At its peak this summer, one in ten Americans was playing Pokémon GO. The smash hit game for catching Nintendo’s popular digital characters around real-world neighborhoods soared to become the most downloaded app ever in its first week and the first to reach an estimated $500 million in revenue for creators Niantic labs. Pokémon GO‘s popularity, even if it’s naturally waning this fall, months after release, has been undeniable. But as a magical sales-booster for small merchants, the game has proven more hype than reality. All summer, inspirational stories emerged from across the United States about businesses seeing major sales boosts from gamers chasing Pokémon to their doors. Charmander helped …

Time, Inc. is teaming up with New Zealand-based 3D virtual reality firm 8i to bring a series of holographic messages designed for future missions to Mars to mobile users. The holographic videos will feature Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin and entertainer Reggie Watts sharing their own inspirational takes on the Mars missions. The mass media conglomerate will distribute the Message to Mars recordings via its LIFE VR vertical in early 2017. 

The executives heading up Apple’s “car strategy” reportedly have until late 2017 to prove that the tech giant should enter the auto industry. In the meantime, “Apple Inc. has drastically scaled back its automotive ambitions, leading to hundreds of job cuts and a new direction that, for now, no longer includes building its own car,” Bloomberg reports, citing sources.

Driverless cars would hit a child on the street if it meant saving the people inside the vehicle, Mercedes-Benz Australia says. The luxury car brand's Australian branch has answered the moral dilemma of who a driverless car would save if it was faced with running over a child or swerving into a car and potentially killing the passengers.  'If there is someone literally jumping in front of you, in that circumstance, there's nothing technology can do except reduce speed of impact,' Mercedes-Benz Australia spokesman David McCarthy told The Australian. 

When it comes to virtual and augmented reality, Apple is typically — and inevitably — inscrutable. As several of its biggest competitors, including Google and Microsoft, have shown their hands with augmented reality (AR) or virtual reality (VR) strategies, Apple has mostly kept a poker face. But in an exclusive interview with BuzzFeed News Japan during his visit to Tokyo, Cook clarified Apple’s position a bit, suggesting the company is most interested in AR because it can enhance and amplify human experiences. “There’s no substitute for human contact,” Cook told BuzzFeed News. “And so you want the technology to encourage that.” …

Coca-Cola is partnering with Dollar General for actionable in-store content through the soda brand’s beacon technology, while a Halloween-themed social campaign encourages consumer engagement. The partnership also involves digital marketing agency HelloWorld. The promotion, billed as Fanta-DG Wickedly Good encourages the use of social media and user-generated content to promote the Halloween shopping season, while Coca-Cola’s beacons provide the in-store incentive.

Alibaba Group Holdings' finance arm on Wednesday demonstrated a payment service that will allow virtual reality shoppers to pay for things in future just by nodding their heads. VR Pay, the new payment system, is part of Alibaba's efforts to capitalise on the latest technology in online shopping. In 2015, for example, it introduced a facial recognition technology for Alipay mobile payments service advertised as "pay with a selfie". The VR payment technology means people using virtual reality goggles to browse virtual reality shopping malls will be able pay for purchases without taking off the goggles. They can just nod …

Time, Inc. is making waves in the world of virtual reality with the first-ever VR series chronicling a climb from the bottom of Mount Everest to the top, all of it streamed through the company’s LIFE VR mobile application. The documentary series, titled “Capturing Everest,” follows a two-month excursion to the highest peak in the world. The series is produced by Sports Illustrated and will be the magazine’s first content housed on the LIFE VR platform, along with content from other Time, Inc. brands.

Visitors to Berlin zoo can now access a whole bunch of extra information on the animals thanks to an app powered by beacon technology. When a visitor is near the gorilla enclosure, for example, the app will automatically bring up information about the great ape. The same goes for a number of other animals including leopards, elephants or penguins. There is also an alarm to inform guests about feeding times or walking tours. “We have installed so-called beacons at selected animal enclosures,” the zoo’s Social Media Manager, Tobias Grüter, explains. “They are small transmitters that send a signal to the …

Facebook reportedly is in talks with multiple countries to host trials of its Aquila drones, which it wants to use to deliver internet to unconnected or underserved areas. Several countries may be involved in the trials. “Some of the countries that are really clamoring to host this first demo have huge regions where there is zero or very poor internet connectivity,” Martin Gomez, Facebook’s director of aeronautical platforms, said on the sidelines of a Royal Aeronautical Society drone conference in London, The Wall Street Journal reported. Demonstrations could take place in 2018, though an exact schedule hasn’t been fixed.