Some of us here at Engadget Mobile have been known to load the occasional Super Mario Bros. ringtone on our handsets; maybe even a Birdo background graphic or three, we're not gonna lie. But that's as far as our modding efforts have ever gone, if you can really call that modding at all. It turns out that for some 86.4 percent of young folk between the ages of 16 and 18 in the UK, phone modding is practically a way of life -- and quite often, it's a rather comprehensive affair, according to a study commissioned by British carrier Orange. We're not talking about ringtones or backgrounds anymore, folks; we're talking about bold moves like applying sparking glue directly over your display, as you see here. Orange estimates that modding is an industry worth over $55 million in the UK alone, and expects it to double in the next year (how much sparkly glue are these kiddies buying, anyway?). If we're going to spend this much time and energy in drastically altering the appearance of our phone, we're personally going to go the
NES controller route, but more power to those teens who've decided they no longer need to see their phone's LCD.
[Via
textually.org]
posted Aug 25th 2006 6:02PM
WTF?
Are these kids mentally retarded? They are putting glue on their screen. My opinion of the British has dropped to a new low.
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definitely not with a black diamond or white pearl (was it pearl?)
but i agree with grill
these kids are retarded
Oh! why not just change the shells of your phone or something smarter?
Well, I live in the UK, and I have never seen a kid with a new phone covered in sparkly glue! I do see kids determined to have the latest phone though (Saw a
13 year old with the HTC TyTN (Vodafone equiv) the other week, and plenty of them have the SE K800i)
Maybe old battered W810's etc. get a lick of paint but phones like the K610i that are only a few months old tend to be kept clean.
I find it a bit suspicious that the kid is applying glue to an Orange K610i in a news comment sponsored by Orange (ie: I bet it isn't hers). It looks as if Orange are maybe going to launch a modification business line and are trying to drum up interest.
i don't get it, how do you read text on the screen if it's covered in glue?