars’ theme park is taking shape
Universal Studios Japan recently released the first trailer for its in-construction Super Nintendo World attraction, and now Disney has gone one better by building an actual physical model showing off its upcoming Star Wars Land (unofficial title). Due to open in 2019 at both Disneyland in California and Disney World in Florida, the new area "will transport guests to a never-before-seen planet" -- which just happens to look like every weathered, forgettable world characters from the films briefly touch down on to get a ship part or intel or what have you.
Disney's remote control robots move just like people
Imagine walking into a Disney theme park and being greeted by Mike from Monsters Inc. A life-size Mike, perfectly spherically-proportioned on those spindly legs. Fitting a human into a costume like that is impossible. That's why Disney Research is building a new kind of haptic-feedback remote control system which will allow us to control robots as easily as we move ourselves.
Inhabitat's Week in Green: Solar Impulse's trans-Pacific flight, and more!
The Solar Impulse airplane is on a mission to circle the globe using only the power of the sun, and this week it continued its journey by crossing the Pacific Ocean. Meanwhile, Tesla showed just how fast the Model S is by challenging a Boeing 747 to a drag race. An Italian company is turning vintage moped parts into some of the coolest electric bikes we've ever seen, and a Swedish cyclist created an all-weather bike that looks just like a car. And we've seen buses and vans turned into some pretty incredible things -- but Lee Broom's palatial gallery on wheels takes the cake.
A look at Disney's 'Star Wars Experience' concepts
While we've known for a while that Disney intends to build big new Star Wars-themed areas inside its parks, concrete details of its plans have yet to materialize. That hasn't exactly changed after last night's ABC Disneyland 60 special, but we at least now have some idea of what some the attractions might look like.
Barely Related: Star Wars cast, Doctor Who in Terminator
Good day, you lovely ladies and gents. Welcome to Barely Related, a conversational Friday column that presents the non-gaming news stories that we, the Joystiq staff, have been talking about over the past week. And no, we're not stopping our focus on industry and gaming news. Think of this as your casual weekly recap of interesting (and mostly geeky) news, presented just in time to fill your brain with things to discuss at all of those weekend shindigs. Grab a fresh drink, lean back in your armchair, and get ready to talk nerdy with us.
Apple expands iOS Maps' 3D Flyover coverage in California, including Disneyland
Apple is continuing to roll out increased Maps 3D Flyover coverage. The latest update was first spotted by AppleInsider and appears to include large parts of California. Specifically, the latest update includes the cities of San Bernardino, Riverside, Rancho Cucamonga, Ontario, Moreno Valley and more. This update covers Anaheim as well, so users can now view a 3D Flyover of Disneyland in Apple Maps. It seems like Apple is continuing to roll out aggressive server-side updates to Apple Maps. Only a little more than two weeks ago Apple added 3D Flyover coverage in Paris.
Disney imagineering long lines out of theme parks with military-grade monitoring systems
They've got a monorail system, IRL Muppets, and a house from the future, so we're not surprised that Disneyland is kicking its line-monitoring system into technological overdrive. Beneath Cinderella's iconic castle, a NORAD-style operation dedicated to eradicating downtime for visitors to the Magic Kingdom has sprung up, with a whole team tracking wait times, average number of rides ridden, and a whole bevy of other visitor-happiness metrics all over the park. From there, they can do things like re-route foot traffic to less-populated areas of the park with a mini-parade, adjust personnel at different attractions, or dispatch Jack Sparrow himself to liven up a Pirates line-waiter's afternoon. Chief Creative Executive Imagineer Bruce E. Vaughan dreams of "a day where there is memory built into these characters - they will know that they've seen you four or five times before and that your name is Bobby." Sounds delightfully frightening to us. But hey, it's all in the name of increasing visitor happiness, which we're sure goes hand in hand with visitor brokeness by the time they leave the park.
Mousing around: A review of Disney theme park iPhone apps
My wife and I are unabashed Disneyphiles, so the last two months have been a lot of fun. After my wife taught a tutorial in L.A. last month, we spent a few days at the West Coast properties -- Disneyland and California Adventure. This month, we had some Disney Vacation Club points left over, so we spent five days at our "home" resort near Disney's Animal Kingdom, Epcot, the Magic Kingdom, and Disney's Hollywood Studios. I thought these trips would be a perfect opportunity to try out some of the many travel apps that have sprung up for the iPhone, all of which purport to be the solution to all of your Disney dining, lodging, and theme park information needs. As with any genre of app, there are a mixture of good and bad apps available. Since the Thanksgiving holiday weekend is generally a big time to visit the parks, here's a quick tour of a few of the apps that my wife and I used on our trips so you can load up your iPhone if you're going to visit The Mouse over the holidays.
WoW Insider Show Episode 105: All medicated up
Our podcast took to the airwaves yet again last Saturday, and it was what you might call a rollicking good time. Turpster and I were on, and we welcomed both Alex Ziebart and Michael Sacco back to the show, to talk about BlizzCon last weekend, our experiences with the expansion's new starter zones, and why Deathwing is actually a great choice for the Cataclysm's bad guy.And we answered your emails, including information about PvP vs. questing XP, our meetup (and the trip after BlizzCon to Disneyland -- you can check out some pictures of the trip in the gallery below), and racial bonuses to tradeskills -- how they work and what they'll look like in the next expansion.Was a great time, and you can hear all about it on the podcast below. If you have anything you'd like to tell us (either about something you heard on the show, or something you didn't hear us talk about yet), feel free to send an email to theshow@wow.com, and you might hear it on the show next week. Enjoy.%Gallery-71318%Get the podcast:[iTunes] Subscribe to the WoW Insider Show directly in iTunes.[RSS] Add the WoW Insider Show to your RSS aggregator.[MP3] Download the MP3 directly.Listen here on the page:
Preparing for BlizzCon: Money -- you're going to need it
BlizzCon approaches! Preparing for BlizzCon is your regular source for tips on how best to prepare for Blizzard's gaming extravaganza.If you have the resources to pick up some extra cash or the space in your budget to save some more over the next couple months, I recommend that you do. The ticket is paid for, but that is just the tip of the iceberg. You already know you need money for lodging and getting there, but here are a few more things for which you are probably going to want to have extra cash in the bank: Food: It really isn't practical to bring your own and in some cases, not allowed by Blizzard. For example, anything in glass, large containers or cans are a no go for the convention. Many hotels consider a tiny box of cereal or a couple slices of toast a "free breakfast", so don't count on them either. The food in the Anaheim Convention Center is convenient but overpriced, as is normal for conventions. In the evenings, most people will be dining at one of the many delicious Downtown Disney eateries, which are great fun and usually pretty expensive. All in all, your food bills will likely be far greater than your normal food budget.
Preparing for BlizzCon: Reserve your lodging ASAP
BlizzCon approaches! Preparing for BlizzCon will be your regular source for tips on how best to prepare for Blizzard's gaming extravaganza.If you were lucky enough to get tickets to BlizzCon 2009, you've got over two months to prepare. But one of the very first things you should do is make your lodging arrangements as soon as possible. As with any popular convention, rooms closest to the venue are already filling up, so your options are closing with each passing day. Following are tips for choosing the location of your non-BlizzCon time: No charge to reserve now: In most cases, you need a valid credit card to guarantee your reservation, but your card is not charged until your stay. So make your reservations now to ensure you have a place to stay. You can cancel if things change: Check the cancellation policy of your hotel to be sure, but usually you are able to cancel 24 hours before your stay begins or even the same day. More tips are after the break.
Walt Disney World Notescast for iPhone: one Disnerd's review
To start with: I am a Disney fan -- to be precise, it's a lot like the way Jack Nicholson is a Laker fan -- so on my very nearly annual expeditions to a Disney park, I don't really need the map. I have memorized shortcuts and low-traffic restrooms, how to get all the good stuff done in one day, and loads more random bits (look closely in the Hall Of Presidents; molds for their faces are used on other animatronics around the park), mostly because carrying them around in my head was the easiest way to carry them. Then I got my iPhone (my first smartphone) and was able to put data on my phone (which I always carry with me). Enter the Walt Disney World Notescast. This $0.99 app is a handy planning/informational tool that can guide your entire Walt Disney World trip, from vacation packages to tips on annual events and park history. I tested the iPhone version of this app, but TimeStream Software also sells a $1.99 version for notes-capable classic iPods and nanos. It doesn't rely on a data connection and you can carry all this info with you easily.When you first launch the application, you get a list of options to choose from. I liked the variety of options, but I wish I could customize or at least re-order it so I could get at a few of the options more quickly. There is a bookmark system available, but I ended up bookmarking a lot of things so that list went non-functional pretty quickly. And while I understand not having a ton of information on one page, I had a hard time figuring out why there were breaks between, for example, "Tours of EPCOT I" and "Tours of EPCOT II". I love the list of phone numbers, especially since I can tap the number to make the call. In the now cutthroat world of Disney Dining, having that number handy -- as well as the ticket line and even the camping and Magical Express numbers, not usually easy to find on the WDW site -- is a huge convenience.
