The means of communication would include pneumatic mail tubes, telephones, telegraphs, radios, and mechanically composed newspapers. -- Howard P. Segal, The Technological Utopians, in Joseph J. Corn (Ed.), Imagining Tomorrow: History, Technology and The American Future (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1986).
The magnetic interference can also cause problems with NFC performance on the new iPhones, and Apple has now started warning manufacturers in its MFi program with accessories supporting the devices to avoid magnets or metal.
Magnets strongly attract materials (like iron) which already themselves have magnetic domains. They do not significantly attract many metals like gold, aluminum, silver, and even some types of high-chromium stainless-steel, which lack such domains. In fact, pure gold is slightly repelled.