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Give Your iPhone (or Android) an Upgrade With Our Favorite MagSafe Accessories

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Give Your iPhone (or Android) an Upgrade With Our Favorite MagSafe Accessories


Other Good MagSafe Accessories

The accessories below aren’t as great as the top picks in this guide, but they’re still good options if you’re looking for more MagSafe gadgets.

Belkin iPhone Mount With MagSafe.

Photograph: Julian Chokkattu

Belkin iPhone Mount With MagSafe for $30: Using Apple’s Continuity Camera feature, you can wirelessly use your iPhone as a webcam for a MacBook. It supports various video calling apps too, from FaceTime to Zoom. This circular silicone puck magnetically sticks to the back of your iPhone and can be used as a phone grip or kickstand, but you need to keep your screen close to a 90-degree angle, or else the weight of the iPhone will drag the screen back or forward. There’s also a mount for external displays, in case you want one for your home desk setup.

STM Goods MagPod Smarter Phone Stand for $31: I’ve been carrying this mini tripod from STM Goods all over my apartment. When I’m not using it to see notifications at a glance at my desk, I’ll place it on my kitchen counter to stream TV shows while cooking dinner, on my coffee table to FaceTime with friends while on the couch, or on the bathroom sink to listen to podcasts while doing my makeup. I’ve also used it to shoot video. It has a magnetic disc with a socket that moves around smoothly, allowing you to position it at multiple angles. The retractable legs are sturdy too, even while tapping through notifications or typing out texts. They fold in neatly into a compact size, making it easy to travel with.

Casetify Wireless Car Charger for $70: I’ve been using this for over a year. It’s easy to install, has MagSafe support (with a USB-C cable) and an adjustable ball joint for various viewing angles, and it’s Qi 2-certified with a 15-watt rate. It’s a bit more affordable than Belkin’s and comes in several fun patterns. (I have the Penguin design, and it’s tough not to smile while looking at it.)

iOttie Velox Pro Magnetic Wireless Cooling Charger for $80: This iOttie option has a suction cup (if your vents are awkward, or you just prefer a dash or windshield mount) that has strong magnets to keep it in place. The telescopic arm also has a ball joint to give you a wide range of movement to find the ideal position. The 7.5-watt charging rate is disappointing, but the USB-C charging cable is removable, so you can detach and stow it when your iPhone is charged. The built-in fan also helps to keep the temperature down when the sun is out.

MagGo Magnetic Charging Station (8-in-1) for $60: This little orb has three AC outlets, two USB-C ports, and two USB-A ports on the back, and over on the front is a Qi2 wireless charging pad that can recharge your phone. It’s great for workstations where you need to plug in a lot of gadgets. Each of the USB-A ports dishes out 12 watts, and the USB-C ports can output 67 watts, though this lowers if other ports or the pad are in use.

Dockcase Smart MagSafe M.2 NVMe SSD Enclosure on a pink mobile phone

Photograph: Julian Chokkattu

A MagSafe SSD Enclosure for $60: If you have an iPhone Pro Max and you want to tinker with Apple’s more advanced video recording formats (ProRes 4K at 60 frames per second or higher), well, you’ll run into one big problem immediately: You can’t natively record without an external storage device. You’ll need a solid-state drive plugged into your iPhone, and it will record your video directly to the external storage. But a dangling SSD doesn’t sound very safe, right? They don’t transfer power or data via MagSafe but merely attach to the back as a convenient way to store the SSD while recording.

Casely Grippy for $25: When Octobuddy (the original suction phone mount) started to get popular, I really wanted one. But since it uses adhesive to attach to your phone, the thought of all the dust and germs the suction cups would collect kept me from trying it. This one from Casely is one of the few that has MagSafe support. It works well, for the most part. I’ve stuck it on kitchen cabinets, mirrors, the refrigerator—basically whatever surface is around. But when sticking it on said surface, I recommend applying extra pressure to make sure the suction cups are really stuck on there. Otherwise, it’ll slide off, and your phone will go with it.

MagSafe is the name of Apple’s accessory system integrated into the iPhone 12, iPhone 13, iPhone 14, iPhone 15, iPhone 16, and iPhone 17 ranges. A ring of magnets on the back of the phone (and in MagSafe cases) can help transfer power more precisely and faster than traditional wireless chargers. However, it’s also a handy way to hold an accessory in place, like a wallet, or to mount the iPhone without requiring clamps.

Although MagSafe is a term made by Apple, Android phones like the Google Pixel 10 are getting MagSafe-like features with the new Qi2 standard. Most of the time, a MagSafe accessory will work without issues with Qi2 devices.

Make Sure Your Case Has MagSafe Too

If you use a case with your iPhone, make sure it’s a MagSafe case (it should have its own ring of magnets inside). A standard case will just weaken the magnetic attachment between the iPhone and the MagSafe accessory. A MagSafe case will maintain the magnetic strength, and sometimes case-makers use stronger magnets for a more secure attachment. We have lots of recommendations in our iPhone case guides:

Is MagSafe Compatible With Android?

Natively, no. MagSafe won’t work with most Android phones. However, there are MagSafe cases for certain Android phones, like the Google Pixel series or Samsung Galaxy phones, and these cases have a similar (if not the same) magnetic ring inside, allowing you to use many of the same MagSafe power banks, wireless chargers, and other accessories, though your mileage may vary. Several accessory companies also include or sell the MagSafe magnetic component that you can stick to the back of your smartphone to enable compatibility, though I’ve never used one I really like.

The Qi2 wireless charging standard is changing all of this. Qi2 adds the Magnetic Power Profile, which is based on MagSafe. That means Qi2 phones feature a similar magnetic attachment system, enabling MagSafe accessories to work with more devices, no case needed. Unfortunately, there aren’t many Android phones with Qi2 natively baked in. Samsung’s Galaxy S25 series, for example, are “Qi2 Ready” phones because you need a magnetic case to enable the Qi2 functionality as there’s no magnets built into the phone. The recent Google Pixel 10 series is the first range to fully support Qi2, so we should see more devices throughout the next 12 to 18 months.

That’s why you may also start seeing “Qi2” MagSafe devices—the latest iPhones all support Qi2, and any device you buy with Qi2 will offer maximum compatibility.

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The world’s default productivity tool is becoming a national security liability | Computer Weekly

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The world’s default productivity tool is becoming a national security liability | Computer Weekly


When the world’s most widely used productivity suite becomes the preferred weapon of sophisticated state hackers, we all have a problem that transcends routine software bugs.

The recent exploitation of CVE-2026-21509 by Russia’s APT28 group, just days after Microsoft disclosed and patched it, isn’t merely another security incident to file away. It’s a flashing red warning indicator that the aggregation risk and our dependence on a default software platform is creating systemic risk in a world where spreadsheets and spyware are equally viable warfare tools.

APT28, also known as Fancy Bear, BlueDelta and Forest Blizzard, isn’t some shadowy newcomer. This unit of Russia’s GRU military intelligence has been wreaking havoc since at least 2007. They may have interfered in the 2016 US presidential election, compromised the World Anti-Doping Agency, targeted Nato, and they are credited with conducting countless operations against Ukrainian infrastructure. They’re sophisticated, relentless, and have a particular fondness for Microsoft’s ecosystem.

In recent years, they’ve exploited vulnerabilities in Microsoft Exchange, Outlook, and now Office itself. Their tradecraft isn’t opportunistic – it’s industrial-scale cyber warfare executed with military precision.

Severe Office vulnerability

Only recently we witnessed their latest attack. The timeline gives rise for concern as Microsoft issued an out-of-band patch for a high-severity Office vulnerability on 26 January.

Three days later, malicious documents exploiting that exact flaw started circulating in Ukraine. Phishing lure files appear to have been crafted within 24 hours of Microsoft disclosing the software flaw, a single day after the patch dropped.

Think about that timeline – this is an adversary that was either tipped off, had advance access, or was already weaponising the vulnerability before the patch even existed.

This is an adversary that was either tipped off, had advance access, or was already weaponising the vulnerability before the patch even existed
Bill McCluggage

CVE-2026-21509 is a security feature bypass – the kind of flaw that tricks users into opening crafted Office files that deliver MiniDoor malware, designed to harvest and exfiltrate victims’ emails, along with PixyNetLoader malware, designed to implant malicious software on compromised systems.

The software flaw allows attackers to exploit the one thing Microsoft can’t patch – human trust. And in Ukraine, where hybrid warfare has transformed every inbox into a potential frontline, that trust is being systematically weaponised.

Structural problems

The problem is structural. IT professionals know that deploying patches isn’t instantaneous. They take time, albeit in some cases automated updates can be relatively quick. But in a conflict zone wrestling with bandwidth constraints, outdated systems, and limited access to enterprise-grade licensing, that vulnerability window becomes a chasm.

If Ukrainian organisations are running older Office builds because they lack resources for restrictive, subscription-based licensing, or can’t afford IT automation for patching, they’re sitting ducks. This is a strategic liability, and other nations need to understand the systemic risk they too face.

Microsoft’s patching cadence deserves further scrutiny, and this incident highlights that recognition delays matter, even outside of active conflict zones. When vulnerabilities are actively exploited before patches arrive or are installed, we’re no longer managing risk, we’re into documenting damage and incident recovery.

Delays in Microsoft patch deployment shouldn’t be inevitable – when your patch management depends on manual schedules, restricted bandwidth, or enterprise support you can’t access, that delay becomes a shooting gallery for groups like APT28.

And the Microsoft problem doesn’t end with Office. The growing dependence on Microsoft’s cloud infrastructure introduces sovereignty concerns that should alarm anyone paying attention.

Single point of failure

Recent Azure outages, whether from cyber attacks or botched updates, have demonstrated how a single point of failure implanted in Redmond can cascade globally. When national governments, critical infrastructure, and essential services run on cloud platforms controlled by one company, we’re not just talking about vendor lock-in. We’re talking about digital colonialism disguised as convenience that introduces systemic risk.

Market concentration compounds this risk. When a single platform is effectively the default across governments and corporations globally, vulnerabilities don’t fail in isolation – they fester and spread.

Licensing models and interoperability barriers that discourage diversification entrench this monoculture. The result is aggregation risk on a geopolitical scale – its bugs are potential weapons in grey-zone conflicts where every user is a potential target, and every attachment could be a trap.

This isn’t just a cyber security challenge – it’s a market structure problem. Structural risks require structural remedies. Bodies like the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) and the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Competition have a clear role here, by ensuring that concentration in productivity and cloud services does not translate into national and global security vulnerabilities.

The ability to diversify and introduce real competition in secure cloud and productivity ecosystems is becoming a matter of digital sovereignty and defence resilience.

The way forward

So what’s the path forward? Microsoft must rethink vulnerability disclosure and patching for high-impact products introducing faster mitigation pathways and protective heuristics that can be deployed before formal patches are released.

Enterprises and governments need to invest in automated patch management and redundancy planning.

And regulators need to recognise that monoculture is inseparable from security risk.

The next frontier of cyber security policy isn’t just about defending networks – it’s about making markets safer by design.

Bill McCluggage was director of IT strategy and policy in the Cabinet Office and deputy government CIO from 2009 to 2012.



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Salesforce Workers Circulate Open Letter Urging CEO Marc Benioff to Denounce ICE

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Salesforce Workers Circulate Open Letter Urging CEO Marc Benioff to Denounce ICE


Employees at Salesforce are circulating an internal letter to chief executive Marc Benioff calling on him to denounce recent actions by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, prohibit the use of Salesforce software by immigration agents, and back federal legislation that would significantly reform the agency.

The letter specifically cites the “recent killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis” as catalysts, calling them the “devastating indictment of a system that has discarded human decency.” It’s unclear how many signatories the letter has received so far.

The letter, which has not been reported on previously, is being organized amid Salesforce’s annual leadership kickoff event this week in Las Vegas. During an appearance at the event earlier today, Benioff asked international employees to stand to thank them for attending. He then joked that ICE agents were in the building monitoring them, according to current and former Salesforce employees who spoke to WIRED.

Benioff’s remarks sparked immediate backlash among employees. “Lots of people are furious,” says one source, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation. Another source tells WIRED that the internal pushback today was significantly more forceful than after Benioff made other controversial comments last fall supporting President Trump’s call to deploy the National Guard to San Francisco to address crime.

Salesforce did not immediately respond to a request for comment from WIRED. Business Insider and 404 Media previously reported on Benioff’s remarks and the reaction to them inside Salesforce.

“We are deeply troubled by leaked documentation revealing that Salesforce has pitched AI technology to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to help the agency ‘expeditiously’ hire 10,000 new agents and vet tip-line reports,” the letter reads. “Providing ‘Agentforce’ infrastructure to scale a mass deportation agenda that currently detains 66,000 people—73 percent of whom have no criminal record—represents a fundamental betrayal of our commitment to the ethical use of technology.”

The letter argues that Benioff’s voice “carries unique weight in Washington,” pointing to an episode last fall when Trump called off an ICE deployment in San Francisco after what appeared to be outreach from Bay Area tech leaders, including Benioff and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. It urges Benioff to use that influence as a “corporate statesman” to issue a public statement condemning what it calls ICE’s unconstitutional conduct and to commit Salesforce to clear “red lines” barring the use of its cloud and AI products for state violence.

Benioff has weighed in on both national and local political issues for years. He supported Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in 2016 and later became one of the most high-profile backers of Proposition C, a failed San Francisco ballot measure that would have raised taxes to fund programs to address homelessness. In 2020, he donated to the primary campaigns of some Democratic presidential candidates, including Kamala Harris.

But since Trump returned to the White House in January, Benioff has signaled greater support for some Republican leaders. In one interview, he said he strives to stay nonpartisan because he also owns Time magazine. But he also joked that, while he declined to contribute to Trump’s inauguration fund directly, he had “donated” a photo of the president on the magazine’s cover, which named him its 2024 Person of the Year. “He can use the Time magazine cover for free,” Benioff said in the interview with Fortune.

Benioff also faced backlash from Salesforce employees last fall when he suggested the National Guard should be sent to San Francisco to tackle crime ahead of the company’s annual conference in the city. He later apologized for the remarks, explaining they stemmed from genuine concerns about safety. He later reversed his stance and joined Nvidia’s Huang in asking Trump to refrain from sending troops.



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Magnetic mixer improves 3D bioprinting

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Magnetic mixer improves 3D bioprinting



3D bioprinting, in which living tissues are printed with cells mixed into soft hydrogels, or “bio-inks,” is widely used in the field of bioengineering for modeling or replacing the tissues in our bodies. The print quality and reproducibility of tissues, however, can face challenges. One of the most significant challenges is created simply by gravity — cells naturally sink to the bottom of the bioink-extruding printer syringe because the cells are heavier than the hydrogel around them.

“This cell settling, which becomes worse during the long print sessions required to print large tissues, leads to clogged nozzles, uneven cell distribution, and inconsistencies between printed tissues,” explains Ritu Raman, the Eugene Bell Career Development Professor of Tissue Engineering and assistant professor of mechanical engineering at MIT. “Existing solutions, such as manually stirring bioinks before loading them into the printer, or using passive mixers, cannot maintain uniformity once printing begins.”

In a study published Feb. 2 in the journal Device, Raman’s team introduces a new approach that aims to solve this core limitation by actively preventing cell sedimentation within bioinks during printing, allowing for more reliable and biologically consistent 3D printed tissues.

“Precise control over the bioink’s physical and biological properties is essential for recreating the structure and function of native tissues,” says Ferdows Afghah, a postdoc in mechanical engineering at MIT and lead author of the study.

“If we can print tissues that more closely mimic those in our bodies, we can use them as models to understand more about human diseases, or to test the safety and efficacy of new therapeutic drugs,” adds Raman. Such models could help researchers move away from techniques like animal testing, which supports recent interest from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in developing faster, less expensive, and more informative new approaches to establish the safety and efficacy of new treatment paths.

“Eventually, we are working towards regenerative medicine applications such as replacing diseased or injured tissues in our bodies with 3D printed tissues that can help restore healthy function,” says Raman.

MagMix, a magnetically actuated mixer, is composed of two parts: a small magnetic propeller that fits inside the syringes used by bioprinters to deposit bioinks, layer by layer, into 3D tissues, and a permanent magnet attached to a motor that moves up and down near the syringe, controlling the movement of the propeller inside. Together, this compact system can be mounted onto any standard 3D bioprinter, keeping bioinks uniformly mixed during printing without changing the bioink formulation or interfering with the printer’s normal operation. To test the approach, the team used computer simulations to design the optimal mixing propeller geometry and speed and then validated its performance experimentally.

“Across multiple bioink types, MagMix prevented cell settling for more than 45 minutes of continuous printing, reducing clogging and preserving high cell viability,” says Raman. “Importantly, we showed that mixing speeds could be adjusted to balance effective homogenization for different bioinks while inducing minimal stress on the cells. As a proof-of-concept, we demonstrated that MagMix could be used to 3D print cells that could mature into muscle tissues over the course of several days.”

By maintaining uniform cell distribution throughout long or complex print jobs, MagMix enables the fabrication of high-quality tissues with more consistent biological function. Because the device is compact, low-cost, customizable, and easily integrated into existing 3D printers, it offers a broadly accessible solution for laboratories and industries working toward reproducible engineered tissues for applications in human health including disease modeling, drug screening, and regenerative medicine.

This work was supported, in part, by the Safety, Health, and Environmental Discovery Lab (SHED) at MIT, which provides infrastructure and interdisciplinary expertise to help translate biofabrication innovations from lab-scale demonstrations to scalable, reproducible applications.

“At the SHED, we focus on accelerating the translation of innovative methods into practical tools that researchers can reliably adopt,” says Tolga Durak, the SHED’s founding director. “MagMix is a strong example of how the right combination of technical infrastructure and interdisciplinary support can move biofabrication technologies toward scalable, real-world impact.”

The SHED’s involvement reflects a broader vision of strengthening technology pathways that enhance reproducibility and accessibility across engineering and the life sciences by providing equitable access to advanced equipment and fostering cross-disciplinary collaboration.

“As the field advances toward larger-scale and more standardized systems, integrated labs like SHED are essential for building sustainable capacity,” Durak adds. “Our goal is not only to enable discovery, but to ensure that new technologies can be reliably adopted and sustained over time.”

The team is also interested in non-medical applications of engineered tissues, such as using printed muscles to power safer and more efficient “biohybrid” robots.

The researchers believe this work can improve the reliability and scalability of 3D bioprinting, making the potential impacts on the field of 3D bioprinting and on human health significant. Their paper, “Advancing Bioink Homogeneity in Extrusion 3D Bioprinting with Active In Situ Magnetic Mixing,” is available now from the journal Device



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