Skim Stones On Your iPhone

From the nice Lake District folk who bought you numerous cringingly-awful sheep animations, now there's a stone skimming game for your iPhone or iPod Touch.


Cumbria Tourism is aiming the game called 'GoSkimming' at 'cooped-up office workers' suffering from 'executive stress'. Once you've downloaded the app for free from the Apple App Store, you opt one of four lakes - Derwentwater, Ullswater, Wastwater and Windermere - choose from a selection of stones and then throw it.

Yes, really. The app uses the iPhone's built-in motion sensor to translate a dummy throw into an animated skim across the lake of your choice then records how many 'hops' it makes across the surface of the lake.

Choosing the right stone, the angle you hold your iPod and your flick velocity all make a difference to how many hops you record. You also get a cheery birdsong background track - if you're aggressive, you could always pretend that you're throwing stones at birds...

Finally, if you accidentally throw your expensive Apple device into the nearest wall, don't go blaming Go Lakes - they have a disclaimer for just such an eventuality...

More details and a handy selection of stone-throwing tips from the All England Stone Skimming Record Holder at www.golakes.co.uk.