Your Kindle is now dry

Wired has a product review today on the M-Edge Guardian Case for the Amazon Kindle. It looks water tight and absolutely unnecessary. You see the reason for these kinds of hinged plastic cases for digital cameras is that people actually go underwater to snap pictures of family and poisonous jellyfish. Nobody that I know of would be reading a book on sharks or diving safety 3 inches or 30 feet under the sea or at the community pool. Protection from the occasional splash or sudden rainstorm is where a case is needed. The M-Guardian weighs a pound and basically disables the joystick controller on your Kindle. How does this feature or the price tag of $80.00 for this make sense? I’ll tell you where it makes sense. If you tend to set your ebook readers where you might accidentally sit or drop a grenade on them, a case like this would be nice insurance. I suppose reading in bed you might rollover on it or push it off the mattress too.

Weatherproof cases bring the question front and center, why isn’t the Kindle or any other e-reader designed to withstand a little water or a little heat or cold to begin with? Added longevity would seem like a much better upgrade for people than a few extra shades of gray on the their screen. Wouldn’t you love to know your Kindle is just as safe in your steamy hot car on vacation as your car’s factory stereo, or that you could forget the reader on your back deck and the sudden summer rainstorm you didn’t hear coming of won’t kill your chances to read your digital library?

By the way, Wired says that the M-Edge Guardian case is the first waterproof kindle case, but I don’t believe it’s the first and it’s certainly not the only one.  The Trendy Digital WaterGuard waterproof Kindle case looks like a much smarter buy at $15 from Amazon and TrendyDigital’s online store.

Do yourself a favor, consider the less expensive and lighter 2.8 oz  TrendyDigital WaterGuard case for your Kindle if you’re interested in protecting it from the elements. If the massive savings wasn’t enough to convince you, an added plus is even if you didn’t have your Kindle with you on your float trip weekend, this case is mostly a simple bag and you could protect other items with it such as your wallet, phone, small camera and other thin materials from liquid disaster.

Update: There is a nice compromise called KlearKase that has both the weather and shock protection for a middle-ground price of $40.00 and weight of 6 oz. KlearKase seems to be the right option for watergoers and rough and tumble sit down smashers.