PokéVision Shows You the Real-Time Locations of Pokémon In Pokémon G

f you’re having a tough time finding certain pokémon in Pokémon Go, PokéVision uses the Niantic API to show you their actual locations, and how long they’ll be there.

There are a lot of Pokémon Go maps out there, but most of them, like the popular app Poke Radar, rely on the Pokémon Go community to post pokémon locations. Because PokéVision uses the Niantic API, however, it can show youexactly where every pokémon is at the present moment, and for how long it’s going to be there before it disappears. I thought it sounded too good to be true, so I tried it out this morning. Sure enough, I was able to catch a Dratini in my area that had been evading me since launch. The downsides are you can’t filter by pokémon type (yet), and there’s no app available for iOS or Android. You can only run it in a browser (but mobile browser seems to work fine). It’s hard to imagine Niantic wanting a service like this to exist, though, so who knows how long it will last. And personally, relying on a tool like this takes a lot of the fun out of Pokémon Go, so use at your own risk. If you want to check it out for yourself, head to the link below.

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Windows 10 Anniversary Update Proves Why PCs Aren’t Dead

Microsoft released Windows 10 in the summer of 2015, but unlike previous versions of the operating system, it was meant to be the “final” version of Windows, updated into perpetuity. Now, the company is preparing its first major update available to everyone on August 2.

We spent a few days messing around with all the new stuff in the final update, officially dubbed Windows 10's Anniversary Update. Although it’s not a wholesale overhaul, it definitely brings along a few new tricks you’re going to want. Here are five of the best new features.

Windows Hello can sign into apps and webpages

With Windows 10, Microsoft introduced a new way of logging into your laptop—your face. It’s arguably one of Windows 10’s neatest features (even if most laptops can’t use it). With the Anniversary Update, Microsoft is extending its capabilities by letting you log into certain Windows apps as well. Currently, the feature is restricted to only a handful, like Dropbox and iHeartRadio, but Microsoft says more are coming.

You can also use this feature on the web, but it only works with Microsoft’s Edge browser, which itself is not great. Regardless, Microsoft clearly believes that the future of computer security involves your own beautiful mug shot.

Cortana feels like an actual assistant

Windows 10 was the first major operating system to add virtual assistant to the desktop. A year later, Apple is finally doing the same. With the Anniversary Update, Cortana gets even better. For example (above), you can ask Cortana for directions, and she’ll automatically plot the most efficient route, much like she can already. Only now, she can speak with the Cortana app, available on iOS and Android, and push those directions directly to your phone.

You can also receive texts and phone calls directly on your Windows laptop if you use Android, and you can store information like Frequent Flier numbers and Cortana can recall it whenever you need it.

Cortana also works directly on the lockscreen

Every morning, I wake up and ask Siri what the weather is going to be on my iPad. But it can be an annoying process. Siri has to be plugged into power, and you have to almost scream for her to understand you. Cortana pulls this off much more effortlessly now that she is directly located on the lockscreen. So if your laptop is open, and isn’t even plugged into power, you can ask Cortana the weather, to play music, and set reminders. You can also allow permissions for more sensitive information, like reading back messages.

Along with improved Windows Hello, the Windows 10 lockscreen is getting pretty damn impressive.

Microsoft really wants you to use that pen

The biggest “new” thing about the Anniversary Update is the Windows Ink platform. Before when you’d tap your stylus, it would summon one pre-set app (OneNote by default). Now, it pulls up an entire pen-enabled panel, with access to sticky notes, sketchbook, and screen capture. It also is a quick shortcut to recently used apps and also has an pen-enabled app suggestions, so you can slowly grow your pen’s capabilities.

Apps like sticky notes are also intelligent. If you write, “meeting at 5:30pm” it will schedule the meeting with whatever calendar app you have set as a default.

Edge browser now sucks less with extensions

Although the Edge browser has its strong points, it is still missing some big features when compared with Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome. But with Anniversary Update, Microsoft is gaining at least one must-have utility—extensions. Now, you can head over to Edge’s settings menu, click Extensions, and choose from curated store of content with extensions like Adblock Plus, Lastpass, Pocket, and Microsoft Translate.

It’s likely not enough to graduate Edge from being just the browser you use to download Chrome, but it’s starting to shape up into some real competition.

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Windows Update is a lot of small tweaks, but overall Windows 10 Anniversary Update doubles down on what makes Windows different. It shows PCs are far from dead, and that in fact, there is lots of room to grow.

Microsoft will release the Windows 10 Anniversary Update on August 2nd and is completely free to current Windows 10 users. Starting July 30th, Microsoft will raise the price of Windows 10 from $0 to $120. Best get in on all that free action before it’s too late.

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Some prior knowledge of HTML will be helpful before reading this book. As we progress, we’ll tackle some more advanced topics, such as APIs and offline applications. To follow these sections, you should be familiar with HTML and the fundamentals of JavaScript and the Document Object Model (DOM). It’s unnecessary to have deep knowledge of JavaScript. Still, you should understand event handling, JavaScript data types, and control structures such as while loops and if-else conditionals. We’ll keep our script examples simple, though, and explain them line by line.
 

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Pokemon Go: How to download it in the UK and everything you need to know

Pokémon Go is available to download in the UK, making the country the fifth place worldwide where the wildly popular augmented reality game is officially available.

The international release of the mobile game that lets users catch Pokémon in real life  had been delayed following an unexpectedly high volume of downloads in the US, Australia and New Zealand which caused it to crash.

Just over week after its release in Australia and New Zealand it finally launched in the UK last week. Germany was the first European country to get the game last week. 

Niantic, a Google startup that became independent in 2015 and createdPokémon Go with Nintendo, is attempting to bolster its server's capacity. At peak times, some users have received an error message saying "Our servers are experiencing issues. Please come back later", when they tried opening the game

Thousands of Pokémon Go users had reported problems accessing the game in Australia, according to Aussie Outages, which tracks digital service disruptions.

An update to the iOS version of the app, designed to help fix numerous issues including the server outages, apparently locked users registered with a Pokemon Trainer Club account out of the game. 

And a hacker group known as PoodleCorp has claimed responsibility for outages over the weekend, threatening to take the game offline on August 1.

In spite of numerous controversies, the game is making an estimated $1.6 million (£1.2 million) a day from iPhone users in the US alone, and Nintendo's shares have more than doubled since the game was launched. It now has more users than Tinder and searches on Google for Pokémon Go have outstripped those for "porn". 

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Pokémon GO

Travel between the real world and the virtual world of Pokémon with Pokémon GO for iPhone and Android devices. With Pokémon GO, you’ll discover Pokémon in a whole new world—your own! Pokémon GO is built on Niantic’s Real World Gaming Platform and will use real locations to encourage players to search far and wide in the real world to discover Pokémon. Pokémon GO allows you to find and catch more than a hundred species of Pokémon as you explore your surroundings.

The Pokémon video game series has used real-world locations such as the Hokkaido and Kanto regions of Japan, New York, and Paris as inspiration for the fantasy settings in which its games take place. In Pokémon GO, the real world will be the setting!

Get on your feet and step outside to find and catch wild Pokémon. Explore cities and towns around where you live and even around the globe to capture as many Pokémon as you can. As you move around, your smartphone will vibrate to let you know you're near a Pokémon. Once you've encountered a Pokémon, take aim on your smartphone's touch screen and throw a Poké Ball to catch it. Be careful when you try to catch it, or it might run away! Also look for PokéStops located at interesting places, such as public art installations, historical markers, and monuments, where you can collect more Poké Balls and other items.

Customize Your Trainer

When you first play Pokémon GO, you’ll get to customize the look of your Trainer, choosing apparel and accessories to give him or her a cool look. Your customized character will appear as you move around on the map, as well as on your profile page. Plus, other players will see your character when they visit a Gym you control.

Add to Your Pokédex

In Pokémon GO, you will gain levels as a Trainer, and at higher levels you will be able to catch more powerful Pokémon to complete your Pokédex. You'll also have access to more powerful items, such as Great Balls, to give you a better shot at catching Pokémon. Keep exploring and encountering Pokémon to raise your level!

There are other ways to add Pokémon to your Pokédex, too. If you catch the same species of Pokémon enough times, you’ll get the opportunity to evolve one of them! And as you explore, you may find Pokémon Eggs at PokéStops, which will hatch after you’ve walked a specific distance. When they hatch, you may find Pokémon you’ve never seen before!

Some wild Pokémon will appear only in certain places near where you live or around the world. For example, some Water-type Pokémon may appear only near lakes and oceans. If you're away from home, be sure to stay alert for Pokémon you wouldn't normally encounter!

If you catch the same species of Pokémon enough times, you can evolve one of them. This is useful for catching Pokémon you’re having a tough time finding in the wild. For example, if there are large numbers of Poliwag in your area, but no Poliwhirl nearby, catch a lot of Poliwag to eventually gain the ability to have one of them evolve into a Poliwhirl!

Join a Team and Battle

At a certain point in the game, you’ll be asked to join one of three teams. Once you join a team, you’ll gain the ability to assign Pokémon you’ve caught to open Gym locations or to a Gym where a team member has assigned a Pokémon. Like PokéStops, Gyms can be found at real locations in the world. Each player can place only one Pokémon at a particular Gym, so you’ll need to work together with other members of your team to build up a strong defense.

If a rival team has claimed a Gym, you can challenge it by using Pokémon you’ve caught to battle the defending Pokémon. Battles are challenging and fun. You choose which of your Pokémon will join in. Each Pokémon has two attacks, and can also dodge the defending Pokémon’s attacks if you swipe left or right. If your Pokémon win the battle, then the Gym’s Prestige is reduced. When the Gym’s Prestige drops to zero, the defending team loses control of the Gym, and you or another player can then take control of it by assigning a Pokémon to defend it.

Once your team has control of the Gym, team members can increase the Gym’s Prestige and level by battling the defending Pokémon. These training battles against your own team help your Pokémon level up as well. As the Gym gets to a higher level, your team can assign more Pokémon to defend it. You can also team up with your friends and battle at a rival Gym together to take down stronger Gyms faster.

You can tackle a wide variety of challenges in different categories, such as catching Pokémon and exploration. By completing these challenges, you’ll unlock achievement medals that will appear in your player profile. Try your best to unlock as many medals as you can!

Pokémon GO Plus

A portable device called the Pokémon GO Plus will enable Pokémon GO players to enjoy the game even while they’re not looking at their smartphones. The device connects to a smartphone via Bluetooth and notifies the player about events in the game—such as the appearance of a Pokémon nearby—using an LED and vibration. In addition, players can catch Pokémon or perform other simple actions by pressing the button on the device. Look forward to the launch of the Pokémon GO Plus accessory in late July 2016.

Free to Play

Pokémon GO is available for download at no charge on the App Store and Google Play. Pokémon GO is free to play, with loads of fun things to do and Pokémon to discover at every turn. For players who want to enhance their Pokémon GO experience even more, certain items and features can be accessed via in-app purchases. Players can spend real money on PokéCoins, the in-game currency of Pokémon GO. PokéCoins can then be exchanged for power-ups, extra items, and other enhancements.

Photo Fun

When you encounter a Pokémon in the wild, you can turn on the camera feature, putting the wild Pokémon into the live scene where your camera is facing. Then capture the moment with the in-game camera you can find in your Bag. Line up your shot and hit the shutter button to take the photo. The snapshot will then be saved to your smartphone’s photos for you to share however you’d like.

Music by Junichi Masuda

Pokémon GO will feature all-new music composed by GAME FREAK’s Junichi Masuda. Mr. Masuda has worked on Pokémon games since the very beginning and has composed many of the classic and memorable songs that have inspired fans for decades.

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Top Enterprise Gear For The 802.11ac Wi-Fi Standard

Here's what to look for in 802.11ac enterprise gear and the currently available access points from Cisco, Aruba Networks/HPE, Extreme Networks and Ruckus Wireless.

As with most technologies, the wireless LAN space continues to evolve at a brisk pace. The current IEEE wireless networking standard is 802.11ac, which offers considerable advantages over its predecessor, 802.11n. As of this writing, enterprise products offer rates up to 5,200 Mbps (Dual Radio) at the physical interfaces (although real-world tests may end up being about 60 to 70 percent of this), up to 160MHz channels, and 4x4 Multi-User Multiple Input Multiple Output (MU-MIMO) with support for up to 4 spacial streams.

There are a number of things that have progressed in the wireless landscape over the last year or so since more 802.11ac standard enterprise devices came to market. Most of the features available in the new WiFi standard are now in production and the question now is what to look for in 802.11ac enterprise gear and what to look forward to next.

802.11ac Wave 2 is currently in production by all of the major wireless vendors and most offer support for similar speeds, modulation and streams used. Most of the WiFi gear vendors have already implemented the following features into their products, but keep an eye out for how the various products differ in their support for the different features including:

• Beamforming (typically transmit)
• Multi-User Multiple Input Multiple Out (MU-MIMO), introduced with Wave 2
• Multi-gigabit backhaul
• Wireless intrusion protection
• Antenna options

Another very important thing to look for that differentiates each vendor's individual product lines is their support for spectrum analysis, noise reduction and channel management.

MORE: 802.11ac Access Points Compared
MORE: 802.11ac & WiGig: Making The Right Call With New WiFi Standards

What To Look For In 802.11ac Access Points

Let's take a closer look at some of the features you'll find in 802.11ac enterprise gear.

Beamforming

All of the WiFi vendors mentioned in the product comparison on page two support some form of beamforming. So what is beamforming? Well at a high level, Beamforming allows the transmitter and MIMO receiver to work together to achieve the best signal possible by using multiple antennas to transmit and receive signals. This is done in order to effectively increase the signal strength by attempting to prevent signals from cancelling each other out at the receiver.

This is accomplished through a number of different technical methods, the most simple (relatively) being the alteration of the signal gain and phase. Bi-directional beamforming takes this idea and optimizes it by having both the access points (AP) and the client support beamforming, this way the signal is not only being optimized from the AP to the client, but also from the client to the AP. However, some major wireless vendors have yet to implement it.

As with everything in business, the actual results that are provided by a given vendor's solution can differ significantly from what they promise. Make sure to take the time to test multiple vendors' products in the target environment to ensure the expected performance is achieved.

MU-MIMO (New In Wave 2)

One of the biggest positive changes that came with Wave 2 supported devices is in their support for Multi-User Multiple Input Multiple Out (MU-MIMO). While Wave 1 devices supported Single User MIMO (SU-MIMO), so have many 802.11n devices for some time.

The big change is the support for multiple conversations between different wireless clients at the same time. With SU-MIMO, the AP has to communicate with one device at a time (for very short amounts of time). With MU-MIMO, the AP can now simultaneously communicate with multiple devices, which greatly increases the usability of the wireless network. 

Multi-Gigabit Backhaul

One of the common issues for existing wireless deployments is that APs have been typically deployed using Power over Ethernet (PoE) using a single copper cable for backhaul. With earlier wireless implementations this wasn't a problem because the aggregate wireless throughput was always lower than the physical capabilities of that single cable. However, with the implementation of 802.11ac Wave 2 devices this is no longer true.

There are a few different solutions for this including NBASE-T and MGBASE-T. Both offer solutions that allow existing cabling (copper cables that don't support 10 Gigabit Ethernet) to stay where they are and now support rates of 2.5 or 5 Gbps, allowing companies to upgrade their wireless infrastructure without needing to upgrade their cabling infrastructure. 

Another option may exist for certain deployments where multiple cables exist for each AP. In this case, it may be possible for a link aggregation solution to work to combine the throughput of multiple links. In these situations look for products that support IEEE 802.3ad (LACP).

However, keep in mind that this is an issue that will only exist for specific environments (high density). Inspect your environment to make sure that this is truly a problem before using it as a selection criteria.

Wireless Intrusion Protection

As with every other piece of networking equipment, security is very important. Most vendors support some type of wireless intrusion protection, typically including detection of rogue access points and clients. While this may be an add-on to some vendor's product lines, it should be a consideration in your 802.11ac product selection.

MORE: Wireless Security: Deploying WPA2-Enterprise
MORE: A Guide To Intrusion Detection & Prevention Systems (IDS/IPS)

Antenna Options

In the world of wireless, one thing that can never be overlooked is the selection of available antennas for a specific product. Since the environment that a wireless network must work within is almost always different, the ability to adapt a solution to use multiple types of antennas to achieve good performance is vital.

Spectrum Analysis, Noise Reduction And Channel Management

Anyone who has ever implemented a wireless network is familiar with what noise can do to the availability and capability of a wireless network (is the microwave running?). Most of the vendors have their own features that are intended to reduce both the noise created by their solutions and external noise that affects their solutions. This is done through a combination of both active and passive noise environment detection. Based on the results from this added information, the signal can be modified to best meet the requirements of a specific environment.

Most of the 802.11ac solutions we list on page two support the ability to dynamically change the channel being used by each radio depending on this learned information. Some even offer the ability for a dual band radio to change from 2.4 to 5 or vice versa depending on the wireless demand and the current environmental conditions.

The next two steps coming to the wireless evolution are: the full implementation of the 802.11ac standard (also referenced in some places as Wave 3) and the eventual next standard 802.11ax.

802.11ac Full Implementation (Wave 3)

802.11ac Wave 3 is not the official name, but it is a familiar moniker that is used to talk about the full implementation of the 802.11ac standard. The implementation of Wave 2 comes up short against the specifications of the full implementation. The full implementation offers support for a maximum physical rate of around 6.9 Gbps (with a single radio) using 160 Mhz channels (or 80-80 Mhz non-contiguous channels), 256 QAM and 8 spacial streams.

Note: a physical line rate of 6.9 Gbps works out to about 4.5 Gbps of MAC throughput

802.11ax

The next version of the 802.11 standard is going to be 802.11ax. The standard is now in the process of being developed as this article is being written. Some of the things to look for are 10 Gbps wireless speeds, standard support for 1024 QAM (which is already supported in some consumer devices) and possibly (multi-user) multiple input, multiple output-orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (MIMO-OFDM).

What else is in store for 802.11ax? We'll keep an eye out for it and will update this article as more information is made available.

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Microsoft admits it’ll miss 1 billion Windows 10 user target on time, blames mobile implosion

Last year, Microsoft confidently announced that it would hit one billion active users on Windows 10 by mid-2018, thanks to expected strong conversions for desktops and laptops, new device sales, and the (supposed) increase that Windows 10 Mobile would deliver to the company’s mobile business. Desktop and laptop conversions have been fairly brisk with the company reporting over 350 million users over the past 11 months.

Unfortunately, Microsoft’s executives were counting on the Windows Mobile business to achieve that initial one billion target by mid-2018, and it’s now clear that’s not going to happen. Windows 10 Mobile is nearly dead — while the OS has its clear fans and adopters, it’s seen virtually no traction from other companies and Microsoft shut downalmost all of the Nokia personnel and assets that it bought from the Finnish company several years ago.

Over at ZDNet, Mary Jo Foley reports that while Microsoft may still bring a Surface Phone to market, it’s almost certainly going to be a business-focused device to highlightContinuum and Microsoft’s other innovations in merging the PC and phone. If it can do that well, Continuum could become a major enterprise feature, in much the same way that great email once defined BlackBerry. That company’s later decline illustrated exactly how relying on a handful of killer features can kill your company as the market evolves and adapts to new technologies.

The full statement from Yusuf Mehdi is as follows:

Windows 10 is off to the hottest start in history with over 350 million monthly active devices, with record customer satisfaction and engagement. We’re pleased with our progress to date, but due to the focusing of our phone hardware business, it will take longer than FY18 for us to reach our goal of 1 billion monthly active devices. In the year ahead, we are excited about usage growth coming from commercial deployments and new devices – and increasing customer delight with Windows.

Overall, Microsoft’s experiment with rolling out Windows 10 to a huge number of devices for free has been a success. The question is whether or not that success was worth the cost to either the larger PC market, which experienced no OS-launch bump and is now in worse shape than ever, or to the goodwill Microsoft created with its customers and trampled on thereafter by aggressively pushing Windows 10 upgrades. When the company set an ambitius goal to reach a billion devices by 2018, some of these pushes made at least marginal sense. Now that it’s acknowledged it’s not going to make them, one has to wonder: What was the point of all the shoving?

Gamers, at least, have shifted to Windows 10 in significant numbers. That OS is now the most frequent appearance on Steam’s Hardware Survey, at 42.94% of the market. Windows 7 64-bit is next, at 30.61%, with Windows 8.1 64-bit at 10.07%.

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