Back in January, researchers warned that the iPhone 12 lineup and MagSafe accessories could potentially deactivate implanted medical devices. Now, the American Heart Association has released a study that corroborates these findings on a larger scale, noting that several devices from three major companies were "found to have magnetic susceptibility." Gizmodo reports: The initial study published in HeartRhythm was done on a single patient with a Medtronic implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD). It was an important finding in terms of awareness, but raised questions as to whether this would impact ICDs from all device makers if the iPhone 12 lineup posed a greater risk than other magnetized devices, and what the impact on pacemakers might be. The AHA's study offers a few preliminary insights into what those answers might be. In the study, researchers observed the impact of an iPhone 12 Pro Max on both ICDs and pacemakers from multiple device makers, as well as conducted both in vivo and ex vivo tests. In vivo refers to tests done on actual patients with an implanted medical device, while the ex vivo tests were done on 11 unboxed devices. The devices tested came from Medtronic, Abbot, and Boston Scientific. (You can see exactly which ICDs and pacemakers were tested in the study itself.) In 100% of the three in vivo tests, the iPhone 12 Pro Max triggered the devices' magnet reversion mode. That said, the Boston Scientific pacemaker was found to be less susceptible as it only triggered a temporary response. In ex vivo testing, magnetic interference was detected in 8 out of 11 devices, or 72.7%. There are a few things to note here. How seriously a device is impacted may depend on the sensors or components used. The study notes that magnetic interference can occur when medical devices are exposed to magnetic fields as little as 10G. According to the researchers, the iPhone 12 Pro Max has a magnetic field strength of over 50G. However, the ex vivo devices tested didn't respond uniformly. Some were only temporarily disrupted, others had sustained asynchronous pacing, and three weren't impacted at all. The researchers suggest that in the case of a Boston Scientific Accolade MRI pacemaker, the device may not have been affected because it requires a magnet stronger than 70G. After the HeartRhythm study was published, Apple issued additional guidance urging consumers with implanted medical devices to keep iPhone 12 devices more than 6 inches away, or more than 12 inches if wirelessly charging. It also recommended those people consult with both their physician and device manufacturer.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: Hart InterCivic Inc., one of the largest voting machine makers in the U.S., will incorporate Microsoft's vote-tracking system into its in-person machines, adding a layer of security that may help reduce heightened attacks on the legitimacy of U.S. election results. The program will allow people to confirm their votes were counted after they're cast. The partnership makes Hart the first manufacturer in the U.S. to allow local voting jurisdictions to incorporate ballot-tracking software into machines, the companies said Thursday in a joint statement. The program will let voters track their choices and offer security experts using Hart's system the opportunity to independently audit results using Microsoft's ElectionGuard software. The technology would not change the process for voters. In most cases, voters would still fill out their ballots the same way they did in November 2020, either using a touchscreen or by hand-marking a ballot. Once they submit their ballots, voters will receive a piece of paper with a verification or QR code, which they can input into their local election jurisdiction's website to track their ballot through the tabulation process. The process is done without revealing the content of the voter's ballot while maintaining the privacy and secrecy of their selections, according to the statement. The system will also allow third-parties, including political parties or news organizations, to write their own programs to confirm election tallies.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The Biden administration will make $1 billion in grants available to expand broadband access and adoption on tribal lands, Vice President Kamala Harris announced at the White House Thursday. From a report: The funds, from the Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), will be made to eligible Native American, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian entities for broadband deployment, to support digital inclusion, workforce development, telehealth, and distance learning. "For generations, a lack of infrastructure investment in Indian Country has left Tribes further behind in the digital divide than most areas of the country," Department of Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said in a statement. "We have a responsibility as a country to build infrastructure that will fuel economic development, keep communities safe, and ensure everyone has opportunities to succeed." According to the Commerce Department, census figures show only half of households on tribal lands subscribe to home internet service, and some areas lack even the most basic cellphone reception. More than 20 percent of people living on tribal lands don't have broadband access at home. And during the pandemic as schools closed, some students at tribal-serving schools had to drive for miles to find a strong enough connection to participate in online classes.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The U.S. Department of Justice is elevating investigations of ransomware attacks to a similar priority as terrorism in the wake of the Colonial Pipeline hack and mounting damage caused by cyber criminals, a senior department official told Reuters. From the report: Internal guidance sent on Thursday to U.S. attorney's offices across the country said information about ransomware investigations in the field should be centrally coordinated with a recently created task force in Washington. "It's a specialized process to ensure we track all ransomware cases regardless of where it may be referred in this country, so you can make the connections between actors and work your way up to disrupt the whole chain," said John Carlin, acting deputy attorney general at the Justice Department. Last month, a cyber criminal group that the U.S. authorities said operates from Russia, penetrated a pipeline operator on the U.S. East Coast, locking its systems and demanding a ransom. The hack caused a shutdown lasting several days, led to a spike in gas prices, panic buying and localized fuel shortages in the southeast. Colonial Pipeline decided to pay the hackers who invaded their systems nearly $5 million to regain access, the company said.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Apple said it's adjusting its approach to its AirTags sensors, changing the time they play an alert when separated from their owner, and also creating new ways to warn people an unexpected AirTag or Find My network-enabled device is nearby. From a report: The tech giant said Thursday it's begun sending out updates to its AirTags, changing the window of time they'll make noises when potentially being used to track another person. Initially, the Apple device would play in three days. Now it'll begin to play at a random time inside a window that lasts between 8 and 24 hours. To further reassure people about its AirTags, Apple said it's developing an app for Android devices that will help people "detect" an AirTag or Find My network-enabled device that may also be unsuspectedly "traveling" with them. Apple iPhones already have a similar alert system built into their devices. The Android app will be released later this year.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Trump's blog was pretty awful, but it was functional, and clearly it flopped, which itself is interesting data about the power of Twitter. Trump ought to thank them for being there, there would be no "President Trump" w/o Twitter.

Private equity giant Blackstone said on Thursday it has purchased media and data company IDG for $1.3 billion. IDG -- which runs consultancy firm IDC and a collection of tech publications including CIO, Computerworld, InfoWorld, Macworld, Network World, PCWorld, and Tech Hive -- was previously owned by Oriental Rainbow, LLC, a subsidiary of China Oceanwide Holdings Group. From a report: The media publishing arm was once a powerhouse in the 1990s tech publishing world, although its shine has faded in recent years as the publishing industry in general has come under intense pressure. The company has also been making some additions to the platform more recently with a stronger focus on data and analytics. Last year it bought Triblio, a marketing data platform to help companies deliver more personalized customer experiences. Last month it acquired Metri, an IT pricing service, which can help with IT budgeting and procurement. The latter could dovetail nicely with IDG's consulting services.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

News orgs insist we pay them rent, the same price no matter how much you use them, where users probably would prefer to pay for news as we pay for food or electricity, based on what we use. Ultimately I think we're all losing, but most people refuse to pay the rent.

Japanese multinational conglomerate Fujifilm has been forced to shut down parts of its global network after falling victim to a suspected ransomware attack. From a report: The company, which is best known for its digital imaging products but also produces high-tech medical kit, including devices for rapid processing of COVID-19 tests, confirmed that its Tokyo headquarters was hit by a cyberattack on Tuesday evening. "Fujifilm Corporation is currently carrying out an investigation into possible unauthorized access to its server from outside of the company. As part of this investigation, the network is partially shut down and disconnected from external correspondence," the company said in a statement posted to its website. "We want to state what we understand as of now and the measures that the company has taken. In the late evening of June 1, 2021, we became aware of the possibility of a ransomware attack. As a result, we have taken measures to suspend all affected systems in coordination with our various global entities," it said.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The airline, which plans to buy planes from Boom Supersonic [Editor's note: the link may be paywalled; alternative source], a start-up, could become the first to offer ultrafast commercial flights since the Concorde stopped flying in 2003. From a report: The era of supersonic commercial flights came to an end when the Concorde completed its last trip between New York and London in 2003, but the allure of ultrafast air travel never quite died out. President Biden mused about supersonic flights when discussing his infrastructure plan in April. And on Thursday, United Airlines said it was ordering 15 jets that can travel faster than the speed of sound from Boom Supersonic, a start-up in Denver. The airline said it had an option to increase its order by up to 35 planes. Boom, which has raised $270 million from venture capital firms and other investors, said it planned to introduce aircraft in 2025 and start flight tests in 2026. It expects the plane, which it calls the Overture, to carry passengers before the end of the decade. But the start-up's plans have already slipped at least once, and it will have to overcome many obstacles, including securing approval from the Federal Aviation Administration and regulators in other countries. Even established manufacturers have stumbled when introducing new or redesigned planes. Boeing's 737 Max was grounded for nearly two years after two crashes.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The United States Supreme Court has ruled today in a 6-3 vote to overturn a hacking-related conviction for a Georgia police officer, and by doing so, it also narrowed down the scope of the US' primary hacking law, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. From a report: The ruling, No. 19-783, comes in the Van Buren v. United States case of Nathan Van Buren, a former police sergeant in Cumming, Georgia, who was sentenced to 18 months in prison in May 2018 for taking a bribe of $5,000 to look up a license plate for a woman one of his informants met at a local strip club. Prosecutors charged Van Buren under the CFAA and argued that even if the police officer had been authorized to access the police database as part of his work duties, he "exceeded authorized access" when he performed a search against department internal policies. In subsequent appeals, Van Buren argued that the "exceeds authorized access" language in the CFAA was too broad and requested that the US Supreme Court rule on the matter, in a case the court decided to pick up and heard arguments last year.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Amazon.com's Ring, long criticized for a cozy relationship with law enforcement, will start requiring the police to publicly request home security footage captured by the company's doorbells and cameras. From a report: Beginning next week, police departments that want Ring users to help with investigations will be required to make the requests in the company's Neighbors app. Previously, police officers emailed users in a dedicated portal. Ring, the leading maker of internet-connected doorbells, has put cameras on the front of millions of homes, selling residents peace of mind via smartphone. But for civil liberties groups, the cameras -- and their use by law enforcement agencies -- pose threats to Americans' privacy and civil rights. Ring has shown no signs of abandoning its relationship with the police, but in recent years has grown more transparent, publicly identifying law enforcement partners and, as of next week, letting all Neighbors users see what information is being requested.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Drummer has a built-in doc server.

Frontier users will find this UI familiar, it's an improved version of the verb docs server we have in Frontier.

Drummer's scripting philosophy, like Frontier's, is that apps not only have user interfaces, they also have scripting interfaces. Which means theoretically, anything you can do with a mouse and keyboard you could also do in a script.

The first app I've created a scripting interface for is Twitter, because I use it so much, and so many other people do. I felt it could immediately benefit from being scriptable. I haven't covered anything like the whole functionality of Twitter, it wouldn't even be possible because their API doesn't cover it all, but -- a lot is possible with the verb set we have working right now.

Screen shot of Drummer's docs UI.

Twitter unveiled its long-awaited subscription service, offering paying customers exclusive features for rescinding tweets and organizing posts as part of a push to ease the social network's dependence on advertising revenue. From a report: Dubbed Twitter Blue, the product will cost $2.99 a month for access to tools including the ability to "undo" a post before it goes out publicly, organize bookmarked tweets into folders, and more easily read long tweet threads. Subscribers will also get faster service for customer-support claims, can choose from new app colors and will have the ability to modify the Twitter app icon on iOS devices. The subscription model could help Twitter diversify its business at a time when the pandemic has underscored the risks of a heavy reliance on digital advertising. [...] The product suite is being pitched to the most prolific of Twitter's 200 million daily users, including journalists, social media managers and those who use the site as their primary news source, said Sara Beykpour, the product lead in charge of subscriptions. "Twitter Blue is aimed at customers who are our most engaged, our most passionate super users who really want to take their experience to the next level," said Beykpour, who declined to estimate the size of the target group. "There is something special about this cohort that we're really learning about."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The announced-today Twitter subscription service is blah in its current form but I bet this is just the beginning. I believe there will be a revenue-sharing program for news orgs. An integration of their stories with Twitter. If they do it right it doesn't have to be a silo, btw.