All the News that Matters

• SUSE: 2019:0539-1 important: freerdp
  LinuxSecurity.com: An update that solves 8 vulnerabilities and has four fixes is now available.

• SUSE: 2019:0540-1 important: obs-service-tar_scm
  LinuxSecurity.com: An update that solves three vulnerabilities and has two fixes is now available.

• openSUSE: 2019:0291-1: important: procps
  LinuxSecurity.com: An update that fixes 5 vulnerabilities is now available.

• Ubuntu 3885-2: OpenSSH vulnerability
  LinuxSecurity.com: One of the fixes in USN-3885-1 was incomplete.

• RedHat: RHSA-2019-0451:01 Moderate: Red Hat JBoss Web Server 5.0 Service
  LinuxSecurity.com: An update is now available for Red Hat JBoss Web Server 5.0 for RHEL 6 and Red Hat JBoss Web Server 5.0 for RHEL 7. Red Hat Product Security has rated this release as having a security impact of Moderate. A Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) base score,

• RedHat: RHSA-2019-0450:01 Moderate: Red Hat JBoss Web Server 5.0 Service
  LinuxSecurity.com: An update is now available for Red Hat JBoss Web Server 5.0 for RHEL 6 and Red Hat JBoss Web Server 5.0 for RHEL 7. Red Hat Product Security has rated this release as having a security impact of Moderate. A Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) base score,

• RedHat: RHSA-2019-0447:01 Low: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.4 Extended Update
  LinuxSecurity.com: This is the six-month notification for the retirement of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.4 Extended Update Support (EUS). This notification applies only to those customers subscribed to the Extended Update Support (EUS) channel for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.4.

• ArchLinux: 201903-5: file: multiple issues
  LinuxSecurity.com: The package file before version 5.36-1 is vulnerable to multiple issues including information disclosure and denial of service.

• ArchLinux: 201903-6: lib32-openssl-1.0: information disclosure
  LinuxSecurity.com: The package lib32-openssl-1.0 before version 1.0.2.r-1 is vulnerable to information disclosure.

• ArchLinux: 201903-2: openssl-1.0: information disclosure
  LinuxSecurity.com: The package openssl-1.0 before version 1.0.2.r-1 is vulnerable to information disclosure.

• ArchLinux: 201903-3: gdm: access restriction bypass
  LinuxSecurity.com: The package gdm before version 3.30.3-1 is vulnerable to access restriction bypass.

• ArchLinux: 201903-4: pcre: denial of service
  LinuxSecurity.com: The package pcre before version 8.43-1 is vulnerable to denial of service.

• How To Install Oracle Java 12 (JDK 12) In Ubuntu, Linux Mint Or Debian (Using PPA)
  Oracle released Java 12 last week, and the new release can now be installed in Ubuntu, Linux Mint and Debian from the Linux Uprising Java PPA. The new version will receive a minimum of 2 updates, and it will followed by Oracle JDK 13 in September 2019.

• EU Copyright Directive Vote, GNU nano 4.0 Released, Redox OS 0.5.0 Announced, Sailfish OS 3.0.2 "Oulanka" Now Available and Linux Kernel 5.1-rc2 Released
  News briefs for March 25, 2019.

• Backup on Fedora Silverblue with Borg
  When it comes to backing up a Fedora Silverblue system, some of the traditional tools may not function as expected. BorgBackup (Borg) is an alternative available that can provide backup capability for your Silverblue based systems. This how-to explains the steps for using BorgBackup 1.1.8 as a layered package to back up Fedora Silverblue 29 [[he]#8230[/he]]

• Subscribers: Auto-Download Linux Journal From the Command Line (v2.0)
  There's an old saying, "anything worth doing, is worth automating"—or something like that. Downloading and reading Linux Journal always has been worth doing, and now you can automate it with our autolj script.

• Toughened up Apollo Lake box PC runs Linux
  Axiomtek’s rugged, Linux-friendly “eBOX625-312-FL” is an Apollo Lake embedded PC with 2x GbE, 4x USB 3.0, 2x mini-PCIe, 3x serial, lockable HDMI, and a SATA bay. The eBOX625-312-FL is the typical, rugged industrial computer of our current era. There’s nothing particularly exciting about it, but assuming that it indeed offers “effective pricing,” this could be [[he]#8230[/he]]

• How Open Source Is Accelerating NFV Transformation
  In anticipation of the upcoming Open Networking Summit, we talked with Thomas Nadeau, Technical Director NFV at Red Hat, who gave a keynote address at last year’s event, to hear his thoughts regarding the role of open source in innovation for telecommunications service providers.

• Episode 17: Be Afraid. Be Very Afraid.
  Episode 17: Be Afraid. Be Very Afraid. Katherine Druckman and Doc Searls talk to Bob Erdman, Security Product Manager for Helpsystems about Linux security threats.

• Puppy Linux 8.0 Released
  Puppy Linux is one of the tiniest Linux distros. It loads into RAM and runs from it making it faster than most Linux distributions. Puppy Linux 8.0 "Bionicpup" came out yesterday with a couple of new features and latest software.

• Tiny, octa-core Arm module targets AI on the edge
  Intrinsyc’s 50 x 25mm, $225 “Open-Q 660 ?SOM” runs Android 9.0 on the high-end Snapdragon 660 and offers 802.11ac, BT 5.1, 4GB LPDDR4, and 32GB eMMC plus support for 4K DP, 2x MIPI-DSI, 3x MIPI-CSI, and high-end digital audio. Qualcomm’s octa-core Snapdragon 660 appeared on Intrinsyc’s Open-Q 660 HDK Mini-ITX dev kit back in 2017 [[he]#8230[/he]]

• Contribute at the Fedora Test Day for Fedora Modularity
  Modularity lets you keep the right version of an application, language runtime, or other software on your Fedora system even as the operating system is updated. You can read more about Modularity in general on the Fedora documentation site. The Modularity folks have been working on Modules for everyone. As a result, the Fedora Modularity […]

• 4 Ways to Log Out of a Ubuntu Desktop Session
  In this article, we will describe four ways using which a user can log out of his/her Ubuntu session using UI, the Keyboard shortcut, the application launcher search bar, and through the Ubuntu command line.

• How to print from the Linux command line
  There's a lot more to printing from the Linux command line than the lp command. Check out some of the many available options.

• Ansible performance: Revving up the engine and maintaining stability
  Ansible is an automation tool centered around configuration and orchestration management. One important thing that many systems administrators and engineers need to be aware of when using Ansible is how to optimize it to improve its speed and performance. Here are some tips and tricks to keep in mind.read more

• Fun with Mail Merge and Cool Bash Arrays
  There are plenty of ways to tackle the word substitution from the command line,ranging from Perl to awk, but here I'm using the original UNIX commandsed (stream editor) designed for exactly this purpose.

• How to Install NodeJS based Wiki.js on Fedora 29
  Wiki.js is an open source, modern and powerful wiki app based on Node.js, Git, and Markdown. Wiki.js runs on the blazingly fast Node.js engine and is optimized to conserve CPU resources.

• Getting started with Vim: The basics
  I remember the very first time I encountered Vim. I was a university student, and the computers in the computer science department's lab were installed with Ubuntu Linux. While I had been exposed to different Linux variations (like RHEL) even before my college years (Red Hat sold its CDs at Best Buy!), this was the first time I needed to use the Linux operating system regularly, because my classes required me to do so. Once I started using Linux, like many others before and after me, I began to feel like a "real programmer."read more

• 10 Excellent Free Linux Relational Databases
  A Relational Database Management System (RDBMS) is a Database Management System (DBMS) that is based on the relational model. Most database systems today are based on this type of system.

• Creating a Password Policy in Linux
  Learn how to use pwquality pam module to create a password policy in Linux. We also discuss the use of character credits and how they effect your policy.

• How to Install PrestaShop on Ubuntu 18.04
  PrestaShop is a free and open-source e-commerce platform. It is based on PHP and MySQL and can be extended with free and premium plugins and themes. With features like intuitive administrative interface, multiple payment gateways, multi-lingual, analytic and reporting PrestaShop is a platform of choice for many online merchants.

• Linux Mint KDE Still Possible
  If you're the Linux Mint and KDE lover, then you know that starting from Linux Mint 19 "Tara", your beloved Linux distro has stopped shipping with KDE. So Linux Mint KDE has died a brutal death. But we can revive the combination of two best software, i.e. Linux Mint on KDE.

• Once-Shrinking Greenland Glacier Is Now Growing, NASA Study Shows
  kenh shares a report from NBC News: A major Greenland glacier that was one of the fastest shrinking ice and snow masses on Earth is growing again, a new NASA study finds. The Jakobshavn (YA-cob-shawv-en) glacier around 2012 was retreating about 1.8 miles (3 kilometers) and thinning nearly 130 feet (almost 40 meters) annually. But it started growing again at about the same rate in the past two years, according to a study in Monday's Nature Geoscience. Study authors and outside scientists think this is temporary.   A natural cyclical cooling of North Atlantic waters likely caused the glacier to reverse course, said study lead author Ala Khazendar, a NASA glaciologist on the Oceans Melting Greenland (OMG) project. Khazendar and colleagues say this coincides with a flip of the North Atlantic Oscillation -- a natural and temporary cooling and warming of parts of the ocean that is like a distant cousin to El Nino in the Pacific. The water in Disko Bay, where Jakobshavn hits the ocean, is about 3.6 degrees cooler than a few years ago, study authors said. While this is "good news" on a temporary basis, this is bad news on the long term because it tells scientists that ocean temperature is a bigger player in glacier retreats and advances than previously thought, said NASA climate scientist Josh Willis, a study co-author. Over the decades the water has been and will be warming from man-made climate change, he said, noting that about 90 percent of the heat trapped by greenhouse gases goes into the oceans.
          
  
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• Automation Threatens 1.5 Million Workers In Britain, Says ONS
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: About 1.5 million workers in Britain are at high risk of losing their jobs to automation, according to government estimates, with women and those in part-time work most affected. Supermarket checkout assistants have already borne the brunt of the phenomenon, the Office for National Statistics found, with 25.3% of jobs disappearing between 2011 and 2017. Other jobs where automation has taken its toll include laundry workers, farm workers and tyre fitters, among which numbers have dropped by 15% or more, said the ONS, as machines have replaced labor.   Women are most likely to lose out, said the ONS. "The analysis showed a higher proportion of roles currently filled by women are at risk of automation; in 2017, 70.2% of high-risk jobs were held by women." It named Tamworth, Rutland and South Holland in Lincolnshire as the areas most exposed to automation -- partly reflecting a relatively high level of farm workers -- while Camden in north London has the workers least at risk. But the ONS analysis also found many workers -- especially those in their mid to late 30s and who work in London and the south-east -- have little to fear from the rise of the robots. Those with higher levels of education appear to be better protected. "The ONS said that, of the jobs at risk, 39% were held by people whose educational attainment level was GCSE or below, while 1.2% were held by those who had been through higher education or university," the report says.
          
  
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• McDonald's Bites on Big Data With $300 Million Acquisition
  An anonymous reader shares a report: Mention McDonald's to someone today, and they're more likely to think about Big Mac than Big Data. But that could soon change: The fast-food giant has embraced machine learning, in a fittingly super-sized way. McDonald's is set to announce that it has reached an agreement to acquire Dynamic Yield, a startup based in Tel Aviv that provides retailers with algorithmically driven "decision logic" technology. When you add an item to an online shopping cart, it's the tech that nudges you about what other customers bought as well. Dynamic Yield reportedly had been recently valued in the hundreds of millions of dollars; people familiar with the details of the McDonald's offer put it at over $300 million. That would make it the company's largest purchase since it acquired Boston Market in 1999.
          
  
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• We Transition Between 19 Different Brain Phases When Sleeping, Study Finds
  A new study suggests that instead of the traditional four sleep stages we generally understand the brain moves through, there are in fact at least 19 different identifiable brain patterns transitioned through while sleeping. New Atlas reports: Traditionally scientists have identified four distinct stages our brain transitions through in a general sleep cycle -- three non-REM sleep phases (N1-3) that culminate in an REM phase. The four stages have been classically determined and delineated using electroencephalographic (EEG) brainwave recordings. The new research set out to more comprehensively record whole-brain activity in a number of subjects by using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The study began by studying 57 healthy subjects in an fMRI scanner. Each subject was asked to lie in the scanner for 52 minutes with their eyes closed. At the same time, each subject was tracked using an EEG. This allowed the researchers to compare traditional brainwave sleep cycle data with that from the fMRI.   Due to the limited duration of the fMRI data, no subjects were found to enter REM sleep, however, 18 subjects did completely transition from wakefulness through the three non-REM sleep phases according to the EEG data. Highlighting the complexity of brain activity during our wake-to-sleep cycle the researchers confidently chronicled 19 different recurring whole-brain network states. Mapping these whole-brain states onto traditional EEG-tracked sleep phases revealed a number of compelling correlations. Wakefulness, N2 sleep and N3 sleep all could be represented by specific whole brain states. The range of different fMRI-tracked brain states did reduce as subjects fell into deeper sleep phases, with two different fMRI brain states correlating with N2 sleep, and only one with N3. However, N1 sleep as identified by EEG data, the earliest and least clearly defined sleep phase, did not consistently correspond with any fMRI brain state. The researchers conclude from this data that N1 is actually a much more complex sleep phase than previously understood. This phase, a strange mix of wakefulness and sleep, seemed to encompass a large range of the 19 different whole-brain network states identified in the fMRI data. The research was published in the journal Nature Communications.
          
  
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• Gmail App Changes Will Cause Most IFTTT Features To Stop Working
  Almost all of Gmail's IFTTT routines and actions will stop working at the end of the month as Google alters the Gmail API to make it more secure. The only functionality of IFTTT-Gmail integration will be sending yourself an email and sending an email to someone else. TechSpot reports: The roots of this problem reach back to a breathless report in the Wall Street Journal in the summer of 2018 that claimed Gmail app developers have been reading your email. What it actually meant was that Gmail's OAuth account access was too simple -- if you allowed an application to access to Gmail, it had access to all of it. Even apps that didn't need the full text of emails for their intended function would have access to that after you signed in. Google began tightening access to Gmail content for third-party apps, and that's where IFTTT comes in.   As of March 31, Google is placing new restrictions on Gmail apps. Apps can no longer read, create, or modify message bodies. None of IFTTT's seven Gmail triggers will work anymore after the new API rules go into effect. In conversations with Google, IFTTT was able to keep two of the Gmail actions: sending yourself an email and sending an email to someone else. However, the trigger needs to be from another service. You can log into your IFTTT account to see which of your Applets are affected by the change. The new API rules only affect Gmail. Other G Suite services like Google Drive and Assistant will remain operating normally.
          
  
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• Music Labels Sue Charter, Complain That High Internet Speeds Fuel Piracy
  The music industry is suing Charter Communications, claiming that the cable Internet provider profits from music piracy by failing to terminate the accounts of subscribers who illegally download copyrighted songs. The lawsuit also complains that Charter helps its subscribers pirate music by selling packages with higher Internet speeds. Ars Technica reports: While the act of providing higher Internet speeds clearly isn't a violation of any law, ISPs can be held liable for their users' copyright infringement if the ISPs repeatedly fail to disconnect repeat infringers. The top music labelsâ"Sony, Universal, Warner, and their various subsidiariesâ"sued Charter Friday in a complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Colorado. While Charter has a copyright policy that says repeat copyright infringers may be disconnected, Charter has failed to disconnect those repeat infringers in practice, the complaint said: "Despite these alleged policies, and despite receiving hundreds of thousands of infringement notices from Plaintiffs, as well as thousands of similar notices from other copyright owners, Charter knowingly permitted specifically identified repeat infringers to continue to use its network to infringe. Rather than disconnect the Internet access of blatant repeat infringers to curtail their infringement, Charter knowingly continued to provide these subscribers with the Internet access that enabled them to continue to illegally download or distribute Plaintiffs' copyrighted works unabated. Charter's provision of high-speed Internet service to known infringers materially contributed to these direct infringements."   The complaint accuses Charter of contributory copyright infringement and vicarious copyright infringement. Music labels asked for statutory damages of up to $150,000 for each work infringed or for actual damages including any profit Charter allegedly made from allowing piracy. The complaint focuses on alleged violations between March 24, 2013 and May 17, 2016. During that time, plaintiffs say they sent infringement notices to Charter that "advised Charter of its subscribers' blatant and systematic use of Charter's Internet service to illegally download, copy, and distribute Plaintiffs' copyrighted music through BitTorrent and other online file-sharing services." The music industry's complaint repeatedly focused on BitTorrent and other peer-to-peer networks, saying that "online piracy committed via BitTorrent is stunning in nature, speed, and scope."
          
  
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• The Adult Brain Does Grow New Neurons After All, Study Says
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Scientific American: For decades, scientists have debated whether the birth of new neurons -- called neurogenesis -- was possible in an area of the brain that is responsible for learning, memory and mood regulation. A growing body of research suggested they could, but then a Nature paper last year raised doubts. Now, a new study published today in another of the Nature family of journals -- Nature Medicine -- tips the balance back toward "yes." In light of the new study, "I would say that there is an overwhelming case for the neurogenesis throughout life in humans," Jonas Frisen, a professor at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, said in an e-mail. Frisen, who was not involved in the new research, wrote a News and Views about the study in the current issue of Nature Medicine.   The researchers, from Spain, tested a variety of methods of preserving brain tissue from 58 newly deceased people. They found that different methods of preservation led to different conclusions about whether new neurons could develop in the adult and aging brain. Brain tissue has to be preserved within a few hours after death, and specific chemicals used to preserve the tissue, or the proteins that identify newly developing cells will be destroyed, said Maria Llorens-Martin, the paper's senior author. Other researchers have missed the presence of these cells, because their brain tissue was not as precisely preserved, says Llorens-Martin, a neuroscientist at the Autonomous University of Madrid in Spain. Jenny Hsieh, a professor at the University of Texas San Antonio who was not involved in the new research, said the study provides a lesson for all scientists who rely on the generosity of brain donations. "If and when we go and look at something in human postmortem, we have to be very cautious about these technical issues."
          
  
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• Google Fixes Chrome 'Evil Cursor' Bug Abused by Tech Support Scam Sites
  Google has patched a Chrome bug that was being abused in the wild by tech support scammers to create artificial mouse cursors and lock users inside browser pages by preventing them from closing and leaving browser tabs. From a report: The trick was first spotted in September 2018 by Malwarebytes analyst Jerome Segura. Called an "evil cursor," it relied on using a custom image to replace the operating system's standard mouse cursor graphic. A criminal group that Malwarebytes called Partnerstroka operated by switching the standard OS 32-by-32 pixels mouse cursor with one of 128 or 256 pixels in size. A normal cursor would still appear on screen, but in the corner of a bigger transparent bounding box. [...] The "evil cursor" fix is currently live for Google Canary users, and is scheduled to land in the Chrome 75 stable branch, to be released later this spring.
          
  
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• Android Users' Security and Privacy At Risk From Shadowy Ecosystem of Pre-Installed Software, Study Warns
  Researchers behind a large-scale independent study of pre-installed Android apps "unearthed a complex ecosystem of players with a primary focus on advertising and 'data-driven services' -- which they argue the average Android user is likely to be unaware of (while also likely lacking the ability to uninstall/evade the baked in software's privileged access to data and resources themselves)," reports TechCrunch. From the report: The study, which was carried out by researchers at the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) and the IMDEA Networks Institute, in collaboration with the International Computer Science Institute (ICSI) at Berkeley (USA) and Stony Brook University of New York (US), encompassed more than 82,000 pre-installed Android apps across more than 1,700 devices manufactured by 214 brands, according to the IMDEA institute. "The study shows, on the one hand, that the permission model on the Android operating system and its apps allow a large number of actors to track and obtain personal user information," it writes. "At the same time, it reveals that the end user is not aware of these actors in the Android terminals or of the implications that this practice could have on their privacy. Furthermore, the presence of this privileged software in the system makes it difficult to eliminate it if one is not an expert user."   In all 1,200 developers were identified behind the pre-installed software they found in the data-set they examined, as well as more than 11,000 third party libraries (SDKs). Many of the preloaded apps were found to display what the researchers dub potentially dangerous or undesired behavior. The data-set underpinning their analysis was collected via crowd-sourcing methods -- using a purpose-built app (called Firmware Scanner), and pulling data from the Lumen Privacy Monitor app. The latter provided the researchers with visibility on mobile traffic flow -- via anonymized network flow metadata obtained from its users. They also crawled the Google Play Store to compare their findings on pre-installed apps with publicly available apps -- and found that just 9% of the package names in their dataset were publicly indexed on Play. Another concerning finding relates to permissions. In addition to standard permissions defined in Android (i.e. which can be controlled by the user) the researchers say they identified more than 4,845 owner or "personalized" permissions by different actors in the manufacture and distribution of devices. So that means they found systematic user permissions workarounds being enabled by scores of commercial deals cut in a non-transparency data-driven background Android software ecosystem. The researchers address the lack of transparency and accountability in the Android ecosystem by suggesting the introduction and use of certificates signed by globally-trusted certificate authorities, or a certificate transparency repository "dedicated to providing details and attribution for certificates used to sign various Android apps, including pre-installed apps, even if self-signed." They also suggest Android devices should be required to document all pre-installed apps, plus their purpose, and name the entity responsible for each piece of software -- and do so in a manner that is "accessible and understandable to users."
          
  
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• Comcast To Spend $50 Million To Create the Nation's First Video Gaming Arena
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Philly: Comcast Spectacor, which owns the Flyers, is to announce Monday morning that it will construct the first arena for gaming fans in the U.S. for the Comcast-owned Fusion, company officials say. The $50 million project is a testament to the surging popularity of esports, in which players compete in video games before large crowds. The company plans to break ground this summer on part of the 47-acre stadium complex site that Comcast Spectacor leases in South Philadelphia. The 3,500-seat arena will rise on a parking lot, next to Xfinity Live! and within walking distance of the Linc, Citizens Bank Park, and the Wells Fargo Center.   Nate Nanzer, commissioner of the 20-team Overwatch League, said there has never been a special-purpose esports arena "built anywhere. This is a huge step for esports. This is something we will see pop up all over the world." Besides housing Comcast's Fusion, one of the Overwatch League's teams, the venue is planned to be a major east coast hub for gaming events, company executives said. Comcast Spectacor expects to hold about 120 events a year in the new arena, with other gigs ranging from TED Talks to electronic dance music and K-pop concerts. K-pop is a music genre from South Korea that is popular with Fusion fans, Comcast Spectacor officials said. The Fusion Arena is looking to sell naming rights to the venue.
          
  
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• Apple Arcade Is a New Game Subscription Service For iOS, Mac, and Apple TV
  Apple has unveiled a few different subscription services today at its "show time" event, including a new Apple Arcade game subscription service for titles that can be installed from the App Store. The company is aiming to curate some of the 300,000 games currently available from the App Store into this new ad-free subscription service. "There will be 100 new and exclusive games available on Apple Arcade, which will launch on the iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple TV," reports The Verge. From the report: These games won't be available on any other mobile platform or any subscription service other than Apple Arcade. Games will be downloaded and played straight from the App Store, and subscribers will be able to try games whenever they want and resume them across devices. All of the game features, content, and future updates will be included, and there will be no ads shown within the games.   SimCity creator Will Wright is also making a game for the service. Apple is promising games from Annapurna Interactive, Bossa Studios, Cartoon Network, Finji, Giant Squid, Klei Entertainment, Konami, Lego, Mistwalker Corporation, SEGA, Snowman, ustwo games, and more. Apple isn't just curating the games for Apple Arcade; it's actually planning to contribute to the development costs of creating them. Apple might not have announced its own game studio today, but it's certainly a big step toward that. Apple Arcade is launching this fall in more than 150 countries, but Apple is not yet revealing pricing for this subscription service. Apple does say that "access for up to six family members," will be available, suggesting you'll be able to share the subscription. While the full list of games isn't available yet, some of the titles revealed on Apple Arcade's website include: LEGO Brawls, HitchHiker, Kings of the Castle, Where Cards Fall, and Frogger in Toy Town. If you're a game developer, you can sign up for more information about the service here.
          
  
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• Apple TV+, With Shows From Spielberg, Oprah and J.J. Abrams, is Coming This Fall
  Alongside its new news and payment services, Apple today also unveiled Apple TV+, a place for its new slate of original shows. The new service, billed as a place for the "highest-quality storytelling," will be available in over 100 countries and released starting this fall through the Apple TV app. From a report: It will be ad-free, on-demand and available both streaming online and downloadable. Pricing will be announced this fall. Apple TV Plus is the company's way of jumping into the streaming video game, where Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu and others have already established themselves and brought in millions of cord-cutter customers fleeing cable subscriptions. The new service also works as a way for Apple to grow its thriving services business, helping it continue to grow despite lagging iPhone sales.   The company in 2017 hired Jamie Erlicht and Zack Van Amburg from Sony Pictures Television to oversee "all aspects of video programming." The two were responsible for shows such as Breaking Bad, The Crown and Rescue Me. And in the past year, Apple has continually announced original content it's producing -- including a multiyear partnership deal with Oprah and deals with Reese Witherspoon, J.J. Abrams and dozens of others. The company has reportedly gone well past its original $1 billion budget to bring in this list of movie and television A-listers, who are slated to create about 30 shows and a handful of movies.
          
  
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• The Adult Brain Does Grow New Neurons After All, Study Says
  A new study points toward lifelong neuron formation in the human brain's hippocampus, with implications for memory and disease. From a report: For decades, scientists have debated whether the birth of new neurons -- called neurogenesis -- was possible in an area of the brain that is responsible for learning, memory and mood regulation. A growing body of research suggested they could, but then a Nature paper last year raised doubts. Now, a new study published today in another of the Nature family of journals -- Nature Medicine -- tips the balance back toward "yes." In light of the new study, "I would say that there is an overwhelming case for the neurogenesis throughout life in humans," Jonas Frisen, a professor at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, said in an e-mail. Frisen, who was not involved in the new research, wrote a News and Views about the study in the current issue of Nature Medicine.
          
  
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• Apple Unveils $9.99 News Subscription Service Dubbed Apple News+
  Apple today unveiled a news subscription service called Apple News+ at its services event in Cupertino, Calif. The $9.99 service gives paying subscribers access to over 300 magazines as well as select newspapers and premium digital news services. From a report: "We believe in the power of journalism and the impact it will have on your lives," said Apple CEO Tim Cook. Some of the magazines part of the service are including GQ, Esquire, Popular Science, The New Yorker, Sports Illustrated, Fortune, New York Magazine and Vogue, as well as Variety and the Rolling Stone. Newspapers included in the package are the Los Angeles Times and the Wall Street Journal. Digital publications include theSkimm, TechCrunch and The Highlight by Vox. For now, it is available just in the U.S., and come to three more markets -- Canada, Australia, and the U.K., later this year.
          
  
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• Apple Debuts Apple Card To Transform the Credit Card Experience
  An anonymous reader shares a report: iPhone users are already using Apple's Wallet app, Apple Pay, and Apple Pay Cash -- wouldn't they like an Apple credit card, too? The Cupertino company and bank partner Goldman Sachs believe the answer is "yes," so they've teamed up for Apple Card. In addition to offering major rewards for users, the new payment solution promises to improve the credit card experience by offering a healthier approach to spending. The Wallet app will include a more transparent list of transactions, organized in an easy to read format, plus a more flexible way of making payments on outstanding balances.   Apple Card is designed to complement existing Apple-branded payment options, as well as displacing other credit cards that might be in a user's wallet. Though the end goal is to increase Apple's share of the dollars spent by its users, the pinch this time will be felt by rival payment providers, and come with incentives for new card users. Every time you spend with Apple Card, you get 2 percent cash back -- a feature the company calls Daily Cash. Purchases directly from Apple come with 3 percent cash back.
          
  
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• Sony's premium RX0 II action cam has a flip-up screen and eye AF
  
  Sony has announced a follow-up to its tiny rugged camera from 2017, the RX0, and it's just as tough and handy. The RX0 II has a 15.3-megapixel sensor and a Zeiss Tessar T 24mm F4 fixed wide-angle lens with a 20-cm minimum focus distance for scenic shots. It's very similar in size to its predecessor, with a 2.3in x 1.59in x 1.38in body that weighs just 132 grams. However, it's a lot more selfie-friendly, thanks to an adjustable LCD screen that can flip 180 degrees upward and 90 degrees down.
  
  You can even use the screen underwater: the device is waterproof up to 33 feet, is tough enough to survive being crushed with 400 pounds of force and can withstand the impact of a drop up to 6.5 feet. That selfie-friendly screen is bolstered by Sony's Eye AF that locks onto the eyes of the subject, as well as Soft Skin Effect that can cover minor blemishes.
  
  Want to capture high-definition videos? The RX0 II supports internal 4K 30p recording and can stabilize your footage even when in handheld mode. In case you want to stabilize the video even further -- and those susceptible to motion sickness will likely thank you for this --- you can run it through its accompanying Movie Edit add-on app on a phone or a tablet. It also features a Super Slow Motion mode that shoots videos at 1,000 fps and has a continuous shooting mode for time-lapse-videos.
  
  
  Since the device is tiny and could make handheld shooting a bit tough, Sony has introduced an optional shooting grip with integrated controls. The device comes with a mic jack, as well, so you can plug in an external microphone if needed for vlogs and recordings that need crisp and clear audio. And if you're working on a project that requires multiple cameras, Sony's Imaging Edge Mobile application will give you the power to control up to five RX0 II cameras at once. The new action cam will start shipping in April 2019 and will be available at various North American retailers for US$700 and CA$900.
  
  Source: Sony
  

• Samsung's earnings warning shows the impact of slower iPhone sales
  
  Samsung usually publishes an earnings guidance so investors know what to expect when its full earnings come in. Now, the tech giant has pre-empted its guidance with a warning in what DRAMeXchange, DRAM chip prices fell by over 20 percent in the first quarter of the year.
  
  In other words, the company is feeling the effects of sluggish economies and weakening smartphone sales worldwide. Samsung supplies the OLED panels for Apple's newer iPhones, for instance, so slow iPhone sales would also impact the Korean company's performance. The forecast echoes the tech giant's warning when it published its Q4 results for 2018. At the time, Samsung said it was expecting worse earnings for 2019 due to a weaker demand for memory, which is part of the reason why it's investing in new categories like folding phones. It's very much possible that we'll see more experimental ventures from the tech giant as it tries to find the right formula to remain profitable in the future.
  
  According to Reuters, financial analyst firm Refinitiv SmartEstimate puts Samsung's operating profit for January to March at 7.2 trillion won ($6.4 billion). That's less than half of the 15.6 trillion won ($13.8 billion) profit the company posted in the same period last year. The firm also expects its sales to drop from 60.6 trillion won ($53.5 billion) a year ago to 53.7 trillion won ($47.5 billion). We'll get more official details when Samsung releases its guidance sometime next week.
  
  Source: Reuters
  

• What's on TV: 'Aquaman,' 'Broad City' and two 'Walking Dead' finales
  
  This week The Walking Dead TV show airs its season finale, at nearly the same timethe Telltale game series comes to an end. That's along with the series finale of Broad City, and the NCAA Men's basketball tournament moving through the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight rounds. For movie fans, Aquaman is on 4K Blu-ray this week, while Amazon Prime debuts season one of its Hanna TV series and Netflix drops in another season of Santa Clarita Diet.
  
  For gamers there's Yoshi's Crafted World on Switch, while Final Fantasy VII is available on both Xbox One and Switch. Sandra Oh hosts Saturday Night Live ahead of the season premiere for Killing Eve next week, while Barry and Veep both kick off new seasons this weekend. Look after the break to check out each day's highlights, including trailers and let us know what you think (or what we missed).
  
  Blu-ray & Games
  Aquaman (4K) Pet Sematary For a Few Dollars More The Street Fighter Collection If Beale Street Could Talk Multiplicity MLB: The Show 19 (PS4) Assassin's Creed III Remastered (PS4, Xbox One, PC) Angry Birds VR: Isle of Pigs (PS VR) Dracula's Legacy (PS4) Generation Zero (PS4, Xbox One) Path of Exile (PS4) Outward (PS4, Xbox One) The Walking Dead: The Final Season - Episode 4 (Xbox One, PS4, PC) Final Fantasy VII (Xbox One, Switch) DayZ (Xbox One) Yoshi's Crafted World (Switch - 3/29)
  Tuesday
  Nate Bargatze: The Tennessee Kid, Netflix, 3 AM WWE SmackDown, USA, 8 PM Ellen's Game of Games, NBC, 8 PM The Flash, CW, 8 PM Good Trouble, Freeform, 8 PM NCIS, CBS, 8 PM FBI, CBS, 9 PM American Soul, BET, 9 PM Black-ish, ABC, 9 PM Mental Samurai, Fox, 9 PM This is Us, NBC, 9 PM Roswell, New Mexico, CW, 9 PM Splitting Up Together, ABC, 9 PM Boomerang, BET, 10 PM New Amsterdam, NBC, 10 PM The Rookie, ABC, 10 PM Temptation Island (season finale), USA, 10 PM NCIS: NO, CBS, 10 PM New Amsterdam, NBC, 10 PM The Jim Jefferies Show, Comedy Central, 10:30 PM Miracle Workers (season finale), TBS, 10:30 PM
  Wednesday
  The Act, Hulu, 3 AM Empire, Fox, 8 PM Survivor, CBS, 8 PM Riverdale, CW, 8 PM Jane the Virgin (season premiere), CW, 9 PM Star, Fox, 9 PM The Magicians, Syfy, 9 PM Vice Live, Viceland, 9 PM Million Dollar Mile (Series premiere), CBS, 9 PM What We Do in the Shadows (series premiere), FX, 10 PM Whiskey Cavalier, ABC, 10 PM Happy! The War on Easter (season premiere), Syfy, 10 PM Drop the Mic (season finale), TNT, 10 PM You're the Worst, FXX, 10 PM Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, TBS, 10:30 PM Snoop Dogg presents the Jokers Wild (season finale), TNT, 10:30 PM Documentary Now! (season finale), IFC, 11 PM
  Thursday
  The Good Fight, CBS All Access, 3 AM Ainori Love Wagon: Asian Journey (S2), Netflix, 3 AM Grey's Anatomy, ABC, 8 PM Superstore, NBC, 8 PM Star Trek: Discovery, CBS All Access, 8:30 PM A.P. Bio, NBC, 8:30 PM Legacies (season fianel), CW, 9 PM Will & Grave, NBC, 9 PM The Orville, Fox, 9 PM Station 19, ABC, 9 PM NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament Sweet 16: Texas Tech vs. Michigan, CBS, 9:39 PM NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament Sweet 16: Oregon vs. Virginia, TBS, 9:57 PM Abby's (series premiere), NBC, 9:30 PM Broad City (series finale), Comedy Central, 10 PM Better Things, FX, 10 PM For the People, ABC, 10 PM The Other Two (season finale), Comedy Central, 10:30 PM Desus & Mero, Showtime, 11 PM
  Friday
  Hanna (S1), Amazon Prime, 3 AM The Legend of Cocaine Island, Netflix, 3 AM The Grand Tour, Amazon Prime, 3 AM On My Block (S2), Netflix, 3 AM Santa Clarita Diet (S3), Netflix, 3 AM Bayoneta, Netflix, 3 AM Osmosis (S1), Netflix, 3 AM Traitors (S1), Netflix, 3 AM 15 August, Netflix, 3 AM Doom Patrol, DC Universe, 9 AM NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament Sweet 16: LSU vs. Michigan State, CBS, 7 PM NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament Sweet 16: Auburn vs. North Carolina, TBS 7:30 PM The Blacklist, NBC, 8 PM Dynasty, CW, 8 PM Fresh Off the Boat, ABC, 8 PM Speechless, ABC, 8:30 PM The Cool Kids, Fox, 8:30 PM Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, CW, 9 PM Proven Innocent, Fox, 9 PM NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament Sweet 16: Virginia Tech vs. Duke, CBS, 9:39 PM NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament Sweet 16: Houston vs. Kentucky, TBS, 9:57 PM Strike Back (season finale), Cinemax, 10 PM This is Not Happening, Comedy Central, 11 PM
  Saturday
  ELeague: CS: Go 2019 Grand Finals, TBS, 1:30 M The Killer Next Door, Lifetime, 8 PM Ransom, CBS, 8 PM Saturday Night Live: Sandra Oh / Tame Impala, NBC, 11:30 PM
  Sunday
  Trailer Park Boys: The Animated Series, Netflix, 3 AM F1 Bahrain Grand Prix, ESPN, 11 AM American Idol, ABC, 8 PM God Friended Me, CBS, 8 PM American Gods, Starz, 8 PM The Simpsons, Fox, 8 PM Supergirl, CW, 8 PM World of Dance, NBC, 8 PM Family Guy, Fox, 9 PM Billions, Showtime, 9 PM Tricky Dick, CNN, 9 PM The Case Against Adnan Syed (season finale), HBO, 9 PM Now Apocalypse, Starz, 9 PM Hustle (season finale), Viceland, 9 PM Charmed, CW, 9 PM Unsung: Crystal Waters, TV One, 9 PM The Walking Dead (season finale), AMC, 9 PM Barry (season premiere), HBO, 10 PM Good Girls, NBC, 10 PM Black Monday, Showtime, 10 PM Madam Secretary, CBS, 10 PM Smilf (season finale), Showtime, 10:30 PM Veep (season premiere), HBO, 10:30 PM Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, HBO, 11 PM
  
  

• IKEA offers a peek at its Sonos-based speaker
  
  IKEA isn't officially unveiling its first Sonos-powered speaker until April, but that isn't stopping the furniture store from offering a look in the meantime. As you can see here, the SYMFONISK looks like... well, a Sonos speaker with IKEA design cues. Its boxy, fabric-covered style appears to be a fitting complement to your plywood tables and cabinets. The company even suggests that it could serve as a wall-mounted shelf (below), although that would make it an awfully expensive part of your decor.
  
  There are still many unknowns, such as the audio quality and price, although their compatibility with IKEA's other smart home devices suggests they might not be entry-level. You might only have to wait until April 9th to find out. Just remember that SYMFONISK isn't due to ship until August -- it's going to be a while before you can judge them for yourself.
  
  

• NBA’s Magic Leap app lets you watch basketball in augmented reality
  
  Basketball fans can now experience the game in augmented reality. The NBA now has a mixed-reality appfor the Magic Leap Oneheadset that will allow for a wide range of immersive features. Fans with the mixed-reality headset can now view live NBA games, game replays, and highlights across multiple virtual "screens."
  
  The app includes team vs. team and player vs. player stats comparisons or highlights. It will even allows you to scale the screens to any size or move their location. Live games are only available on the app for NBA League Pass and NBA Single-Game subscribers. But an extra catalog of on-demand content is available on the NBA app even for those without subscriptions.
  
  The NBA announced it was teaming up with the AR startup last year at Recode's Code Media conference. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said that partnering with Magic Leapwould allow the NBA to make traditional sports more interactive (as Twitch has done for esports) and appeal to more younger viewers. But even older audiences have grown used to watching the game on television while browsing stats or Twitter reactions on their smartphones or laptops. An augmented reality app for the NBA will just condense the "second screen" viewing habits of most modern sports fans onto one platform -- which could be an easy sell for many basketball fans, regardless of generation.
  The new #NBA App for #MagicLeapOne features LIVE games, 3D stats, replays and more. Read how @NBA & #TurnerSports are writing the future of at-home sports entertainment with the #magicleap Screens framework https://t.co/r7iVjvkBPH pic.twitter.com/2t5Gpd9Ckm
  — Magic Leap (@magicleap) March 25, 2019
  Source: Magic Leap
  

• HTC's work-oriented Vive Focus Plus headset arrives mid-April for $799
  
  If you're eager to don HTC's professional Vive Focus Plus headset, you won't have much longer to wait... although you will pay a hefty sum for the privilege. The company has announced that the Focus Plus will be available through the Vive website in mid-April for $799 in 25 markets around the world. That's a hefty increase over the $599 you'd pay for the enterprise version of the original Vive Focus, but HTC is clearly betting that the Plus' advanced performance will make all the difference for exacting users.
  
  
  
  Most notably, you get dual six-degrees-of-freedom controllers instead of the simpler single controller from before. It'll be much more useful for complex, precise tasks like the medical simulations we tried in February. You'll also find sharper fresnel lenses that reduce the screen door effect you frequently see with the displays in VR headsets, and a multi-mode capability lets you access VR content from across PCs, mobile devices, game consoles and other devices -- namely the recently-launched Insta360 Evo VR camera. You wouldn't want to buy this just for fun (the Oculus Quest is arguably better suited for that), but you might not be limited to work apps in your off-hours.
  
  Source: HTC
  

• 'Doom Eternal' and other Bethesda games are coming to Steam
  
  The rise of proprietary game launchers appears to be getting worse, but there's at least one company headed in the opposite direction. Bethesda has announced that its upcoming games will be available through Steam, including fare any better, it will at least ensure that you can start complaining about the game that much sooner.
  
  We've asked Bethesda if the releases will be exclusive to Steam. It didn't mention as much in the announcement, but we wouldn't expect these titles to come to the Epic Games Store (or other portals) regardless.
  
  The developer isn't necessarily taking sides in the battle between Steam and Epic's store. Still, it's hard to shake the comparisons -- Bethesda is making its move right as a slew of big releases have been announced as EGS exclusives. Like it or not, you might have to run at least two launchers to cover the bulk of major new releases in the future.
  We're pleased to announce that RAGE 2, Wolfenstein: Youngblood, Wolfenstein: Cyberpilot, and DOOM Eternal will be released on Steam as well as https://t.co/p0BARqmTBp. We will also be bringing Fallout 76 to Steam later this year.
  — Bethesda (@bethesda) March 25, 2019
  Source: Bethesda (Twitter)
  

• The old 1080p Apple TV box is now 'Apple TV HD'
  
  After today's event, Apple changed the name of its fourth-generation Apple TV to Apple TV HD. The 1080p device, first introduced in 2015, is still priced at $149 and now has a clear title that differentiates it from the Apple TV 4K -- a slightly newer, pricier and, of course, 4K-compatible version of the set-top box.
  
  The name change comes as Apple gets ready to ramp up its push into original programming. The company spent the majority of its event highlighting Apple TV+, an ad-free subscription-based streaming video service. A number of celebrities including Reese Reese Witherspoon, Jennifer Aniston, Jason Momoa, Kumail Nanjiani, Big Bird and Oprah all took the stage to highlight projects they have been working on for the service.
  
  While the name change to Apple TV HD provides a bit of clarity for Apple's set-top box offerings, the company has gone all in on the Apple TV branding, and it's not the most intuitive naming system. The company now has the Apple TV HD and Apple TV 4K set-top boxes. Then there's the Apple TV app that houses its new Channels service and will soon be available on smart TVs as well as Roku and Amazon Fire TV devices. Finally, there is Apple TV+, which will host the company's original content offerings.
  
  Via: 9to5Mac
  
  Source: Apple
  

• Beats' answer to the latest AirPods found hiding in iOS code
  
  It didn't take long to learn more about Beats' equivalent to the AirPods. The 9to5Mac team has discovered that iOS 12.2 includes imagery for the Powerbeats Pro, an all-wireless earbud set aimed more at the gym-going crowd. From a cursory glance, they're cosmetically similar to (though not identical to) the Powerbeats 3 from 2016. The difference, of course, is that lack of cabling -- like the AirPods, you'll slip them into a case to get a recharge. It's not certain if the case itself supports wireless power.
  
  There aren't many technical details available, although they will support "Hey Siri" like the new AirPods. That corroborates a CNET report that the new Powerbeats would include the AirPods' H1 chip, which could also deliver stronger battery life.
  
  Although there's no confirmation of the rumored April release, the presence of the imagery certainly supports that time frame. The real unknown may be the cost. Apple officially sells the Powerbeats 3 for $199, but that's a more conventional design. The charging case and other changes might lead to the company charging a premium. Not that the target audience might object. AirPods may be convenient, but they're not really meant for fast-paced, sweaty workouts like Beats' expected offering.
  
  Source: 9to5Mac
  

• 'Iron Man VR' puts you in the suit
  
  During the State of Play event on Monday, PSVR players got their first look at the upcoming Iron Man game from Camouflaj, which is slated for release later this year.
  
  
  
  You play, unsurprisingly, as Tony Stark the billionaire genius superhero, jetting around the world, fighting villains alongside other classic Marvel heroes. "We've set our sights on not only giving the player thrilling moment-to-moment action," Camouflaj director, Ryan Peyton, wrote in a Sony has already announced that it will be foregoing the tradeshow for the first time since 1995.
  
  

• PS4 exclusive 'Concrete Genie' is delayed again, this time to fall 2019
  
  PixelOpus hasn't said much about slated to launch in fall 2019, or considerably later than the earlier spring 2019 window (which was itself a delay). However, it'll come with an as yet undescribed PlayStation VR mode to spice things up. Also, an accompanying trailer (below) gives you a good summary of the story. You play Ash, a bullied child whose street art is instrumental as both his escape and, of course, a game mechanic -- he has to paint his hometown back to life while dealing with the bullies trying to make his life miserable.
  
  Not surprisingly, the game has retained the social commentary that caught people's eyes when it was introduced It's a reflection of the isolation and darkness that come to victims of bullying. There's even a personal touch. You can create your own custom artwork, but you also risk losing that art to the bullies in the game -- Ash's losses are your losses, too. If all goes well, this could be one of those precious few games that cuts close to the bone while it discusses serious themes.
  
  
  Source: PlayStation (YouTube)
  

• 'No Man's Sky VR' puts the universe on your headset for free
  
  No Man's Sky studio Hello Games has rolled out a steady stream of updates to take its stargazing simulator from "cautionary indie tale" to "Best Ongoing Game award nominee" in just two years. No Man's Sky is a sprawling exploration of the universe and a near-infinite number of its planets, filled with crafting, digging, flying, building and hodgepodge creatures of all kinds. And, soon, it'll all be in VR.
  
  No Man's Sky VR brings the complete game to every VR headset on the market, from PS VR to HTC Vive. The game will land on Steam VR and PlayStation 4 for PS VR (with an exclusive physical edition as well as a digital offering) as part of the big, free No Man's Sky Beyond update due out this summer.
  
  No Man's Sky VR doesn't lock virtual-reality fans in a mode of their own, but instead incorporates VR players into the existing game universe. VR astronauts can join games with non-VR friends, and they can expect all the same updates that the core game receives in the future.
  
  No Man's Sky Beyond is a three-part update hitting the game this summer, and VR is the second tier. The first big change, No Man's Sky Online, adds new social and multiplayer features to the game. Beyond is designed to infuse the game with a deeper sense of immersion and, important for a game as big as the universe, scale.
  
  The third arm of No Man's Sky Beyond remains a mystery, but Hello Games promises to talk more about it soon.
  

• All the important stuff from Apple's services event (+)
  
  Apple just wrapped up its services event, giving us nearly two hours of news -- well, more like an hour-plus of news and 45 minutes of details on its forthcoming original programming. Still, there's a ton to unpack, even though the vast majority of Apple's announcements won't be useful for you, dear reader, until later this year. We'll run all the major details down here, as well as when you can give these new subscription services and apps a shot.
  Apple News+, a new magazine subscription app, arrives today for $9.99 per month
  
  Apple News+ is a bundle of 300 magazines as well as some additional digital news subscriptions for the Wall Street Journal, LA Times and the Toronto Star. All that content will be available to subscribers for $9.99 per month, and Apple is offering a free month trial for starters. It'll work on the iPhone, iPad and Mac after you update your OS. As in the current News app, Apple News+ will learn what subjects you're interested in and recommend articles and full magazines based on your history. New issues of magazines will be downloaded automatically so that you can read them offline. Apple stressed privacy and security in this service, as it has with so man other things lately. The company says it can't see what you're reading and advertisers and publishers can't track what you view in the app.Apple Card is a digital-first credit card for your iPhone
  
  Apple Pay has been a major success, so Apple is going forward with its plans to launch a credit card. The card, backed by Goldman Sachs and MasterCard, appears in your iPhone's Wallet app after you sign up; Apple will also mail you a fancy titanium physical card for stores that don't use Apple Pay. You won't be able to sign up until this summer, though, and it's only launching in the US for starters Naturally, the Wallet app shows your card usage in some pretty nice ways. It provides a fast way to see your balance and available credit, spending history, billing details and other things right in the Wallet app. Apple has also made it a bit easier to track your spending. Instead of the byzantine lines you'll see on most credit card statements, the Apple Card uses machine learning and Apple Maps to clearly identify names and locations of where the card has been used. As with most credit cards in the US, Apple has some cash back rewards. It's called Daily Cash: card owners get 2 percent back on every purchase, and that balance is updated daily, in real dollar amounts. It can be used for statement credits or you can transfer it to a bank or your Apple Pay Cash card. Apple is also giving 3 percent back on anything purchased from an Apple Store or through the company's various digital storefronts (like that New+ subscription).Apple Arcade is a Netflix for games on all of Apple's hardware
  
  Apple Arcade wasn't rumored much ahead of today's event, but it's the third new service Apple announced. Coming in the fall in more than 150 countries, it'll give subscribers access to more than 100 games that can be played across the iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple TV. Arcade games will be found via a dedicated tab in the App Store, and there will be no in-app purchases or ads. Like News+, Arcade will work with Apple's family sharing plans. Sadly, there's no word on how much Apple Arcade will cost. But we do know that the sequel to Beneath a Steel Sky -- 15 years in the making -- will be on the platform. As will finally revealed with Steven Spielberg, Big Bird, Jennifer Aniston, Oprah and many more
  
  As we all expected, Apple finally announced its high-level plans for a subscription video service, called Apple TV+. But Apple didn't have a ton of details to reveal about the product just yet. We know it'll work in the TV app for iOS and Apple TV, on the Mac via a forthcoming TV app this fall and on smart TVs that can now run Apple's software. There's no price yet. Apple flexed its star power today: stars who revealed their projects include Oprah Winfrey (who is making two documentaries); Reese Witherspoon, Jennifer Anniston and Steve Carrel (who formally introduced The Morning Show); Alfre Woodard and Jason Momoa (who announced a post-apocalpytic show See); Big Bird and another Muppet-type character and many more. Near the end of the presentation, Apple showed off a slide with dozens more A-listers who've signed on to make shows and movies with the company. The whole drama around whether or not Apple had made enough partnerships with existing media companies to go along with its own original service appears to have been completely sidestepped. Apple announced an upgrade to its TV app called "Channels" which basically is another attempt at aggregating all your content from your cable subscription and any premium services you pay for all in one app.

• Watch Sony's PlayStation stream here at 5PM ET/2PM PT
  
  The first episode of Sony's live streaming State of Play event will take place today at 5PM ET/2PM PT. The Nintendo Direct/Inside Xbox-style event will feature game reveals, trailers and gameplay footage of upcoming titles for the PS4 and PS VR. You can watch the live stream on Twitch, Twitter, Facebook or YouTube via the video embedded below.
  
  State of Play is Sony's new approach to delivering information about its PlayStation platforms. The company will stream several episodes of the program throughout the course of the year. State of Play is effectively the replacement to its annual PlayStation Experience event, which the company opted not to hold this year. Sony is also skipping E3, marking the first time since 1995 that PlayStation won't have a presence at the expo.
  
  
  
  Source: Sony
  

• Uma Thurman and horrifying heart transplants meet in Netflix's 'Chambers'
  
  Netflix is about to give horror fans another star-studded fix. It's premiering Chambers, a psychological horror series starring Uma Thurman, on April 26th. The series revolves around a heart attack survivor in a "New Age pocket" of Arizona who starts taking on the traits of her transplant donor -- and not surprisingly, they aren't exactly endearing. It's supposed to start as a "grounded human story," but things go awry from there.
  
  The series is produced by actress and director Leah Rachel, and also stars Tony Goldwyn (from Insurgent and Scandal) and up-and-comer Sivan Alyra Rose.
  
  There's still a lot of mystery surrounding the show -- there's no trailer as we write this, and even the social media accounts are private. It's potentially a big deal for the horror crowd, though, and Thurman's presence shows how Netflix can reel in major stars who might otherwise stick to movies.
  

• iOS 12.2 is out now with Apple News+ support
  
  To enable the fleet of software and service updates Apple is announcing today, the company is readying iOS 12.2 for your iPads and iPhones. It's not a huge, feature-packed update, but there's a decent amount to unpack here. The main event is access to the new Apple News+ subscription service, which you can get a free trial of now. The existing, free Apple News app is also available in Canada for the first time with this update. Beyond News, if you have a pair of Apple's second-generation AirPods on the way, they'll work with your device now.
  
  Other updates include new Animoji (!): owl, boar, giraffe and shark have now joined the fun. The AirPlay interface has been tweaked a bit, and the Browse section of Apple Music has been redesigned a bit. Apple Pay Cash users can now instantly transfer their balances from their virtual card to a bank account using a Visa debit card, and the Wallet app will now show recent transactions below saved cards.
  
  There are a host of other small changes -- check out the release notes for the full details. The update should be rolling out to iPhones and iPads now, and we'd expect a corresponding update to hit the Mac soon so that News+ subscribers can get their magazines there as well.
  
  
  

• Hackers hijacked update server to install backdoors on ASUS machines
  
  For nearly half a year, computer maker ASUS was unwittingly pushing malware that gave hackers backdoor access to thousands of computers, according to Kaspersky Lab. Hackers managed to compromise one of the company's servers used to provide software updates to ASUS machines. The attack, which has been given the name ShadowHammer was discovered late last year and has since been stopped. Engadget reached out to ASUS for comment and will update this story if we hear back.
  
  With access to the update server, the attackers were able to distribute malicious files that appeared legitimate because they were given an ASUS digital certificate to make them appear to be authentic. Instead, the phony software updates gave the attackers a backdoor to access infected devices. Kaspersky estimates that about half a million Windows machines received the backdoor from ASUS' update server. However, the attackers appear to have only been targeting about 600 systems. The malware was designed to search for machines by their MAC address. It's not clear for what reason that the attackers focused on that small subset of machines.
  
  Attacks on the supply chain, specifically update servers, are growing more common. Microsoft suffered a similar attack in 2012 when hackers distributed a spying tool called Flame via the Windows updating tool. Popular apps like CCleaner and Transmission were at one point compromised and unknowingly distributing malware to users. Perhaps most notably, the notPetya cyberattack that hit thousands of machines across Europe, Asia, Australia and the US was carried out through a malicious update to an accounting software tool.
  
  Via: Motherboard
  
  Source: Kaspersky Lab
  

• 'Beneath a Steel Sky' finally has a sequel and it's coming to Apple Arcade
  
  One of the most iconic cyberpunk games of the '90s and early-2000s, a point-and-click adventure called Beneath a Steel Sky, is finally getting a follow-up. Beyond a Steel Sky will hit Apple Arcade later this year, coming directly from original creators Charles Cecil and Dave Gibbons. Gibbons is a legendary graphic-novel artist best known for collaborating with Alan Moore on Watchmen, while Cecil is a co-founder of Broken Sword and Beneath a Steel Sky studio, Revolution Software.
  
  Beyond a Steel Sky is a 3D game with a comic-book style overlay, fusing Gibbons' aesthetic with the gaming world. According to Apple Arcade is the company's new approach to mobile, Mac and living-room gaming, offering a subscription for users to access a curated selection of high-quality games. There's no word on price or an exact launch date, though the entire thing is due to land this fall. Other games heading to Apple Arcade include indie gems Where Cards Fall, The Pathless and Hot Lava. Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi is also creating a game called Fantasia for Apple Arcade.
  

• Apple TV+ subscribers can expect ad-free original shows and movies this fall
  
  On stage at today's "show time" event, Apple CEO Tim Cook announced Apple TV+, an ad-free subscription home for the company's new push into original content. With the Apple TV app now extending onto other smart TV platforms while collecting shows and movies from other outlets into Channels, it's giving people even more of a reason to stick with Apple by adding exclusives you can't get anywhere else. According to senior VP Eddy Cue, "Apple TV+ will be home to some of the highest quality original storytelling that TV and movie lovers have seen yet."
  
  We've heard a lot about its content buying spree over the last year or so, but on stage, execs kicked things off with a video featuring big names like Steven Spielberg, Ron Howard and Octavia Spencer. Spielberg himself appeared on stage first to talk about Apple TV+ and the stories he wants to tell.
  
  Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston showed up part of the series he's writing with his wife for Apple, Little America.
  
  
  Still, the biggest star in the run is Big Bird, with Sesame Workshop programming coming to Apple TV+ as well. The show is called Helpsters, featuring another Muppet who popped up on stage. Sara Bareilles and JJ Abrams were the last to appear, with Sara dropping in a musical number to mark the end of the celebrity parade before we finally saw a trailer featuring clips from all of Apple's new shows.
  
  At the (not quite) absolute end, we finally got a few bullet points: Apple TV+ is a subscription service with no commercials that will launch in over 100 countries this fall, full of original content from many big names in entertainment. Whenever it launches, all of the new TVs with support for AirPlay will be able to stream its videos, and once they have the Apple TV app it will be home to this service, the new Channels and all of your purchased videos from iTunes. What we don't know yet is how much it will cost, and in a press release, Apple said that info will come in the fall.
  
  Oh wait -- one more thing: Oprah. As expected, she will "join forces" with Apple to "serve this moment."
  
  
  

• Apple's redesigned TV app is coming to smart TVs and Macs
  
  Apple has redesigned its TV app to make it easy to watch its new Channels, which includes video content from CBS All Access, Cinemax, Comedy Central Now, Epix, HBO, Showtime and Starz, among others. With the overhauled tvOS application, you won't have to use the standalone apps from these networks or streaming services, as you'll have access to everything they have to offer directly from the Apple TV app. Thanks to features like "Up Next" and "For You," Apple says its machine learning is smart enough to know what users should have in their queue, whether that be an episode of a series they're already watching or a new movie they might like.
  
  The Channels-ready app is set to hit Apple TVs in May. But that's not it: Apple announced at its "show time" event that this redesigned experience is coming to the Mac this fall. And, later in the year, the TV app will be coming to smart TVs from Samsung, LG, Sony and Vizio, as well as Roku and Amazon Fire TV devices. This announcement shouldn't come as a complete surprise, since Apple revealed at CES 2019 that it was bringing iTunes and AirPlay 2 support to third-party TVs.
  
  If anything, the TV app expansion shows that Apple is willing to broaden its horizons now more than ever -- especially as it looks to make a major push into original shows and movies with Apple TV+. That service, not surprisingly, will also be featured in the new TV app.
  

• Apple TV Channels is an a la carte way to watch your favorite networks
  
  With Apple TV Channels, the company has created a way for you to pick and choose your favorite networks and watch everything within its TV app. The selection includes traditional channels like CBS and Comedy Central, premium networks like HBO and Showtime, as well as online streaming services like Brit Box and Acorn TV. On top of giving you a single spot to watch all of this content, you'll also be able to download shows and movies to your devices to watch online. So what about all that original content we've been hearing about? That'll be in Apple TV+, a separate service that Apple announced today.
  
  For the most part, Apple TV Channels seems more about organizing your streaming media, instead of giving you something truly new. Apple is pitching it as an alternative to services like Sling TV and PlayStation Vue, which offer cable TV channels in bundles. By offering an a la carte alternative, it could save some viewers money. Of course, the participating networks also have their own Apple TV apps, but jumping between isn't exactly seamless, something that Channels would also solve.
  
  Apple is also clearly targeting Amazon's Prime Video Channels, which another way to subscribe to premium networks. It's also bringing the "TV" app to Macs and smart TV brands, so you'll be able to watch Apple Channels on devices beyond your iPhone and iPad. Back at CES, we were surprised to see AirPlay headed to several major smart TV makers, as well as iTunes on Samsung TVs, so it's not a huge surprise to see Apple expanding its reach even further.
  
  Apple isn't offering any pricing details yet for Channels, but rumors point to $10 for premium networks. HBO Go, in comparison, costs $15 a month normally. It'll be interesting to see how Apple prices smaller services like Shudder, which is $5 a month typically. It's unclear at this point if your existing app subscriptions will transition to Channels, but given that Apple's focus is on simplifying your media consumption, we hope they will.
  

• Apple Arcade is a game subscription service for iOS, Mac and Apple TV
  
  As part of its big push into subscription services today, Apple announced Apple Arcade. From the sound of things, it's going to be a "Netflix for games" that lets users pay a monthly rate to play as many different participating games as they want. And from the sound of things, it'll work on the iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple TV. For starters, more than 100 new and exclusive games will be included. It'll live inside the App Store as its own dedicated tab, rather than launching as its own app.
  
  As with Apple News+, Apple Arcade works with family sharing -- so you can buy once and share the service with your family. Once signed up, there are no ads and no additional purchases needed in any of these games. And to keep kids from playing too much, parental controls will be available inside the Screen Time tool in settings. And if you're a frequent traveler, all these games will be available offline as well.
  
  Apple says that it's not only curating the games it offers in the Arcade, it's also contributing to development costs and "working closely with creators" to bring these games forward. As for the studios involved, Apple cited Annapurna Interactive, Bossa Studios, Cartoon Network, Finji, Giant Squid, Klei Entertainment, Konami, LEGO, Mistwalker Corporation, SEGA, Snowman and ustwo as its first development partners.
  
  When Apple Arcade is ready, it'll launch in more than 150 markets, but it won't be out until this fall. At this point, there aren't any pricing details, either -- we'll, unfortunately, have to wait a while to try this out.
  
  Source: Apple
  

• Apple Pay for public transit coming to the US later this year
  
  Apple announced today that Apple Pay will be coming to mass transit systems in major US cities later this year. Portland, Chicago and New York City will be the first to support the payment service, which will allow passengers to quickly pay fares with their iPhone.
  
  Apple Pay for public transit isn't totally new, but it is new to the US. Subways and rails in London, Moscow, Tokyo and Guangzhou all support the ability to pay for fares with Apple Pay. Transit systems in Shanghai and Bejing allow users to add their pre-loaded transit cards to Apple Pay with a service called Express Transit. It appears similar functionality will be provided for riders of US metro systems.
  
  A number of cities in the US have been gearing up for wireless payment services. New York City announced in 2017 that it would be moving away from MetroCards in favor of tap-to-pay turnstiles. Likewise, Los Angeles has been working toward introducing Apple Pay support.
  

• Apple News+ includes 'LA Times' and 'Wall Street Journal' subscriptions
  
  At its streaming service event in Cupertino on Monday, Apple announced that in addition to more than 300 magazine titles (including TechCrunch's ExtraCrunch) on its newly revealed News+ app, the company will also include subscriptions to the LA Times and Wall Street Journal. What's more, users will get access to the entire digital newsstand for $9.99 a year. Given that users would have to shell out more than $8,000 annually to acquire these magazines individually, that's a pretty good deal.
  
  Another interesting feature included in News+ is the app's recommendation engine. Unlike the recommendation algorithms you'd find on other streaming services like Netflix, News+'s feature runs on the device itself, rather than remotely on Apple's servers. This prevents both Apple and its advertisers from tracking your reading habits.
  
  News+ launches today in the US and Canada (and in both English and French). The first month is free.
  
  Follow all of the news news from Apple's March event here!
  

• Apple is launching a credit card
  
  The rumors were true -- Apple is releasing its own credit card. Apple Card promises to make the most of the company's privacy, simplicity and (of course) integration with your iPhone. You can sign up for the Goldman Sachs-backed card directly from your device (it'll be useful right away), and it'll appear in an updated version of the Wallet app that can show your latest bills, transactions and spending history. Naturally, you can use Messages to ask for customer service.
  
  Security is unsurprisingly important. The virtual version of the card's data is stored in the same iPhone security chip that handles Apple Pay, and Apple doesn't know anything about your purchasing history. It also promises that Goldman Sachs won't share or sell your data to third parties for marketing.
  
  There are financial incentives to use the card. There are technically no fees (not even international or over-the-limit fees), interest rates are "low," and clear reward programs. Daily Cash, for instance, gives you 2 percent cash back the same day you make any Apple Pay purchase (3 percent if it's for purchases from Apple) rather than making you wait until your billing period is over.
  
  You will find a bit of a gotcha: while it's true that you won't deal with fees if you miss a payment, you will see "additional interest accumulating toward your balance." You'll still have to catch up if you slip behind, in other words.
  
  The card won't be limited to the digital realm. The company is prepping a real-world credit card made from titanium (yes, really) that has no long card number, signature or other potentially identifying info. If a store can't handle Apple Pay, then, you have a way to use your card without fear that a thief could make easy use of it. All of your identifying info will sit in the Wallet app, after all.
  
  Apple Card launches in the US this summer. There are still many unknowns, but it's safe to say this is uncharted territory for the company. While it already dipped into finance with Apple Pay Cash, it's now providing the same kind of service you'd expect from a bank, not a tech giant.
  
  Source: Apple
  

• Episode 17: Be Afraid. Be Very Afraid.
  Download ogg format 
  Links mentioned:
  https://www.helpsystems.com/cta/free-network-security-vulnerability-scan  https://www.helpsystems.com/cta/intermapper-free-version  https://www.helpsystems.com/cta/scan-your-system         

• Subscribers: Auto-Download Linux Journal From the Command Line (v2.0)
      by mitchfrazier   
  There's an old saying, "anything worth doing, is worth automating"—or something like that. Downloading and reading Linux Journal always has been worth doing, and now you can automate it with our autolj script, which you can get here (updated to version 2.0, see the end of this article for a list of feature enhancements).
  
  Follow the below few simple steps and you can download the entire magazine as a PDF, .epub or .mobi file with the greatest of ease each month. New to version 2.0 of this script, we've added the ability for you to pull down an individual Linux Journal article from the most recent issue within a terminal window (sometimes just reading one article at a time makes our wonderfully lengthy issues easier to get through!)
  
  1) First download the script and save it somewhere; ~/bin is a good choice. You can name it whatever you like; it doesn't need to be called autolj.sh.
  
  2) Open a terminal/shell and execute the following commands:
    $ chmod +x ~/bin/autolj.sh $ ~/bin/autolj.sh --init Enter the email and zip/postal code associated with your Linux Journal subscription EMail: you@example.com # Enter your email address Zip : 88888 # Enter your zip/postal code Creating initial config file. Change your preferences in '/home/YOU/.config/autolj.cfg'. Sample crontab configuration is in '/home/YOU/.config/autolj.crontab'.  
  If you want to run the script from cron automatically each month, you can do this:
    $ cp /home/YOU/.config/autolj.crontab mycrontab $ crontab -l >>mycrontab $ crontab

• EU Copyright Directive Vote, GNU nano 4.0 Released, Redox OS 0.5.0 Announced, Sailfish OS 3.0.2 "Oulanka" Now Available and Linux Kernel 5.1-rc2 Released
  
  News briefs for March 25, 2019.
  
  Members of the European Parliament vote tomorrow on the Directive on Copyright. Those in the EU can go to SaveYourInternet to ask their representatives to vote against Article 17 (previously Article 13). See this Creative Commons blog post for more information. From the post: "The dramatic negative effects of upload filters would be disastrous to the vision Creative Commons cares about as an organisation and global community."
  
  GNU nano 4.0 "Thy Rope of Sands" was released yesterday. Changes in this new version of the GNU nano text editor include overlong lines are no longer hard-wrapped automatically, smooth scrolling is now the default, newline characters are no longer added at the end of buffer and much more. You can download version 4.0 from here.
  
  Redox OS 0.5.0 was released yesterday. From the announcement: "It has been one year and four days since the last release of Redox OS! In this time, we have been hard at work improving the Redox ecosystem. Much of this work was related to relibc, a new C library written in Rust and maintained by the Redox OS project, and adding new packages to the cookbook. We are proud to report that we have now far exceeded the capabilities of newlib, which we were using as our system C library before."
  
  Sailfish OS 3.0.2 "Oulanka" is now available. Named after the Oulanka national park in Lapland and the Northern Ostrobothnia regions of Finland, this new version fixes more than 44 bugs. In addition, "With this new update you will find that the Top Menu has a new switch for silencing ringtones and there's a new battery saving mode to make the most out of low battery in those moments you need to stretch productivity. Email app supports now sending read receipts to inform that you have read the senders' email. Connectivity was improved in terms of firewall and global proxy. As for the user interface, home screen had memory optimizations for handling wallpapers, freeing memory for running other apps."
  
  Linux 5.1-rc2 was released yesterday. Linus Torvalds writes: "Nothing particularly stands out. Yes, we had some fixes for the new io_ring code for issues that were discussed when merging it. Other than that, worth noting is that the bulk of the patches are for tooling, not the core kernel. In fact, about two thirds of the patch is just for the tools/ subdirectory, most of it due to some late perf tool updates. The people involved promise they're done."
        News  EU  Copyright  creative commons  GNU Nano  Redox  Rust  Sailfish  kernel                   

• Fun with Mail Merge and Cool Bash Arrays
      by Dave Taylor   
  Creating a sed-based file substitution tool.
  
  A few weeks ago, I was digging through my spam folder and found an email message that started out like this:
    Dear #name# Congratulations on winning the $15.7 million lottery payout! To learn how to claim your winnings, please...  
  Obviously, it was a scam (does anyone actually fall for these?), but what captured my attention was the #name# sequence. Clearly that was a fail on the part of the sender who presumably didn't know how to use AnnoyingSpamTool 1.3 or whatever the heck he or she was using.
  
  The more general notation for bulk email and file transformations is pretty interesting, however. There are plenty of legitimate reasons to use this sort of substitution, ranging from email newsletters (like the one I send every week from AskDaveTaylor.com���check it out!) to stockholder announcements and much more.
  
  With that as the inspiration, let's build a tool that offers just this capability.
  
  The simple version will be a 1:1 substitution, so #name# becomes, say, "Rick Deckard", while #first# might be "Rick" and #last# might be "Deckard". Let's build on that, but let's start small.
   Simple Word Substitution in Linux
  There are plenty of ways to tackle the word substitution from the command line, ranging from Perl to awk, but here I'm using the original UNIX command sed (stream editor) designed for exactly this purpose. General notation for a substitution is s/old/new/, and if you tack on a g at the end, it matches every occurrence on a line, not only the first, so the full command is s/old/new/g.
  
  Before going further, here's a simple document that has necessary substitutions embedded:
    $ cat convertme.txt #date#  Dear #name#, I wanted to start by again thanking you for your generous donation of #amount# in #month#. We couldn't do our work without support from humans like you, #first#.  This year we're looking at some unexpected expenses, particularly in Sector 5, which encompasses #state#, as you know. I'm hoping you can start the year with an additional contribution? Even #suggested# would be tremendously helpful.  Thanks for your ongoing support. With regards,  Rick Deckard Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Replicants  
  Scan through it, and you'll see there's a lot of substitutions to do: #date#, #name#, #amount#, #month#, #first#, #state# and #suggested#. It turns out that #date# will be replaced with the current date, and #suggested# is one that'll be calculated as the letter is processed, but that's for a bit later, so stay tuned for that.
      Go to Full Article          

• Weekend Reading: Do-It-Yourself Projects
      by Carlie Fairchild   
  Join us this weekend as we bring the DIY movement back. Not only is it a chance to start working on those ideas you've been putting off for months, but it's also a great way to learn while playing.
  Why You Should Do It Yourself
  by Kyle Rankin
  
  Bring back the DIY movement and start with your own Linux servers.
  
  It wasn't very long ago that we lived in a society where it was a given that average people would do things themselves. There was a built-in assumption that you would perform basic repairs on household items, do general maintenance and repairs on your car, mow your lawn, cook your food and patch your clothes. The items around you reflected this assumption with visible and easy-to-access screws, spare buttons sewn on the bottom of shirts and user-replaceable parts. Through the years though, culture has changed toward one more focused on convenience.
  Building a Voice-Controlled Front End to IoT Devices
  by Michael J. Hammel
  
  Apple, Google and Amazon are taking voice control to the next level. But can voice control be a DIY project? Turns out, it can. And, it isn't as hard as you might think.
  
  This article covers the Jarvis project, a Java application for capturing audio, translating to text, extracting and executing commands and vocally responding to the user. It also explores the programming issues related to integrating these components for programmed results. That means there is no machine learning or neural networks involved. The end goal is to have a selection of key words cause a specific method to be called to perform an action.
  Two Portable DIY Retro Gaming Consoles
  by Kyle Rankin
  
  A look at Adafruit's PiGRRL Zero vs. Hardkernel's ODROID-GO.
  
  If you enjoy retro gaming, there are so many options, it can be tough to know what to get. The choices range from officially sanctioned systems from Nintendo all the way to homemade RetroPie projects like I've covered in Linux Journal in the past. Of course, those systems are designed to be permanently attached to a TV. But, what if you want to play retro games on the road?
  Build a Custom Minimal Linux Distribution from Source
  by Petros Koutoupis
  
  Follow along with this step-by-step guide to build your own distribution from source and learn how it installs, loads and runs.
      Go to Full Article          

• CodeWeavers Announces CrossOver 18.5.0, RaspEX Kodi Build 190321 Released, Seven Devices from ThinkPenguin Receive the FSF's Respects Your Freedom Certification, GNU Parallel 20190322 Is Out and Facebook Stored Millions of Passwords in Plain Text
  
  News briefs for March 22, 2019.
  
  CodeWeavers announces CrossOver 18.5.0 for Linux and macOS, updating Wine to version 4.0. In addition, CrossOver 18.5 includes "the FAudio library to provide superior audio support for games", "resolves several Office 2010 bugs related to activation and licensing", "supports the very latest release of Office 365" and "includes preliminary support for OneNote 2016 on Linux". Linux users can download it from here.
  
  RaspEX Kodi Build 190321 was released yesterday. extonlinux writes, "In RaspEX Kodi I've added the LXDE Desktop with many useful applications such as VLC Media Player and NetworkManager. Makes it easy to configure your wireless network. I've also upgraded Kodi to version 18.1 Leia, which makes it possible to include useful addons such as Netflix, Plex and Amazon Video. Which I've done." You can download RaspEX Kodi for free from SourceForge.
  
  The FSF awarded seven devices from ThinkPenguin with its Respects Your Freedom (RYF) certification. The devices include "The Penguin Wireless G USB Adapter (TPE-G54USB2), the Penguin USB Desktop Microphone for GNU/Linux (TPE-USBMIC), the Penguin Wireless N Dual-Band PCIe Card (TPE-N300PCIED2), the PCIe Gigabit Ethernet Card Dual Port (TPE-1000MPCIE), the PCI Gigabit Ethernet Card (TPE-1000MPCI), the Penguin 10/100 USB Ethernet Network Adapter v1 (TPE-100NET1), and the Penguin 10/100 USB Ethernet Network Adapter v2 (TPE-100NET2)". This certification means that "products meet the FSF's standards in regard to users' freedom, control over the product, and privacy."
  
  GNU Parallel 20190322 ("FridayforFuture") has been released. You can download it from here. New in this release: "SIGTERM is changed to SIGHUP", "SIGTERM SIGTERM is changed to SIGTERM", it now includes a cheat sheet (parallel_cheat.pdf) and more, plus bug fixes and man page updates.
  
  And if you haven't already heard, Facebook stored hundreds of millions of user passwords in plain text for years. KrebsonSecurity reports that "Hundreds of millions of Facebook users had their account passwords stored in plain text and searchable by thousands of Facebook employees—in some cases going back to 2012. Facebook says an ongoing investigation has so far found no indication that employees have abused access to this data." Facebook has posted a statement about this here.
        News  Codeweavers  CrossOver Linux  Raspberry Pi  Kodi  RaspEX  FSF  ThinkPenguin  GNU Parallel  Facebook  Privacy                   

• Wizard Kit: How I Protect Myself from Surveillance
      by Augustine Fou   
  Ever since the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s ZDNet, Feb 8, 2019), and Android apps with more than 2 billion downloads were committing ad fraud on real humans’ devices behind their backs (see Know Who’s Spying on You at All Times.
  
   
  
  The popular apps that many humans use continue to track then even if they are logged out, and they also track users who never created an account in the first place (see Facebook tracks both non-users and logged out users). And Google tracks users’ locations even if they turned off location and denied permissions to apps (see Google Tracks Location Even When Users Turn Service Off). Even good apps that never intended to track users may actually be doing so because the SDKs (software development kits) with which they were built may be tracking users and sending data off to others’ servers without their knowledge. Remember the story about the low cost bathroom scale that didn’t work if location was turned off on the smartphone and there was no internet connection? It turns out that the scale was sending data to bare IP addresses that could be traced back to China.
  
   
      Go to Full Article          

• LibreOffice 6.2.2 Released, New PocketBeagle SBC, Google Enforcing Permissions Rules on Apps, OpenShot 2.4.4 Now Available and DataPractices.org Has Joined The Linux Foundation
  
  News briefs for March 21, 2019.
  
  The Document Foundation announces the release of LibreOffice 6.2.2. This version "provides over 50 bug and regression fixes over the previous version". You can view the changelog for details, and go here to download. Note that "LibreOffice 6.2.2 represents the bleeding edge in term of features for open source office suites, and as such is not optimized for enterprise class deployments, where features are less important than robustness. Users wanting a more mature version can download LibreOffice 6.1.5, which includes some months of back-ported fixes."
  
  The new PocketBeagle Linux computer is now available for $29.95 from Adafruit. According to Geeky Gadgets, the PocketBeagle "offers a powerful 1GHz AM3358 powered Linux single board computer with a tiny form factor and open source architecture". The article quotes Adafruit on the new SBC: "what differentiates the BeagleBone is that it has multiple I2C, SPI and UART peripherals (many boards only have one of each), built in hardware PWMs, analog inputs, and two separate 200MHz microcontroller system called the PRU that can handle real-time tasks like displaying to RGB matrix displays or NeoPixels. It's not too much larger than our Feathers, but comes with 72 expansion pin headers, high-speed USB, 8 analog pins, 44 digital I/Os, and plenty of digital interface peripherals. You can also add a USB host connection by wiring a USB A socket to the broken out USB host connections labeled VI, D+, D-, ID and GND. Then plug in any USB Ethernet, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi device with available Linux drivers."
  
  Google has started enforcing new permissions rules on applications' ability to access a phone's call and text logs. OpenShot 2.4.4 was released yesterday. From the OpenShot Blog: "This release brings huge performance and stability improvements, along with some major bug fixes, lots of polish, and many new features." Improvements to the video editor include keyframe scaling, timeline and preview performance, SVG rendering, docking and tracks and much more. You can download OpenShot 2.4.4 from here.
  
  Datapractices.org has joined The Linux Foundation and is publishing a "free open courseware platform for data teamwork. From the press release: "The goal of the Data Practices movement was to start movement similar to 'Agile for Data' that could help offer direction and improved data literacy across the ecosystem. The Data Practices Manifesto has had more signatories in its first year than the Agile manifesto."
        News  LibreOffice  PocketBeagle  Adafruit  SBCs  Google  Android  Mobile  Audio/Video  multimedia  OpenShot  The Linux Foundation  Big Data                   

• Bare-Bones Monitoring with Monit and RRDtool
      by Andy Carlson   
  How to provide robust monitoring to low-end systems.
  
  When running a critical system, it's necessary to know what resources the system is consuming, to be alerted when resource utilization reaches a specific level and to trend long-term performance. Zabbix and Nagios are two large-scale solutions that monitor, alert and trend system performance, and they each provide a rich user interface. Due to the requirements of those solutions, however, dedicated hardware/VM resources typically are required to host the monitoring solution. For smaller server implementations, options exist for providing basic monitoring, alerting and trending functionality. This article shows how to accomplish basic and custom monitoring and alerting using Monit. It also covers how to monitor long-term trending of system performance with RRDtool.
   Initial Monit Configuration
  On many popular Linux distros, you can install Monit from the associated software repository. Once installed, you can handle all the configuration with the monitrc configuration file. That file generally is located within the /etc directory structure, but the exact location varies based on your distribution.
  
  The config file has two sections: Global and Services. The Global section allows for custom configuration of the Monit application. The Monit service contains a web-based front end that is fully configurable through the config file. Although the section is commented out by default, you can uncomment items selectively for granular customization. The web configuration block looks like this:
    set httpd port 2812 and  use address localhost  allow localhost  allow admin:monit  
  The first line sets the port number where you can access Monit via web browser. The second line sets the hostname (the HTTP Host header) that's used to access Monit. The third line sets the host from which the Monit application can be accessed. Note that you also can do this using a local firewall access restriction if a firewall is currently in place. The fourth line allows the configuration of a user name/password pair for use when accessing Monit. There's also a section that allows SSL options for encrypted connections to Monit. Although enabling SSL is recommended when passing authentication data, you also could reverse-proxy Monit through an existing web server, such as nginx or Apache, provided SSL is already configured on the web server. For more information on reverse-proxying Monit through Apache, see the Resources section at the end of this article.
  
  The next items you need to enable deal with configuring email alerts. To set up the email server through which email will be relayed to the recipient, add or enable the following line:
      Go to Full Article          

• New Version of PuTTY Fixes Several Vulnerabilities, Google Announces the Stadia Cloud Gaming Service, Save the Internet Day March 23, Google Fined $1.49 Billion and NVIDIA Launches the Jetson Nano
  
  News briefs for March 20, 2019.
  
  A new version of the PuTTY SSH client received several security patches over the weekend, including one that "fixed a 'game over' level vulnerability", according to Save the Internet Day is planned for March 23 in response to the planned EU copyright reform: "The planned EU copyright reform constitutes a massive threat to the free exchange of opinions and culture online. Together, on 23 March 2019 we call for a Europe-wide day of protests against the dangers of the reform." Visit here for an overview of the planned protests.
  
  Google is fined $1.49 billion by the European commission for search ad brokering antitrust violations. TechCrunch quotes EU competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager: "Today's decision is about how Google abused its dominance to stop websites using brokers other than the AdSense platform".
  
  NVIDIA launched the Jetson Nano module and Jetson Nano Dev Kit. Linux Gizmos reports that the Jetson Nano Developer kit is available for pre-order for $99 and that it will ship sometime in April. The post quotes NVIDIA, who says the Jetson Nano "delivers 472 GFLOPS of compute performance for running modern AI workloads and is highly power-efficient, consuming as little as 5 watts".
        News  PuTTY  Google  gaming  Stadia  EU  Copyright  NVIDIA  Embedded