Sneak is a clumsy soul. His fingers have spent so long feverishly bashing at keyboards, pads and tabs that the art of nimbly holding and manipulating an item, of gauging pressure, touch and sensitivity, has deserted him completely.

This means many a dropped phone, crashing pathetically on pavements and wooden floors, much to the dismay of Sneak's bank manager as another £300 is forked out for a swish touch-screen device.

But help may be at hand. The chief executive of Amazon, Jeff Bezos, obviously not busy enough heading a multi-million pound firm, has patented a device that could limit or avoid damage to dropped phones by deploying an airbag as they fall. An airbag!

The Amazing Amazon Airbag would somehow detect when it was hurtling towards the ground and release its hidden, built-in protection to cushion the impact of smacking into the side of planet Earth.

It's a wonderful idea, although perhaps a parachute that springs open and helps the device gently down would be better. Or what about a miniature rocket pack that allowed the device to hover inches from the ground? That would be cool.

Sneak doesn't really mind, though, as long as it happens. This has all the hallmarks of a piece of technology that we could all do with Right Now but that won't happen for years and years, just like hoverboards, teleportation and robot butlers.

By the time it's invented they'll probably have found a way to make smartphones unbreakable.

15 Aug 2011