There has been a rash of iPhone thefts around the US the past few months, conducted by "porch pirates" often seen on doorbell camera videos scooping up boxes right after they are delivered. Phones shipped by AT&T are being targeted more than those of Verizon and T-Mobile, according to a Wall Street Journal article published yesterday.

"The key to these swift crimes, investigators say: The thieves are armed with tracking numbers. Another factor that makes packages from AT&T particularly vulnerable is that AT&T typically doesn't require signature on delivery... Verizon and T-Mobile require a signature on delivery for smartphones; AT&T generally doesn't," the article said.

The WSJ talked to Chris Brown, a police lieutenant in Deer Park, Texas, who "said the suspects were armed with inside information: AT&T parcel tracking numbers. Deer Park police are working with AT&T to investigate how the suspects got that information, he said."

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Earlier this month, the Italian energy company Enel X announced an abrupt withdrawal from the North American market. For its residential customers—owners of the popular Juicebox level 2 home chargers—the physical hardware will continue to work, but from tomorrow Enel X will have ended all software support, including updates and its apps. But Enel X also had commercial clients, and they're even more out of luck—from tomorrow those stations "will lose functionality in the absence of software continuity," Enel X says .

Juicebox

For Juicebox customers, the loss of Enel X's servers and apps isn't great—they will lose the ability to remotely manage the charger, or schedule charging sessions from it. But most electric vehicles—both battery EVs and plug-in hybrid EVs—have their own built-in software to schedule charging sessions, and to hear some owners tell it, Enel X's software was a poor substitute for the original Juicebox software written by eMotorworks, which was bought by Enel X in 2017.

Whether owners still have any kind of warranty support remains up in the air. A community of volunteers called Juice Rescue has put together a guide on preparing for the shutdown tomorrow. This includes useful advice like making a note of the device's Juicebox ID and double-checking that the charger's maximum capacity is correctly set for its circuit.

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On Wednesday, NYC-based software developer Nick Spreen received a surprising alert on his iPhone 15 Pro, delivered through an early test version of Apple's upcoming Apple Intelligence text message summary feature. "No longer in a relationship; wants belongings from the apartment," the AI-penned message reads, summing up the content of several separate breakup texts from his girlfriend—that arrived on his birthday, no less.

Spreen shared a screenshot of the AI-generated message in a now-viral tweet on the X social network, writing, "for anyone who’s wondered what an apple intelligence summary of a breakup text looks like."

Screenshots of Nick Spreen's tweets on the Apple Intelligence break-up, captured October 10, 2024.

Credit: X

This summary feature of Apple Intelligence, announced by the iPhone maker in June, isn't expected to fully ship until an iOS 18.1 update in the fall . However, it has been available in a public beta test of iOS 18 since July, which is what Spreen is running on his iPhone. It works akin to something like a stripped-down ChatGPT , reading your incoming text messages and delivering its own simplified version of their content.

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Using ChatGPT to research cyber threats has backfired on bad actors, OpenAI revealed in a report analyzing emerging trends in how AI is currently amplifying online security risks.

Not only do ChatGPT prompts expose what platforms bad actors are targeting—and in at least one case enabled OpenAI to link a covert influence campaign on X and Instagram for the first time—but they can also reveal new tools that threat actors are testing to evolve their deceptive activity online, OpenAI claimed.

OpenAI's report comes amid heightening scrutiny of its tools during a major election year where officials globally fear AI might be used to boost disinformation and propaganda like never before. Their report detailed 20 times OpenAI disrupted covert influence operations and deceptive networks attempting to use AI to sow discord or breach vulnerable systems.

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