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Two Months After it Was discontinued, HomePod Models Remain Available to Purchase

Charlotte Henry ·

The HomePod was meant to be discontinued on March 12. However, 9to5 Mac picked up on reports of the device’s ongoing availability.

Apple announced that the original HomePod would be discontinued on March 12, as it shifted its focus to the HomePod mini. Here’s what the company said back then: HomePod mini has been a hit since its debut last fall, offering customers amazing sound, an intelligent assistant, and smart home control all for just $99. We are focusing our efforts on the mini model. We are discontinuing the original HomePod, it will continue to be available while supplies last through the Apple Online Store, Apple Retail Stores, and Apple Authorized Resellers. Apple will provide customers with software updates and service and support through Apple Care. Over these past two months, evidence has emerged on just how poorly Apple’s smart speaker sold. The YouTuber Michael Kukielka, also known as DetroitBORG, bought at least two HomePods after Apple discontinued the product, and by his surprise, the models he bought were from the launch stock three years ago.

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Security Researcher Hacks Apple’s ‘Find My’ Network

Andrew Orr ·

Researcher Fabian Bräunlein found that Apple’s Find My location network can be used to “upload arbitrary data to the internet.”

Being inherent to the privacy and security-focused design of the Find My Offline Finding system, it seems unlikely that this misuse can be prevented completely.

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CIDA Warns of New Ransomware ‘FiveHands’

Andrew Orr ·

FiveHands has been around since January but was recently used in a successful attack against an unknown organization.

Attackers were targeting unpatched SonicWall Secure Mobile Access SMA 100 remote access products, for which patches were released in February. The publicly available tools the group users including the SoftPerfect Network Scanner for Discovery and Microsoft’s own remote administration program, PsExec.exe and its related ServeManager.exe.