If you have an iPod Touch or an iPhone, I bet you’ve downloaded an app or two.

If you have no idea what I’m talking about or if you’ve been living in a cave for the past six months, go here and learn and then come back.

Everyone on the same page now? Good.

I’ve downloaded tons of apps on my iPhone. I’ve tried the free ones and the paid ones. I even jailbroke my iPhone and fooled around with all of the cool mods that are available in Cydia, which is a must-do but I’ll save that for another time.

There are hundreds of apps out there but most of them are bullshit. Sure, some of them are funny. I mean, who doesn’t want to be the cool kid at school who has a fart machine or a “Thats What She Said” button on hand at all times. You can be the life of the party…for at least ten minutes. Any longer than that, someone is going to come after you with a chainsaw. Trust me. I know.

So, I’ve decided to do a weekly app review, that will hopefully help you weed through the crappy apps and find the cool and useful ones. I’m going to start off with one that I’ve been playing with for about a week now: Distant Shore.

There are a ton of apps out there that allow you to connect with other people, but very few do it in a unique way. Distant Shore does just that.

Okay. Imagine that you are stranded on an island. How would you try and get help?

Signal fire?

Build a raft?

Find the Others and ask them?

What about trying to find a bottle. Then, write a message in blood on a banana leaf. Roll the leaf up. Insert it into the bottle and cast it out into the ocean and hope someone finds it? Sound good?

Thats pretty much what Distant Shore is all about…without the whole writing messages in blood thing.

You start off the game on a beach in a hut.

Exit the hut by taping on the screen, and your “Jesus” like character will walk there: leaving just his footprints behind him.

The object of the game is to walk around and collect shells. Once you’ve collected five shells, you get a bottle. The bottles are used to send your messages out into the ocean, where they wash up on someone else’s distant shore.

As you walk around, you will notice that the shells are everywhere. After a few minutes, you will have an inventory full of bottles. I think that they made this a little bit too easy. Sometimes there are even multiple shells on the screen.

I understand why they did this.

The point of the game is to interact with people, but I think that the mechanics become a little trivial after a while. Walking around to pick up shells can get a little boring, but it is a necessary part of the game.

I do have one question though…How do five seashells turn into a bottle?

Do you melt the seashells down and make the bottles?

Is this a magic island?

Are we on the “LOST” island, years after the survivors of Oceanic flight 815 were there? Did Dharma come back turn the island into a beach resort, only to have everyone disappear into a time rift or something? That would explain all of the beach gear thats just lying around…

So you’ve spent some time and you’ve collected some seashells and you’ve figured out how to melt them down into a bottle, now what?

This is where the real “game” begins.

Open your inventory by clicking the little handbag, in the bottom left corner.

Choose a bottle. Its time to send your first message!

When you choose a bottle, the familiar iPhone messaging format will appear.

Type your first message and hit launch. The bottle will be thrown out to sea and “wash-up” on someone else’s shore.

From what I can tell, you won’t find a bottle on your shore until you send one. I’ve walked for days down the shore line and collected seashells, but I’ve never found a bottle without sending one first.

So after you send a message or two, you will find your first bottle.

When you pick up a bottle, it will show up in your inventory. All new items will have a red circle with a white star by them.

I’ve received all kinds of random messages, in the bottles I’ve found. Everything from just a simple “Hi” to this one i got a few moments ago…

And this one…

This was my reply to the latter…

So if you’re an idiot like me, and I hope you’re not…maybe I can save you some time.

I spent a long time collecting shells, sending messages, finding bottles, and replying to them. I must have sent twenty or more messages out into the world, all the while wondering how I would receive a reply.

I thought that you get your replies in bottles that washed up on the shore. Makes sense, right?

Thats not how it works in Distant Shore.

Now if I would have been more preceptive, I would have seen the new message symbol on the icon of my hut.

Do you see it? Its in the bottom right hand corner.

Also, take a look at the turtle. Hes got a letter sticking out of his mouth.

Thats where you get your replies. Its kind of like a Flintstones-esque mailbox.

Needless to say, I had to spend a lot of time trying to catch up on my messages. I’m sure that my my turtle, who I named Frances, was quite tired of pulling letters out of his shell. I’m not too sure where he was pulling them from, but I’ve learned not to ask. Magic island, remember?

So yeah. After you get into the flow of how the “game” works, you can have some really interesting conversations.

I’ve talked to people around the world and even in my own backyard. I found someone casting out bottles from St. Louis, just a few hours from here.

Sure there are easier ways to meet people, i.e. MySpace or FaceBook, but theres something about the anonymity of Distant Shore.

In Distant Shore, People aren’t afraid to jump into a conversation with a total stranger. Who knows, you could be talking to Barack Obama or the kid down the street. Either way there’s a ton of interesting conversations to be had, and for 99 cents its defiantly worth a try.

It all starts with one question.

I’ll leave you with this cool little conversation I had. I asked the question, “lemons or limes?”

(FYI: you have to read from the bottom up)