PhoneSaber to return this month as “PhoneSaber Unleashed”
GameCyte recently spoke to a THQ representative who has confirmed that popular iPhone app PhoneSaber (which THQ had removed from the iTunes store for copyright issues) will be released some time this month under the new name PhoneSaber Unleashed.
PhoneSaber’s publisher TheMacBox confirmed last month that THQ (which owns the mobile gaming rights for the Star Wars franchise) asked them to pull the app from iTunes but went on to say THQ wanted to work with them to produce an official version of the app. TheMacBox speculated that the app might be relisted in conjunction with an upcoming Star Wars release as a sort of promotional gimmick, and the name PhoneSaber Unleashed seems to imply this may be the case, as the new Star Wars game The Force Unleashed is due to hit stores this September. No word yet on whether or not PhoneSaber Unleashed will continue to be free, but here’s hoping that it will, and that we don’t have to sit through a 5-minute game trailer of propaganda every time we want to power on our light swords for a duel.
Here’s something I’ve been wondering since the iPhone Apps site opened: Why aren’t there any small apps site for OS X? Or at least why aren’t some of these apps cross-platform?
the Konfabulator widgets are okay, as are the Dashboard, but they don’t have the development control of the iPhone apps. Maybe the iPhone OS is too different to do much cross design, but OS X is rich and mature enough to support and sustain a bunch of 3d party “applets.”
Who wouldn’t spend 4 or 5 bucks for a Safari or iTunes plug-in that we knew was (supposedly) vetted by Apple for compatibility? How about a FileMaker program that allows you to edit and update iTunes cover art and track info without having to click 5 or 6 times for each song (but please, eaves the file management data untouched). Just the dearth of quality mindless, simple games (solitaire, minehunter, et al) for relaxation is probably a big market for Mac users.
And if I really wanted to whine (and let’s face it, that used to be a requisite talent for early mac users), I’d want to know why these people who spend all of 2 or 4 hundred dollars on a phone get better loww-end software than those of us spending thousands on our computers?
Life ain’t fair. Or as my old man might’ve said, “Oh, shut up.”