Disney's Club Blast Takes Off With New BlastPad.SAN FRANCISCO--(ENTERTAINMENT WIRE)--June 7, 1999-- Disney Online Announces Instant Messaging Exchanging text messages in real time between two or more people logged into a particular instant messaging (IM) service. Instant messaging is more interactive than e-mail because messages are sent immediately, whereas e-mail messages can be queued up in a mail server for seconds or for Kids and Families -- Enhancing the Community Features of Its Award-Winning Trusted Environment Disney's blasting off with a new rocket-hot community tool. Disney.com, the most popular site for family fun and entertainment, today announced Disney's BlastPad, its much-anticipated proprietary communication tool that allows Disney's Club Blast members to join a parent-endorsed community and instantly chat with each other. Currently in late beta testing (programming) beta testing - Testing a pre-release (potentially unreliable) version of a piece of software by making it available to selected users. This term derives from early 1960s terminology for product cycle checkpoints, first used at IBM but later standard throughout the , Disney's BlastPad is an instant messaging application providing real-time access to all of Disney's Club Blast members. Disney's BlastPad will be released in July and is the first of many new community features that will be added to the new Disney's Club Blast. Disney's BlastPad features a fun, easy-to-use interface with large buttons and colorful icons. Most importantly Adv. 1. most importantly - above and beyond all other consideration; "above all, you must be independent" above all, most especially , Disney's BlastPad provides a parent-controlled environment for kids to communicate with their "D-Pals" while simultaneously browsing the Internet, playing online games, or conducting research for their homework. "Online security continues to be a critical issue in the Internet industry and it's something the Walt Disney Noun 1. Walt Disney - United States film maker who pioneered animated cartoons and created such characters as Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck; founded Disneyland (1901-1966) Disney, Walter Elias Disney Company has always taken very seriously," said Ken Goldstein, senior vice president and general manager of Disney Online. "We've spent a great deal of time thinking about both what kids want and parents need in an instant messaging solution, and developed an integrated feature set that will secure parents' trust as their children engage in this community-building experience." BlastPad Parental Control Features: Disney's Club Blast membership encourages parents or guardians to set up control settings for each family member. There are three control settings for Disney's BlastPad: -- Total Control: This Member is unable to use instant messaging. -- Parent-Approved Communication: This Member can correspond only with Club Blast Members added to their D-Pals list by the parent or guardian. The D-Pals list is the edited set of members the accountholder (parent) chooses to allow the child to communicate with through instant messaging. -- Full Communication with All Disney's Club Blast Members: This Member can communicate via instant messaging with all Club Blast Members. The parent elects to allow the child to edit his or her own list of D-Pals. Disney.com will also offer an "Alert" feature -- available 24 hours a day, seven days a week -- that lets kids immediately alert an online moderator moderator - A person, or small group of people, who manages a moderated mailing list or Usenet newsgroup. Moderators are responsible for determining which email submissions are passed on to the list or newsgroup. if they feel they are receiving inappropriate information via the BlastPad. By simply pressing the easy-to-locate "Alert" button at the top of the pop-up window pop-up window n (Comput) → Popup-Fenster nt , kids are asked to type a brief description of the problem. Then, by pressing "Send," a transcript A generic term for any kind of copy, particularly an official or certified representation of the record of what took place in a court during a trial or other legal proceeding. A transcript of record of the talk session will be attached automatically and sent to customer service along with the alert. Alert messages are checked every 10 minutes and appropriate action is taken on every case. Further solidifying so·lid·i·fy v. so·lid·i·fied, so·lid·i·fy·ing, so·lid·i·fies v.tr. 1. To make solid, compact, or hard. 2. To make strong or united. v.intr. Disney.com's position as the leader in online family entertainment, Disney's BlastPad encompasses an "Ignore List" that allows kids and/or parents to block any unwanted communication received via the BlastPad. This feature allows kids to control incoming information from an undesirable party. Disney's BlastPad will be fully functional on all Internet-ready PCs when it is released in July. A Macintosh version of Disney's BlastPad is scheduled to be released this fall. Also coming this fall, Disney's BlastPad will offer online conferencing See teleconferencing. , where several Club Blast members can communicate with each other at the same time. Disney's BlastPad is offered exclusively to members of Disney's Club Blast, a special subscription service within Disney.com that provides families access to exclusive premium content such as robust communication tools like "D-Mail," multiplayer games See multiplayer gaming. supporting up to 24 guests simultaneously, and valuable merchandise discounts at The Disney Store Online. Disney's Club Blast members also have unlimited access to message boards, clubs, auditorium auditorium Portion of a theater or hall where an audience sits, as distinct from the stage. The auditorium originated in the theaters of ancient Greece, as a semicircular seating area cut into a hillside. chats with kid-friendly celebrities, and now Disney's BlastPad instant messaging. Membership to Disney's Club Blast is still only $5.95 a month or $39.95 a year. Disney Online, a unit of Buena Vista Internet Group, has headquarters in North Hollywood, Calif., with satellite offices in New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of , San Francisco San Francisco (săn frănsĭs`kō), city (1990 pop. 723,959), coextensive with San Francisco co., W Calif., on the tip of a peninsula between the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay, which are connected by the strait known as the Golden and Detroit. Founded in 1995 to bring the magic of Disney to the online world, Disney Online creates and publishes a variety of award-winning services that include Disney.com, part of the GO Network (www.go.com). |
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