Locky's English Playground: 18 Feb 2011

Friday, 18 February 2011

News & Game: Angry Bird on iPhone and PC

Yeah, normally, we talk about things that can help you learn English, but Angry Birds is such a big hit! The game has recently won two big awards at the annual Global Mobile Awards 2011 -- the "App of the Year on the Apple Platform" and the "Best Mobile App" awards. And I dare say, virtually every owner of iPhone in Hong Kong has some of these birds in it.

According to Ewalt @ Forbes, "Finland-based game developer Rovio Mobile has sold over 12 million downloads of the software since it debuted in December 2009 on Apple’s app store." Now, that is a lot of money!

And of course, the game doesn't stop there, there will be a lot more to offer, say toys?

Image from Forbes

Interesting enough, there is a story behind the design of this game. According to Wikipedia, "At the time, the "swine flu" epidemic was in the news, so the staff made the birds' enemies pigs." So H1N1 was not only a killer disease after all -- The World Health Organisation (WHO) has definitely "cast pearls before swine".

Image from limfy.com

Although I don't have an iPhone, the fun doesn't stop there. I happen to have discovered a full PC version of Angry Birds for Windows 7 and it is free! I've been practising for awhile but I'm really bad at it. Maybe you can do better, but do not spend all the time playing and forget about learning English!

Happy learning! (and gaming)

Down Angry Birds PC version for Windows 7 at the link given on iReclusive
http://ireclusive.blogspot.com/2011/01/angry-bird-pc-version.html

There is also a Valentine's Day Edition on iPhone, have you bought it yet?

Image from Mashable

Vocabulary:
virtually -- (adv) almost
epidemic -- (n) [C] the appearance of a particular disease in a large number of people at the same time
"To cast pearls before swine" -- To give things of value to those who will not understand or appreciate it.

Resources:

Global Mobile Awards 2011
http://www.globalmobileawards.com/awards/winners_2011.htm

iPhone 4 and Angry Birds win big at Mobile World Congress
http://www.tecca.com/news/2011/02/17/iphone-4-and-angry-birds-win-big-at-mobile-world-congress/

Angry Birds PC version for Windows 7
http://ireclusive.blogspot.com/2011/01/angry-bird-pc-version.html

Angry Birds Official Website
http://www.rovio.com/index.php?page=angry-birds

Angry Birds Cinematic Trailer @ YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Bk_nqUQ0fc&feature=player_embedded