'Pokémon Go' update kills battery-saving mode, footprint tracking

Pokémon Go's first substantial update adds tweaks for overpowered Pokemon (those consistently at the top of Pokemon gyms: cough, Vaporean, cough), where the critters can be found, and a raft of bug and text fixes. Niantic has decided to drop the footprint tracking system that didn't even work in the debut iteration of the game; you'll have to make do with the vague list of nearby Pokémon. And pray. The update also nixed the battery-saving feature (update: on iOS only), although this editor and others found that feature often made the app unresponsive. Your mileage may have varied, but regardless, battery-saving mode is no more. So turn that screen brightness down, and definitely bring your portable battery pack on your Pokémon hunts.

Smaller changes include the ability to customize your trainer again and relocated buttons for transferring Pokémon. Each time you load the app, it'll remind you to take care when playing, not to trespass, and other common sense nuggets. Because people can't have nice things.

Favoriting your strongest monsters will protect them from being accidentally sent to the glue factory professor, which is certainly useful. Since the update, some users are noticing that Pokémon have to be much closer to appear "nearby" on the map, although the refreshed app has arrived at the same time as many Pokémon map scanning services have been indefinitely terminated.

PokeVision, one of the more popular services, said it's respecting Niantic and Nintendo's wishes by taking its map down for the time being. Tracking just got trickier -- and the wearable is still delayed.