Video: A Nanotech Treatment For Your Phone Lets It Survive Dunking In Water

Water and personal electronics are probably the two most essential elements in this modern life, yet the two don’t get along very well at all. Drop your Blackberry in the drink–or even simply spill your coffee on it–and often enough that’s the end of your device. A California-based company called Liquipel feels your pain, and has devised a clever nanotech solution to the water-meets-brand-new-iPhone problem via a thin, clear coating that causes water to wick right off the guts of your gadgets.

Liquipel–that’s the name of both the company and the product–covers devices inside and out with a transparent coating thinner than a human hair that causes water to bead right off their previously moisture-sensitive elements. Properly sealed up with Liquipel, the company claims a smartphone can survive full submergence in water. And just to prove the point, you can see a new Liquipel-treated iPhone 4S back up that claim in the video below.

Liquipel is at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week hoping to talk some major electronics manufacturers into pre-treating their consumer electronics with its coating before the devices hit store shelves. But if you’ve already got a device you’re attached to, Liquipel will happily coat it for you. Smartphone treatments start at 60 bucks–that’s not so bad to insure that your texting-over-the-toilet debacle doesn’t result in another $400 trip to the Apple Store.

AFP