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Ready, set, Pokemon Go! Big update for popular AR game hits this weekend

Catching ’em all is about to get a lot tougher

Big news: Pokemon Go is getting a huge makeover! That’s right, over 80 new Pokemon are coming to the super-popular game, which nearly brought the nation to its knees last year as roaming gangs of kids and adults abandoned work, school, driving duties and other responsibilities to try and catch ‘em all.

According to Forbes, this will be the biggest update to the game so far and it should land this weekend. There will be some changes as well: Forbes says the encounter/capture system will see some tweaks, there will be new items needed for evolution, new customizations, and, praise the maker, new berries. Looks like the update is scheduled to hit this Saturday, so clear your calendar.

VR out in public? What could go wrong?

HTC’s Vive VR headset is one of our favorite things to play with when we have a few free minutes here at DT, and now comes word from CNET that HTC is developing a portable VR device that doesn’t use the phone-in-a-headset scheme like the Gear VR and other competitors. HTC Chief Financial Officer Chia-lin Chang told CNET in Singapore that they have a “good plan in terms of combining mobility with VR.”

It better work, because HTC has been losing millions in the hyper-competitive smartphone biz despite making some truly great devices, so a cool and capable portable VR devoice may be where some new profits are hiding. And what will people do with such a headset? HTC says they are looking at developing much more VR content, including what may be the holy grail of the VR experience, decent VR movies. It looks like it could even arrive later this year.

Worth the (now even longer) wait?

Speaking of cool new stuff that’s about to come out, many people are looking forward to seeing the new Samsung halo phone, the Galaxy S8, at Mobile World Congress couple of weeks from now. But a Korean website says that Samsung will NOT be showing off the new handset, which the company hopes will rectify its tarnished reputation following the flaming Note 7 disaster.

No, instead, the site claims Samsung will only announce when the phone will be released, and show off a new tablet – along with, perhaps, a teaser video of the S8. Samsung has traditionally launched its Galaxy S smartphones at MWC, but it’s been a tough year for the electronics giant, what with the Note 7 fiasco and now some legal troubles for management.

The site said it’s likely the S8 will finally be revealed at an Unpacked event in late March, and go on sale in April. At this point, we’ll just have to wait and see what happens.

Bill Roberson
Former Digital Trends Contributor
I focus on producing Digital Trends' 'DT Daily' video news program along with photographing items we get in for review. I…
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