British-based firm P2i has developed a "liquid repellent nano-coating" technology -- branded Aridion – that can be sprayed onto a solid surface and, they claim, repel nearly all forms of liquid. P2i has worked closely with Motorola, who have now implemented the technology in 10 million of their latest phones. As is noted in the CNN video, the inventor Stephen Coulson states that "We're also working with all of the top ten mobile phone manufacturers. We've just recently signed TCL Alcatel and we have a number of announcements moving forward," says Coulson.

Apple's work on waterproofing future mobile devices began in 2010 and was made public by the US Patent and Trademark Office in 2012 (one, two). It's certainly an area of strong interest to Apple and that was witnessed again this past week in a patent application filing covering a newly devised protective port cover.

Apple's patent application stated that "Potential for fluid penetration may originate from wet or moist conditions including snow, rain, fog, humidity or liquid contact resulting from spills, splashing, spraying or other wetting events. Fluid penetration can damage or adversely affect the components at the connection interface and other components within electronic media device and/or or the connector." The new port cover invention was designed to potentially protect future iDevice and MacBook ports from such water events.

Now with P2i's inventor confidently claiming that all of the top 10 phone manufacturers are working with them on waterproofing their products, it would appear that waterproofing solutions in one way or another are coming to iDevices in the likely late 2013-2014 timeline. Until then, check out the CNN video below describing the new technology.

 Note: CNN's video presented above is Flash based and won't appear on Apple iDevices or Microsoft Surface RT tablets

Source: CNN

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