Black Eyed Peas frontman Will.i.am and London department store Selfridges today announced plans to sell a new line of iPhone camera accessories. The i.am+ foto.sosho camera accessory and app for iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S promise to add on-board editing, filters, and social media connectivity to your phone.
All told there are three models of the foto.sosho. The foto.sosho C.4 is the basic model and comes with three lenses (macro, fish-eye, and 'standard'). The V.4 promises a more vintage look and adds a slide-out keyboard to the mix, which pairs via Bluetooth to the phone. It comes in white/gold and black/silver (as opposed to the C.4's options of black or white). Other than that, it includes the same lenses as the C.4 package. Both the C.4 and V.4 are compatible with iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S. If you have an iPhone 5, then you'll want the V.5, which is coming soon and will be available in sliver with brown leather, all white leather, or all black leather. Selfridges and Will.i.am also talked about an L.5 (the 'L' stands for luxury), which will feature a slide-out keyboard and the same color options as the V.5.
Though it's not mentioned in the press release, Engadget reports that the CEO of Will.i.am's tech venture is actually Chandra Rathakrishnan. If that name sounds familiar to you, it's because he's the man behind the failed Joo Joo tablet (formerly known as TechCrunch's CrunchPad). Joo Joo parent company Fusion Garage went into liquidation in January of this year. According to Engadget, Chandra said the V.5 (which doesn't yet have a release date), will feature a 14-megapixel sensor and 5x zoom lens. No info on how the company plans to do it, nor do we know when the iPhone 5-compatible V.5 or L.5 will be available.
If you thought these puppies were going to be cheap, you're going to be a bit disappointed. The C.4 is the basic model and priced at £199. The V.4, which adds a slide-out QWERTY keypad, will retail for £299. That's expensive. Still, if nothing will do but to have one, you can pick one up in Selfridges on December 6.