Free MLB At Bat 2012 For Android, iOS

Major League Baseball’s MLB At Bat 2012 app launches on both Android and iOS. The app brings the widely praised franchise back for another season and it has several important changes for baseball lovers.

Among these is the fact that it will be one of the first apps outside of the publishing world that will have access to Apple’s recurring monthly subscription option right in the app. The radio streaming app Pandora got them last November. The new app is also now free to download from the App Store and there are some nice subscription options. The Next Web had a chance to speak to the MLB about the app and the new features and it looks like it will be another great version of the app.

For the first time ever, MLB At Bat 2012 will be one universal app, free to all, with Android and iOS feature parity. That means that the app is identical, across all platforms, with all features available. Previously, due to technical restrictions, Android users couldn’t access some of the video highlight features, among others. Now, every version of the app has all of the features available, which is very cool. The iOS app is also a universal binary, which means that one download will work on all of Apple’s devices. There was a ton of work put in to combine the codebases of the apps and to bring them into a harmonious package that will work across all devices.

Another big change for At Bat 2012 is the cost. The app is freely downloadable from the App Store and the Android Market, which is a change from last year, when it was a $15 download on the iPhone and iPad. The free app is roughly the equivalent of the ‘At Bat Lite’ app that has now been done away with. Instead, the MLB is letting you grab it for free, and then will offer several ways to unlock the app’s additional functionality. Any feature unlocks you purchase, say, on an iPhone, are also available on the iPad via a ‘restore’ purchase button.

1. The default app is similar to the ‘Lite’ version from last year, which offers a bunch of stuff including:
Scores
Standings
News
Team Content

2. The second tier is an annual $14.99 price. This brings you everything that you get with the standard app and also includes:

Pitch FX (the pitch-by-pitch calling)
Game Day Audio
Stats
Highlights
Live Look-ins (video)
Condensed Games and video library archive
Free live game of the day

3. The third tier has exactly the same features, but bills at a monthly $2.99. This subscription level is available to iOS users only, but the MLB indicated that it was working to bring it to Android as well.

4. All features are free to MLB.tv subscribers, who just authorize account after launching the app. This essentially makes the app free on any and all platforms for anyone with an MLB.TV subscription. In addition, live video broadcasts of some of the 150 Spring Training games and all 2,430 regular season games are available to subscribers.


If you’re not familiar with the At Bat App, then you don’t know just how great a job the team has been doing over the past couple of years. Since the app launched in 2008, it’s been the gold standard for sports apps. Really, anything from the NFL, NBA or NHL pales in comparison to the level of detail at work in the flagship MLB app. You can tell that the team respects baseball, but also loves building great apps, something that you just don’t find in a lot of sports apps, where more often than not you’ll find a web view embedded in a crappy looking native frame, with all of the stink of a cash grab. Conversely, the At Bat App is s a joy to use and has become an integral part of my baseball watching experience.

Grab the MLB at Bat 11 iPhone/Android app - AppJudgment:

Atari Arcade hands-on

Today's modern gamer can quickly be enveloped by some of the 3D intensive titles out there, but for those who are more akin to those titles from yesterday, they'll soak in a good amount of nostalgia thanks to this fitting accessory that brings back a solid dose of nostalgia. Remember some of those old school Atari arcades from back in the day? Well, if you certainly remember them, the Atari Arcade is here to reinvigorate those stagnant memories of yesterday when gaming as we know it, was still in its infancy.

For $69.99 and the aid of your supplied iPad (first or second-generation), the Atari Arcade provides that arcade like feel thanks to its ample sized joystick and accompanying four buttons. Not surprisingly, we're tickled by the fact that we're introduced to that arcade like experience, but it tends to become a bit unstable as we're mashing away at its buttons and joystick. Yes, the Atari Arcade locks the iPad 2 into position and hinges it on an angle, but at times, it feels as though it can come off with enough applied pressure. Moreover, as much as we'd like to play with this thing in our lap, it's best to place it on a level surface to withstand the momentum of our rigorous movements. Nevertheless, this is an essential item you'll want to pick up if you want to relive the experience – without having to fork over your life savings to pick up some of these collector's arcade systems yourself.

Everything about this all-plastic accessory pays homage to those giant-sized arcade systems from the past, but its true worth is found with the free download of the Atari Greatest Hits app for the iPad. Initially, you get Missile Commander for free by simply downloading the free app, but if you want to play some other titles, even ones for the Atari 2600, you'll need to spend some dough on them. Luckily, you can pick up 25 separate packs for a mere 99 cents, but if you're really hardcore, we'd suggest plopping down $9.99 to pick up all 100 titles that are available.

Atari Arcade hands-on:

Games

mDiamondz
mGomoku
the Quicksilver mobile phone concept the new Pac Man of the future
FruitsDay
Samulos
Next Element Delux
Scrub NS Pairs
DivX Mobile Player
Evernote
Slick
PockeTwit
Bit Kaput 2.0 for Apple iPhone
All Mobile Mines
Grand Theft Auto 3 Coming to IOS, Android
3D Pool Game for Apple iPhone
Space Hockey HD for Apple iPhone
Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars Lite for Apple iPhone

Gameloft updates Tintin game after accidentally delivering 2D to devices

If you're like us, you may have jumped all over that Gameloft 99 cent deal over the past week, and if you're like us you may have noticed that the Tintin HD game wasn't so much HD as it was 16-bit. Don't get us wrong, the game was still quite fun, and since we hadn't paid the full $6.99 for the game, we didn't question it at first. But, it turns out that was definitely a mistake and one that Gameloft has corrected.

Gameloft updates Tintin game after accidentally delivering 2D to devices
The trouble was simple, the APK read the device data wrong on some handsets and tablets and delivered the 2D version of The Adventures of Tintin instead of the 3D version that was pictured in the Android Market. This caused a landslide of bad reviews for the game, and Gameloft acted pretty quickly to fix the problem, by pushing an update to the Android Market. Although, it should be noted that while Gameloft has fixed the issue for many devices, there are some that still haven't gotten the fix. Gameloft set up a list of devices that should have gotten the update.

If your device isn't on the list, Gameloft is issuing refunds to users. In case you uninstalled the game when having this problem, you can download it again from the Android Market, of course if you already got a refund, you will have to pay the full $6.99 for the game now that the sale is over.

Crazy Ballz

This is one of the most addictive and fun games ever created. Many people have spent thousands of hours playing this addictive little game (Jezz Ball clone)!

Trap the balls into smaller spaces in order to make at least 80 percent of the camber disappear. When the balls are sufficiently contained, a new level begins with an extra ball added.

Tips:
- Lines are initiated by vertical and horizontal gestures. This can be done by clicking a point, dragging in a vertical or horizontal direction, and then letting go.

Download.