2,516,000,000 - That’s a lot of downloaded apps….

January 19, 2010 at 11:29 am by Mark | In Mobile Content/Services, Mobile Phone Applications, Mobile Phone Games

An American Research company have released reports stating that more than 2.5 billion apps were downloaded in 2009 across the globe. That’s an absolutely astonishing figure with games topping the list in terms of popularity; but it was also noted that Mobile Shopping, Social Networking, Utilities and Productivity Tools were “continuing to grow and attract increasing amounts of money.” The 2.5 billion downloaded apps in 2009 equated to revenues in excess of $4.2 Billion (£2.6 Billion)

The report from Gartner moves on to give predictions for 2010 and 2013, with the number of apps being downloaded being 4.5 Billion and 21.6 Billion respectively, with revenues reaching $6.7 Billion (£4.1 Billion) and $29.5 Billion (£18 Billion). The latter of which is truly an obscene amount of money when you take into consideration what it is that is being sold.

The figures provided by Gartner only go to prove the scale on which handsets such as the iPhone 3GS are becoming an integral part of everyday life and the impact that “app stores” have made and will continue to make in years to come. Fancy getting in on the “app store” action? Then why not take a look our iPhones deals and get yourself access to the most successful app store currently on the market.

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Robbie Williams launches iPhone App!

December 1, 2009 at 12:13 pm by Dan | In Mobile Phone Applications, Mobile Phone Games

Celebrity endorsed games are nothing new, just take a look at the world of extreme sports and the phenomenal success professional Skateboarder Tony Hawk has enjoyed with his game series of the same name. It’s not even unheard of for musicians to get in on the act with such offerings as Beatles Rock Band and Aerosmith Guitar Hero. So when Robbie Williams announces that he’s set to launch his own iPhone game, surely we can safely assume it will be some sort of music game. Well no, Mr Williams has refused to conform with his peers and instead decided to release…a racing game!

Normally the vehicle (excuse the pun) for the likes of Mario, Sonic, Crash Bandicoot and co., Robbie Williams Racing puts you behind the wheel of a dune buggy or motor cross bike as you take on the former Take That star in a series of one on one races. There’s a host of unlockables on offer including remixes of the track “Bodies” and commentary from the man himself. It’s no small coincidence that our Robbie just happens to have a new album out and the game takes full advantage of this with several in-game links to iTunes where you can download singles or the album in it’s entirety.

The aforementioned little red plumber (Mario not Robbie) has nothing to worry about of course; Mario Kart this isn’t. However it is refreshing to see an artist try something a little different when promoting a new release. The game is available now in the App Store for £1.79 whilst the album, Reality Killed the Video Star, can be downloaded from iTunes. All this leaves us to say is…Madonna Speedboat Racing anyone?

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Nokia N-Gage platform is no more!

November 4, 2009 at 9:02 am by Dan | In Mobile Content/Services, Mobile Phone Games

Nokia have put the final nail in the N-Gage’s coffin with the announcement that no new games will be published for the platform with immediate effect. Existing games will still be available to purchase and download up until September 2010 but for those hoping for exciting new releases in the run up to Christmas, you’re going to be disappointed.

N-Gage originally launched as both a hardware and software gaming platform with the release of the first N-Gage handset back in 2003. Poorly received (any one remember the 1st gen N-Gage that had to be held side-on to make a call?!) and despite numerous revamps, the phone itself was abandoned in 2005 in favour of a move to Symbian S60 smartphones that could run N-Gage games. But still, the platform failed to take off and the news that N-Gage will be killed off entirely shouldn’t come as too much of a shock. Instead Nokia will be focusing efforts on the Ovi store where both Nokia titles and 3rd party games will be available for purchase.

In a statement released late last week, Nokia had the following to say: “We will no longer publish new games for the N-Gage platform. N-Gage games can be purchased until the end of September 2010. While the N-Gage.com site together with the N-Gage Arena and other community features will remain in operation throughout 2010.” With the emergence of the iPhone as an excellent gaming phone together with the presence of consoles dedicated to gaming (DSi and the new PSP Go for instance), N-Gage was on thin ice.

Nokia did however offer some conselation to those worrying about games already purchased; “Your games are safe, all your purchased N-Gage games will continue to work on your N-Gage compatible mobile device and they’re yours to keep. However, community features of the games will not be functional after 2010.”

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Rock Band for iPhone hits the App Store!

October 19, 2009 at 2:33 pm by Dan | In Just For Fun, Mobile Phone Applications, Mobile Phone Games

Apple’s App Store is the gift that keeps on giving. Not content with heavy weight apps from the likes of Tom Tom and Spotify, the iPhone has now set its sights on the rhythm music game genre in a bid to win the battle of portable gaming devices and establish itself as the console of choice for the gaming connoisseur. How does it plan to do this you ask? With Rock Band, one of the finest music rhythm games to ever grace home consoles.

As this is a scaled down portable version, the fake guitar is understandably (and obviously) ditched in favour of an all on screen affair. Tap notes as they move along the on screen guitar frets and string long combos together to maximise your scores. Bored of jammin’ alone? Then get some friends involved via Bluetooth. You and up to 3 friends can rock out on guitar, bass, drums and vocals (fear not you shy and retiring types, vocals are again handled on screen rather than literally singing into the phone).

Tracks from the likes of the Pixies and Blink 182 should cater for the young and err.. not so young rockers out there and at a mere £5.99, Rock Band on the iPhone is almost irresistible. Apple have been making alot of noise about the iPod and iPhone being a genuine alternative to portable gaming heavy weights such as the PSP and Nintendo DS and with stellar titles such as this, it’s easy to see why.

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Barclaycard Waterslide iPhone App!

August 3, 2009 at 8:20 am by Dan | In Just For Fun, Mobile Phone Applications, Mobile Phone Games

With its fun premise and funky music, the current Barclaycard advert running on TV (depicting a man leaving work via a waterslide and buying various items with his Barclaycard) is a firm favourite in the office. And it seems the wider world is just as fond based on a tie in free App for the iPhone which has reached a staggering 3 million downloads in just 13 days to make it the number one free App in over 50 countires.

The free app available from the App store lets gamers take control of a swimsuit-clad male or female hurtling down a huge waterslide that weaves between towering skyscrapers. Players use the iPhones motion sensitivity (thanks to the built in accelerometer) to steer characters to collect items as well as dodge the dreaded rubber ducks and crabs that litter the course. Great fun and absolutely free, but don’t take my word for it, check out the video below to see the game in action!

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The greatest iPhone App ever?

July 7, 2009 at 9:26 am by Dan | In Just For Fun, Mobile Phone Applications, Mobile Phone Games

Ok, so you need an area roughly the size of a football field to play and ideally around three other friends with iPhones, but i still can’t think of a better way to fill an afternoon and get a bit of exercise than with the excellent Seek ‘n Spell app, available for the tidy sum of 59p from the App store.

The idea behind Seek ‘n Spell is simple; you and up to 9 friends (yes, you can play 10 player!) fire up the game in your local park and Seek ‘n Spell will upload a map of your location. The game then dots various letters around the map. The aim of the game is to run round collecting letters (the Seek part) and then use the virtual letters you have gathered to create words (the spell part!). The game plays out like a huge version of Scrabble with the exception being that rather than playing on a measly board, the whole world is your playing surface with the game requiring you to run round the location picking up those precious letters.

Collect up to 10 letters at a time, tap the letters in the letter tray to spell the word then hit submit to register your word and get your score. The bigger the word, the bigger the score. Special golden letters appear from time to time, spicing things up a bit by doubling your word score. Seek ‘n Spell lets you play with up to 10 players but for those of you with friends without an iPhone 3G, you can take it in turns using 1 phone seeing who can get the biggest score.

Manic doesn’t begin to cover it! Seek ‘n Spell is now available through the app store and easily a contender for best iPhone game yet.

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Nokia Ovi Store officially open for business!

May 28, 2009 at 8:31 am by Dan | In Mobile Content/Services, Mobile News, Mobile Phone Applications, Mobile Phone Games

Better late than never is perhaps the most appropriate phrase for Nokia’s Ovi store. With Apple’s App store recently bagging its billionth download and Blackberry App World starting to gain momentum, Nokia have finally got their App store up and running with the Ovi store now open. Should Apple and co. be concerned by the big N’s offering?

First impressions of the store are good. Setting up an account and logging in is relatively painless; choose your Nokia phone, enter in a few details such as creating a username and password and your account is instantly activated. Once logged in, the Ovi store will take you back to the homepage and show you a selection of recommended applications for your phone, both free and chargeable. From here you can then use the tabs at the top to sort by most recent and also by type (games/ applications/ wallpapers etc.). On each category there is also the option to filter between paid and free apps. The lay out of the Ovi Store is clear and straight forward and navigating is hassle free. Negotiating the different genre’s also makes it easy to filter so you can find what you’re looking for. One negative is the lack of free applications (in games there were only 5 compatible with my N82 and one of these was a demo) but considering the Ovi store is only a few days old, we’re willing to overlook this.

So first impressions are positive for Nokia’s Ovi Store. It goes without saying that they have there work cut out for them following in the foot steps of the hugely succesful (not to mention all round brilliant) iPhone App store but the launch of the Ovi store in the run up to the launch of the N97 is just in the nick of time. Can Nokia build on the good start it has made? Only time will tell…

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The Sony Ericsson F305 in stock now!

February 12, 2009 at 1:12 pm by Jack | In Mobile News, Mobile Phone Games, Mobile Phones

The Sony Ericsson F305 taking mobile gaming to the next level has now launched and is available on a range of amazing deals at Mobiles.co.uk, part of the Carphone Warehouse.

Sony Ericsson’s latest phone, the Sony Ericsson F305, is a phone that delivers a world class handheld gaming experience in a sleek and stylishly designed slide phone. With the F305 your favourite game is only one-click away. Enjoy the full gaming experience with stereo speakers, 2” large TFT display with a resolution of 176×220 pixels and up to 262.144 colours. Taking some of the Sony experience on board with their Playstation heritage and integrating it with motion sensor technology used in some of their previous phones for full motion sensitive game play. Swing, shake and swipe your way through 10 pre-installed games, including Bowling, Bass Fishing and Horse riding with a further 50(ish) 2D and 3D titles set to be available for download.

A spokesperson for Sony Ericsson claims this handset is simply “natural progression” and you have to really agree as it does take mobile game play to a whole new level.

Away from gaming, the F305 features everything you would expect from a new mobile phone including an impressive 2.0 Megapixel camera with video recording capabilities and an MP3 player with Sony Ericsson’s popular TrackID application which finds artist and album information from a short music clip that you record. Hear a song you like, simply open TrackID, record a few seconds and the phone will find out who it’s by and take you to the music store to download it. Elsewhere this cool compact slider has an FM radio to boost its music potential and despite only having 10 MB of internal memory, is complimented with a memory card slot supporting up to 4GB for storage of extra games and music, not to mention video.

To complement the F305 there is now a handy new accessory available for Sony Ericsson handsets which should certainly appeal to any serious gamer. Although the F305 already gives you up to 8 hours of gameplay, you can now have the reassurance of a back-up power supply with the ‘Power Pack CPP-100’. Attach it to your key ring and when you need it, simply plug it into the phone to receive an instant battery power boost!

The F305 sets to be the start of an interesting new twist for mobile gaming. Whether the F series will develop into a gaming range similar to the Walkman W range and Camera C series only time will tell however, if this handset is anything to go by, it would definitely be an exciting proposition. The F305 is now available to buy or upgrade to at mobiles.co.uk on both O2 and T-Mobile Networks. Click here to go directly to the F305’s page.

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iPhone takes on the handheld gaming world with Metal Gear Solid Touch!

December 17, 2008 at 5:17 pm by Dan | In Mobile Content/Services, Mobile News, Mobile Phone Games, Mobile Phones

Apple seem to have made they’re feelings on the iPhone’s gaming potential quite clear over the past couple of months with several big players in the games industry committing to the touchscreen mobile phone. And now, Apple can count another feather in their cap with the announcement from games giant Konami that they will be releasing an iPhone 3G and iPod Touch exclusive version of the massively popular Metal Gear Solid games series. The Game, expected to be available through the App store in spring next year under the imaginative title Metal Gear Solid Touch will see gamers control their character with that beautiful 3.5 inch TFT display.

Initially, the game will be released with 8 levels, with incentives such as wallpapers rewarding players who complete each level. Though anyone who has played an MGS game will agree that getting this on to the iPhone will be no easy task, what this goes to show is just what a multimedia monster the iPhone 3G really is. Having already revolutionised music mobile phones with iTunes, mobile phone web browsing and SatNav, it seems portable gaming is next in Apples sights. With versions of Pacman and Sega’s popular Super Monkey Ball series already available along with a host of games specifically designed for the App store, the i Phone is definitely flexing its gaming muscles. While this may only be of interest to the gaming half of the iPhone population, it proves what the Apple iPhone is really capable of. Without question, the iPhone 3G is much more than just a phone.

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