New game exercises muscles for smiles

New game exercises
muscles for smiles

TOKYO — Nintendo DS players in Japan can 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 Wi-Fi
issue goes to ballot

SAN FRANCISCO — This freewheeling city 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.

The project, one of hundreds of municipal Wi-Fi systems being built or proposed across the country, has bogged down amid concerns about privacy protection, surfing speeds and the terms of the proposed contract.

The agreement, which could run for as long as 16 years, currently calls for EarthLink Inc. to build the Wi-Fi system for an estimated $14 million to $17 million.

Associated Press