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PokéFit puts a healthy spin on your ‘Pokémon Go’ addiction

It may not have been created for the express purpose of getting people into better shape, but that certainly seems to have become a happy side effect of Pokémon Go’s almost unbelievable popularity. And now, you can track just how much more active you’ve become since downloading the hottest app of the summer by way of another app: PokéFit.

Promising to help you capture calories, distance, and usage (which is to say, exercise) time, you can now check out your own stats when it comes to your health as related to Pokémon Go. Moreover, you can create route maps of each of your sessions, which are superimposed on Google Maps.

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If that’s not enough, the app also claims to help you “increase battery life and stay on budget by showing battery drain and data usage.” Because surely, you want to know exactly how much time and energy your phone is expending helping you catch Pokémon.

The free app is currently only available on the Google Play store, though the app has asked iOS users to be patient and stay tuned for updates. Once you’ve installed PokéFit, you simply need to log in and run Pokémon Go in order to see your personal PokéFit stats directly on your Pokemon screen as a small semi-transparent overlay.

Alternatively, you can just open the PokéFit app and see all your own fitness stats. “Once installed, the app works automatically,” the team says. “No need to start or stop the recording manually.”

Sure, PokéFit doesn’t necessarily offer you insights that you couldn’t find anywhere else, but it does save you the trouble of having to download a bunch of separate apps and playing around with the Pokémon Go settings screens. By placing everything in one app, PokéFit is granting you the option of being lazy, because we all know that you’re getting enough activity by trying to catch ’em all.

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Lulu Chang
Fascinated by the effects of technology on human interaction, Lulu believes that if her parents can use your new app…
NBA All-World aims to replicate Pokémon Go’s success starting today
A player walks around their neighborhood's map in NBA All-World.

Niantic launched NBA All-World, its basketball-themed, location-based mobile game, on iOS and Android today. Ahead of this release, Digital Trends attended a presentation to learn more about how the sports AR title works.
If you've played any of Niantic's games before, many elements of NBA All-World will feel quite familiar. The mobile game tracks players' location and encourages them to explore. While doing so, players will find Drop Zones that grant them new gear. Niantic says Drop Zones will often be placed near real-world counterparts, so players can find money near a bank or shoes near a shoe store. 
There will also be Player Encounters, where they can face off against current NBA athletes. Niantic tells Digital Trends that classic athletes aren't currently in the game, but feels that idea "is a good one." 

In Player Encounters, users face off against athletes in one of four minigames: 3-Point Shootout, Beat the Clock, Around the World, and First-to-Five. While they feature some impressive and realistic animation for a mobile game, Niantic says these minigames only use simple swipe controls because the studio wanted to make something that is easy to play while someone is walking around their neighborhood. If a user wins a Player Encounter, they can recruit that athlete to their team, customize them with items found at Drop Zones, and upgrade them by playing with them. Players can also challenge players they already recruited again to earn more currency. 
The title also includes "Rule the Court" neighborhood leaderboards, many of which are placed at real-world basketball courts, where players can compete for the highest score. Currently, there are no player-versus-player elements in NBA All-World, although Niantic understands players like competitive modes in their sports games and may add them in the future. In fact, many features are still in the pipeline for post-launch updates, including Niantic's trademark AR support. Early in the second quarter of 2023, Niantic plans on adding AR support to NBA All-World to enhance the loot drops from Drop Zones to make it look like they're happening in the real world.
One thing that will be in the game at launch is microtransactions, which Niantic says will be similar to the ones available in its other games and allow players to increase their athletes' stats with Offense, Defense, and Fitness boosts. 
Despite the undeniable success of Pokémon Go, Niantic has never been able to completely replicate its success with games like Harry Potter: Wizards Unite or Pikmin Bloom. However, the studio seems confident that basketball has the global mass appeal to make NBA All-World another massive hit for the company. The early footage we saw of the game does leave us optimistic for NBA All-World's prospects, but we'll ultimately have to wait and see if the game will make it past its rookie season. 
NBA All-World is available now for iOS and Android.

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Bizarre Pokémon Scarlet and Violet glitch doubles your running speed
Four character run in different direction in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet.

Pokémon Scarlet and Violet are among 2022's glitchier video game releases due to issues with constant pop-in, camera clipping, multiplayer, Koraidon getting stuck in a handstand, and more. Now, players have found a glitch that allows the player character to walk around much faster than intended. If you're not riding or dashing on the back of Koraidon, walking around in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet is pretty slow. Reddit user hamsterhead64 discovered a strange glitch that will speed up the player's exploration, though. By simply connecting a second controller to the Nintendo Switch while playing Pokémon Scarlet or Violet and pointing both left control sticks at an angle, the player character will move faster in that direction. You can see this glitch in action in the video below, which was reposted to Twitter by @Munosnail.
https://twitter.com/munosnail/status/1594292538898321414
Independently verified by GameXplain and the team at Digital Trends, this glitch is an easy way to get a notable speed boost in the open-world Pokémon games, at least until Game Freak patches it out. This method does not work while riding Koraidon or Miraidon.
Pokemon's transition to a more open-world format hasn't been the smoothest one. Pokémon Legends: Arceus also had its own traversal glitch. In that game, players could climb up steep slopes by quickly aiming and canceling a Pokéball throw. The limits of the Nintendo Switch and Game Freak's game engine are clearly starting to show in the latest Pokémon games, but this is likely something that will be fixed eventually in a post-launch patch.
Pokémon Scarlet and Violet are available now exclusively for Nintendo Switch.

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Marvel World of Heroes is the next AR game from Pokémon Go studio
marvel world of heroes announcement niantic

A new augmented reality game from Niantic is on the way, and this time it's being created in partnership with Marvel and will feature plenty of iconic faces from the comics. The game was announced today during Disney & Marvel's games showcase and has a 2023 release window.

MARVEL World of Heroes | Announcement Teaser

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