A new interactive website called Design the Next iPhone lets you have a laugh by making whatever monstrosity you want out of Apple’s market-leading handset, due for a major refresh with the iPhone 14 series on September 7.
And each time you make a new design, Apple CEO Tim Cook pops up with some encouraging marketing-speak.
Neal.Fun – Design the Next iPhone website lets you create a monster
On the site, designed by developer Neal Agarwal, you simple drag and drop items from a horizontal menu at the bottom of the homepage onto the iPhone sitting in the middle of the screen.
The items you can choose from range from the practical to the absurd — pretty much in order, as you scroll to the right.
Far to the left you have items like Pro Camera and Dual Camera assemblies. Then you come to Volume Button, Lighting Port, Notch and Apple Logo.
Things start to get weird when arrive at the Android Logo. And then you notice the Silencer. By the time you move on to the Pro Handle, Joystick, Rotary Dial and Cup Holder, you’re in full silly mode.
And then it’s just a small step to the absolutely absurd, in the form of a Steering Wheel and a Copter Blade. And I forgot to mention the Antenna and the Pro Wheel (as in, actual wheels).
You can also change the colors of the items you slap on the handset.
3D animation and Tim Cook to sell it
Once you design your fever-dream iPhone, you click the Present button. That creates a marketing-style animation of the new product, showing it from all sides as it slowly spins. You can download that video.
And then a still image of Tim Cook pops in from the side like something from a Monty Python video.
“This isn’t just an upgrade, it’s a breakthrough,” he declared with my first effort, a horror show featuring a Pro Handle, a Joystick, a Rotary Dial and a Copter Blade. He appears to say the same thing with each iteration.
Eventually, I settled on the breathtaking beauty you see in the photo above, well worth the price at $1,150.
And to start over with a new design, just refresh the site.
Where to play: Neal.Fun Create the Next iPhone
