May 24, 2011

Asus Eee Pad Transformer and Minecraft

My Android tablet finally arrived today (an Asus Eee Pad Transformer). The packaging was mighty similar to the iPad 2 with a nice cellophane wrapper around the phone. Unlike the iPad it actually had some instructions and an "assembly required" plug for charging which I presume is to make it easier to 'internationalize'. I always plan to charge these as soon as they arrive so that I'm not disappointed when I actually want to break it out and use it later.

When I finally got to setting it up, it was pretty nifty how I could connect to Google via my WiFi connection and get all synced up WITHOUT having to plug it into a PC with iTunes or some such nonsense. I am, however, a bit disappointed with the fact that devs apparently have to code for a tablet. I was kind of expecting apps to be scaled like on the iPad if they weren't written for the tablet form factor (or at least occupy 2/3rds of the screen given the resolution difference between my phone and the tablet). Some apps have apparently been appropriately coded, and others have not and show up in a tiny box that isn't even centered on the screen. That said, Paper War for 2 Players is GREAT for a tablet as I figured it would be.

It's hard for me to say whether I like or love it at this point, but at the very least I can do a better job of game testing for those reading this site.

As for Sony's announcement that Minecraft will be an Xperia Play exlcusive... I'm not sure that's a story that should even be given the time of day by the various Android sites that are out there. Anything exclusive to the Xperia Play is NOT Android in my book. But I suppose, with that logic, you could argue all of the Tegra 2 games aren't either... fragmentation stinks.

3 comments:

  1. I think Minecraft is only an Xperia Play exclusive for a limited time period.

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  2. The letterboxing thing is due to apps being built against the 1.5 SDK. If you re-build against the 1.6 (or later) SDK, it will stretch out the layout to fit the larger screen. You can also add in special layouts and graphics to support the larger screen, but it's not strictly necessary.

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  3. I think developing app for tablet is still not a good time yet. Dev team has to invest for an extra tablet without knowing the return. It's hard enough to cover the dev cost already.

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