Ryan Seacrest wants to pimp your iPhone - CNN

The Typo keyboard case was two years in the making and is partly the brainchild of “American Idol’s” Ryan Seacrest.

• The Typo iPhone case was dreamed up at a dinner with TV host Ryan Seacrest
• The case adds a BlackBerry-style keyboard
• Seacrest joins Justin Timberlake, Ashton Kutcher in the tech startup world

(CNN) — Steve Jobs. Bill Gates. Mark Zuckerberg.

And now … Ryan Seacrest?

The “American Idol” host, radio personality and seemingly ubiquitous showbiz presence has co-founded a tech startup that seeks to make it easier for people to type on their iPhones. Seacrest also is helping bankroll the company, Typo Keyboards, which makes an iPhone case that includes a BlackBerry style keyboard.

The Bluetooth-enabled accessory, for the iPhone 5 and 5S, was apparently the result of a dinner shared by Seacrest and co-founder Laurence Hallier, a real estate developer and serial entrepreneur who, like his partner, doesn’t like typing on a touchscreen.

TV personality Ryan Seacrest doesn’t like typing on virtual keyboards.

“One night, we were out to dinner and both had our phones on the table. Two people, four phones!” reads a blurb on the Typo website. We looked at each other and thought there was an easy solution to the problem.”

They said they both looked for iPhone keyboards and, when they weren’t happy with what they found, decided to make their own.

The case, which sells for $ 99, is available for pre-order and is scheduled to ship next month.

But … Seacrest? Really?

It’s his first venture into the tech startups, to be sure. He joins the likes of Justin Timberlake, Ashton Kutcher and MC Hammer (yes, MC Hammer) as an entertainer dipping a toe into the tech world.

Reaction online was predictably snarky.

“Surely this must be a typo…,” one Twitter user wrote. (We see what you did there.)

Not everyone was down on the idea, though.

“Best news ever. … The iBerry is coming. The iBerry is coming,”
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