Month: April 2022

Spotify is doing great, if you were wondering. Although the company raised prices, didn’t release a Hi-Fi version of its catalog, and also suffered from backlash on podcast originals, it is reporting growth in revenue and users. This also comes while the Swedish company has an ongoing antitrust battle with Apple.

According to Reuters, Spotify’s quarterly revenue report beat analyst’s estimates with higher advertising income and more people subscribed to its premium version. Total monthly active users rose to a record 422 million in the first quarter, up by 19%.

The Swedish company posted a 24% increase in revenue to 2.66 billion euros ($2.82 billion) in the quarter. Analysts on average had expected revenue of 2.62 billion euros, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

Spotify said the share of podcasts in content consumption on its platform grew by double digits and reached an all-time high in the reported quarter.

For its second quarter, on the other hand, the app expects a smaller increase in active user of 428 million due to the end of its Russian operations “and the reversal of a loss of users after a service outage in March.”

Last but not least, premium subscribers rose to 182 million from 158 million, while ad-supported revenue rose 31% to 282 million euros, says Reuters.

While Apple will report its quarter revenue tomorrow, it’s unlikely that the company will disclosure Apple Music numbers. In a report by the beginning of April, Apple showed that third-party apps often beat built-in services amid scrutiny.

One of the tidbits of this report show that Spotify has 1.6x higher usage than Apple Music in the United States and 2.3x on the United Kingdom. The company says these percentages are based on relative popularity of a local app compared to an Apple app in terms of daily active users or time spent in the app.

9to5Mac will cover Apple’s quarter revenue report as soon as it’s out.

Are you a Spotify or Apple Music user? Which one do you prefer? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

Niantic has announced details about this year’s Pokemon Go Fest. They include confirmations of at least one new Pokemon (Shaymin) and teasers for another. The two-day event is open to Pokemon Go players, with or without tickets. Pokemon Go Fest 2022 tickets are now on sale, and cost $14.99.

Pokemon Go players who purchase a ticket for the event will have opportunities to catch rare and regional Pokemon like Axew, Tropius, and Torkoal during Go Fest 2022. Shiny versions will be added to the event of Shroomish and Numel as well as Karrablast, Axews, Shelmet, Unown B, Shelmet and Axew.

Players can also catch Land Forme Shaymin by completing customizable special research. That customization means that players will be able to choose from Relaxed, Standard and Master difficulty levels (each with their own sticker rewards), and personalized gameplay focus (Catch, Explore, or Battle) to get special research tasks that suit their play style.

Players believe they’ve also spotted an unannounced addition: Zygarde appears to be hiding deep in the background in official art released for Go Fest.

Here’s how Pokemon Go Fest 2022, which runs Saturday, June 4 through Sunday, June 5, will go down, for players without tickets:

Day 1

Rotating Habitats – Different Pokemon will appear during each habitat hour – City, Plains, Rainforest, Tundra.

City: Magnemite, Alolan Grimer, Hitmonchan, Baltoy, Trash Cloak Burmy, Pidove, Trubbish, Gothita, and Litten. If you’re lucky, you may encounter Bronzor or Golett!

Plains: Girafarig, Larvitar, Numel, Trapinch, Buizel, Patrat, Drilbur, Shelmet, and Litleo. If you’re lucky, you may encounter Dunsparce or Rufflet!

Rainforest: Mudkip, Seedot, Shroomish, Slakoth, Turtwig, Chimchar, Venipede, Karrablast, and Rowlet. If you’re lucky, you may encounter Binacle or Skrelp!

Tundra: Omanyte, Swinub, Wingull, Meditite, Wailmer, Spheal, Piplup, Cubchoo, and Popplio. You may be lucky enough to encounter Vanillite and Bergmite.

Shiny Pokemon Debuts – For the first time in Pokemon GO, Trainers will be able to encounter Shiny Shroomish, Shiny Numel, Shiny Karrablast, Shiny Axew and Shiny Shelmet, if they are lucky.

Day 2

Global Challenge Arena – Trainers can work together to complete a collaborative challenge each hour. If they succeed, they’ll earn a bonus for the remainder of the hour.

Pokemon Go Raid Debut – A certain Pokemon will appear in five-star raids for the first time in Pokemon Go.

Special Research – Log in during event hours to claim a short Special Research story

Both Days

Pikachu with a Shaymin-inspired Gracidea flower costume will be in the wild and one-star raids. Axew may appear in one star raids. There is a possibility that he will be shining.

Players who purchase a ticket to Pokemon Go Fest 2022 will get the following gameplay features and bonuses:

Day 1

Rotating Habitats – In addition to the Pokemon featured during each habitat hour, the following Pokemon will be attracted to Incense if you have an event ticket.

City: Galarian Weezing, Unown B, Unown G, Unown O, Unown U, and Klink.

Plains: Unown B, Unown G, Unown O, Unown U, Torkoal, and Axew.

Rainforest: Unown B, Unown G, Unown O, Unown U, Tropius, and Pancham.

Tundra: Galarian Mr. Mime, Unown A, Unown G and Unown O. Unown U is Galarian Darumaka.

Customized Special Research – Conduct Special Research to encounter Land Forme Shaymin

Rewards

By dividing your experience into Standard, Relaxed and Master levels of difficulty you can get different stickers.

Personalize the gameplay focus between Catch, Explore or Battle to change Special Research tasks accordingly.

Shiny Pokemon Debut – For the first time in Pokemon GO, Trainers will be able to encounter Shiny Unown B, if they’re lucky.

Increased Shiny Rate – Trainers will have increased chances of encountering Shiny Pokemon in the wild during event hours. On Saturday, chances are better than Sunday.

Global Challenge Arena – Trainers can work together to complete a collaborative challenge each hour. If they succeed, they’ll earn a bonus for the remainder of the hour.

Day 2

Additional Special Research story after completing Sunday’s short Special Research story available to all Trainers.

Team GO Rocket balloons will appear more frequently and Trainers will earn twice the Mysterious Components after defeating Team GO Rocket Grunts.

We learned last month that Apple was tricked into releasing personal data to hackers, after they posed as law enforcement officials with emergency data requests. The report also revealed that the data had been used for sexual extortion of minors.

The latest report sheds light on the hacking techniques used to fool Apple, Snap, Twitter and Facebook.

Background

Usually, companies will not release customer information to law enforcement officers until they receive a court order. Even then, the company may carefully review the request and offer to provide only a portion of it.

This process can take time. There is also an emergency data request procedure that may be used when there is a risk to the health or safety of one or more people. In these cases, companies do check that the request comes from a legitimate law enforcement contact, but supply the information first, and ask questions later.

Hackers made fake emergency requests in order to convince Apple and other companies that user data was available. The new report details how data was misappropriated and how companies were tricked.

How Apple was duped

Bloomberg reports that the attack generally relies on being able to use hacking or phishing to gain access to law enforcement email systems, so that the source of the requests appears genuine.

Although the exact methods of attacks vary, they all tend to follow the same pattern according to law enforcement officers. The perpetrator compromises the foreign law enforcement agency’s email system.

The attacker then will create an “emergency request” to a tech company seeking information regarding a user account. Such requests are used by law enforcement to obtain information amount online accounts in cases involving imminent danger such as suicide, murder or abductions […]

The data you provide varies from company to company, but it generally contains your name, address and email address. Some companies provide more data.

Cascade attack used to extort victims

Although the data doesn’t sound like it amounts to much, it does provide enough information to allow further hacks and phishing attacks to be carried out against individual victims. Both perpetrators and victims are reported to include children.

The attackers used this information to hack victim’s accounts online or to make friends with the victims before asking them to send explicit pictures. Many of the perpetrators are believed to be teenagers themselves based in the US and abroad, according to four of the people.

Bloomberg reports that some of the cases were horrifically extreme.

Perpetrators have threatened to send sexually explicit material provided by the victim to their friends, family members and school administrators if they don’t comply with the demands, according to the people. The perpetrators have sometimes been forced to make the victim’s name visible on their skin and take photos

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9to5Mac’s Take

Fake emergency data requests sent from legal email addresses are a serious problem. Companies can be harmed if they don’t respond. They run the risk that hackers will gain access to personal data if they release it without any additional checks. They may not be able to assist victims in real cases if they wait too long for more detailed checks.

The obvious danger is that this tactic becomes more common. Significant resources need to be put into preventing and detecting this crime, and the punishment needs to reflect the severity of the potential consequences.

Photo: Alexander Krivitskiy/Unsplash

Ed. note: Nintendo Switch Sports’ core online mode was unavailable ahead of the review embargo, but should be available for players on launch day. We’ll be publishing a more traditional review, along with consideration for Polygon Recommends, once the complete game is live. In the meantime, here are our feelings about Nintendo Switch Sports after playing its local modes.

Alchemy doesn’t exist, but Nintendo does.

At any moment, Shuntaro Furukawa can greenlight a new Metroid or Animal Crossing or Zelda or 2D Mario or 3D Mario or Mario Kart or Mario Teaches Typing, and a few years from now, that decision will have produced the closest the entertainment industry has to a guaranteed profit. Nintendo’s treasure box is so deep that it will go years, even decades, without creating a sequel for many of its hit franchises. I’m looking at you, F-Zero and Golden Sun and Wave Race and Earthbound.

This meager attention to franchises — franchises that other game publishers would make a deal with the devil to annualize — has more to do with practicality than stinginess. Nintendo only has so many internal studios and trusted partners, and only so much space in a year to release games without competing against itself. And yet, I have been dumbfounded for the better part of 15 years by Nintendo’s decision to put one of its biggest hits of all time on the back burner. Surely, if any franchise deserved prioritization, this was it.

Nintendo shipped nearly 83 million copies of Wii Sports. For context, the recent Elden Ring has sold 12 million copies, and Animal Crossing: New Horizons, the game that consumed the early days of pandemic lockdown, has sold 37 million. Wii Sports benefited from being bundled with nearly every Nintendo Wii, but the pair elevated each other into the rarified air of pop culture phenomena. People bought the Wii for Wii Sports, making it, for some, a $250 game.

In the mid-2000s, Wii Sports was the mainstream video game. Rainy day recess meant Wii Sports tennis in the classroom. Medical journals studied the potential benefits of Wii Sports bowling in nursing homes. Another studied whether or not time with Wii Sports improved the skills of doctors performing laparoscopic surgery. Was Wii Sports literally making the world more engaged, healthier, and smarter? Probably not! But this enthusiasm, spanning generations and professions, gets at how this one game touched nearly every corner of American pop culture.

A decade ago, “more Wii Sports” sounded like a no-brainer. Nintendo shrewdly published Wii Sports Resort in 2009, alongside the Wii Motion Plus dongle that added some extra precision to the Wii’s motion controls. But from that point forward, Wii Sports became little more than a reference in Super Smash Bros.

Image: Nintendo

After more than a decade since that pop culture touchstone, I’ve finally had the opportunity to play a new entry: the aptly titled Nintendo Switch Sports. It debuts on the Nintendo Switch months after the hardware surpassed the Wii in total hardware sales, with a whopping 103.55 million Switches sold — and that’s amidst a global semiconductor shortage. In theory, there’s no better time for Nintendo to work its moneymaking magic.

So with all of that in mind — and I know, it’s a lot — why has Nintendo been so subdued? In an era of multiple Nintendo Directs dedicated to Animal Crossing or even Xenoblade, the company has given Switch Sports a brief announcement and a five-minute explainer video, then sent it to critics without the option to enter the main mode. Bold choices!

But after sinking a week into its six minigames, I think I get the “classic Nintendo logic” of it all. Nintendo, unsurprisingly, knows alchemy, certainly better than I do — and it has once again spun gold.

Image: Nintendo

Nintendo Switch Sports isn’t so much a sequel to Wii Sports as it is the franchise’s overdue evolution from a tech demo into a proper video game. The original Wii Sports, for all its historical significance, felt like a novel but thin test of the Wii hardware. Its gameplay lacked depth and options; half the sports minigames were duds; and the art style was a rudimentary 3D setting with Miis instead of original characters. And in 2009, Wii Sports Resort felt like Wii Sports … just more.

Nintendo Switch Sports, on the other hand, feels complete, which I admit is a silly thing to say considering the damn online mode isn’t available yet. But I’m talking comparatively. In contrast with the barebones predecessor, Nintendo has put all of its typical polish into each of the discrete minigames. I expect all six of them will have their dedicated fans who declare theirs to be the best of the bunch.

The sports are…

• Volleyball: 1-4 players
• Badminton: 1-2 players
• Bowling: 1-4 players
• Soccer: 1-2 players
• Chambara (swordfighting): 1-2 players
• Tennis: 1-4 players
• A golf update will be available this summer.

Image: Nintendo

You should read a full breakdown of how each sport plays in our hands-on impressions from earlier this month. My favorite sport has changed day to day. Yesterday, I was convinced I’d spend the rest of the week playing volleyball. Then I woke up this morning, played one round of soccer, and then just kept playing soccer. It’s paused on the TV at this very moment, waiting for me to fit in another round. Which I’m about to do right now.

OK, so I’m back. Some of the sports include alternate modes, like a shootout mode in soccer and dual-wielding in chambara. They can be played solo against AI, which has three difficulty levels. I swear this isn’t a tacky humblebrag: I’m a fan of the most difficult mode, Powerhouse, which has felt similar to playing against another person. It’s challenging, but not unfair. That said, the game is clearly meant to be played with others, and that’s likely where you’ll have the most fun.

The first person I played with was my four-year-old son. Now, I’ll be upfront with you; he only played for a half-hour before demanding we switch to Sonic. And by “play,” I mean he flailed around the living room yelling “I’m bowling! I’m bowling! I’m bowling!” But any video game that keeps my child away from Sonic the Hedgehog for longer than five minutes is a miracle. Thirty minutes is a gosh-dang world record.

This game is a blast with other people, whether they love video games or, like my spouse, have no interest whatsoever. It captures that feeling of the Wii at its best: that you could pretend to be a great tennis player in your living room, and the motion controls would make you feel like you actually were. Are the motion controls as precise as the Wii Motion Plus? I don’t think so. A handful of times the game didn’t register my immaculate bowling motion, prompting me to try again. Still, I don’t think 99% of the people who play this game will think about that slight loss of precision when they’re spiking a volleyball into their friend’s face.

Image: Nintendo

Those feelings — sending a shuttlecock over your husband’s head but just inside the line, bowling a perfect game against your irritated daughter, or pulling a Jar’kai on your grandpa — make Nintendo Switch Sports special. And it’s those moments that will spread the game: guests trying this silly video game and deciding, Hey, I ought to get one of these for my home. I too would like to humiliate my loved ones in virtual tennis.

All of which is to ease my own unnecessary concern: the hype around Nintendo’s biggest game of 2022, so far, is fundamentally different from how we get excited for more Fire Emblem or Metroid.

In some ways, video game culture looks totally different today than it did when Wii Sports became a cultural phenomenon in the mid-2000s. I figured that, with a huge gap between entries, Nintendo would need to rethink the series to serve a general public that’s far more literate in video games. It’s stranger now if someone hasn’t played Fortnite or Among Us or even Dungeons & Dragons. I assumed a game like this would need more meat, more oomph, more, well, to be frank, marketing.

I was wrong. For all the change in the world of games, hucking an imaginary ball at imaginary bowling pins is and always will be awesome. Wii Sports didn’t need more minigames or the infinite to-do list of a “living game” or the depth of an RPG. All it needed was a little more polish, some liberal trimming of the weak bits, and a swift boot into the world.

Image: Nintendo

Nintendo Switch Sports feels so delightful in 2022 because the joy of Wii Sports never really went away — nor did the dream of motion controls and games that invited in even the most cynical non-gamers. You can still find dusty Wiis and Microsoft Kinects in retirement homes, hospitals, and even some school A/V closets across the country. Throughout the pandemic, my father dug out a Kinect for neighborhood backyard get-togethers. When I took him to a retro game shop this winter, the clerk crushed his spirit, informing him that not even original Xbox One games would connect with Kinect. Nor were his Kinect classics backward compatible with the latest Xbox hardware. I’m ecstatic that I can push this game into his life, because reader, I promise that it’s better than literally every Kinect game … and nearly every Wii game, too.

Nintendo Switch Sports targets this audience, from the retired to the new parents, nostalgic for a type of gaming experience that hasn’t quite been recreated since. These are the final generations widely unfamiliar with modern video game controllers. And for Nintendo, that audience may be more than enough.

That said, I do hope younger folks give this game a shot. I think they might once the game’s online mode is available, a place where people under the age of 35 are far more likely to play games. Until I can try those features, though, I’m happy to think of this as Nintendo’s love letter to the old and the old at heart. The company took over a decade to make the game, but maybe they were waiting for folks like me to age into it.

Nintendo Switch Sports will be released April 29 on Nintendo Switch. The game was reviewed on Switch using a pre-release download code provided by Nintendo. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These do not influence editorial content, though Vox Media may earn commissions for products purchased via affiliate links. You can find additional information about Polygon’s ethics policy here.

Aqara products have been an integral part of my HomeKit setup for nearly two years. With a competitive entry price and a range of accessories that are compatible with HomeKit, it’s the ideal way to start your smart home journey without breaking the beak. A new Aqara motion sensor is now available, and I’ve had the opportunity to spend a few weeks testing it in my home.

HomeKit Weekly is a series focused on smart home accessories, automation tips and tricks, and everything to do with Apple’s smart home framework.

I wrote a few weeks ago about how I believe motion sensors are an essential part of making a smart home automate your daily routines for you without much effort. Instead of using Siri to turn on lights, a motion sensor can turn a light on automatically based on presence in the room. Instead of using the Home app to turn off lights, let a motion sensor turn it off when it stops detecting anyone in the room for 10 minutes. There aren’t many products I’d say need to be in every room in your home, but a HomeKit compatible motion sensor is high up on my list. Motion sensors are passive devices meaning they aren’t recording nor require any interaction from you. Once you determine which accessories the motion sensor should automate, it’s a “set it and forget it” type experience.

With the new Aqara Motion Sensor P1, Aqara is adding some nice enhancements to the product. Is it worth upgrading your existing motion sensors? Probably not, but if you’re looking to add motion-based automation in additional rooms, it’s hard to beat the value Aqara brings. One of the main features of the new motion sensor that customers will appreciate is a five-year battery life. Once you install an Aqara hub (bridges Zigbee protocol to HomeKit), you’ll get access to a wide range of Aqara accessories in the Home app. One of my favorite Aqara products is the Water Leak sensor. At under $20, it’s worth putting one under every sink in your home.

The Aqara Motion Sensor P1 is based on the Zigbee 3.0 protocol, which I’ve found to be extremely reliable. The Aqara sensors in my home are some of the most reliable products I have installed. The new motion adds a configurable detection timeout and an adjustable sensitivity level. The P1 sensor allows users to set the detection timeout between 1 to 200 seconds in the Aqara Home app. This is a highly useful setting when paired with other products from Aqara. With the sensitivity levels, you now have high, medium, and low options, which refers to the distance from which the sensor will be activated. If you’ve placed the device in an open-floor plan, it’ll be useful for monitoring sensors in a closer range.

One final feature that will be coming soon is support for Matter. The often talked about, but often delayed protocol from Apple, Google, Samsung, Amazon, and others – was originally set to debut back in 2020. It’s now set to debut in the fall of 2022. Aqara has committed to Matter support through an over-the-air firmware upgrade for both its hubs and the P1 motion sensor.

Wrap-up

The entry point for an Aqara hub and the Aqara P1 motion sensor can often be less than a standalone motion sensor. It looks the same as the original, but it packs enough new features that it should certainly be considered if you’re looking to add motion-based HomeKit automations. There’s nothing earth-shattering about this new product, but it’s an improvement over the original at a competitive price point that makes it reasonable to use all over your home – especially when paired with other Aqara products.

Once it’s bridged into HomeKit, you’ll get full access through Siri and the Home app, which can then be mixed and matched with other HomeKit products for scenes and automation. You can use the promo code MOTIONUS for 10% off through April 29 on Aqara’s Amazon store.