iPhone Killer

Ronen Kadushin's "iPhonekiller" is a laser-cut 25mm steel hammer. The plans are open-source. Here's the artist's statement:

The iPhonekiller is a statement about current tech products and personalities status , worshiped by the media and public, along with my possibilities to react and criticize that in a humorous way, with an Open Design. Price upon request.

Open Design [Ronen kadishin via Dezeen]

• [Art]

  Perhaps there should simply be a “Self Destruct” app!

  Enter the code and your iPhone sizzles and smokes- kind of like Mission Impossible:)

• [bardfinn]

  Clearly, the only appropriate response to this item is “I think I know how to improve it …”

  A little Sugru to improve the touch user interface, and an “App” (appliance) Store selling “Apps” (appliances) to use on this … or use this on … Some branded noise-cancelling headphones …

  Will it run Linux? No, but if you tack on an “i”, it will ruin Linux.

  Even comes with a convenient plastic sheet to hold up while multi-tasking.

  And Gallagher’s got more charisma than Jobs, anyway.

• [Stephen]

  The design for this hammer, which BoingBoing touts as ‘Open’ is licensed on the same terms as the UNESCO database of copyright laws, which BoingBoing blasted as ‘Closed’.

  The UNESCO database is technically copyrightable. This hammer is not.

  Where’s the outrage over the evil claims of restricting commercial use?

  • [Rob Beschizza]

    Yes, I am OUTRAGED by this and will edit the post forthwith.

• [Xeni Jardin]

  You start an IM conversation
  you can’t even finish it.
  You’re textin’ a lot,
  but you’re not sayin’ anything.
  When I have nothing to tweet,
  my keypad’s sealed.
  Tweet something once, why tweet it again?

  iPhone Killer,
  Qu’est-ce Que C’est
  fa fa fa fa fa fa fa fa fa far better
  Run run run run run run run away
  iPhone Killer
  Qu’est-ce Que C’est
  fa fa fa fa fa fa fa fa fa far better
  Run run run run run run run away

  • [Art]

    Fantastic! Thanks.

• [Locien]

  I think of this as a rejection of Apple’s monopolistic walled garden desires via a violent symbol, which is often used as an image of resistance and opposition. And I do want this hammer, it’s a very stylish and makes a bold statement of “I reject the consumer appliance mindset with this hammer I created myself with no one’s permission but my own using plans downloaded off the internet.” While primitive in design elements, it is infinitely more free than the iphone or ipad.

• [DoctorMantis]

  Now if someone could make a hammer for smashing artist’s egos, the circle would be complete.

  • [Art]

    LOL. Best comment yet. Thanks.

• [Anonymous]

  mmmm needs more buttons……..

• [ian71]

  is there an app for that?

• [ChibiR]

  …looking at this deep and extraordinary artistic design, I can only think of what Trebek once said in SNL Celebrity Jeopardy’s “Show and Tell” question: “…it’s a freaking hammer!”

• [Blaven]

  Why is this labeled an “iPhone Killer” when it seems like it could work just as well at terminating other brands of smartphones? I am so sick of this culture of exclusivity that has grown up around Apple products.

• [bardfinn]

  The iPadkiller has twice the touch surface area and is soooo much more powerful.

• [bardfinn]

  *video of shuffling drones, watching YouTube while talking on their iPhone headsets8

  *a woman in white tank top and red shorts run past, hefting the iPhonekiller*

  *Jobs giving a keynote address at MacWorld*

  *woman runs in and, pursued by the Apple Loyalty Team, runs to forty feet of the stage, pirouettes and hammerthrows the iPhonekiller at the Keynote screen*

  “On January 24th, Adzely Computer will introduce Crack’n'posh. And you’ll see why 1984 won’t be like 1984.”

• [Anonymous]

  PERFECT! The only problem I can forsee for the ‘Killer’ is refraining from using it on the IPhone owners after the original target is dispatched.
  ;)

• [Niklas]

  Using technology to create a piece of technology, then document it using technology so that other people using the means of another kind of technology will know that you used technology to make a statement about technology,

  is this the Circle of Technology?

  I love it.

• [Anonymous]

  Nothing beats having the right tool for the job!

• [Tim Insley]

  As interesting as this is, I don’t think very many people have access to laser cutters that powerful.

  • [Rob Beschizza]

    Someone should create an open-source cruise liner, nuclear power plant or moonbase just to rub it in.

  • [forgeweld]

    Not that anyone needs a design to make something so trivially simple as this hammer, but if you do have artwork that you would like laser, or plasma, or torch cut via a cnc machine, your local steel supply specialists should be happy to oblige.

• [Anonymous]

  I love it as well. But I think the artist missed the a great opportunity to make the top of the wooden handle look like the apple logo. Maybe I’m too literal.

• [Church]

  So wait. He created a gorgeous sledge-hammer to critique a gorgeous phone? And open-sourced an unpatentable idea?

  Y’know, more than one layer of irony is generally a bad idea.

• [insatiableatheist]

  What’s wrong with a good old fashioned brick-on-a-stick?

• [Halloween Jack]

  You know, even before I saw the pretentious “artist’s statement”*, and saw Rob’s very short description “iPhone killer”, I immediately thought “sledgehammer”. Seriously, parents of America, if your kid is trying to make the case for art school, look upon this as your motivation to encourage them toward a school and major that will facilitate a day job.

  *I forget who said this recently(MetaFilter?), but a real artist that I respect said something to the effect that, if your art needs a “statement” to function effectively on any level, hang it up, you’ve failed.

• [Anonymous]

  Luddites’ Hammer?

• [Anonymous]

  That looks like a Banjo Mute.

• [OldRipbeak]

  Practical considerations and layers of irony aside, I think this is (still) funny.

• [Chris Tucker]

  “Art is whatever the artist can get away with.”

  Duchamp did it better.

  • [Brainspore]

    Yeah, but how much is “Fountain” going to be worth once you smash it to smithereens with this baby?

• [Brainspore]

  What better way to show that you’re not obsessing over the iPhone than to fabricate a tool designed specifically to destroy it?

  • [GeekMan]

    “I couldn’t build a better phone than yours, so instead I built this hammer to smash your phone.”

• [jrhd]

  Isn’t devising a way to destroy something really just another way of obsessing over that thing? Just wondering.

• [Anonymous]

  As an iPhone owner, I, for one, applaud this initiative!

• [Anonymous]

  No USB port?