You should be aware by now that your smartphone has probably accumulated the growth of a ton of bacteria over the course of you using it excessively each and every day. I don’t even want to begin imagining all the microbes and bacteria that’s breeding in between each key on the keypad or around the grooves of its buttons…

Good thing there’s someone out there who wants to come up with a way to “wash” our phones (without getting them wet, of course) with the PhoneSoap.

PhoneSoap is a charger and sanitizer packaged in one neat, little box. It uses to UV-C light to kill any bacteria and viruses that might be living on your phone. The UV-C light is 99.9% effective at killing bacteria and viruses, and since it doesn’t generate any heat, it doesn’t put your phone at risk during its sanitizing cycle. At the same time, it can charge up your device, since the box allows access to both a micro USB cord and Apple’s 30-pin USB cord.

PhoneSoap is currently up for funding on Kickstarter, where a minimum pledge of $39(USD) will get you your very own PhoneSoap.

The All Clear bottle is your standard 750ml CamelBak bottle, that’s made out of Tritan and is BPA-free. The tech is integrated in the cap. It’s got a UV-C light and controller, which can make water drinkable in 60 seconds. The cap uses two rechargeable Li-Ion batteries, that can be recharged via USB. They can handle 80 cycles of purification, and the UV-C bulb is rated for 10,000 cycles. Keep in mind that the bottle doesn’t remove sediment or particles from drinking water, nor can it desalinate salt water from the ocean. Still, it’ll kill germs, and that’s where much of the nastiest waterborne illness comes from.

The CamelBak All Clear UV bottle costs $99 (USD) and is available over at REI.

And if you’re the type who sometimes eats dinner while you’re streaming some videos or surfing the Internet, then you know for a fact that your keyboard is filthy. Now for regular, healthy people like you and me, that might be okay. But if this keyboard is in a more sensitive environment, say a hospital or in some other medical setting, then it’s a huge no-no.

To answer the need for a truly clean and self-sanitizing keyboard is the Vioguard, which has now been approved by the FDA. The Vioguard has a proximity sensor that will eject the keyboard when there’s a human who will presumably type something close by. When it’s not in use, the keyboard will then be housed in a UV resistant receptacle where the keyboard will be exposed to a constant stream of UV light.

The Vioguard uses 80W when it’s sanitizing the keyboard actively, and 3W when it’s on standby. No word on pricing yet, but I have to say… Now this is neat.

[via MedGadget via Oh Gizmo!]

Put them in your shoes, turn them on for 45 minutes and they’ll kick germs in their germicidal nuts. Then just leave them in anyway, because they’re also shoe trees.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

You can order a pair of SteriShoes at Amazon for $130. Don’t use ‘em to clean your toothbrush. That’s gross.

[via walyou]

Each pen has a built-in ultraviolet LED light, you can read messages that are invisible to the naked eye. It’s perfect for writing down personal information like your PIN number or passwords – assuming of course that nobody else has a black light lying around, and you can actually remember where the heck you wrote your note. Keep in mind that while the ink is “invisible”, it’s also permanent, so don’t be writing nasty bathroom stall limericks on the walls of your house unless you plan on living with them in perpetuity.

If you want to exchange secret notes with a friend, buy a couple and play a game to see if you can find all the hidden messages you leave for each other. Of course, running around with a UV light in hand, you might come across other evidence of foul play you didn’t intend to. Don’t mind that blood spatter – it’s nothing.

The Invisible Ink Spy Pen is available over at Perpetual Kid for $9.99 (USD).

ThinkGeek’s USB Desktop Tanning Center lets you roast your epidermis to three shades of tan, ranging from Starbucks Vanilla Latte to Ooompa Loompa. It even comes with a pair of those googly eyeball protectors so you can look cool while getting your tan on.

After reading more of the product description, I realized that you’d be pretty hard-pressed to power four 100-watt UV heat lamps via USB. Hopeful that this was an April Fool’s gag, I then checked my calendar, and realized it is indeed January. Then I clicked “Add to Cart”, and I was so relieved.

[via Thoughts from the Sidelines]