Back in March 2012 I sat down with the Adobe Shadow Adobe Edge Inspect development team on a nice monday evening in Adobes HQ in San Jose, California. Actually we launched Shadow Labs Release 1 together that night, the very first public release of a tool that soon should make a big impact to Web Devs around the globe.

I cannot hide this to be one of the most exciting software releases I ever have been part of, despite the fact this has been my first release under the flag of big buddy Adobe (you don’t get many chances like that). Besides from releasing what we tagged as #MobileRelief on social media, I felt a big relief in finally seeing the tool going live. I mean I had to constantly pull back myself from telling everybody about it, since I gained insight into the first rough drafts some painfully long months before…

However, after the initial Adobe TV demo video by Bruce Bowman climbed up to some tenthousand views in a matter of hours, whilst sitting in a Shadow presentation to Adobe folks the next day something dawned to me:

How in hell will I be permanently managing that illustruous farm of devices on my tiny desk?

A minute or two later the following idea was born, and I tweeted it just to see if there were any people sharing my feeling:

Five months after that day we’re using Shadow Labs Release 4 with numerous improvements (and the product isn’t even 1.0) and thousands of Web Pros around the globe foster a messy setting of numerous devices, cables and whatnot on their desktops – just like me.

This is to ask utility makers of the world to provide us with a solution to that problem. I am posting my original drawing (sorry for the shitty quality) again via this article, in case the one out of my tweet on yfrog gets lost:

Multidevicestand
Quick drawing of my idea from March 2012. See article for explanations on the main parts of the device.

Here is what I request:

  • Solid Stand with heavy base to carry a large number of Smartphones and Tablets
  • Modular structure, possible to easily adjust and combine to a tailormade fashion ideally suiting a specific project (!= permanent installation, == different set of devices for each project)
  • Rotatable suction cups to snag on devices, allowing to rotate from landscape to portrait (snap to these positions)
  • Clamp to securely lock base on table
  • Convenient solution to safely, inobstructively and hiddenly wire all devices with USB/charging cables
  • Powerful USB 3.0/2.0 (charging) Hub included into device (base?)
  • Extensible system, so additional arms/suction cups/base pillars can be added if needed

Mobile web testing and debugging became highly relevant to every webworker on our planet. I would estimate at least half a million potential customers for the proposed solution out there. I am filing this post in the category “Awesomness” since I clearly expect a manufacturer to come up with an awesome solution right away. Go guys, ship it. And let me know where I can get one.

Please.