Osmos runs on all Android tablets and most modern phones running Android 2.2 (Froyo) or later. Don’t worry: if your device doesn’t meet these requirements, you shouldn’t be able to purchase Osmos on the Market. There are lots of different Android devices out there; please feel free to let us know how the game is running for you!
Big thank you and congratulations to the fine team at Apportable for their hard work on the port. They’ve done a fabulous job, and we’re so pleased Osmos can now be enjoyed on Android devices.
Thank you also to all the fans of Osmos, and to the Android supporters who have cheered us on during the port. Stay tuned for an upcoming series of Android-related blog posts covering Apportable’s tech and our experiences with the port and Android ecosystem.
Android lovers have been chomping at the bit to see Osmos in their hands, and thankfully the long wait is nearly over. Osmos will land in Android-land on Tuesday, January 17 — ‘droids everywhere rejoice!
The fine folks at Apportable have been doing the heavy-lifting on the port, and Osmos runs on all Android tablets and most modern phones running Android 2.2 (Froyo) or later.
The multiple-award-winning Osmos will appear for sale on the Android Market for $4.99 and will be available in a single universal “HD” version supporting all devices at their native resolution.
As just announced on physicsofosmos.com, we’re pleased to announce the winners of the “Physics of Osmos” video contest!
First prize – and a $500 Amazon gift certificate – is being awarded to Alex Christofferson, a student at
Tatnall school in Wilmington, Delaware. His one minute video is very well presented, and chock full of physics. (It’s also backed up by a lab report containing some amazingly thorough and well-thought-out measurements and analysis!) Here’s his video:
In addition, these three excellent submissions received $50 runner-up prizes:
And many, many thanks to Andrew Vanden Heuvel for running this whole contest! He did everything from conception, to creating the site and video, to organizing and selecting the winners! (All we did was provide the prizes. ) Thanks again, Andrew!
In related news, Mat Jarvis (Microscopics/Gas/High Skies) just posted some great “Tips for a Long and Happy Life”, showing some basic and advanced physics tips on how to Master the Blobiverse. It’s a good thing Mat wasn’t allowed to compete in our contest!
I should start by saying that Osmos is the most rewarding project I’ve ever worked on: it’s received tons of love and wonderful feedback from fans and reviewers alike, has won a bunch of amazing awards, over a million people have played it, and it’s been a pleasure in and of itself to create.
But, if there’s one outstanding Osmos-wish that we’d love to see fulfilled, it’s to see the game used for physics education. For those who have played it, the physics & math inspirations in Osmos are clear (in particular: Newton’s laws of motion and orbital mechanics, but other subjects as well), and this is something near and dear to our hearts.
So, when we saw a recent blog post by Andrew Vanden Heuvel, (an online physics & astronomy teacher with the Michigan Virtual School,) basing a physics lesson on Osmos, we were delighted! In it, he asked students to experiment – looking for physics concepts that could be demonstrated using Osmos as their laboratory – calling people to post videos of these demonstrations.
We thought this was awesome. So we got in touch, offering to “sweeten” the pot and give out some prizes for the best videos. Andrew went one better and created a new website dedicated to the “Physics of Osmos”, and just announced the contest!
First prize is a $500 gift card to Amazon.com (which can be used for books, a tablet, or whatever you like really)! There will be three runner-up prizes as well. All the details, including eligibility, can be found on the contest page itself.
Spring equinox is in the air, dear motes, and you know what that means! Well… technically, it means the center of the Sun will lie in the same plane as the Earth’s equator. But to put it in context with our daily lives: night and day will be nearly the same length everywhere on the planet for one 24-hour period. Or, simply, bye bye Winter! (Or Summer if you live in the southern hemisphere.)
In celebration, we’re throwing a one-day, 99-cent sale on all App Store versions of Osmos! That includes iPhone, iPad and the Mac App Store. “When?” you ask. [edit: it's on right now!!] On the last Thursday of Winter: tomorrow, March 17th, 2011. Consider this your heads up!
This is definitely the lowest we’ve ever priced Osmos on iPad or Mac. So if you, a friend, or a friend of a friend hasn’t already picked it up, pass on the news…
We recently posted about a bunch of year-end accolades Osmos has received. (Sometimes you just have to toot your own horn I guess. Toot toot!) But some of the articles we’ve come across are… different: philosophical, scientific, amusing…
Here’s a selection of a few of our recent favorites:
“Think Like a Bacterium: Osmos, Naïve Quorum Sensing, & the iPad” by the Sport Linguist relates Osmos to “quorum sensing” and “technological human enhancement”.
This “review” by Alexandre Guimond begins with Carl Sagan and ends with how Osmos is “the metaphorical statement of what we have become as a species, and how far we have come to understand the Cosmos.” Wow.
“Osmos and The Free Market” by Daniel Primed takes an economics slant and compares Osmos to the free market. Interesting… though I guess that raises the question of whether or not our economy is a zero-sum game like the mass in Osmos.
And last but certainly not least, a four panel rage comic summing up the Osmos experience for one player
