Video: David Barnett, CU prof, hoping NPR plug will kickstart his iPhone 4 case business

By Michael Roberts Fri., Jan. 13 2012 at 9:04 AM

Categories: Tech

David Barnett.

This morning, David Barnett, a University of Colorado philosophy professor, has reason to be philosophical.

After all, his iPhone 4 case, which he's hawking at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, was prominently featured on NPR -- even though one commentator deems the overabundance of such cases as the bane of the entire event.

According to one CES observer, approximately 20,000 products are introduced at the show each year, with many of them doomed from the jump. With that in mind, NPR's Stephen Henn asks about the show's worst ideas, and one guy answers, "Probably eight-million versions of iPhone 4 cases" -- like what Barnett is pitching.

At least he's doing so energetically. The Kickstarter page for his PopSockets case features plenty of hype about the doodad, which features "two expanding sockets that function as a kickstand, a headset management system, a pocketless clip, a gaming cradle, a shoulder stand, and a one-hand stand," as well as a video, on view below, in which Professor Barnett dances in a way that even thinkers as impressive as René Descartes or Martin Heidegger probably couldn't have imagined.

As a bonus, Henn concedes at the end of his report that Barnett's case, if hardly original in a general sense, is "pretty cool." And if it doesn't make him a mint, at least he's got tenure.

Check out Barnett's Kickstarter video here.

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