‘Pokémon Go’ is already bigger than Tinder, and it’s about to overtake Twitter!

 

Pokémon is taking over the world. Again.

Last week, Nintendo and Niantic brought out “Pokémon Go,” an augmented-reality smartphone game that has players exploring the real world to collect Pokémon and items and to battle other players.

It’s proving wildly popular. Just how popular?

Well, it’s already bigger than Tinder.

According to data from SimilarWeb, “Pokémon Go” has already been installed on more Android smartphones in the US than the dating app Tinder, which is itself a runaway hit. As of Friday, the game was on 5.16% of all US Android phones — versus just over 2% for Tinder.

SimilarWeb

And that’s not all.

According to a different metric, “Pokémon Go” is set to shortly overtake the social network Twitter.

Daily active users measures what proportion of the smartphone population uses an app on any given day. And on Friday, just over 3% of US Android owners were using the game daily — against about 3.5% for Twitter — with Pokémon Go’s rate rising fast as new users continue to install the app.

More recent data is not available, but “Pokémon Go” may have already overtaken Twitter.

SimilarWeb

Tinder was launched back in 2012, five years ago, while Twitter came out in 2006 — a decade ago. “Pokémon Go” came out last week.

This success is causing teething problems for the app. Users are reporting frequent crashes and bugs, while Niantic has “paused” the game’s international rollout — meaning it is officially available only in the US, Australia, and New Zealand. (There are workarounds, however, that let you install it in other countries.)

The runaway success of “Pokémon Go,” which was built by the Google spin-off Niantic, has sent Nintendo’s stock soaring 23% in a day. It’s the company’s best one-day jump since the 1980s. Nintendo is an investor in both Niantic and The Pokémon Company, which manages the Pokémon property.

investing.com

Here’s one last chart showing how “Pokémon Go” compares with other apps, again from SimilarWeb. Users are spending far more time in the app each day than some other popular apps, including WhatsApp, Instagram, and Snapchat.

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Sony Playstation 4 marks the fastest growth in the history of the gaming!

Sony announced that it sold more than 20 million Playstation 4 units as of March 1 (20.2 million to be more precise). The hefty number indicates units in customers’ hands, not ones that have been shipped to retailers.

Unsurprisingly, Sony Playstation 4 marks the fastest growth in the history of the gaming franchise. And yes, Sony executives are quite pleased with the achievement.

With a number of high-profile gaming titles set for a release this year, there is plenty of reason to believe that Sony will continue with its momentum going forward. It latest gaming console is currently on sale in 123 global markets.

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GTA V for PC is delayed until March, Here are the recommended PC specs! (Update: Now up for pre-order)

UPDATE:

GTA V for PC is now up for pre-order, offers neat perks and a bonus game

Rockstar Games has officially opened pre-orders for its upcoming Grand Theft Auto V for PC title. This is due to be released on March 24.

So that’s quite a wait. But if you pre-order GTA V for PC before February 1, you’ll get $1.3 million in-game currency and a free bonus game too.

The currency is spread as follows: $500,000 for GTA V, and the rest for GTA Online. The bonus game will be given to you in the form of a digital download, and you’ll receive the code for this immediately after you pre-order GTA V. The titles you can choose from include GTA IV, Max Payne 3, LA Noire, but also much older games such as GTA III and Manhunt.

If you’re interested in pre-ordering GTA V for PC, know that when you do you’ll be charged a 15% deposit. The remaining amount will be automatically charged when the game gets released, and you’ll receive the activation code for it via email.

Grand Theft Auto V is already available for consoles, but if you’re a PC gamer you’re still in for a wait. Originally the PC version of the game was supposed to come out on January 27, but there’s some bad news today – that release date slipped.

And not by a few days, either. Rockstar Games, maker of the GTA franchise, has officially announced that GTA V for PC will only become available on March 24. So that’s quite the delay, almost two months in fact.

Rockstar says it’s necessary for it to put in some extra testing and polish in order “to make it as good as can be”. The company has released the first screenshots from the PC game, one of which you can see above. For the rest, make sure you hit the Source link.

GTA Online for PC will support up to 30 players and it will launch alongside GTA V for PC, as well as GTA Online Heists. This will be making it to consoles “in the coming weeks ahead of the PC launch”.

Today Rockstar has also given us the list of minimum and recommended PC specs for playing the upcoming GTA V, something you’ve surely been looking forward to if you’re a PC gamer. So, without further ado, here’s what you’ll need in order to play.

Minimum specifications:
• OS: Windows 8.1 64 Bit, Windows 8 64 Bit, Windows 7 64 Bit Service Pack 1, Windows Vista 64 Bit Service Pack 2* (*NVIDIA video card recommended if running Vista OS)
• Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad CPU Q6600 @ 2.40GHz (4 CPUs) / AMD Phenom 9850 Quad-Core Processor (4 CPUs) @ 2.5GHz
• Memory: 4GB
• Video Card: NVIDIA 9800 GT 1GB / AMD HD 4870 1GB (DX 10, 10.1, 11)
• Sound Card: 100% DirectX 10 compatible
• HDD Space: 65GB
• DVD Drive

Recommended specifications:
• OS: Windows 8.1 64 Bit, Windows 8 64 Bit, Windows 7 64 Bit Service Pack 1
• Processor: Intel Core i5 3470 @ 3.2GHZ (4 CPUs) / AMD X8 FX-8350 @ 4GHZ (8 CPUs)
• Memory: 8GB
• Video Card: NVIDIA GTX 660 2GB / AMD HD7870 2GB
• Sound Card: 100% DirectX 10 compatible
• HDD Space: 65GB
• DVD Drive

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Sony’s PlayStation Network (PSN) Back Online, and this is the man who Hacked it and ruined Christmas!

Sony are having a bit of a tough time at the moment.

Their film division has been hacked and thousands of top secret emails made public, they’re in a war of words with North Korea over the release of The Interview and most recently their online gaming service, Playstation Network, was infiltrated on Christmas Day, causing disruption for millions of people.

Hacking group Lizard Squad came out and claimed responsibility for the Christmas attack, which also affected Microsoft’s Xbox Live, but now angry gamers can finally put a face to that name.

Speaking to Sky News from Finland, the man above calls himself Ryan, and he says the attacks were carried out “to raise awareness of the low levels of security at these companies.”

You can hear what else he had to say in the video below.

So, there you have it. The man that may have potentially ruined your Christmas has spoken out.

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Yahoo’s 2014 Top Searches: Ebola Overshadowed Celebrities!

People used Yahoo this year to get the scoop on celebrities and tech products, but it was a deadly disease that elicited the highest volume of searches.

Revealing its Year in Review for 2014, Yahoo cited the Ebola virus as the most-searched item of the year as the disease ravaged several African countries and turned up in isolated cases in the US and Europe. Minecraft, a popular video game whose developer was bought by Microsoft in September, came in at No. 2.

Trendy celebrities dominated the list as usual, with Ariana Grande, Jennifer Lawrence, Kaley Cuoco, Kim Kardashian, Miley Cyrus and Jennifer Aniston all making their way onto Yahoo’s top 10. The Disney film “Frozen” was No. 7 among the top searches.
Apple’s new iPhone 6 squeezed onto the list in the No. 9 spot. The iPhone has been among the most-searched terms on Yahoo in four of the past five years, the company said.

“Each year, we see some recurring archetypes such as the female musical ingenue,” Yahoo Web Trends expert Vera Chan said in an email. “This year, that person was Ariana Grande — a former Nickelodeon star whose Billboard success made her number three on this year’s top searches. There’s also usually a cultural mood (‘Frozen,’ which also made our obsessions list), a social media promotion (Kim Kardashian and her ‘Break the Internet’), political or social disasters or concerns (Number one Ebola), and finally technological advances.”

While Yahoo users were searching for Ebola and Kim Kardashian, Yahoo itself was searching for more traffic and renewed stature. In November, Yahoo became the default search engine for Firefox, displacing Google in the process. Yahoo’s new default status in Firefox, which owns around 13 percent of the desktop browser market according to Net Applications, is a big coup for the search engine.

The more traffic a search engine generates, the more opportunities that advertisers have to display their ads. The more that people respond to such ads, the more the search engine can prove itself a viable and profitable platform for advertisers.

“At Yahoo, we believe deeply in search — it’s an area of investment and opportunity for us,” Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer said in a blog post at the time. “This partnership helps to expand our reach in search and gives us an opportunity to work even more closely with Mozilla to find ways to innovate in search, communications and digital content.”

Tech users were also busy tapping into Yahoo this year.

The iPhone 6 captured the top spot among tech searches, followed by the Samsung Galaxy S5 and Galaxy Note 4 smartphones. Sports camera GoPro came in fourth, Apple’s iPad Mini came in fifth and Microsoft’s Xbox One came in sixth. Rounding out the list were the Amazon Kindle, Sony’s PlayStation 4, Apple’s iPad Air and Microsoft’s Surface Pro 3.

People also used Yahoo to stay abreast of the latest items in the news by searching for information on the death of actor and comedian Robin Williams, the 2014 elections, the leaked photos of popular celebrities, the loss of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 and the Michael Brown shooting in Ferguson, Mo.

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