Pocket Edition

Minecraft Pocket Edition is the mobile version of Minecraft developed by Aron Nieminen of Mojang AB. It was initially launched exclusively for the Xperia PLAY on the Android Market for $6.99/£4.28/4.99€ on August 16, 2011, along with a free demo version. It was later released for other Android devices on the 7th of October 2011. Minecraft Pocket Edition for iOS devices was released on Thursday, the 17th of November 2011 on the iOS App Store, one day before the ceremonial launch of the 'final' PC version at MineCon.

About
The objective of the game remains the same as its original PC and Xbox Edition counterparts, where players can build virtual realities in a sandbox-like environment.

A video of an early prototype was released on Twitter, showing the game on the Xperia PLAY. The alpha version was recently released, and became no longer exclusive to the Xperia PLAY on the 7th of October 2011. The non-exclusive version was going to be released on September 29th for Android but there were several severe bugs that needed to be fixed; the release was delayed until the 7th of October.

A version for iOS devices was confirmed to be be released before 2012 in an interview with Mojang and subsequently was released on the 17th of November 2011.

Gameplay
The gameplay of the pocket edition is akin to that of the Classic game mode, with the following differences:

Android

 * The terrain generation is similar to that of Alpha's. It lacks many biomes, Caves, and other Generated Structures.
 * In the Pocket Edition one has the ability to place only Wooden Planks, Cobblestone, Sandstone, Dirt, Brick, Stone, Torches, Ladders, yellow Flowers, various shades and colours of Wool, Glass, Leaves, stone and wooden Stairs, stone Slabs, (Oak) Wood, Gold (Block), Iron (Block), Diamond (Block), Sugarcane, Cyan Flowers, Mushrooms and Obsidian.
 * Blocks that exist but are unobtainable are Ice, Snow, Lava, Water, Coal Ore, Iron Ore, Gold Ore, Diamond Ore, Redstone Ore, Grass, Clay, (Birch and Pine/Spruce) Wood, Bedrock and Gravel.
 * The Pocket Edition does not have a visible sky.
 * Water in the pocket edition is finite as compared to the infinite water in Classic.
 * It lacks many of the settings the Classic version has.
 * Neither sand or gravel move directly above the nearest block directly below them (this was Classic's version of falling).
 * The hot bar only contains three different blocks (or 8 for the Xperia Play version)
 * Spawn points cannot be set in the Pocket Edition.

iOS
Minecraft Pocket Edition on iOS is much like the Android version of Pocket Edition with 36 useable blocks.

Android version
The Android version features a d-pad at the bottom-left corner of the screen, which controls movement. The jump button is located in the center of the d-pad. Note that when moving towards an adjacent block that is one level higher than the player, the player will jump. One can place blocks by tapping the screen in a desired location. Destroying blocks is similar to PC version's way, but rather than tapping, the player taps and holds. The search button will change the view and the menu and back buttons will open the pause screen. To open the inventory screen, tap the triple dotted button on the right of the hot bar.

Xperia PLAY
The Xperia PLAY has a wider variety of options for controls because of its full-size control pad with analog touch sticks along with portable gaming device buttons (similar to PSP). The player can choose to use the on-screen controls or the physical controls.

Android
According to Aron Nieminen, the system requirements are:


 * Android OS 2.1 or later
 * The device must have a CPU that supports floating-point calculations ("ARM-v7a code")
 * The screen must support multi-touch
 * An internet connection is required for multiplayer & to download the game

Aron says that the CPU known as "MSM7227" is NOT supported, which unfortunately is in a lot of smartphone models.

According to Kappische, the Pocket Edition won't work with devices that have processor speeds under 1GHz and Android OS versions lower than 2.3.

Though some devices below these specs and OS versions have been known to work fine either with or without using a custom ROM image, kernel, and overclocking the CPU.

Officially verified working devices

 * Sony Ericsson Xperia Play
 * Sony Ericsson Xperia Ray
 * Sony Ericsson Xperia Mini Pro

A full list of (non)compatible devices and the performance on said devices can be found here.

iOS
The system requirements for the iOS version of pocket edition according to the app store page are:
 * you must have iOS 4.3 or higher
 * compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad.

Helpful Hints & Tips

 * Make sure your battery is charged, and/or plugged in (3D gaming drains the battery quickly).
 * Have at least a 500 Kbs internet connection speed for Multiplayer.
 * Make sure that you downloaded the Pocket Edition from the Android Market or the iOS App Store, and not from a 3rd party (which may include viruses in your download).
 * Get used to the controls before playing on servers (it is easy to mine the block under a torch by mistake).
 * You can't use ladders to make water elevators or underwater bases because water destroys ladders.

Trivia

 * Torches and Lava are the only form of lighting in the Pocket Edition.
 * Only 18/36 Blocks are available in the Demo Pocket Edition.
 * Torch light is very faint and only spreads for one block, it is unknown whether this is a glitch or a feature.
 * Pocket Edition's save files are not compatible with those from the PC version.
 * There are no player skins in either version of the Pocket Edition.
 * Fire is still present but is invisible, and can only be seen by placing flammable blocks next to lava.
 * Lava appears to be frozen, but will flow if forced to move.

Version-Exclusive Blocks

 * Cyan Flower
 * Camera