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Press, Bloggers Fall For iPhone Cup Holder 'Joke' 98

Posted by timothy 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.'"
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Press, Bloggers Fall For iPhone Cup Holder 'Joke' More

Press, Bloggers Fall For iPhone Cup Holder 'Joke'

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  • Poe's Law strikes again (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    I mean, it is an iPhone gimmick. Shit like this is plausible.

  • iPhone Ramen Bowl (Score:4, Interesting)

    by sir-gold ( 949031 ) on Sunday January 27, 2013 @06:04PM (#42710703)

    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/ [toxel.com]

    • A long time ago I saw a USB powered rice cooker. Real product!

    • That's just a slot in a regular bowl. And it does something: you could watch a video while eating. The cupholder, you still have to carry both, and you can't use the phone while drinking.

      They're both pretty ridiculous, sure.

      • That's just a slot in a regular bowl. And it does something: you could watch a video while eating. The cupholder, you still have to carry both, and you can't use the phone while drinking.

        They're both pretty ridiculous, sure.

        Something has to be done about Dialing While Impaired.

    • 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/ [toxel.com]

      I for one welcome our Ramen powered cup holding overlords.

  • A gem from the not too distant past [zdnet.com]

  • We have already seen lucicrous stuff, and it sells (Score:4, Insightful)

    by anubi ( 640541 ) on Sunday January 27, 2013 @06:15PM (#42710791) Journal
    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?

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

      Indeed. [amazon.co.uk]

    • Can you blame 'em for not distinguishing the real joke from the crap the marketing people push today?

      Yes—we must provide the reinforcement for their learning!

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by vlm ( 69642 )

      Another long format windows 8 joke...

    • Devil's advocate: if you ran your fridge to make the ice overnight when it's cold and used it in swamp coolers to chill the house in the day that might work. No doubt that's not what he actually had though.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by 1s44c ( 552956 )

        I thoughtful post. Thank You!

        What you are describing is slurry ice storage cooling. Cool the coolant at night when the electricity is cheap and blow air though it to cool your building in the daytime. It can save a fortune in cooling costs compared to conventional air-con.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by 1s44c ( 552956 )

      It's depressing because it's true.

  • Clearly, technology does not make us smarter.
    • This doesn't mean bloggers and tech reporters are stupid. I might even posit that opposite. Most of them exist to generate clicks. The mistake is in thinking that they're actually journalists. They're not. Their entire purpose is to churn out whatever will get the general populace to click through to the article. There's no careful research, no time spent to uncover the truth, no objectivity; it's all about getting ad impressions. And it really doesn't matter that it's crap because it's what most of the com

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Jetra ( 2622687 )
        Yes, I've learned that lesson ^ | Freelance writer. Can't get attention even if I advertise everywhere.

    • Clearly, technology does not make us smarter.

      I may be reading too much Carl Sagan, but I wouldn't expect technology to make an individual smarter. I would merely expect it to increase the aggregate memory of the species, making the species smarter as a whole.

  • Well I find this much, much more palatable than the iPotty, a product actually previewed at the venerable CES:

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-20957844 [bbc.co.uk]

    • Well I find this much, much more palatable than the iPotty, a product actually previewed at the venerable CES:

      I know you're just dying to find out my opinion...

  • Why the hell would anybody want a cup holder connected to their phone with hot coffee? I don't mean to sound elitist, but the idea is terrible!

    1. 1. Insert cup containing hot beverage into cup holder.
    2. 2. Mess with your phone a bit until you want a drink.
    3. 3. Grab the cup and spill the coffee all over your phone because you can't get it out of the cup holder.
    4. 4. Drop your phone and scream in pain because you just poured hot coffee all over your hands and possibly other places.
    5. 5. Accept that your phone is totally

  • epic fail (Score:3)

    by Osgeld ( 1900440 ) on Sunday January 27, 2013 @06:38PM (#42710931)

    it wont hold a beer

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by 1s44c ( 552956 )

      it wont hold a beer

      I'm working on a compatible funnel to pour beer into a coffee cup. Just $50.

  • Not the first time (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    A lot of press and bloggers covered Winodws 8, and most didnt realized that it was a joke too

  • other things people thought were "jokes" (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 27, 2013 @07:15PM (#42711179)

    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

  • humanity (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    It's becoming more and more clear that much less than half of Americans can tell the difference between their own ass and a hole in the ground. We're a nation of morons, and while some of us are getting better, a lot of us are getting worse and more entrenched in idiotic beliefs.

  • Considering that the Shipping Carts in the local supermarket have cup-holders and there are various iPad holders that you strap on your arms, I would not be surprised that you could get an iPhone holder with a cup holder.

    • Makes more sense. Shopping carts roll on their own wheels, and you can leave a cup in the holder without extra effort.

      This iphone cup-holder, on the other hand, will put a huge torque on your hands, especially with that super-sized Starbucks cup shown in the illustration. Your wrists will ache after just a few minutes of using this. And if you really try to text with this on, and are not careful, the entire cup might end up on your pants...

      The iPad or iPhone holders that strap to your arm are used by jogg

      • But many people are already holding both a cup and an iphone. A holder would just make it easier. The same way many people are already putting their cups in shopping carts, but the cup holder makes it easier.

        It's not as if these people that can't stop drinking soda long enough to use the phone or shop are going to care about the achey wrists they get from it. They'll take some vicodin or something and keep going.

  • ... 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!

  • Two iphones and a cup, that would be a killer accessory!

  • I just want to agree with the posters here. The news these days is so ludicrous that it is becoming hard to tell what is real anymore. I suspect we may be running as a simulation written by a postgrad of some advanced civilization. At this moment he is drunk and playing with the simulation wondering how long it takes us to realize what is going on ;-)

  • And the networkworld guy is a sour-ass.

  • iPhone Cup Holder (Score:3)

    by TheNinjaroach ( 878876 ) on Monday January 28, 2013 @09:18AM (#42714715)
    Yeah, but does the cup holder allow me to put Java on the iPhone?
  • Is this really worthy of a front page article? Who is running this site anymore? Here's a hint, don't try to be Gizmodo or Engadget, be Slashdot.

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