Coveroos take your phone very personally
Coveroos replace the original back cover on your mobile device with a custom cover featuring lasered artwork. Click on the image above to see more Coveroo designs.
(Credit: Coveroo )Wish you had a snazzier-looking phone to go along with that Vivienne Tam notebook?
A new product called Coveroo lets you turn your looks-like-everyone-else's BlackBerry into a Homer Simpson tribute--or a nod to Madonna, AC/DC, The Beatles, snowboarding, Gucci, snowflakes, your cat, dog, kid, crush...
Coveroos replace the original back cover of a mobile device--the removable part that hides the battery--with a customized plastic or metal cover featuring laser-created artwork. The covers start at $19.95, and depending on their complexity, can generally be etched and ready to snap on within half an hour.
(Credit:
Coveroo)
The product, which officially launches Monday, already got some attention at the October 31 BlackBerry Bold launch party in Los Angeles, where celebrities including Eva Longoria, Dustin Hoffman, and Mario Lopez held up their Coveroo-ed phones for the paps to snap.
We non-celebs can now get a crack at more than 250 designs from brands such as Star Trek, Family Guy, and Barbie (please, for your own sake, keep that latter design out of the boardroom). You can also submit your own original design. A few Coveroos made the rounds here at Crave, with the general consensus being that they look cool and untacky once on the phone and would make for a fun little gift--if you're willing to shell out 20 bucks.
"There's a tremendous demand for people to make things around them reflect their personality," said Coveroo founder and CEO Karl Jacob, a serial entrepreneur and former Microsoft general manager. "There's been a lot of research that indicates that self-expression is more of a need than a want. It's something you have to do."
Coveroo-compatible phones currently include the iPhone 3G; BlackBerry Bold, Pearl, and Curve; LG Rumor and Dare; Palm Centro and Treo 700 and 800; Samsung Instinct; Verizon Blitz; and Motorola Razr v3, with more models to follow, according to the company. Covers for some of those phones can be ordered online at Coveroo's Web site, and others at select Best Buy locations. Click here for pictures of more Coveroo designs.
Wait, did I mention you can get Homer Simpson on your phone?
Leslie Katz, senior editor of CNET's Crave, covers gadgets, games, and most other digital distractions. As a co-host of the CNET News Daily Podcast, she sometimes tries to channel Terry Gross. E-mail Leslie. 
