Meet iTableous – A Tabletop-Sized iPhone 4

There seems to be one thing that folks can agree on that Apple does exceptionally well: product design. Dating back to the original iMac, Apple products have exuded a gorgeous styling that is instantly identifiable.

Not only have Apple’s creations inspired the competition, they’ve also seemed to invigorate furniture-makers. And while we’ve seen iPhone 4-influenced tables before, we’ve never seen anything like the iTableous…
No, it isn’t a large multi-touch surface for playing life-sized games of Angry Birds. iTableous is actually a large TV set, built to look exactly like a white iPhone 4. Every detail is accurate from the SIM card slot to the antenna markers.

Engadget spotlights this interesting project from Benjamin Bachmeier. The oversized gadget contains a custom built computer with 4GB of RAM, a 500GB internal hard drive and runs Mac OS. Oh yeah, and the 5 MP camera actually works, and records in 720P video.
The coolest part about the iTableous has to be the fact that it rotates to act as a big screen TV. As you can can see in the video, Bachmeier has a PS3 hooked up, as well as a wireless mouse and keyboard.
While the iTableous might be a dream gadget for Apple fans, it’s not quite ready for production yet. Is there really a market for something like this? Or is it more or less a cool piece of art?

iPhone Owners More Ad-Happy Than Android Users

It’s always fun to compare iPhone and Android smartphone users across a variety of different metrics, though for the life of me I can’t quite work out why. Is it because we’re all pre-programmed to initiate competition in just about anything, or is it because we iPhone users possess a slight air of superiority?

No matter the reason, we have a new set of statistics, this time comparing the regularity with with the two camps and those mobile ads we all know and love…

The new stats come courtesy of ad company Jumpstart, who discovered that iPhone users are indeed more likely to tap ads than their Android-toting counterparts, and by some margin.

The stats break down thus: with the industry standard click-through rate of 0.52%, iPhone users come in considerably higher, at 0.78%, while Android owners are just below the average, at 0.47%.

The competition, BlackBerry, Symbian and WebOS all also lag behind the iOS platform, according to the graph above.

Jumpstart believes that the iPhone’s consistent user experience and the improved browsing account for the higher percentage, though it could just be that we iPhone owners are just so susceptible to a good ad!

Why do you think iPhone owners tap more ads than Android fans?

Weird iOS Glitches Allow You to Fake FaceTime Calls and More

Apple’s iOS platform is considered to be one of the safest mobile operating systems in the industry. A major reason for that is how strict Steve Jobs and company have been with their mobile ecosystem.

There’s very few bugs or glitches in iOS, and ones that are found get patched fairly quickly. That being said,  JailbreakMe 3 creator Comex tweeted a couple of interesting links yesterday that make iOS do some weird  stuff when accessed through Mobile Safari…
The first URL, facetime-accept://*, launches a fake FaceTime call when accessed from a FaceTime-compatible device. The cool part is that you can customize the caller by replacing the * with whatever name you want to show up. “Excuse me, I have to take this. It’s my duck Waffles.”
The other link, tellock://, will instantly force an iDevice to its lock screen — well, sort of. The weird thing about it is you can exit the “lock screen” by simply pressing the home button. Though the 2 glitches aren’t much more than novelties, they may provide you with a few moments of entertainment.

Were you able to get the links to work? Thoughts?

iWindows: A Simple Windows 7 Simulator for Your iPhone

A lot of folks jailbreak their iDevices to add functionality to iOS. Maybe they do it to download SBSettings to access toggles quicker, or to install Xpander to save time typing. For the most part, though, people tend to jailbreak for productive reasons.

But Cydia also has a lot of non-productive apps. Not just games, but entertainment-type apps that are more likely to be used in a round of “look what my phone can do,” rather than actually used. Now that I’ve preempted what category this one falls into, here’s iWindows…
If you’ve ever wanted the Windows 7 experience on your iDevice (for some reason), this is probably your best bet. iWindows is a simple Windows 7 simulator that turns your iPhone or iPod Touch into a virtual version of Microsoft’s latest desktop operating system.

Don’t mistake iWindows for a theme or a skin, it’s an application. Once launched, you are taken to a full screen app that resembles the Windows 7 desktop. From there you can launch a working (although limited) web browser, or a barebones text editor named NotePad.
Those are currently the only 2 functions available, but the developer promises to quickly add more features. Although this isn’t something I’ll be keeping around, I’m sure there are Windows fans who’ll find it entertaining. iWindows is available in Cydia, in the default repos, for free.

Have you tried iWindows? What do you think?