8 Pokemon Go myths you should stop believing – CNET
The truth is, you can get crappy Pokemon from any egg.
Screenshot by Alina Bradford / CNET
There are a lot of Pokemon Go tips out there. Some are helpful and a bunch of them are just fiction. I tried out a handful of tips and did some research to zero in on the stinkers. Here’s what I found.
Myth: Hatch this egg to get that Pokemon
There have been a bunch of charts circulating the internet that list what types of Pokemon hatch from the 2 km, 5 km and 10 km eggs. These charts are useless.
While you are more likely to get a rare Pokemon from a 10 km egg, according to Niantic, there have been plenty reports of people getting rare Pokemon from 2 km eggs. I have also personally found that you can get commons in a 10 km egg and rarer Pokemon in the 2 km and 5 km eggs.
Myth (sort of): Water types pop up near water and grass types pop up in grassy areas.
Niantic says, “Some wild Pokémon appear only in certain environments and climates. For example, some Pokémon may appear only near lakes, oceans, or other bodies of water.” Since Niantic said it, I’m sure it’s true, but look at the wording. They say “some” Pokemon.
The majority of Pokemon seem to spawn in totally random places that have nothing to do with their type. For example, I keep catching Staryu, a water-type Pokemon, in parking lots.
Myth: You can catch legendary Pokemon; here’s how.
If I had a Pokemon for every time I saw this myth I would have caught ’em all by now. Nope. Legendary Pokemon haven’t been released in the game, so no matter what someone tells you, you aren’t getting one. Some people have gotten their hands on some, but Niantic told IGN this was a mistake and the Pokemon were revoked.
Beware of third-party apps or hacks that claim to allow you to catch legendary Pokemon. These can get you banned from the game.
Myth: Get the ball through the target.
This one comes up a lot in forums. Some say that to capture a Pokemon your ball needs to go through the colored target ring. Aiming for the circle is fine, but you don’t need to get your ball inside the hoop to make a capture. This isn’t basketball.
Niantic says to throw your ball when the target is at its smallest and to fling your ball at the Pokemon, not the target. When the target is the smallest you can’t throw a ball through because the hole is too small for the ball to fit through.
I’ve found for better catches you need to hold your finger on your Pokeball until the target shrinks, flick the ball and aim for the Pokemon’s rump or shoulders. This throw skims the top of the target hoop.
Some argue that you get Nice, Great or Excellent throws if your Pokeball hits the Pokemon inside the colored inner ring. I can’t say this is 100 percent true or false, but I haven’t really seen any evidence to prove it. In fact, Nice, Great and Excellent throws seem to be somewhat randomly doled out.
Myth: You can get your Pokeball back.
I’ve tested this one so much over the last month that my finger hurts. After you throw the Pokeball, your ball count goes down and no matter how enthusiastically you tap the rolling ball, your ball count doesn’t go back up.
Myth: Incense doesn’t work unless you walk around.
I particularly enjoyed this research. Incense still attracted Pokemon while I was lying in bed or on the couch. The myth is partially true, though. If you move around, the incense does work better than if you’re standing — or sitting — still.
A Reddit poster found the code that governs spawning with incense to shed some light on the mystery. The code says that people who stand still will find a Pokemon every 300 seconds. People who are moving, though, will find Pokemon every 60 seconds. The distance you need to travel to find Pokemon more quickly is 200 meters (.2 kilometers).
Now, people can argue that this code may not be in use or the code might not actually work the way the poster suggests. I’ve done some testing and it seems to work out. Others on Reddit and other forums have also found that walking around does seem to make the incense work better.
Pokemon Go code proves that Pokemon are attracted to incense when you’re sitting still.
Screenshot by Alina Bradford / CNET
Myth: Don’t waste your time on Weedle, Pidgey, Caterpie and Rattata Pokemon.
Weedle, Pidgey, Caterpie and Rattata Pokemon seem pretty impractical for battle, but they still have their uses. There are tons of them everywhere and they are easy to catch. Catching a lot of Pokemon in a short amount of time will help you level up faster. If you waited to catch only “good” Pokemon it would take a very long time to level.
Plus, they take only 12 candy to evolve, so you can do many more evolutions and collect massive XP. Save all of your evolutions and fire up a lucky egg while you’re mass-evolving to double your XP.
Myth: You’ll never be able to catch ’em all because some Pokemon are only found in certain locations.
Yes, there are region-specific Pokemon, but don’t give up hope. You can still get these Pokemon by hatching eggs, supposedly. This Reddit thread is full of people who have claimed to hatched region-specific Pokemon from other countries. There are also YouTube videos and many other forum posts and reports about getting region-specific Pokemon from eggs. This isn’t exactly proof, but Niantic is keeping quiet on this aspect of the game.
These are the coolest Pokemon collectibles…
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The new Fitbit Flex 2 and Charge 2 are worth your time
What are the new Fitbit Charge 2 and Fitbit Flex 2 and where can you get them?
Fitbit always seems to offer the right product at the right time. It anticipated the rise of fitness wearables all the way back in 2008, when it debuted the original titular product, and has slowly iterated on that basic design since its first commercial undertaking, the Ultra, in 2011.
Fitbit had its iPhone moment in 2013 when it debuted the Flex, its first wrist-worn wearable, to much acclaim. The proposition was simple: a small module that lived inside a comfortable rubberized band, that tracks steps and sleep and uploads them to the cloud through an Android app.
Since then, the company has enjoyed plenty of success with follow-up products like the Charge and Charge HR, and no shortage of controversy (and lawsuits) from people complaining that the metal in them causes irritation. Fitbit even fully recalled its Force band in 2014 stemming from a high number of complaints.
But through all of this, it has maintained a strong dominance in the fitness tracker market, even as companies like Apple and Google have encroached with more expensive and far more capable (and confusing) alternatives. Now, Fitbit is debuting two new products, sequels to its two most popular lines, the Flex 2 and Charge 2, and they feel like the products that, in many ways, should have happened years ago.
Read more at iMore
Save $160 on the Nougat-ready 32GB Nexus 5X right now!
Right now you can pick up the 32GB Nexus 5X for just $240 at eBay, a savings of $160 from its regular price. Google has already pushed the updated factory images out of Android Nougat for the phone, so if you are looking for an inexpensive way to get the latest version of Android, this is a great option. With its 5.2-inch display and 32GB of internal storage, this deal makes for a great way to save some money on a new phone or a backup phone even more affordable.
You can pick between carbon and quartz, but unfortunately the Ice is already sold out. If you are looking for the 16GB model, you can also find that on sale for $240, so it’s probably best to just get the extra internal storage since you can’t add a microSD card to it.
See at eBay
Nexus 5X
- Nexus 5X review
- 5 things to know about the Nexus 5X
- Read the latest Nexus 5X news
- Learn about Nexus Protect insurance
- Learn about Project Fi
- Join the Nexus 5X forums
- Nexus 5X specs
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What you need to know about DT Ignite, the hidden bloatware your carrier may have installed
What the heck is going on with this app called DT Ignite?
Right about now, half of us are ready to jump to the comments and start hollerin’ about DT Ignite, while the other half is scratching their heads wondering what we’re talking about.
We’re talking about a piece of carrier bloatware named DT Ignite. It’s an application written by Digital Turbine (thus the DT part) that’s used to pre-load other applications onto your phone. Some folks are having issues with a recent Verizon HTC 10 update and DT Ignite re-enabling itself or running after it’s been disabled, but the app itself is not new. And yes, it’s something you would never install yourself and is bloatware in any and every sense of the word, but it’s not the demon some make it out to be.
As mentioned, DT Ignite is used to install other apps onto your carrier-branded phone. While people tend to point fingers at Verizon when talking about it, DT Ignite is used by a good number of carriers — AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, US Cellular, America Movi, Deutsche Telecom, Vodaphone, Singtel, Cloudphone, MTS and more according to the Digital Turbine website.
Some folks seem sure that the technology is licensed to Sprint for the Sprint Zone app, but I can’t find any evidence either way. Folks using Rogers are also saying they see DT Ignite installed, but the company is not listed on DT’s page. Not all phones from these carriers have DT Ignite installed, but many — including the Galaxy S7 that most people are buying — do.
People tend to point fingers at Verizon when talking about DT Ignite, but is used by AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, US Cellular, and carriers in Europe and Canada
About those Verizon HTC 10 update bugs some people are saying they see — we’ve heard three different issues:
- DT Ignite re-enables itself after the recent 1.82 update. This may be expected behavior if a new version of the app is installed. Just disable it again.
- DT Ignite hides from the App Manager after the 1.82 update. It doesn’t — you have to show system apps in the App Manager to see it.
- DT Ignite runs intermittently in the background even if disabled after the 1.82 update. Only a few people are seeing this bug. This isn’t normal behavior and more troubleshooting is needed. Or just reset your phone and let DT Ignite do its thing again, then start uninstalling and disabling.
Carriers use DT Ignite to install the apps they want you to see when you set up your phone for the first time or after it’s been factory reset. It also can spam your notifications with ads for suggested apps at any time. You also agreed to allow it to do both when you clicked accept without reading during setup. It doesn’t install any apps on its own after the initial setup, but it does run in the background.
Why it sucks: It installs apps you don’t want using your monthly data allotment to do it. It also spams your notification bar with ads for apps like Soda Crush.
Why it doesn’t suck: Soda Crush doesn’t have to be pre-installed to get you to know it’s there.
We agree that having an application that can install crap you don’t want is not a good thing. Not at all. But the alternative is worse. DT Ignite has one very redeeming property: using it is better than the old method of installing this crap into your system partition where you can’t remove it. And while we hate having it, we have to remember that we agreed to it being there.
The good news is that once it’s done doing its setup shenanigans, you can disable it. If you head to the App Manager section of your phone settings and allow it to show system apps (look in any menus or overflow areas) it’s right there where you can click the button to shut it down. And that’s the first thing you should do after you’re done uninstalling the apps it randomly dropped onto your phone.
We can wave pitchforks and bundle kindling as we rail against carriers and shoddy practices like this, but the fact remains that we keep buying phones with this sort of thing installed. If you just can’t deal with DT Ignite or any other bloatware app, you should stop buying carrier phones. If you want or need to buy carrier phones, you should accept the fact that it happens and will continue, then judiciously uninstall or disable them and stop worrying about it.
Philips’ new Hue sensor can detect when you’re moving and more
Philips has new Hue goodies for you, including one that detects movement.
It’s actually not as creepy as it sounds. The company has announced more products for its Hue line of smart lights and accessories. The standout new gizmo is called Philips Hue Motion Sensor. It will allow Philips Hue users to automatically control their lights with their movements. The $39.95 sensor connects to Hue Bridge, as it’s wireless and battery-powered, and can be positioned anywhere, such as a wall or shelf.
Once it’s in place, you can adjust its motion detection capabilities so that it can trigger certain actions (like turning lights on). Philips described the sensor as providing hands-free control and said it can guide you “safely throughout your home at night with lighting”. It’s also handy because you no longer must remember to turn lights off when leaving a room. The motion sensor will detect when you do and does all the work for you.
Some of the other customisation settings including changing the type of lighting from like a soft night light to scenes for daytime. It also has a built-in daylight sensor so it can turn on/off your lights based on the time of day. Up to 12 sensors can be connected to a bridge, too, giving you the ability to automate all the lights in your home. And Philips said the sensor can adjust lights within .5 seconds of activation, so it’s fast.
Philips has introduced updated bulbs as well. The Hue White and Color Ambiance A19 now come with more vibrant greens and blues. And finally, two new Philips Hue White Ambiance bulb extensions have been announced, including BR-30 and GU-10 models. To buy any of this stuff, check out Philips Hue website, Amazon.com, and Best Buy in October 2016.
Zuckerberg hopes to show off his home control AI next month
Remember that artificial intelligence Mark Zuckerberg said he was going to build to control his house? It sounds like he actually made it — and he’s almost ready to show it to the public. “I got it to the point where I can control the lights, I can control the gates, I can control the temperature,” he said at a Facebook Q&A in Rome this week. “It’s getting there.”
Zuckerberg says he hopes to have a demo of the project available sometime next month, and credits a lot of the AI’s success to his engineering team at work. “It’s awesome because I get to interact with all these Facebook engineers who are doing this awesome AI work in speech recognition, in face recognition,” he says. “I programmed it so now, when I walk up to my door, my gate, I don’t have to put in a code or something like that to get in — put in a key — it just sees my face and lets me in.” Even so, the AI isn’t quite ready for primetime: Zuckerberg says the house only responds to his own voice, much to his wife’s disappointment. “I’ll give her access once I’m done.” Sure you will, Zuck. Sure you will.
Via: Verge
Source: Facebook
Foreign hackers attacked two state election systems, FBI warns
Hackers outside of the United States attacked two state election databases in recent months and the FBI is warning voting officials across the country to bulk up security and investigate their own systems for similar malicious activity, Yahoo News reports. The twin hacks were outed in a “flash” alert from the FBI’s Cyber Division. The alert does not say which states were targeted, though Yahoo reports that it likely refers to attacks in Arizona and Illinois.
Officials in Illinois closed the state’s voter registration system for 10 days in July after hackers stole the personal data of 200,000 citizens. In Arizona, malicious software was found in the state voter registration system in June, but no information was stolen.
The FBI alert discloses eight IP addresses used in the hacks and suggests that the attacks were linked, as one of the addresses was used in both intrusions. The bureau is investigating whether the hackers attempted to infiltrate other state election systems as well.
“The FBI is requesting that states contact their Board of Elections and determine if any similar activity to their logs, both inbound and outbound, has been detected,” the alert reads, as shared by Yahoo. “Attempts should not be made to touch or ping the IP addresses directly.”
The FBI does not indicate which country is behind the state attacks, though currently the international hacking spotlight is on Russia. Russia is believed to be behind a major attack on the Democratic National Convention that led to the leak of 20,000 Democratic party emails in July. The FBI is looking into whether the state hacks are related to the massive DNC breach, Yahoo reports.
Source: Yahoo News
What to expect at this year’s IFA
IFA, one of the world’s largest consumer electronics trade shows, starts this week in Berlin. It’s not quite as big as CES, but it can be a good insight into what lies ahead in the holiday shopping season. IFA is often the place where companies announce washing machines and kitchen appliances, but there’s usually plenty of phones, wearables, PCs and TVs too. Here’s what we expect to see at IFA this year:
Smartphones and tablets
Samsung used to make IFA the home for its annual Note announcements, but that changed last year. 2016 marks the second year in a row the company opted to launch the newest Note, as well as the latest Gear VR, at their own Unpacked event. That doesn’t mean Samsung won’t have anything to show at IFA, but it likely won’t have any phones on the docket.
Still, IFA won’t be completely bereft of mobile news. Sony has made a habit of revising its Xperia lineup at IFA and we expect to see more of that this time around. We’ve heard tales of an Xperia X Compact, which appears to be a smaller version of the Xperia X Performance. Leaked specs have pointed to a 13-megapixel rear camera, 4GB of RAM, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor as well as 32GB of internal storage. Seeing as it’s a “Compact” model, we also expect a 4.7 inch display with full HD resolution.
Moving on to other mobile events, Huawei’s September 1st event invitation entices us to “Defy Expectations” with what looks like the curved edge of either a phone or a tablet. Though ASUS announced the ZenFone 3 series at Computex, it could unveil a mid-tier offering at IFA. ZTE, which already showed off the Axon 7 and the Zmax Pro earlier this year, could have more to say about Project CSX, its unique crowdsourced handset. Nubia, a ZTE sub-brand, is also holding an event of its very own, which likely means we’ll see one or two new phones there as well.
Plus, just because Samsung has already shown its hand as far as phones go, doesn’t mean that we won’t spy any new tablets. Rumors point to a possible Galaxy Tab S3, the successor to last year’s Galaxy Tab S2. There could also be a new tablet from Lenovo with a “new kind of intuitive keyboard,” if this brief peek at Lenovo’s IFA 2016 event is to be believed.
Wearables and other accessories
Much more than just phones and tablets, IFA is becoming a bit of a wearables show. Samsung already made a not-too-subtle hint that its first event in Berlin will focus on the Gear S3. The invitation has a watch face design on it as well as the words “Talk About 3” and “Gear.” There are also rumors that there’ll be three versions of the S3: The Classic, the Explorer and the Frontier. The latter two will supposedly focus on fitness, with various sensors like an altimeter and a barometer.
We could see other companies refresh their Android Wear offerings too. Huawei hasn’t updated its premium Watch wearable since last year and ASUS’ ZenWatch 2 could use a refresh as well. On the simpler side of the wearable spectrum, Fitbit has already announced the sequels to the Flex and the Charge, which we’ll see at IFA this week. It’ll also be interesting to see if Nokia-owned Withings will have anything to show — an update to the Activite is a long-time coming after all.
We could see other companies update their Android Wear offerings too. Huawei hasn’t updated its premium Watch wearable since last year and ASUS’ ZenWatch 2 could use a refresh as well. On the simpler side of the wearable spectrum, Fitbit has already announced the sequels to the Flex and the Charge, which we’ll see at IFA this week. It’ll also be interesting to see if Nokia-owned Withings will have anything to show — an update to the Activite is a long-time coming.
Aside from the Xperia phone, Sony will probably also give us a closer look at the Xperia Eye, a lifelogging camera you wear around your neck, plus the Xperia Ear, a Bluetooth headset that looks a lot like Moto’s Hint.
Everything else
Aside from the usual phones and wearables, we’ll also likely see a bevy of new 4K and 8K televisions from the likes of Samsung, Sony and LG. New laptops are also on the horizon; Acer’s press conference invitation shows what looks like a profile of an extremely thin notebook and Lenovo might surprise us with yet another Yoga laptop or two. As with so many trade shows this year, we also expect to see the odd robot or drone on the show floor.
Last but not least, we have to mention virtual reality. 2016 is said to be the year VR goes mainstream, and we could see more evidence of that at IFA. We’ve already seen a sneak peek at what looks like an ASUS VR headset and Huawei has promised that it would be making a Gear VR competitor too.
As always, there will probably be products at IFA that we don’t expect as well. We’ll be liveblogging the Samsung mobile event on August 31st at 12pm ET so stay tuned for that and keep your eyes glued to the site for more news out of Berlin.
The bottom line: Our quick verdict on the Samsung Galaxy Note 7
Samsung’s enormous, pen-toting Galaxy Note was something of a curiosity when the original came out five years ago — unwieldy and built for a niche audience. Since then, big phones have become the norm, and the Note line in particular has become ever more comfortable to hold. The new Note 7 is surprisingly easy to grasp one-handed, despite its 5.7-inch screen — not to mention well built and attractively designed with fast performance, long battery life and a top-notch camera.
Even if you choose to disregard the pen features, then, this is still a nearly perfect handset. In fact, one of our biggest complaints has little to do with the device itself: the steep $849 asking price. Other drawbacks include the not-always-accurate eye scanner and the fact that the updated S Pen feels a little flimsier than the last-gen version. Those few cons aside, this is the company’s best phone yet — of any screen size.
Blu’s Pure XR brings 3D Touch to Android for $299
Right on schedule, Blu has followed up last year’s Pure XL with its latest affordable, feature-heavy (and unlocked) Android phone: the $299 4G LTE Pure XR. On its face, the XR version sports a curved, 5.5-inch 1080p SuperAMOLED screen with a (possibly trademark infringing) “3D Touch” feature similar to the iPhone 6s, but at about half the unlocked price. Under the hood, the XR runs Android 6.0 Marshmallow driven by a 2GHz octa-core MediaTek Helio P10 processor, 4GB of RAM and 64GB of memory (plus microSD expansion).
Blu doesn’t skimp on the rest of the features either: Although it’s a bit of a downgrade from the XL’s 24-megapixel sensor, the XR sports a 16-megapixel rear camera and an 8-megapixel selfie shooter. Rounding out the specs are: a home button fingerprint sensor, dual SIM slots, USB Type-C port and a 3,000 mAh battery that just edges out the iPhone 6s Plus battery in terms of raw capacity. (According to Blu, the 2-amp quick charger can add an hour of talk time with a 10-minute charge.) The handset has a full metal, unibody design available in Grey and Gold and is on sale now from Amazon and Best Buy. Although the Pure XR is unlocked right out of the box, it’s still a GSM-only device, so users will be limited to AT&T, T-Mobile, metroPCS and other GSM networks.
Via: 9to5Google
Source: Blue Products
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