is making even more of a buzz at Ƶ, offering comfort music to go with your comfort ice cream! And donating money to the university’s honeybee research.
Ƶ is the home of the , a bee friendly garden at the west of Highway 113. ä-ٲ gave $125,000 to the garden project in 2009.
Now, ä-ٲ is pledging up to $75,000 to Ƶ bee research, by way of $5 every time someone downloads the ice cream maker’s free mobile app for Apple devices. (That's 15,000 downloads.)
The new app, , is more than sweet, classical music. It’s, well, a timer that runs for two minutes, the recommended length of time to let your ä-ٲ sit — or temper — after you take it out of the freezer, before eating. By doing so, you’ll get “full, rich consistency and allow all the flavors to fully bloom,” according to a ä-ٲ news release.
“Waiting is not an easy task for ice cream lovers, but the process is transformed,” the company says, when you use Concerto Timer. It’s a 3D Kinect, “augmented reality” experience: You point your iPhone or iPad camera at a ä-ٲ carton lid — and a violinist or cellist uses . Point your camera at two lids and you’ll see and hear both musicians.
“By the end of the concerto, the ice cream will have softened to a perfect consistency.”
(By the way, you can use Concerto Timer without a ä-ٲ carton lid — but the app isn't nearly as cool!)
Media Resources
Dave Jones, Dateline, 530-752-6556, dljones@ucdavis.edu