"Stairway to Heaven," played by the Smule Team iPhone Ocarina quintet plus guitar:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfrONZjakRY >From the NY Times's "Circuits" email newsletter by David Pogue: It's one of the most magical programs I've ever seen for the iPhone, and probably for any computer. It's Ocarina, named after the ancient clay wind instrument. Once you install and open this program, your iPhone's screen displays four colored circles of different sizes. These are the "holes" that you cover with your fingers, as you would the holes on a flute. Then you blow into the microphone hole at the bottom of the iPhone, and presto: the haunting, expressive, beautiful sound of a wind instrument comes from the iPhone speaker. Different combinations of fingers on those four "holes" produce the different notes of the scale. (You can change the key in Preferences--no doubt a first on a cellphone.) Tilting the phone up or down controls the vibrato. Ocarina has become a mega-hit. YouTube videos show people playing their favorite songs on this thing with amazing skill. (The "Stairway to Heaven" arrangement, featuring four people playing their iPhones in harmony, is especially memorable.) The software company's Web site, Smule.com, even includes sheet-music pages that show you how to play well-known songs on Ocarina. Ocarina takes advantages of the iPhone's microphone, speaker, touch screen, graphics and tilt sensor. Incredibly, though, it also exploits the iPhone's Internet connection and GPS, as well. If you tap the little globe at the bottom of the screen, the screen changes. Now you see a map of the world--and you start hearing the Ocarina performance of one person, in one city (indicated by animated sound waves on the map), who's playing the thing *right now*. Sometimes it's the halting fumbles of a rank beginner; sometimes it's a lovely melody played by someone who's got the hang of it. You can hit a Next button to tune in to another stranger, and another, all around the world. It's a brain-frying experience to know that you're listening to someone else playing Ocarina, right now, in real time, somewhere else on the planet. (And then you realize that someone, somewhere might be listening to *you*!)
