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Honda 'invents' phone case with built-in airbag, klutzes rejoice

Honda has a revolutionary new phone case that will finally be able to save your poor mobile from your disastrous lack of coordination.

Nick Hide Managing copy editor
Nick manages CNET's advice copy desk from Springfield, Virginia. He's worked at CNET since 2005.
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Nick Hide
2 min read

Gather round butterfingers, droppers and klutzes, because Honda has a revolutionary new phone case that will finally be able to save your poor mobile from your disastrous lack of coordination.

Honda's best known outside the vehicular world as the maker of the world's most adorable robot, Asimo. Here the Japanese giant is apparently using its famous R&D department to cushion the gadgets of the terminally clumsy with a case that deploys airbags.

Watch the video here:

YouTube's caption translator indicates the unnamed Honda engineer was so heartbroken at not being able to look at cat pics on his cracked smart phone that he was determined to make sure it never happened to anyone ever again.

It's at this point that I'm beginning to suspect this is possibly a wind-up, and instead of giving cack-handed phone users genuine hope, Honda is merely having a laugh at phone fans and advertising its new N-Wgn people carrier at the same time.

The disclaimer "This story is fiction" on the official Smartphone Case N webpage may be another clue.

Nevertheless, it seems to be a feasible idea, with an accelerometer to detect a fall and a working carbon dioxide canister able to fill the tiny airbags in just 0.2 seconds. The case being the size of a football is surely only a minor inconvenience for the spectacularly accident-prone.

Would you be in the market for a case that could cushion your blower in pillowy-soft airbags in the event of a hand malfunction? What's the best phone case you've ever had? Drop me a line in the comments, or over on our rocksteady Facebook page.