The News By Me

One of the iPhone's biggest gaming hits has finally arrived on the Android platform, with Rovio Mobile's phenomenally addictive Angry Birds making the jump to a new platform in beta.

Angry Birds has been a massive seller on Apple's App Store, and the calls for it to arrive on Android have been many and volumous.

And that dream is now a reality, with the company announcing on Twitter that the app is now on the Google platform.

Beta version

"And Angry Birds have landed on Android:-)" the company said, adding "If you have any problems with the Android beta, let us know. It's a beta, so we know it's not perfect. Help us make it better."

Rovio Mobile has impressed many with its after support – the original Angry Birds has been continually updated with more levels and different birds for free.

The game has been so successful that there is even talk of a film in the offing. We're not sure if the plot will stretch that far, but it may still be more complex than Transformers.

Nearly closed

"This week, we were planning to run a closed beta test of Angry Birds Lite for Android," explained Rovio on its blog.

"Due to the massive response and demand from the Android community, we have decided to make Angry Birds Lite Beta available for everybody through the Android Market this Friday.

"Angry Birds Lite Beta will run on second generation Android devices and upwards.

"We want to ensure that we will publish the best game ever released on Android, and we hope that this beta version will prove to our Android fans that Angry Birds has been worth the wait!"

Samsung has confirmed to TechRadar that it will be bringing a slide-out QWERTY device running Android to the UK this year.

The new phone will sit below the Samsung Galaxy S in the Koreans' Android range, with Carey McGregor, senior product manager at Samsung, confirming the new product:

"We've got another device coming through this year, which will be a slider QWERTY device, with a landscape keyboard.

"It won't mirror the Galaxy S (in terms of specs), it will be more mid-range, more along the lines of the Galaxy Apollo."

Samsung Galaxy i5510?

McGregor didn't confirm which version of Android the phone will be running, but it's likely to be Android 2.2 given the release schedule.

As an Android device, it will also use the Galaxy moniker. We've seen the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S Pro and the Samsung Galaxy Q rumoured so far, both with QWERTY keyboards, but given both of these come with high end specs we doubt it will be one of these.

It's more likely to be the Samsung i5510 shown off by Vodafone recently - but it's good news it's coming to the UK soon.

Samsung has been betting big on Android this year, with the Samsung Galaxy Tab the latest to launch - but we're glad to see the Koreans are still fully behind Android phones too.

Virgin Media has launched what is calling an 'unbeatable BlackBerry deal', slashing the cost of the BlackBerry Curve 8520 – and offering it free on a 24 month contract for £12 a month.

As an increasingly prominent phone service provider, Virgin Media is keen to target students that want to get a BlackBerry on the cheap.

To that end, the company is backing its offer with a further 15 per cent off to holders of an NUS card.

Shaking up the mobile market

"Virgin Media is shaking up the mobile market by offering the most competitive pay monthly deal for a BlackBerry smartphone," states Virgin Media's release.

"Existing Virgin Media customers with home entertainment services also benefit from exclusive extras and a reduced price of £10 per month."

Jonathan Kini, director of mobile at Virgin Media said: "BlackBerry is no longer just for business users, and our exceptionally competitive deals can only help BlackBerry smartphones become an even bigger break-through device for consumers.

Popular

"Popular with families, students and teens loving its class-leading email, social networking and instant messaging features, our new unbeatable deal slashes the cost of this fantastic phone for anyone looking to stay connected," he added.

"We're also delighted to reward loyal Virgin Media customers with exclusive benefits, including free calls to Virgin Mobile from their home phones and unlimited Virgin Mobile to Virgin Mobile calls, and with our fantastic 15% discount for students, university halls will be buzzing with the bleep of the brilliant BlackBerry Messenger."