[finnthehuman]

>just a minimally invasive off switch.

Yup. A safety mechanism that has to be low tech. And user training to avoid magnets is safer than a more complicated interface.

The reason this is news is that not all cellphones are magnets, nor is there any obvious indication which are magnets.

[rmu09]

IME all recent cell phones contain fairly strong magnets in their speakers. They tend to clog up with iron filings/dust in my workshop.

[sipos]

Speaker magnets tend to be strong but small, meaning they would have to be very close. Thanks s is for attaching a charger, so is likely a much larger magnet, so more likely to be an issue.