MEEM: Mirror your Life!
Charging cable, app, memory, in a nutshell, this is MEEM. The MEEM cable is a product that never crossed my mind as something that would be necessary for the day to day use of Android. But with all the cloud backup solutions you might not feel like your data is actually yours anymore.
Cable
Sure you could plug your phone into a computer and back it up manually, but that takes time away from the things you really want to be doing. Enter MEEM, simply plug your phone
into the MEEM charging cable and it takes care of the backing up you stuff for you.
App
Plug the MEEM in for the first time and it asks to go to the Play Store to download the app. Once it’s downloaded the MEEM app asks what should be backed up. The 
items that MEEM can backup are Contacts, Calendar, Messages, Photos, and Videos.
Memory
Now that your phone is charging with the cable and you have picked the things to be backed up with the app, it’s time for the real magic to happen. Every time you plug in your phone the things you pick for backup will autoMAGICLY be backed up to the cable itself. There is a 16gb memory chip built into the cable that stores all the data you ask the MEME app to back up.
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As a backup utility, I feel like MEEM works great. I plug my phone into it to charge at night and the app pops up and shows its backing up. The downside to this is that there is no real way to verify what is already on the MEEM or look at what is acutely being backed up. So we will just have to take their word for it. I did talk to MEEM directly and they stated that this is something they will be working on in future updates.
The MEEM is $49.99 at https://www.meemmemory.com/product/meem/
Adobe Lightroom now lets you edit RAW files on your phone
Adobe Lightroom mobile users have been asking for the ability to edit RAW files in the mobile app, and now the company doing something about the request. In the latest update for the iOS version of the software, there’s a RAW Technology preview. This means that you’ll be able to import those hefty files to your iPhone or iPad, giving you a means of checking the images before you get back to your computer. Lightroom mobile for iOS will also let you edit the files just like you would in the desktop or web versions of the app, making changes to white balance, highlights and more for an uncompressed file. Those changes also sync across devices.
iOS users will also be able to adjust linear and radial selections inside the app. With those tools, you can add a selection, modify an existing one or use the features to emphasize certain parts of an image. If you fancy doing your edits with an iPad and a connected keyboard, you’ll now be able to use those handy shortcuts with the mobile app. The update is available from the App Store now for both iPhone and iPad, free of charge.
The Android version of the app is getting some new features, too. Earlier this year, Adobe added an in-app camera and “shoot-through” presets to the app. With this update, the company is adding manual controls to that workflow as well. When you’re taking photos with Lightroom mobile on Android, you’ll be able to leverage a new Pro mode that allows adjustments to ISO, shutter speed, white balance and manual focus. Adobe brought its DNG RAW format to the Android app a while back, and now the software has the manual controls to go along with it. What’s more, there’s also a new Lightroom Camera widget for easy access to those features, so you won’t have to launch the full app just to grab a few snapshots.
Android faithful also gain improved support for full-resolution files. If you have an image stored somewhere within the Lightroom ecosystem, you’ll be able to pull it into the full-res version, make your changes and export it. The latest version of the Android app offers those features and more for free, and it’s available now over at Google Play.
Source: Adobe
House of Marley Get Together portable audio system is worthy of your One Love (review)
One love, one heart
Let’s get together and feel all right
Hear the children cryin’ (one love)
Hear the children cryin’ (one heart)
Sayin’ give thanks and praise to the Lord and I will feel all right
Sayin’ let’s get together and feel all right
(opening lyrics from Bob Marley’s One Love)
Bob Marley was a legendary musical artist that inspired his listeners with his unique style and lyrics. Sadly Bob Marley was taken from this world at age 36 in 1981, yet he lives on through his music that brings happiness to anyone who listens to it. If you have listened to his music, you can feel his love and passion for togetherness and even though he moved on, his message holds as much power today as it did when he first created the music.
AndroidGuys is far from a site that takes a politcal stance, yet with all of the tragedies that have occurred in 2016, you would hope that people listened to his music and learned to use love over violence to solve the world’s problems.
Bob Marley also lives on through a company called House of Marley, which was founded by the Marley family to spread Bob’s values of equality, sustainability, and charity. It continues to carry on the message through electronic accessories like headphones and speakers, and from my experience, does a pretty great job.
I’ve been using the House of Marley Get Together wireless audio system, and it is my new One Love when it comes to portable speakers.
Let’s check it out.
Sustainable design
The House of Marley Get Together speaker isn’t something you would expect when you think of Rastafari and Jamaica which is what we associate with Bob Marley. Instead the Get Together speaker is more of a modern design. It has a clean front and back made from bamboo, surrounded by an eco friendly exclusive fabric called REWIND which is made from cotton, hemp and recycled plastic bottles.
Out of the box, the first thing I noticed was how heavy the speaker is weighing in at six pounds. Looking at the speaker you can see why it is so heavy – it has two 3.5″ woofers with two 1″ tweeters installed in what looks like half an inch of bamboo at the front.
The exterior is neatly covered in gray REWIND fabric with four touch controls at the top right. The controls include the +/- symbols for controlling the volume, a Bluetooth button for pairing to your favorite device, and a power button. There is also an LED indicator which lets you know if you’re paired to a device and powered on.
On the back of the Get Together is a bass port, DC in charging port, USB out, and an auxiliary 3.5mm audio input.
The Get Together is a typical speaker in design, but it uses environmentally friendly resources to build it. House of Marley used responsibly harvested certified wood, and recycled materials to minimize the environmental impact which is a rarity amongst manufacturers who make disposable electronics. It typically requires much more planning and engineering to use eco friendly materials, yet House of Marley engineers did that while keeping the cost in line with similar spec’d devices at $199.99.
Usage
What you notice first about the Get Together audio system is its incredible look. The gorgeous bamboo front and back, mixed in with the REWIND fabric give this speaker an ultra modern look that sets itself apart from the crowd of silver, black and white speakers we are all accustomed to. What I love about the high quality bamboo is that no two speakers will ever look alike. All wood grain has unique characteristics, and this speaker looks like it belongs in a penthouse loft.
At six pounds, this speaker isn’t quite as portable as ones that you can throw in your back pocket. The weight has a purpose where it has two 3.5″ drivers with two full tweeters at the corners that give the Get Together sound that even Bob Marley would be proud of. While many speakers today put a lot of emphasis on bass, House of Marley opted to focus on clear and detailed sound versus going with overpowering lows. The bass comes from the bass port in the back, so if you want to hear more bass in your music, all you have to do is put the back of the speaker closer to a wall and the bass will reflect.
The lack of protective grills for the 3.5″ speakers is another sign this speaker isn’t designed to be taken with you on all of your excursions. 
It’s made for picnics, hanging out at the park, or outdoors at a party. While it isn’t as portable as pocketable speakers, it uses that weight and size to pump out very loud sound that is crisp and balanced, but detailed at low and max volumes. When I compare the sound to the identically priced Bose Soundlink Mini II, it is a sound that is worth carrying the extra five pounds for. The Get Together was made to enjoy with friends, whereas the Bose Soundlink Mini II is more of a personal speaker. If I was stuck with one speaker for the next five years, I would take my $200 and spend it on the House of Marley Get Together 10/10 times over the Bose Soundlink Mini II.
Classic rock, reggae, country, jazz, rap, R&B and even classical all sound fantastic on the Get Together. It’s a speaker made for all music, and is one that will be my goto over all other portable speakers unless I need one that is rugged and waterproof.
The USB out port on the backside of the speaker can also charge your phone while it streams music through the speaker. I’ve consistently averaged eight hours of battery life at 50-75% of the max volume.
Overall I couldn’t be more pleased with the House of Marley Get Together speaker.
Conclusion
In a world of disposable electronics, I love that House of Marley is focused on taking care of the environment by using sustainable materials. And in a world of tragedies, hate, violence and poverty, I love that House of Marley uses the name and brand to give back to children through its 1love charity.
Bob once said, “The greatness of a man is not in how much wealth he acquires, but in his integrity and his ability to affect those around him positively.” These are the family-run charities dedicated to that idea.
Bob Marley’s passion for making this a world a better place lives on through his music and the gadgets that House of Marley makes like the Get Together speaker. As I’ve been listening to music from Bob Marley while I write this review, I could imagine him being very proud of his family for representing him the way he would have wanted. The Get Together not only looks unique and luxurious, but it also sounds fantastic. Highs and mids are extremely detailed from the 1″ tweeters, and lows are deep but not overpowering.
If you have $200 to spend, you won’t find a more well rounded speaker than the Get Together.
You can pick up your own House of Marley Get Together at http://www.thehouseofmarley.com, Amazon.com, Best Buy, and B&H Photo.
Clarito headphones: Another great set of headphones from Rock Jaw (Review)
Last month my colleague, Josh Noriega, reviewed a set of headphones from a British company called Rock Jaw. Based on his review, I was eager to try out another set of in-ear headphones the company offers called Clarito. This set runs about $20 cheaper than the Alfa Genus pair that Josh reviewed. But does it live up to the high standard that the Alfa sets? Let’s take a closer look.
Design
First impressions are always important when it comes to technology. As soon as I laid eyes on the box for the Clarito headphones, I was impressed. It’s not that it has amazing packaging, it’s the fact that the headphones were presented in a clean and neat way that showed Rock Jaw cared about its product.
Right out the box, the Clarito headphones scream quality. With a shiny lightweight aluminum casing, it has first class written all over it. It comes with four different sized ear tips that are sure to fit comfortably in almost every ear.
While the headphones are comfortable, I must confess that it didn’t pass my running test to see if it would fall out. On a short run, I found myself constantly pushing the tips back into my ear; however, I seem to always have trouble with that, aside from a couple of rare exceptions.
The headphones sport a roughly four-foot-long cord that is by far my favorite cord I have seen. It’s made of a thick rubber that isn’t heavy but feels like it would take a lot to tear. On the cord, it has an adjustment clip that you can attach to your shirt to keep the cable from moving around while walking.
Rock Jaw is kind enough to include a nice felt bag to carry your headphones in. After all, you want to make sure you protect your new headphones.
Sound
I’ve had a number of pricier headphones throughout my life that were muddy, bassy, and muffled. On the other hand, I’ve had some that were inexpensive while also sounding like I was at an actual concert. The truth is you never know what you will get at any price point, but the sound the Clarito headphones deliver will make you happy that you dropped the $30.
Clarito rocks a crisp dynamic sound that you hear with every cymbal, bass kick, and note. The highs and bass are perfectly balanced and deliver an enjoyable experience whether you’re listening to your favorite album or watching the new Star Wars movie.
Summary
Rock Jaw has proven itself worthy to be a contender in the audio market. It only has a few headphones in its portfolio at the moment, so I’m eager to see how much more it grows in the future and the products it will develop.
Buy from Rock Jaw or Amazon
‘Pokémon Go’ sponsored locations to let brands in on the fun
While you’re trying to catch ’em all with Pokémon Go, the developers are figuring out how to make (more) money from the white hot augmented reality (AR) game. Along with the existing in-app purchases from “PokéCoins,” developer Niantic says it will use sponsored locations as another way to cash in, according to the Financial Times. “There is a second component to our business model at Niantic, which is this concept of sponsored locations,” Chief Executive John Hanke told the FT.
Sponsorships make a lot of sense for Pokémon Go, because retailers are already paying to set Pokéstop “lures” to draw players. Also, Niantic is familiar with the concept thanks to its other AR game, Ingress. With that app, sponsors like Duane Reade pharmacies in the US and Vodafone in Germany pay to turn their locations into “portals,” drawing extra foot traffic. With Pokemon Go, advertisers would be charged for every customer visiting a store, as confirmed by the app.
In just a week, Pokémon Go has become the most downloaded and top-grossing app on Android and iOS in the US, and has 21 million active (and I do mean active) daily users as of yesterday. It’s not clear how much money the app is actually generating, though some analysts think it could make a $1 billion a year if it can keep up its current momentum.
Niantic is an independent company, but is funded by both Nintendo and Google parent Alphabet. Pokémon Go, meanwhile was jointly developed by Niantic and the Pokémon company, which is 32 percent owned by Nintendo. The success of the game has increased Nintendo’s value by billions of dollars in just two weeks.
Niantic has promised to release more information “in the future” about any Pokémon Go sponsorship deals. As with Ingress, it will no doubt introduce them carefully so as not turn off players. Businesses will need to be equally careful, as the game has drawn mobs of users to various locations, sometimes for the good and sometimes the not-so-good.
Google updates Hangouts for Android with video messaging
Google curiously left Android users out in the cold when it rolled out video message attachments on Hangouts for iOS earlier this year. If you still use the app, though, you’ll soon be able to send video messages to friends even if you’re using an Android device. Hangouts version 11 for Android comes with the feature, which you can access through a video camera icon on the bottom bar. It’s not officially out on Google Play just yet, but there’s an APK you can download. Take note, however, that 9to5Google couldn’t make it work. You’ll just have to wait for the official update to come out if you can’t either.
If you do manage to make it work, you simply have to tap on the icon, record a video and send it out. The recipient will then be able to watch it on a separate app — Android Police says it doesn’t support in-line playback. Google has also doubled the iOS app’s video messaging time limit to two minutes in a new update that’s now available from iTunes. That update also comes with the ability to kick users out of conversations, which is still a poor replacement for being able to whack people you’re talking to with a wet trout.
[Image credit: 9to5google]
Source: 9to5Google
J&L Real 100 wireless sport headphones: $25 headphones that could easily cost $100 (review)
Without question, wireless headphones are gaining in popularity and are quickly replacing its 3.5mm wired counterparts. There’s even rumors that Apple will do away with its dated 3.5mm audio out port, to be replaced by the thinner Lightning port or switch to wireless altogether.
The writers here at AndroidGuys have gone through many heated discussions about wireless vs. wired, and we think it is a smart move to go away from the standard wired option. There are audiophile snobs like Josh Noriega, who cannot be convinced that wireless is the way to go. Then you have your young and progressive teen in Jason Botha who knows it’s time to make the switch and do away with the 3.5mm audio out port.
I’m on the fence. I understand the need to stick with the century old 3.5mm audio jack since 90% of headphones on the market use that standard. But I’m quickly starting to realize that need is more fear based than anything else. Wireless Bluetooth technology has improved immensely over the past two years with the stiff competition amongst manufacturers for high quality audio output. Also wireless technology battery life has increased tremendously over the past few years, making Bluetooth headphones even more relevant to everyday users.
I’ve recently been using the J&L Real 100 Bluetooth wireless sport headphones which cost just $24.99 at Amazon, and can tell you that they are so good I wouldn’t have a problem paying $100 for them.
Let’s check them out.
J&L 100 Real Bluetooth headphones design
The J&L 100 Real sport headphones have built in Bluetooth connectivity with the brains and battery built directly into the earpieces. This type of design results in large earbuds, but does away with an inline remote or neckband like other wireless headphones.
The two earbuds are connected by a wire which loops behind your neck to stay out of your way when you’re working out. The wire is of the flat variety that is coated in a rubber material that prevents it from tangling in on itself. There are ear stabilizers that slide over the earpiece which hold the hefty earbuds in your ear, with three sets of different sized silicone ear pieces (S, M, L).
The microphone, volume control, and power button are all integrated into the right side earbud, leaving the microUSB charging port for the left side. The headphones weigh in at 16.5g and can last up to four hours away from a charger.
All standard stuff for wireless earbuds.
Usage
When it comes to sport earbuds, the J&L Real 100 earbuds sound pretty darned good. They aren’t audiophile quality that you will find in multi-driver in ear monitor setups, but these cost just $24.99 and are designed for sport use.
Once the right silicone ear tip is selected, with the proper ear stabilizer, the fit and feel of the headphones are very comfortable. I usually prefer to avoid this style as the earbuds tend to get uncomfortable past an hour, as the weight drags on my ears. Yet these fit so snug that they remain comfortable even when I go out on runs. Only people with small to very small ear canals might have issue with the fit. If you have an average sized ear canal, these should be perfect for you.
With sound tuned for sport use, these earbuds get really loud. So loud, even with 15 years of daily wearing of headphones, they even hurt my ears when I turned them up to full volume. That is actually a rarity when it comes to most wireless headphones, as the loudness can drain on the battery pretty hard. Most other wireless headphones I have tried out are about 80% loudness of their wired counterparts. But the J&L Real 100 earbuds are easily the loudest headphones I have put on in years.
As stated before, you won’t be getting audiophile quality sound reproduction, but you will get a sound that is extremely fun to listen to. The sound signature is also perfect for those who love their music when they work out. These are tuned with a decent amount of bass, mids, and highs which result in an ultra fun listening experience. I’ve easily heard worse headphones that cost five times as much.
If you’re looking to listen to classical music or smooth jazz, these aren’t for you. However, if you are the type who wants upbeat and fast paced music for your workout, these are perfect for you. They are even resist sweat – when I work out I sweat a lot, and never dealt with any issues with these headphones as a result of that sweat.
J&L advertises four hours of music playback, but I frequently picked up four to six hours of usage depending on how loud I cranked on the volume.
As for calls, I prefer to use these in a quiet environment. Whenever I dealt with street noise, the user on the other end of the phone call could hear too much of it. With a quiet environment, the call quality was great.
My only complaint with these earbuds would be the control buttons are small and a little hard to manage when I am wearing them. Other than that, the battery life is better than advertised, sound quality is perfect for workouts, and the comfort exceeded my expectations.
Conclusion
Simply put, you will not find a better sport wireless headphone for less than the $24.99 I paid for the J&L Real 100 Bluetooth wireless sport headphones. Battery life, build quality, comfort and sound reproduction are all incredible for wireless headphones in this price category.
With my experience with wireless headphones, I would easily pay $100 for these fantastic sport headphones.
I highly recommend the J&L Real 100 wireless headphones at $24.99 which you can get at Amazon now in black, red, and green.
Aquatune 5712 by Yatra: Great speaker for your water activities (Review)
The sun is shining and it’s beating down something fierce. Hot weather means one thing, you’re trying to stay cool. One of America’s favorite past times to beat the heat is finding the closest body of water, whether it’s a pool, lake, or the ocean and jumping right in.
While you’re chilling by that water, maybe under an umbrella to block the sunlight, you may want to listen to some of your favorite tunes. Whatever you choose to listen to, you need something durable and affordable. Most importantly it needs to handle being around water, you know, since you’re hanging out by the pool or wherever.
Yatra has a line of Bluetooth speakers that fit into those categories. But I’m not gonna talk about all three, I’m just gonna talk about one. The Aquatune 5712 for $39.99. It could be your next Bluetooth speaker.
Design/Build
The Aquatune 5712 is a small compact speaker that is built to withstand your rugged outdoor lifestyle. It comes in either black and orange or just black. The cover is a soft rubber that will keep it beautiful in the likely event that you drop it or perhaps you bump it into something.
It comes with a carabiner clip and a bicycle strap. The carabiner clip has a locking sleeve to secure it further so it doesn’t slip off. This is the one area I find a little flimsy. Both the gate and the locking sleeve seem to be made out of a soft aluminum that feels like it could break easily.
Despite the material of the gate and locking sleeve, attaching it to things is a snap. I hang mine from a baby stroller while walking and have no problems. You can also hang it from beach chairs or anything with a handle and it will fit nicely.
The Aquatune 5712’s charging time takes around an hour and a half and lasts you all day. I listened for around 10 hours before I decided to recharge and my volume was an average of 75%.
There are three buttons used to control the Aquatune, power, volume up/change track, and volume down/change track. All the buttons are easy to press with no resistance.
The micro USB charging port (cable included) is brilliantly designed to be hidden in plain site. Its cover is built into the design of the speakers rubber cover. Peel back the bottom, and there it is. This is where you would normally find the 3.5mm jack as well, but this is strictly a Bluetooth speaker.
My favorite thing is its IPX7 rating. For those who don’t know what that is let me give you the definition. Protection against water immersion for up to 30 minutes at a depth of up to three feet. How awesome is that? I did try it, but not for the full 30 minutes. I did it to George Micheal’s Faith in about one foot of water in my kitchen sink. It still works.
Sound
With its small design, it’s no surprise that its sound isn’t party loud. My that I mean don’t expect to rock the party with it. It plenty loud for your “personal space”, like headphones that don’t go in your ear.
This Aquatune speaker’s sound is one of the best I’ve run across. You can tell the engineers worked hard to ensure a transparent sound. You can clearly hear all instruments working together in harmony for a pleasant sound on the ear. You can even hear the bass without it being too bassy.
Bluetooth
I’m gonna keep this section short and sweet. Falling right in line with other Bluetooth speakers, it has a range of 33 feet. I had no troubles reaching that mark. When using the speaker as a phone device, the calls were clear. However considering this is marketed as a water speaker, I’m not sure you would use it anyway.
Summary
The Aquatune 5712 is at the top of my favorite Bluetooth speakers in terms of design and price. It looks cool and the added water rating, that’s just icing on the cake. If you plan on being at a pool, or any water activity, this speaker is a good one to have at your side.
Buy Aquatune 5712 from the website
Buy from Amazon
Polaroid’s mobile photo app is all about moving snapshots
To say that Polaroid missed the boat on mobile photography apps would be an understatement. The original Instagram logo was based on a Polaroid camera, and the company’s main answer was to build a camera that looked like that logo. However, it’s ready to give smartphone apps a proper shot with Polaroid Swing, a social photo service that promises a fresher take on the endless image feed. You’re capturing 1-second videos that become moving photos (think Apple’s Live Photos or HTC’s Zoe shots) — the “Swing” comes from using either phone motion or your finger to control them. The app is only available on iPhones right now, but an Android version is “coming soon.”
I’ve given the app a try, and it can be fun to flick through shots (although you may want a steady hand to avoid moving pictures involuntarily). The interface is simple, and it’s easy to sign up, find your friends and share your creations. The challenge, I’d say, is convincing people that Swing will do something they can’t already do somewhere else — Instagram’s Boomerang already fills a similar role, and a 1-second clip in Vine or Instagram itself might be enough for most people. Polaroid’s app has the backing of Twitter co-creator Biz Stone, who’s serving as chairman behind the project, but it’ll only grow if people believe that leaving their existing photo services is worth the effort.
Source: App Store, Polaroid Swing
Pokemon Go: Gotta catch em all (Review)
Overview:
Pokemon Go is an augmented reality game based on the hugely popular Pokemon franchise. You have to catch and train your Pokemon while battling gyms in a globe-spanning adventure of your own creation, just like in the classic games.
Developer: Niantic/Pokemon Company
Cost: Free (with microtransactions)
Impressions:
The hype surrounding Pokemon Go has been massive ever since it was announced a few years ago. An AR game where you catch Pokemon in real-world locations, and can battle and evolve them just like in the classic games for Nintendo systems? Fans of the franchise the world over were salivating at the chance to catch em all. The game itself lives up to a lot of the hype, offering players accurate location maps littered with Pokemon for you to capture and collect, varying from the common Pidgey to more rare ones like the classic starter Pokemon Bulbasaur, Squirtle, and Charmander among others.
The game was not developed directly by Nintendo and the Pokemon Company, instead handing it off to the developer of AR mobile game Ingress, Niantic.
The basic concept of the game is to move around from place to place, searching for Pokemon and items to collect and gyms to battle. You catch Pokemon by tapping them, which brings you into a minigame-style battle screen where you have to accurately hit the ‘Mon with a pokeball in order to capture it. The aiming and firing mechanic can be frustrating at times, with some balls flopping uselessly in front of you or going wide left or right of the target. Getting the aim and power of the flick correctly takes some practice, but once you get it down you will be fine.
Training the Pokemon you catch and evolving them into more powerful forms takes a fair bit of grinding. You have to collect “Candies” associated with each Pokemon and stardust, which helps raise the CP, or Combat Points, of your Pokemon. That stat directly influences their battle performance. What type of Pokemon that appear in your area is directly influenced by your player level, the higher it is the rarer the pokemon available. Candies are collected by catching multiples of the same pokemon, and transferring them to the Professor. Higher level evolutions can take a while to get done, but it can all thankfully be done for free.
Click here for all the tips and tricks you’ll need to get started on your quest to be a master in Pokemon Go.
To help keep your eyes off your phone while walking, and save your battery, Niantic has developed a bluetooth dongle, the $34.99 Pokemon Go Plus, as a companion to Pokemon Go. It is simple device that lights up and vibrates when near a pokemon, and you push the button to catch it. For a one-note dongle it’s a bit too pricey for most people, but it does make the game less involved for those who may be too busy to be glued to their phones all day.
Like in the original games, you have a limited number of pokeballs and items, and that’s where the microtransaction system comes in. You can buy coins to purchase in-game items like Pokeballs, Lucky Eggs for XP increase and Incense, for luring Pokemon to your location. The pricing is a bit off for Pokeballs, in my opinion, when $.99 gives you 20 pokeballs, but every level up grants you 15 for free. Other items have a more understandable price point, and all items can be found for free in games at item stops littered all over the map.
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Visually Pokemon Go looks great, with fantastic fully animated models of all the Pokemon, and game-accurate sounds and music as well. You couldn’t ask for anything more from a Pokemon mobile game in terms of graphics and sound at all. You even have a small amount of character creation for your avatar, but sadly not as much as I’d like compared to what other games have done.
Overall, what Pokemon Go brings exactly what was expected of it to players. It is the most popular and talked about app on any platform right now, and has been a massive success for Nintendo and Niantic. However, there are some odd omissions like the lack of player to player battles or trading, as well as a lack of newer generation Pokemon along with the classic 151. Legendaries are also missing from the game, as far as everyone playing can tell, but those may be reserved for special in-game events if the ad campaign for the game is to be believed. Also, the game has experienced performance issues due to the massive popularity of the game, causing server problems and severe battery drain on some devices. Thankfully I didn’t experience any abnormal battery drain, but it is a game that uses the GPS and camera on your phone, so it is expected to consume more than the average app. Also, game launches have been delayed in some countries until the developers iron out the issues and are confident it will work.
Conclusion:
Pokemon Go has addicting gameplay, and unexpected benefits for health and social interactions from all the walking you’ll do and people you’ll bump into. it’s not uncommon to see groups of people walking in formation on the hunt for rare and elusive Pokemon. The game has garnered mass appeal among gamers and casual players, and even bumped up Nintendo’s stock price due to it’s popularity.
I’d say Pokemon Go is definitely worth checking out, especially if you are a Pokemon fan or are looking for a game to get you up and moving. It offers a lot of content, unobtrusive microtransactions, simple gameplay and a lot of nostalgia for classic Pokemon fans. A home run for Nintendo for sure, and definitely a must-play.
AIVAnet 