Spyware is malware that snoops on your online activities, such as listening into phone calls, intercepting SMSes and logging all your web browsing.
The “remix” is deliberately poisoned with an Android spyware/RATware/zombie toolkit that hides malware code inside a fully-functional and otherwise identical-looking version of the original app.
In fact, the crooks have gone there already, with at least one hacked “malware remix” of the official Pokémon GO app doing the rounds. Nor do we buy into Google’s efforts in 2015 to “define away” the problem of malware in the Play Store by renaming all malware as Potential Harmful Applications (ironically divided into categories such as spyware, call_fraud, ransomware and even generic_malware).īut Google’s warnings about untrusted apps are worth heeding anyway, because the Play Store is relatively safe, especially compared to many alternative app markets where anything goes, and anyone can upload anything. We’re not naive enough to assume that Google Play is immune to malware.
…that most players will have headed off to alternative markets to grab the software unofficially: Indeed, the game’s already wildly popular over here in the UK, which means…
Nevertheless, as you can see in the screenshots above, we’ve managed not only to install the app on Android in the UK, but also to use it successfully, with the UK maps and game infrastructure working just fine.
We’re not sure we understand why going to the skateboard park to stare at the world through your phone’s camera is more fun than going there to skate, or even just to stare at the world through your own eyes, but there’s no mistaking the runaway popularity of Pokémon GO.Įven the most perfunctory online search will bring up dozens of articles offering advice all the way from how to fix “GPS not found” errors to “when to evolve and when to power up.”Īpparently, the success of the app has also been a problem: overloaded servers, delays in signing up, and more.įor that reason, it’s currently only available in the Apple App Store and on Google Play in a handful of countries.
Obviously, walking around an urban landscape while watching your mobile phone screen is both dangerous and anti-social, as the app warns you each time you start it up: Once you’ve got the balls, you can wander afield looking for Pokémons to shoot, ahem, capture, ahhh, train. PokéStops are supposed to be near important landmarks such as statues and monuments (our closest is at the local skateboard park), where you can get hold of the ammo, sorry, Poké Balls you need to catch more characters. Once you’ve caught the three starter Pokémons, you need to venture around your neighbourhood to find PokéStops. There’s the creature, grafted into the live image, in what’s called “augmented reality.” When the game figures your geolocation data is close enough to the target location, you turn on your phone’s camera, and, hey, look at that! To collect them, you actually have to go to where the virtual creatures are supposed to be. Unlike most “virtual world” games, however, the map used in Pokémon GO is the world around you, and the creatures you’re supposed to find are added to the map. You install the app, give it access to your location and your camera (amongst numerous other permissions), and set about finding Pokémon creatures in the game. If you haven’t, you probably will soon: it’s an online game for mobile phones, and it’s taken the world by storm.