Android gets with the times, new Facebook brings FarmVille Express

Android just got caught up with the Joneses. Facebook announced recently that the new Facebook Mobile platform has hit Android devices everywhere, meaning fans of Google's smartphone operating system can access all the mobile web apps Facebook Mobile has to offer. Most importantly (of course), that includes HTML5 games like Zynga's FarmVille Express.

In fact, that means a number of HTML5-based social games are now available through Facebook Mobile for Android, including wooga's Magic Land, Moblyng's Word Racer Live, Storm8's World War and more. That's according to Facebook's announcement, which doesn't include games like the HTML5-based Words With Friends and Zynga Poker.

However, HTML5--a web application development method used commonly for games played in mobile web browsers--is largely available on both iPhone, iPad and Android devices, it's a safe bet that these games are accessible through Facebook on Android. (Before the Facebook update, Android users could simply visit "m.farmville.com" to access FarmVille Express.) HTML5 is making big strides in becoming a viable method for making and playing social games.

In fact, Happy Aquarium maker CrowdStar's CEO Peter Relan thinks that HTML5 is the path to 1 billion players of a single game. However, if you ask folks like Zynga Germany's Paul Bakaus, we're a long way from that kind of reach through HTML5. If game makers want to beat Rovio's Angry Birds to the coveted 1 billion fans, they might have to do it the old-fashioned (?) way: get on every game platform you can possibly imagine.

How do you prefer to play games like FarmVille while on the go: mobile web or mobile app? How long will it be before HTML5 games look like their standard app counterparts?

Official Pokemon Game Coming To Smartphones

The Pokemon Company is set to bring an official Pokemon Online game to smartphone devices, marking the first time that an official Nintendo-copyrighted app will be available on the iOS and Android.

Called Pokemon Iie Tap (rougly Pokemon: Say Tap?), the app appears to be a rhythm game where players “tap on Pokemon indigo trading cards to the beat of a song from the anime,” according to a translation by consumer video game site GamesRadar.

According to the game’s official announcement, it will be available for most iOS devices, as well as Android devices running version 2.1 of the platform.

Though this is the first iOS or Android application to carry an official Nintendo copyright, it is not the first mobile app of any kind: a Pokemon mobile phone game called Pokemate was released in Japan in 2006.

Though it is a rarity, Nintendo does have a history of releasing official games on platforms that are not its own, including a promotional Flash game to promote its Tingle character.