From the Darkest Depths of Uselessness: Marudai iPhone Case

As a recent assimilee to the iPhone collective, I can attest to the devotion the damned things tend to engender in their users after a while. And if you carry one pretty much wherever you go short of the shower, you’ll need to protect it. Not that they appear to be particularly fragile, but anything you schlep with you for 16+ hours a day is naturally gonna take a beating. But the folks at Marudai may have gone a little askew in the age-old protection/convenience tradeoff thing . . .

I’m unable to read their site, but if the Google’s currency conversion thingy is working right, this steel and aluminum cellular coffin will run you about $650. That’s a lot of yen considering you can buy a new iPhone 4s for about 200 clams with a service contract.

The good news? If you’re ever at the range and run out of things to blow away with your Model 99, your phone – assuming it’s ensconced in a Marudai case – will be able to take that licking and keep on ticking! According to techcrunch.com, they even ship the case with an inert .50 BMG round just to drive the point home. But be sure to shoot the back of the case, OK?

Without a conversational knowledge of Japanese, I wasn’t able to determine how much this little chunk of metal weighs, but it seems safe to assume that if you plan on carrying one on your hip, you’re gonna need to get yourself a pretty good belt. And maybe a chiropractor.