When Star Wars Episode 7: The Force Awakens rolls into cinemas here in Australia in December this year, you want to be ready for it. All the news, the trailers and more for the new film can now be found in a nifty new app from Disney simply called Star Wars.
The app is ‘your official mobile connection to a galaxy far, far away’ bringing you ‘breaking news, rich media, social updates, special events, and interactive features’. The app sounds great, but it’s unfortunately only been released in the US .
As far as features go, the app sounds like every Star Wars fans dream come true, with a massive list of features to keep you going in the five months till you can get your next Force fix.
- Get instant notifications on big announcements, including trailer releases and movie news
- Theme your app with Light Side, Dark Side, or Droid interfaces, each containing different designs, sounds, and animations
- Unlock 3D characters from Star Wars: The Force Awakens using a special Augmented Reality camera feature
- Take and share a Star Wars “selfie” in various iconic costumes and settings, including Jedi, Princess Leia (with hair buns), Han Solo’s carbon freeze, and more
- Get Star Wars-themed weather and five-day forecasts, featuring original art and parallax effects of in-universe planets and locales
- Wield a lightsaber and hone your skills against a training remote, as seen in Star Wars: A New Hope
- Share animated GIFs with your friends and family of memorable scenes and characters from the Star Wars movies and TV shows, including Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Star Wars Rebels
- Discover behind-the-scenes fun facts with This Day In Star Wars History
- Play classic sound clips and sound effects from your favorite Star Wars characters, creatures, weapons, vehicles, and scenes
- Get quick updates with a snapshot news ticker
- Count down to major releases like Star Wars: The Force Awakens with an always-running timer
- Sign up for Star Wars ID and join the growing Star Wars fan community; choose an avatar, create your own handle, and build a connected profile
- Read official Star Wars news and blogs from StarWars.com, as well as app-exclusive content, including the latest on Star Wars: The Force Awakens, creator interviews, and more
- Follow official Star Wars social channels via aggregated, customizable feeds from Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Tumblr, Google+, and Twitter
- Watch official Star Wars videos, including movie trailers, behind-the-scenes featurettes, and more
- Discover the latest Star Wars digital apps, products and experiences from one central hub
Of course the app is simply a great marketing tool to drum up business for the upcoming film, but for me and many other fanboys this will be a great way to keep up to date.
Now. As we said, it’s US-Only, but we grabbed the APK and you can download it here:
Mirror 1
Mirror 2
Update: There is an issue with downloading further content once you install the app. We’re looking at ways to get around this now.
Disney has said that they plan to update the app, so look out for push notifications when they do.
Just a quick note. I was able to download and install using a VPN. Just remember you need a US Google Account and you have to disable location services before you clear data/Cache and force stop Google Play in Apps.
Everything works as it should, even when I login to my UK account.
Any development on getting round the geocaching?
Nothing to get around geo-blocking. Using a VPN doesn’t work and it’s a pain in the proverbial to change your account to the US just to install an app.
Disney have always been geo-restricting bastards who apparently hate the UK. I remember the first time I travelled to Florida getting into an argument with a self-satisfied Disney pr1ck on a newsgroup complaining that they only had NTSC VHS tapes of their cartoons when I needed PAL (this was back in 1995) and his reply was all to do with scheduling across the world. I warned him that when DVD came out that put that to bed. As it turned out I was right. Years later, they tried to use DVD Region coding to restrict release scheduling until it became… Read more »
Something that the article did not mention is that this app is actually a product of Disney and Verizon, and even in the U.S. we have to have a Verizon phone to download, because Verizon paid to make the app only for their customers, along with the “limited edition Star Wars Google Cardboards brought to you by Verizon.” So its not so much Disney this time, more Verizon
Actually it’s available worldwide now – even without a Verizon phone and you can also access the VR content that Verizon ‘powered’
Tried using Hola (US) and couldnt get it to work either.
Need the .obb file from the /sdcard/Android/obb/com.disney.starwarshub_goo directory of someone with it working
It’s on Mobilism. Search for “Star Wars” then browse to this thread: STAR WARS (NEW APP FOR FORCE AWAKENS)
has anyone tried sideloading and then using the tunnelbear? I Can;t get tunnel bear working on my G4
I get the same screen as Adam. Keep us posted once a work around is reached. Gotta get my nerd on…
Damn it. I get a message within the app to download the rest of the content from Google Play. It obvioisly fails stating “state_failed_unlicensed”. Work around I pressume is use a VPN or proxy service to use a US IP address to complete the install?