By Evan Ackerman
We wrote about the Golden Shellback splashproof coating back in July, and it looks like the coating is now available for a few select gadgets. Although the coating is technically splashproofing, not waterproofing, demos have shown that things like cell phones are able to operate quite happily even while completely submerged in water. The awesome part is that you can’t tell that your gadget now has superpowers… It looks, feels, and operates exactly the same, until you find yourself sneezed on by a manatee (or something) and you realize that hey, your phone still works.
So how does it actually work? It involves some kind of crazy machine, and here’s what the website says:
Golden Shellback coating produces a vacuum deposited film that is nonflammable, has low toxicity and has the ability to weatherproof electronic devices and other surfaces. The clear, nearly non-detectable, uniform film is insoluble in solvents. When applied to clean, moisture free surfaces, such as plastic, copper, aluminum, metal, ceramic, steel, tin or glass, the coating is transparent with excellent weather proofing and anti-corrosion properties.
Here’s what’s currently available to be splashproofed… Although they don’t specify, you’ll probably have to buy your own device and then mail it to them for the coating service:
Blackberry Pearl $120.00 per unit coated
Apple IPod Shuffle $60.00 per unit coated
Apple IPod Touch $120.00 per unit coated
Garmin GPS etrex $75.00 per unit coated
They can do a couple other things too, and my guess is that they’re just slowly testing electronics to make sure that they remain fully functional after the coating process. This is good, ’cause I’m totally hoping to Golden Shellback my dive computer.
[ Golden Shellback ]
