Black Eyed Peas front man and entrepreneur Will.i.am has announced the global launch of his new iPhone hardware, that he claims “will turn your smartphone into a genius-phone.”
The first product from his new consumer electronics and app venture i.am+ is an accessory that clips onto an iPhone and transforms the eight megapixel smartphone camera into a 14 megapixel camera, which it is claimed dramatically enhances the clarity and definition of your photographs. Speaking exclusively to The Daily Telegraph, he says: ‘We have our own sensor and a better flash. You dock you phone into our device and it turns you smartphone into a genius-phone. We take over the camera.’
The camera is the first of what will be a series of digital products that will carry his name. He has purchased the domain www.i.am. Users of i.am+ accessories will be able to obtain online user space on the domain, in the format of “www.i.am/Chris” for example.
Pricing for the camera has not been released, but is expected to be announced this week at the launch in London.
Will.i.am described how he came up with the idea for the camera attachment at a photo shoot in London in 2008:
“I was just hanging out afterwards, and one of the models took an iPhone picture, which circulated the planet before the shoot was even over, I took one of the photographer’s lenses and held it up on my [phone] and said ‘imagine this one day’. Then I said: ‘I’m going to do this’.”
Apple has granted i.am+ a development license to produce and sell the camera add-on and app for the iPhone 4 and iPhone 5, but Will.i.am says that a larger line of hardware will follow.
The debut of the iPhone add-on will be officially launched at a press conference in London, Wednesday November 28th.
