How to make your own smart phone stand on the cheap

So desperate was our need to prop our phones up in front us at work, we scoured the office for inspiration, only to discover that it's easier to steal ideas than have your own

Ian Morris

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Ian Morris

Aug. 12, 2010 10:58 a.m. PT

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If there's one thing we like more than work, it's checking our phone to find out if anyone has liked our Facebook wall, sent us a text message or followed us on Twitter. The problem is, we have to fish our phone out of a pocket to do this, or locate it in among a metric crap-load of desk junk. What we needed was a desk stand for our mobile.

But inventing things takes time, brainpower and distracts you from the important business of watching YouTube videos of jumping kittens, and dreaming about what cars we'd buy if we had a proper lottery win. So instead of inventing, we went snooping around the CBS Interactive offices to see if anyone else had any good ideas for how to support our mobile phone.

As luck would have it, three people had invented their own impromptu, devious phone stands, from typical everyday geek junk like DV tape cases and business card boxes.

We pilfered their ideas, and what you see here is the result of our inter-office espionage. Just don't tell them, as we're planning to get rich using the popular Internet business model: Step 1) Make phone stand. Step 2) ??? Step 3) Profit!

Have a look through our photos and tell us what you think. You can even post your own clever bodges on our Facebook page.

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This is a DV tape case. Anyone with a MiniDV camera will have these scattered around their home. It makes a superb stand for a mobile phone.

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Here, our Google Nexus One models the MiniDV case with much success.

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Most self-important office folks have business cards these days. What these drones don't realise is they're sitting on potentially the most incredible mobile phone stand on the planet.

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With a few swift adjustments, your phone is standing proud on your desk just waiting to receive information and calls. CBS Interactive UK genius Simon Edwards gets credit for devising this solution. We salute him.

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Video legend Drew Stearne tipped us to a substance called 'Polymorph' which when heated to 62 degrees Celsius becomes malleable...

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...and can then be bent into shape.

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And, as the French say, "voila et bonnet de douche" -- you've got yourself a phone stand.

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Even better though, a carefully poked hole can allow a power supply to be attached to the phone, something the other solutions do not allow.

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And for those of you can't live without corporate branding in your lives, there's always the option to chuck a sticker on any of the completed stands.