You’d be surprised how often it happens. You’re checking your email or updating your Facebook page on your iPhone and nature calls. You walk in, lift the lid and kerplunk! The iPhone is sitting at the bottom of the toilet laughing at you. It’s almost as if there’s a micro black hole that can tug on anything electronic and pull it into the bowl. Don’t panic, you can save it. Just grab it and do the following:

1. Turn it off … IMMEDIATELY

First, turn it off. The longer your iPhone is on, the more likely the moisture that has seeped into it will short circuit and cause permanent damage. Turning it off stops any electrical activity humming around the circuitry.

2. Remove the battery, if you can (applies to non iPhones)

If you have a phone that has a removable battery, you’ll want to take it out now and completely dry it off. Use a blow dryer set on low just to be sure. This will ensure that your battery doesn’t corrode later over time.  If you don’t, well, there’s really not much you can do but move on to step 2.

3. Bury your phone in uncooked rice

Rice?  Yes, I know it sounds strange, but the next thing you’ll want to do is fill a quart or gallon size Ziploc with a cup or two of uncooked rice and bury your phone in it. If it takes more, then fine. But completely cover it and seal it.Over a few days, the  rice will act as a desiccant to draw out any excess moisture from within the phone.  If you are in the habit of keeping those silica packets that come in electronics and shoe boxes, those will work, as well.  But you’ll need a lot of them.

4.  Time will tell

Now is not the time to be impatient. That phone is going to have to sit in the rice for a few days to get completely moisture free. So if you have an old backup phone, and your smartphone is a GSM phone, then you may want to remove the SIM and use that backup for a few days. Yeah, you won’t have your apps or music player, but you can live without it for a few days, right? Your patience will be rewarded.

5. Blow dry the finishing touches

While the rice will draw out most of the moisture, there may be a little bit left and it may show on your LCD screen in the form of a black area when you turn it on. Don’t panic. Just turn the phone back off and either place it back in the rice or, use a blow dryer on low for about 15-20 minutes to drive off the rest of the moisture. I had this happen to my iPhone 3GS and there was a small black corner on the LCD. So I just blow dried it in the rice until the corner came back. It didn’t come back completely, but over time, it gradually did. But don’t think that if you can do it on low for 20 minutes, you can do it on high for 10, or save yourself two days in a rice bath. The higher the heat, the more likely you could damage the interior or cause any glue used to secure parts to melt and loosen them. Again, your patience will be rewarded.

6. Living with it

While your phone will come back, it may not be perfect right away.  And there may be some minor annoyances over the long term. First, understand that depending on your smartphone, your mileage (results) may vary.  What will work well for an iPhone may not be the complete solution for your Android or Blackberry phone.  But it’s a good place to start.  Also, understand that there is a small dot in every smartphone that changes color to reflect water exposure. So if you have any problems with the phone – that is the first thing the technician will check. If they see that there has been water damage, the warranty will be voided and you’ll be out of luck. Some corrosion may also occur over time in areas like the on/off button.

Conclusion

But in the end, it should be manageable.  I dropped my iPhone 3GS in water about 2 years ago. Dried it out and it’s been working ever since. So don’t panic! Just remember RICE and TIME.  Patience is your friend.

LED + Surfboard?  That’s a formula that is guaranteed to result in 1000s of video views.  117k views in the last week truth be told.

Argentine professional surfer Aritz Aranburu hit the waters and tore up the waves with this LED surfboard built by Puka Surf Co. We tried to find some deets on the glowing water vessel (found another video on YouTube amongst many), but their site seems to be pretty devoid of details, let alone actual pages (we got a 404).  Nonetheless, the video is pretty damn cool so check it when the boss ain’t floating around your cubicle.

The Camelpak is a brilliant product that distributes the weight of the water over the runner or rider’s back and provides quick and easy access to the liquid via a tube mounted on the shoulder strap.  But the down side, especially on a searingly hot day, is that  your back will cook and the sweat won’t dissipate.  While it won’t lead to little more than discomfort and perhaps even “surfer’s rash”, it’s enough of a distraction that it could hinder your performance.  

The VelEau is designed specifically for bicyclists and places a 42oz container at the rear of the bike, just below the seat, complete with storage for tools.  Tubing, much like the Camelpack, is routed along the frame to the handle bars, where upon the rider can gain quick access to the spout, which is held in place with a set of magnets and a retractable tethering system so no thought has to go into replacing it into a holster, unlike a water bottle.

Word is that it will be available for $79.99 this July.

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April Fools is just beyond us by a few days, so we’re taking the H2O Powered Shower Radio with a grain of salt.  If it is real, the radio promises to run, as in be powered from H20 alone.

How’s it work?  Just install it in line with your shower hose and the power, or shall we say force of water passing though it’s turbine, something called hydrodynamics, will generate enough energy to receive a radio reception and blast it through its small speaker.   An onboard battery stores juice for a limited time, though we’re not sure how long.

Provided this particular gadget isn’t fake, Firebox says you can preorder it now for about $55 (£34.99 UK) with an expected ship date of April 8th.

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We’ve got another water concept today, but this one is for your home, not in the middle of the sea. The Koolhaus faucet features a measuring device for tracking your water consumption rata and an integrated LCD that relays the information back to you, so you can instantly see how much water you’re actually using. All that data is sent to computer, too, so you can see accumulated weekly, monthly, and yearly data. All in an effort to reduce our environmental imprint just a little bit. Hopefully we’ll see this concept become reality soon.

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File this under “Totally awesome.” The Saturator (what an apt name) is a fully motorized battery powered water assault weapon. Shooting with one finger at a a rate of four ‘water bullets’ per second, the Saturator can shoot 250 ‘water bullets’ a minute at up to twenty feet away, no manual pumping required. It’s available in either yellow, blue, or clear colors. Just remember to be judicious with who you decide to soak. Some people get very, very angry when wet.

The Saturator is available now for $19.99.

When I was a kid, there was nothing better on a hot summer day than a water balloon fight with friends. The AquaAntics Water Bomb Factory looks to turn that fight into a full-scale blitzkrieg attack. A valve attaches to a garden hose, then the device’s built-in clamp creates a filling station out of any flat surface. Once that’s set up, you get a staggering ten water balloons per minute thanks to a ‘quick knot tying arm’ that will make finishing the balloons super easy. Sounds like a lot of fun to me.

The AquaAntics Water Bomb Factory is $9.99 and available now.

[via Gizmag]

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Leaving fido outside on a hot summer’s day is bad enough, but leaving him (or her) without enough water is tantamount to Abu Ghraib torture.  Do you and your dog a favor and get the Waterdog-Automatic Pet Fountain.  Okay, so a large bowl of water might suffice on those long, hot summer days, but nothing will beat this gadget.  It attaches to your outdoor faucet and uses a 3 foot proximity sensor to turn on and dispense a stream of cold, flowing water to your pooch’s wavering tongue.  Just make sure you replace the 4 C batteries once a year.

Frontgate has it for $80.

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Looks like your average squirt gun, right? Wrongzo. The Super Soaker Wars Bottle Blitz Water Blaster let’s you attach any standard sized water bottle, thus providing you with almost endless ammo while on the go.

You’re gonna have to wait until April to score one, though. The good news is that it costs only $10.

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Water is big business.  This is well known.  I personally am a very fickle water drinker.  Being that it’s my main form of liquid intake (glug, glug), I’m always looking for cool water solutions (hehe).

Bobble’s solution is a BPA free and fully recycled PRET water bottle with a filter attached to the drinking nozzle.  Holding 18.5 ounces of water, the bottle is made in the USA and is priced at $10 a piece.  Available now in a variety of colors, I’d be interested if they didn’t have the sports nozzle filter.  Me likes the big gulps of my Kleen Kanteen.

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Trust Hammacher to be able to lay claim to carrying the “only stainless steel water bottle with an integrated filter”.  But that’s exactly what this is and me likey.  The filter can get clean 100 gallons of H20 before needing to be replaced and removes up to 99.99% of microbes, which exceeds or meets EPS water filtration standards.

Would you trust it to filter water from a random stream you happen stumble upon while hiking?  You would if you were lost and thirsty.  $50.

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I often question whether or not I should be giving my dog better drinking water.  The Pet ‘N’ People water dispenser from Hduo is a great way to share quality drinking water with your furry best friend.

Fitted for 3 and 5 gallon jugs, the dispenser doles out hot, cold, and room temperature H2O as well as containing a motion sensor bowl at its base for your pet to drink from.  The pet bowl is removable for washing and prevents contamination.  Seems a bit pricey, but do the math on how much you spend on water a year and it could be a worthwhile purchase.  On sale now for $229.

[via Gadgeteer]

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Living in North Portland or NoPo as it’s called, I just had to post on the NoPoPo Eco Water-Powered AA Batteries.  The No Pollution Power batteries use hydro-electric technology to hold a charge from almost any liquid for up to ten years!  Sounds crazy right?  From the innovative minds at Aqua Power Japan, the batteries can even use urine to charge as odd as that sounds.

Having a hard time believing that this is not a joke, you can buy these earth safe batteries in sets of 4 for $6 a pop.

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Here’s a great piece for all you road warriors out there–the travel alarm clock is a great invention, especially when you don’t trust that cheap clock radio the hotel leaves by your bedside any farther than you can throw it.

But chances are you’ve run out of batteries for your travel alarm clock before.  And what do you do about that?  Hope you can find a store before you go to bed?  Try and recharge those batteries via any of a hundred methods?

How about just using a travel alarm clock that runs on water, like this one?  That’s right–water.  You fill up the reservoir with water, and an electrode inside converts the water into power for the alarm clock.  Best part?  This nearly completely self-powered clock runs a meager thirty dollars, if you’re interested in getting one.

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The last thing I associate with clean water is charcoal, but what do I know anyway.  Apparently not much.  This eco-friendly charcoal water pitcher must be the first of it’s kind to use Japanese Iouseki stones and Binchotan charcoal to purify and deodorize the water, making it mineral-rich and odor free.  Crazy!

The stones and charcoal should last up to 6 months under normal use and the pitcher itself is constructed from glass.  Looks like a stellar gift idea for the budding wellness freak no doubt.  The whole thing should cost around $94 with replacement stones and charcoal running at $21.  On sale now.

[via TheGreenHead]

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I don’t know how much I believe in the claims of iHouse’s SmartFaucet, but if they’re true then we might just be looking at the most technologically advanced faucet on the market.  In the past we’ve seen faucets with LCD touchscreens, user defined presets and LED lights that indicate water temperature.  The SmartFaucet brings those three technologies together and adds a fourth component to achieve that all important wow factor: facial recognition technology.  So instead of manually selecting your user preset the SmartFaucet recognizes you and automatically implements your desired temperature and water flow.  And while you scrub your pearly whites you can access your email, calendar and other Web based apps right from the built-in touchscreen LCD.

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At some point a backpack can be a bit annoying, especially on long treks.  And hence the CamelBak Men’s Racebak Hydration Jersey.  It’s a flat seam shirt which cuts back on chafing (that’s the worst), holds 2.1L in its reservoir and features an Air Mesh insulated back panel that apparently keeps your back and water cool.

It can be yours for $100.

[Amazon via BeSportier]

Move over parasailing and say hello to the Water Powered Jet Pack!  Ok, so its altitude is limited based on the hose length, and you’re pretty much dragging a pump around with you which might not make it ideal for an Ocean. But still, it’s pretty bad ass!

[Hackaday]