Ocarina Articles on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

Daily iPhone App: Ocarina 2 makes for more virtual tunes

by Mike Schramm (Jun 25th, 2012)

I'll be honest -- since the first Ocarina app came out, I've become a fan of Smule, the company behind it. Its mix of creative energy and technical know-how is a great match for Apple and a good example of software made well. But I have never really been a fan of Ocarina the app, just because I ...

Smule's Dr. Ge Wang on what's next for the company and the App Store

by Mike Schramm (Jan 12th, 2011)

Smule is one of the oldest names on the App Store. Ocarina was one of the App Store's first big successes, and they've continued to make music and social-based apps like their most recent app, Magic Fiddle for the iPad. Dr. Ge Wang is not only the co-founder and Chief Creative Officer of the ...

Found Footage: Singing with a quartet of iPhones

by Mike Schramm (Mar 27th, 2010)

Happy weekend! Here's a girl from Korea, named applegirl002 over on YouTube, playing Lady Gaga's "Poker Face" with a quartet of iPhones as accompaniment. Sure, the song's not that great, but look at those iPhones go! She's using I am T-Pain for autotuning the singing, Beatmaker for laying out the ...

10 cool videos of the iPhone as a music instrument

by Victor Agreda, Jr. (Aug 5th, 2009)

digg_url = 'http://digg.com/gadgets/10_cool_videos_of_the_iPhone_as_a_music_instrument'; The hyperbole around the iPhone platform has become hyperbolic itself, so I'll spare you the deconstruction of what is now an obvious conclusion: the iPhone has musical chops. The dizzying array of apps on the ...

Smule raises $3.9 million in funding

by Mike Schramm (Feb 13th, 2009)

There's money in them thar App Store! Smule, the company behind the popular Ocarina and Zephyr apps for the iPhone, has informed us that they raised a whopping $3.9 million from a round of venture funding led by a firm named Granite Ventures. That's a lot of capital -- while a lot of people are ...

Make a video with Cat Piano, win a DS

by Mike Schramm (Feb 4th, 2009)

It's probably time for me to lay off of Smule -- I've said that their Ocarina app might be the silliest musical app in the App Store, but we have a new winner: Cat Piano is just plain loony: a piano made up of cats meowing, like those old Christmas recordings, but playable. There are a few different ...

2008 Best iPhone App Ever winners announced

by Mike Schramm (Jan 9th, 2009)

The voting only went underway a while ago, but they've just announced the winners for the 2008 Best App Ever awards, celebrating (according to 148apps.com and the people they got to nominate and vote in their contest) the best iPhone apps of last year. As I said for the voting, you can probably take ...

2008 Best App Ever awards voting is underway

by Mike Schramm (Jan 2nd, 2009)

The nominations are out and voting has begun for the "Best App Ever" awards for 2008, recognizing the best iPhone and iPod touch apps of the year. Nominations have already happened -- the public submitted almost 18,000 nominations, and a panel of developers and experts was assembled to finalize the ...

Smule's Zephyr sends snowy messages around the world

by Mike Schramm (Dec 29th, 2008)

As much as I hate to do it, I'm always willing to admit when I'm wrong, and I was wrong about Ocarina. Not about the app itself, per se -- I still think it's one of the silliest, most pointless apps I've seen on the App Store. But it has been nothing but popular since its release, so apparently lots ...

First Look: Ocarina for iPhone

by Cory Bohon (Nov 11th, 2008)

If you're a Zelda nerd like most of us on the blog (not to mention any names), then you will most likely run out and buy the app we're about to discuss. Ocarina [iTunes link] is a new musical entry to the iTunes App Store that allows anyone to be just like Link in the Ocarina of Time (probably one ...