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Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Japan’s Latest Crazy Gadget: Virtual Dishes for the iPad

We all know at least one person who outfits his apartment with all kinds of high-tech gadgets but
doesn’t own basic essentials like dishes. For some people, having a plate to put delivered pizza on is a luxury but an iPad is a necessity. IPad lover Shiinaneko has come up with an awesome (if somewhat ill-advised) solution for plate-free technophiles. He calls it the iDish.

Anyone with an iPad can create their own iDish. You simply do a Google image search to find the type of dish you want to eat off of, resize it to fit your meal, and plop your food right on top. Of course, Shiinaneko recommends using a screen protector to keep your tasty sushi, curry or dumplings from permanently staining your iPad’s screen. Some foods, like cold pudding, may actually activate the iPad’s functions when the machine mistakes the gooey dessert for your fingers.

When you’re feeling lonely and nostalgic and want a friendly hand to serve up your dinner, you can find that online, too. Find the perfect image of a hand and put your dinner into it. Then turn the iPad around like someone is handing the meal to you, thank the hand politely, and you will officially be the creepy lonely person who talks to an iPad.

Even if you haven’t yet splashed out for an iPad, the same concept will work with an iPod Touch or an iPhone. It can even act as a side plate or a sauce bowl to go alongside your iPad dish.

After careful scientific experimentation, Shiinaneko decided that eating off of an iPad was a bad idea. The food tasted awful, the tablet isn’t the right shape for eating off of, and his iPad eventually took on a fishy smell. But for the sake of novelty and fun, this might be one of the most excellent experiments ever conducted.