Q: Why is Koi Pond the #1 paid iPhone/iPod touch application in the iTunes App Store?

I have a friend who recently spent thousands of dollars installing a real koi pond in his front yard. The pond and fish are definitely beautiful, but the setup cost him a small fortune and he's responsible for all sorts of stuff -- feeding the fish, keeping the water clean, keeping the filters and lights running, and such -- to insure his fish thrive.

I, on the other hand, bought Koi Pond for my iPhone for a whopping 99 cents and have much of the beauty of a real koi pond without any of the hassles.

Koi Pond is a simulation of (you guessed it) a koi pond that runs on your iPhone or iPod touch and looks like this:

Touch the screen and watch the water ripple and disturb your fish, which quickly swim away. But don't worry -- they'll soon be back. If you keep your finger very, very still, they'll not only return but will nibble at your fingertip.

Or, you can shake your device gently to and fro to deposit a bit of food into the pond to attract the fish.

There are a handful of options you can choose from including the color of the pond's bottom, the number of koi and lily pads, four layers of ambient 3-D sounds you can mix to create your own customized soundtrack, plus brightness and volume settings.

Speaking of soundtracks, be sure you listen to your koi pond through decent headphones - its sounds are extremely well done.

Koi Pond is an beautiful first effort from The Blimp Pilots. I can't wait to see what they do next.

The Bottom Line

OK, Koi Pond is more or less a stupid iPhone trick, but it's a very cool one. I find myself spending far more time with it than I ever expected and I truly enjoy its calming effect. Little kids get a huge kick out of it but big kids and grown ups also find it fascinating. You could spend a buck on a lot of things that would bring you less pleasure.