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Minecraft Creator, Mojang, Sued for Patent Infringment In Android Game

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by Brad Ward on
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Uniloc is a patent protection company based in Australia that specializes in anti-piracy technologies. They have decided to start suing Mojang, the developers of Minecraft, for infringing on an Android-related patent called”System and Method for preventing unauthorized access to electronic data”. Essentially it’s a system for authenticating license data. I wonder how they proved this because it seems like it’d take a lot of code-digging. The lawsuit says:

“Mojang is directly infringing one or more claims of the ’067 patent in this judicial district and elsewhere in Texas, including at least claim 107, without the consent or authorization of Uniloc, by or through making, using, offering for sale, selling and/or importing Android based applications for use on cellular phones and/or tablet devices that require communication with a server to perform a license check to prevent the unauthorized use of said application, including, but not limited to, Mindcraft.”

(Apparently, in a official court order, they misspelled Minecraft.) You can see the full lawsuit here. Notch, the mastermind behind Minecraft, is against software patents. After obtaining the lawsuit, he wrote up a cunning blog post linked below and tweeted:

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Minecraft Pocket Edition updated

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by Chris Stewart on
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Mojang, creators of the ultra-addictive Minecraft series of games has dropped a significant update into the Play Store today. The update brings some additions to the gameplay as well as a new control method. There’s an optional new ‘split touch controls’ mode that will take advantage of the additional screen real estate in tablet devices and similar. For the purists out there, Pigs have been added into survival mode taking the game a step closer to the desktop version.

With over 100,000 downloads, minecraft is one of the most popular paid games in the Play Store and it’s great to see that the developers aren’t getting complacent. Head on over to the Play Store and pick up the update now, the pigs are waiting!

 


Play Store Download Link

Minecraft – Pocket Edition is now in the Market

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by Jim Farmer on
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Originally Minecraft – Pocket Edition was set to debut on September 29th, but a bug in the code caused a delay. Earlier today, Daniel Kaplan of Team Mojang, tweeted that the game would be released today. As the title suggests, Kaplan and team came through. Both a paid and demo version are available for download in the Android Market. Admittedly I’ve already begun playing it, and I’m thoroughly enjoying it thus far. I will say, however, that on my Incredible the game runs a bit slow, but on my Xoom it runs smooth as silk. You may want to play this on a higher end device. If that’s not an option for you, the game does have an option to play without “fancy graphics.” Whether your unsure or not, I suggest downloading the demo version before plunking down $6.99. Mojang, has done quite a bit of testing, but they can’t gurantee it will work on every device.

If you’ve played Minecraft on the computer before, I can tell you the Pocket Edition is reminiscent of Minecraft Classic. You start with all the blocks (in this case 36), there are no Creepers, no health, and certainly none of the newer elements from the latest “Adventure update.” No, Minecraft – Pocket Edition is purely a game of creativity, but a great one. For the hardcore miners, you may feel the game to be a bit lacking. If so, just consider it ‘your fix’ while away from your computer. As time goes along, I imagine the Pocket Edition of Minecraft will likely follow in the footsteps of it’s PC cousin; evolving into a better performing, more fleshed out game as we go along. Perhaps we should consider this Minecraft -Pocket Edition Beta.

Video and downloads after the break

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Minecraft – Xperia exclusivity ends Sept. 29th

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by Jim Farmer on
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Jealous of your Xperia Play toting friend, and their Minecraft goodness? Come September 29th the long wait for the rest of us is over. Daniel Kaplan of the Mojang team tweeted this video earlier showing off the touch screen controls for Minecraft: Pocket Edition. To be honest, I’m not sure how much I could enjoy Minecraft on a phone screen, perhaps if I had one of the newer 4″+ sized screens. As for me I’m hoping to play this on my Xoom. No word yet on compatibility issues. I guess we’ll know Thursday. Fingers crossed!

Video after the break » Read the rest

Minecraft Limited Edition Sony Ericsson Xperia Play Lands On eBay

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by Joe Sirianni on
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It’s amazing what you can find on eBay these days.  The latest in mobile tech to hit the popular online auction comes to us by way of the developers of Minecraft.  The popular game will soon be released for the Android operating system and is sure to be a hit.  To kick things off, the developers have chosen to fully deck out the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play with its own tricked out Minecraft theme and have tossed it up for auction.  The game will be an exclusive for a while after its initial release and all proceeds go strait to charity.  At this time the device is already at $1,325.00 with just over six days left on the bid.  Hit the source link to enter your bid, that is, if you don’t mind paying eight times more than what it’s worth.  Hit the break to check out the full listing details and feel free to let us know what you think in the comments below.   » Read the rest

TalkAndroid at E3: Sneak Peek at Upcoming News

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by Michael Murphy on
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Regular TalkAndroid readers may have noticed that I have been strangely absent the past week.  (What do you mean you haven’t noticed a difference?  That’s not nice!)  Well, there’s a very good reason for this!  You see, this was there was this small event called the Electronic Entertainment Expo (known within the industry as E3) — perhaps some of you have heard of it.  For those unfamiliar with the event, E3 is an opportunity for video game publishers, developers, and hardware manufacturers to get together with the media and show off what they’re working on.  Well, there was a bit of an Android presence there this year, and in order to bring our dear readers every last drop of Android news available, TalkAndroid was there!  That’s right, I sacrificed my time, money, and my feet (and I’m REALLY serious about that last one!) to scour the Los Angeles Convention Center to bring you guys every scrap of Android coverage I could find!  While there will be several in-depth looks upcoming in the next 3-4 days, I thought I’d give you guys a little sneak peek of what we have in store!
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Sony Ericsson Xperia PLAY getting 20+ new games at E3

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by Jesse Bauer on
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With E3 coming to us next week, we’re all pretty jittery and excited for all the wicked technology and games we’ll see. Sony will be there as well with their Xperia PLAY, and will be launching 20+ games for the Android gaming device that are sure to keep our hands moving for a while afterwards. The first out of the gate for game releases just prior to E3 however, will be Rainbow Six: Shadow Vanguard. That title will be available starting Friday to Xperia Play owners in Western Europe for free download, and we’re not sure whether North America will be extended the same deal.

Something to keep an eye out for is our own Senior Editor Michael Murphy, who’ll be in attendance at E3. You can keep up to date on all the goods by following us and Mike below.

@talkandroid

@murphdroid

Other games to be seen and launched at E3 for the Xperia PLAY are as follows;

Minecraft ported to the Xperia Play – Watch out for the Creepers!

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by Adam Johnson on
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First off, let me speak of this game Minecraft a bit. My son absolutely loves this game. I peer over his shoulder as he plays for hours after school on his Acer netbook, wondering what so great about it. You control a cubed avatar, and concentrate on building with blocks, anything you can think up, and all the while watching out for creepers, zombies, spiders, skeletons, ghasts (yes ghast not ghost, he says), wolves, and pigmen. So I can see how this game can be hours of fun, and addictive. I had to tap into the wealth of knowledge my 12yr old son has of this game, as i’ve not been able to play it personally.

Minecraft is in beta currently and playable online, via your browser, downloadable installation for your pc, and now mobile by way of Sony’s new Android device the Xperia Play aka Playstation Phone. The game will take advantage of the Xperia Play game pad layout, giving it that PSP feel. As far as we know right now the Minecraft Pocket Edition is only available on the Sony Xperia Play. » Read the rest

Minecraft will be coming to Android later this year

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by Jesse Bauer on
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The hugely popular sandbox building game Minecraft will be coming to Android platform sometime later this year according to the game developer Mojang. The game has sold it’s millionth copy in January this year, and is still in beta form, meaning it’s actually got some 8-bit lovers enough that the developer thinks it’s time to move onto other platforms.

There was consideration from the developer to get a third party company to put Minecraft into mobile form for Mojang, but they decided its best to keep it in the family, and work it out themselves. No solid dates yet on the release, or cost if any, but we’ll keep you posted!

[via Android Central]