iPhone cell phone charms at last...Yay?

Adhesive buttons make it possible to attach cell phone charms to your iPhone.

(Credit: Strap-ya, Screenshot by Nicole Lee/CNET)

Leave it to the Japanese to finally figure out a way to add cell phone charms to the iPhone, or just about any handheld that doesn't have a little loop for the charm to wrap around (which seems to be a must-have design option in Japan). The answer? Adhesive buttons. Just stick 'em on your phone (iPhone or otherwise) and wrap your strap/dongle/charm of choice to it.

This isn't an iPhone-specific thing of course, but I guess there are a surprising number of people wanting to attach a charm to the iPhone and realizing they can't.

The only problem is that it looks pretty ugly. I understand the whole cell phone charm thing and wanting to customize the look of your phone, but the adhesive button is just unsightly--it looks like your iPhone has a growth coming out of it.

Plus, once you stick it on, good luck getting it off. I recommend getting one of those colorful iPhone decals instead if you want to stand out from the crowd. But hey, if you're a charm fanatic, go ahead and get one if you can decipher the Japanese on the Strap-ya page. It's only $2.19 but the shipping is probably way more than that.

(Via Gizmodo)

[Mark_Anderson]

Great. Now they just have to convince Japanese people to buy it in significant numbers.

[SlanderPanic]

I'd kill to have a charm point on my iPhone. On my Sidekicks, I always attached a wrist-strap to it. The iPhone is much harder to keep hold of and I'm notoriously clumsy. It's a miracle I haven't dropped it already.

[MoKraak]

I love Japanese products because of their whimsy and creativity. Based on what I know about Japanese consumers, this product will be as popular as the iPhone itself. Want to see what I'm talking about? Visit jbox.com or jlist.com (NSFW) and check out the awesome creativity for yourself. Search for "strap" and feast your eyes on just about every type of phone strap imaginable. I have already purchased Ninja Throwing Star, Ninja Sword (with power stone!) and Natural Stone Magatama straps from there. BTW, I am not connected with this web site in any way other than being a mega fan whose duty it is to turn you onto it!

[MoKraak]

Oh, and while you're there, check out the Ninja Sword ear wax cleaner strap! I cannot make this up! Believe it or not, one thing many Asian women (particularly Japanese) look forward to in marriage is the opportunity to clean the wax from the ears of their husbands. The male lays his head on her lap and she lovingly and meticulously cleans out the wax with a specially designed tool. Hence, you can find all kinds of creative ear wax cleaning tools on the aforementioned web site.