Author: Julie Campbell

Some botters and spoofers may have been getting away with it until now, but Niantic is cracking down.

It can be tempting to use Pokémon Go cheats to get ahead in the game. However, cheating comes with a high risk. The developer behind the augmented reality game – Niantic – issued a warning to cheaters.

Cheating while playing Pokémon Go could cause a player to be banned from the game for life.

Pokémon Go cheats have become increasingly commonplace. Honest players are meant to walk around to catch Pokémon. They can also fight their monsters against those of other players at Gyms. However, some players have been finding ways to avoid all the walking to catch more Pokémon. Many have been successful in cheating. That said, Niantic is aiming to bring that to an end. It is not trying to gradually phase out the cheating. It is trying to slam the door on it.

Players around the globe have been using Pokémon Go cheats in the form of GPS hacks and bots.

This way, they have been able to move ahead in the game. The cheats trick the mobile devices into thinking they are in a different place. Players can remain in their homes while tricking the mobile game app into thinking they are walking around. This allows those cheating players to increase their levels far beyond players who are required to run around their cities to find and catch more Pokémon.

The rash of cheating has caused a considerable uproar among players. Those who have been playing honestly simply can’t compete against those armed with hacks, spoofs and bots. Niantic’s official website now states that violators of the Terms and Services will be penalized. Among the penalties is a permanent ban from the game.

Therefore, if anyone is caught using a location falsifier of any kind, a bot, or even a third-party mobile app that tracks down Pokémon, the result could be a life-long ban from the game.

The developers at Niantic have also reached out to the player community. They have asked for assistance in putting Pokémon Go cheats to an end. The goal is to have players assist in tracking down cheaters around the world. A form is available to anyone who wants to report someone they believe is cheating in order to move ahead in the game.

Researchers have developed a battery that has a high voltage and will last a longer time than current tech.

Scientists have come up with a vitamin powered phone battery technology that will allow devices to last longer while giving them more voltage. Moreover, this could be an important step toward reducing the price tag of battery powered devices.

This new battery technology is not entirely unlike lithium-ion but are different in an important way.

The battery is different because it uses flavin – a component of vitamin B2 – as its cathode. The cathode is the part of the battery that stores the electricity. Then, that energy can be used once it is connected to a device. This vitamin powered phone battery provides a more natural solution to the question of how to keep devices charged.

Dwight Steferos from Canada’s University of Toronto, said “We have been looking to nature for a while to find complex molecules for use in a number of consumer electronics applications.” He added, “When you take something made by nature that is already complex, you end up spending less time making new material.”

The vitamin powered phone battery provides a very affordable way of giving mobile devices the charge they need.

This is not the first time a battery has been made with bio-derived components. However, this is the first rechargeable battery using bio-derived polymers. Polymers are long chain molecules. They are used for one of this new battery technology’s electrodes.

This technology’s key is the possibility it opens for keeping the energy stored within a vitamin-created plastic. The plastic is far less expensive than traditionally-used metals such as cobalt. The vitamin-created plastic is also more environmentally friendly and easier to process. It may play a central role in reducing our dependence on portable battery packs due to inadequate charge.

The scientists developed the material from vitamin B2. They sourced the vitamin from genetically-modified fungi. They used a semi-synthetic process for polymer preparation. It linked a long-chain molecule with two flavin units.

The result is a vitamin-powered phone battery that is environmentally friendly with a high voltage and with a high capacity. These and the rest of the findings from the researchers were published in the Advanced Functional Materials journal.