Inside every iPhone are a dozen little moisture indicators that turn pink the second your iPhone is exposed to excessive moisture. Apple uses them to tell when to deny you warranty service because you’ve accidentally dropped your device in a drink or left it out in the rain, but wouldn’t it be better if Apple never had to worry about replacing a water damaged device again?
We could be a year away from just that, thanks to Never Wet, a superhydrophobic coating that does such a good job resisting moisture that devices literally can never get wet when slathered in the stuff. Don’t believe us? Check out the video above, in which an iPhone 3G functions while submerged in water for over thirty minutes.
This does not appear to be a scam. The coating was developed by the minds over at Ross Nanotechnology, and not only does Never Wet make it possible to keep electronic devices water proof for over a year at a time, but it’s also great for preventing ice damage, corrosion, and making devices less prone to picking up harmful bacteria.
Just watch the video. There don’t appear to be any camera tricks: all they did was spray every inch of the outside with Never Wet, then dumped it in a bowl of water with the stopwatch app going. 30 minutes later, the device was still perfectly functional.
According to Ross Nanotechnology, Never Wet’s still at least a year away from being deployed commercially. It can’t come to market soon enough, in my opinion. Just think: every iPhone’s just a squirt and a couple years away from being totally waterproof.
Needless to say, Ross is making some bold claims, but we don’t see anything that stands out as fake in this video, and it’s got the guys over at Wired convinced. If you know otherwise, let us know!
John Brownlee is a writer for Fast Company, and a contributing writer here at CoM. He has also written for Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, VentureBeat, and Gizmodo. He lives in Boston with his wife and two parakeets. You can follow him here on Twitter.
41 responses to “This Amazing Superhydrophobic Spray Can Make Any iPhone Totally Waterproof Forever [Video]”
This came out two years ago under the name golden-shellback
Guess certain parts would need to be waterproofed as opposed to the whole device. I don’t see how it can be entirely waterproof and still let heat escape. Probably is why the 3GS was submerged for no more than 30 minutes.
Assuming that it was. After all that video was clearly edited to ‘time lapse’ so we don’t know for a fact that anything was under water as long as they claim.
that said, the chocolate demo was impressive. If that works for finger oil we might have a way improved oleo phobic coating for phones, tablets etc
Pretty cool. I want this :-)
So do you know if it is available commercially? Any details? Please share.
No info though on where you can purchase the product. Not even in the Ross Tech website.
@readers:disqus my classmate’s mom makes $72 every hour on the internet. She has been unemployed for 3 months but last month her paycheck was $8728 just working on the internet for a few hours. Read about it on this site http://smlk.es/Cash
@readers:disqus my classmate’s mom makes $72 every hour on the internet. She has been unemployed for 3 months but last month her paycheck was $8728 just working on the internet for a few hours. Read about it on this site http://smlk.es/Cash
@readers:disqus my classmate’s mom makes $72 every hour on the internet. She has been unemployed for 3 months but last month her paycheck was $8728 just working on the internet for a few hours. Read about it on this site http://smlk.es/Cash
I want to spray my entire vehicle with this stuff — windshield, windows, doors roof, hood, tires and all.
Apple should buy this company immediately and all their patents. They could then have the ONLY waterproof phone.
Was just thinking that!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…
Doesn’t Casio have a waterproof phone? (…google…) Yep; they have several models that are waterproof, but they’re big and bulky. Having this spray/coating is incredible and Apple would do well to at least coat their iPhones in the stuff.
“We could be a year away from just that, thanks to Never Wet”
As stated in the article, I don’t think it’s for sale yet.
In Ice water no less, at least that bowl looked like it was filled with ice cubes and water.
So,, Ross Tech? http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/…
This should be like the standard of ALL mobile electronics.
Then it will be Waterproof Siri fighting drowning Android robot
saw this in the news a few months ago. Apple should buy it. Or maybe they already HAVE…0-0
I can’t wait to lick chocolate syrup off of my iPhone 4S!
That guy is Andy Jones. I served with him in the Navy.