Your Technology Jun. 22, 1998

A VIRTUAL THEME PARK

Imagine building and then riding your own virtual-reality roller coaster or going rafting in a river full of dinosaurs. At Disney’s new high-tech theme park, DisneyQuest, which opens Friday in Orlando, Fla., visitors can do that and more–like ride bumper cars equipped with cannon balls that send other cars spinning out of control. Can’t make the trip to Orlando? Don’t worry. Some 25 regional DisneyQuest mega-arcades will open around the country by the year 2000.

DOWNLOAD A BEST SELLER

Books and computers are merging, thanks to the first electronic books, being introduced this week. The Softbook ($299) from SoftPress in Menlo Park, Calif, is a 3-lb. unit with a built-in modem that can hold up to 100,000 pages of text. Owners simply download text from the company’s website and click through the pages on the unit’s 9.5-in. black-and-white screen to read each book. (Cost: about $20 for a best seller.) Both the Softbook and the smaller, lighter RocketBook from NuvoMedia in Palo Alto, Calif., will be available in the fall.

BEYOND THE BEIGE BOX

Longing to make a style statement with your fabulously fast new PC? The Panda Project of Boca Raton, Fla., has introduced the Rock City PC ($2,595) in a distinctive 12.5-in. blue aluminum cube. The striking case isn’t just for looks, though. The aircraft-grade aluminum cube houses a powerful 400-Mhz Pentium II processor, 64 MB of memory and a gargantuan 6-GB hard drive.

–By Anita Hamilton