My wife sent me a link to OtterBox’s Maker Series smartphone cases, a fake product announcement setup for April Fools Day, and it got me thinking.
People have made their own smartphone cases out of both hard and soft materials, and many look quite darn good too. But have we, as Americans, become so inept at building things for ourselves that a case manufacturer makes a joke of it?
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The example case OtterBox made for their YouTube video actually looks quite good. They could have taken things further and actually released plans or even a worklog, but instead they used the downloadable “blueprints” (PDF) to make further jokes.
http://youtu.be/Vs0hPEed29w
There are reasons why wood smartphone cases aren’t exactly practical, as well as complex curves, cutouts and other design considerations to work around, but the idea of DIY cases just doesn’t seem laughable to me.
In any case, the 1-minute video is quite enjoyable and inspirational, even if it is just a joke.
Paul
I have a block of curly maple sitting on my desk that is just begging to have a smart phone inside it.
That said the are hundreds of cell phone, tablet and laptop accessories that can be made out of wood easily and cheaply. Tablet holders for the kitchen, charging stations and protective cases just to mane a few. I just finished a stand for my wife so she can watch Supernatural on my laptop while sitting in her favorite overstuffed chair.
Bill K
That’s not such a crazy idea! This case might not absorb much energy in a drop but it would distribute the impact loading which provides protection. For the wood craftsman this might be a perfect and functional show piece. (One probably wouldn’t want to drop it more than once however.)
To build on the DIY theme…… does anybody know of a “good” way to make a silicone part out of tube silicone with some kind of mold? I can think of lots of DIY uses.
Bill K
Tim K
This what you are looking for, http://sugru.com/
adam
Besides the stupid editing which put all the natural steps completely out of order, it annoys me that they show them using such a strange mix of quality, expensive woodworking equipment, along with an obligatory hand saw and of course a nail gun. And what’s up with them hand planing and using powered jointers and thickness planers, as well as a hand saw, table saw and band saw? Most annoying to me is that no self respecting woodworker would ever use an 18g brad nailer on the same piece of wood they hand planed, not to mention one that would clearly be too delicate to withstand the force of a pneumatic brad. Looks like they just filmed a guy using every tool in his shop as b-roll and then slapped it altogether knowing not many people in the general public would find anything strange about it. Oh yeah and I’m pretty sure they switched from working with some yellow pine to curly maple and back to pine a few times before their final unveiling. These are the things I think of instead of just accepting that its not meant to be accurate.