Popular iOS game, Tiny Tower, is slowly but surely being ported over to Android by Mobage.  Before yesterday, the Android version of the adorable property management game we lacking some of the feature of its iOS cousin.  Having never played the game on an iphone, I wasn’t really missing features like store upgrades or the bitbuilder until I read that I was missing out on them.  Yesterday, however, I noticed some new features in my game.  I am now able to upgrade my stores, access bitbuilder, and share a link to my tower.  I can’t find any kind of patch notes for this latest update, so I don’t know if any other updates were made to make it a bit closer to the iOS version, but I would keep an eye out for any other improvements that might have snuck their way into your tower.

Tiny Tower @ Android Market

Amazon has taken the gloves off this week for the fourth quarter Christmas season by revealing a goody bag of readied technology.  On the list includes, a 79$ kindle, relatively low cost Kindles with touchscreens, and the new tablet Kindle Fire.

The lower prices and touch screens are of no real surprise.  E-readers via Nook and Kindle have been competing in an epic arms race since being created and this is not going to stop anytime soon.  What I am interested in is this “iPad Killer” called the Kindle Fire.

Amazon states that it is the culmination of 15 years worth of technology development and it seems very promising from initial looks.  Cloud based technology leads it off, something that many devices have been getting behind recently.  It possesses a 7-inch color touchscreen, an e-reader app that makes full color magazines available, full integration with Amazon Prime streaming, a relatively active app store, and access to your Amazon digital music purchases via cloud.  It is an impressive list.

Will it challenge the iPad? No, probably not, at least to start.  However, it is easy to track how vigorously competitive Amazon has been with the Nook. I would not count them out of the tablet race yet.  They have a promising starting product and the means to support it vigorously.  Make no mistake; Amazon is here to challenge Apple for best tablet out there.  Give it a little time and I think you will see.  What do you think?

DM
All Geeks Considered

Perhaps it is a sad state of affairs but much like The Daily Show provides me my reasonably balanced TV news, webcomics, of late, seem to be providing me the most geek news.  A recent strip from Penny Arcade led me to the news that Nintendo was reducing the price of the 3DS due to low sales.  Furthermore, PA indicated that something that I had not thought of before, that game capable smartphones were one of the causes.  Maybe I am the slowest man in the universe but I just had not contemplated that idea.  Here I sit no PSP, Gameboy, or other portable device in hand, but a few inches from me a smartphone loaded with at least a gig of games on it sits, and I just did not think about it.

Now that I am though, let us look at what is going on out there.  A quick stop at bestbuy.com lists the average 3DS game at $39.99.  A little more research and we find that the probable price tag for the upcoming PS Vita is also $39.99. We know that a huge chunk of games on iTunes are free or 99 cents, but let us assume you want more quality console-type games.  A quick look and we have Archetype, a  bestselling FPS, selling for 99 cents, Angry Birds, which you would have to be dead for a year to not know about, selling for 99 cents, Ultimate Mortal Combat for 99 cents, the original Final Fantasy selling  for $8.99, and Final Fantasy Tactics selling for $15.99.  The highest priced game I found and it is less than half the price of a 3DS or vita game.  ITunes and Android stores also have a plethora of classic arcade games as well as digital versions of board games for the taking.

Let us look a little deeper now.  ITunes has an integrated game center that allows for a friend system as well as gaining achievements, a virtual must have for gamers anymore.  There are demo’s available and free versions with advertising for many games.  It is easier for prospective game developers to “break into” ITunes market and create games, while quality is still mostly maintained.

You will undoubtedly note that I have not spoken much on Android while examining this phenomenon, mostly because I have an iPhone 4 and do not know too much about the Android (and half of you yell sacrilege!).  Much like the Pepsi vs. Coke debate, the two phones seem sufficiently compatible that I doubt there is enough difference to matter on this subject.

Android and iPhone continue to advance in technology.  Windows is jumping on the bandwagon and will undoubtedly catch up in quality and fanbase sooner rather than later.   Are we then looking at the future of portable gaming?  How soon until Sony and Nintendo have no choice but to abandon their own devices and move towards smartphone support?  Alternatively, perhaps their fanbases will be enough to stave this off. Is this trend inevitable?  Time will tell, I suppose.  In the meantime, comment and share your view.

DM
All Geeks Considered

Further Reading:

http://penny-arcade.com/comic/2011/08/01
http://www.newsfactor.com/news/Nintendo-Shares-Down-After-Price-Cut/story.xhtml?story_id=001000433RTF
http://www.businessinsider.com/nintendo-ways-to-boost-3ds-sales-with-ios-and-android-2011-8