Edible iPhone 5 Case: Japanese Scientist Invents Smartphone Protection You Can Eat

The iPhone 5: Now available in black, white or rice cracker.

A entrepreneur in Japan (and, really, where else would this come from?) has invented an iPhone case that you can eat in a pinch. The, uh, innovative product is called the Survival Senbei iPhone 5 Case and is a smartphone case that is, as RocketNews24 explains, "made entirely from Japanese brown rice and salt, baked into a crispy golden-brown senbei rice cracker that fits snugly around your iPhone 5." Each case is handmade and costs around 3,818 Japanese yen (or $48, plus shipping).

Yum!

Much like edible underpants here in the United States, the edible iPhone case isn't so much a practical method for protecting your essentials so much as it is a novelty: The website (in Japanese) explicitly states that there is a very good chance that your case will break in any number of mundane situations, rendering it useless as anything except food. Tech blog MacGasm has the likelihoods of breakage when performing certain acts (and remember, this is straight from the manufacturer):

Chance of Breaking:

• Before arrival: 9%
• Affixing to iPhone 5: 76%
• Using touch screen: 18%
• Touched by friend: 81%
• Turning up the volume: 50%
• Connecting to PC: 54%
• When the user is upset or annoyed: 65%
• Putting in pocket: 89%
• When dropped: 120%

(The case may break when dropped, but you can still eat it, of course, if you pick it up within five seconds.)

One intrepid reporter in Japan actually ordered a Senbei Survival case, describing the case as fitting "a little loose" but overall seemed quite pleased with it. Almost inexplicably, however, the author never takes a bite of the case nor describes how it tastes. Say goodbye to your Pulitzer, reporter whose name Google translates as "Itoya daughter of Kyoto"!

In America, meanwhile, edible iPhone cases remain unavailable. The online outlet ThinkGeek, you might remember, set up a shopping page for gummy iPhone cases, but that offer sadly turned out to be an April Fool's Day hoax. Clearly, some inventive, relentlessly creative American entrepreneur needs to get on this and cook up an iPhone case we fat Americans can chew on while we wait for the subway or bus. Guy Fieri, you doing anything?

You can visit the Sensei Survival iPhone 5 case product page here, and we highly recommend scanning through the photos of the case at Entabe.jp here. In the meantime: Probably don't eat your current iPhone case.