iPhone noodle bowl dock frees your hands, fights loneliness

Eating alone can be a punishingly lonely business, but one kitchen accessory looks to banish the munching blues, by sticking a smart phone in your noodle bowl for company.

The brilliantly named Anti-Loneliness Ramen Bowl was cooked up by Tokyo and Taipei-based design studio MisoSoupDesign, and was unleashed unto the world of lonely diners last month.

The design isn't too complicated -- your iPhone slots into the top of the bowl, enabling you to use chopsticks or a knife and fork while checking Twitter or reading websites, thereby fending off any encroaching feelings of isolation.

Designed by Daisuke Nagatomo and Jan Minnie, the dock doubles as a sound amplifier, so you can pump some tunes through your food bowl while you're chowing down, Yahoo New reports.

"A phone gives purpose to the user," Nagatomo is quoted as saying, "and brings the lonely guy to an undisturbed, secured bubble."

I can't deny that I've spent the odd lonely lunch with only my mobile for company -- personally I'd like to see the dock with a wider berth on top, so you can insert your phone in landscape mode and watch video.

Another concern is messy eating, of course. Perhaps a massive glass windshield could separate you from your phone, to avoid messy splashes.

If you're keen, the studio is accepting limited pre-orders via the contact details on its Facebook page. Would you eat using this companionable bowl, or is the very concept too shameful to consider? Let me know in the comments, or on our Facebook wall.