Fall In Love (With Your Smartphone) All Over Again

I feel a bit sheepish saying it out loud, but my smartphone holds more than a tiny place in my heart. It helps me feel safe. I helps me feel connected. It drives my social life. And, while (unlike 57 percent of American women) I wouldn’t choose it over sex, I do love its shiny little face. I really do. Not for all its buttons and buzzing, but because it connects me to the people I love.

In fact, when branding expert Martin Lindstrom examined people’s brains in an MRI machine to see how they responded to images and sounds from their smartphones, what he found is that the subjects’ brains responded to the sound of their phones as they would respond in the presence of a girlfriend, boyfriend or close family member. In other words, their phones elicited feeling of honest-to-goodness, real love.

On the surface, loving a smartphone sounds like something from a creepy sci-fi movie, but I think that feeling of love is actually a lot more old-fashioned than it sounds. After all, sometimes our phones are as close as we can get to the people we love. They allow us to talk and send messages - even photos and video - to stay connected. For couples, however, what a phone can’t replace is the physical component in the relationship. At least not until now.

Today, OhMiBod fired up an Indiegogo campaign for their latest prototype: An app that will make it possible to remotely control several compatible OhMiBod sex toys from anywhere via an iOS or Android smartphone. By adding Wi-Fi capabilities, partners can use this app to keep not only an emotional connection, but a very hot physical one, even when they are miles apart.

And you won’t just be getting a buzz from a distance either. This adorable little app's huge array of vibration patterns are paired with an iconic blue heart that blinks and throbs on your screen to provide feedback as to what your partner is feeling through the connected toy. It also allows partners to communicate via in-app sexting while they play. We haven’t tried it out yet (we will - very soon!), but this app has clearly been carefully designed to preserve as much of the intimacy and connection of skin on skin as possible. And if you’ve ever been in a long distance relationship or spent a long time away from your partner, I know I don't even have to explain how totally amazing that actually is.

We’ve seen so many surveys showing that people would choose their smartphones over sex, or that they’ve used their smartphones while doing the deed. But I don’t take that as a sign that technology is driving couples apart; we’re all just trying to figure out how to use these tools to be more connected to everyone all the time. What we really love about our phones is that they connect us to others in new ways. OhMiBod’s Remote app provides yet another new way to reach out and touch someone you love - a way that's hot, sexy, unique and yet still intimate. God I love my smartphone.