You know when you take your favorite pint of ice cream out of the freezer before settling in for another episode of Real Housewives of Orange County only to find that it’s frozen solid and impossible to scoop? Bummer, right? Then you put it in the microwave to soften it up for a few seconds, but you leave it in too long and it comes out as soup. I mean, we can’t be the only one, right?
Fortunately, Häagen-Dazs is here to help, sort of. The General Mills ice cream maker has released a new “augmented-reality” app to keep you entertained while your ice cream reaches the right temperature. (For those of you keeping score at home, there’s an actual industry term for waiting for your ice cream to soften: “tempering.”)
The app is called Häagen-Dazs Concerto Timer and is available for free download in the App Store. As the app description states, “Just as wine needs to breathe, Häagen-Dazs ice cream needs to soften for a few minutes after you remove your carton from the freezer.”
Once you download the app, point your camera at the lid of your Häagen-Dazs carton of choice. Your phone’s screen will display a violinist, who plays a little concerto for you from atop an ice cream container, while you wait for your ice cream to soften. The app uses 3D Kinect technology along with your smartphone’s camera to present the augmented-reality concerto.
This isn’t the first time a brand has made an app that help you properly prepare its product. Pop Secret created the Perfect Pop app that helps users microwave the perfect bag of popcorn without burning it.
Watch a demo of the app in action:
Image via Flickr/yoppy
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