Developers bring Latin flavor to Holidays with Parranda iPhone apps

Vaya Broqui, an iPhone developer team hailing from the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico, have created a family of music applications for Apple’s iPhone and iPod touch devices that allow anyone to celebrate the Holidays in their country’s characteristic mix of merriment and tradition.  Parranda, Parranda Cuatro, and Parranda Plena Libre allow you to play several traditional instruments and fire away party hollers and cheers over a collection of festive Latin rhythms – bringing true Caribbean flair to any celebration.

“Puerto Rico is well-known for its world-class Christmas celebration: the island starts getting ready early in December for Christmas Day, but things really pick up right after with New Year’s, Three King’s Day, what we call ‘Las Octavitas’, and all the way up to the third week of January with the traditional festivities of San Sebastián Street in Old San Juan,” says Alfredo Richner, half of Vaya Broqui’s development team.  “We wanted to distill part of that unique Holiday spirit and bottled it up in fun and simple apps that the whole world could enjoy.”

Debuting late last year with the original Parranda application – big in Puerto Rico and a modest hit in iTunes with over 10,000 downloads to date – the team decided to expand on their original idea by developing additional applications that could complement each other and create a richer user experience at party settings.  “While we concentrated on rhythmic instruments in the original Parranda, we developed Parranda Cuatro – a virtual guitar-like instrument based on the ‘cuatro puertorriqueño – as its melodic counterpart,” added team member Pablo López.  “Parranda Plena Libre, meanwhile, allows you to jam with Puerto Rico’s elite ‘bomba y plena’ orchestra and four-time Grammy award nominees, Plena Libre.”

Vaya Broqui’s applications are guaranteed to provide an instant jolt to your Holiday celebrations (the team recommends playing them through external speakers for the full experience).  All three are currently available for purchase through iTunes and the App Store at $2.99 each.

Direct links to apps in iTunes:

Parranda – http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/parranda/id297296714?mt=8

Parranda Cuatro – http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/parranda-cuatro/id341645522?mt=8

Parranda Plena Libre – http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/parranda-plena-libre/id345238996?mt=8