Corning

If there's one thing that needs to be antibacterial, it's the public touchscreen displays that everyone paws at with their filthy fingers. Well, help is on the way, in the form of a newly developed copper coating.

Gorilla Glass covers the displays of phones from Apple, Samsung​, LG and many more, and two years after the last refresh, Corning has just unveiled Gorilla Glass 6. Now more durable than ever, the new covering glass is able to survive up to 15 successive drops from a meter (39 inches) high.

With its Gorilla Glass already protecting the screens of many major smartphones, Corning has turned its sights to the wearables market with Gorilla Glass SR+.​​

A source of anxiety for many people is the fragility of their smartphone screens. For those who prefer their phone without screen protectors or a bulky protective case, Corning's Gorilla Glass has you covered. The latest version is designed to brush off falls onto hard surfaces from shoulder height.

While it's nice to have a smartphone with glass that won't break when jabbed or flexed, what most of us really need is glass that can survive being dropped. Corning's just-announced Gorilla Glass 4 is claimed to excel at just that.

Last July, Corning announced that germ-killing glass for mobile device screens could be less than two years away. Well, things are apparently progressing quickly. Yesterday, the company unveiled its Antimicrobial Corning Gorilla Glass – although you can't buy a phone that features it quite yet.