Facebook launches another standalone app, this time it's Groups

It's free on Android and iOS right now

Facebook is gradually turning features of its mobile service into standalone apps. Both Messenger and Paper got the app treatment, and now Groups is getting the same.

As its name suggests, Groups lets you interact specifically with the Facebook groups you're a part of. By putting this feature into its own app, Facebook hopes that it'll make managing and navigating these groups a bit easier.

Right now you can access Groups from within the main Facebook app, but the feature is somewhat hidden away among all the other bits and pieces of the social network's mobile application.

The Groups app makes things much clearer, presenting your groups in attractive circular icons, with your most frequently-visited positioned at the top.

However, if you're a regular user of Groups but don't fancy adding yet another app to your phone screen, the good news is that Facebook won't be forcing you to move over to the iOS/Android app.

You've got the option to keep using Groups from within the main app - at least for the foreseeable future.

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Pokémon finally launches on iOS, kind of

An official Pokémon game has finally arrived for mobile, but it's not quite what fans have been asking for: it's a digital trading card game.

The Pokémon Company

If ever there was a hugely popular franchise that would work perfectly for mobile, it's Pokémon. The top-down perspective would work beautifully with a virtual D-Pad and the turn-based combat system would easily adapt to touch controls. In fact, we've seen several clones already that work really well, such as Kairosoft's Beastie Bay and MinoMonsters -- but they're never going to be as good as the real thing.

But it's an uphill battle: the Pokémon Company was founded by Nintendo, whose stance against making games for the mobile platform is legendary. It seems, however, that the games giant is releasing its hold, just a little: The Pokémon Company has just released its first-ever Pokémon game for iPad.

It's not, however, the title most wanted by fans -- that is, one that features travelling throughout a region, collecting Pokémon, battling fellow trainers and working to foil the machinations of an evil faction who want to somehow ruin Pokémon for everyone. It might be the next best thing, though: a port of the online Pokémon TCG, which you can log into using your Pokémon Trainer Club account.

The game has its roots in the original tabletop TCG launched in 1996, and contains the same gameplay: Pokémon cards for battling; trainer cards; energy cards to give your attacks extra power; and potion cards to heal or boost your Pokémon.

Like Hearthstone, it's free to play, and players can add to their decks by winning matches against other players to get Trainer Tokens. As an additional pot-sweetener, if you purchase physical Pokémon cards in the real world, you'll receive a digital code that gives you the same card in the game, redeemable in the in-game shop.

A notice that the game offers in-app purchases on the iTunes page also implies that players can purchase Trainer Tokens with which to buy cards and avatar items, but we've yet to figure out how this is accomplished; the interface is a little counterintuitive and crowded, and not very pleasant to look at -- a stark contrast to Hearthstone.

The game needs to be played online so that you can battle other players, but does have a single-player "Trainer Challenge" campaign so that you can avoid other people if you're the sort of person who likes to play alone.

A quick play indicates that the game isn't without quite annoying problems, but one could consider the fact that it exists at all something of a breakthrough. It might not be the Pokémon game we want to be playing on our mobile devices, but baby steps are better than none at all.

Download it free from the iTunes app store.

Michelle Starr Michelle Starr is the tiger force at the core of all things. She also writes about cool stuff and apps as CNET Australia's Crave editor. But mostly the tiger force thing. See full bio

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IFA 2014: The five most exciting computing launches from IFA 2014

Asus and Lenovo raised the wonderbar at IFA

Ticked off with the amount of attention smartwatches received during IFA 2014? Come in, step right this way and grab yourself a chair. You only had to cast an eye over the svelte and shiny Ultrabooks, monster desktop rigs and battery-sipping tablets emerging from West Berlin this week to see that computing was the real winner.

The category had a lot going for it this year, not least in the way of variety, with more form factors than you could shake a bendy stick at - from 2-in-1 convertibles to conservative classics, extendable hinges and dual-mode designs. Throw in Intel's latest Core M CPUs, high-end AMD graphics chips and affordable Windows 8.1 tablets into the mix, and you've still only scratched the surface.

Don't believe us? Check out the following computing devices that hit the IFA 2014 show floor, which were just a few of the many silicon-packing products to make our palms sweat and wallets quiver.

Chrome OS is pretty, in a minimalist kind of way, and its rich colour palette looks even better when shown off on a quality IPS display - such as the one on the HP Chromebook 11. For that reason, we're pretty excited about the Toshiba Chromebook 2, which landed at IFA sporting a gorgeous 13-inch full-HD (1,920 x 1,080 pixel resolution) IPS display.

It's been fixed onto a machine that's thinner and lighter than the original Toshiba Chromebook, and its Skullcandy speakers have apparently been fine-tuned with deeper bass and more precision vocals. It's all available for a penny under £200 (around $326, or AUS$347), so you won't have to break the bank to get your hands on one.

Did you hear the one about PC gaming being on its deathbed? Judging by the Erazer X315 gaming desktop PC, which boasts serious internal grunt at a price tag that could see it take on the Xbox One and PS4, somebody forgot to send Lenovo the memo.

While we don't doubt that the price will rise when configured with more powerful specs, a cost of £363 for the base unit, which fetches you a quad-core processor and AMD R9 graphics chip, makes this angular battle station a seriously attractive proposition. There are more than 65 million subscribers on Steam's gaming service, and with rigs like this one hitting the market, we reckon that figure is only set to grow.

Remember netbooks? Of course you do - you might even have one collecting dust in a drawer, quietly sobbing while contemplating how its plans for world domination went horribly wrong. With its EE PC, Asus single-handedly launched the netbook era, and now seven years later it has introduced the EeeBook X205 in a bid to recapture some of that lost netbook magic (as opposed to their sluggish performance, terrible battery life, cramped keyboards and masses of bloatware).

The EeeBook X205 features a netbook-like 11.6-inch non-touchscreen display, but totes a full-size chiclet keyboard, rather than the cramped old variety. Best of all is the price: a wallet-friendly £163, which makes it a more affordable option than convertible touchscreen offerings like the Asus T100. If you're seeking excellent portability without the frills, wrapped up in a classic form factor, the EeeBook could be the way to go.

Apple's 13-inch MacBook Air used to be the de-facto benchmark that its rivals measured up against, but Ultrabooks such as the Asus Zenbook UX305 show that the gap is now so wide that the comparison no longer presents a fair fight. The UX305, according to Asus, is the thinnest QHD+ laptop in the world measuring a mere 12.3mm (versus the Air's 17mm) while weighing just 1.4Kg (versus the Air's 1.35Kg).

It'll also fetch you a dazzling, Retina-beating 3,200 x 1,800 pixel-resolution display, which is an exciting proposition made more tantalising by the fact that it's not a touchscreen variant - meaning it should bear a slightly more affordable price tag when it hits the shelves.

Ruggedised tablets are, more often than not, designed for enterprises - and they're usually big, bulky monstrosities so expensive you'd need an IT budget to afford one. Cue the Samsung Galaxy Tab Active, which was unwrapped at IFA with the claim of being the "world's thinnest ruggedised tablet". An 8-inch device protected with an anti-shock covering that can withstand a 1.2-metre drop, it houses a 1.2 GHz Quad-Core processor, is powered by Android 4.4 and takes up to 1.5GB of LPDDR3 RAM.

Moreover, it's one of the first ruggedised tablets that, despite being made for businesses, wouldn't make you look daft if you were to carry it around. Pair it with a Bluetooth keyboard, plug in a mouse and you'd be left with a super portable, near-indestructible productivity station. The question is: will it be affordable? We're quietly optimistic, but won't hold our breath.

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