There has been many a religion vs science debate, and I'll admit it, I get sucked in. Comparative religion is something of an interest of mine, but I never thought it would collide with my interest in gadgets... until now.
The iRosary concept from Yanko Design's Tino Dobra claims that a movable bead along the iPod's signature (and crappy) headphone cable can be "measured and heard as audio beads on a sensitive range of the cable". Apparently the idea is to help young, hip Catholics learn the prayers, with the appropriate mysteries being dropped into place and "various modes for choosing the degree of difficulty".
I may just go incandescent at this point. I'm not Catholic, but I do have just a modicum of flippin' respect for it and so help me if it means that I get the nastiest comments in the world I'll state outright that this would result in a device for nominal Catholics with no faith and no idea. This is just another example of when bad taste meets religion...
Related posts? I hope their aren't any!
1. I am Catholic, and I think this is rather cool, although I think limiting it to the Rosary is rather short sighted. It could be used to learn all sorts of different chaplets, or even the Liturgy of the Hours (which feels impossible to learn, unless you have someone actually teaching you.)
2. Yes, I liked the Palm rosary software too. Don't remember the name though.
3. It's a sight more respectful than those dumb glow in the dark rosaries.
4. No, it's not quite the thing to carry at one's wedding though.
I couldn't agree more with your assessment!
Drive-by "spirituality" + braindead consumerism = iRosary.
As a Catholic school teacher, I think this sounds pretty cool. I would like to check it out anyway.