Technology and sex have always been intertwined. Many of humanity’s biggest technological advances — from photography to the telephone to motion pictures to Google Glass most recently — have been quickly repurposed to provide people, usually adult men, with avenues for sexual arousal and release.
This week, Apple’s iPad belatedly joined that list with the Fleshlight Launchpad. The product is an iPad case with a holster that grips a separate penetrative sex toy called the Fleshlight. The Launchpad only works with older full-sized iPad models (iPad 2 through fourth generation), and includes “rugged handgrips on either side.”
The idea —as depicted in a mostly safe-for-work, if bluntly risqué video ad for the device— is to attach the Fleshlight to the iPad and play a sexually arousing video on its screen.
A person can then pleasure themselves with the iPad while watching the video in landscape mode, all for the price of $24.95. Though we haven’t tested the device and have no plans to do so, it appears to be a cumbersome, mostly low-tech solution for those individuals looking to add an extra dimension of tangibility to their pornography viewing, or couples looking to engage in simultaneous long-distance sexting using their device cameras.
The company behind both the Fleshlight and the Launchpad case, Interactive Life Forms, says it was inspired by a “an image that was leaked years ago of an iPad case that holds a Fleshlight.” Whatever you think of the results, don’t expect the Launchpad to show up in your local Apple store anytime soon. Apple is notoriously family-friendly, and this is one accessory that’s decidedly for adults. (By Carl Franzen-THEVERGE)
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Research to Action © 2014 Time Network (Canada)
