You put sunblock before heading out to the beach to keep yourself from getting burned. You should also be protecting your tech if you plan to spend a lot of time at the beach this summer. Nothing will ruin electronics faster than sand wedged in a keyboard. Here are five things to do to keep your tech safe this summer.
1. Ziploc bags are your new best friend. It's a horrifying moment when you watch your new phone fall slowly into water and sink to its death. If you plan to get near the water or will be riding on a boat, a simple Ziploc can be the difference between a disastrous outing and a great day.
2. Keep it cool. Tech can overheat more easily than you realize. Most small devices, such as MP3 players and smartphones, operate best at room temperature. If your player is sitting in the beating sun, it can quickly heat up and stop working. If this happens, don't keep trying to use it. Bring it inside if you can. If that's not an option, J.D. Biersdorfer of the PopTechJam podcast recommends putting it in a cooler that is free of any ice or liquid. Before using it again, be sure it's room temperature.
3. Tape it up. Whether it's an eReader, smartphone or tablet, be sure to cover all ports with painters or electrical tape before hitting the sand. Better yet, if you really want to read at the beach, bring an old fashioned paperback. Wet, sandy or covered in sunscreen, it still works.
4. Leave the laptop at home. As a writer, I like to write in a lot of different locations. One place to skip? The beach. Salt water in the air and can have corrosive effects on the inner components of a computer.
5. Sunscreen regularly, but keep it off your gear. After applying sunscreen, be sure to wipe your hands before touching any screens or buttons. The ingredients in sunscreen can melt plastic and make your screen slimy.
(Images: 1. Gregory Han, 2. Elizabeth Giorgi)
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Sunscreen sure will mess up the finish on electronics! I had some spray sunscreen spray all over my backpack (lesson learned, it had a locking top I didn't know about, and I should have had it in a ziploc.) It soaked into the bag that my ipod was in, and it pulled all of the finish off of my ipod case, it just peeled off in sheets. Luckily ipod was OK. It also turned the finish of a flip video camera into a lovely crackle effect and did the same thing to my phone's protective case.
I was at the pool recently and had my cell phone under a towel. When I came back I checked my phone and a message came up along the lines of: 'Internal Temperature Too High..." I forgot the exact wording. So I put it inside of our cooler and checked it about an hour later and the message at that point was: "Now returning to a cooler temperature."
I thought that was so neat that my phone notified me that it was too hot.
When I was at the beach recently, I noticed condensation inside of the ziploc bag containing my phone. It seems too big a risk to me, after that experience. I'm surgically removing the smartphone from myself the next time I spend a day at the beach. Probably a healthy thing, anyway.
My Lifeproof case for my iPhone is my best beach proof accessory, we live in Australia and are t the beach every weekend from October until March. I didn't bother buying an iPhone until I found a case that was both sand and water proof and the Lifeproof case is both! www.lifeproof.com
I was able to buy a waterproof bag (more substantial than a plastic sandwich bag) that fit my new e-reader and have safely used it in the water. The bag was only about $10 and you can find a variety of sizes and styles on many online retail websites. Search for dry bag, dry pack, or equivalent terms and read the description to see how deep underwater it remains waterproof. Of course, testing the bag and making sure you know how to use the closure correctly is important, too.