Mobile overboard!

Messing about in boats may be fun – but expensive if you drop your cellphone in the drink. So why not make it float, says cellphone maker Ericsson (WO 03/005684). It plans to sell phones that can snap into a small plastic “buoyancy pack”. The foam-filled pack contains a battery and seals tight to the back of the phone in place of the standard battery unit. Phones are now so light that even though the pack is small, it has enough buoyancy to keep the phone afloat if it falls into water.