Angry Birds Goes Free for Android, Nukes Hosts
The full version of Angry Birds for Android has gone live, however the free offering is causing some heavy traffic congestion.
Who would have thought that a group of ticked-off birds would cause such a commotion?
Friday mobile apps store GetJar announced that the full version of Rovio Mobile's popular Angry Birds game for the Android platform was available for free. Although the Lite Beta has been available on the Android Market for some time, Rovio chose to launch the full app on an external source, following in the footsteps of Gameloft and many other app publishers.
"Selecting GetJar as the place to launch our first ever full Android version of Angry Birds was an obvious choice," said Peter Vesterbacka, Mighty Eagle at Rovio Mobile. "GetJar's global reach and popularity as well as their unique App It! download service ensures that we reach a massive audience of fanatically loyal Angry Birds addicts. The unique App It! link means we can also cross promote our Symbian and Android versions without the need to send folks to multiple places to get their favorite game."
Curious to discover the underlying catch (as in is the game ad-ridden, time locked, etc), an investigation came to an abrupt end as news of the free app sent Android owners flocking to the GetJar website. Downloading the game proved unsuccessful, and then the site simply went offline, replaced by a brief explanation.
"Dear visitors, GetJar website is experiencing temporary technical problems due to a totally unexpected high demand for the new free game Angry Birds," the message stated. "Please visit the mobile site at http://m.getjar.com with your Android phone to get the game. We sincerely app-ologize for the problems. -GetJar team"
With that, a trusty Motorola DROID (packed with Froyo) was fired up and steered to the mobile website. Sure enough, that one was crashing too. "The page you are looking for is temporarily unavailable," stated the site when clicking on the Angry Birds download link. "Please try again later."
Meh.
Eventually the main site came back online, however there was a problem with the ability to choose the proper Android device. Once that issue was cleared, the site didn't offer a real download after all, but merely sent a text offering the same link previously used to access the mobile download page (and an additional message linking to a phone number for accessing a free horoscope reading).
After a few hours the app still wouldn't downloaded to the DROID. Looks as though Android owners wanting to get their hands on the free app may be forced to tolerate some difficulty in accessing the websites and the actual app until the initial frenzy winds down.
To get the app, head to http://m.getjar.com with your Android device.
UPDATE: Rovio's website also crashed, displaying the following message:
Oops! Due to the enormous traffic generated by the Android launch of Angry Birds, rovio.com is down.
The site will be up shortly. In the meantime, you can download Angry Birds from the below locations:
Android: http://www.getjar.com/mobile/43600/angry-birds/
iPhone: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/angry-birds/id343200656
Palm: http://palm.angrybirds.com
Nokia: http://store.ovi.com/content/23857
UPDATE 2: Angry Birds for Android uses pop-up ads, but minimal at best. The file was just over 12 MB to download, but only shows to take up 1.84 MB on the device.
- This Locket Contains Pictures, Videos, and Music
- WeWood's Wooden Wristwatches
- Live Through Disasters in Style
- Say No to a Body Scan and Face 'Intimate' Search
- This Rock-filled iPhone 4 Costs $8,000,000 to Buy
- Nokia N900 Will Soon be Able to Dual-Boot MeeGo
- HTC's Win Phone 7 Surround is $550 Off-Contract
- Microsoft, Facebook Team for New Bing Features
- New Skype 5.0 Adds Group Video, Facebook
- Cataclysm MMO Gaming Mouse In December
- Google Earth Takes Users into Outer Space
- Need a Virtual BFF? There's An App for That
- The Real, Working Wii Remote Made With Lego
- Teens Sending & Receiving 3,339 Texts Per Month
- Steve Jobs Sends Chilean Miners Free iPods
- Former Head of DHS Calls for Cyber War Rules
- Finally: The Reason Why Airplane Food Tastes Bad
- Touchscreen Cell Phones Are Really, Really Dirty
- The World’s Most Advanced Driving Simulator?
So I guess they made enough money from it to give it free now?
What's wrong with just using the market to download it?
No problem here, Boss.
That's an interesting way to pull off a DDOS attack.
still getting error message "The page you are looking for is temporarily unavailable".......
it is now available on the market
oh but not free for the iphone..I SEE how it is..
Set a price for iPhone users, make profit and release for free to Android Users? I laughed a lot
Using a Milestone. Very funny game.
Set a price for iPhone users, make profit and release for free to Android Users? I laughed a lotUsing a Milestone. Very funny game.
Why not? isheep have been proven to have more money than sense.
It's available on the market, as well. The catch is ads. There is an ad displayed at the bottom at the beginning of each level, but it goes away after a few seconds.
I snagged it last night around 3AM, looks gorgeous on a vibrant
It's available on the market, as well. The catch is ads. There is an ad displayed at the bottom at the beginning of each level, but it goes away after a few seconds.
Yep... actually i perfer to pay 99c than be spammed by adds, but to each its own.
Awesome, "Getjar was the obvious choice", yeah, the obvious choice to overflood a server so no one can download it.
When I look for an app, I go to the Marketplace. Maybe Google's openness is lost on me here, but I didn't even know there were third-party app dealers for Android. Getjar? Never heard of it. Of course, the only third-party app I ever installed was Swype, and I only heard of that after multiple articles on various websites.
When releasing a Free game, why not use the Marketplace? Its not like Google can take a cut of $0. And who on an Android phone is going to think "hey, I wonder if they offer a Symbian version of this app"? Multiple websites? Ever heard of auto-detect and redirect? When I go to redbox.com, they point me to their Android-friendly website.
I love it when you pay for an app that's free a few days later. My iphone looks to be the last Apple product I buy for a long time...
@Toms: KILL THESE SPAMMERS ALREADY!
Hell yea!! I just got my DROID X too
It doesn't support QVGA resolution so not luck for HTC G1 (Dream)users.
It is a 12MB download but it needs around 45MB available space while installing.
It occupies 14MB of space after installation.
Great entertaining game though.
Why not? isheep have been proven to have more money than sense.
Proven? By who?
Must be so upsetting to you basement dwelling still at home with mom nerds when successful, well educated and highly intelligent people decide to buy an Apple product.
Proven? By who?Must be so upsetting to you basement dwelling still at home with mom nerds when successful, well educated and highly intelligent people decide to buy an Apple product.
You do realize you got trolled right? That's not a hallmark of someone well educated or highly intelligent.
The troll, however, was successful.
You do realize you got trolled right? That's not a hallmark of someone well educated or highly intelligent. The troll, however, was successful.
Of course he's a troll. My comment wasn't directed towards him. It was meant to be seen by the large number of people who gave him a thumbs up, who likely aren't trolls but regular Tom's readers.
I grabbed this for my WinMo device (HTC Touch Pro2) dualbooting android. Unfortunately the framerate was so slow it was not usable. Looks like alot of fun though.
Of course he's a troll. My comment wasn't directed towards him. It was meant to be seen by the large number of people who gave him a thumbs up, who likely aren't trolls but regular Tom's readers.
Thank you for educating us poor regular Tom's readers. If it wasn't for superior beings like you pointing out the foolishness of our ways, we would totally have been fooled.