Welcome to the January 10, 2024 edition of ACM TechNews, providing timely information for computer professionals three times a week.

HEADLINES AT A GLANCE

• C# Language is Tiobe Language of the Year
• Stellantis Uses Amazon Cloud to Speed In-Car Software Development
• China Forensic Firm Cracks Apple’s AirDrop
• Light Interacts with Magnets for Better Sensors, Memory Technology
• Robot with Sense of Touch Grabs Ocean Trash
• TikTok Restricts Tool Used by Researchers to Assess Content
• Tiny Firm Alerts Millions About Disasters in Japan
• Philippines Turns to Hackers to Ward off China Cyber Threat
• Drones Map Alberta First Nation
• Wi-Fi 7 Receives Official Certification
• How Tech Automated the Jan. 6 Investigations
• Samsung Bets Your Home Needs an AI Robot with a Projector

C# Language is Tiobe Language of the Year

Microsoft’s C# was named Tiobe programming language of the year for 2023, having shown a 1.4% increase in popularity from 2022. The next-biggest gains in popularity were claimed by the Scratch and Fortran languages, up 0.83% and 0.64%, respectively. For the current month, the Tiobe Programming Community Index's top 10 are Python, C, C++, Java, C#, JavaScript, PHP, Visual Basic, SQL, and Scratch.
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Stellantis Uses Amazon Cloud to Speed In-Car Software Development

Stellantis officials said a "virtual cockpit" that speeds the development and testing of new versions of vehicle controls and systems was made possible using Amazon Web Services and BlackBerry technology. The automaker's virtual cockpit allows realistic versions of such systems to be created without altering the main software that runs them, cutting development time from months to a day in some instances.
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China Forensic Firm Cracks Apple’s AirDrop

Chinese forensic firm Beijing Wangshendongjian Technology Co Ltd has “broken through the technical difficulties of tracing anonymous AirDrops," according to an article on the official WeChat of Beijing’s Bureau of Justice. When a Beijing subway passenger’s iPhone received an "inappropriate" video via AirDrop, Wangshendongjian analyzed the iPhone’s logs and found the sender’s mobile number and email address in the form of hash values. It then used a “rainbow table” of cracked passwords to decode enough information to help police “identify several suspects."
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Light Interacts with Magnets for Better Sensors, Memory Technology

Researchers at Israel's Hebrew University of Jerusalem discovered a previously unknown connection between light and magnetism, which could pave the way for super-fast, light-controlled memory technology, such as Magneto resistive Random Access Memory (MRAM). The researchers found that a rapidly oscillating light wave has a component that can control magnets, and identified a mathematical relationship describing the strength of the interaction and connecting the amplitude of the magnetic field of light, its frequency, and the energy absorption of the magnetic material.
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Robot with Sense of Touch Grabs Ocean Trash

University of California, Los Angeles researchers developed an artificial skin that allows a robot to distinguish between inanimate objects and living sea creatures. The artificial skin features neodymium magnets that convert physical touch into magnetic field changes, and sensing layers that transform magnetic field alterations into electrical signals. The researchers trained an AI model to interpret the sensor signals during tests in which a robotic arm outfitted with the artificial skin randomly gripped different sea creatures and trash samples.
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TikTok Restricts Tool Used by Researchers to Assess Content

TikTok’s Creative Center, used by researchers to analyze content, no longer allows users to search for specific hashtags. The social media company also has removed certain hashtags from the Creative Center that some online researchers had stored for analysis, including topics that would be seen as controversial by the Chinese government. The change came to light last week in an addendum to a study published in December by the Network Contagion Research Institute at Rutgers University. In the study, researchers concluded there was a “strong possibility” TikTok content was being amplified or underrepresented based on how it aligns with the Chinese government’s interests.
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Tiny Firm Alerts Millions About Disasters in Japan

The NERV app from Gehirn alerted millions of people to the 7.6 magnitude earthquake that hit Japan's Noto peninsula Jan. 1. Despite having only 13 full-time workers, Gehirn typically issues earthquake and extreme weather warnings faster than Japanese agencies and the country's public broadcaster NHK. NERV's X account, created in 2010 by then-19-year-old Daiki Ishimori to post automated weather alerts, has two million followers in Japanese, and another 35,000 that follow it in English.
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Philippines Turns to Hackers to Ward off China Cyber Threat

Amid rising tensions in the South China Sea, the Philippines has seen an increase in state-sponsored cyberattacks. The cybersecurity firm Surfshark said the Philippines was among the world’s 30 most cyber-attacked countries, with more than 60,000 user accounts compromised in the third quarter. The government's understaffed cyber response team is significantly understaffed (with just 35 members), which means it sometimes must collaborate with anonymous "black hat" hackers to obtain tips on looming threats.
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Drones Map Alberta First Nation

Researchers at Canada's Southern Alberta Institute of Technology in Calgary, and at Saskatchewan Polytechnic in Saskatoon, have launched a three-year project to create a digital map of the Frog Lake First Nation using drone technology. The digital map will replace outdated paper and low-resolution digital maps to better represent the community. The researchers are incorporating natural and man-made features on the map, from buildings to forests to underground pipelines, using thermal cameras and laser-equipped drones.
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Wi-Fi 7 Receives Official Certification

The Wi-Fi Alliance announced that Wi-Fi 7, developed by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, has been finalized. The organization is now in the process of certifying devices that will use the next-generation wireless standard, which builds on Wi-Fi 6E and will be backward-compatible with Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 5 devices. Wi-Fi 7 supports bandwidth of 320 MHz, compared with Wi-Fi 6's 160 MHz, and will feature Multi-Link Operation, allowing devices to transmit and receive data over multiple links at the same time to reduce latency and improve reliability.
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How Tech Automated the Jan. 6 Investigations

An analysis of court filings associated with the failed Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol by IEEE Spectrum revealed that law enforcement increasingly is relying on technology to identify suspects. The FBI used geofence data from Google that locates phones to within about 10 meters to identify 1,535 devices likely to have breached the Capitol building, along with facial recognition technology.
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Samsung Bets Your Home Needs an AI Robot with a Projector

At this year's CES, Samsung unveiled Ballie, a spherical home robot intended to handle various tasks around the house. It can navigate different spaces, project movies and video calls onto walls, control connected and non-smart devices, and care for pets, among other things. Ballie can learn the preferences of each household member, such as their willingness to interact with it, and respond accordingly. It can be controlled via voice commands or text messages.
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