by Stone Marshall | Apr 9, 2017 | Awesome Book News, Minecraft News, Minecraft questions |
Minecraft is still a very popular game played on multiple platforms. However, today we will talk about Minecraft for Apple TV, which is finally receiving Realms Multiplayer that will allow you to purchase servers and play with your friends online.
After installing the latest Minecraft update on your Apple TV, you will notice that the “Realms” feature is activated, which is Minecraft’s subscription-based multiplayer system. We have to mention that this upgraded version also supports “Xbox Live authentication” option, which will allow the players to access their linked character skins and avatars.
After purchasing a “Realms” account, you will receive your own Minecraft server, which is maintained by Microsoft. This means that you will not have to worry about things like hosting or IP addresses, as all of these will be made by the company headquartered in Redmond, Washington.
Keep in mind that you will be able to control who is able to join your private Minecraft Realm in order to make sure that no one is messing up with your world while you are offline. The good thing about “Realms” is that the server is online 24/7, which means that your friends are able to join and keep building and having fun in this game while you are offline.
An official private Minecraft server that allows up to two players in it costs $3.99 per month, while for a ten player Realm you will have to pay $7.99 per month. The bad news is that if you have a friend of yours who already plays Minecraft on Linux, PC or Mac, he will NOT be able to play with you, as these are different platforms.
In other words, there are two separate Realms systems: one for computers and one for mobile handsets that includes iOS, Android and Windows 10 Mobile. We’re not sure if Mojang and Microsoft will decide to connect the two platforms, but that might happen in the future.
Minecraft Realms Multiplayer Update Available for Apple TV
by Stone Marshall | Apr 9, 2017 | Awesome Book News, Intro, Minecraft News, Minecraft questions |
Recently, an update was released for the Minecraft Pocket apps, where the Apple TV version of the popular game receives support for Xbox Live and for the Realms gameplay features. For those of you who might not know about it, Realms is the paid online gameplay feature that was released initially back in June. It is available for the Windows 10, iOS and Android versions of the Minecraft Pocket.
More about Realms
Realms is in fact a service that allows an easy set up and lets you invite maximum 10 friends for a private server in the game. As such, you can play together with your friends and family online. Now this service is available for Apple TV too, so players can access their servers on the device too. They are available starting with the price of $3.99 a month for a three-people server and $7.99 a month for 11 people including yourself.
The recent update naturally comes with some new features in stock. Among them we can see a Power Rangers skin pack, more commands which you can use (/stopsound, /playsound, /clear, /difficulty, /me etc), new game rules (drowningdamage, sendcommandfeedback, faildamage, commandblockoutput etc.) and command blocks. Moreover, you will also get minecart with command block and, as we mentioned, Apple TV support for Xbox Live and Realms.
What’s more interesting is that there are some tweaks too. You can see that in the Storage manager the magnifying glass does not appear anymore over the entered text. The jump range of the magma cubes has been fixed to the right value, and the lapis lazuli icon now appears in the enchanting tables. Lastly, the team corrected the accuracy of the fireball shots from ghasts. People are excited that the update comes with some bug fixes too, which makes it even better.
Minecraft Apple TV Edition Comes with Online Gaming Support
by Stone Marshall | Apr 8, 2017 | Awesome Book News, Intro, Minecraft News |
The team over at Mojang has brought us some pretty big news today: on the occasion of a trip to Beijing, China, the Minecraft developer announced the release of Minecraft’s Chinese closed beta. The game was unveiled during a special event held at Beijing’s massive Water Cube, which was lit up Minecraft-style for the occasion.
Mojang has teamed up with Chinese Internet technology NetEase to develop a version of the game which has been specially adapted for Chinese players.
Minecraft has had truly amazing support from Chinese players over the years, even though it’s never been very easy for them to buy the game. So it’s thrilling to be able to officially re-introduce the game to such a passionate group of players, and, with our amazing partners NetEase.”
Through NetEase, Chinese players will be able to test a closed beta of both Minecraft and Minecraft: Pocket Edition. “We’re super-excited to see what Chinese players make in Minecraft, but this is also an amazing opportunity for builders from other parts of the globe to put their creations in front of a new Chinese audience,” added Mojang.
Microsoft introduces Minecraft for China with new closed beta
by Stone Marshall | Apr 8, 2017 | Awesome Book News, Intro, parent-news, State of Stone, Stone Marshall Book News, Stone Marshall Minecraft Adventures |
Prahlad Wulf’s eyes are locked on his laptop screen and his fingers tap the keyboard in complete absorption, his focus broken only by the time taken to grab a few corn chips to eat.
Six boys sit next to him, each similarly focused.
They are all playing Minecraft, the massively popular game where blocky-pixelated characters explore, build, and live in a limitless blocky-pixelated world.
But unlike the other boys, Prahlad has type 1 diabetes.
He was diagnosed at the age of eight, and spent two weeks in hospital learning how to manage the condition via the rituals of daily injections, blood glucose checks and watching what he eats.
“I was really young then so I didn’t really understand most of it, it was a little bit scary,” Prahlad said.
For his father Josh Wulf, the experience was tough to handle.
“If anything happens to your children it really hits you, you know?” Mr Wulf said.
The experience stuck with Mr Wulf, who now runs programs helping children learn coding through Minecraft.
“I realised we could make a difference for children and families living with type 1 diabetes in terms of learning how to manage their condition in a safe way, and a fun way,” he said.
With a group of volunteers, he has been building a modified version of Minecraft and they have been spending weekends together fine-tuning and testing the game.
GIF: A modified version of Minecraft helps children manage their diabetes
In the modified version of Minecraft, players walk around the world and play through stories, with the added challenge of monitoring their blood glucose and insulin.
“They focus on playing, they focus on the story, they focus on the magic, and they just learn how to manage diabetes in the course of that,” Mr Wulf said.
He hopes the finished game will help children with type 1 diabetes connect online, as well as help their friends without diabetes better understand the condition.
QUT associate professor Michael Dezuanni studies how kids learn playing games and he would like to trial the game with newly diagnosed kids in hospital.
“They would be able to play the game, and it would be able to become one part of their education around type 1 diabetes,” he said.
The project has also attracted international attention.
Mr Wulf said a Danish pharmaceutical company that manufactures insulin approached him after hearing about the project.
“We’re working with their scientists on the modelling of the metabolism in the game, and we’re going to visit them in Denmark in June to talk further about that,” he said.
Prahlad said if the game existed when he was diagnosed, it would have helped.
“It would’ve been easier for me to understand what is, cause it’s in simpler terms instead of all this scientific mumbo jumbo,” he said.
“Someone who newly has type 1 diabetes – it would help them a lot.”
Minecraft morphed into game to help kids and parents deal with onset of diabetes
by Stone Marshall | Apr 7, 2017 | Awesome Book News, Minecraft News, Minecraft questions, Stone Marshall Book News |
It could be “game over” for Minecraft fans who downloaded unauthorized mods (modifications) for their Android smartphone or tablet.
Instead of finding new content or tools to tweak the wildly popular Minecraft: Pocket Edition mobile game, more than 80 malicious apps — disguised as Minecraft mods — contained Trojans that bombarded users with advertisements or redirected them to scam websites, says ESET, a Slovakia-based cybersecurity company.
Lukas Stefanko, the malware researcher who discovered the fake mods, says there have been nearly 1 million downloads of the malicious apps from the Google Play store. “Users often fall for phony apps because they’re promising to deliver something new for a famous game like Minecraft, plus many have positive — but fabricated — ratings,” Stefanko says in an interview with USA TODAY.
Once launched, the apps displayed a screen with a download button, which didn’t install a mod but took users to a Web browser with “scareware” messages falsely notifying users of a found virus on their device and promoting them to download a new app.
Other apps displayed numerous advertisements.
ESET says it reported these two groups of apps to Google on March 16 and 21, respectively. If anyone suspects any of these apps are installed, the company offers step-by-step instructions on how to properly remove them at welivesecurity.com.
Along with running a mobile security solution, Stefanko says, ESET suggests Android users download apps only from trustworthy developers or official stores and be cautious when giving app permissions.
Microsoft did not comment on the ESET findings but said in a statement, “Customers should use caution when dealing with publishers who aren’t known or reputable. We recommend downloading games and apps from trusted sources, such as Microsoft and Mojang.”
Google had no comment.
This isn’t the first time unauthorized Minecraft-related malware has been found on Google Play. In May 2015, ESET discovered and reported 30 applications that pretended to be cheats for the popular game, installed by more than 600,000 Android users.
Minecraft was developed and published by Mojang in 2011, originally for personal computers, and agreed to a purchase by Microsoft for roughly $2.5 billion in the fall of 2014.
Minecraft players, beware fake ‘mods’ on Google Play
by Stone Marshall | Apr 7, 2017 | Awesome Book News, Intro, Minecraft News |
The original Mighty Morphing Power Rangers at that. Retro!
Minecraft on consoles is never one to miss out on skin packs for recent pop culture trends. This time, they’ve jumped on board with Mighty Morphing Power Rangers. The original Power Rangers that is!
Minecraft has announced a new skin pack for Console, Pocket, and Windows 10 versions of the game. This skin pack includes all the rangers of course, but it also includes Rita Repulsa, Lord Zed, Goldar, Bulk, Skull, and even Alpha! If that’s not enough, even putties and the Megazord are included.
“As a teen I remember getting out of school, grabbing a snack and settling into the cartoon line-up,” explains Mike Fielder, one of the artists who worked on the skin pack. “Part of that routine was watching Power Rangers. When I found out we would be working on a Minecraft version of some of the character line-up I was pretty excited and even more so when I found out Bulk and Skull would be included since they were my favourite characters. I had a blast creating Minecraft versions of these characters. I hope everyone who uses these skins has as much fun playing them as I did creating them.”
These skins are available for free right now on Console, Pocket and Windows 10 versions of the game!
Power Rangers Skin Pack Comes to Minecraft
