Bubble Ball was downloaded over a million times in the first two weeks. I t has now reached over two million downloads. According to an article by John D. Sutter, CNNTech, the app debuted on December 29th, and hit the top of the iTunes chart in mid-January. It even beat out a free holiday version of Angry Birds. But the most amazing thing about this story is that Robert Nay, the developer of Bubble Ball, is a 14 year old 8th grader in Spanish Fork, Utah.

8th Grader Creates Bubble Ball—Most Popular Free iPhone App

Bubble Ball was written at the Spanish Fork library. Robert used a program that’s designed to make app-building easy for anyone, even non-programmers. He used a program called Corona, from Ansca Mobile, to develop the app. “Corona was easy to use,” he said, and also let him write once and publish for both Apple and Android devices.

Nay’s background in computers and coding isn’t very extensive. (Duh, he’s 14!) Hew was spurred on by a friend who suggested since he liked his iPhone so much, he should write an app for it.  All Things Digital, the Wall Street Journal blog network, writes, “Although it’s his first game, Nay has been into computers for some time, including Web programming and helping others with their computers. When he’s not at the computer (or school) he also likes reading, especially science fiction, and playing the piano and trumpet.”

If Robert had charged even $1 for this app, he would have made $2 million. Some critics say this app was only so popular because it was written by a teenager. But other users give it rave reviews, liking the 11 levels of play. Robert says since this app was so successful, he will continue to create apps, but will charge at least a dollar per download. (Really?)

Robert was interviewed for ABC News, looking like a teenaged Bill Gates. Video clips showed him pulling books off of library shelves while wearing a blue button-up and jeans, and looking like any other middle school kid. With all the publicity, I wouldn’t be surprised if he is offered scholarships for college, as well as internships to app developing companies when he gets a bit older. For a kid from a little town like Spanish Fork, Utah, this is a dream come true. While his mother helped him with uploading it to iTunes and drew some of the screen shots for him, all the coding was done by Robert.

Have you played Bubble Ball yet? I had to search for it in the Android Market, but found it easily. It was listed as Bubble Ball, by Nay Games. The help menu and game instructions were clear and easy to understand. It gives you a couple of option selections like game level, sound on or off and rotation choices. All in all, I think it could be addictive. As they used to say, “Try it. You’ll like it.”

The buzz is out that Sony will reveal its new Playstation phone at Barcelona’s Mobile World Congress, which begins on February 14th. Of course this is probably one of the worst kept tech secrets. Rumors of it came out in August, with pictures following in October. But apparently the Playstation phone is real because this week, the tech blog Engadget got its hands on a Chinese prototype and posted a detailed review.

Sony’s New Playstation Pocket Phone

Isn’t this just another Smartphone? Apparently this is more of a hybrid Smartphone and gaming device. According to an article in TheWeek.com, “The Xperia, designed with frequent gamers in mind, features a “slide-out gamepad with four PlayStation style buttons” — plus all the trappings of a modern touchscreen Smartphone.” Some of the reported specifications on this new gadget are that it will be based on Android 2.3 Gingerbread, have a five-megapixel camera, a 1.2GHz MSM8655 processor, and an Adreno 205 GPU with 512MBs of RAM. The new hybrid Smartphone will also have a 4-inch 854 by 480 pixel multitouch screen.

Are gamers excited? According to Ben Rooney, Wall Street Journal, the release is having mixed reviews. Some die-hard gamers are excited, but others are pretty tepid about the whole idea of a gaming Smartphone. Are they waiting for the new PSP2 (code name NGP)? For those hard-core gamers, the NGP device fulfills the higher demand for technology. According to Gizmodo, the NGP is Sony’s super powered portable Playstation. NGP’s magic lies in its quad-core ARM Cortex A9 processor and quad-core PowerVR SGX534MP4+ GPU. So if this device is going to be available soon, why settle for a Playstation phone that may or may not be able to run the newest games? It looks like Sony will have to demonstrate some pretty awesome games in Barcelona in order for true gamers to be excited about the Playstation phone.

Are you an intense gamer? Are you excited about a gaming Smartphone? Or are you as skeptical as I am that the new Playstation phone will perform like a true gaming device? Are you more interested in the NGP device coming out for the 2011 holidays? Inquiring minds want to know….

From PC to mobile phones, ZT Online is making history. The new technology used is a first for mobile phone gaming. According to an article posted on ChinaTechNews.com, “Unlike common mobile phone online games, the mobile version ZT Online uses a part of the gaming data of the PC version to enable synchronous role creation, level upgrades, and interactive chats with the PC end. In addition, to make it a better option for the mobile phone users, the new mobile version ZT Online will introduce nearly 200 original story missions.”

China’s Giant Launching ZT Online for Mobile Phones

2010 was a tough year for the Chinese gaming industry. Stocks have fallen by double digits since the first of the year. Giant Interactive Group, one of the top 9 companies however, was an exception, only down about 5.8%. The maker of ZT Online was one of the top performers in the Chinese gaming industry. With the release of ZT Online for mobile phones, the company may stop the losses.

Why is this such a big deal? An article by Doug Herman, DigitalEastAsia.com, explained why the release of this game matters. “While the launch of mobile games and apps may not seem like a tremendous achievement, this announcement is an important step for the company:

• This is Giant’s first launch of a mobile phone game,
• The game will reportedly integrate with a gamer’s ZT Online activities from their PC use,
• The mobile game will integrate “synchronous role creation, level upgrades, and interactive chats with The PC end” as well as add “nearly 200 original story missions”,
• The company is partnering with undisclosed phone companies to embed the new game into a line of phones that will presumably be marketed to gamers.

The release of a game for mobile phones doesn’t seem like big news. The game won’t be available for gamers outside of China. But the importance of this announcement is that it shows how Giant is positioning itself for stability in the market place. ZT Online is declining in usage, but with the new mobile version, the company stands to recover a bit from the stock losses of 2010.

Are you a gamer? Do you care about a game that isn’t available anywhere but China? Should we keep posting blogs about these games? Let us know what you think.

Remember the old game of Scavenger Hunt? A group of friends would get together, break into teams, take a list of obscure items to find, and the first team back with all the items found was the winner. Well of course now you can play it on your cell phone using the SCVNGR app.

Scavenger Hunts by Cell Phone

How does it work? The SCVNGR app game is a bit different than the old game we used to play. Since it’s the 21st century, it uses your cell phone or Smartphone to play.  After downloading the app, simply choose a destination, check in and do a challenge. You can earn points, badges and even real world rewards (think free coffee from your favorite local coffee shop).

Google is funding SCVNGR. I would guess that Google is using this app to enhance their Google Goggles app by adding location photos uploaded from the game. Seth Priebatsch is the 21-year old founder of SCVNGR app, which is gaining in popularity, and has been downloaded over a half-million times in the last 6 months. The game can be accessed from any cell phone by text, or by downloading the SCVNGR app from your iPhone or Android Smartphone.

You can play SCVNGR everywhere! Play at your favorite cafe, gym, theater, park, or restaurant. For example, the National Zoo in Washington, D.C is doing a trek on SCVNGR in the month of December in conjunction with their free ZooLights event. When you visit the zoo, you just check in, snap a photo and solve a riddle about an animal to earn points.

SCVNGR is also on Facebook and Twitter. Of course it is. (Isn’t everyone on Facebook? Even my Great Aunt Sally is on Facebook.) You get points for sharing your discoveries as well. From a marketing standpoint alone, taking advantage of the social media sites only makes sense. The idea is that you can play the game as you go about your daily life, checking in while you get your latte, when you get to the subway station, etc. To date there are over 650 institutions and businesses that are helping to build SCVNGR, but number is growing daily. With Google behind the app, expect this app to take off in a big way.

Ready to join the hunt? Since I live in rural Northern California, unless I visit Sacramento or San Francisco, there probably aren’t too many local places to visit. However, I can see travel sites getting behind this app, as well as tourist spots. If you live in a major city like Los Angeles or New York City, there are probably unlimited opportunities to play. It will probably be a growing trend for city dwellers. For us Country Bumpkins, probably not so much. But again, Google is probably thrilled with the side effect of enhancing their Goggles app.

Tokyo-based middleware company HI Corp. announced it has developed new software to convert your 2D cell phone games into 3D games without special 3D glasses. The claim is that you won’t need to upgrade your cell phone. Investigating further, that doesn’t seem to be the case.

Play Cell Phone 3D Games without Special 3D Glasses

HI’s new image-rendering software, a new version of MascotCapsule, will be compatible to a special 3D LCD screen made by NEC LCD Technologies only. This means the software won’t work with screens by other makers, but NEC is already offering that display to a number of cell phone manufacturers. HI and NEC plan to have the technology embedded in ten million handsets by 2013.

Details of the new software are fairly scarce, but HI is going to demo the technology this week during an exhibition in Tokyo. What we know right now is that users will need to look straight at their handsets to get the 3D effect. If not, the view will be quite blurry.

The potential for this software is huge. The problem as I see it is that once again you will have to upgrade your cell phone in order to take full advantage of the technology. Since I am not a gamer, I doubt I will be looking for a cell phone with that new screen even once it comes out. What about you?

Hasbro and Glu Mobile are launching a Transformer game for your cell phone. You can battle evil by playing as the main character, Optimus Prime. In addition, fans can customize their wallpapers, screensavers and voicetones on their cell phones with sounds and images from the summer blockbuster movie.

Transformers for your cell phone

Who is the target market? I am thinking it must be middle school kids cell phone users, although there are some hard core gamers out there who may be Transformer fans. The game and content is now launching through North and South America, Europe and Asia, and will ultimately be available through more than 150 carriers and distribution partners in 65 countries. It is a brilliant marketing plan from Hasbro to promote their new movie. I predict we will see more and more marketing aimed at cell phone users in the future.

Are you going to rush out and buy the app?

Microsoft fulfills your Xbox dreams! Unfortunately this app will be available exclusively on Windows Mobile phones. That’s right… no iPhones, BlackBerry phones, or even the new Droid phones.

Xbox Live Games is coming to your mobile phone

Will the Xbox mobile phone app pump new life into the Windows Mobile phone market? Maybe it will, but with the growing number of iPhone, BlackBerry and Droid owners, I doubt the Xbox will catch on like Microsoft would like.

Are you an avid Xboxer? Would you use this on a cell phone? Let me know.

Google, Inc. will begin selling its new Nexus One cell phone in 2010. In the beginning, the phone will be sold without being tied to any ONE cell phone provider. The downside is that by being an “unlocked” cell phone, the cost of the device will no doubt be pretty pricey.

New Google Phone unlocks the Android

Google tries to take the market share from Apple’s iPhone (AT& T). Nexus One uses the new Android platform, giving users many application choices. The Google version of the Droid will try to directly challenge iPhone’s market share. Will it make the mark? Google has designed almost the entire software interface on the phone to make it feel more like the Google applications on the web that we have all come to know and love.

The new Nexus One uses a touch screen like the iPhone but has a few buttons on the bottom. Will it be as user friendly? The Android platform is gaining popularity and the only cell phone provider that doesn’t have a Droid phone is AT&T. (Wouldn’t want to alienate Apple…)

Will software developers embrace Nexus One? Most of the developers focus their efforts on the iPhone due to its widespread popularity. But if Google and HTC (the contracted manufacturer for Nexus One) can produce these new phones at a reasonable cost, who knows? The developers follow the popularity and money trail.

Not being an AT&T customer has limited me being able to have an iPhone. I am very interested in seeing this new phone next year. Besides, I like the idea of having a little Droid working for me. Do you think the Droid will take the place of the mighty Apple? How will Apple retaliate? I see the wicked witch offering Snow White a bite of a poisoned apple…