Some apps are more exciting for what they hint at than what they actually do. Anitello is one such app.

A collection of six short how-to animations from developer Anitello Ltd. of Helsinki, Finland, this app seems to lack a unifying theme. One animation shows how to jump start a car. Another, how to stretch during the workday. You will also find: how to make a paper airplane, pan-fry a steak, taste wine, and stay safe in a thunderstorm.

But there is a unifying theme. Anitello points to a new form of mobile training and education, one that is both mobile and based on animations. In fact, Anitello actually contains a seventh video, a kind of meta-training video that shows you how to use Anitello!

Of course, how-to videos are already wildly popular on YouTube and elsewhere. But animation has certain advantages over live action. For example, difficult-to-photograph images can be rendered with relative ease using animation. Think of atomic particles, underwater plant life, or a complex factory supply chain.

In fact, Anitello does plan to expand its offerings. A company spokesman says a new group of animations will show how to mix cocktails, find your way in the wild when lost, apply makeup, and perform magic tricks. My own recommendation is that the company instead creates packets of animations about a single topic. For example, a cooking series could include animations on making an omelette, roasting a chicken, and baking an apple pie. A series on first-aid procedures might show how to dress a wound, apply a splint, and treat a migraine headache. This approach would make more sense for consumers, too. (Just for fun, you can submit ideas for future animation topics directly to Anitello on their web site. And in fact, the folks at Anitello are trying to make it worth your while to share your ideas: All suggestions sent by 31 October 2009, will be entered into a competition for the best suggestion for an animation, which will be rewarded with an Amazon.com gift voucher worth €100. Let them know what you think they should animate next!)

So how about the app as it stands now? As this screenshot illustrates, the Anitello animations are good if not great:

As for multimedia, the animations use only what the company calls “clarifying sounds” – for example, the click of a battery cable clip, or the crinkle of folding paper. Unfortunately, there’s no spoken voice. Instead, you have the choice of watching the videos either with or without explanatory text displayed along the bottom of the screen. If you select the text, you can view it in any of seven languages: Chinese, English, French, German, Russian, Spanish, or Swedish.

Because Anitello uses touch-screen controls, it is currently supported only on Nokia S60 5th Edition devices, specifically the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic and Nokia N97. You also need an open Internet connection, since each animation is downloaded to your device, a process that took about 15 seconds on my Nokia N97 with a Wi-Fi connection (your times may vary, depending on connection speed). One upside of this approach: The app needs just 0.8 megabytes of storage on your device.

There is one relatively minor glitch: The app’s first screen, from which you select the animations, displays only in portrait mode. But the animations themselves run only in landscape mode. This means you have to turn the device back and forth between the start screen and the animations. Seems to me the start screen should be able to display in landscape mode, too.

Also, some of the videos are too basic. The wine-tasting animation, for example, doesn’t go much further than recommending the use of a “clear wine glass” and letting the wine “roll around your tongue.” I had expected at least some discussion of color, bouquet, acidity, fruit and other wine-tasting essentials.

You can watch a demo of Anitello running on a Nokia 5800 XpressMusic device in this YouTube video:

The Anitello app is available in Ovi Store for $2.99. Either way, you’ll glimpse an exciting possible future for mobile training.