First, after a brief rally playing Ingress in downtown Ontario, I drifted away from the game again.
Second, phone technology improved, allowing you to track exercise without using an app such as Runkeeper - rendering my Ingress-Runkeeper compatibility issues moot. But I didn't know that, because I had drifted away from Ingress.
Third, the Ingress application became available for iPhones. But I didn't know that, because I had drifted away from Ingress. And, after all, I didn't own an iPhone.
Fourth, within a couple of months of my Android phone upgrade (to a Galaxy S 5)...I got an iPhone from my work.
Fifth, at about the time that Google morphed (heh) into Alphabet, the Google subsidiary Niantic Labs announced that it would be independent of both Google and Alphabet.
Sixth, my office moved about three miles east of where it used to be. The relevance of this will become clear later.
Seventh, I loaned my Android phone to a mouse for eight months. But after the mouse left us to seek better cheese, I obtained possession of my Android phone again and thought, "Why not install Ingress on this phone?"
So I did, and immediately noticed that there appeared to be more portals than there were three years ago. In fact, there are at least a half dozen portals within walking distance of my new office. When I was last playing, there was only one portal within walking distance of my old office - now there are three.
After playing on my Android phone for a bit, I belatedly discovered that Ingress is now available for the iPhone, and installed it on that phone also. Since I'm using Apple Health (and Jawbone) to track steps, using Ingress on that phone provides the nice gameplay/exercise tracking combination that I've desired for years.
I'm slowly remembering how to play the game (while continuing to play it on my own terms), and so hopefully I will eventually progress in it. (My current level is level 4.)
Oh, and another thing changed; Ingress now has sixteen levels, not just eight. So I'm now twelve levels away from the top.
