For as long as we can remember we’ve been extremely envious of the Japanese. Their phones, despite being nothing more than glorified feature phones, have some of the most ridiculous hardware specifications on the market. Recently that’s changed however, and handsets from the likes of Apple and Samsung have all but closed that spec gap, but there’s still something the Japanese do that no one else does: waterproofing. We’re not talking splashproofing here, we’re talking full blown drop your iPhone in the toilet, take it out, wash it under the sink for a few minutes, and it still works. The technology to make this happen is usually applied to a handset during the manufacturing process, so it’s pretty much impossible to turn your existing device waterproof … until now that is. Liquipel is a company that will turn your existing phone, regardless of manufacturer, waterproof for just $60. You pay the money, send them your device, and it’ll come back to you in a few days and you can start playing Tiny Wings while taking a hot shower. Pay a little bit more ($69) and you’ll get priority shipping, and an extra $10 on top of that will get you a “protective film” pre-applied to your handset.
The bigger question is when the hell are we going to see companies put Liquipel type technology on all their smartphones? Earlier this year we heard about a company called ZAGG that developed “HZO” technology that does exactly what Liquipel does. ZAGG told the folks at Pocket-lint that his company is in talks with Samsung and Apple. As excited as we are that our favorite handset companies are talking to firms like ZAGG, we want to see products on store shelves that can be used and abused without any feelings of guilt.
Combine this Liquipel/HZO stuff with Corning’s second generation Gorilla Glass and pretty soon we can start using our smartphones as a DYI tool.