Hot on the heels of today's Minecraft announcement, Sony Ericsson and EA Mobile have revealed that the Android version of FIFA 12, the latest instalment in the popular soccerfootball game series, will be available exclusively on the Xperia Play for a limited time.
Xperia Play owners will be able to get their hands on FIFA 12 when it's released during the holiday season, while other devices will have to wait until Feb. 21, 2012. SE and EA promise a game experience optimized to take advantage of the Xperia Play's hardware, with frame rates up to a silky 60fps.
Join us after the jump for the presser, and if you're rocking an Xperia Play, let us know in the comments if you plan on snapping this one up.
Its been a long time coming but it's finally here for Sony Ericsson Xperia Play owners at least. Yes, Minecraft Pocket Edition has gone live in the Android Market and is now available for download. As noted on the Mojang blog:
The first version (Alpha 0.1) will focus on the creative aspects of Minecraft. We have tried to put in the features that make sense for playing on a mobile device while still keeping the core of the Minecraft experience. You will be able to select blocks on the touchscreen or just scroll through them with the circle and square buttons on the Xperia Play device. The first version also supports multi-player on a local wireless network allowing you to create a world and invite friends to build together. Some of the features in this release include:
Randomized worlds
Build anything you can imagine
Build with 36 different kinds of blocks
Invite and play with friends to your world (local wireless network)
Save multi-player worlds on your own phone
Awesome! For now, Minecraft is a Sony Ericsson Xperia Play exclusive with it rolling out to other Android devices at a later time. Ready to get your mobile Minecrafting on? It'll set you back $6.99 -- you can jump past the break for the download and some slick videos of it in action.
Source: Mojang; Thanks, everyone who sent this in!
If there's ever an app I'm always willing to try out, it's a new newsreader. And today we bring you Flud News (or FLUD News) for Android. It's a graphically intensive newsreader, with story thumbnails getting prominent play. Flud comes preloaded with a few feeds -- there's The Flud, which features stories aggregated from various sources as voted on by Flud's users, plus a few other design and tech-related sites. Or, you can include your Twitter timeline, add your own feeds, or connect to Google Reader and pick and choose from feeds you already follow.
Graphically, Flud is beautiful. The ability to easily bookmark and share stories makes it that much better. Other features include:
Search for sites, blogs or other RSS feeds
Customized categories and sortable feeds
Sync with Google Reader
Option for web view
Full-screen mode
Tweet and retweet from your social stream
Share to Twitter, Facebook, Email
Bookmarks
Offline reading mode
This is one you definitely need to check out, especially seeing as how it's free. And check it out we have. Hit the break for our quick video hands-on and download links.
Fliers rocking an Android tablet or phone can now get online above 10,000 feet just a little bit easier. Gogo, the company that supplies in-flight Wifi, has just released its long-awaited Android application. Available for free in the Android Market (you can find links after the break), the Gogo flight streamlines the process of getting online. Just enter your account credentials and you're golden. (The app will also make sure your phone or tablet actually has Wifi turned on, which is nice.)
Now, you don't get something for nothing here -- you'll still have to pony up a few bucks for your Wifis. Short flights -- up to 650 miles -- will cost $4.95. Longer flights will run $7.95 a leg.
Astraware has released their new Word Games application, and are offering it exclusively on the Barnes & Noble store. It's a suite of five word games, that share a 100,000 word dictionary. The games calculate scores based not only on the letters used and the length of the words, but also how "interesting" or uncommon they are. The games are:
Shuffle - Make as many words as you can with the letters provided including the 5, 6 or 7 letter target word to unlock the next level. The more small words you get, the bigger your score. Use the Shuffle button to mix the letters up and help yourself spot more words!
Hexxed - Make words by tracing your finger through the tiles to make a chain within the hexagonal grid! Two play modes - limited tiles or limited time. Create long, interesting or unusual words to keep your word power score up and earn more tiles or time!
Wordsearch - Find all the listed words within the grid of letters, horizontally vertically, or diagonally! Play using the standard dictionary, or choose from over 20 special lists of themed words!
Gridlock - Make words by tracing your fingers through the letters to make a chain. As you make words this lights up the tiles. Light up the whole grid to level up! Use special tiles to boost your word power, score bonus points and more.
Spellmaster - Challenge your spelling skills against words of increasing difficulty. Choose the correct spelling from a choice of 4 words, 3 of which are misspelled!
Games of this nature should appeal to Nook Color buyers, and having it included in the on-device app store makes it easy for Nook Color users to download and enjoy them. Word Games costs $4.99, and of course is available from the Nook Apps Store. The full press release is after the break.
Sit around doodling a lot of pictures? If so, we have just the puzzle game for ya. Drawdle allows you to take your doodles, and turn them into awesome physics puzzles where you must solve the puzzles using your own doodles. The folks from One Side Softwarerolled by the Android Central forums to let us know the latest update is now currently available. In the latest version you get, HD graphics for tablets and new zooming and aiming features. If you're looking to have some fun with your doodles, give Drawdle a go -- you can thank us later. Download can be found past the break.
Apps are oh so much fun, and they make the Android experience so much better. If you have a hard time while searching the Android Market, you won't want to delay any further. Hit the jump and let's take a look at what we got this week for you.
No self-respecting boy (and probably a few girls, too) has never thought about driving a tank. Closest most of us can get to doing it, though, is in a video game. And that brings us to Tank Hero. It's a cool little shooter -- you've got a tank, you need to destroy the other tanks. The maps (at least in the initial levels -- remind me a lot of the old Gauntlet game. (Speaking of which -- need that on Android, ASAP!) Anyhoo. You can unlock more maps as you progress through the campaigns. There's also survival and timed modes.
Gameplay is simple. There's a D-pad on the left with which you'll direct your tank. (You can also try a janky swiping control if you want.) Tap the enemy tanks to fire at them (and note how you can do bank shots off one wall). But that's where the trouble begins. If the tank's on the left side of the screen, it's an awkward reach with right hand. Or you have to let off the D-pad with your left hand. That's no good.
Otherwise, Tank Hero's a little slice of fun. And, even better -- it's free. Give it a whirl. Download links are after the break.
For sports fans, the long wait is finally at an end. The Sky Sports News app has landed on Android. It's been a long old wait, but with the English Premier League season about to begin, the timing is perfect.
It looks a lot like the iPhone equivalent, but that's not such a bad thing. Nothing complicated, simple well laid out menus with dedicated sections for individual sports. It also touts as providing exclusive video content, a latest news ticker, a customizable home screen, and the brand new Sky Sports News Radio service.
The downside; Radio only works on Android versions 1.6 - 2.2. No indication as to why, and since I run 2.3.4, this portion of the app is unavailable to me to test. Shame.
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