Quirky App Of The Day: Hand Cooler
by Kathryn Zane
May 2, 2011
When I think about the weather being sweltering hot, I imagine an overweight man with sweat pouring down his creases and holding a little hand fan that buzzes faintly in the humid background. I picture a hazy ring around streetlights in the evening and seeing heat waves rise from the street tops in the afternoon. Women fan themselves by fluttering their blouse tops for a bit of a breeze, and men will swipe the back of their arm across their foreheads to catch the sweat before it runs into their eyes. Everything seems suspended in only half-lives and efforts measured in needs or wants.
I think many people reading this sort of imagery can remember stifling heats and lazy, humid nights. The season of summer can make people desperate enough to do crazy things for a little bit of relief. Kids will play in creeks alongside the creepy-crawlies that terrify them any other time of the year. People will swim in communal pools in hopes that it might have some relieving effect. In fact, some people will buy crazy apps.
Hand Cooler is such an app. It works on the theory that if you see frozen pipes melt at the touch of your hand, then you will cool yourself down. I know for a fact that it is possible to go to a poorly ventilated movie theater in the middle of August on the East coast, watch The Day After Tomorrow, and freeze my bum off the entire movie. The mind is a powerful thing. I call shenanigans when it's just my finger touching a cold image.
Hand Cooler is just a picture of frozen pipes that melt. That's all. I didn't hear any sound effects, and it's only a small portion of the pipes that melt at a time. Nothing truly special to it. I suppose that's what brings it to my corner of the website. There are plenty of apps out there that I give a shrug of my shoulders and a passing, "Meh" to. I don't even go out of my way to declare whether or not I think they're of any worth. This one just seems a little ridiculous enough to make a little trip out of my way to point it out.
If the devs put together a slideshow of cold images to the sounds of the wind blowing or ice clinking, I would be on the up and up of taking it a little bit more seriously. I could buy into people watching something like that for a minute or two and feeling better while stuck on a crowded bus in June. This just doesn't seem to work at all.
Hand Cooler app is available at iTunes for $0.99
