Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/12/19/retro-inspired-popsocket-l.html
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WTF is PoppitySock? I disapprove.
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I don’t understand how people with normal-sized hands use monster-sized phones without a popsocket (or some similar device). I recently switched from an iPhone SE to an iPhone XR, and while I really like the new phone, its dimensions make me feel positively Trumpian in the hand department.
My popsocket has the moon on it, but this one is cool too.
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Why do people hate wireless charging?
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Yay. Another thing to get stuck when trying to extract my phone from my fanny pack compartment.
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scoff if you must, but i seriously love my pop socket. and it’s not nearly as hard to get in and out of your pocket as you’d think. they are awesome. i DO wish mine had a viewmaster reel on it, though… 
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Kiddie gadget? I’m middle aged and I see everyone from 7 to 70 using them. I preferred the rings that preceded them over the weird go-go gadget lump, but they have fairly broad appeal thanks to the fact that all phones must be thin, slippery rectangles now.
Thanks to the iPhone and the legions of reviewers and common people who lambasted anything that deviated very far from iPhone form factor, that’s more or less our only option as far as smart phones go. All just slippery rectangles that we have to stick things on to make them usable.
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Does this make my phone display in 3D?
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Do these things have a suction cup on them.
Because if they’re permanently attached it seems like a bother when you have to put away your phone.
Oh…put away your phone. HAHAHA.
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If tablets still had full sized bezels you could hold onto it. I guess attaching widgets to ultra thin, bezel-less devices is cool too?
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I’m not sure how people with normal sized pockets keep strapping more bulk onto their phones of all sizes.
lets me feel comfortable with kiddie gadget
You are an adult. Feel comfortable using whatever you want to. There are adults playing with plastic dolls- I mean… they own collectable action figures and they own two sets of them, one NIB and the other for examination and diorama use, not for playing.
Really. Who cares what gadgets you use. There are people running around with mass produced “retro” t-shirts for terrible video games that were arguably, really not fun to play back in the day. There are people with tattoos that you would never want to be seen dead with out there, and they are likely comfortable with them. Except for that one terrible one with their ex’s name on it, that was a bad idea, but hell, it’s there now.
You write for BoingBoing, you are already flying your own flag high,
so just be comfortable knowing
that we judge
everything you do,
everything you write,
and likely everything we think you think.
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I know they are working on folding phones and one is coming out soon but it would have been neat to have slider smartphones, double the size (or cut in half) with a single button push
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No no no, he meant to say the GAF Viewmaster was a kiddie gadget.
I used to make View-Master reels back when Kodachrome still existed. I still have the rest of the equipment. (blank reels, film cutters and stereo camera)
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Can you explain what the point of it is? We sell these where I work but the only possible use I can think of is to prop up your phone while watching a video or something. Which doesn’t seem worth $16 and having a big bulge attached to your phone forever. I’m sure there’s something better it’s used for, right?
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I’m obviously not the target demographic for these things. Even when someone has explained what they’re for, I still don’t get it.
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the point of them is not dropping and breaking your phone screen, haha – as everyone knows, phones are very slim, slippery things, and pop sockets are an expandable little handle of sorts, so when you’re holding your phone with one hand, or even using it with two hands, you nestle it in the “V” of two fingers and it makes your phone super stable. i basically NEVER worry about dropping my phone any more (and i don’t use a case, btw). i have never even considered using it as a little stand, actually, but i can see how it could be used for that.
OH, and $16?? that’s INSANE. mine was $3, tops, and if the adhesive circle starts getting loose, you can buy replacement ones from an office supply store. i just bought a pack of 12 for $8, and that will last me… years, i bet.
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I’m not the target demographic for this, but I’m in favour of anything that creates a verifiable argument to phone manufacturers that people don’t give a shit about how much they can shave off the width of new model phones.
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Ah. All is made clear.
