What would you do if you had 300 Android devices (and a whole maze of microUSB cables) at your disposal? If your answer was 'a digital beatbox rendition of Beethoven's 9th', chances are you work in Google Japan's PR division. Or you just have too much spare time.


The Android Chorus (ugh) uses 300 phones, each running an Androidify character, to create a digital beatboxed version of the 'Ode to Joy', the main theme from the last movement of Beethoven's 1824 9th Symphony. The installation will be on display from February 12th to February 15th at Omotesando Hills in Tokyo.

Despite being a blatant Google PR stunt, it's still an impressive bit of design — not just synchronising all 300 phones to work at once, which can't have been easy, but also coming up with a 300-line arrangement of Beethoven's work which can be played through phone speakers and not sound like shit. And hey, it's a damn sight better than giving your phone its very own hip-hop theme song. [VentureBeat]