Blue Skies: iPhone 3GS-Specific Apps Start to Land in App Store
Blue Skies [iTunes Link] is one of the first notable iPhone 3GS-specific applications to hit Apple’s App Store, and at a great low introductory price of $0.99.
A helicopter shooter that was orginally introduced one year ago by RockingPocketGames, this version of Blue Skies is identical to the original version in terms of gameplay, but as would be expected with the beefier processing power in the iPhone 3GS, the graphics have gotten a nice overhaul.
The 3GS enhanced version makes use of the pixel shaders that are ONLY found in the new iPhone 3GS. It has per pixel bump mapping and amazing dynamic animated water that demonstrates the true power of the new iPhone 3GS!
If you currently have the original version along with an iPhone 3GS, is it worth your $0.99 to update? Depends on much you value better graphics in your games. Now if you have never played this shooter and have a 3GS, for $0.99 you are getting a good deal for your money. To see the graphical improvements firsthand, be sure to download Blue Skies Lite [iTunes link].
The big question remains, do you appreciate an iPhone 3GS specific version, or do you think it’s finally breaking the platform compatibility?
Sound off in the comments!
[Via Touch Arcade]
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Let the separation begin!!
I actually thought we would have seen these a lot sooner.
comparing the old to the new 3Gs version… Latter has much better and smoother grafix. But the game itself is just an ok game. not my cup of tea.
I’m fine with it but Apple really needs to make it so people don’t accidentally purchase a version that doesn’t work with their phone. It’ll really start an avalanche of upset-ness.
The App store needs some categories. iPhone, 3g, 3gs, iPodTouch, Internet and Inter-Off (requires internet for data download but it retains it for off-line use, maybe I’ll call it Inter-Cache).
FYI, all App Store pages on your PC/Mac show the sysreqs on the description sidebar on the right.
And if you’re viewing the store on your iDevice, the app doesn’t even show up if your device doesn’t meet the sysreqs.
Sorry bout the doublepost, but try clicking the App Store link on a non-3GS device. The link’s broken.
This also applies to OS versions too; for example, if you have a touch 2G running 2.1.1 you won’t be able to download, say, Music IQ.
@Oboewan Not so, at least here. I can easily purchase this on my 3G. Go figure, I WOULD have expected it to filter itself, but I am growing more and more amazed at the lack of organization that the app store has.
Looks amazing. I don’t even have a 3GS but stuff like this makes me want one even more!!
That game looks so cheap, not a rich console like experiance like Monkey Ball, Sims 3, or Tetris.
Freeze-frame! Off subject question! When Jobs returned to apple and, as Rene and Deiter said, he threw some lamps and trashed the campus because of the ‘S’ in iPhone 3GS being together with 3G and added the little app icon outline around the ‘S’. Now because obviously we cannot add the ‘S’ unless of course we get an emoji version, do we type iPhone 3GS or iPhone 3G S? This game sounds interesting. But how would it play on the iPhone 3G or 2G? The simple things that keep us awake at night!
I find it hard to believe that some of the arguments and point of view here would bear weight in any store on this planet, I can see it now. ‘hi shopkeeper. I bought this large mini bus from you but when I got home I realised It wouldn’t fit in my garage! I lay the blame entirely on you!’
A slight exaggeration but come on people all you have to do is what we learned when we were just little children and READ!!!!!!
Craig, you can’t use that analogy. This is software.
I tried the free version. Wasn’t impressed. I think the augmented reality apps will be the ones that really amaze. I saw a demo of one on YouTube where the person was in a train station and maneuvering the iPhone around and you could see the route namesmove and adjust themselves as the phone was rotated. Awesome! This? Not so much.
@Transientminds
Weird… are you sure you clicked on the new 3GS version and not the old one? Because the former link is broken on my touch 2g.
@Oboewan, FYI, the requirements listed in the sidebar to the right says that it requires an iphone, and the 3.0 OS. That is, the software required in the phone. Says nothing about which hardware you need, at least not in this case.
Jbrandonf, granted it was a bad analogy but it was late! Lol. It would be the same case if it was pc software though and you would get the same result.
Anybody waste the .99 to see what it does on a non-3GS? Just a little curious as to what happens…
Too bad this power doesn’t appear as if it will be used to expand productivity for the Iphone. The one app at a time thing is ridiculous.
This is nothing new… Howany GPS apps were available to first gen iPhone users? Or even Touch users? Find my car? Not with triangulation.
@Truth:
I agree.
It seems that Apple is content to let the innovation be carried by the App store developers, who in turn, seem content to concentrate on mindless games for idle minds.
There are a hell of a lot more juveniles with money to buy games than business uses of the iPhone, or really powerful new concept apps.
Even the much hyped Augmented Reality apps seem like toys, with the only real useful application Missing In Action, namely as an addition to the Apple(Google) Map App. Where is that? Apple? Anybody? Bueller?
Games seem to be the focus of the App store, and the iPhone in general. There has even been a study on this over at Channel Web: http://tinyurl.com/ksuk7k
Maybe it will take Microsoft to add real business functionality to the iPhone:
Is Microsoft Office For iPhone Just Around The Corner?
http://tinyurl.com/n7cabu
Little games are also popular on the iPhone because they fall into among the most well-defined categories of App Store acceptance/rejections. If you make a game, as long as you steer clear of certain types of “indecency,” you will likely be approved. A business — or, God forbid, a truly innovative application, interacts with more services on the device and possibly with the network, requiring a nebulous and far tougher App Store gauntlet to run before getting approved.
If you were a dev house with $50,000, would you spend it to make 2 games that would almost assuredly get approved, or 1 new type of application with no idea could if it can make it into into the App Store?
@Fassy:
I’m not sure it works that way.
The concept of the generic Dev House is largely a myth. People and organizations have areas of expertise. If Games are your bread and butter, the chances of you coming out with a great business app are slim to none.
Then there is the need of an infrastructure if you want to develop a social networking application. You either have to have one, or ride on someone else’s infrastructure.
So while I agree games are probably easier once you port your gaming engine, I don’t think its due to a cost benefit calculation made by the developers. Its what they know. Its all they do.
There is the boredom factor. Get bored with your eReader, or your Chat client, chances are another eReader won’t be much help. Get bored with you Game, and another game may be the answer.
So any Dev who ports his game engine to the iPhone can then crank out new titles about as fast as people can become bored.
@icebike
Point taken — I do not think it works that way either. My poorly constructed hypothetical was trying to illustrate that people with business (or out of the box) app ideas for the iPhone are far less likely to jump into the App Store pool than those with game ideas, because, the more significant or wide-ranging your idea, the longer your App Store roulette odds are.
It is not that devs say “I could make a game, or I could make Lattitudinal Tweet-Enabled Mobile Excel” — it is that a game devs not only have smaller App Store process risks, they can more clearly estimate those risks beforehand. As a result, more game devs jump in.
The more ambitious app developers not only have greater rejection risk, they also have little way to measure it before they spend their money. As a result (IMHO), less truly innovative ideas are attempted for the iPhone than otherwise would be.