Latest iPhone stylus trend: Sausages
In winter, many iPhone users don't want to take off their gloves to tap on their screens. In South Korea, consumers have come up with an ingenious solution: sausages. Yes, sausages.
Are sausages the new stylus?
(Credit: Kottke.org)Capacitive touch screens such as those found on the iPhone are great because they respond well to finger taps. That's also their undoing in winter because users don't want to take off their gloves in the cold to make a call or text a friend. Over in South Korea, iPhone users have come up with an ingenious solution--sausages.
Yes, sticks of meat now double as pointing devices. Apparently, this has caused sales of a certain brand of sausage to go up. Not only do people use the sausage to tap on screens, some even utilize it for a Taiko Drum Master game as seen in the video below.
Last year, I wrote about an HTC patent application that described a stylus that can be used on capacitive screens, thanks to a magnetic tip. Who would have thought that an even simpler solution existed? I wonder if it counts as prior art in case of a patent dispute.
Ever the skeptic, I had to try this out for myself. The only wrapped sausage I found at the supermarket was, unfortunately, 2 inches thick. Nonetheless, it worked. As you can imagine, I wasn't very precise using it, so don't count on me to break your Tap Tap Revenge score with my new pointer.
Somehow, I don't think this particular brand of sausage is the one the Koreans are using.
(Credit: Damian Koh/CNET Asia)(Source: Crave Asia via Kottke.org)
