‘Pokémon Go’ to get raid battles and simplified gyms

A year after Pokémon Go captivated the world with its location-based catch-athon, Niantic is making some changes. The biggest is raid battles, a concept that was teased in the very first trailer for the game. They’ll launch “in the coming weeks” and take place at existing gyms, allowing groups of players to take on rare and powerful Pokémon together. At first, you’ll see an egg and a countdown timer, as well as one to four boss icons which indicate the creature’s difficulty. When the meter drops to zero, the Pokémon will appear and you’ll have a limited time to catch it.

Raid battles can be performed with public and private groups of up to 20 people. A simple lobby lists the players and Pokémon that will be joining the fray, giving you ample time to prepare while everyone else shows up and sorts out their party. Unsurprisingly, raid bosses have huge health bars and you’ll need to tap furiously to inflict meaningful damage. It’s a race against the clock — if the timer runs out, your chance to catch the Pokémon is gone. Until that happens, however, there’s always a chance to push through and succeed. Even if your party is defeated, for instance, you can hop out, heal up and dive straight back in to help the rest of the group.

If you successfully defeat the boss Pokémon, you’ll be rewarded with special bonus items including rare candies, golden razz berries and two types of technical machines, fast and charged. The game will also deal out some Premiere Balls, the number of which will vary depending on the team that controls the gym, the damage you contributed and the total damage from your team. You’ll then have the chance to capture the Pokémon, just like a regular encounter, using berries and Premiere Balls exclusively. In short, if you do better in the battle section, you’ll receive more balls and have a better chance of catching the Pokémon.

A developer for Niantic shows off a raid version of Aerodactyl.

AOL

The feature is designed, however, so that everyone can contribute and have a reasonable chance of catching a powerful monster. Seasoned players will, of course, want to team up with equally talented trainers, which is where the private groups come in. If you set one up, the app will give you a shareable code (three Bulbasaur icons, for instance) so that other people can easily find and join your group. In the future, Niantic will also offer exclusive, invitation-only raids for the best players in the world. These will take place at specific gyms and provide a chance to catch the rarest and most powerful Pokémon in the game, including legendaries.

There’s one small catch to the new feature: Raid passes. To join a cooperative battle, you’ll need to supply one of these single-use passes upfront. You can grab one every day by visiting a gym, otherwise you’ll need to buy them through the in-app store. Restricting participation makes sense, as it will help each raid feels special. If you want to be cynical, however, it’s easy to see this as a money-making venture that encourages in-app purchases whenever a tough-to-catch Articuno shows up.

Before the raid battle update, Niantic is giving its gym system a complete overhaul. The developer admits they were needlessly complicated before and overwhelmed casual players. The replacement ditches the gym level and prestige systems entirely, and changes how players challenge the Pokémon left by other trainers. Now, every gym will have six available slots, and all of them must be inhabited by a different kind of Pokémon — no duplicates allowed. When you challenge a gym, you’ll also take on the Pokémon who has been there the longest first, rather than the weakest.

Creatures left at the gym will have a motivation meter which falls alongside their CP, or strength, over time and as they participate in battles. Stronger Pokémon will also lose motivation faster than weaker ones. Trainers can restore motivation with berries, but the idea is that higher-level Pokémon will be booted out of gyms more quickly than before.

“We’re really hoping that we can broaden the scope to encompass both levels of play,” Edward Wu, director of software engineering at Niantic said. “That’s part of why the motivation system exists. If you have a fully fed, and highly motivated Pokémon who the player is constantly giving berries to, that will still provide a top-tier challenge for the folks who expect a top-tier challenge. But in addition, as they weaken and get demotivated, that will give more casual players or, trainers who might not have fully levelled up yet, the chance to actually battle and win at those gyms.”

Like the original games and anime, gyms will soon have badges too. As you battle Pokémon and participate in other activities, they’ll level up through bronze, silver and gold. Higher-ranked badges will give you items, experience points and other bonuses every time you revisit the gym.

If you’re disinterested in battling, fear not: Niantic has you covered too. Every gym will now also serve as a Pokéstop, allowing you to collect items and rank up badges like everyone else. If you give your Pokémon treats in the gym, you’ll also receive some extra Stardust.

With a year under its belt, Niantic is focusing on features that encourage real-world socialising and collaboration. At some point, that will include Pokémon trading too. “We’re absolutely interested in it,” Wu said. “But as we’ve alluded to before, there are some really tough challenges associated with it. Since we have this single coherent world, where everybody is on the same instance, that’s really quite unique in MMO games. So being able to make sure that trading mechanic is balanced and is fair, and does justice to our players when we have these particular challenges, is something we have been working on and will continue to work on.”

LG’s enhanced G6+ has more storage and premium sound

LG’s G6 is a nice smartphone that has sold pretty well so far, but with the arrival of Samsung’s stellar Galaxy S8, it’s trying to keep consumers interested with a few changes and a new model. First off, it has launched the G6+, an identical model to the original but with more onboard memory (128GB) and “premium sound.” It gets the latter option via a new 32-bit HiFi quad DAC that has been available in South Korea since launch, but oddly, never came to North America.

LG is also throwing in a set of unnamed Bang & Olufsen earphones that fully support the DAC so that you have something to appreciate it with. Some models will also get wireless charging, a feature that has been available in the US from the get-go. However, and again this is pretty weird, LG didn’t say which regions will get which features, and where exactly it’ll be sold — but we imagine North America will be high on the list.

Aside from the G6+, current G6 owners will get a bunch of new features, most notable “Face Print” a way to unlock the phone just by holding it up to your face. LG promises that “unlocking occurs as soon as the registered face is recognized, usually in less than one second on average.” Another new feature, “low power consumption” might help users get more mileage out of the G6’s fairly feeble battery, and a “covered lens warning” will tell you if your finger is in front of the wide-angle rear camera.

Other sites have reported that LG will start shipping a version of the G6 with 6GB of RAM, but LG didn’t mention that in its PR, and if that’s accurate, it would likely only be available in Korea — much like the 6GB version of Samsung’s Galaxy S8.

Finally, LG has launched some new colors for the LG G6 and G6+, “optical marine blue” and “optical terra gold.” The LG G6+ will launch in South Korea early next month and come to other regions after that. — hopefully we’ll learn more about pricing and who gets which features, soon.

Source: LG

Tim Cook and Other CEOs Meeting With Trump Today to Discuss Using Tech to Reduce Government Spending

Apple CEO Tim Cook and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos are among a group of technology leaders meeting with President Donald Trump at the White House today, with plans to discuss how the government can begin cutting waste and improving services.

The Trump administration believes there is an “economic opportunity” to save as much as $1 trillion over the next ten years, and is seeking the advice of a group of tech CEOs on the best way to reduce government spending through technology (via Reuters).

Methods looked at by the Trump administration are said to include cutting government information technology costs, reducing government costs through improved IT services, leveraging government buying power, and reducing fraud across government agencies.

President Donald Trump will meet with the chief executives of technology companies including Apple Inc and Amazon.com Inc on Monday as the White House looks to the private sector for help in cutting government waste and improving services.

White House officials said on a conference call on Friday that the administration believed there was an “economic opportunity” to save up to $1 trillion over 10 years by significantly cutting government information technology costs, reducing government costs through improved IT, leveraging government buying power and cutting fraud across government agencies.

The meeting with nearly 20 chief executives comes as the White House pushes to shrink government, cut federal employees and eliminate regulations. Many business executives are eager to work with the new administration as they face numerous regulatory and other policy issues.

Other companies attending the meeting include Alphabet, Microsoft, MasterCard, Intel, Qualcomm, Oracle, Adobe, and more. The meeting, which was announced earlier this month, follows a few other efforts by the Trump administration in modernizing the government with the help of CEOs from tech companies, including the “White House Office of American Innovation” and “American Technology Council.”

Other topics up for discussion will be the United States work visa program, which has been a major point of contention as it directly affects tech companies trying to hire foreign workers, as well as cyber security. Before directly meeting with President Trump, it’s said that the CEOs will discuss the issues on hand with Vice President Mike Pence, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, White House senior adviser Jared Kushner, and White House official Chris Liddell.

Many tech leaders decided to leave the White House’s various advisory councils after Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris climate accords. In a new statement, the White House said the decision had little effect on today’s meeting and that it was full to capacity, resulting in some leaders being turned away. According to Axios, the meetings will run all the way to Thursday with topics further including drones and other IoT devices, which will end what the White House is calling “Technology Week.”

For Apple’s part, Tim Cook last week pointed out numerous ways he disagrees with Trump, but stated that his personal beliefs weren’t enough to make him walk away from the Trump administration’s councils, because he felt the need to keep the bigger picture in mind. “At the end of the day, I’m not a person who’s going to walk away and say, “If you don’t do what I want, I leave.” … But I care deeply about America. I want America to do well. America’s more important than bloody politics from my point of view.”

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Tag: Donald Trump
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PayPal CEO Doesn’t Think Apple Pay’s Peer-to-Peer Payments Update Will Hurt Venmo

In a new interview with The Telegraph, PayPal CEO Dan Schulman discusses a wide range of topics covering the origins of the company, its history with eBay, and potential competition with Apple in the peer-to-peer payments space. PayPal owns Venmo, one of the most popular P2P payments apps available today across iOS, Android, and the web, and Schulman cited this availability across various operating systems as a “powerful advantage.”

Schulman said that many users have a variety of devices sold by different companies, and the ability for Venmo to be on all of them is where it will stand out from Apple Pay’s upcoming P2P update, which will be able to send money through Messages only on Apple devices.

Image via The Telegraph

“We’re technology agnostic,” he said in an interview with The Telegraph. “Many individuals are [a] multi-operating system; they can have an Android phone, a Microsoft PC and an Apple tablet. You don’t want a different payment methodology on each of those things … you want a consistency across that.

“We try to offer a consistent value proposition, that’s end-to-end, across operating systems and device type. It’s a powerful advantage we have.”

PayPal and Venmo also control several parts of a payment process made through its apps, including risk assessment and customer protection. Shulman stated that the company owns “the full value proposition” of a payment made between users on Venmo, while Apple “can only provide what they hope is a good user interface.”

Unlike Venmo, Apple’s service will not work on Android phones or Windows laptops, and whereas Apple has to work with credit card companies to make payments, PayPal controls several parts of the payments process, such as risk assessment and customer protection.

“We own the full value proposition, Apple can never do that because they don’t do the risk associated with it, they don’t do the onboarding, they can only provide what they hope is a good user interface. We try to provide that end to end value proposition and very importantly we do it across operating systems.”

Apple Pay’s P2P update is set to launch this fall with iOS 11. During the announcement at WWDC, Apple said that when users get paid they will receive money in a new “Apple Pay Cash” account, which they can then use instantly to make a purchase using Apple Pay in stores or online, send as a payment to someone else, or transfer it from Apple Pay Cash to their bank account.

Related Roundup: Apple Pay
Tags: PayPal, Venmo
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We dive into the Surface Pro and Laptop with Microsoft’s device czar, Panos Panay

Microsoft’s Surface device lineup is bigger than ever. On June 15, the company launched the Surface Pro, the fifth iteration of its now famous 2-in-1 tablet, as well as a strangely familiar device: the Surface Laptop. They join the Surface Book, a laptop that also snaps apart to be a tablet, and the Surface Studio, a giant, 28-inch desktop built around touch. But what is Microsoft’s overall direction here, as well as its goals for the Surface Laptop and Pro? To find out, we talked to the man himself: Panos Panay.

Panay is in charge of all hardware at Microsoft, including Surface devices, accessories like mice and keyboards, and even the brand-new Xbox One X. He led the charge when Microsoft began working on the first Surface, which hit shelves half a decade ago, and isn’t one to shy away from the struggles the Surface division faced in its first few years. He’s also known as a very passionate advocate of Microsoft products, and a perfectionist when it comes to product construction.

We saw that passion firsthand as Panay joined us in the Digital Trends office in New York City for an impromptu show-and-tell. Answering questions along the way, he gave us a detailed look at the design points and reasoning behind the Surface Pro and Surface Laptop, as well as Microsoft’s overall strategy toward its Surface line.

“When we first built [Surface], it was just going to be a stage for Windows,” Panay told Digital Trends, reflecting on the last five years. “Now, it’s a stage for all the software, it’s about change, it’s about bringing those magical experiences to people. We’re now in a place where this hardware really does start to disappear. You have instant on. You have long battery life. You have the beauty of Windows 10 in the product, the beauty of Office in the product — tuned for Skype. So you can see how, over time, in the generations, it has changed, and the focus has been around experiences and how we’re going to bring software to life.”

For Panay, 2017 is when the Surface lineup is really coming together. He explained how proud he is of Microsoft’s varied lineup, which you can now see at retailers like Best Buy.

“This is kind of a dream of mine,” explained Panay. “You have these three different “Who are you? What do you do? What do you believe in?” devices, so now when somebody walks in [to a store, they] have that choice.”

“We have the most versatile laptop on the planet — and this is the one you can use anywhere, anytime, — you don’t need a tablet or a laptop, this is the one,” Panay said. “But if you’re just a laptop user who wants the classic form factor, and you wanted something personal and beautiful, now we have that choice, too … and then you have the Book, so you have the most performant laptop.”

Be sure to read our full review of the 2017 Surface Pro and our first impressions of the Surface Laptop.

Xiaomi rolls out power banks with fast charging, a Bluetooth speaker, and a Wi-Fi repeater in India

Xiaomi rolls out a Wi-Fi repeater, Bluetooth speaker, and two new power banks in India.

Alongside phones, Xiaomi makes a wide array of accessories, and today the manufacturer rolled out several new products in India. Notable among the additions are two new power banks with two-way fast charging — the 10000mAh and 20000mAh variants of the Mi Power Bank 2.

The main issue with the first-gen variant of the Mi Power Bank was that it took too long to charge up the battery, but two-way fast charging allows you to top up your phones quickly (up to 15W), and charge up the power bank when it runs out of battery at 18W.

Mi Power Bank 2

The 10000mAh Mi Power Bank 2 features an anodized aluminum housing, and comes with nine layers of circuit chip protection to ensure it doesn’t fry your gadgets, including temperature protection, input/output overvoltage protection, output overcurrent protection, and hardware-level short circuit protection.

The 10000mAh Mi Power Bank 2 costs ₹1,199, and will go up for sale on Mi.com and at Xiaomi’s Mi Home retail store in Bangalore starting June 20. You’ll be able to pick it up on Amazon and Flipkart starting July 7.

See at Mi.com

Xiaomi is also rolling out an updated variant of the 20000mAh Mi Power Bank that retains its ABS plastic housing and textured pattern. The power bank can charge two devices simultaneously, and has the same circuit-level protection as the 10000mAh Mi Power Bank 2.

The 20000mAh Mi Power Bank 2 will retail for ₹2,199, and you can pick it up at Mi.com and at Mi Home starting June 20. It’ll similarly be up for sale on Amazon and Flipkart starting July 7.

See at Mi.com

Mi Bluetooth Speaker Mini

The Mi Bluetooth Speaker Mini is a puck-sized device that runs off of Bluetooth 4.0. The device produces sound that belies its size, and there’s a built-in microphone with noise reduction tech that lets you take calls. The device comes in at just 58g, and offers four hours of battery life on a full charge.

Xiaomi says that the exterior of the Mi Bluetooth Speaker Mini goes through a series of manufacturing steps to achieve its smooth finish. The speaker will be available in gold and grey for ₹1,299, and you’ll be able to purchase it from Mi.com and Mi Home starting June 21. You can also pick it up from GearBest for just $12.

See at Gearbest

Mi Wi-Fi Repeater 2

Finally, Xiaomi’s Mi Wi-Fi Repeater 2 is designed to boost Wi-Fi signal in your house. The device has two built-in high performance antennas, and can handle up to 16 connections. It’ll suggest the optimal Wi-Fi channels for faster download speeds, and you can pair it to the Mi Home app to identify Wi-Fi dead zones in your house.

The Mi Wi-Fi Repeater 2 works with most routers available in the market today, and you can pick it up for ₹999. It’ll be going up for sale on Mi.com and Mi Home starting June 20.

See at Mi.com

Moto C Plus with 4000mAh battery debuts in India for ₹6,999

The Moto C series is designed to provide all-day battery life and an unencumbered software experience.

The Moto C Plus is now official in India for ₹6,999 ($110). With plenty of new devices in the budget segment, Motorola is positioning the Moto C Plus as a phone with all-day battery life, bloat-free software experience, and an “advanced” front camera. Or as Motorola puts it, “Yes, it is that cool.”

The Moto C plus features a 5.0-inch 720p display, and is powered by a MediaTek MT6737 SoC with four 1.3GHz Cortex A53 cores and a Mali T720 GPU. There’s 2GB of RAM, 16GB internal storage, microSD slot, 8MP camera at the back, 2MP front shooter, dual-SIM connectivity, Bluetooth 4.2, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, LTE, and the aforementioned 4000mAh battery with fast charging (up to 10W).

The phone goes up against the Redmi 4 in this segment, which is powered by a Snapdragon 430. The Redmi 4 builds on the successes of the Redmi 3S, and is one of the best phones in the entry-level category. It’ll be interesting to see how the Moto C Plus fares next to it, but the promise of quick updates and a long-lasting battery makes it a decent option.

If you’re interested, the first “limited sale” is kicking off tomorrow, June 20, on Flipkart.

See at Flipkart

How to fix Google Pixel battery life problems

How do I extend battery life on my Google Pixel?

Google’s Pixel XL offers impressive battery life for a phone of its size, but determined users can definitely drain it over the course of a hectic day. The smaller 5-inch Pixel with its 2770 mAh battery doesn’t always offer the same longevity, giving you less wiggle room if you have heavier-than-usual use or forget to charge overnight.

Though both should be able to make it through an average day for most people, if you’re finding your Pixel’s battery coming up short sometimes, you’ll want to follow a few of these handy tips to make the most of what you have.

Check for battery-draining apps

The Pixel really uses its systemwide battery-saving function called Doze, which puts the system and apps into a low-power state to help save battery when the phone isn’t in use. A vast majority of the time the system can handle all sorts of apps and manage them so you still get notifications even while other apps are “sleeping,” but in some cases a poorly coded app can keep the system awake when it’s not supposed to, draining your battery in the process.

Doze does a great job, but you can always check on individual apps.

To find if there are any apps causing issues, head into your Settings, tap on Battery and look at the list of apps under “Use since last charge.” You’ll see most of the usual suspects like the screen, Android OS and Bluetooth or Voice calls, but if you see a seldom-used app taking up more than a couple percent of your battery drain, you should investigate to see if it’s doing things it shouldn’t be.

Use Battery optimization features

The “Battery optimization” feature in Android is a tad bit complicated, and in most cases will simply work as intended without your management, but if you’re having battery life troubles it’s worth checking out. Battery optimization builds on the battery-saving features of Doze to identify how and when you use apps to put forcibly them to sleep when they shouldn’t be awake draining your battery. Go into Settings, tap on Battery and then tap the Menu button and tap Battery optimization to get started with this.

The system does a great job on its own, but you can still check in on it.

By default, the system has been analyzing how you use your phone since the minute you started installing apps, optimizing usage on the apps to get the most battery out of the phone while keeping your most-used apps available when you need them. In the main screen of the Battery optimization settings you’ll see the “Not optimized” list, which you can see will include some apps that can’t be optimized, along with some stragglers that may not be optimized yet.

If you see an app that you want to be optimized, tap it and switch to “Optimize.” If you want to switch to a full apps list, tap the top bar and you’ll see the option to view “All apps.” Here you can tap on individual apps and switch them to “Don’t optimize” if you wish to let the app have free reign to run as it pleases. You may choose to do this for critically important apps like those for travel or banking — just know that most of the time, the system will handle these functions exactly as you want, with the added benefit of optimizing them for battery savings.

Use Battery saver

Though it isn’t nearly as comprehensive as similar features on other phones, the Pixel includes a Battery saver mode that can help extend your battery life with the flip of a switch. With Battery saver turned on, your phone will have reduced performance, limited vibration, limited location services and reduced background data. Together the limitations don’t have a huge effect on the usability of the phone, but they do save precious battery drain.

Battery saver can add a couple hours of life in a pinch.

Pull down the notification shade, tap on your battery icon and you’ll see a “Battery saver” toggle you can turn on and off as you please when you know you need a bit more longevity. If you prefer, you can also have it come on automatically at 15 or 5% battery, which is what most people will be more comfortable with. Battery saver automatically turns off when you start charging your Pixel.

Battery saver isn’t something you’ll want to leave on all the time, but in a pinch it can help you get through the end of the day or a tough time away from the charger — it’s just another tool to make the most of the Pixel’s battery.

Uninstall unused apps

Of course you can mitigate the issues from the prior situations by simply uninstalling apps that you’re not using that often (or at all). When you have a little free time, sit down and open up your app drawer — check out your apps and see which ones you’ve honestly opened in the past couple weeks. Chances are you’re going to find more than a few you haven’t even touched since you got your Pixel.

Going forward, when you’re setting up a new phone a good rule to follow is to just install the basic apps you need from the start, and only install additional apps when you find you need them. After using several different phones we often fall into the trap of installing dozens of apps we think we’ll need, but in reality never touch — and in the end we have to end up uninstalling them later.

Last resort: A mobile battery pack

Yes, we know, a portable battery pack doesn’t fix the root problem of bad battery life on a phone, but it does fix the issue of a low battery. If you can’t manage making it through a heavy day without needing a charge, and can’t spend time plugged in at any point, you’ll want to invest in a mobile battery pack.

There are plenty out there that will charge up your Pixel super quickly, and top up your friends’ phones as well, like the Anker PowerCore 10,000 mAh battery, or this 20,100 mAh battery from Jackery that has USB-C. For a relatively inexpensive purchase, these batteries can be a great backup solution when you can’t spend time at a power outlet.

How have you been finding battery life on the Pixel and Pixel XL? Did any of these tips help extend its life? Let us know in the comments!

Google Pixel + Pixel XL

• Google Pixel and Pixel XL review
• Google Pixel XL review: A U.S. perspective
• Google Pixel FAQ: Should you upgrade?
• Pixel + Pixel XL specs
• Understanding Android 7.1 Nougat
• Join the discussion in the forums!

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Why I’m switching from Apple Music to Spotify

While it might seem like an obvious move to make, I kept holding out hope that Apple would properly support its Android subscribers.

It’s been just over two years since Apple announced it was jumping into music streaming business with its Apple Music service. I was an early adopter to the service and even decided to stay loyal after otherwise jumping ship over to Android from iOS — but the lack of meaningful support for the Android app has slowly worn me down and left me with little choice but to switch over to Spotify.

Despite the Android app’s shortcomings, I stuck with Apple Music because its curated playlists and suggestions were on point.

I was able to overlook most of Apple Music’s most glaring Android shortcomings — the lacking support for Android tablets, Android TV, and Chromecast — because the music recommendation engine and curated playlists were on point. I was more than comfortable with the user interface, which featured a bottom row for quickly switching between the “For You” tab for discovering playlists and album recommendations, and the “My Music” tab for accessing my ever-growing library of tunes and custom playlists, though it’s worth noting that I could not care less about the “Radio” or “Connect” features.

The “For You” tab was a joy to check each day, with fresh playlists and a great mix of new suggestions and classic album recommendations from my personal library. Everything was stored in the iCloud, which meant that I could bring my music library with me when switching between phones (and that happens a lot with this job).

A quick comparison of the old app design (on iOS) vs the hot garbage Apple decided to include in the recommendations tab in the latest Apple Music update.

But the real problems started when Apple Music version 2.0 dropped in the Google Play Store back in April, which completely changed the design of the app — without addressing or adding any of the missing features. Some people may have liked the new look and layout but I hate it. I could have lived with the menu moving to the top left corner, but Apple decided to also integrate the “Connect” feature into the “For You” section, so you scroll through way fewer recommendations and then hit a wall of “social posts” from the artists I follow.

I canceled my subscription to Apple Music once it became abundantly clear that Apple didn’t care about it’s Android subscribers.

Thanks to creepy targeted advertising, the more I openly bitched about Apple Music the more I kept seeing ads for Spotify’s deal for 3 months of Spotify Premium for just $0.99. So I took the plunge and realized that not only did Spotify have a nearly-identical library of music, the app design was a throwback to what I used to love about Apple Music.

Oh, and Spotify also offers proper support for Android including an Android TV app, support for Google Home and Alexa, and even a section for podcasts. Essentially, I realized Apple had been playing me a fool and doing the bare minimum to keep me subscribed as an Android user.

My Apple Music subscription will expire four days before the two-year anniversary of the service’s launch. It makes me wonder how many of the over 10 million app downloads are people like me who switched from iOS to Android and wanted to keep enjoy Apple Music — but ultimately go elsewhere when it becomes clear that supporting Android is a low priority for Apple.

Besides the introductory pricing offer, you may be asking why I choose to switch to Spotify. Well, to be honest, the options are kind of slim for us up here in Canada. A Google Play Music subscription does not include YouTube Red, which is just another service that isn’t available to Canucks, along with Amazon Music and Pandora. Spotify was really the only other gig in town, so I guess I’m fortunate that it also happens to be the best music service for Android.

Are there any other Apple Music fans out there who feel the same way? Should I give Google Music another shot or am I best off sticking with Spotify? Tell me what you think in the comments!

The Morning After: Monday, June 19th 2017

Hey, good morning!

Monday’s back again. Elon Musk is talking to LA authorities about using his traffic tunnels, we play even more games from E3 2017, and Bill Nye is teaming up with Netflix.

Talks are ‘promising’.Elon Musk says Los Angeles is open to using his traffic tunnels

Musk might just his first boring customer. The tech entrepreneur says he’s having “promising conversations” with Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti about using The Boring Company’s technology as part of a larger underground network that would shuttle cars, bikes and people.

Ferris wheels, energy drinks and drumlines.
All the weird things you missed at E3

Here, try some Mystery Drink.

The science guy isn’t quite done debunking myths yet.
Bill Nye will save the world with science and Netflix

Bill Nye’s Netflix talk show is coming back for another season. The streaming platform has released an official teaser for Bill Nye Saves the World’s second season, which the science educator has posted on Facebook. It starts by showing anti-science tweets and those calling Nye a “totalitarian eugenicist in a fake lab coat,” “Bill Lie the Pseudoscience Guy,” a quack and even Satan, to drive home the point that the world needs more saving.

The hero’s next game is more about the man behind the mask than the web slinger.Insomniac’s ‘Spider-Man’ gets what it means to be Peter Parker

When Sony revealed that Insomniac games was working on a PlayStation 4 exclusive Spider-Man game set in an original universe, the specter of another game hung over the announcement — 2004’s Spider-Man 2. This movie tie-in is widely regarded as the game that perfected web swinging, as well as the title that no subsequent Spider-Man game ever lived up to. Creative director Bryan Intihar is aware of the stigma, but he doesn’t seem worried. He’s confident the new game will make players feel like Spider-Man. His goal is more complicated, however: He wants players to feel like Peter Parker.

But wait, there’s more…

• ‘Dragonball FighterZ’ looks dangerously close to the anime
• ‘The Last Night’ is a stunning take on 16-bit games for the 4K generation
• Microsoft expects consumers to ‘figure out’ which Xbox is which
• A chat with the 76ers’ first all-female eSports team, Dignitas