Google, Nintendo, and Pokemon Company invest $20 million into Niantic
Last month we first learned about Pokemon Go, a project involving the Pokemon Company, Nintendo, and Niantic labs. In short, Pokemon Go was billed as sort of like “Ingress but with a Pokemon theme”, meaning a game where you’d be encouraged to interact with the real world by walking around while catching virtual monsters, thanks to the magic of augmented reality.
While Ingress certainly has its own cult following, it wasn’t exactly a mainstream breakout, but it seems that Niantic and its partners have big hopes that Pokemon will have the mass appeal required to really make AR gaming take off in a big way. Getting such a project up and running won’t be cheap, however. Especially if they want to expand on the premise in a deeper way than its predecessor.
Niantic has managed to raise $20 million in funding from Google, the Pokemon Company, and Nintendo.
To that end, the company recently began raising funds in order to help get Pokemon Go, and likely other future projects, off the ground. So far Niantic has managed to raise $20 million in funding from Google, the Pokemon Company, and Nintendo.
Considering Niantic and Google’s past relationship, it isn’t surprising to see that Mountain View still has interest in Niantic, and Niantic has made it clear that Google Maps will continue to play a big role in the way that the company’s AR games work. The Nintendo and the Pokemon Company’s investment is equally unsurprising, given their collaboration on Pokemon Go.
In addition to the $20 million, Niantic could reportedly see an additional $10 million from these investors once they reach certain undisclosed performance milestones. While there’s no specifics here, we imagine this means if they can actually get it launched, and get it to take off among consumers in a meaningful way.
As someone who liked the idea of Ingress but never really got hooked, Pokemon Go has me at least partially intrigued. Although some might argue it’s a bit “too kiddy”, I have a long-standing relationship with the Pokemon franchise that goes back to my childhood, so nostalgia alone could be enough to get me interested if Niantic and Nintendo play their cards right.
It makes sense that Nintendo and Niantic will play on nostalgia and global recognition to sell consumers on this game, but where Niantic and Nintendo really see the most potential is in the emerging world. As Niantic CEO John Hanke said in a recent statement to Re/Code, “They’re really excited about taking that idea out to emerging markets, where the phone may be the only piece of interactive technology that someone has access to.” “There’s a whole set of people around the world who are aware of Pokémon, but have never had the opportunity to play the game.”
What do you think of the idea of Pokemon Go? Do you think AR games can ever hit mainstream? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section.
Samsung Gear S2 smartwatch arriving next month at Verizon and T-Mobile
The Samsung Gear S2 will be available Nov. 5th from Verizon and Nov. 15th from T-Mobile. According to T-Mobile’s website, they will be offering the Gear S2 with a “wearable plan” at $5/month where users can call, tweet, and email with unlimited talk, text and data all from your wrist. I’m sure that will appeal to many customers as there are times when you need to be free of your phone like when you’re out running or on a bike ride. The Gear S2 will be available in two colors from T-Mobile, Dark Gray and Silver, and will cost $15/month over 24 months with no money down.
According to Verizon, you can now pre-order the gear S2 in the same colors that T-Mobile offers on a 2-year contract for $299.99 or you can buy it outright for $349.99. The website doesn’t state whether or not there is a monthly fee associated with the 2-year contract, but there is a $350 dollar cancellation fee. Consider if $50 dollars is worth signing that contract. Verizon expects to ship their pre-ordered Gear S2’s on November 5th.
The Gear S2 is Samsung’s take on the smartwatch and differs by using its own platform called Tizen which is different than Android Wear and the Apple Watch. Due to that simple fact alone there will be less apps available than what is in the Google Play store and the chances of updates might be smaller due to Samsung’s track record. Nonetheless, the Gear S2 is a great looking watch and is priced competitively amongst the competition.
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Google, Nintendo, and The Pokémon Company invest up to $30 million in Niantic
Just because Niantic, the creator of Ingress, is no longer part of Google, doesn’t mean that the search giant has abandoned it. Google and some other companies have committed to investing up to $30 million in Niantic in a round of Series A financing.
The investment from Google, Nintendo and The Pokémon Company Group, means that $20 million will be initially invested in Niantic. An additional $10 million will be invested when Niantic meets certain targets. Niantic is currently in the process of bringing Pokémon Go to market, with the game scheduled to be released on the App Store and Google Play Store sometime in 2016.
“Niantic has shown the great potential of mixing geo-location technology, dynamic storytelling and innovative game design, and we’re excited to continue supporting the team on their journey,” said Don Harrison, vice president, Corporate Development, Google.
Full Press Release:
Niantic Raises Series A Financing of $20 Million from The Pokémon Company Group, Google and Nintendo
Niantic to Scale Its Platform, Launch Highly Anticipated Pokémon GO and Expand Its Hit Real World Game Ingress
SAN FRANCISCO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Real world games maker Niantic, Inc. has raised its Series A financing round from The Pokémon Company Group, Google and Nintendo. The companies are investing up to $30 million in Niantic, Inc., which includes an initial $20 million upfront and an additional $10 million conditioned upon achieving certain milestones. Niantic, Inc. will leverage the funding and strategic relationships to continue work on Pokémon GO, support its thriving global Ingress community, scale its platform and bring new games to market.
“Pokémon’s strategic investment in Niantic paves the way for a social mobile experience the world has never seen before”
“The Pokémon Company, Google and Nintendo are incredible investors and strategic partners to help build the next chapter for Niantic,” said John Hanke, CEO, Niantic. “We will be using this capital to continue the development of Pokémon GO, to evolve and grow Ingress and its thriving global community, and to build out our real-world gaming platform.”
Pokémon GO, Niantic’s most recently announced project, is being developed in collaboration with The Pokémon Company and Nintendo. The new title is a groundbreaking mobile game that will encourage fans to search far and wide in the real world to discover Pokémon. Pokémon GO will be available on the App Store and Google Play in 2016.
“Pokémon’s strategic investment in Niantic paves the way for a social mobile experience the world has never seen before,” said Tsunekazu Ishihara, president and CEO of The Pokémon Company. “The Pokémon Company is committed to partnering with companies like Niantic that share the same spirit of community and innovation.”
“Niantic has shown the great potential of mixing geo-location technology, dynamic storytelling and innovative game design, and we’re excited to continue supporting the team on their journey,” Don Harrison, vice president, Corporate Development, Google, added.
Originally founded by Google Earth co-creator John Hanke as a start-up within Google, Niantic is known for creating Ingress, the real world mobile game which utilizes geo-location technology to fuel a sci-fi story encompassing the entire world. Ingress has seen more than 13 million downloads worldwide.
About Pokémon
The Pokémon Company International, a subsidiary of The Pokémon Company in Japan, manages the property outside of Asia and is responsible for brand management, licensing, marketing, the Pokémon Trading Card Game, the animated TV series, home entertainment, and the official Pokémon website. Pokémon was launched in Japan in 1996, and today is one of the most popular children’s entertainment properties in the world. For more information, visit www.pokemon.com.About Niantic, Inc.
Niantic, Inc. builds real world experiences that foster fun, exploration, discovery and social interaction. Originally incubated within Google, Niantic was founded by John Hanke, who previously helmed the Google Geo team (including Google Maps and Google Earth) after his start-up Keyhole was acquired by Google. The company’s real-world adventure game Ingress has been downloaded more than 13 million times and is played in more than 200 countries and territories worldwide. For more information on Niantic, please visit www.nianticlabs.com.About Nintendo
The worldwide pioneer in the creation of interactive entertainment, Nintendo Co., Ltd., of Kyoto, Japan, manufactures and markets hardware and software for its Wii U™ and Wii™ home consoles, and Nintendo 3DS™ and Nintendo DS™ families of portable systems. Since 1983, when it launched the Nintendo Entertainment System™, Nintendo has sold more than 4.3 billion video games and more than 680 million hardware units globally, including the current-generation Wii U, Nintendo 3DS, and Nintendo 3DS XL™, as well as the Game Boy™, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, Nintendo DSi™ and Nintendo DSi XL™, Super NES™, Nintendo 64™, Nintendo GameCube™, and Wii systems. It has also created industry icons that have become well-known household names such as Mario™, Donkey Kong™, Metroid™, Zelda™, and Pokémon™. A wholly owned subsidiary, Nintendo of America Inc., based in Redmond, Wash., serves as headquarters for Nintendo’s operations in the Western Hemisphere. For more information about Nintendo, please visit the company’s website at http://www.nintendo.com.
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GoPro Awards launched to reward user contributed content
One of the key pieces of GoPro’s marketing throughout the years has been user generated content. The variety of ways that people use GoPros to capture action and the world around them serves not only as inspiration for others to be creative, but it helps entice people to invest in the hardware. To help continue this tradition, GoPro has announced the launch of a new program called GoPro Awards that will start paying out monetary awards for compelling content.
GoPro says they are looking for photos, raw video clips and edited video shot with GoPros that “emotionally engages, amazes or excites.” Content can be extreme or it can be mainstream and GoPro encourage consumer to professionals to submit their materials.
To participate in the program, all users have to do is capture moments with a GoPro and submit them to gopro.com/awards. GoPro will pay $500 for selected photos, $1,000 for raw video and $5,000 for edited video. GoPro will sort submissions into a variety of genres and share them with the world. GoPro founder and CEO Nicholas Woodman says,
“GoPro enables a global movement of self-expression that’s resulting in some of the most compelling user-generated content ever created. The positive impact on our brand and business has been immeasurable. Now we’re excited to start rewarding our customers for their content contributions with GoPro Awards.”
You can check out the GoPro video announcing the program below. If you have a GoPro, be sure to get out there and start capturing some content to submit.
Click here to view the embedded video.
source: GoPro (PR)
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B&N Readouts provides short snippets from bookseller’s vast catalog
Barnes & Noble has launched a new feature for their NOOK by Samsung devices and the NOOK Reading Apps on Android and iOS devices called B&N Readouts. The content included consists of free, one- to -five-minute excerpts from books or even full articles from periodicals that users can read. Barnes & Noble says they will customize the content that is delivered via the service based on a user’s favorite genres and subjects. B&N Readouts is kind of a virtual stroll through a Barnes & Noble store, checking out a few pages from a title at a time.
Barnes & Noble says the content available through the new B&N Readouts service will be updated daily as they draw on their “vast content catalog and deep bookseller knowledge.” Chief Digitial Officer for Barnes & Noble Fred Argir says, “With B&N Readouts, we’re bringing the excitement and serendipity of exploring our store shelves to the NOOK experience, where customers can scroll down our digital aisles and discover great new daily content anytime.”
If a user likes the snippet of content they read in B&N Readouts, they can add a title to their wishlist or go ahead and purchase it right away.
You can read the full press release from Barnes & Noble below.
Barnes & Noble Introduces New B&N Readouts™, Bringing Bookstore-Like Browsing and Free Bite-Sized Content to NOOK® Digital Experience
Free Feature Delivers Tailored Quick Reads Daily to NOOK® by Samsung Devices, Free NOOK Reading Apps™ and BN.com
New York, New York – October 14, 2015 – Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the nation’s largest retail bookseller and a leading retailer of content, digital media and educational products, today announced B&N Readouts, an innovative new feature that brings the company’s popular bookstore browsing and content discovery to the NOOK digital experience. B&N Readouts offers a daily selection of addictive and compelling quick reads that can be enjoyed anytime and anywhere on all NOOK by Samsung devices, through Free NOOK Reading Apps for Android™ and iOS® devices, and at BN.com/readouts.
B&N Readouts leverages Barnes & Noble’s vast content catalog and deep bookseller knowledge to deliver a daily selection of free one- to five-minute book excerpts and full articles from current issues of popular periodicals. These mobile-friendly quick reads are tailored to customers’ favorite genres and subjects and optimized for sharing. A delightful tasting menu for readers of every interest, B&N Readouts is curated by Barnes & Noble’s editors to surprise and delight always-on, on-the-go customers with unexpected treats. It’s designed for spare moments, but perfect for leisurely exploration, too.
“With B&N Readouts, we’re bringing the excitement and serendipity of exploring our store shelves to the NOOK experience, where customers can scroll down our digital aisles and discover great new daily content anytime,” said Fred Argir, Chief Digital Officer at Barnes & Noble. “This is a fun, fresh and free way NOOK customers can tap the pleasures of Barnes & Noble bookstore browsing at a moment’s notice and indulge their love of reading anywhere. They’ll find great reads they might otherwise miss and can seamlessly share their new finds with friends and family.”
Free Excerpts and Customization
B&N Readouts is refreshed daily with book excerpts and magazine articles in popular genres and topics, including Fiction, Romance, Mysteries & Thrillers, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Teen & Young Adult, Lifestyle, Books & Ideas, Science & Tech and Business & Innovation. B&N Readouts also offers customers sneak peeks of upcoming books and special bonus content from authors and publishers. My Picks allows users to customize selections to reflect their personal interests.
NOOK customers can get a flavor for new reads and authors before deciding whether to add selections to their wish list, easily purchase the full book or magazine, and share their favorite new discoveries with their friends via social media or email. With a compelling quick read for every moment, B&N Readouts will pique reader curiosity and keep them entertained when they’re looking to learn something new or to escape into a good story for a few minutes each day.
Free Feature Now Available in Biggest NOOK Software Release Ever
B&N Readouts is just one of many enhancements Barnes & Noble is bringing to the NOOK experience in our new software release, which is now available at no cost through the Google Play store on all NOOK by Samsung devices, including the recently announced 8-inch Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 NOOK, 9.6-inch Samsung Galaxy Tab E NOOK, as well as the 7- and 10.1-inch Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 NOOK. The feature can be found by tapping on the NOOK Home icon on the device.
Customers can also download or update their Free NOOK Reading Apps for Android and iOS devices (www.nook.com/nookapp) through Google Play and the iTunes App Store, respectively. New features for the Android app include a new home screen and library with series stacking, the ability to share a quote to social networks and other upgrades in response to customer requests. The iOS app includes support for iOS 9 and the newest iPhones and the ability to share product details to social networks, email and other apps. Customers can also enjoy B&N Readouts free at BN.com/readouts.
About Barnes & Noble, Inc.
Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS) is a Fortune 500 company, the nation’s largest retail bookseller, and a leading retailer of content, digital media and educational products. The Company operates 647 Barnes & Noble bookstores in 50 states, and one of the Web’s premier e-commerce sites, BN.com (www.bn.com). The Nook Digital business offers a lineup of popular NOOK® tablets and eReaders and an expansive collection of digital reading and entertainment content through the NOOK Store®. The NOOK Store features more than 4 million digital books in the US (www.nook.com) and UK (www.nook.co.uk), plus periodicals, comics, apps, movies and TV shows, and offers the ability to enjoy content across a wide array of popular devices through Free NOOK Reading Apps™ available for Android™, iOS® and Windows®.
General information on Barnes & Noble, Inc. can be obtained by visiting the Company’s corporate website at www.barnesandnobleinc.com.
Barnes & Noble®, Barnes & Noble Booksellers® and Barnes & Noble.com® are trademarks of Barnes & Noble, Inc. or its affiliates. NOOK® and the NOOK logos are trademarks of Nook Digital, LLC or its affiliates.
For more information on Barnes & Noble, follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Tumblr, and like us on Facebook. For more information on NOOK, follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook.
Come comment on this article: B&N Readouts provides short snippets from bookseller’s vast catalog
The BBC’s live ‘League of Legends’ Championship coverage starts today
Even the BBC has recognised the enormous popularity of eSports. As promised, the broadcaster is covering the quarterfinals of the League of Legends World Championship, which kicks off today at London’s Wembley Arena. The four-day online coverage is scheduled to start at 5pm BST and while it won’t be aired on terrestrial TV, it still represents another leap forward in eSports’ journey to mainstream legitimacy. The BBC’s live programming will be hosted by Radio 1 DJ Dev Griffin, with casters Leign ‘Deman’ Smith and James ‘Stress’ O’Leary handling the game commentary. Going beyond the type of livestream normally found on YouTube or Twitch, the BBC will be using its own site to offer live and pre-recorded video, text and audio commentary simultaneously. Who knows, if the live show does well, maybe the BBC will consider putting it on BBC Two next time.
Source: BBC
NBC launches SeeSo, a comedy streaming service for $4 a month
We’ve been hearing for a while that NBC was prepping some sort of streaming comedy service — today it finally took the wraps off. The new service is called SeeSo, and it’ll deliver ad-free comedy content to you for just $4 a month. Naturally, NBC will be reaching into its rich library of content, including Saturday Night Live and sitcoms like 30 Rock. But what’s more interesting is that it’ll also be producing original content for SeeSo, including new shows from Dan Harmon, the insane genius behind Community, and the Upright Citizens Brigade. The service will also house some exclusive content, like Monty Python’s Flying Circus and The Kids in the Hall. SeeSo will kick off with a private invite-only beta in December, and it’ll be widely available in January.
[Photo credit: Justin Lubin/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images]
Source: SeeSo, Peter Kafka
Relive your childhood Transformers obsession with these headphones
In the section of New York Comic Con’s exhibit hall known as “The Block” you’ll find goodies galore for collectors and hobbyists with money to burn, ranging from Gundam model kits to cutesy, big-headed figurines of Mario and Luigi. But, at the Good Smile booth, the company was showcasing a different kind of toy to play with: a pair of headphones that you don’t just adjust to fit your head, but can actually transform like a robot into the right shape. Slideshow-329347
The THP-01 headphones are the first release for Good Smile under its “Toon Workshop” brand, a collaboration between the company and Joseph Hahn of Linkin Park. Good Smile’s toy pedigree is immediately apparent in the build of the THP-01, with styling reminiscent of an anime mech or power armor. However, the plastic construction means the headphones were a lot lighter than they looked. Despite the lack of heft the headphones didn’t feel chinzy, probably due to the metal joints undergirding each component. And though it’s made up of 256 sculpted parts meant to be pulled and pushed around, the pieces of the THP-01 fit together well enough that the transforming nature of the headphones is not immediately apparent.
However, the THP-01 can’t be arranged into any decidedly unheadphone-like shape. It’s really limited to two basic positions: fully open and a compact form for travel. But the process of tugging on pieces and moving them around is certainly a fun and showy activity, especially for anyone who relished playing with Transformers as a kid (or even as an adult). The parts require a bit of strength to get them to move, but the metal bits glide pretty smoothly once loose and at no point did I feel like I was going to accidentally break a part off. It’s a pretty intuitive, satisfying process.
Once I got these things open and on my head, how did they actually work as headphones? Pretty well, actually. There’s a few nice nods to comfort in the design, including plenty of well-ventilated padding and ruler marks printed on the band to make it easier to refind your perfect fit after a transformation. Soundwise it did fine, with songs like The Runaways’s “Cherry Bomb” coming out fairly balanced and clear. However, I did find the volume a bit softer than I like.
The THP-01 headphones are available now from Good Smile for ¥45,000 (about $349). If black isn’t your style, next month will see the debut of Knights of Cydonia-inspired patterns in white and gray. However, that branding will cost you, with the price marked up to ¥55,000 (about $463).
Source: Good Smile, Toon Workshop
Hightail’s new Spaces make it easy to annotate any kind of file
Remember YouSendIt? Late in the last decade, you probably send or received some big files through the service, perhaps of questionable legality. Regardless of how pirates may have used it, the company found success with businesses — but as online storage became more and more of a commodity, the company rebranded as Hightail and started focusing on collaboration around those shared files. Today, the company is officially unveiling its new vision for collaborating on work projects, called Spaces. It’s been available in Beta, but now everyone can give it a shot.
Spaces is meant to be a visual representation of projects you’re working on — rather than a list of folders, each space is represented by large graphics made up from the files contained inside. You can add whatever you want to a space and share it with anyone, and Hightail’s web interface ably handles previews of just about any file type you dump into it, including audio and video files. You can also pull in files from your Dropbox account — Hightail doesn’t really care where things are saved. Once you’ve shared your files, other users can comment on them, and that’s where Hightail’s Spaces start to get interesting.
Dropbox has had file commenting for a long time, but the differentiator for Spaces is that you can drag over any portion of a document or file and “highlight” it, and then attach your comments specifically to that point. It’s kind of a way of footnoting a file and it could make the comments that follow along with it a lot more useful — instead of just leaving a comment referring to the document at large, you can easily refer to specific parts of the file.
This useful commenting extends to video and audio files, as well — you can drop a comment at a specific point in a video or audio file, so the people you’re collaborating with know exactly what part you’re referring to. It’s a smart feature, and it’s not just limited to the desktop; it’ll be available in the Hightail mobile app as well. If you want to give it a shot, Spaces is now available for all Hightail users starting today. You can use the service for free, but you’ll only be able to have two active projects open at a time — a $15 a month subscription will open up unlimited spaces, storage, and file sizes.
Apple introduces ResearchKit apps for autism, melanoma and epilepsy
Apple wanted to make data gathering easier for medical researchers with ResearchKit. According to the company, since the launch of the open-source platform earlier this year, over 100,000 participants have already shared their health data with a host of apps that study asthma, diabetes, breast cancer and more. The Kit’s ever-increasing list of studies will now include autism, epilepsy and melanoma.
Duke University has introduced “Autism & Beyond”, an app that uses an emotion detection algorithm to track visible signs of autism in children. The team wants to use the front-facing iPhone camera to see if a user’s reactions to videos can be used to make an early diagnosis. Another app, from Oregon Health & Science University, will look at iPhone images to study moles and melanoma. Participants from all parts of the world will be able to contribute to the research by documenting their mole growth with pictures over time. Based on these collections of photographs, the goal is to build an algorithm that will potentially detect and screen melanoma.
Johns Hopkins, on the other hand, has moved away from the iPhone. Their app, the EpiWatch, will use and test the wearable sensors on the Apple Watch to see if they can predict and detect seizures. The first leg of this epilepsy study will allow users quick, one-touch access to the app that will collect data from both the accelerometer and heart rate sensors in the watch, while it simultaneously alerts a designated contact or caregiver. EpiWatch will maintain a log of the epileptic episodes and will also allow patients to compare notes with other participants. For millions of epilepsy patients across the country, this app hopes to find a way to monitor seizures.
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