Getting Touchy Feely with Textured Cell Phone Covers
Vodafone Japan has two new handsets ready to roll this July perfect for fashionistas and metrosexual males with finicky phone fetishes. Tightly fitting silicon costume covers, ala Trinity, have been designed to slip onto the sleek clamshell bodies of the V501T from Toshiba and Sharp’s V501SH handset for a very different sort of custom look. The V501T has twelve wild interchangeable cover designs. These are not just reflective overlays but full-on, 3-D cushy covers changing the look and feel of the phone to, well, something else.
The bright red Bull adds horns and feet to the handset; Tire gives you a rubbery road-rage option; Sucker has sort of an X-files thing going on. Gummi, Dinosaur Egg, Lawn, Wave and Mermaid each should make for some interesting conversations (Hey baby, want to stroke my phone?). These new models may only be 2G but their 3D costumes bring some mobile fun out into the real world.
Sharp’s V501SH stays true to the ‘hold me, touch me’ theme with 14 texture panels each with a different feel from leather and frosted glass to marble. The V501SH includes a theme function for coordinating the various texture panels with corresponding wallpaper and icons, “making it easy,” Vodafone say in their press release, “to customize for any occasion.” Any occasion? Hmmm,that would take some specialized wallpaper…
— Gail Nakada