You can't make this stuff up. iPhone commits suicide?

I found the following blog "information" both interesting and troubling.

I can't make this stuff up. This was the title of the blog.

iPhone suicide throws light on China's gadget black market

I thought maybe that either iPhone's could commit suicide (good idea in the post consumer world when you don't have money for stuff), or two that the tragic individual used his iPhone to commit suicide, thus obviating Dr. Kevorkian and the Hemlock Society.

But it was simply that a factory worker in China stole a fourth generation iPhone prototype and the committed "suicide". The prototype is suspected to already be in the hands of the Shenzhen's industrial counterfeiters.

"The copying of prototypes certainly happens a lot in the electronics and IT industries," said Dane Chamorro, a regional general manager with consultancy Control Risks. "You don't have to steal them, you just have to borrow one for a day."

In an earlier interview with the New York Times, Foxconn's general manager for China said that Mr Sun had previously lost products "several times" before getting them back again

I saw a blog the other day, and for the life of me I can't find it again, that suggested "virtuality" will replace actuality in the post-consumer world we won't need to buy any stuff that needs to go to the dump (what we called in the pre-post-consumer world the landfill) anymore.

The example used to illustrate this important point was an iPhone gadget spirit level which will replace the "spirit" level used by countless construction and maintenance workers. I swear it! Can you imagine Tom the carpenter, out in the rain, tossing his $300 iPhone into a re-cycled paint bucket after he levels that 20 foot long three hundred pound beam for your deck. I can't. Maybe you will use it to level the really neat giclee print you just bought for $850. But in the post consumer world who will be buying $850 framed prints, not Tom the carpenter.

If you want some real fun with virtual gadgets go to the iPhone Apple Store.

These are the kinds of virtualities that some post-consumerism thinkers believe will eliminate real stuff. I am not one of them.

I didn't go to the details, I just read the Apps headings and wondered outblog!

Apps for working out. Lifting iPhone repeatedly to ear for bicep exercises. standing up with iPhone to increase leg muscles. making faces ion iPhone to tone your facial muscles and reduce dependency on plastic surgeons.

Apps for around the house. Doing dishes with your iPhone or more likely calling for Chinese and insisting on the post consumer cardboard cartons and the recycle service plate. Keeping up with eBay, buying used stuff. Now that's a real "post consumer" activity (no really it is). Decorating with iPhone. if you don't like the wall color just hold the iPhone between your eye and the wall (blocking all view) and put a color on the page and imagine the wall painted a nice soothing color. No painting debris stuff to the dump. Get cooking: virtual food only for this overweight post consumerist.

Apps for travelling. No more leaving the house. Just call it in to Florence Italy and your surrogate will go to the Uffizi for you. No jet lag. Don't want to learn the language, just speak into your iPhone and then hold it up to the lady at the gelato shop and you might just get something to eat, or have your surrogate do it for you and skip the calories.

Apps for getting things done. Tracking expenses. What expenses? Again I swear I can't make this stuff up. Ambiance. Download wind chime music to soothe your soul after having the kids give each other wedgies and scream while you burn the roast and then your wife calls to say she's bringing the boss home.

You can fill in ideas for Apps for Managing Money (what money?) and Apps for Fun and Games.... It doesn't involve going to a sunset walk at the beach. Apps for Going Out. (why bother?)

Better yet apps for bloggers with too much time on their hands.