iPhone Ocarina

My curent mobile is a nokia 3210. It's a perfectly functional phone that I've become rather fond of- I've no need for any of the fancy bells and whistles that come attached to so many of the flimsy things released these days. In addition, if I get mugged I could hit my assailant over the head with it. And I thought I was happy with it...

Until the iPhone got released. Now, I don't care too much for internet on the go or ubermegapixel cameras, or even the touch screen keyboard (which, whenever I use my flatmate's iPhone, make my fingers seem too fat). It's the ability to download apps which puts it a cut above the rest. Aside from the classics (e.g. the star wars lightsaber effect and iBeer), from the rest of my favourites, first there was Super Monkey Ball. This is just nifty- great graphics and brilliant use of the accelerometers. The only annoying thing is how sensitive it is, and how addictive- cue hours of monkey fun followed by hours of wrist pain. My other favourite was Catch the Egg. It's remarkably realistic in that if you really imagine you're catching an egg you'll probably win. The required rapid arm movement does make you look like an idiot in the pub though.

The latest is the amazing iPhone Ocarina. This has got to be the cleverest app that I've come across so far- fantastic use of the microphone. It's customisable to every key and even the instrument's sound can be altered in style (my favourtie is 'zeldarian'). We've also discovered that moving the iPhone down (i.e. shaking the accelerometers) makes the sound vibrato- a nice touch! Add to that the ability to listen to other Ocarina players from across the world live and an active forum with new song scores going up every day makes this a true joy to play with. I've put a video of some kid playing 'Amazing Grace' below- I love the way he shuts his eyes and plays it like he means it!

Whether I switch to an iPhone or not is going to be a close call. Still, I couldn't use one to hit a mugger with.