Crave Summer: Waterproof OverBoard gadget cases
We take OverBoard's fully waterproof gadget cases for a quick dip in the CNET.co.uk pool (a large sink). We also drown some waterproof headphones that keep working even when submersed
Even the most boring gadget is given a second chance to be interesting when it's possible to use it underwater. But what about gadgets that are already cool? We've got our hands on some gadget cases from OverBoard, designed to be taken into the sea or into your local swimming pool, or even into the shower after an afternoon catching rays in your back garden.
They're potentially essential summer tech accessories, but we were sceptical about how waterproof they actually were -- would you chuck your 60GB iPod into a huge pool of water in a hurry? No, us neither. Fortunately, they didn't spell the watery death of our most cherished devices and all participating gizmos were dry and fully operational after their submersion.
There's no point taking your MP3 player into the sea if you've got nothing to listen to it through. So we plunged some fully waterproof earphones too!
Enough yapping, and on with the snapping.
Here's our delightful little Nokia N80, safely sealed inside an OverBoard case for small phones. We were sure to test the case's resilience to water with tissue paper first. There's still six months left on this contract and claiming you deliberately dunked your phone into a sink full of water is hardly going to get you a free replacement.
The case demonstrated an ability to seal the phone inside an impenetrable water fortress, so we zipped up the rest of our gadgets too...
All our gadgets now don the waterproofing required for a morning of being plunged into the depths of CNET's many sinks. We're going to opt for our mobile phone and iPod for the actual test...
The sumberging begins!
Both the iPod and the N80 were fully operational through the dunking and both were easily usable. Putting the phone on loudspeaker enabled us to make a very, very muffled call, but texting was easy:
"hi mum, currently 5 feet deep in sea eyeing up jellyfish. underwater txting ftw!!"
The iPod was easily usable too, but how could we hear anything underwater..?
Underwater earphones!
They worked perfectly. We couldn't quite plunge a human head underwater in the sink, but with the iPod on full blast we could hear the music played right from the bottom of the sink. Very, very cool.
We concluded that these jazzy waterproof cases from OverBoard have entered the realms of excellence and should definitely be on your shopping list if you're planning on hitting the seaside or the pool this summer. -Nate Lanxon