Google Maps now lets you find and catch wild Pokémon
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And while I realize that would be more an exception than rule, it would still happen. It drives me crazy enough when people just slam on the breaks after they miss an exit/turn (just keep going until you can turn around, please) - I personally would not like that extra dabble of human reaction thrown into a commuter experience.
Edit: I see I'm being downvoted so I'd like to elaborate: Frankly, the behaviour of people on the road is and should be of zero concern to the developer of an app that has nothing to do with driving. Should the original dev behind the port of 2048 have stopped to think how many deaths his app would cause because idiots would play it while driving?
Maybe I'm biased because I find that too many people solve the transportation problem with cars when their use case is covered with bikes or public transports at lower costs. (Translation, I think that driving is stupid unless you got an excellent reason. Please don't list your excellent reasons.)
Sucky is being stuck in endless traffic or getting a flat tire.
I'm talking about the disregard people have for the safety of others at times while on the open road. I want a safe drive, you want pokemon on the side of the road - I think somewhere on the path to those goals there are enough compromises we would both share.
Reply to the edit:
>Frankly, the behaviour of people on the road is and should be of zero concern to the developer of an app that has nothing to do with driving.
You want app developers to take possible use-cases and completely ignore them? That doesn't seem like a very good user experience.
> Maybe I'm biased because I find that too many people solve the transportation problem with cars when their use case is covered with bikes or public transports at lower costs. (Translation, I think that driving is stupid unless you got an excellent reason. Please don't list your excellent reasons.)
You are biased, and confirm it with your parenthetical statement.
People are going to own and use cars despite what your opinion on use-cases is. I personally would rather developers keep that in mind instead of just throwing a whole ton of crap out there that may actually affect my personal safety.
That said, I think the second point is slightly deviating away from the original topic.
I'm also pretty sure they drive cars in Europe. How does your suggestion aid someone in Germany that just got clipped from someone pulling over unexpectedly?
Also, your suggestion brings up a thought: I'm sure that driver laws differ from country to country in Europe. You're going to need to build some sort of UI/UX that complies with those laws if you want the app to be used freely while driving.
Having the app switch off when the GPS calculates you are traveling faster than 30kmh would be an interesting hack.
The Japanese carrier docomo have an Android app to stop you from using your smartphone while walking, the latest menace to public safety.
https://www.nttdocomo.co.jp/info/news_release/2013/12/03_00....
I'm not that unhappy it's an April fool ;)
Things i would like to see:
1. Require battles to catch new Mobbles, and maybe catch requirements. All very Pokemon(y)
2. Random battles/encounters. Walking to the store and bam, suddenly you have to fight :D.. should probably disable while driving hah.
3. Proximity Battles. Taking the bus/train/etc with people and you could challenge them, all without knowing who they were. You'd simply see a .. Trainer(?) nearby, and challenge them for additional xp/etc.
Very cool game nonetheless :)
edit: Turns out #1 is sort of done, but the battling in this game is very simplistic. Not sure if that's a good thing or bad thing haha
edit2: Yea, i'd kill for 4-6 move battling. This rock paper scissors thing will get old fast :/
Ours isn't released yet though, so you have the leg up for now ;)
I too am not unhappy that this is an April fool joke.
P.S. - If you're interested, here's a video of our internal alpha with bugs and all : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hc-PVpUlRLU
April Fool's joke or not, but it is quite impressive to see Nintendo's IP being used for a game of sorts outside of their own hardware.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pokedex-for-ios/id573135437?...
http://www.timoliver.com.au/2011/07/21/on-ipokedex-getting-p... http://www.timoliver.com.au/2011/11/01/laying-ipokedex-to-re...
http://pokemonaprilfools.wikia.com/wiki/Sorted_by_Pokedex_No.
And limiting knowledge to the more generalized stuff isn't bad (i.e. wikipedia), I think.
They have a history of treating their community like crap, forcing wikis they buy (uncyclopedia for example) to destroy their brand and move to *.wikia.com. They encourage content farming (copying content from other websites with no regard for the license etc) and, worst of all, their wikis are more ad infested than a Windows 98 computer running IE6 after grandma has had her dose of free smileys.
Hey, entrepreneurs of HN: ever thought about solving the wiki community problem? This is a problem worth tackling if you figure out a way to make it cheap to tackle and monetize it (possibly by offering sub-monetization to your wikis, letting communities pay their editors and running an actual community economy). This is a freebie - but do PM me if you tackle it I want to see it in action!
Use the full URL (including the period): "http://pokemonaprilfools.wikia.com/wiki/Sorted_by_Pokedex_No. "
EDIT: looks like someone added a Wikia redirect so "Sorted_by_Pokedex_No" redirects to "Sorted_by_Pokedex_No.". Problem solved! : o )
Aha, well played, Google.
Did they statically author these with set GPS coordinates instead of dynamically generating them around you?
For instance, the latest Pokemon iteration is quite obviously based on France [1], so that's why Google put creatures there.
[1]: A map of the Pokemon X / Y world: http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/194c63lohgnayjpg/original.jp...
The reason I think so, is because some places seem to be residential, like they're places you would live at.
It's understandable why Google is one of the "hottest" companies in tech right now.
Only better, because good April Fools projects are awesome.
I found the resource involved in this pretty crazy as well, though. Definitely a lot more than most companies would spend on April Fool's day, and I doubt it's their only stunt either.
I've seen Cambridge Googlers (from the ITA acquisition) come in over the weekend playing with an RC helicopter to get some video footage of the old ITA building and the old ITA logo before they moved into their new digs in the expanded Google campus in Kendall Square. And they did it just for fun! (BTW, trying to keep a RC helicopter steady in the face of winds near things like cliffs or buildings is not so easy....)
I'm sure Google provided support in some fashion, but very often in terms of engineering effort, these sorts of thing are 100% done by passionate Googlers using 20% time. Often, people who want to make things like this happen will recruit people outside of their immediate product area, who have special expertise that might be needed. There are definitely people at Google with private pilot's licenses, and almost certainly Googlers who can fly (real) helicopters....
One of the really neat things about working for Google is getting to hang out with people who are way smarter than you, and who often have all sorts of interesting skills and talents you don't have --- yet. :-)
New building get constructed? Put some Pokemon there and people take pictures from all angles for you.
The video is really good too:
Not a killer app for AR, but just a casual game like Ingress (mentioned in another app also)