We Rule is a free game for the iPhone and iPod Touch, if your looking for a similar game on Android try the free game called Papaya.

They are all clones of the farming game on Facebook, or so I hear (I’m not much of a Facebook fan) and it is extremely simple and yet addictive.

You are given a plot of land, some cash and something called Mojo! Mojo, lets you build things faster and grow crops faster, it’s a bit like waving a magic wand over your crops.

The game is free but if you want to purchase extra Mojo to progress faster in the game then that will cost your from $2.99 for 30 Mojo points all the way up to $29.99 for 800 Mojo points. You don’t need a lot of Mojo to make a difference and as your progress in the game you get free Mojo, so you can enjoy the game for free.

If I make this sound difficult then I apologise as this game is not difficult at all to play, it does suck you into it’s world though.

You grow crops, which grow in REAL time(ish) (carrots take six hours, pumpkins three, Corn only takes 45 seconds, etc). Once you have grown your crops you need to click on them to harvest them and sell them, this gives you cash to buy more crops or other things like houses.

If you don’t harvest your crops in a reasonable amount of time they go bad and you have to clear your plot of land.

Houses, schools, businesses all generate incomes. They do this like crops on differing timescales. Schools in 24 hours, Gems in a few hours and houses in around three hours.

The came continues with you buying plots of farm land, building things, adding features like trees, ponds, fountains, lights, etc

Remember the game is completely free and you can play it totally in free mode, corn is free to buy and earns you five coins in the 45 seconds it takes to harvest it. On the other hand you can decide to go for it and buy yourself a little Mojo to progress.

So far I have a lovely castle with a fair amount of land (land size increases the bigger the building YOU live in) and I did all that with no purchased Mojo, though I did claim 5 extra Mojo points for trying out another of this companies games, offers pop up when you open the game if they are available, kind of cool in-game features are given for real world trials.

Anyway, it’s all very good and very addictive, give it a go, search for We Rule on the app store.

I have had my new Android phone for around a week now and I know some of you including Veritable Virgo wanted me to write a review of what I thought of the phone, especially when comparing it to the iPhone so here it is.

Now to be clear from the outset I do not currently have an iPhone and the last one I did have was a 2G but I do have a latest modeller iPod touch so I feel the speed is likely to be similar for this comparison.

The phone I have is an HTC Hero or the G2 Touch as it is marketed here in the UhK and it came in a very small box which is obviously an environmental plus.

INSIDE THE BOX

Inside the box was a tiny charger with a slot in UK mains plug, the US version would come with the same adaptor and a slot-in US mains plug. Also included was a pair of headphones with remote control and microphone, these are 3.5mm and also work on the iPod Touch even for the remote which was a surprise though I have an in-line microphone adaptor and a nice pair of Sennheiser headphones for the iPod which of course now work on the HTC. A USB to mini USB was included but this was keyed so it ONLY works on this phone. Where the normal mini USB tapers in at the sides only one side tapers in, the other is squared off, unusual at the phone itself does accept and charges fine with a normal mini USB lead.

There were no driver disks but a manual and a quick start guide sheet was included. If you plug in the phone to your PC or Mac there is also a built in PDF version of both of these which was a nice touch and if your on a PC there is some sync software. The phone does not currently sync to a mac….though you don’t need it to sync to anything anyway, more on that one later!

VERSIONS OF ANDROID

The phone comes with Android 1.5 (Cupcake) all the Android versions are named after cakes or desserts Cupcake, Doughnut, Eclair, etc. which is kind of fun This is a very old version as they are on 2.1 with the Nexus One and Sony is promising a 2.2 later in the year. The good news is that I was in touch with HTC, whom I must say replied at a amazing speed to me to tell me an update is due out early in April to bring the phone up to 2.1, good news. I think this is something that Google is trying to stress to handset manufacturers that they need to provide upgrades in a timely manner going forward. Remember this is open source, even if Google provides an update there is no guarantee your phone manufacturer will do likewise. Again as it is open source many people build versions that you can install yourself via a process called Rooting which is not unlike Jailbreaking on the iPhone but without big brother breathing down your neck!

OK, as I say this phone is on 1.5 which is slow, so compared to an iPhone it does run slowly when browsing or moving to a new application, this is fixed in 2.1 and it’s only a few weeks away so I will be kind in my review about the speed, it’s not horribly slow, just not as nippy as the iPhone with 1.5 installed. Do not let that put you off though.

My phone comes with HTC Sense which is basically a menu that overlays the screen and gives direct access to the total list of apps installed, the phone and the ability to add shortcuts to the main screen.

SOME LIMITATIONS

There are two major limitations on Android right now and I feel these will be dropped such are the cries of the Android users, you are limited to 1-7 screens of program shortcuts, not that unusual as the original iPhone was limited to 10 I think and I expect that to change and to beat the iPhone. The second limitation you can only install apps to the phones built in memory which is not that large 256Mb in my case, doesn’t sound much does it but so far I have installed tons of apps and I mean tons of them and never run out of space so the apps seem to be less memory hungry to begin with. Again I expect that to change and remember this phone has SDHC card slot, mine has a 2Gb one and I could put in much more so it is expandable and it is expected that you will be able to pop apps in there soon, in fact there are apps that let you do that now, it’s just not an official feature yet, so it is possible.

Those things aside and as I say none of them has limited me in any way yet, so I am ok with this.

MUCH LESS LIMITED THAN THE IPHONE

I have possibly made the Android seem hobbled by some early mistakes in the planning of the operating system but that couldn’t be farther from the truth. Take for example the iPhone, don’t like the browser, tough, don’t like the SMS, tough, don’t like buying the high priced iTunes music when you know Amazon has those same MP3′s cheaper, tough. Not so on the Android and this IS the killer thing about these phones, it’s all open source, nothing is barred!

I love the HTC SMS app but there is a better one….so I replaced it, simple as installing an app, easy. There is no standard music store so I installed Amazon, and there are others, just an app, easy. I wanted to try the new keyboard called Swype (swype.com) so I just installed the app, easy! Are you getting my point here, it’s YOUR phone and you do it YOUR way, not the way someone at the top of the corporation thinks you should be doing it, no, YOUR way that fits YOUR life and likes and desires. No apps being pulled here, want that Wi-Fi scanner, you got it!

I HAVE AN UNUSUAL PROBLEM

In fact I have an unusual problem (I listen to Big Fatty! LOL OK I have two unusual problems then hahaha) I cannot receive my WiFi signal in half of the house due to a couple of thick walls. I installed an ethernet over mains pair of adaptors to ship the signal from one end of the house where the router lives to the other where I installed a wireless access point. In effect I now have two wireless networks in my home. Great wireless everywhere but the signal from both never totally dies when you move to the other end of the house, so the iPod never drops it and picks the other up, in fact the Android doesn’t either. So I installed an app that finds the strongest signal and automatically switches to it, so very useful for me. It also finds free WiFi near me when I am out and about and automatically connects to it if I am in range, how cool is that. Does the iPhone do that? Is it ever likely to now they pulled the WiFi apps?

APPS, APPS, APPS AND MORE APPS!

But your probably saying, yes but I like the apps on the iPhone, I worried about that also and was surprised to find most of them are already on the Android platform, in fact things like Seesmic Twitter is getting rave reviews is only on the Android platform at present.

Lets see what kinds of apps I have, first off is Barcode which scans barcodes and can tell you what a product is, but it also scans those square barcodes you often see on UPS boxes and they are used a lot in the Android world, you can scan a barcode on your computer screen or in a magazine and you will be taken to the app store so you can install an app, or to a website and even to download contacts, amazing and so very useful!

I have a BBC News app, Huffington Post app, News reader that syncs with Google Reader (remember I said you never have to sync, it does it all through google!), Facebook which integrates with my contacts list and even imports facebook profile pics as your contacts photos!

Google Maps, which has a very cool mode on the Android called Compass mode, you hold your Android up and do a street view and the view follows your movements with the phone, its like the phone screen is a view into this virtual world, amazing! A similar app is Layar which gives you a 3D world, you hold the phone up and say look for restaurants near me, it shows you them in front of you, you just walk towards the marker and if you keep turning to follow those markers you will end up at the restaurant! OR you can view 3D objects and walk around them again your phone screen a view into this virtual world that is overlaid onto the real world pic from your camera. Mind blowing!

I have an internet radio app, a BBC iPlayer app (think Hulu for the UhK), XE Currency app, DropBox, Fring to do Skype and Voip, Google Mail, Google Talk, Google Translate (which can speak too!), Podcast app called Google Listen that syncs with Google Reader, Mail app, GPS Tracker app to record where you have been, PDF viewer, Twitter clients galore, Photoshop, Shazam, Office, SMS backup app that backs up my SMS conversations to Google Mail, I can watch or listen to TWiT via their app, If I loose or get my phone stolen I can do all those MobileMe things like lock it or wipe it, password protect it, send messages to it, find where it is (oh and this is all free!!!), Voice recorder and Wikipedia and YouTube and I will stop there because I am boring you but you get the picture.

FINAL WORDS

This phone is not limited, it’s far more unlimited than the iPhone and it keeps getting better!

If anyone has any questions i’d be happy to answer them, fire them over to my email address or use the contact form on the website and I will get back to you and maybe post them here if people send a few in.

TELL ME YOU LOVE ME!

Hope you like my review, there are more things to tell but I will have to wait and see what battery life is like, so far it looks fine, comparable to the iPhone certainly.

Yes, the much rumoured iPad, iPod Tablet, iSlate, iGiveUp LOL is almost here folks!

I wonder many things right now before it hit’s us in all it’s glory. Was it over rumoured? Is it going to disappoint after all this hype? Will it truly blow our minds? Will it cost too much? Will it only be available to those able to take out yet another mobile credit account in these tough times?

And more to the point am I really going to care after all the fuss has died down?

We shall have to wait and see!

Let us pray:

Our Father, which art in Cupertino,
hallowed be thy name of Jobs;
thy iTablet come;
thy will be done,
in earth as it is in 1 Infinite Loop.
Give us this day our daily news or magazines.
And forgive us our jailbreaking,
as we forgive them that hack against us.
And lead us not into the temptation of Android;
but deliver us from the evil, that Google does.
[For thine is the kingdom,
the power, and the glory,
for ever and ever.]
Amen.

LOL