Truth in Advertising: Kwan Yi Strikes a Chord With Mobile Musical Expression
Here we see rising pianist Kwan Yi passionately expressing himself on the "nation's fastest 3G network," a performance that speaks to a larger trend being enabled by mobile touchscreen devices. Visit the music section on Apple's app store and a variety of instruments will be served up, many of which even professional musicians have been experimenting with. Recently, Stanford's Mobile Phone Orchestra performed using Smule's Ocarina app. The University of Michigan has an entire course on Building a Mobile Phone Ensemble. Clearly something is at work here.
While there are many instruments available for those interested, the piano seems to be of the most popular. Iano puts the iPhone and iPod touch's multi-touch screen to use by packing a complete four-octave keyboard into a single screen. FingerPiano is similar but also provides Guitar Hero style scrolling guides to help the rookie. YouTube is flooded with users showing off their talent via various apps. This is great, and as the price of the iPhone and basic iPod touch begins to drop we will see even more creative applications. Yan Tiersen combines six iPhones for a proper performance.
Truth in Advertising is a running series of television commercials that portray consumers using mobile technology in their everyday life. They take a look at how brands are demonstrating our want and need for mobility. Click here to view previous entries.
