Golden Shellback is an amazing technology that waterproofs devices such as GPS devices, iPods, mobile devices and even laptops. This is all done with a waterproof polymer that seals the electronic devices and protects them from liquid destruction.
Now, the cost of the process still isn’t cheap but the price will come down with time of course. You’ll have to decide for yourself whether or not the expense is worth it. For example, it will cost $120 to waterproof an iPhone which costs approximately $200 and $300 depending on the model (8 GB vs 16 GB). Since you can’t get insurance and Apple won’t replace units that are suffer water damage (neither will T-Mobile, AT&T, Sprint, etc.), maybe it makes sense to get the water proofing.
Speaking from an I.T. administrative perspective, this option is mighty tempting because I can’t tell you how many times my users have experienced water damage. Sometimes it happens with a simple little splash and other times it involves total submersion. In any event, it sure would have been nice to have this protection in all those cases.
Here’s a video that demonstrates the magic on an iPhone and then an iPod.