Bloom: My new favorite iPhone app

Have you ever spent a long, happy evening with a new effects pedal and a pair of headphones? Do you have an Apple iPhone and $3.99 to spare? If so, open the iTunes Store and download Bloom immediately.

The hypnotic Bloom application for iPhone.

Released last Thursday by Brian Eno, who more or less invented ambient music, and fellow traveler Peter Chilvers, Bloom is like discovering a seashell you've never seen before--beautifully simple yet infinitely complicated.

It displays a pastel multicolored screen. You hit different spots on the screen to play different notes--bass notes at the bottom, treble at the top. The notes are arranged in modal intervals so you can't play a wrong note.

Once you've built a pattern, they repeat at an interval, which you can control with a slider. It's polyphonic, so you can add additional notes each time you go through the sequence.

If you take your hands off the screen entirely, it'll improvise on what you've created. Check out the YouTube demo.

It's the perfect iPhone app because it takes full advantage of its most salient feature, the beautiful, bright touch screen. Hopefully, it'll take advantage of another great iPhone feature, the ability to update applications, and add new sounds--some Frippertronic guitar distortion would be lovely.

The low notes aren't very clear through the iPhone's built-in speakers, so use headphones or plug it into a stereo. Or guitar amp. With a delay pedal.

I'll see you in a few hours.

[sythara]

Does it make your phone calls better? Internet access faster?

no it does not.

Yep, yet another completely useless application designed to make iphone users feel better about themselves for dishing out insane amount of money for a phone.

[Brandonius Maximus]

Is that anything like actively reading then commenting on articles about the iPhone to make you feel better about yourself for not buying an iPhone?

[sflocal]

Sythara, an app's usefulness is a personal preference and not all-or-not. Why you make the effort to criticize fiercely about this particular subject just goes to show that your parents made a mistake by letting you out of the basement for the day.

If your only need is for a phone and internet, then you don't need an iPhone, Android and the Blackberry Storm. Just stick with your plain Nokia or Motorola then. You can be sure there that any "app store" from the providers will have the same ratio (if not more) of what you consider "completely useless" apps.

The smartphone providers do not need you for their business. It's obvious they are doing very well without it. Go away and do something useful like discovering the cure for cancer instead of ranting (i.e. "whining") about why the universe does not revolve around you.

[Pete Bardo]

sythara, If all you need is better phone calls and faster internet, you probably don't need an iPhone. Don't get me wrong--I don't need an iPhone either, but it has nothing to do with the insane amount of money. I absolutely refuse to do business with AT&T. Probably a throw-back to when they were the only choice for phone service.

This app sounds cool, but I'd still rather play with a real, live instrument.

[ballpeen]

sythara is right! Fun is overrated. Music sux.