Shelf Control: Soak Yourself In A Unique Reading Experience With Strange Rain
January 21, 2013
Do you enjoy reading while it's raining? If, like mine, your answer to that question is a resounding yes, then you'll find this week's installment of Shelf Control to your liking.
This week on Shelf Control, I'll be featuring an app called Strange Rain.
Yes, it involves rain. And yes, it is rather strange.
Developed by Erik Loyer, Strange Rain shows "rain falling on your screen — from the inside." As a result, looking at Strange Rain is just like looking at a skylight on a rainy day, complete with a view of the dark sky above.
This makes the app highly suitable for relaxing. Indeed, its sights and sounds have a gently calming effect.
What's more, it allows for some calming interaction by letting you drag your finger around the screen and have the rain follow in your direction. Also, pinching in and out changes the intensity of the rain to suit your preference or curiosity.
Furthermore, tilting your iDevice causes the app's glasses-free 3-D perspective to shift accordingly. This is evidently a precursor of the 3-D effect employed in Upgrade Soul, the latest innovative app from Loyer.
But you may be wondering by now how Strange Rain, apparently a relaxation app, relates to Shelf Control.
Well, I can argue that you can use Strange Rain while reading to simulate the experience of reading when it's raining. But that's not the real reason behind the app's featured spot on this week's Shelf Control.
You see, Strange Rain's being a relaxing diversion is essentially the app in Wordless mode. As it happens, Wordless is just one of the app's three play modes. The other two modes are Whispers and Story. And it's the latter mode that actually qualifies Strange Rain for inclusion in our growing Shelf Control library.
In Whispers mode, touching the screen transforms some of the raindrops into rain-related words. But what really transforms Strange Rain into a one-of-a-kind iOS e-reading app is the Story mode.
As stated in the app's App Store description, in Story mode …
… every touch triggers a thought as text on screen. These thoughts tell the story of a man in the midst of a family crisis who has wandered into the rain to collect his thoughts. His world, too, has gone from familiar to strange, even as his beliefs are following the opposite course. Your interaction helps determine when and how he decides to come in from the rain.Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad running iOS 4.3 or later, Strange Rain is available in the App Store for $1.99. It was released just over a couple of years ago and was updated recently with iPhone 5 optimization and Retina iPad support. Download Strange Rain now and experience reading on your iDevice while it's raining on your iDevice. As always, if you have suggestions for Shelf Control, please feel free to email me at aldrin@appadvice.com or simply leave a comment below. [gallery link="file" order="DESC"]