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Posts Tagged ‘Magic Kingdom’

Amazon.com mysteriously removes Macmillan book titles

Go to Amazon.com. Search for any publication by Macmillan, one of the world’s largest publishing firms. The Prince of Silicon Valley, perhaps, or Sarah’s Key. Or last year’s huge #1 bestseller The Gathering Storm.

Gone, mysteriously gone. We found Cory Doctorow’s Little Brother, but his new novel Makers and his popular debut, Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, have been removed. Robert Jordan’s entire Wheel of Time series of fantasy novels is gone, except for 2005’s The Knife of Dreams.

Neither Amazon nor Macmillan have replied, but I’ll update with more info as we get it. I’m guessing the titles you can still find were somehow missed in the removal process.

Macmillan is one of Apple’s announced partners for the iPad, heavily hyped as a Kindle killer. But we’re not sure that’s the connection. Please email us with any tips.

Commenter Atul Arora points out that the books are still listed on Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.ca.

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Walt Disney World on five apps a week

Filed under: App Review

We did a write-up of apps used at Disneyland and Walt Disney World back in November, but I just spent a week at Walt Disney World where my daughter got married, and wanted to add some personal perspective on my experience with five iPhone/iPod touch apps for seven days. There are a lot of apps out for Walt Disney World, but from reviews both here and anywhere else I could find, I decided upon, and bought, five of them. The quality of these apps ranged from beautiful but arcane, to incredibly useful.

The most eye-catching of all the apps has to be The Walt Disney World Maps Boxed Set US$3.99 [iTunes Link]. This set contains maps of all four parks: Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, Hollywood Studios and Epcot, along with Downtown Disney, Blizzard Beach, Typhoon Lagoon and the Orlando International Airport tossed in for good measure. Maps of each of the parks can be bought individually for US$.99. When running the app, you are presented with the main screen which goes black for a few seconds and then re-appears. Odd. Tapping on any of the parks gives you a detailed “cartoony-looking” map that can be pinched and stretched to an extent. You can’t pinch any map enough to see the entire park on one screen. This means that you really have to know basically what you’re looking for before the app can be of much help, and since the map has no text of what the buildings represent, it’s hit or miss. At least it was until I found the spyglass button which brings up a screen that searches attractions either by A to Z, by location, or by category. Choosing one brings up a screen with the name, a one line description, and some additional information.We did a write-up of apps used at Disneyland and Walt Disney World back in November, but I just spent a week at Walt Disney World where my daughter got married, and wanted to add some personal perspective on my experience with five iPhone/iPod touch apps for seven days. There are a lot of apps out for Walt Disney World, but from reviews both here and anywhere else I could find, I decided upon, and bought, five of them. The quality of these apps ranged from beautiful but arcane, to incredibly useful.

The most eye-catching of all the apps has to be The Walt Disney World Maps Boxed Set US$3.99 [iTunes Link]. This set contains maps of all four parks: Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, Hollywood Studios and Epcot, along with Downtown Disney, Blizzard Beach, Typhoon Lagoon and the Orlando International Airport tossed in for good measure. Maps of each of the parks can be bought individually for US$.99. When running the app, you are presented with the main screen which goes black for a few seconds and then re-appears. Odd. Tapping on any of the parks gives you a detailed “cartoony-looking” map that can be pinched and stretched to an extent. You can’t pinch any map enough to see the entire park on one screen. This means that you really have to know basically what you’re looking for before the app can be of much help, and since the map has no text of what the buildings represent, it’s hit or miss. At least it was until I found the spyglass button which brings up a screen that searches attractions either by A to Z, by location, or by category. Choosing one brings up a screen with the name, a one line description, and some additional information.

TUAWWalt Disney World on five apps a week originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 13 Jan 2010 23:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mousing around: A review of Disney theme park iPhone apps

Filed under: Software, Odds and ends, Holidays, App Store, App Review

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.

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TUAWMousing around: A review of Disney theme park iPhone apps originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 21 Nov 2009 18:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Engadget Show: Inside Ben Heck’s magic kingdom

Host: Nilay Patel
Produced and Directed by: Chad Mumm
Edited by: Michael Slavens
Music by: Bit Shifter

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The Engadget Show: Inside Ben Heck’s magic kingdom originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 19 Oct 2009 12:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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