Pokemon Go is a monster mobile hit

[Oakley]

I know I am behind on news but just heard about what a hit this has become. Who remembers playing this game in the late 90's?.


Police in Missouri put out a warning that was both terrifying and bizarre: Armed robbers were believed to be targeting people hunting for Pokemon.
You read that right. Pokemon. The little monsters.

Police said the victims were playing Pokemon Go - a new smartphone app that encourages gamers to search local areas to find Pokemon in the "real world".
Certain locations offer bonuses and higher chances of catching rare species and that's where officers said criminals had been lying in wait.

"It is believed these suspects targeted their victims through the Pokemon Go smartphone application," the post on the force's Facebook page read.

"Apparently they were using the app to locate people standing around in the middle of a parking lot or whatever other location they were in."

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-36763504

 

[Falconero]

They are making a killing selling their app. Now days you don't have to come up with a new idea, just bring back the old.

 

[Roger]

They are making a killing selling their app. Now days you don't have to come up with a new idea, just bring back the old.

One analysis showed that the app now has more active daily users on Android than Tinder, and was pulling even with Twitter. This is crazy.

 

[God]

Hackers are having a field day with the app. Be careful what you download.

 

[Malika]

It's actually free to download.

For Canada since it's not officially release for IOS it's easy to create an account using an american apple ID.
It's SOOO addictive. I've been playing non-stop since Thursday

 

[DigglerII]

Pokémon GO HACK! | Hatch Eggs Without Walking

 

[Wanker]

Woman discovers body while playing 'Pokémon Go'


Corrections and clarifications: An earlier version gave KTRK-TV as the source of this story. County 10 was the original source.

A Wyoming woman was searching for Pokemon while playing a new game on her phone, when she found a dead body instead.

Shayla Wiggins, 19, told community news outlet County 10 she was playing Pokémon Go, which requires users to walk around and capture Pokemon and collect items in real-world locations, when she found the body.
"I woke up this morning, and I wanted to go get a water Pokemon, so I just got up and went for my little walk, a walk to catch Pokemon," Wiggins told County 10.

Wiggins found a man lying face down in the river near her Riverton, Wyo., home

Fremont County Sheriff's Department the body belonged to an unidentified adult male.

"The death appears to be accidental in nature and possibly that of a drowning," the sheriff's department told County 10 in a statement. "There is no evidence at this time that would indicate foul play. Evidence located at the scene has led investigators to believe the man went into the water at the location he was found.”

https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech...covers-dead-body-river-playing-game/86939056/

 

[Bubba]

I have to call this an epidemic that is not cool at all.

Almost everywhere you turn, it seems, people have their eyes glued to smartphone screens playing Pokémon Go. Since its launch last week, the app has quickly become a cultural phenomenon that has fans of all ages hunting around their neighborhoods for collectible digital creatures that appear on players' screens as they explore real-world locations.

But there's at least one place that would really like to keep Pokémon out: the Holocaust Museum.
The museum, along with many other landmarks, is a "PokéStop" within the game — a place where players can get free in-game items. There are three PokéStops associated with various parts of the museum.

"Playing the game is not appropriate in the museum, which is a memorial to the victims of Nazism," Andrew Hollinger, the museum's communications director, told The Post. "We are trying to find out if we can get the museum excluded from the game."

[]

The Holocaust Museum's plight highlights how apps that layer a digital world on top of the real one can create awkward situations, especially since the owners of the physical locations often cannot weigh in on how their spaces are being used.

One image circulating online appears to show a player encountering an unsettling digital critter inside the museum: a Pokémon called Koffing that emits poisonous gas floating by a sign for the museum's Helena Rubinstein Auditorium. The auditorium shows the testimonials of Jews who survived the gas chambers.

[]

The image, which appears to have originated from a now deleted post on the photo-sharing site imgur, might be a hoax: That particular Pokémon didn't appear nearby when this Post reporter visited the museum Monday afternoon, although the specific Pokémon that appears in each location does vary from time to time. Hollinger said that the museum is concerned about the potential Koffing appearance.

The Pokémon Go craze is sweeping across America. See how the game works, why everyone's so crazy about it, and all the stories that have come from it, from the game's positive impact on depression victims to armed robberies. (Jhaan Elker/The Washington Post)

Niantic did not immediately respond to inquiries about the alleged Koffing sighting or if there was any way to honor the Holocaust Museum's request to stop Pokémon from popping up inside its building.

[]

Hollinger stressed that the museum is generally pro-technology and encourages visitors to use social media to share how their experiences with the exhibits moved them. "But this game falls very much outside that," he said.


OnMonday afternoon, there were plenty of people inside the museum who seemed to be distracted from its haunting exhibits as they tried to "catch 'em all," as the Pokémon slogan goes. A player even used a lure module, a beacon that attracts Pokémon to a specific PokéStop, on the museum's marker — making double-headed bird-like creatures dubbed Doduos and rodent-like Rattatas practically swarm on users' screens.

The player behind the lure, a 30-year-old visiting from North Carolina named Dustin who declined to share his last name with The Post for privacy reasons, was excited to catch a crustacean-like Krabby while waiting in the museum's lobby with a group of friends to pick up tickets for a scheduled tour.

Although the museum is uncomfortable with its Pokémon infestation, most of the players building up their digital critter collection inside the building at least didn't seem to mean any disrespect.

"It's not like we came here to play," said Angie, a 37-year-old member of Dustin's group who also declined to share her last name for privacy reasons, "But gotta catch 'em all."

 

[Al Bumin]

This kid has an entrepreneur mind.

From Athen:
this is for my poke glo business that I started. I want every pokemon go player to have one so that they can be safe at night. i do not want anyone to ever get hurt playing pokemen go.

From Athen's mom:
My husband and I were talking about Pokemon Go safety concerns and how it would be scary to think of kids walking around at dusk. My son, Athen, being the bright little nugget that he is, suggest light-up pins. We tried to help him find things that light-up but ultimately found that reflective materials will work just as well.

He hasn't been able to go out and play much because of a nasty injury so he spent the whole weekend making Poke Glo Safety Buttons.

Other than bank-rolling the initial supplies and doing this write-up, my son has done this entirely on his own. Above is his original writing for the GoFundMe post. He is asking for $500 to make 500 buttons in different sizes. He hopes to sell them cheaply so that everyone can afford one. He does realize that he will have to change the design from the copyrighted PokeBall but he already has a lot of neat ideas.

His DREAM would be that we raise enough to get the Poke Glo wrist bands made since he wants an "actual" one of those, not his "prototype."

Thank you to anyone who participates.

Thank you,
Athen's Mom

https://www.gofundme.com/PokePin