iPhone Table Connect is an iPad you can eat your dinner on
Forget the iPad's 10-inch screen -- Table Connect blows your iPhone up to 58 inches of multi-touch madness.
The Apple iPhone 4 may be a contender for the Greatest Gadget of the 21st Century, but you can't eat your dinner off it. That's where Table Connect comes in, a convergence of furniture and phone that lets you control your apps and games on its surface -- if it's really real, that is.
Cynics suggested the iPad was a giant iPod touch -- which would make this German project an extremely giant iPad. Cynics would also suggest that this appears to be a little fake.
Holding the cynical sauce for a second, let's take a look at the 58-inch capacitive touchscreen in action:
The makers of Table Connect say it's compatible with iOS 4 and offers access to iPhone apps and features like multi-touch and multitasking. The phone has to be jailbroken and a dedicated app installed. That done, plug your iPhone 4 or 3GS in via the standard connector cable, and you'll be able to swoosh your arms around, browsing the Web with an insouciant fingertip, swiping through apps with a flick of the wrist, and resizing photos by spreading your arms.
We could definitely see one of these in our house. Just imagine playing Angry Birds on this thing! Or you could, y'know, stick to giant photos of of Arnold Schwarzenegger in his pants. Shame it may be fake -- does the teutonic tablemaker secretly press the standby button when he's supposed to be firing up the phone at 0:15? Why won't the makers discuss details of the dining room device on the project blog? Why is their floor so noisy? We've dropped the boys in the video a line to find out more.
The best-known multi-touch table is the Microsoft Surface, which has competition from the Epson X-Desk. Hyundai is also working on a 70-inch multi-touch table concept.