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3D-printed 'Pokémon Go' cover aims for you, obscures screen
Catching monsters in Pokémon Go sounds deceptively simple: find a creature, and throw an imaginary ball at it by swiping up on your phone screen. The reality is a lot more frustrating -- if you don't flick your finger in a perfectly straight line, the throw will curve to the side and miss. There are two solutions to this. You could practice, or, you could 3D-print a ridiculous phone-cover that takes away all of the challenge. Jon Clever chose to do the latter.
'Pokémon Go' has most first-week downloads in App Store history
Despite only being available in the United States, Australia and New Zealand for its first week, Apple has officially confirmed that Pokémon Go had the most downloads in its first week of any in the App Store's history. Considering that the game has launched in over 26 countries since then, including opening in Japan today, it might just keep breaking records.
'Pokemon Go' launches in Japan under golden arches
Despite being the true home of Pocket Monsters, until today, Japanese fans weren't able to download the smartphone phenomenon that is Pokemon Go. As rumored, Niantic Labs' game launches in Pikachu's homeland with a promotional tie-in with McDonald's (it's already offering Pokemon toys with its kids' meals in anticipation) and the app maker says more sponsored locales and events are on their way. Ingress, the location-based game that preceded Pokemon Go, ran multiple promotions with companies including McDonald's and SoftBank in Japan -- as well as Jamba Juice in the US. Expect see plenty more sponsored locations in Pokemon Go (well, gotta make some money when the app is free to download), but what exactly do the sponsored locations entail? The good news is that the tie-in doesn't seem to change much at all -- and could even be good news for some players.
The live-action 'Pokémon' movie starts production next year
Last week the rumblings of a live-action Pokémon movie were just that. But now Legendary Pictures has confirmed that it has secured the rights for a Detective Pikachu flick, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The game it's based on isn't available stateside just yet, but perhaps it will be by the time production starts on the movie next year. We now know that Universal is doing the distribution work outside of Japan. However, any other details are light.
'Pokémon Go' helps Nintendo break major stock market record
Nintendo continues to make headlines, all thanks to Pokémon Go. Now the video game giant had the biggest daily turnover of any company on the Tokyo stock market this past Friday, July 15th.
Server capacity delayed Japanese 'Pokémon Go' launch
Pokémon Go may be a smash hit in the US, Canada, UK, New Zealand and about 20 other countries -- but did you know that nobody is playing the game in the Japan? It's not for want of trying. Despite being the franchise's homeland, Pokémon Go still isn't available to Japanese users. What's the deal? According to Niantic's CEO, Japan's servers just aren't good enough to handle the game.
After Math: Fun and games
This was a big week for diversions. Nintendo is sitting pretty thanks to its overnight smash hit, Pokémon Go -- not to mention the excitement surrounding its upcoming NES Classic Edition mini-console. Additionally, MoviePass rolled out its revised film subscription rates. ESPN is finally giving eSports the attention it deserves. And Twitter tripled the size limit for displaying animated gifs to a whopping 15MB. Numbers, because how else will you know who holds the high score?
'Pokémon Go' expansion marred by a possible cyberattack
Good news! Pokémon Go is available in 26 more countries... if you get a chance to play, that is. Trainers can now grab the mobile game across a wider swath of European nations (such as the Netherlands and Sweden), but temporarily went down amid reports of a possible distributed denial of service attack. The internet collective PoodleCorp claims to have flooded Pokémon Go servers worldwide with enough traffic to effectively render them useless.
Watch out for fraudulent 'Pokémon Go' apps
It's official: Pokémon Go has become a major phenomenon: It's getting people interested in augmented reality, inspiring filmmakers and even helping players cope with anxiety. Unfortunately, it's also creating targets for malware developers. According to the antivirus folks at ESET, at least three fake Pokémon Go apps have been spotted on the Google Play store since the game launched. One of them has the unsettling distinction of being the first malicious, fraudulent screen-locking app to surface on Google Play.
'Pokémon Go' gets in your face with an unofficial HoloLens demo
With Pokémon Go fever gripping the nation, it was only a matter of time before someone took the game's augmented reality features and evolved them, as it were, with VR and mixed reality. And CapitolaVR has done just that, creating a Pokémon Go-esque demo with a Microsoft HoloLens.
Don't believe the 'Pokémon Go' privacy hype
When the Pokémon Go obsession reached full saturation this week, privacy-concern whispers became full-blown hysterical shrieks when a researcher's blog post accused the game's maker of taking over its users' Google accounts. As it turned out, the app's iPhone permissions were just poorly implemented, and fixed immediately. Unfortunately that didn't stop the privacy and security hysteria machine. All week long, headlines made a mountain out of a molehill, scaring some people into uninstalling the app altogether.
T-Mobile is giving away free 'Pokémon Go' data for a year
T-Mobile has been watching you play Pokémon Go, and it knows you're guzzling data every time you head out to catch Pokémon. That's why the next T-Mobile Tuesday is poised to offer unlimited data for Pokémon Go through August 2017.
ICYMI: Better walking bot and an anti-aging breakthrough
try{document.getElementById("aol-cms-player-1").style.display="none";}catch(e){}Today on In Case You Missed It: Georgia Tech overhauled its DURUS robot to walk with a human-like gait that makes it the most efficient bipedal robot. Scientists at the EPFL did some solid research into the pomegranate fruit that shows it can counteract disease and extend the life of worms by 50 percent and endurance in rodents by 40 percent. Human trials are happening now. You can see the latest 3D bone printer here and what the FBI has been doing with iris scans, here. As always, please share any interesting tech or science videos you find by using the #ICYMI hashtag on Twitter for @mskerryd.
'Pokémon Go' is now available in the UK
Pokéfans in Britain, rejoice. Pokémon Go, the AR video game that lets you catch colourful critters with your smartphone, is now available in the UK version of the App Store and Google Play. That means you no longer have to fiddle about with APKs or store regions to start your own adventure.
Pokemon Go's mental health benefits are real
Dr. John Grohol is an expert in technology's impact on human behavior and mental health, and for the past 20 years he's studied how people operate online. He's the founder of mental health network Psych Central, and he knows all about the latest tools aimed at helping people deal with anxiety, depression and a host of other issues. And Grohol has never seen anything like Pokemon Go. "In terms of the phenomena of people expressing the benefits of playing the game to their real-world mental health status, I think that's very unique and it's the first time I've ever seen anything like that," he says.
UK children's charity says 'Pokémon Go' needs more safety features
Pokémon Go's biggest strength is that it's tied to the real world. Players are encouraged to explore their surroundings in order to capture new Pokémon and build out their Pokédex. But unlike the fantasy worlds of Kanto and Johto, planet Earth can be a dangerous place, especially for younger players. In the week since its launch, users have been encouraged to visit some inadvisable places, like a Hells Angels clubhouse. Crooks have also used the lure feature, which attracts Pokémon, to pull in players and rob them for real. They're rare, but nevertheless alarming cases.
A live action 'Pokemon' movie could finally happen after 'Go'
Following the smashing success of Pokemon Go, Legendary Pictures is reportedly working harder to secure rights to the Pokemon franchise for a live action film, Deadline reports. We first heard that the studio -- which was behind recent geek-friendly films like Warcraft, Pacific Rim and Godzilla -- was trying to capture the Pokemon license back in April. As is usually the case with film rights, these things take time. It makes sense for Legendary to make a bigger push for the franchise now, given just how well Pokemon Go has taken off. It's credited for increasing Nintendo's overall value by $7.5 billion on Monday, even though the console maker is only a partial owner in The Pokemon Company.
'Pokémon Go' sponsored locations will let brands in on the fun
While you're trying to catch 'em all with Pokémon Go, the developers are figuring out how to make (more) money from the white hot augmented reality (AR) game. Along with the existing in-app purchases from "PokéCoins," developer Niantic says it will use sponsored locations as another way to cash in, according to the Financial Times. "There is a second component to our business model at Niantic, which is this concept of sponsored locations," Chief Executive John Hanke told the FT.
'Pokémon Go' is the 'aha' moment AR has been waiting for
Pokémon is a thing right now thanks to Pokémon Go. Niantic's AR creature-catching game is number one in both the Android and iOS app stores, and it's on track to have more daily active users than Twitter thanks to an install base of 7.5 million players so far. It was impossible to go out this past weekend without being surrounded by Pokémon Go players of all stripes -- a lot of kids, sure, but plenty of adults, too. Some were revisiting their childhood love of the franchise while others were discovering it for the first time. But cute little monsters aren't the only thing Pokémon Go is their first exposure to: For many of these players, it's their first time using augmented reality. And, based on their reactions, they love it.
'Pokémon Go' update fixes the iOS app's nosy Google access
Pokémon Go for iOS doesn't have quite as much access to your Google account as some gamers have feared, but it's clear that Niantic isn't wasting time trying to assuage your concerns. It already has an update for the rabidly popular game that narrows the iOS version's access to your Google data if you sign in using a Google account. In short, you can likely relax about your privacy while you're Pikachu-catching -- the biggest issue now is simply getting to play in the first place.
