"But at least your hydrophobic mobile will thank you the next time you spill your pint over it"
Apple are planning to rig the water sensors directly up to Siri's brain?
Brit biz stops coked-up moist pocketstrokers ruining your pub lunch
Unlike digestive biscuits, mobile phones do not react well to being dunked. With perhaps this in mind, two companies at Mobile World Congress claim to have the best technologies for treating phones to make them waterproof. Ruggedised mobes at the bottom of fish tanks have appeared at MWC before, but what makes this particular …
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Wednesday 27th February 2013 12:25 GMT Michael H.F. Wilkinson
Ye cannae change the laws of physics Capt'n!!
"The coating is "invisible" and it can be applied to screens and lenses without causing an optical effect."
That is a curious claim (I am being politic about things, just this once), unless the coating has an index of refraction of 1.0 (unlikely) and/or the coating is thinner than a very small fraction of the wavelength of light (some tens of nanometers at most I would guess). I suppose it could be integrated into the design of an anti-reflection coating, but just spraying it on afterwards will change the anti-reflection properties of the coating in general.
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Wednesday 27th February 2013 13:54 GMT EddieD
Can that gunk be applied to laptops...
" Indeed most phone insurance policies specifically exclude water damage and phones are fitted with tell-tale sensors"
I think Macbook Pros have similar - we had one that had been issued returned to us with the oh so helpful comment "it just stopped working" - only 2 weeks old, so we returned it to Apple. About 20 minutes later we got a terse "it's been immersed in water - tough", and it was returned.
Hey-ho, I had one that had been drizzled with baby oil (I didn't ask) and one that had had what seemed like fish soup through out it's innards. Week old fish soup at that. Not a pleasant job, but I learned how to fix macbooks
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Wednesday 27th February 2013 14:37 GMT Gary Bickford
Been looking for a waterproof phone for a couple of years
Why should dropping a phone in the sink (or, heaven forfend, the toilet) break it and void the warranty?!!!
I like to sail on boats, where it's possible to get 'splooshed' by a wave and be effectively underwater for several seconds, or even fall off the boat and swim around for a few minutes. I'd like to have my phone with me so I can use it for 'quickie' weather and chart lookups. Being on boats pretty much assures the humidity is going to be high all the time.
I did not want to have to use one of those aftermarket cases. So for two years I looked, and waited. The Casio Commando met my specs, but was out of date, old, slow, with a small screen. I need something that meets the Commando specs - five foot drop, 3 feet (1 meter) immersion for at least 20-30 minutes. 10 meters would be better - I have an Olympus camera (u770, earlier model) that can handle 10 meters, why not a phone?
There are some waterproof phones available in Japan for the Japanese market, but who wants a phone that has everything in Japanese? And nothing is available here that does any better than 'splashproof'.
I finally gave up when my old phone started wheezing. I bought a Droid Razr M. Maybe I'll go for the coating eventually. Or maybe, by the time the Razr is old, somebody will have come up with a new model that actually meets the everyday use of most people!
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Wednesday 27th February 2013 18:16 GMT NumptyScrub
Re: Been looking for a waterproof phone for a couple of years
JCB do some fairly ugly ones that claim IP67 or similar ingress resistance
You can pick several of them up at the Carphone Whorehouse on a variety of tariffs
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Wednesday 27th February 2013 15:18 GMT Anonymous Coward
It is unbelievable that something designed to be used outdoors can be killed by a light sprinkling of rain.
How on earth have they gotten away with that for so long?!
Aren't there laws about fit for purpose?
(No, I'm not going to be the one taking anyone to court: justice is only available to the rich).
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Wednesday 27th February 2013 20:40 GMT heyrick
Next you'll be wanting cars that don't/can't crash.
In reality, most electrical things do not appreciate water ingress. It is a trade-off between consumer convenience and cost (you can have a waterproof phone, but it'll cost you). All that is required of the end user is to treat the device with respect - don't get it wet, don't hit it or drop it, (in some cases) don't sit on it, don't plug in random power packs to see which one works (if not USB), if it has holes then don't poke paperclips in there, and so on.
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Thursday 28th February 2013 00:36 GMT Dave 126
Er, in reality shit happens... And if not then water, beer or mud happens. Gear is should be there to be used, not coddled in cotton wool and silica gel inside a safe. The gadget should aid the user, not demand their consideration. We've had waterproof watches for decades, and wheather-proofed cameras- so phones are an obvious candidate. Sony's new flagship phone and tablet are waterproof, the latter ideal for consulting recipes in the kitchen with mucky hands. Fortunately, they're not bright yellow like their water resistant Sports Walkmans of yore.
Icon: beverage resistant keyboard, doh.
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