Technologies

Protect Your New iPhone 17 With ESR’s MagSafe Stash Stand Cases

Whether you’re opting for the iPhone 17, the iPhone Air, or the redesigned AirPods Pro 3, ESR has you covered with stylish, all-around protection that won’t break the bank.

It’s that time of year: the moment Apple unveils its long-awaited new slate of devices. This time, they’ve announced the iPhone 17, which comes with an upgraded A19 chip, a ProMotion display previously only available on its Pro models, an upgraded camera system on both the front and back, and more. Apple’s new AirPods Pro 3 are redesigned to fit most people’s ears, and feature live translation and built-in fitness monitors. And, of course, the one everyone was waiting for: the iPhone Air, which at 5.6mm thick is the thinnest iPhone ever.

If you’re thinking about pre-ordering your new Apple devices, you’ll also want to think about the best protection and accessories to keep them safe and working their best. Thanks to ESR, one of Amazon’s top MagSafe sellers, you can protect your phone with stylish, powerful cases and high-tech MagSafe charging technology without breaking the bank.

CNET’s reviewers have praised ESR’s cases for their «premium feel» and affordability. Here are some of ESR’s brand-new MagSafe products for your iPhone 17 and key Apple accessories:

Stylish, all-around protection designed to protect your iPhone 17

The iPhone 17 line is Apple’s best yet, which means you’ll want a case strong enough to protect it without adding bulk or hiding its stylish design. That’s where ESR’s flagship Cyber Tough Magnetic Case comes in. It pairs a reinforced backplate with a wraparound bumper, a raised edge for the screen and camera, and a protective zinc-alloy camera guard. Its Air Guard corners absorb shocks in the unfortunate-but-unavoidable event your phone hits the ground.

With protection that is certified at seven times military-grade strength, the Cyber Tough Magnetic Case can protect your iPhone from drops of up to 23 feet, with a 3-layer design featuring a robust PC backing, a flexible TPE soft shell and an inner PORON lining. The Cyber Tough also has a built-in Stash Stand that, when open, can be used horizontally or vertically, with a tilt range of 15 to 69 degrees for all your hands-free needs. When closed, the stand, which is designed for the iPhone 17’s camera bar, cushions your device from unforeseen impacts. The case is compatible with MagSafe, Apple’s magnet-powered wireless charging for most phones made after 2020. It uses 1,500 g pull force — twice the normal strength — to hold onto MagSafe accessories while keeping a slim profile.

If you’re not off-roading with your phone and lean a little more toward style than maximum-strength protection, the Classic Hybrid Magnetic Case might be your best option. It comes in an original clear design that lets your iPhone’s beauty show through — while still protecting it from drops of up to 11 feet, all in a 1.5mm slim profile. If you prefer a silicon case to plastic, the Cloud Soft Magnetic Case offers smooth grip and, perhaps more importantly for some, that semi-squishy phone-case feel we’ve come to love. It’s made of soft microfiber lining, hard polycarbonate, smooth silicone, and a (necessary) micro-coating that keeps dust off.

No scratches, no dust, no bubbles

iPhone’s delicate glass screens have gotten more durable over the years, but it’s still easy to scratch your phone in your pocket or, worse, shatter it with an accidental tumble on the floor. ESR’s UltraFit Armorite Pro Screen Protector takes screen protection to the next level by getting its material from the same source used in Apple’s phones: Accessory Glass by Corning™. The screen protector’s drop resistance is 10 times the impact absorption of generic models; they’ve even survived drop tests with a 64-gram steel ball. It also has twice the scratch resistance as iPhone’s screen glass, while reducing the visibility of scratches by 25%. The protector boasts an anti-reflective coating that gives 94% optical transmittance with reduced glare and haze, so sunlight won’t slow you down.

ESR’s UltraFit tray takes the annoyance out of the installation process. There’s no danger of bubbles or dust sneaking in between your screen and protector. The screen protector comes in two slightly less protective options: the UltraFit Armorite (with 7x drop resistance) and the UltraFit Classic (2x).

Fast, high-tech cool charging that folds into your life

The CryoBoost Foldable 3-in-1 Magnetic Charging Station collapses into a slim 15.8 mm, which makes it a space-efficient and portable-friendly hub for charging your iPhone, Apple Watch, and AirPods, even all at the same time. The station presents Qi2 with 25W wireless charging, which is basically equal to the speed of charging with a cord. (An iPhone 16 on iOS 26 can get to 50% in only 25 mins.) The efficiency is fueled (and, well, cooled) by CryoBoost technology, which is a built-in fan that actively cools your phone to avoid overheating — all at whisper-quiet fan volume.

The station comes in two other models, for the home office and car: the non-foldable 3-in-1 Charging Station would fit nicely on a clutter-free desk, while the OmniLock Magnetic Car Charger promises your phone won’t pop off when you hit a pothole in the road. For the car charger, the arm is designed specifically for air vents, so it won’t fall off or obstruct the flow of air. For those looking for a unique stand, the ESR Geo Magnetic Wallet Stand features Find My functions — so it’s like an AirTag — and holds five cards, has RFID blocking, and an impressive six months of use with only a 1.5-hour charge.

The ESR CryoBoost 3-in-1 Magnetic Charging Station and the ESR OmniLock magnetic car charger will be available to purchase in September, and the ESR CryoBoost Foldable 3-in-1 Magnetic Charging Station will be available in October. You can purchase these chargers on ESR’s Amazon store or ESR’s official website.

Hear that? That’s the sound of safe AirPods

The ESR Cyber FlickLock Magnetic Case beefs up the protection for your AirPods with a magnetic lid and internal latch, while ensuring that the case can still be opened with only one hand, using a slide-lock mechanism. It’s MagSafe-ready and charging is 136% stronger than the original AirPods case, so you won’t run out of power on that crosstown bus ride. The case comes with a carabiner design to attach to your wrist or bag, but is tested for four-foot drops since, as all AirPod users know, that is definitely going to happen. More than once. ESR’s Orbit Hybrid Magnetic Case uses 1,100 g magnets to keep the lid shut tight and is available in fun colors.

Technologies

Today Only You Can Get the Super Mario Galaxy 2-Pack at $14 Off

Enjoy two of Nintendo’s best Mario games in one package with a decent amount off.

Best Buy has a deal on at the moment that knocks the price of Super Mario Galaxy and Mario Galaxy 2 on Nintendo Switch down to $56. That’s a $14 discount, which is a lot on a first-party Nintendo game.

Nintendo Switch games are notorious for never really going down in price, which makes every deal that happens worth at least considering. Last time this was on sale, it was for $59; this is $3 cheaper than that, making the value even better. That’s two all-time-classic games for $28 each, basically, which is fantastic.

The only problem with this is that it’s a Best Buy daily deal, which means that it runs out tonight. So, if you do want to pick this up at this price, you’re going to need to be quick.

In his review, CNET’s Scott Stein was a big fan of both revamped Mario titles included in this bundle, but less so the $70 asking price. This deal goes a long way to helping fix that problem and gives you the chance to add two classic Mario titles to your collection at a discount.

Originally released on the Wii, both Super Mario Galaxy and Galaxy 2 have been updated with higher-resolution visuals, an improved interface and new content, so there’s never been a better time to play them. And unlike the originals, you can play these Switch games anywhere and at any time.

Why this deal matters

Mario games are like no other, and they’re great for adults and kids alike. This bundle includes two of the best, and right now you can pick it up at a price that makes them an even better buy than they already were. Whether you played them the first time around, you’re looking to see what all the fuss was about or want to introduce them to a new generation of Mario fans, this is the deal for you.

Technologies

I’ve Seen It With My Own Eyes: The Robots Are Here and Walking Among Us

The «physical AI» boom has created a world of opportunity for robot makers, and they’re not holding back.

It’s been 24 years since CNET first published an article with the headline The robots are coming. It’s a phrase I’ve repeated in my own writing over the years — mostly in jest. But now in 2026, for the first time, I feel confident in declaring that the robots have finally arrived.

I kicked off this year, as I often do, wandering the halls of the Las Vegas Convention Center and its hotel-based outposts on the lookout for the technology set to define the next 12 months. CES has always been a hotbed of activity for robots, but more often than not, a robot that makes a flashy Vegas debut doesn’t go on to have a rich, meaningful career in the wider world.

In fact, as cute as they often are and as fun as they can be to interact with on the show floor, most robots I’ve seen at CES over the years amount to little more than gimmicks. They either come back year after year with no notable improvements or are never seen or heard from again.

In more than a decade of covering the show, I’ve been waiting for a shift to occur. In 2026, I finally witnessed it. From Hyundai unveiling the final product version of the Boston Dynamics Atlas humanoid robot in its press conference to Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s focus on «physical AI» during his keynote, a sea change was evident this year in how people were talking about robots.

«We’ve had this dream of having robots everywhere for decades and decades,» Rev Lebaredian, Nvidia’s vice president of Omniverse and simulation told me on the sidelines of the chipmaker’s vast exhibition at the glamorous Fontainebleau Hotel. «It’s been in sci-fi as long as we can remember.»

Throughout the show, I felt like I was watching that sci-fi vision come to life. Everywhere I went, I was stumbling upon robot demos (some of which will be entering the market this year) drawing crowds, like the people lining up outside Hyundai’s booth to see the new Atlas in action.

So what’s changed? Until now, «we didn’t have the technology to create the brain of a robot,» Lebaredian said.

AI has unlocked our ability to apply algorithms to language, and it’s being applied to the physical world, changing everything for robots and those who make them.

The physical AI revolution

What truly makes a robot a robot? Rewind to CES 2017: I spent my time at the show asking every robotics expert that question, sparked by the proliferation of autonomous vehicles, drones and intelligent smart home devices.

This exercise predated the emergence of generative AI and models such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, but already I could see that by integrating voice assistants into their products, companies were beginning to blur the boundaries of what could be considered robotics.

Not only has the tech evolved since that time, but so has the language we use to talk about it. At CES 2026, the main topic of conversation seemed to be «physical AI.» It’s an umbrella term that can encompass everything from self-driving cars to robots.

«If you have any physical embodiments, where AI is not only used to perceive the environment, but actually to take decisions and actions that interact with the environment around it … then it’s physical AI,» Ahmed Sadek, head of physical AI and vice president of engineering at chipmaker Qualcomm told me.

Autonomous vehicles have been the easiest expression of physical AI to build so far, according to Lebaredian, simply because their main challenge is to dodge objects rather than interact with them. «Avoiding touching things is a lot easier than manipulating things,» he said.

Still, the development of self-driving vehicles has done much of the heavy lifting on the hardware, setting the stage for robot development to accelerate at a rapid pace now that the software required to build a brain is catching up.

For Nvidia, which worked on the new Atlas robot with Boston Dynamics, and Qualcomm, which announced its latest robotics platform at CES, these developments present a huge opportunity.

But that opportunity also extends to start-ups. Featured prominently at the CES 2026 booth of German automotive company Schaeffler was the year-and-a-half-old British company Humanoid, demonstrating the capabilities of its robot HMND 01.

The wheeled robot was built in just seven months Artem Sokolov, Humanoid’s CEO, told me, as we watch it sort car parts with its pincerlike hands. «We built our bipedal one for service and household much faster — in five months,» Sokolov added.

Humanoid’s speed can be accounted for by the AI boom plus an influx of talent recruited from top robotics companies, said Sokolov. The company has already signed around 25,000 preorders for HMND 01 and completed pilots with six Fortune 500 companies, he said.

This momentum extends to the next generation of Humanoid’s robots, where Sokolov doesn’t foresee any real bottlenecks. The main factors dictating the pace will be improvements in AI models and making the hardware more reliable and cost effective.

Humanoid hype hits its peak

Humanoid the company might have the rights to the name, but the concept of humanoids is a wider domain.

By the end of last year, the commercialization of humanoid robots had entered an «explosive phase of growth,» with a 508% year-on-year increase in global market revenue to $440 million, according to a report released by IDC this month.

At CES, Qualcomm’s robot demonstration showed how its latest platform could be adapted across different forms, including a robotic arm that could assemble a sandwich. But it was the humanoids at its booth that caused everyone to pull out their phones and start filming.

«Our vision is that if you have any embodiment, any mechatronic system, our platform should be able to transform it to a continuously learning intelligent robot,» said Qualcomm’s Sadek. But, he added, the major benefit of the humanoid form is its «flexibility.»

Some in the robotics world have criticized the focus on humanoids, due to their replication of our own limitations. It’s a notion that Lebaredian disagrees with, pointing out that we’ve designed our world around us and that robots need to be able to operate within it.

«There are many tasks that are dull, dangerous and dirty — they call it the three Ds — that are being done by humans today, that we have labor shortages for and that this technology can potentially go help us with,» he said.

We already have many specialist robots working in factories around the world, Lebaredian added. With their combination of arms, legs and mobility, humanoids are «largely a superset of all of the other kinds of robots» and, as such, are perfect for the more general-purpose work we need help with.

The hype around robots — and humanoids in particular — at CES this year felt intense. Even Boston Dynamics CEO Robert Playter acknowledged this in a Q&A with reporters moments after he unveiled the new Atlas on stage.

But it’s not just hype, Playter insisted, because Boston Dynamics is already demonstrating that they can put thousands of robots in the market. «That is not an indication of a hype cycle, but actually an indication of an emerging industry,» he said.

A huge amount of money is being poured into a rapidly growing number of robotics start-ups. The rate of this investment is a signal that the tech is ready to go, according to Nvidia’s Lebaredian.

«It’s because, fundamentally, the experts, people who understand this stuff, now believe, technically, it’s all possible,» he said. «We’ve switched from a scientific problem of discovery to an engineering problem.»

Robot evolution: From industry to home

From what I observed at the show, this engineering «problem» is one that many companies have already solved. Robots such as Atlas and HMND 01 have crossed the threshold from prototype to factory ready. The question for many of us will be as to when will these robots be ready for our homes.

Playter has openly talked about Boston Dynamics’ ambitions in this regard. He sees Atlas evolving into a home robot — but not yet. Some newer entrants to the robotics market — 1X, Sunday Robotics and Humanoid among them — are keen to get their robots into people’s homes in the next couple of years. Playter cautions against this approach.

«Companies are advertising that they want to go right to the home,» he said. «We think that’s the wrong strategy.»

The reasons he listed are twofold: pricing and safety. Playter echoed a sentiment I’ve heard elsewhere: that the first real use for home humanoid robots will be to carry out care duties for disabled and elderly populations. Perhaps in 20 years, you will have a robot carry you in and out of bed, but relying on one to do so when you’re in a vulnerable state poses «critical safety issue,» he said.

Putting robots in factories first allows people to work closely with them while keeping a safe distance, allowing those safety kinks to be ironed out. The deployment of robots at scale in industrial settings will also lead to mass manufacturing of components that will, at some point, make robots affordable for the rest of us, said Playter (unlike 1X’s $20,000 Neo robot, for example).

Still, he imagines the business model will be «robots as a service,» even when they do first enter our homes. Elder care itself is a big industry with real money being spent that could present Boston Dynamics with a market opportunity as Atlas takes its first steps beyond the factory floor.

«I spent a lot of money … with my mom in specialty care the last few years,» he said. «Having robots that can preserve autonomy and dignity at home, I think people will actually spend money — maybe $20K a year.»

The first «care» robots are more likely to be companion robots. This year at the CES, Tombot announced that its robotic labrador, Jennie, who first charmed me back at the show in 2020, is finally ready to go on sale. It served as yet another signal to me that the robots are ready to lead lives beyond the convention center walls.

Unlike in previous years, I left Vegas confident that I’ll be seeing more of this year’s cohort of CES robots in the future. Maybe not in my home just yet, but it’s time to prepare for a world in which robots will increasingly walk among us.

Technologies

Today’s Wordle Hints, Answer and Help for Jan. 29, #1685

Here are hints and the answer for today’s Wordle for Jan. 29, No. 1,685.

Looking for the most recent Wordle answer? Click here for today’s Wordle hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.

Today’s Wordle puzzle was a tough one for me. I never seem to guess three of the letters in this word. If you need a new starter word, check out our list of which letters show up the most in English words. If you need hints and the answer, read on.