Archives for May 26, 2019

Officials approved the heart feature just days ago.

Canucks won’t have to sit on the sidelines while their Apple Watch-toting friends in the US, Europe and Hong Kong perform electrocardiograms. Apple has confirmed that it’s bringing the Watch Series 4’s ECG app and irregular heart rhythm detection to Canada “as quickly as possible” following an approval by Health Canada on May 16th. While the company hasn’t narrowed down a time frame, the most likely candidates for a debut are either watchOS 5.3 (which entered beta testing in mid-May) or the expected watchOS 6 release in September.

Apple has so far been content to bring the feature to more countries through minor software updates, like watchOS 5.2 in March and 5.2.1 earlier in May.

The technology typically requires approval on a country-by-country basis due to the medical implications. It’s meant to detect atrial fibrillation, and officials typically want to ensure that it’s providing a sufficiently accurate reading. Apple and others have stressed that the Watch’s ECG app isn’t a substitute for a professional diagnosis with a multi-lead ECG — it just serves as an alert that could prompt a doctor’s visit.

You could send announcements through your thermostat.

Amazon has slowly been expanding the circle of devices that can use Alexa Announcements, but now it’s throwing the gates wide open. The company has made the intercom-like feature available to any device with Alexa support built-in — you could use your thermostat or fridge to tell the kids that dinner is ready. In theory, you won’t have to visit a specific room like you might today.

The feature requires device makers to implement it, and not every product will necessarily qualify. They’ll have to support converting MP3 files 45 seconds or longer to an Alexa-ready format. There may still be gaps in Announcements support even if your home is full of Alexa devices. Still, this could make the broadcasting tool far more flexible in the long run.

It could help the company adapt to EVs, ridesharing and more.

Fiat Chrysler hasn’t been on the cutting edge of automotive change as of late. Unless you count concepts like the Centoventi, the company hasn’t done much with EVs — and its support for autonomy mostly involves supplying minivans to Waymo. The automaker might make a huge deal that could prepare it for the future, though. Financial Times sources have claimed that Fiat Chrysler is in advanced talks to create “extensive ties” with Renault to help it cope with a changing industry. It might even join the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance in the future, although the tipsters cautioned that nothing was set at this stage.

The two sides have already been talking about sharing car platforms, the FT said, although it heard that the discussions are far enough along that they’ve gone “beyond simply sharing the technology.”

Fiat Chrysler and Renault have declined to comment.

A deal could have significant ramifications for both the tech in Fiat Chrysler’s cars and Renault’s overall reach. Fiat Chrysler could borrow EV and hybrid platforms from its new partner, helping it keep up with an industry where electrified cars could quickly become the norm. It might also have access to more autonomous driving resources, not to mention mobility services that could help it cope with a decline in car ownership.

Renault, meanwhile, could benefit by integrating its tech into an erstwhile competitor’s cars as well as expanding its reach. While the company stopped offering cars in the US a long time ago, a Fiat Chrysler link would give it a foothold in the country that it doesn’t have through Mitsubishi or Nissan. You wouldn’t necessarily see Chrysler-badged Renault Zoes, but you might see Chryslers with a certain French touch — even if it’s only under the hood.

You’d just need to trick the Mac into loading a network share.

Apple may have another Gatekeeper security flaw on its hands. Researcher Filippo Cavallarin has detailed a macOS vulnerability that he said would let attackers install malware without the usual permission request. As Gatekeeper considers network shares to be ‘safe’ locations that don’t require permission checks, an intruder just has to trick the user into mounting one of those shares to run the apps they like. A maliciously crafted ZIP file with the right symbolic link could automatically steer you to an attacker-owned site, for example, and it would be easy to trick someone into launching a hostile app — say, a virus masquerading as a document folder.

In theory, the issue should have been fixed by now. Cavallarin said he notified Apple of the vulnerability on February 22nd, and that was supposed to have been resolved as of macOS 10.14.5. He said it wasn’t, though, and that Apple had stopped responding to his emails. He was publishing the flaw after giving Apple 90 days to address the issue.

We’ve asked Apple for comment. The chances of inadvertent exposure aren’t high when you’ll have to open a ZIP file as well as whatever’s inside the network share, but this could trip up people who aren’t familiar with either remote shares or the risks of unsolicited files. It also underscores the risks of explicitly trusting certain network environments, even if there’s often a good reason for it.