The world’s largest Pokemon card is actually 13,000 cards in one

Pikachu has evolved once again — this time into a massive mosaic featuring his original pose as drawn by famed Pokémon illustrator Ken Sugimori. The mosaic is 32 feet tall, 23 feet wide and it’s created out of 12,987 individual Pokémon trading cards. And yes, you better believe that’s a new record for trading-card mosaic art.

British artist Quentin Devine completed the work as part of The Pokémon Company’s year-long 20th anniversary celebration of the Pokémon franchise. Devine previously made a mosaic of the Mona Lisa entirely out of fan self-portraits, and a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II using penny coins.

Nintendo reportedly stops Wii U production in late 2016

You might need to bid farewell to the Wii U sooner than you think. Nikkei sources claim that Nintendo is halting production of its struggling home console at the end of 2016, and that the gaming legend is already discontinuing some accessories. Nintendo hasn’t confirmed anything (we’ve asked for comment), but it’s easy to see this as preparation for the NX system you’ll likely hear about this year. Just don’t see this as a guarantee that the NX will ship this year, even if it’s true — stopping production doesn’t mean that Nintendo is stopping sales, and it might keep the Wii U around for a while longer as it clears remaining stock.

Whatever the scoop might be, a production shutdown late this year would be logical. The Wii U was supposed to bank on the runaway success of the Wii and its motion controls, but its unique touchscreen-equipped gamepad and modest performance boost led some developers to skip the platform and leave it a distant third in sales. It’s in Nintendo’s interest to both cut its losses and show that the NX is coming soon.

Via: VentureBeat

Source: Nikkei (translated)

Google Photos will suggest albums after your next trip

Sure, Google Photos is clever enough to craft stories when you return from a trip, but you probably want more than that. Wouldn’t it be nice if it could organize those photos into albums so that you’re not left sifting through pictures yourself? You’re about to get just that. Google is trotting out a Photos update on Android, iOS and the web that automatically suggests new albums, choosing what it thinks are the best shots. It’ll add maps, too, and let you caption the album to help relive the moment.

It’s too soon to say if this will work well. Just ask anyone who’s watched Photos pick the most mundane shots if you need a reason to be cautious. Nonetheless, this beats letting your vacation snaps gather virtual dust simply because it would take a ton of effort to curate them by hand.

Source: Google Official Blog

The Engadget staff on this week’s Apple news

Covering a keynote from a big tech company makes for a busy day at Engadget, and yesterday’s “Loop You In” event at Apple’s Cupertino campus was no exception. Our fearless senior mobile editor Chris Velazco liveblogged the presentation, and then immediately got hands-on with the newly announced iPhone SE and 9.7-inch iPad Pro. The rest of the team, meanwhile, was busy writing up all the news, which also included iOS and tvOS software updates, price cuts for the iPad Air 2 and Apple Watch, and some frank remarks from Tim Cook about the company’s recent fight with the FBI. Now that the madness has subsided, it’s time for us to take a step back and gather our thoughts. Here’s what we actually think about it all.

Chromecast app expansion prompts a name change to Google Cast

Google’s trying to redefine the TV and audio experience with its Casting technology, and it is getting the help it needs from manufacturers to do just that. One of them being Vizio, which today revealed a new set of 4K, HDR TVs that rely solely on Google Cast to get streaming content from third-party apps. As part of this, Google is now changing the name of the Chromecast app to Google Cast, in what’s supposed to represent the broadness of the platform, according to the company.

The decision makes total sense, given that Google Cast can be found on many televisions, monitors and speakers nowadays, plus that’s been the platform’s name since the early days. Be on the look out for the rebranded app over the next few days — Google says it’s rolling out to Android and iOS users this week.

Source: Google

Apple’s messy iPad lineup keeps getting more complicated

iPad sales peaked following the holiday quarter of 2013 — perhaps not coincidentally, that was when Apple’s tablet lineup was at its most logical. Apple had just introduced the iPad Air, the first major redesign of its 9.7-inch tablet, and the iPad Mini 2, which added a sorely-needed Retina-class display. Beyond the size and price, these tablets were identical from a specs perspective, making it extremely easy to pick one. Yes, Apple still offered older iPads in both screen sizes, but trying to figure out the best iPad to buy was a simple affair. You just picked your screen size and preferred storage and could rest easy knowing you weren’t missing out.

Since then, the iPad has hit a two-year sales slump (sales peaked at 26 million but have since dropped to 16 million in 2015’s holiday season), and it feels like Apple is desperately trying to find the right tablet to reverse what has to be a worrying trend. The new 9.7-inch iPad Pro is the best example of this approach. In one regard, it’s clearly meant to be the successor to the 18-month-old iPad Air 2 — it’s the same size and weight and keeps the tablet’s classic and most popular screen size.

But, Apple has abandoned the traditional $500 starting price that the company has hit for its 9.7-inch tablet since the first iPad launched in 2010. Now, pricing starts at $600 — Apple clearly believes that the new technology in the iPad Pro is worth that premium, and it’s not an unreasonable argument. Support for the smart keyboard and Apple Pencil, the new four-speaker audio system and the more powerful A9X processor are noteworthy features.

What’s the best iPad you can buy right now? Apple might not even know the answer.

Things get really complicated when you compare the iPad Pro to the aging but still powerful iPad Air 2. Apple’s previous flagship tablet got the standard $100 price cut that comes when a new model takes its place in the lineup. So customers can either spend $600 on the 9.7-inch Pro with only 32GB of storage space — or save $100 and buy an Air 2 with double the capacity. Of course, the kind of people who value the Pro’s advanced features will likely also need more storage — so those customers will likely end up resigned to shelling out a whopping $750 for the 128GB iPad Pro. It’s a classic Apple upsell, but it also illustrates just how complex the iPad lineup is right now.

And we haven’t even mentioned the 12.9-inch iPad Pro yet! That device previously held the title of king iPad, but Apple correctly recognized that a device that big, heavy and expensive will likely remain a niche product. But now, those customers drawn to the iPad Pro aren’t even getting the latest and greatest technology — the smaller Pro has both a better screen and much better cameras. With the screen being the most important part of an iPad, it’s all of a sudden much harder to justify dropping the minimum $800 needed for a 12.9-inch iPad when the smaller one has a better display.

It feels like Apple is throwing spaghetti against the wall to see what sticks in the iPad lineup.

It feels like Apple is throwing spaghetti against the wall in an effort to try and find the magic bullet that will revive iPad sales and, as such, the lineup is confusing and complicated. I’m not against Apple offering multiple screen sizes for both its tablets and its similarly complex iPhone lineup — some degree of choice is good for customers, and it’s good to see Apple move away from the somewhat dogmatic “one size fits all” approach. But Apple could still hit multiple price points and sizes while simplifying its lineup.

For starters, Apple should drop the price of the iPad Pro lineup $100 across the board. Then, the new 32Gb 9.7-inch Pro would slot right into the $500 price point that Apple has hit with the iPad since its launch. The 16GB Air 2 can stick around at $400 for education and budget-conscious customers; again, Apple has historically kept its previous-generation tablet around for $100 less than the current model. At this point, Apple should do away with the iPad Mini 2 and its 2013 technology entirely and drop the entry price of the iPad Mini 4 to $350 to make it a better value.

Of course, Apple doesn’t typically reduce the price of its products very often. And that still doesn’t solve the problem of the 12.9-inch iPad Pro having a lesser screen than its smaller sibling. But it would make Apple’s iPad lineup a lot easier to parse for new customers: There would be three sizes to pick from, all at more reasonable price points, with the older Air 2 sticking around as a budget offering for the iPad’s most popular screen size.

If Apple truly believes the iPad is the future of computing, it needs to make it easy for customers to find one that fits for them. And price drops might go a long way towards enticing those millions of people using old Windows computers Apple referenced in its keynote yesterday to buying an ipad — or getting those with older iPads to upgrade.

Oh, and Apple? While you’re at it, let’s make sure you can get every iPad in rose gold — that color is just too hot not to spread around to everyone.