Antenn-aid

After Apple’s iPhone 4 press conference last week, Szymon Weglarski and Jon Dorfman, two designers from Brooklyn, decided they would have a little fun with the iPhone 4’s antenna problem.

They designed tiny bandages that fit perfectly around the edge of the iPhone, opened a store on the marketplace site Etsy, and named their new product Antenn-aid. Now the two partners are rushing to keep up with orders.

“We put the site up late Friday night and we’re getting a new order every minute,” Mr. Dorfman said.

At first they tried to sell the Antenn-aids individually, which proved to be inefficient, so they soon switched to a six-pack of assorted colors, which costs $5 plus shipping.

“We haven’t done any official testing, but it does seem to improve the antenna problem,” Mr. Weglarski said. “You don’t drop as many bars as it’s really about separating metal from flesh.”

The two designers are clearly having a little fun with the product. The Antenn-aid Web site says the stickers “work like magical,” poking fun at Apple’s description of the iPad as a “magical and revolutionary product.”

The technical specifications of the Antenn-aids are listed as follows: “Umm… it’s a sticker.”

“It’s a lot of satire, it’s kind of a gag product, it’s poking fun at the whole idea of how overblown the whole antenna solution has been,” Mr. Weglarski said.

Last week a prank product called the iHand made its way around the Web. It’s a hand made out of wood, designed for holding an iPhone without interfering with its signals. How convenient.

Correction: Monday, July 26. Corrected the link to iHand.