Reg Hardware

Original URL: http://www.reghardware.com/2006/12/08/unboxing/

Unboxing: the new geek porn

Look at the bubble-wrap on that!

By Drew Cullen in San Francisco (drew@theregister.co.uk)

8th December 2006 19:44 GMT

A YouTube video of a man opening a box [1] has been downloaded more than 73,000 times since it was uploaded on November the eleventh, the WSJ reports.

So what's so special about this cardboard box? It holds a PlayStation 3, and its owner, a guy called David Abrams who runs a website called Cheap Ass Gamer [2], supplies a running commentary on his new baby.

Unboxing.com logoDavid is the pioneer of a new form of geek porn called unboxing, where people film themselves unwrapping [3] new products from the likes of Palm, Nokia and Nintendo.

Two new websites devoted to the unboxing "ceremony" have sprung up: unbox.it [4] and unboxing.com [5].

And yes, they are very boring, unless you like this kind of thing, of course. In which case, they are very interesting. ®