Java on an iPod? A step to iPhone?
Among the many of today’s “Showtime” announcements by Apple is that the new iPods will include many of the same popular video games available on most mobile phones. These games are:
- Bejeweled — Match jewels to clear the board
- Tetris — Rotate falling bricks to clear rows
- PAC-MAN — Get the ghosts
- Vortex — Shoot on through to the other side
- Zuma — Slide balls of the same color together
- Texas Hold ‘Em — Practice your poker face
- Mini Golf — Make a hole in one (or five)
- Mahjong — Arrange tiles just so
- Cubis 2 — Match cubes in colorful arrays
Since most of these games are implemented on mobile phones via Java, does this mean the new iPods have a Java Virtual Machine running on them? How can third party developers develop games for the iPod? Is there an API? How do I upload my own games to my iPod?
Secondly, since these are games commonly found for purchase on mobile phones, for the similar price of $4.99, this only demonstrates that Apple is one step closer from creating an iPod + mobile phone hybrid. This only strenghtens recent speculation about an upcoming iPhone
