2312 iGadgets

Since the iPhone has become so ubiquitous in our culture, there are lots of entrepreneurs who are making big bucks fashioning interesting applications or "apps" for them, taking advantage of the fact that Americans wear them constantly attached at the hip, stuffed in pockets, or slung like the albatrosses they are around their necks.

One of the biggest markets right now is for external accessories. So perhaps they shouldn't be called "apps" but "accs." 

One company, Candy Shell, skipped the whole programmed app thing altogether, and just designed a snap-on case that doubles the volume of a phone's speakers. Another company, Poppy, has a snap-on external device that allows smartphone users to snap 3-D pictures. It uses cleverly placed internal mirrors to create the effect, which looks like one of those old Viewmaster toys we had as kids back in the 50s and 60s. 

In fact that's one of the selling points, that it offers a "picture experience that's like the old-school Viewmaster toy." In fact, since no internal electronic apps are involved, the device is the size of one too. Basically you slip your trim, easy to carry iPhone into a 4-by-4 inch box with eyeholes. 

Go progress.

But my favorite external iPhone acc is the Breathometer. As you probably guessed, it’s a portable breathalyzer, so you can use your iPhone to determine whether or not you are too drunk to drive. They aren't saying, but who knows, maybe the NSA will share that information with local law enforcement computers, in case you ignore it. 

Ironically, the same phone that imitates the effects of drunkenness when used to text and drive will now help stop you to actually be drunk and drive.

So who wouldn't want to purchase a DUI-Phone?  

America, ya gotta love it.