Ocarina

Developer: Smule
Price: $0.99
Version Reviewed: 1.0.1

iPhone Integration [rating:5/5]
User Interface [rating:5/5]
Re-use / Replay Value Rating:

Overall Rating:

Ocarina is sort of a social app jam session. The app gives you a simple music instrument and you get to play a world-wide concert. While the musical instrument is fun to play, the real fun is exploring the songs others have posted.

The app does a good job of emulating a simple wind instrument, the ocarina. You actually have to blow smoothly and correctly into the microphone to get it to play properly. Too bad the iPhone didn't come with a spit valve. Be careful there.

When you play, your song is automatically played for someone else in the world -- maybe not immediately but at some point. If the user likes it and hits the heart button, you will see notification on the about screen.

After you finish your masterpiece, you can go to the performance section - a rotatable and zoomable world globe - where you can see and hear other people's performances. The performances are both visual and audio -- as the notes play, green discs float up from the performers location.

Here's a great performance of Ocarina:
[youtube RhCJq7EAJJA]

In addition, you can share your musical scores online at the Ocarina score generator page and view what others have shared.

Overall Ocarina, while not the most exciting musical instrument on the iPhone but it does use the network connection on the iPhone to it's fullest to create a fantastic social application. It's a lot of fun.