Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Press, Bloggers Fall For iPhone Cup Holder 'Joke'

Posted by timothy on from the better-designed-than-the-cupholders-in-my-car dept.

netbuzz writes "An iPhone case with a built-in cup holder? The designers were looking for $25,000 to make it on the crowdsourcing site Indiegogo. One look at the contraption should have been enough to convince anyone that the thing was a joke, or a publicity stunt, but a number of mainstream press outlets (LA Times, UPI) and bloggers took the bait with little or no realization that that they might be on the wrong end of the hook. Today the Dutch marketing firm behind the effort acknowledged that it was 'a joke.'"

12 of 98 comments (clear)

  1. iPhone Ramen Bowl by sir-gold · · Score: 3, Interesting

    How is this any worse than the Ramen Bowl iPhone Dock? (which is a real product)

    http://www.toxel.com/tech/2013/01/23/ramen-bowl-for-iphone-owners/

  2. We have already seen lucicrous stuff, and it sells by anubi · · Score: 4, Insightful

    How much stuff have we seen already - absolutely ludicrous - yet it sells?

    I am sure you, like me, have seen lots of stuff advertised that could not possibly work as advertised, yet someone sells it, making a mint doing so.

    My neighbor bought last year some miracle thing that cooled his whole house off the ice in his fridge. Yeh. Cooled by how much? .0001 degree kelvin? And how much heat did his fridge pump into his house to make the ice? Unsaid. But most people, being the sheeple they are, open their wallets for what the microphone man is hocking. Geez, its gotta be true -doesn't it? It was said through a microphone!

    Much of what I have seen coming down the pike for the last few decades I considered a joke. Other people took it seriously. And made money.

    Some people do indeed have the sales skill to sell ice to eskimos. I go through almost any store and know my marketing skills are useless. The store seems mostly stocked with utterly useless junk - but someone buys it.

    So a real joke got mixed up with all this junk. Can you blame 'em for not distinguishing the real joke from the crap the marketing people push today?

    --
    "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]

  3. epic fail by Osgeld · · Score: 2

    it wont hold a beer

  4. Re:Before Slashdotters crow with smugness . . . by Tx · · Score: 2

    I saw this Ramen bowl with iPhone holder on The Register earlier, and I couldn't decide if it was for real or not. Thing is, if it is, I know someone I'd buy it for!

    --
    Oh no... it's the future.
  5. other things people thought were "jokes" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Other Things People Thought Were "Jokes"

    1. a portable music player without wireless and less space than a nomad
    2. an online store that holds all your credit card info so you can buy something with a single click
    3. a messaging system that limits messages to 140 characters
    4. a web site where you make public in all the personal info needed to stalk you, burglarize your house, or sink your career, including what you are doing and when and where you are doing it, plus who all your friends are
    5. an encyclopedia that anyone can edit
    6. a web site that sells coupons worth $40 for $20 and the store gets only $10
    7. an online game where you pay real money for virtual things in the game or to give to your "friends"
    8. a new personal computer where the software is only available from a single store and there is no porn
    9. a self balancing scooter

    okay, the last one is still a joke but nobody is perfect

    1. Re:other things people thought were "jokes" by cerberusss · · Score: 4, Funny

      Other Things People Thought Were "Jokes"

      1. a portable music player without wireless and less space than a nomad

      I haven't heard of that particular gadget. It sounds lame.

      --
      8 of 13 people found this answer helpful. Did you?
  6. Re:A joke? by Kufat · · Score: 5, Funny

    Hats go on your head. Jokes, evidently, go right over it.

  7. How about... by DirtyLiar · · Score: 2

    ... a coffie-cup-holder with a built-in peltier device?

    That way you could charge up your iPhone with your hot coffie!

    Or heat up your coffie with your phone!

    --

    THINK! It's patriotic

  8. Re:A joke? by Frosty+Piss · · Score: 2

    You will also note that the word 'joke' is in quotes throughout this story - the reason is, of course, that this 'joke' is no joke to Apple fanbois, many of whom are outraged after discovering that they could not pre-order this case, and not have declared jihad.

    --
    If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
  9. Re:Cup holder by ozmanjusri · · Score: 2

    Are you kidding?

    The only place an Australian will put their beer is in their mouths.

    Anything else is either perverted or European.

    --
    "I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
  10. Re:A joke? by Sulphur · · Score: 2

    Hats go on your head. Jokes, evidently, go right over it.

    Well done.

  11. iPhone Cup Holder by TheNinjaroach · · Score: 2

    Yeah, but does the cup holder allow me to put Java on the iPhone?

    --
    I went to eat some animal crackers and the box said, "Do not eat if seal is broken." I opened the box and sure enough..