Aside from iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, Apple unveiled a new version of its smartwatch, which it described as the “ultimate fitness device”.
The company said the Apple Watch Series 2 is water resistant to164ft, meaning it can be used while swimming or surfing.
It also introduces:
a built-in GPS location tracker, letting running routes be tracked without carrying a paired phone
a more powerful processor, letting it show more detailed graphics in apps than its predecessor
a brighter screen
Image source Apple
According to IDC, the original Apple Watch is the best selling smartwatch on the market, but shipments of the device dropped more than 50% between the April-to-June quarter of 2016 and the same period the previous year.
Apple said it thought the device would have particular appeal to runners, and may be able to stoke interest through a partnership with Nike.
Nike has created an app that lets its owner share details of their runs with others, and has also launched its own bands for the timepiece.
Although many of the details of the new devices had leaked in advance, there was one major surprise at the start of the event.
Video game character Mario’s creator, Shigeru Miyamoto, appeared to announce that Nintendo’s plumber would appear in his first iPhone video game before the end of the year.
Shigeru Miyamoto confirmed that the running-themed adventure would be an iOS exclusive at launch.
It follows the success of another Nintendo franchise, Pokemon, on the platform.
It was also revealed that the Apple Watch would soon gain the ability to tell owners how close they are to nearby monsters in Pokemon Go, and to show which characters have hatched from eggs in the augmented reality title.
Nintendo shares have plunged sharply after the company said Pokemon Go‘s success would have a limited impact on its profits.
The Japanese gaming giant’s shares dropped by 17.7% after they more than doubled in value since Pokemon Go’s launch on July 6.
Pokemon Go was developed by American company Niantic and Nintendo said profits from licensing and fees would be limited.
However, even with the decline, Nintendo shares are still up 60% since the release of Pokemon Go.
Overall, Japanese shares traded sideways with the Nikkei 225 index finishing flat at 16,620.29.
Nintendo said the accounting scheme for recognizing revenues from Pokemon Go meant its profits would not materially change.
The sharp drop was the biggest decline since October 1990, the stock down by 5,000 yen – the maximum daily limit allowed.
Nintendo is due to report first-quarter results this week and said it did not plan to revise its earnings outlook for now.
“Taking the current situation into consideration, the company is not modifying the consolidated financial forecast for now,” Nintendo said in a stock filing.
Pokemon Go players in Bosnia are being warned to avoid straying into areas still sown with landmines from the war in the 1990s.
A Bosnian demining charity, Posavina bez mina, issued its warning after hearing reports of Pokemon Go users venturing into risky areas.
Pokemon Go players use their smartphones to hunt for cartoon monsters in the real world.
At least 600 people have been killed in landmine accidents in Bosnia since the end of the war in 1995.
Photo Getty Images
According to a Bosnian demining group, an estimated 120,000 mines remain undiscovered.
As the popularity of Pokemon Go has soared, there have been numerous incidents and accidents involving gamers.
Posavina bez mina said on Facebook: “We received information that some users of the Pokemon Go app in Bosnia were going to places which are a risk for mines, in search of a pokemon.”
“Citizens are urged not to do so, to respect demarcation signs of dangerous mine fields and not to go into unknown areas,” it added.
Earlier this week, two teenagers in Florida were shot at by a householder who mistook them for burglars.
Pokemon Go, however, has had some unexpected positive effects: in one UK town police said players reported a theft while hunting for monsters.
Nintendo has finally launched Pokemon Go in Japan, the birthplace of the little virtual monsters.
Amid a flurry of social media excitement, Niantic Labs, the software company behind Pokemon Go, announced it was “finally broadcasting” in Japan.
First released in the US, Australia and New Zealand on July 6 and now available in more than 30 countries, Pokemon Go has been a global phenomenon.
The Japanese launch comes with a McDonald’s sponsorship deal.
McDonald’s restaurants were expected to be advertised as places where people were guaranteed to find Pokemon, or as “gyms” where players can train up their captured monsters for virtual fights.
However, a McDonald’s spokesman said restaurants would “call on players not to become a bother to customers who are eating”.
On July 22, excited Japanese fans began tweeting that they had been able to start playing.
Photo Wikipedia
After weeks of stories about people in other countries running into trouble playing Pokemon Go, Japanese authorities have taken precautions and issued a nine-point safety guide, in cartoon form.
The warnings, by the National Centre of Incident Readiness and Strategy for Cybersecurity, included asking users to register with “cool names that are different from real names” and cautioning them against heatstroke as they walk around in the sun.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said on July 21: “I want people to abide by the warning so that people can play it on smartphones safely.”
Just a few hours after the launch, there were already reports of an accident.
A student at Osaka’s Kindai University reportedly fell down the stairs while playing Pokemon Go and was taking to hospital, said users on social media.
Pokemon Go is an augmented reality game on smartphones which has millions of people worldwide obsessively capturing small creatures in public spaces.
The game works by showing you a picture of your real surroundings as caught by the phone’s camera, then uses GPS to place virtual little monsters within that picture on your screen.
The mix of virtual and real worlds allows players to, for instance, fight a dragon circling Big Ben or chase a spaceship moving down their street.
Pokemons were first popular in the 1990s when they started on the Nintendo Game Boy. Back then, trading cards were a huge hit in school playgrounds and the new game manages to build on that legacy.
Nintendo shares have seen a stellar rise since the release of Pokemon Go, gaining more than 50%.
Shares shot up 16% on July 13, making an overall increase of 56% since trading closed on July 8 – the day the game became available.
Pokemon Go players search locations in the real world to find virtual Pokemon creatures on their smartphone screens.
The game has become a global phenomenon since its release.
Photo Wikipedia
Pokemon Go topped the app store download chart on both iPhone’s App Store and Google Play just days after its initial release in the US, Australia and New Zealand.
Nintendo shares had already started the week with a 25% jump on July 11 alone.
The Pokemon creatures first emerged in the 1990s on Nintendo’s Game Boy device.
For Pokemon Go, Nintendo has partnered with Niantic and the Pokemon Company, which owns the rights to the characters.
Nintendo, which is also behind the iconic Super Mario game, has traditionally relied on sales of its gaming consoles.
However, sales of those have been slowing in recent years as more gamers move online and onto portable devices.
Analysts have long criticized Nintendo for lagging its rivals like Sony and being late to the game in catering to the growing smartphone market.
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