All the News that Matters

• SUSE: 2022:2230-1 important: the Linux Kernel (Live Patch 26 for SLE 15 SP2)
  An update that fixes four vulnerabilities is now available.

• SUSE: 2022:2237-1 important: the Linux Kernel (Live Patch 27 for SLE 15 SP2)
  An update that fixes two vulnerabilities is now available.

• SUSE: 2022:2239-1 important: the Linux Kernel (Live Patch 13 for SLE 15 SP3)
  An update that fixes 5 vulnerabilities is now available.

• Oracle9: ELSA-2022-5252: libarchive Moderate Security Update
  The following updated rpms for Oracle Linux 9 have been uploaded to the Unbreakable Linux Network:

• Oracle9: ELSA-2022-5251: pcre2 Moderate Security Update
  The following updated rpms for Oracle Linux 9 have been uploaded to the Unbreakable Linux Network:

• Oracle9: ELSA-2022-5250: libxml2 Moderate Security Update
  The following updated rpms for Oracle Linux 9 have been uploaded to the Unbreakable Linux Network:

• Open source Office rival Collabora releases web-based CODE 22.05
  Collabora has released CODE 22.05, the new Developer Edition of its web-based corporate version of LibreOffice. CODE is the Collabora Online Development Edition of Collabora Office, which we took a quick look at recently. The new version 22.05 offers a number of fresh features and performance improvements.

• How To Create Multiboot USB Drives With Ventoy In Linux
  This tutorial explains what is Ventoy, and how to easily create multiboot USB drives using Ventoy CLI, GUI and Web UI in Linux.

• How to Install Zabbix Monitoring Tool on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS
  Zabbix is an open-source monitoring tool for network services, network hardware, servers and applications. In this tutorial, we show you how to install Zabbix 4.4 on the Ubuntu 18.04 server. We will install Zabbix with Apache web server, PHP and MariaDB server on the current Ubuntu 18.04 server.

• How to Configure W3 Total Cache Plugin with Redis on WordPress website
  In this tutorial, we are going to explain how to configure the popular WordPress plugin W3 Total Cache with Redis on a WordPress website on Ubuntu 22.04 OS.

• GNOME Web 43 Gets WebExtension Support. Here's How to Try
  How to try and use the Firefox add-ons on the new web extension support in GNOME Web 43 (Epiphany) web browser.

• Why I switched from Apple Music to Jellyfin and Raspberry Pi
  One day earlier this year, I looked up a song in my Mac's music library that's been there since 2001. I received an error message, "This song is not currently available in your country or region." I thought this might be just a glitch on my iPhone, so I tried the desktop app. No go. I opened up my media drive, and there was the music file. To check if it played, I hit the spacebar, and it began to play immediately. Hrmph. I have the file, I thought. Why won't the Music app play it?

• Best Free and Open Source Software – June 2022 Updates
  Here are the latest updates to our compilation of recommended software. For this month, we have hugely expanded our features on games. But there are also new articles in the areas of coding, audio, utilities, and documents.

• Raspberry Pi Pico W supports Wi-Fi and starts at $6
  The Raspberry Pi Foundation launched yesterday a new tiny platform based on the RP2040 silicon. The new device is called the Raspberry Pi Pico W and it provides connectivity by integrating the CYW43439 Wi-Fi/Bluetooth module from Infineon. The Raspberry Pi Pico W uses the same processor as its predecessor, the Raspberry Pi Pico. The RP2040 […]

• Nitrux 2.2.1 ships with Default 5.18.6 XanMod kernel
  With this release, Nitrux 2.2.1 ships with the default 5.18.6 XanMod kernel, which is the successor to 5.17.12, which was not implemented with the previous release 2.2.0 due to the failure of the package broadcom-sta-dkm while building, but with this release, you can have the stable version of the 5.18.6 XanMod kernel.

• Your Personal Voice Assistant on Fedora Linux
  Would you like your Linux PC to interact with you by voice command like something out of a SciFi movie? If so, check out this article to find out how you can help make that happen!

• Ag-Rec: Improving Agriculture Around the World with Open Source Innovation
  One of the first projects I noticed after starting at the Linux Foundation was AgStack. It caught my attention because I have a natural inclination towards farming and ranching, although, in reality, I really just want a reason to own and use a John Deere tractor (or more than one). The reality is the closest I will ever get to being a farmer is my backyard garden with, perhaps, some chickens one day.

• How to Install Vivaldi Browser on Linux
  Vivaldi is a non-FOSS multi-platform web browser that is available for all major platforms like Windows, macOS, and Linux. It is very compelling to use and has many features that might tempt you to replace your old browser with Vivaldi.

• How to Import Remi Repository on CentOS 9 Stream
  REMI is a third-party repository that provides us with the latest PHP versions on RHEL-derived systems. In the following tutorial, you will learn how to import and enable the repository on CentOS 9 Stream.

• Open source body quits GitHub, urges you to do the same
  The Software Freedom Conservancy (SFC), a non-profit focused on free and open source software (FOSS), said it has stopped using Microsoft's GitHub for project hosting – and is urging other software developers to do the same.

• 12-Year-Old Developer Brings Ubuntu’s Unity Desktop Back to Life
  Unity Desktop Environment is a graphical shell for the GNOME designed and maintained by Canonical for Ubuntu. It was beautiful and innovative, but Canonical threw it out in 2017. So, Unity 7.6 is the first major version of the Unity desktop in six years, with the previous release in May 2016. Here's what is new!

• Unity 7.6 Desktop Released as the First Major Update to Ubuntu’s Unity7 in 6 Years
  Ubuntu Unity and Unity desktop maintainer Rudra Saraswat released today Unity 7.6 as the first major update to Ubuntu's old desktop environment in the last few years.

• How to Install Sublime Merge on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS
  Sublime Merge is a git client software that comes with various features to help make working with git repositories easier. In the following tutorial, you will learn how to install Sublime Merge on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS.

• Linux superuser access, explained
  Here’s how to configure Linux superuser access so that it's available to those who need it—yet well out of the way of people who don't need it.

• Old school editor Vim hits version 9 with faster scripting language
  Old school editor fans, rejoice: some two and a half years after version 8.2, Vim 9 is here with a much faster scripting language.

• Package a new Python module in 4 steps
  When you install an application, you're usually installing a package that contains the executable code for an application and important files such as documentation, icons, and so on. On Linux, applications are commonly packaged as RPM or DEB files, and users install them with the dnf or apt commands, depending on the Linux distribution. However, new Python modules are released virtually every day, so you could easily encounter a module that hasn't yet been packaged. And that's exactly why the pyp2rpm command exists.

• DOJ Files Charges Against Baller Ape Club 'Rug Pull'
  The Department of Justice this afternoon announced criminal charges against the creator of the Baller Ape Club NFT collection for orchestrating a so-called "rug pull." From a report: The charges, announced alongside those in three other cryptocurrency fraud cases, mark the second time that federal prosecutors have gone after an NFT "rug-pull" scheme, in which an NFT project's creators sell NFTs on false promises of community benefits and utility, only to abandon the project and make away with investors' funds. Le Anh Traun, a Vietnamese national, is charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit international money laundering. Traun allegedly collected $2.6 million from Baller Ape NFT buyers, only to shortly thereafter delete the organization's website and launder the funds. According to the Justice Department, he converted the ill-gotten gains into different cryptocurrencies and moved them across multiple blockchains, in a practice known as "chain-hopping." If convicted, Traun could face up to 40 years in prison.
        
  
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• Thunderbird 102 Released
  slack_justyb writes: Thunderbird 102 has been released with some new UI improvements and new features. There has been a change in the icons, the layout of the address book has been upgraded to feature a more modern UI, and a new UI feature known as the spaces toolbar to get around Thunderbird. New features include an updated import and export wizard, a UI for editing the email header settings, and Matrix client support within Thunderbird, which is a messaging system using HTTPS that is similar to Discord if you've used that.   Finally, the Thunderbird Twitter account released the first screenshot of the new UI that is being targeted for the 114 release. For those wondering what the Thunderbird team has done and is doing, you can always head over to the planning section of the developer site. The roadmap are things they're working on the current release and the backlog are the things they are working towards.
        
  
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• TikTok Confirms Some China-Based Employees Can Access US User Data
  TikTok, the viral video-sharing app owned by China's ByteDance, said certain employees outside the US can access information from American users, stoking further criticism from lawmakers who have raised alarms about the social network's data-sharing practices. From a report: The company's admission came in a letter to nine US senators who accused TikTok and its parent of monitoring US citizens and demanded answers on what's becoming a familiar line of questioning for the company: Do China-based employees have access to US users' data? What role do those employees play in shaping TikTok's algorithm? Is any of that information shared with the Chinese government?   Currently, China-based employees who clear a number of internal security protocols can access certain information on TikTok's US users, including public videos and comments, TikTok Chief Executive Officer Shou Zi Chew said in the June 30 letter obtained by Bloomberg News. None of that information is shared with the Chinese government, and it is subject to "robust cybersecurity controls," he said. The social network said it's working with the US government on strengthening data security around that information -- particularly anything defined as "protected" by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US, or CFIUS.
        
  
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• Amazon Agrees To Drop Prime Cancellation 'Dark Patterns' in Europe
  Amazon has agreed to simplify the process required for cancelling its Prime membership subscription service across its sites in the European Union, both on desktop and mobile interfaces, following a series of complaints from regional consumer protection groups. From a report: The coordinated complaints about Amazon's confusing and convoluted cancellation process for Prime were announced back in April 2021 -- so it's taken just over a year for the e-commerce giant to agree to change its ways.   Following the engagement with EU regulators, the Commission said today that Amazon started to make some revisions to the Prime web interface -- such as labelling the cancel button more clearly and shortening the explanatory text -- but today's announcement is that it has agreed to further simplify the experience by further reducing the text so consumers do not get distracted by warnings and deterred from cancelling.
        
  
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• FTX Signs Deal That Could Buy BlockFi For Up To $240 Million
  Troubled crypto lender BlockFi said Friday that it agreed to an option to be acquired by FTX for up to $240 million. From a report: The acquisition figure would include performance incentives, and BlockFi didn't specify how much would be an upfront payment. The deal with FTX also includes a $400 million revolving credit facility from the crypto exchange operator from FTX.
        
  
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• Klarna To Raise Fresh Cash at Slashed $6.5 Billion Valuation
  Klarna Bank is nearing a deal to raise new money at a valuation of around $6.5 billion, WSJ reported Friday, citing people familiar with the matter, a humbling comedown and a testament to the punishing environment facing startup companies. From a report: The Sweden-based specialty lending and online payments provider is negotiating to raise about $650 million mostly from existing investors led by Sequoia Capital, the people said. Michael Moritz, who is the chairman of the well-known venture-capital firm, serves in the same role at Klarna. The deal has yet to be completed and could still hit last minute snags, the people said. But if completed, it would represent a huge discount on the company's valuation when investors led by an arm of SoftBank Group valued Klarna at $45.6 billion in June 2021.
        
  
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• UK Seeks Science Collaboration Further Afield After EU Freeze
  The UK is rattling off a series of international science agreements with a message to the European Union: if you don't want our money, we'll do deals elsewhere. From a report: Prime Minister Boris Johnson signed a memorandum of understanding with his New Zealand counterpart, Jacinda Ardern, on Friday, aimed at easing UK access to the Pacific nation's quantum and agricultural technology. The UK has already negotiated similar agreements with Israel, Switzerland and Canada -- as well as EU member Sweden, and is hoping to seal more with Japan, Singapore, South Korea and certain US states. The drive comes as the government seeks to diversify the country's scientific collaboration after the UK was frozen out of the EU's $96 billion Horizon research program because of tensions stemming from Britain's plan to override the part of the Brexit deal governing Northern Ireland. The majority of the UK's international science budget -- around $18 billion -- is usually spent helping to fund Horizon.
        
  
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• EU Moves To Rein in 'Wild West' of Crypto Assets With New Rules
  The EU has moved to rein in the "wild west" of crypto assets by agreeing a groundbreaking set of rules for the sector, adding to pressure on the UK and US to introduce their own curbs. From a report: Representatives from the European parliament and EU states inked an agreement late on Thursday that contains measures to guard against market abuse and manipulation, as well as requiring that crypto firms provide details of the environmental impact of their assets. "Today, we put order in the wild west of crypto assets and set clear rules for a harmonised market," said Stefan Berger, the German MEP who led negotiations on behalf of the parliament. Referring to the recent slump in cryptocurrency prices -- the total value of the market has fallen from $3tn last year to less than $900bn -- Berger added: "The recent fall in the value of digital currencies shows us how highly risky and speculative they are and that it is fundamental to act." The markets in crypto assets (MiCA) law is expected to come into force at about the end of 2023. Globally, crypto assets are largely unregulated, with national operators in the EU required only to show controls for combating money laundering.
        
  
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• Facebook Groups Are Being Revamped To Look Like Discord
  Facebook Groups are about to get some big changes, and if you've used Discord, the new approach should seem pretty darn familiar. From a report: Meta is testing a new left-aligned sidebar and channels list for Groups, and the changes are giving me some serious Discord vibes. Meta is even evoking Discord with a purple accent color. Central to the changes is a new sidebar that lists your groups with rounded square icons. Like with Discord and Slack, you'll be able to pin groups so that they show up first on the list. Individual groups will have a new menu that seems lifted right from Discord. The menu organizes things like channels, Messenger conversations, and events one after another.
        
  
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• ADT Is Betting Google Can Drag It Into the Future
  The century-old security giant best known for its octagonal blue logo is banking on a smart-home partnership with a company that's also one of its biggest threats. From a report: Kneeling beneath a framed print of Thomas Kinkade's painting A Peaceful Retreat, Roli Chiu, alarm system installer, began his work one day in March by unpacking boxes of devices inside a new customer's living room. It would take him five hours to set up the system. He'd begin with the command panel in the grand foyer of the 4,000-square-foot home in a Palmetto Bay, Fla., gated community -- then connect it to all the new door and window sensors, motion detectors, and smoke and carbon monoxide monitors. Yet Chiu, who estimates he's installed systems at 15,000 homes in his two decades at ADT, thought this one could benefit from a bunch of Google gadgets that the company would soon add to its portfolio. "When the Nest cameras come -- oh my goodness -- that's going to be a game changer," he said. "I love having Google on our side."   A professionally outfitted ADT system can cost hundreds or thousands of dollars, and in recent years the company has begun to face competition from DIY-friendly devices such as Google's Nest Cams and video doorbells, Arlo, SimpliSafe, and Amazon.com's Ring, which many homeowners have felt can offer similar peace of mind at a fraction of the cost. Then Google surprised investors in August 2020 by revealing it would buy a 6.6% stake in ADT for $450 million. As part of the deal, the companies also agreed to jointly develop products, integrate services, and have ADT's thousands of installers and salespeople promote Google's hardware. By the time Chiu began his wiring work in the Palmetto Bay home 18 months after the deal closed, it had become evident that ADT had gone all in on the Google partnership. Chiu wore a new corporate shirt emblazoned with the Google logo -- the "super G," as employees call it -- and said his ADT truck in the driveway would soon be rebranded with Google decals. He praised Google's facial recognition technology and advanced Wi-Fi (while dinging Ring's apparently weak battery life).   Across the living room, his ADT colleague, sales adviser Jordan Hernandez, talked up Google's products in front of the homeowner. "With our Google Home package, you can get the Google door lock, the Google doorbell, the Google Hub and Mini speaker for $600," he explained, adding that the devices would cost a lot more if bought separately. For ADT, a business with roots that can be traced to the 1870s, the association with an internet titan gives its services a new sheen. In addition to installation fees, ADT's 24/7 alarm monitoring usually involves three-year contracts priced from about $28 to $60 a month. The tech giants pursuing the smart home have challenged that model, just as streaming platforms caused people to rethink their relationships with cable conglomerates such as Comcast.
        
  
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• Whose Rocket Hit the Moon?
  An anonymous reader shares a report: The short version of this story is that skywatchers led by Bill Gray had been tracking an object for months that, based on their calculations, would soon impact the moon. It was obviously a piece of rocket trash (rockets produce a ton of trash), but no one stepped up to say "yes, that's ours, sorry about that." Based on their observations and discussions, these self-appointed (though by no means lacking in expertise) object trackers determined that it was likely a piece of a SpaceX launch vehicle from 2015. But SpaceX didn't cop to it, and after a while Gray and others, including NASA, decided it was more likely to be the 2014 Chang'e 5-T1 launch out of China. China denied this is the case, saying the launch vehicle in question burned up on reentry.   Maybe they're telling the truth; maybe they don't want to be responsible for the first completely inadvertent lunar impact in history. Other spacecraft have struck the moon, but it was on purpose or part of a botched landing (in other words, the impact was intentional, just a little harder than expected) -- not just a wayward piece of space junk. Perhaps we'll never know, and really, that's the weirdest part of all. With hundreds of terrestrial telescopes and radars, space-based sensor networks and cameras pointing every which way -- and that's just the space monitoring we know about! -- it seems amazing that a whole rocket stage managed to sit in orbit for six or seven years, eventually getting all the way to the moon, without being identified.
        
  
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• Microsoft Cloud Computing System Suffering From Global Shortage
  Due to a confluence of crises, the second-largest cloud provider has been operating in the yellow zone, meaning its data centers have a less-than-normal level of servers available. From a report: In March 2020, Microsoft's Azure cloud buckled under the strain of companies around the world shifting to remote work, causing service outages and forcing some customers to wait to launch and update applications. Microsoft put a positive spin on the situation, characterizing it as a temporary issue that stemmed from the surging usage of its Teams collaboration software and the rapid growth in adoption it was seeing for Azure services broadly. But over two years later, more than two dozen Azure data centers in countries around the world are operating with limited server capacity available to customers, according to two current Microsoft managers contending with the issue and an engineer who works for a major customer. And in more than half a dozen Azure data centers -- including a key one in central Washington state and others in Europe and Asia -- server capacity is expected to remain limited until early next year, said one of the Microsoft managers.
        
  
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• Police Tactic of Sweeping Google Searches To Find Suspects Faces First Legal Challenge
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from NBC News: A teen charged with setting a fire that killed five members of a Senegalese immigrant family in Denver, Colorado, has become the first person to challenge police use of Google search histories to find someone who might have committed a crime, according to his lawyers. In documents filed Thursday in Denver District Court, lawyers for the 17-year-old argue that the police violated the Constitution when they got a judge to order Google to check its vast database of internet searches for users who typed in the address of a home before it was set ablaze on Aug. 5, 2020. Three adults and two children died in the fire.   That search of Google's records helped point investigators to the teen and two friends, who were eventually charged in the deadly fire, according to police records. All were juveniles at the time of their arrests. Two of them, including the 17-year-old, are being tried as adults; they both pleaded not guilty. The defendant in juvenile court has not yet entered a plea. The 17-year-old's lawyers say the search, and all evidence that came from it, should be thrown out because it amounted to a blind expedition through billions of Google users' queries based on a hunch that the killer typed the address into a search bar. That, the lawyers argued, violated the Fourth Amendment, which protects against unreasonable searches. "People have a privacy interest in their internet search history, which is really an archive of your personal expression," said Michael Price, who is lead litigator of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers' Fourth Amendment Center and one of the 17-year-old's attorneys. "Search engines like Google are a gateway to a vast trove of information online and the way most people find what they're looking for. Every one of those queries reveals something deeply private about a person, things they might not share with friends, family or clergy."   Price said that allowing the government to sift through Google's vast trove of searches is akin to allowing the government access to users' "thoughts, concerns, questions, fears." He added: "Every one of those queries reveals something deeply private about a person, things they might not share with friends, family or clergy," Price said. "'Psychiatrists in Denver.' 'Abortion providers near me.' 'Does God exist.' Every day, people pose those questions to Google seeking information."
        
  
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• IEA: Global Nuclear Power Capacity Must Double By 2050 To Reach Net-Zero Emissions
  Global nuclear power capacity needs to double by the mid-century to reach net-zero emissions targets. This will help ensure energy security as governments try to reduce their reliance on imported fossil fuels, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Thursday. Euronews reports: Achieving net-zero emissions by 2050 would give the world a chance of capping temperature rises at 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. To reach net-zero emissions, nuclear power capacity needs to double to 812 gigawatts (GW) by 2050 from 413 GW early this year, the IEA report specifies. In the 2030s, annual nuclear power capacity will have to reach 27 GW, it added.   As around 260 GW, or 63 percent, of nuclear plants in the world are currently over 30 years old and nearing the end of their initial operation licenses. Although there have been moves in the past three years to extend the lifetimes of plants representing around 10 per cent of the global fleet, nuclear plants in advanced economies could shrink by a third by 2030, the report said. Advanced economies have nearly 70 per cent of global nuclear capacity -- but the problem is the fleet is aging. Investment has stalled and the latest new projects have run far over budget and behind schedule, the report said.
        
  
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• FCC Authorizes SpaceX To Provide Starlink Internet Service To Vehicles In Motion
  The Federal Communications Commission authorized SpaceX to provide Starlink satellite internet to vehicles in motion, a key step for Elon Musk's company to further expand the service. CNBC reports: "Authorizing a new class of [customer] terminals for SpaceX's satellite system will expand the range of broadband capabilities to meet the growing user demands that now require connectivity while on the move, whether driving an RV across the country, moving a freighter from Europe to a U.S. port, or while on a domestic or international flight," FCC international bureau chief Tom Sullivan wrote in the authorization posted Thursday.   The FCC's authorization also includes connecting to ships and vehicles like semitrucks and RVs, with SpaceX having last year requested to expand from servicing stationary customers. SpaceX had already deployed a version of its service called "Starlink for RVs," with an additional "portability" fee. But portability is not the same as mobility, which the FCC's decision now allows. The FCC imposed conditions on in-motion Starlink service. SpaceX is required to "accept any interference received from both current and future services authorized," and further investment in Starlink will "assume the risk that operations may be subject to additional conditions or requirements" from the FCC. The report notes that the ruling "did not resolve a broader SpaceX regulatory dispute with Dish Network and RS Access, an entity backed by billionaire Michael Dell, over the use of 12-gigahertz band -- a range of frequency used for broadband communications." SpaceX is pushing for the regulator to make a ruling, saying the mobile service "would cause harmful interference to SpaceX's Starlink terminals in the 12.2-12.7 GHz band more than 77% of the time."
        
  
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• How Microservices Work Together
  Microservices allow software developers to design highly scalable, highly fault-tolerant internet-based applications. But how do the microservices of a platform actually communicate? How do they coordinate their activities or know who to work with in the first place?
  The post How Microservices Work Together appeared first on Linux Foundation.
  
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• Manage your RPG players with pc
  Keep track of your role-playing games character data with the pc (player character) command. Read More at Enable Sysadmin
  
  The post Manage your RPG players with pc appeared first on Linux.com.
  

• Ag-Rec: Improving Agriculture Around the World with Open Source Innovation
  Ag-Rec is a framework where rural farmers from small SC towns to anywhere in the world have the same coop extension framework where they can get info, advice, and community. They can access a wealth of information and that can be shared anywhere, anytime.
  The post Ag-Rec: Improving Agriculture Around the World with Open Source Innovation appeared first on Linux Foundation.
  
  The post Ag-Rec: Improving Agriculture Around the World with Open Source Innovation appeared first on Linux.com.
  

• The Linux Foundation Announces Conference Schedule for Open Source Summit Latin America 2022
  The premier event for open source developers, technologists and community leaders features 75+ sessions across 9 events, furthering open source innovation and collaboration across South America and Latin America. SAN FRANCISCO, June 30, 2022 — The Linux Foundation, the nonprofit organization enabling mass innovation through open source, today announced the full schedule for Open Source [0]
  
  The post The Linux Foundation Announces Conference Schedule for Open Source Summit Latin America 2022 appeared first on Linux.com.
  

• Linux superuser access, explained
  Here’s how to configure Linux superuser access so that its available to those who need it—yet well out of the way of people who dont need it. Read More at Enable Sysadmin
  
  The post Linux superuser access, explained appeared first on Linux.com.
  

• The Linux Foundation and Fintech Open Source Foundation Announce New Keynote Speakers for Open Source in Finance Forum London 2022
  Industry leaders and experts across financial services, technology and open source will come together for thought-provoking insights and conversations about how to best leverage open source software to solve industry challenges. SAN FRANCISCO, June 29, 2022 — The Linux Foundation, the nonprofit organization enabling mass innovation through open source, and co-host the Fintech Open Source0 [0]
  
  The post The Linux Foundation and Fintech Open Source Foundation Announce New Keynote Speakers for Open Source in Finance Forum London 2022 appeared first on Linux.com.
  

• How to implement parallelism and rolling updates in Ansible
  Interact with multiple hosts simultaneously, on a per-playbook basis with Ansibles serial keyword. Read More at Enable Sysadmin
  
  The post How to implement parallelism and rolling updates in Ansible appeared first on Linux.com.
  

• Delta Lake project announces the availability of 2.0 Release Candidate
  New features bringing unmatched query performance to open data lakehouses Today, the Delta Lake project announced the Delta Lake 2.0 release candidate, which includes a collection of new features with vast performance and usability improvements. The final release of Delta Lake 2.0 will be made available later this year. Delta Lake has been a Linux [0]
  
  The post Delta Lake project announces the availability of 2.0 Release Candidate appeared first on Linux.com.
  

• Running Oracle Linux 9 with QEMU on an M1 Mac
  Instructions on how to run Oracle Linux Click to Read More at Oracle Linux Kernel Development
  
  The post Running Oracle Linux 9 with QEMU on an M1 Mac appeared first on Linux.com.
  

• How to troubleshoot SELinux policy violations
  Learn how to diagnose and address routine SELinux policy violations that may be causing problems with your web server. Read More at Enable Sysadmin
  
  The post How to troubleshoot SELinux policy violations appeared first on Linux.com.
  

Engadget"Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics"

• Meal kit company sued by customers who claim 'contaminated' lentils led to gallbladders removals
  Vegan meal kit startup Daily Harvest has been hit with two lawsuits by customers alleging they needed gallbladder removals after eating one of the company9s products, reportedCNN. Last month the company issued a voluntary recall of its “French Lentil + Leek Crumbles” dish following multiple claims of gastrointestinal and liver from consumers. The first lawsuit was filed by Carol Ann Ready, an Oklahoma woman who is suing the company in the federal court for the Southern District of New York. Ready purchased and ate lentil crumbles from Daily Harvest on two separate occasions in May, both of which both of which resulted in trips to the emergency room. The second of these was a four-day stay, which ended with Ready9s physician recommending gallbladder removal. 
  
  Attorneys for Ready are asking for a jury trial, alleging that damages for the case exceed what the court normally allows. “Plaintiff has sustained serious personal injuries; suffered, and will continue to suffer, significant pain and other physical discomfort; incurred, and will continue to incur, substantial medical expenses; have missed, and will likely miss in the future, work and time necessarily dedicated to advancement in her profession; and remains at risk for future health complications with damages far in excess of $75,000, the jurisdictional threshold of this court,” pic.twitter.com/fsWxDklPc0
  — Luke Wesley Pearson (@LukeWesPearson) June 21, 2022
  Daily Harvest still hasn’t pinpointed what may have caused the adverse reactions. "All pathogen and toxicology results have come back negative so far, but we9re continuing to do extensive testing so we can get to the bottom of this. Everyone who has been affected deserves an answer, and we are committed to making this right,” the company said in a statement to CNN.
  
  Yesterday the FDA announced a formal investigation into the outbreak, in an effort to determine the cause. In a blog post, Daily Harvest said it received approximately 470 reports from customers who suffered adverse reactions after eating the product.
  

• Google will start removing abortion clinic visits from users’ location history
  Amid data privacy concerns raised by the Supreme Court9s overturning of Roe v. Wade, Google says it will remove abortion clinics and other facilities from users’ location history. Since the ruling, Google and other tech giants had largely remained silent about how they would handle requests for data about users in abortion-related investigations. Privacy experts have flagged the vast amounts of data collected by Google and other platforms as ripe for abuse by law enforcement and anti-abortion groups.
  
  In a new blog post, Google states that it will attempt to remove locations from users’ location histories “soon after they visit.” The company was vague about exactly how it would identify these locations, or how long the removals would take. The company said the same process would also apply to visits to other types of health facilities. 
  
  “Some of the places people visit — including medical facilities like counseling centers, domestic violence shelters, abortion clinics, fertility centers, addiction treatment facilities, weight loss clinics, cosmetic surgery clinics, and others — can be particularly personal,” Google writes. “Today, we’re announcing that if our systems identify that someone has visited one of these places, we will delete these entries from Location History soon after they visit.”
  
  The company also said that Fitbit would be updating its app so users can bulk-delete their menstrual tracking information from the service. Other period tracking apps have also vowed to add new privacy and security features in recent days as concerns mount that cycle tracking apps could become a target for law enforcement investigations.
  
  Google also addressed concerns about law enforcement’s broad requests for location data — an issue lawmakers have also urged the company to address. The company reiterated existing policies, including its practice of notifying users when their data has been requested, and pointed to its transparency reports that track such demands. The company also claimed it has a “long track record of pushing back on overly broad demands” and said it would “continue to oppose demands that are overly broad or otherwise legally objectionable.”
  
  While the changes attempt to address one set of concerns that have been raised by privacy experts and activists, they won’t prevent the possibility users’ online or offline activities could be used against them in an abortion-related investigation. Google made no mention of whether it would remove abortion related queries from user9s search history or YouTube accounts, for example. Browsing history and other data is also routinely shared to Facebook and other advertisers, and data brokers are still easily able to obtain data about users’ past whereabouts. 
  

• FIFA OKs sensor ball and semi-automatic offside tracking for the 2022 World Cup
  FIFA World Cup 2022 will feature an updated VAR (video assistant referee) system known as semi-automated offside technology, the international soccer governing body ball outfitted with a motion sensor will be used in each match, which will deliver live data on a player’s position at the time it9s kicked.
  
  FIFA believes that SOAT will help match officials make faster and more accurate decisions on offside calls. “VAR has already had a very positive impact on football and we can see that the number of major mistakes has already been dramatically reduced. We expect that semi-automated offside technology can take us a step further,” here. 
  
  
  
  
  

• A 'Doom' mobile game from 2005 is now playable on Windows
  A dedicated group of fans has excavated a Doom mobile game from the sands of time and made it playable again. You won9t find 20059s Doom RPG on the App Store or Play Store: it actually predates iOS and Android by a couple of years. And while Fountainhead Entertainment looked into free to download, it doesn9t contain any of the original files you need to actually run the game.
  Doom RPG at last, finally on PC as promised years ago come true today. You can play it now, download link from Doomworld : https://t.co/5mLMVPvOPipic.twitter.com/tUSP5q44IU
  — GEC.inc (@inc_gec) June 29, 2022
  As the store listing, however, it will run on a Mac running macOS 11.0 or later as long as it has an M1 chip. 
  
  
  

• FCC clears SpaceX to put its Starlink satellite WiFi in vehicles
  SpaceX9s satellite internet service is officially going mobile after the Federal Communications Commission on Thursdayauthorized the company to provide its Starlink WiFi service to vehicles. SpaceX already offers Starlink home internet, which left beta last October.
  
  "We agree with SpaceX... that the public interest would benefit by granting with conditions their applications," The FCC wrote in its authorization letter. "Authorizing a new class of terminals for SpaceX’s satellite system will expand the range of broadband capabilities to meet the growing user demands that now require connectivity while on the move, whether driving an RV across the country, moving a freighter from Europe to a U.S. port, or while on a domestic or international flight."
  
  Starlink had already begun expanding its terrestrial footprint, even before the FCC decision, installing receiver dishes at Tesla Supercharger stations, raising prices and unveiling a $500/month Premium service tier. SpaceX has also recently announced partnerships with Delta and Hawaiian Airlines to potentially offer the service aboard their aircraft. 
  
  SpaceX, and CEO Elon Musk, have also played the hero in recent months by offering an "internet bridge" to volcano-devastated Tonga and providing Starlink terminals to the Ukraine government — a generous offer that was, like most of Musk9s ventures, footed by the American taxpayer. The internet service — more specifically, the massive constellation of microsatellites in Low Earth Orbit that enable it — has also drawn condemnation from astronomers worldwide who argue that the highly-reflective satellites, of which there currently more than 2,200 in orbit and which Musk wants 40,000 more of, are grossly interfering with the operation of ground-based telescopes.
  

• TikTok tells senators how it plans to beef up data security for American users
  In a letter to nine Republican senators, TikTok said it9s working to "remove any doubt about the security of US user data." CEO Shou Zi Chew reiterated a claim that TikTok stores American user data on servers run by Oracle, which will be audited by a third party. Chew also said the company expects to "delete US users9 protected data from our own systems and fully pivot to Oracle cloud servers located in the US."
  
  "[We] are working with Oracle on new, advanced data security controls that we hope to finalize in the near future," Chew wrote in the letter, which was obtained by The New York Times. "That work puts us closer to the day when we will be able to pivot toward a novel and industry-leading system for protecting the data of our users in the United States, with robust, independent oversight to ensure compliance."
  
  Chew was responding to questions in a letter sent by the Republican senators — including Roger Wicker, the ranking Republican member of the Senate Commerce Committee — following a report by BuzzFeed News. The publication reported last month that China-based engineers of ByteDance, TikTok9s parent company, accessed non-public data on users in the US between at least September 2021 and January 2022.
  
  The report also prompted Brendan Carr, the Federal Communication Commission9s senior Republican commissioner, to call on Apple and Google to remove the TikTok app from their stores. Carr requested a response from the companies by July 8th if they choose not to remove TikTok from the App Store and Play Store, respectively.
  
  In the letter, Chew refuted much of BuzzFeed News9 reporting, though conceded that ByteDance workers outside the US can access American user data "subject to a series of robust cybersecurity controls and authorization approval protocols overseen by our US-based security team. In addition, TikTok has an internal data classification system and approval process in place that assigns levels of access based on the data9s classification and requires approvals for access to US user data."
  
  Legislators have been raising security concerns about TikTok over the last few years. In August 2020, then-president Donald Trump signed an executive order that would have made it difficult, if not impossible, for the app to operate in the US. The following month, Trump approved, in principle, a deal that would see Oracle and Walmart take a stake in a new company that would run TikTok9s business in the US. Microsoft was also in the running to secure a deal.
  
  A federal judge struck down Trump9s order just before it was supposed to take effect. President Joe Biden rescinded the order in January 2021, but signed a separate one that required a security review of that app and WeChat. The following month, the Oracle and Walmart deal was reportedly put on hold indefinitely.
  

• Engadget Podcast: Our digital privacy and rights post-Roe v. Wade
  This week, Cherlynn is joined by senior editors Jessica Conditt and Karissa Bell to discuss the United States ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade, and how, in our digital age, it affects the most vulnerable in our communities. Then, our hosts look at the Supreme Court ruling that guts the Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to enforce the Clean Air Act. In consumer tech news, we also look at Sony’s new PlayStation-inspired peripherals and Snapchat’s new subscription service.
  
  Listen below, or subscribe on your podcast app of choice. If you9ve got suggestions or topics you9d like covered on the show, be sure to Morning After and Engadget News!
  Engadget · Our digital privacy and rights after Roe v. Wade
  
  
  Subscribe!
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  Topics
  What digital privacy looks like post-Roe v. Wade – 1:41
  
  SCOTUS nerfs the EPA’s ability to enforce carbon emission limits – 42:10
  
  Layoffs at Unity, Niantic, and Tesla – 45:26
  
  Apple is starting to allow third party payments in Korea – 49:55
  
  Sony9s new hardware brand brings headsets and monitors with PlayStation style – 52:17
  
  Snapchat + is membership model for power users – 56:25
  
  Picks – 59:59
  
  
  
  Credits
  Hosts: Cherlynn Low and Jessica Conditt
  Guest: Karissa Bell
  Producer: Ben Ellman
  Music: Dale North and Terrence O9Brien
  

• FDA says updated COVID-19 Omicron boosters won’t require new clinical trials
  A to modify booster shots to target the Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 variants in addition to the original strain of the virus. The agency hopes the updated boosters will be ready by the fall. "It9s going to be really critical as we move into this fall where we9ve seen this evolution into BA.4/5, where we could see further evolution, to try to get as many people boosted as we can," Marks said.
  
  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention saysBA.1 isn9t circulating in the US anymore, but BA.4 and BA.5 now account for over 52 percent of COVID-19 infections in the country. Combined, they made up just 0.5 percent of cases in the US at the end of April.
  
  Pfizer and Moderna this week released clinical trial data which suggests versions of their shots that target BA.1 offered a stronger immune response than the initial COVID-19 vaccines. Those boosters did not perform quite as well against BA.4 and BA.5. However, the data showed that the immune response was still robust.
  

• Apple needs to take fertility tracking more seriously
  Fertility apps have always been sketchy. As I’ve experienced it, it’s a Faustian bargain of sorts: Take your chances on one of many options in your app store, and pick the one with the best reviews, or maybe the simplest interface. You’ll sign up feeling unsure of what to make of the opaque data policy, and then you’ll bear with the ensuing deluge of targeted ads – all in exchange for an accurate prediction of when you’re most likely to conceive. Judging by those ads for maternity clothes and organic cotton onesies, someone somewhere knows I’m either trying to conceive or have already given birth, even if they can’t decide which. I don’t like it, but I put up with it.
  
  I’ve been mulling the subject of period and fertility trackers ever since I decided I was ready to become a parent, though for privacy’s sake, I didn’t imagine writing about it until after I’d given birth to said imaginary baby. But in the two months since have been talking about period trackers. Some activists and privacy advocates have asked if the data captured by these apps can be used to help prosecute someone seeking an abortion in a state that doesn’t allow it. Some have simply exhorted readers to delete these apps altogether.
  
  I understand why. And I also understand why people use these apps in the first place: Because the version of that app that’s built into your smartphone OS isn’t very good.
  
  In my case, I have an iPhone. I’ve been using period tracking for a couple years now, though Apple began introducing these features much earlier, in 2015. From the beginning, Apple wascriticized for moving slowly: Some observers wondered why Apple didn’t have women’s health features ready when it launched the Apple Health app the year before.
  
  In its current form, the app is decent in the sense that it can accurately predict when you’re about to menstruate, and it’s easy to log when you do, either through your iOS device or Apple Watch. This is useful not just for avoiding potential surprises, but for knowing when your last period started in case your gynecologist asks. (And they always ask.) What's more, irregular periods can sometimes underscore larger health issues. 
  
  The fact that Apple hasn't paid more attention to this, when hundreds of millions have downloaded third-party alternatives, is honestly surprising: Apple could own this space if it wanted to.
  
  In order for it to do that, though, Cycle Tracking has to be equally good at helping people get pregnant or avoid pregnancy. Because ultimately, those users all need the same set of data, the same predictions, regardless of their intention. If you know you’re ovulating and want a baby, you should definitely have sex. If you’d like nothing less than to get pregnant, that ovulation window is also a useful thing to be aware of.
  
  Here’s what Apple would need to add to its app to match its competitors and build a true all-in-one period and fertility tracker. (Apple declined to comment for this story.)
  Ovulation predictionDana Wollman/Engadget
  First off, it must be said that Apple doesn’t attempt to predict when you’re ovulating. What you’ll see is a six-day fertility window, shaded in blue. But not all fertile days are the same. One has a roughly 30 percent chance of conceiving on ovulation day or the day before; five days before, your chances are closer to 10 percent. Unless you plan to have sex for six days or avoid it that whole time, a six-day fertility window with no additional context is not very helpful.
  
  Other fertility apps learn from previous cycles to predict how long your typical cycle is and when you’ll likely be ovulating. I’ve seen more than one app present conception odds on a bell graph, with some even displaying your estimated percentage of success for a given day. Apple can decide for itself how complex of an interface it wants, but it most definitely has the machine learning know-how to predict ovulation based on previous cycles.
  A proper calendar view
  Apple’s is the only period tracking app I’ve seen that doesn’t offer a gridded calendar view. Which is incredible when you remember everything related to fertility (and later pregnancy) is measured in weeks. Instead, Apple Health shows the days in a single, horizontally scrollable line. On my iPhone 12’s 6.1-inch screen, that’s enough space to see seven days in full view. Also, if you input any data, whether it's sexual activity or physical symptoms, that day will be marked with a purple dot. That isn't helpful at a glance when that dot could mean anything. Another tip for Apple: color-coding might help.
  
  If I were just logging my period, I’d appreciate not having the red-colored possible period days sneak up on me. (Okay, okay, you can set notifications too.) But for those trying to conceive, a calendar view would help for other reasons, like matching factors like sexual activity and body temperature against your predicted fertile days. Which brings me to my next point…
  An easier way to log and understand basal body temperatureDana Wollman/Engadget
  One way that many people measure their fertility is by taking their temperature every day, at about the same time. The idea is that your temperature shoots up right before ovulation, and drops back down after, unless you’ve conceived. It doesn’t matter so much what each day’s reading is; what matters is the pattern that all of those inputs point to. And the only way to see a pattern is to view your temperature readings on a graph.
  
  This is how temperature tracking was meant to be done in the old days, before smartphones: with graph paper. It’s awfully difficult to spot the surge when you’re scrolling, one day at a time, through Apple Health’s left-to-right calendar. It is very easy to spot the surge when it’s presented as an infographic. And I know Apple could do a good job of this. This is already how Apple presents changes in my daily exercise minutes or fluctuations in my heart rate throughout the day.
  
  Oh, and while I’m ranting on this topic, Apple doesn’t just let you type in whatever number you see on your thermometer. You have to select it from a scrolling dial, similar to how you would set an alarm in the Clock app. (When you go to enter your temperature, you start at the last temperature you entered.) Basal thermometers show your reading down to the hundredth of a degree, so even mild fluctuations in temperature from one day to the next can lead to an annoying amount of scrolling.
  The ability to recognize ovulation stripsDana Wollman/Engadget
  Not everyone uses temperature readings to predict ovulation. Many people use the newer invention of ovulation tests: at-home pee strips that measure Luteinizing Hormone (LH), which surges ahead of ovulation. The result always includes two lines, and how close you are to ovulating depends on how dark each of the lines are. Because that color exists on a spectrum, from light purple to very dark, it can be difficult to suss out the nuances with the naked eye, especially toward the deeper end of the color grade. Fortunately, many apps allow you to take or upload a photo of the results, and the app will use camera recognition to classify your test results into one of three categories: low, high or peak. Again, I have no doubt that Apple has the technology to do this.
  Resources for pregnant people
  One of the reasons people download and continue to use fertility apps after they get pregnant is that they can learn, week by week, whether their baby is the size of a raspberry, prune or avocado. These apps can also be a resource for first-timers who are feeling overwhelmed and unsure of what symptoms and bodily changes they can expect at each stage. The information in these apps vary in depth, and likely accuracy. There’s no governing body so far as I can tell that regulates what information apps include as resources. Not even the App Store. I’m not suggesting Apple write its own content. But it can use the same system of curation that it uses for the App Store, Apple News, etc. to provide users information from trusted outside sources, whether that be medical sites like WebMD or reputable medical centers like the Mayo Clinic.
  

• Biden will posthumously award Steve Jobs the Presidential Medal of Freedom
  The US government has no higher award with which to honor a civilian9s achievements than the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Handed out at the discretion of the Commander in Chief, the MoF celebrates "an especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of the United States, world peace, cultural or other significant public or private endeavors." President Biden announced the first slate of MoF recipients of his administration on Friday, a list that includes former Apple CEO, Steve Jobs.
  
  President Biden9s nominees for this award class number 17. They include luminaries like Olympic-winning gymnast Simone Biles, retired Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, Gold Star Father Khizr Khan, former US Senator John McCain (posthumous), former president of the AFL-CIO Richard Trumka (posthumous), and the most clearly worthy recipient of the group, Denzel Washington. 
  
  The MoF has only been awarded 647 times since it was established by President Kennedy in 1963, and of those, just 26 people have been awarded it "with distinction." The awards will be presented at the White House on July 7, 2022. 
  

• The best 4th of July tech sales we could find
  Between the July 4th holiday and Amazon Prime Day coming up in a couple of weeks, there are a bunch of tech deals available right now. Solo Stove's Independence Day sale knocks up to 45 percent off fire pits, while our favorite ThermoWorks food thermometer is down to only $79. Early Prime Day sales bring Eero 6 router packs and Blink security camera kits down to record-low prices, and you can still pick up a Google Nest WiFi router for as low as $115. Here are the best 4th of July tech sales we could find.
  Apple Watch Series 7Engadget
  Most colors of the Apple Watch Series 7 are down to $329 at Amazon, or $80 off their normal price. This is our current favorite smartwatch and we gave it a score of 90 for its larger display, faster charging and handy watchOS features.
  Buy Series 7 at Amazon - $329Amazon Eero 6Jon Fingas/Engadget
  Amazon has discounted most Eero 6 systems ahead of Prime Day. If you're a Prime member, you can snag the Eero 6 WiFi system for as low as $71, the Eero 6+ for as little as $90, the Eero Pro 6 starting at $148 and the Eero Pro 6E for only $179. These are some of the best prices we've seen on all of these WiFi 6 systems, especially for the Eero 6+ and Eero Pro 6E, both of which just came out earlier this year.
  Buy Eero 6 (Prime exclusive) at Amazon - $71Buy Eero 6+ (Prime exclusive) at Amazon - $90Buy Eero Pro 6 (Prime exclusive) at Amazon - $148Buy Eero Pro 6E (Prime exclusive) at Amazon - $179Echo Show 5 + Ring Doorbell bundleAmazon
  Today is the last day Prime members can get a bundle with the Echo Show 5 and the Ring Video Doorbell for only $85. That's 54 percent off what the pack would normally cost, so this is a solid deal if you're looking to add another level of security to your home. The smart doorbell will show you who's outside your home and the Echo Show 5 can show you the feed from the doorbell's camera.
  Buy Echo Show 5 bundle (Prime exclusive) at Amazon - $85Google Nest WiFiDaniel Cooper
  A number of Google Nest WiFi packs are on sale right now. You can pick up one router for $115 or a three-pack with one router and two access points for $199. We like this system for its minimalist design, easy setup and built-in Google Assistant smart speaker.
  Buy Nest WiFi (1 router) at Amazon - $115Buy Nest WiFi (1 router, 2 points) at Amazon - $199Solo Stove
  Solo Stove's latest sale knocks up to 45 percent off fire pits, so you can grab one for as low as $200. The Ranger is the cheapest of the bunch, followed by the midsized Bonfire for $220. Both of those are fairly portable, but if you want the biggest possible fire pit for your backyard, you can pick up the 38-pound Yukon for $400.
  Shop Solo Stove July 4th saleSonos refurbished saleKyle Maack/Engadget
  Sonos has discounted a bunch of refurbished devices again, bringing many of them down to the best prices we've seen. A refurbished Arc soundbar is $360 off and down to $540 while the refurbished Sonos One SL is on sale for $119.
  Shop Sonos refurbished saleSamsung 980 Pro (1TB)Samsung
  Samsung's 980 Pro SSD is 33 percent off and down to $140, which is one of the best prices we've seen. It earned a spot in our PS5 SSD guide for its reliability, compact, M.2 form factor and read speeds up to 7,000 MB/s. You will need a heatsink to use it with the PS5, but you can grab a bundle that includes one with the drive for only $170.
  Buy Samsung 980 Pro (1TB) at Amazon - $140Buy Samsung 980 Pro (1TB with heatsink) at Amazon - $170Blink Indoor and Outdoor camerasAmazon
  Prime members can save big on Blink Indoor and Outdoor cameras ahead of Prime Day. The Indoor camera kits start at $55 while the Outdoor kits start at $60. Plus, the Blink Mini wired security camera is on sale for $30 while the Blink Video Doorbell is down to only $35.
  Buy Blink Indoor (Prime exclusive) at Amazon - $55Buy Blink Outdoor (Prime exclusive) at Amazon - $60Buy Blink Mini (Prime exclusive) at Amazon - $30Buy Blink Video Doorbell (Prime exclusive) at Amazon - $35Anova Precision Cooker NanoAnova
  Anova's Precision Cooker Nano sous vide machine is on sale for $99 right now, or 34 percent off its normal rate. This machine earned a spot on our list of favorite kitchen gadgets because it combines affordability and precision in a compact package. It can also connect via Bluetooth to your phone so you can control temperature and time settings from within its app.
  Buy Precision Cooker Nano at Amazon - $99ThermoWorks Thermapen OneThermoWorks
  The red, white and blue colors of the Thermapen One are down to $79 for the Independence Day holiday. This is one of our favorite instant-read thermometers for cooking thanks to its fast readings, improved accuracy and bright display.
  Buy Thermapen One at ThermoWorks - $79Wahoo Fitness saleRafael Astorga / Wahoo
  In a rare sale, Wahoo Fitness has knocked up to 25 percent off its devices, from pedals to full bikes. You can pick up pedals for as low as $120, while the Elemnt Bolt bike computer is down to $240 and the Kickr smart trainer is on sale for $960.
  Shop Wahoo saleSatechi July 4th saleValentina Palladino / Engadget
  Through July 4th, you can get 20 percent off sitewide at Satechi with the code JULY20 at checkout. That makes it a good time to grab a USB-C hub for your laptop, a new wireless keyboard or a charging stand for your phone.
  Shop Satechi July 4th sale
  Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.
  

• Comcast’s refreshed Xfinity Stream app launches on Apple TV
  If you’re a Comcast Xfinity TV customer looking to move all of our TV watching into a single platform, then grab your finest off-brand champagne. The company has announced that the Xfinity Stream app is now available on Apple TV, both in its vanilla and 4K flavors. And users won’t just be able to watch live and on-demand programming, they’ll also be able to access material they’ve stored on their DVR, so long as they’re within the home.
  
  This is also the first opportunity to see the freshly-redesigned Xfinity Stream app, with what Comcast is calling a “new, more intuitive user interface.” You’ll also get improved personalization recommendations and editorial picks to help you find your next great show. Which will go nicely enough with the remainder of the off-brand champagne you’ll be toasting with, surely.
  

• Sonos' latest refurbished sale knocks $360 off the Arc soundbar
  Sonos has discounted many of its refurbished speakers to some of the best prices we9ve seen. A refurbished Arc will set you back just about $540, which is a whopping $360 cheaper than a brand new model. The Sonos Five, one of our favorite music-focused speakers, normally costs $549, but a refurbished model is on sale for just over $373, so you can save about $175. And if you9re looking to get your first Sonos speaker, we recommend the Sonos One SL, which you can pick up refurbished for only $119.
  Shop Sonos refurbished saleBuy Arc (refurbished) at Sonos - $540Buy Five (refurbished) at Sonos - $373Buy One SL (refurbished) at Sonos - $119
  You might be hesitant to buy a refurbished gadget, and that9s why it9s important to check out the conditions of a company9s refurbished program before doing so. Sonos includes all necessary accessories, manuals and replacement parts with its refurbished devices, and they come with the same one-year warranty as new items, too. Considering how expensive it can get to build your dream home entertainment system (whether with all Sonos devices or not), going the refurbished route is a good option if you9re on a budget.
  
  The Sonos Arc soundbar is one of our favorites and we gave it a score of 85 when it first came out. We like its modern design, excellent sound quality, support for Dolby Atmos and directional audio, plus its ability to recalibrate to your living room when you add additional speakers into the mix. The Sonos Five, on the other hand, is really for music lovers and those who want the best audio quality possible. We also appreciate its simple setup process and how easily it can be added to existing Sonos systems.
  
  Alternatively, the Sonos One SL is a good option for those who don9t have a sound system in place yet. It9s the microphone-free version of the Sonos One, which means it9s also good for those who don9t care to have a virtual assistant speaker in their homes. It has a compact yet attractive design, great sound quality, WiFi and AirPlay 2 support, and stereo audio capabilities when you pair two of them together. Plus, it9s one of the cheaper options you can get from Sonos — a brand new one costs $199, which isn9t bad, but grabbing a refurbished model for $119 is even better.
  
  Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.
  

• We’re heading for a messy, and expensive, breakup with natural gas
  Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has exacerbated a number of fault lines already present within the global energy supply chain. This is especially true in Europe, where many countries were reliant on the superstate's natural resources, and are now hastily looking to cut ties before the supply is shut off. This has revealed the fragility of Europe’s energy market, and caused it to drive up demand and prices for consumers all over the globe.
  
  In the UK, things are becoming increasingly dire and energy prices are skyrocketing. Bad planning on the infrastructure side and the cancellation of several major domestic energy efficiency programs are exacerbating the problem. It’s clear that real, useful action on the national level isn’t coming any time soon. So, I wondered, what would happen if I, personally, simply tried to break up with natural gas on my own? It’s relatively straightforward but, as it turns out, it comes at a cost that only one percenters will be able to bear. 
  Dan Cooper: Energy consumer
  
  
  I live in a four-bedroom, end-terraced house that’s around 150 years old and I’ve tried, as best as I can, to renovate it in an eco-friendly way. Since we bought it almost a decade ago, my wife and I have insulated most of the rooms, installed a new gas central heating system and hot water cylinder. We are, like nearly 20 million other households in the UK, reliant on natural gas to supply our home heating, hot water and cooking. And in the period between January 8th and April 7th, 2022, I was billed on the following usage:
  
  
  
  Usage (kWh)
  
  Cost Per Unit (GBP)
  
  Cost (GBP)
  
  Electricity (incl. standing charge)
  
  861
  
  0.32
  
  £307.18
  
  Gas (incl. standing charge)
  
  8696.7
  
  0.753
  
  £678.80
  
  Total (incl. tax and other charges)
  
  £1,035.28
  
  
  Essentially, I paid around $1,300 for my natural gas and electricity in the first quarter of 2022. That figure is likely to rise significantly, as the UK’s mandatory price cap on energy rose by more than 50 percent in April. A further price rise is scheduled for October, with the figure set at £2,800 per year, even though wholesale energy prices are no longer increasing. It’s likely that my energy bill for the first quarter of 2023 will be nearly twice what I’ve just paid. In 2020, the UK reported that 3.16 million households were unable to pay for their energy costs; that figure is likely to leap by 2023.
  
  In the US, the EIA says that monthly utility bills rose to a national average of $122 in 2021, with Hawaii ($178 per month) and Utah ($82 per month) the most expensive and cheapest state to buy energy in. The average price per kWh is around 13.7 cents, which is less than half the comparable price in the UK as it currently stands. For natural gas, the average natural gas price for residential customers was $10.84 per thousand cubic feet in 2020.
  The gas problemXinhua News Agency via Getty Images
  Much of Europe is reliant on natural gas, a significant proportion of which was supplied by Russia. Despite a rapid decline in domestic production, Europe sought to make natural gas the bedrock of its energy policy in the medium term. A 2013 policy paper written by Sami Andoura and Clémentine d’Oultremont outlined the reasons why officials were banking on it. “An economically attractive option for investors, a potential backup source for renewables and the cleanest fossil fuel, natural gas is expected to play an important role in the European transition towards a low-carbon economy by 2050.” This is despite the fact that “European energy resources are being depleted, and energy demand is growing.”
  
  In 2007, then EU Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs said that the bloc is “dependent on imports for over one half of our energy use.” He added that energy security is a “European security issue,” and that the bloc was vulnerable to disruption. “In 10 years, from 1995 to 2005, natural gas consumption in the EU countries has increased from 369 billion to 510 billion m3 [of gas] year,” he said. He added that the EU’s own production capacity and reserves peaked in the year 2000.
  
  The EU’s plan was to pivot toward Liquified Natural Gas (LNG), methane which has been filtered and cooled to a liquid for easier transportation. It enables energy supplies from further afield to be brought over to Europe to satisfy the continent’s need for natural gas. But the invasion of Ukraine by Russia has meant that this transition has now needed to be accelerated as leaders swear off Russian-sourced gas and oil. And while the plan is to push more investment into renewables, LNG imports are expected to fill much of the gap for now.
  
  Except, and this is crucial, many of the policy decisions made during this period seem to be in the belief that nothing bad would, or could, disrupt supply. Here in the UK, wholesale gas prices have risen five times since the start of 2021 but there’s very little infrastructure available to mitigate price fluctuations. 
  
  The Rough Field is a region in the North Sea situated 18 miles off the coast of Yorkshire, and was previously a source of natural gas for the UK. In 1985, however, it was converted into a natural gas storage facility with a capacity of 3.31 billion cubic meters. This one facility was able to fulfill the country’s energy needs for a little more than a week at a time and was considered a key asset to maintaining the UK’s energy security.
  
  However, Centrica, the private company spun out of the former state-owned British Gas, opted to close the field in 2017. It cited safety fears and the high cost of repair as justification for the move, saying that alternative sources of gas – in the form of LNG – were available. At the time, one gas trader told TransitionZero, reported by Worcester Bosch Greenstar 35CDi) is going to be a lot harder. The obvious choice is an Air Source Heat Pump (ASHP), or even a geothermal Ground Source Heat Pump (GSHP), both of which are more environmentally-friendly. After all, both are more energy-efficient than a gas boiler, and both run on electricity which is theoretically cleaner.
  
  More generally, the UK’s Energy Saving Trust, a Government-backed body with a mission to advocate for energy efficiency, says that the average Briton should expect to pay between £7,000 and £13,000 to install an ASHP. Much of that figure is dependent on how much of your home’s existing hardware you’ll need to replace. A GSHP is even more expensive, with the price starting at £14,000 and rising to closer to £20,000 depending on both your home’s existing plumbing and the need to dig a bore hole outside. 
  
  In my case, heat pump specialists told me that, give or take whatever nasties were found during installation, I could expect to pay up to £27,000 ($33,493). This included a new ASHP, radiators, hot water and buffer cylinders, pumps, piping, controllers, parts and labor. Mercifully, the UK is launching a scheme to offer a £5,000 ($6,200) discount on any new heat pump installations. But that still means that I’m paying north of £20,000 (and ripping out a lot of existing materials with plenty of life left in them) to make the switch. 
  
  In the US, there’s plenty of difference on a state level, but at the federal level, you can get a tax credit on the purchase of a qualifying GSHP. A system installed before January 1st, 2023, will earn a 26 percent credit, while a unit running before January 1st, 2024, will be eligible for a 22 percent credit. Purchasers of a qualifying ASHP, meanwhile, were entitled to a $300 tax credit until the end of 2021. 
  
  The contractors also provided me with a calculation of my potential energy savings over the following seven years. It turns out that I’d actually be spending £76 more on fuel per month, and £532 over the whole period. On one hand, if I had the cash to spare, it’s a small price to pay to dramatically reduce my personal carbon emissions. On the other, I was hoping that the initial investment would help me reduce costs overall, but that's not the case while the cost of gas is (ostensibly) cheaper than electricity. (This will, of course, change as energy prices surge in 2023, however, but I can only look at the data as it presently stands.)
  
  An aside: To be honest with you all, I was fully aware that the economic case for installing a heat pump was always going to be a shaky one. When speaking to industry figures last year, they said that the conversation around “payback” isn’t shared when installing standard gas boilers. It doesn’t help that, at present, levies on energy mean that natural gas is subsidized more than energy, disincentivizing people making the switch. The rise of electric cars, too, has meant that demand for power is going to increase sharply as more people switch, forcing greater investment in generation. What’s required just as urgent is a series of measures to promote energy efficiency to reduce overall demand for both gas and electricity. 
  Energy efficiencyDan Kitwood via Getty Images
  The UK has had an on-again, off-again relationship with climate change mitigation measures, which has helped sow the seeds of this latest crisis. The country, with low winter temperatures, relies almost exclusively on natural gas to heat its homes, its largest energy-consuming sector. As I reported last year, around 85 percent of UK homes are heated by burning natural gas in domestic boilers. 
  
  Work to reduce the UK’s extraordinary demand for natural gas was sabotaged by government in 2013. In 2009, under the previous Labour government, a series of levies on energy companies were introduced under the Community Energy Saving Programme. These levies were added to domestic energy bills, with the proceeds funding works to install wall or roof insulation, as well as energy-efficient heating systems and heating controllers for people on low incomes. The idea was to reduce demand for gas by making homes, and the systems that heated them, far more efficient since most of the UK’s housing stock was insufficiently insulated when built. 
  
  But in 2013, then-Conservative-Prime Minister David Cameron was reportedly quoted as saying that he wanted to reduce the cost of domestic energy bills by getting “rid of all the green crap.” At the time, build zero-carbon homes, and effectively banned the construction of onshore windfarms which would have helped reduce the cost of domestic electricity generation. 
  
  In 2021, the UK’s Committee on Climate Change examined the fallout from this decision, saying that Cameron’s decision kneecapped efforts to reduce demand for natural gas. As Insulate Britain – has undertaken protests at major traffic intersections to help highlight the need for a new retrofit program to be launched. The current government’s response to their pleas has been to call for tougher criminal penalties for protesters including a jail term of up to six months.
  A chart, courtesy of Carbon Brief, showing the impact of the removal of the 'green crap' levies on domestic energy-efficiency installations in the UK.Carbon Brief
  
  Making my own powerAndia via Getty Images
  Looking back through my energy bills over the last few years, my household’s annual electricity consumption is around 4,500kWh per year. A heat pump would likely add a further 6,000kWh to my energy bill, not to mention any additional cost for switching to all-electric cooking. It would be sensible to see if I could generate some, or all, of my own energy at home using solar panels to help reduce the potential bill costs. 
  
  The Energy Saving Trust says that the average homeowner can expect to pay £6,500 for a 4.2kWp system on the roof of their home. Environmental factors such as the country you live in and orientation of your property mean you can’t be certain how much power you’ll get out of a specific solar panel, but we can make educated guesses. For instance, the UK’s Renewable Energy Hub says you can expect to get around 850kW per year out of a 1kW system. For a theoretical 5kWp system in my location, the Energy Saving Trust thinks I’ll be able to generate around 4,581kWh per year. 
  
  Sadly, I live in an area where, even though my roof is brand new and strong enough to take panels, they aren’t allowed. This is because it is an area of “architectural or historic interest where the character and appearance [of the area] needs to be protected or improved.” Consequently, I needed to explore work to ground-mount solar panels in my back garden, which gets plenty of sunlight. 
  
  While I expected grounded panel installations to be much cheaper, they apparently aren’t. Two contractors I spoke to said that while their average roof-based installation is between £5,000 and £7,000, a 6kWp system on the ground would cost closer to £20,000. It would be, in fact, cheaper to build a sturdy shed in the bit of back yard I had my eye on and install a solar system on top of there, compared to just getting the mounting set up on the ground. That’s likely to spool out the cost even further, and that’s before we get to the point of talking about battery storage. 
  The billundefined undefined via Getty Images
  For this rather nifty thought experiment, the cost for me to be able to walk away from natural gas entirely would be north of £30,000 ($37,000). Given that the average UK salary is roughly £38,000, it’s a sum that is beyond the reach of most people without taking out a hefty loan. This is, fundamentally, why the need for government action is so urgent, since it is certainly beyond the ability of most people to achieve this change on their own. 
  
  In fact, it’s going to require significant movement from central government not just in the UK but elsewhere to really shake our love-hate relationship with natural gas. Unfortunately, given that it’s cheap, cleaner than coal and the energy lobby has plenty of muscle behind it, that’s not likely to happen soon. And so we’re stuck in a trap – it’s too expensive to do it ourselves (although that’ll certainly be an interesting experiment to undertake) and there’s no help coming, despite the energy crisis that’s unfurling around us.
  

• Ducati's first electric motorcycle is designed for MotoE racing
  Ducati has unveiled not just its first electric motorcycle but a key piece in the 2023 season of MotoE e-motocycle racing, it announced. The V21L prototype has that classic Ducati look but is swathed in carbon fiber and packs a 150HP electric motor with a 18kWh battery. As detailed in an announcement last year, Ducati will be the exclusive supplier of all 18 bikes used for FIM MotoE World Cup racing from 2023-2026.
  
  It weighs in at 225 kilograms (496 pounds), with just under half the weight for the battery — very heavy for a racing bike (143 pounds more than ICE models), but still 26 pounds under the MotoE specification for 2023. It9s also 35 kg (77 pounds) less than the Energica e-motocycles currently used in MotoE racing. 
  
  The V21L can be charged to 80 percent in just 45 minutes and has enough range to complete the required seven laps of key GP tracks. It has reportedly hit speeds of up to 171 MPH at the Mugello MotoGP Circuit in Tuscany. 
  
  The e-motorbike is quite a bet by (and on) Ducati considering it9s never done one before, but the company said it used its extensive racing experience to design the model. At the same time, it9ll take racing lessons learned back to its consumer models. 
  
  "At this moment, the most important challenges in this field remain those related to the size, weight, autonomy of the batteries and the availability of the charging networks," said Ducati R&D director Vincenzo De Silva in a statement. "Helping the company9s internal expertise to grow is already essential today to be ready when the time comes to put the first street electric Ducati into production."
  

• Meta allows select creators to post their NFTs on Facebook
  Non-fungible tokens have arrived on Facebook. Meta has confirmed to previously said that Meta was going to test NFT support on the social network. Meta Product Manager Navdeep Singh has posted photos on Twitter of what NFT integration would look like on Facebook9s, and similar to Instagram9s implementation, creators will have a digital collectibles tab on their profile where they can show off their NFTs.
  
  Creators will be able to post their collectibles as status updates that people can comment on and react to, and clicking on them shows information on the artwork. According to pic.twitter.com/TaV66zRanV
  — Navdeep Singh (@navdeep_ua) June 29, 2022
  Meta started testing NFT integration on Instagram in May, promising additional related features, such as allowing users to display their pieces as augmented reality stickers in Stories. NFTs are perhaps a more fitting addition to Instagram than Facebook, based on the platforms9 userbase, but Meta is determined to make them a part of its products. Zuckerberg wrote in the post announcing the arrival of digital collectibles on Instagram: "We9re starting building for NFTs, not just in our metaverse and Reality Labs work, but also across our family of apps."
  

• How to survive the inevitable CD revival
  In 1982, when the BBC’s prime-time technology show – Tomorrow’s World – did a segment on a new musical format called the “Compact Disc” the presenter skeptically asked "Whether there's a market for this, remains to be seen". We all know what happened next, but even in the early ‘80s the benefits of CDs should have been clear: high quality, non-degrading sound in a compact format. Oh, and you could even skip, shuffle and repeat tracks, which, in a pre-digital world, truly felt like the future
  
  The Compact Disc turns 40 this year, and there are already signals the format is primed for a mini revival. For the first time in 17 years, CD sales actually went up - and by almost 50 percent, according to the RIAA’s sales database.
  
  It’s still a long way from the format’s peak. In 2021, 46.6 million CDs were shipped in the US – compared to nearly a billion back in 2000. For context, that 46.6 million barely accounts for four percent of last year’s total music revenue. Vinyl albums, by contrast, sold fewer overall units (39.7M) but are more of a money spinner for artists (seven percent of total revenues).
  
  Some reports claim that the uptick in CD sales is mostly due to mega-artists like Adele and BTS releasing new albums (the former’s 30 accounted for two percent of total CD sales alone). But there are other potential – and more practical – contributing factors, too, including the pandemic.
  
  “CD sales are growing again now that retail stores are reopening and artists are back on tour. And while CDs haven’t yet seen the same type of revival as vinyl, the CD format remains a steady revenue stream for independent artists.” Rob Bach, COO of CD Baby told Engadget. They should know, as one of their services is the production and distribution of CDs for indie bands.
  
  Kevin Breuner, SVP of Artist Engagement and Education for the company, thinks there’s an increasing appetite for CDs as memorabilia, rather than just as a way of playing music. “Part of it is that streaming hasn’t replaced anything at the merch table … the appeal of a physical item like a CD is that it’s a piece of memorabilia in a live setting, something you can have signed by artists. Similarly, for artists, there’s nothing that can replace when a fan goes back to the merch table to buy a CD or a t-shirt; it’s always been that way.”
  
  There’s also the fact that what once seemed restrictive to younger listeners – having to own a song if you wanted to hear it – now presents a different way of enjoying music. A good album isn’t merely a collection of songs, but a structured experience to be enjoyed from start to finish. You can, of course, do this with streaming, but a CD requires getting up to change, Spotify is usually just a click away.
  The CD format is experiencing a nice comeback, I'm sure they'll sound pretty sweet played via the new @MarantzOfficial CD 60 player #audiophile#avtweepshttps://t.co/qnSDtm3RfZ
  — Arlen Schweiger (@ArlenSchweiger) May 23, 2022
  CDs launched in Japan in October 1982. The format and hardware to play it on didn’t land in the US and Europe until the following year. Adoption was relatively swift and just two years later the first million-selling CD album - Brothers in Arms by Dire Straits – would cement the shiny disc's popularity. By the early ‘90s, assisted by increasingly smaller, affordable and even portable players, the CD was the de facto way to listen to music. And for good reason.
  
  In this new digital world, the CD format was consistent in a way that analog never could be. What became known as the “Red Book” standard – two-channel 16-bit PCM at 44.1kHz – would be the prevailing specification from there on out. When someone used to say “it’s CD quality” one might assume that’s what they were referring to.
  
  This standard is considered the minimum requirement to be called “lossless” by today's streaming services. Of course, how or what you record at 16-bit/44.1 is really what matters, but that’s a whole other story.
  Jamal Saidi / reuters
  More important than any of this, for the labels and artists at least, is that the arrival of the CD meant they could re-sell us our entire music collection in the new wonder format. The ‘90s were a good time to be in the music industry, at least until Sean and Shawn came along.
  
  There were other benefits to this new digital medium, too. And not just the aforementioned ability to skip/program/shuffle tracks. With CDs, you could hide bonus tracks in new ways that would otherwise be visible on a vinyl record or instantly found by anyone that left a cassette tape running.
  
  Even more exciting? Once PCs started being a more common feature in homes, artists and labels realized you could bundle in entirely different bonus media like videos and karaoke versions – as found on some versions of through hell as they dig up the streets. If your disc was damaged, it also might work in some players yet, frustratingly, not in others. Many an hour has been wasted cleaning and reseating a CD in the hope it would take.
  Are CD’s the aesthetic now? 👀 https://t.co/9Ir6OFMjG5
  — Mother of the House of Shaming (@mmkayrulz) May 26, 2022
  Of course, many CD players took only one disc, so you’d frequently be swapping them out. If you knew someone who had every CD in the right jewel case, that was often a tell that this person doesn’t listen to their music enthusiastically or often enough (It’s possible they were just slightly organized, but where’s the fun in that). This “which disc is in which case” problem became even worse when someone decided CD singles – one song you wanted and some less good songs on one disc – were a good idea.
  
  Not to mention the fragility of the cases they came in. Jewel case hinges would crack just by looking at them, while center hubs (the part that held the disc in place) would crumble no matter how well you handled things. Most often while moving house or the aforementioned enthusiastic listening with friends.
  
  Unlike other formats, the CD is unique in that it played a part in its own demise. With the advent of CD burners, you could easily copy your friends’ album collection, print out album artwork and even print circular stickers with the CD art on them, too. This was how music was stolen for the short period when CD burners and blank discs were affordable and online piracy hadn’t taken hold. The CD was then effectively relegated to the role of external storage medium before quietly regressing into obscurity. Until now, of course.
  
  With those small challenges in mind, if you’re ready and willing to give the humble Compact Disc another, uhm, spin, here are some recommendations, new and old, cheap and not-so, to dive into the world of the CD.
  Where to find CDs
  Maybe you already have a collection, if so, you’re good to go. But if you’re new around here, you’re going to want to grab a few albums to get you started. For current, mainstream music you’ll be able to find a selection at Target and Walmart. Jeff Bezos will of course also happily sell you a CD. Tower Records also recently returned as an online-only store which also has a good selection of CDs. For more of an indie-artist focus, there’s of course Bandcamp – or the good old-fashioned merch stall at a gig.
  
  You can, of course, also navigate the secondhand market either locally (thrift stores, local record shops) or online at places like Discogs, eBay or even apps like Letgo.
  What you may already ownAaron Souppouris / Engadget
  Maybe, you have a CD player unironically in your front room right now. We admire the dedication. Or perhaps you have an old one in storage somewhere? But if you’re young enough to have gone straight to streaming, it’s worth asking family and friends in case they have one gathering dust somewhere.
  
  That said, you might even own a CD player without even knowing it. If you have an Xbox with a disc drive, congratulations, you’re already in the club. PlayStation fans, however, need either a PS1 (original), a PS2 or a PS3, as after that Sony decided the functionality for audio discs was no longer needed.
  Cheap and easy
  There was a brief period where the only CD player in the house might well have been in your PC. Primarily used for installing software or the drivers for a peripheral (yeah, we know, bad times) the CD-ROM drive was also good for playing music too.
  
  Most PC cases these days aren’t really made with a CD-R drive in mind, and the last Mac to include a CD drive was the 2012 MacBook Pro. That model was discontinued in 2016, the same year Apple nixed the iPhone’s headphone jack - a rough year for many music listeners.
  
  No worries, there’s a sort of dongle for that. You can pick up a USB CD-Drive for a little over the price of one album, such as this one for a reasonable $22. You’ll also get DVD and CD burning functionality thrown in, which surely will also be due their own revivals before long.
  A new take on a classicJames Trew / Engadget
  For many, the advent of the portable CD player was a long time coming. But the format wasn’t entirely suited to being in motion. Not initially at least, with even the slightest of movements causing a disc to skip. Over time this was resolved as players were able to buffer more music to ride out those bumps.
  
  NINM Labs’ “Long Time No See” portable CD player (approx $117) blends the best of the past with modern conveniences like Bluetooth and USB power. The transparent design gives off early-aughts Game Boy vibes, while a clever speaker “lid” accessory means you’re never without a way to listen to those discs. That said, there’s of course the aforementioned Bluetooth for connecting to speakers and headphones and even a good old fashioned headphone port.
  
  What’s more, you can run the player directly from USB power or AA batteries. You can even charge said batteries while it’s connected over USB. And the whole thing is magnetic, too, so you can get creative with where you place it.
  Taking things to a (much) higher levelJames Trew / Engadget
  For the most authentic experience, it has to be HiFi separates. In the ‘90s a good HiFi was the quickest way to let someone know you were serious about music. No MegaBASS or often even an EQ for these dedicated listeners, just pure unadulterated sound. They may also be seen with magic pebbles or some CDs in the freezer.
  
  Cambridge Audio has been around long enough to know what makes a great CD player. Its CXC “player” comes right in at $700. The CXC doesn’t even convert the CD to audio, it passes the digital signal directly to… something else, as long as it has either S/PDIF coaxial or TOSLINK in puts. You may as well complete the look with Cambridge Audio’s CXA61 amplifier ($1,100) with a DAC. It’s the perfect companion for the CXC both in terms of looks and connectivity. Of course, spending $1,800 on fancy HiFi gear doesn’t always mean you’re set. You still need some speakers, so you might as well toss in the SX60 bookshelf set for the fully-loaded CD setup.
  

• Anova's Precision Cooker Nano drops to $99 at Amazon
  If you9re looking to experiment more in the kitchen, sous vide cooking could be a way to do that. Anova makes a couple of WiFi-connected sous vide machines that we like, and our favorite, the Precision Cooker Nano, is back on sale for $99. That9s 34 percent off and one of the best prices we9ve seen it, making it a good time to grab the entry-level device.
  Buy Precision Cooker Nano at Amazon - $99
  You9ll need a couple of things to give sous vide a try, but the one that you probably don9t already have at home is a machine like the Nano. This method of cooking involves putting food in a sealable bag and then cooking it in a water bath. Devices like the Nano constantly circulate that water while keeping it at a precise temperature so your food comes out perfectly done, not over- or undercooked.
  
  Anova9s Precision Cooker Nano earned a spot on our list of favorite kitchen gadgets because it combines affordability and precision in a compact device. Normally priced at $149, the Nano comes in at only 1.7 pounds and its small enough to fit in your kitchen9s utensil drawer. It uses 750 watts of power to heat water for up to 3,000 hours before you9ll need to recharge it, so you9ll be able to conduct a number of sous vide tests before it needs more juice.
  
  The Nano has onboard controls that you can use to adjust temperature and timing, or you can connect it via Bluetooth to your phone and do so via its companion mobile app. Unlike more expensive Anova machines, the Nano doesn9t connect via WiFi, and it also has a fixed clamp that attaches to your cooking pot, rather than an adjustable one. Aside from those features, the biggest differences between the Nano and Anova9s standard Precision Cooker lie in wattage and size. But we think the Nano is a great option for all home cooks, and sous vide newbies will find it especially easy to use.
  
  Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.
  

• NVIDIA's new Shield update can stop late-night movies waking up the entire house
  NVIDIA has rolled out Experience Upgrade v9.1 for all Shield TV and TV Pro units, and one of the features it brings will make watching action movies without earphones more feasible for night owls. The new Night Listening mode can optimize sounds when it9s switched on so that loud explosions are subdued while quiet dialogue gets emphasized even while the volume is on low. "Enjoy watching movies or playing games at night without disturbing your family," the company said in its announcement. To note, the new model is available while using HDMI audio only. 
  
  In addition to Night Listening, the latest update also enables Shield TVs to automatically switch to low latency game mode on all supported television and display models. So long as a display has Automatic Low Latency Mode (ALLM), the streaming media device will be able to ensure that it9s activated while a user is playing, whether it9s a local game or something from the GeForce NOW cloud gaming service. By reducing latency, ALLM reduces lag and allows a smoother, more responsive gaming experience. Upgrade 9.1 comes with a few more features that include the ability to disable displaying HDR/Dolby Vision content and to get notifications when the microphone is turned on. 
  
  Shield TV9s previous update brought Android 11 to all models and added access to a new Google Keyboard with support for voice searches. It also fixed a a vulnerability that allowed remote attackers to cause a permanent denial of service. While 9.1 doesn9t come with a big security fix, it does include a bunch of bug fixes for both Shield TV app and devices.
  

• Uber's second safety report shows a fall in assaults but traffic deaths rise
  Uber has released its second bi-annual safety report covering the period between 2019 and 2020. The headline statistic is that the ride sharing company received 3,824 reports of sexual assault or misconduct via its app during this time. In addition, 20 people were killed in assaults and 101 fatalities as a consequence of an Uber-related crash, although the company is keep to emphasize the majority of those cases were caused by a third-party driver.
  
  Compared to the last safety report, which covered the years 2017 and 2018, the figures for sexual assault have fallen from 5,981 then to 3,824 now. As both said that more than 99.9 percent of its rides happen without incident, and that these disclosures are an affirmation of its commitment to safety rather than the opposite.
  

• The Morning After: Major League Baseball wants to deploy strike zone robo-umpires in 2024
  Major League Baseball will "likely" introduce an Automated Strike Zone System starting in 2024, commissioner Rob Manfred told ESPN. These robot umpires may call all balls and strikes then relay the information to a plate umpire, or be part of a replay review system that allows managers to challenge calls.
  
  The comments come following outrage over umpires' missed calls in recent games, including a brutal low strike error during a Detroit Tigers and Minnesota Twins game. MLB has been experimenting with robo-umpires in the Atlantic League since 2019, using similar technology to golf speed-measurement devices.
  
  There may be other benefits to introducing the tech. According to MLB data, mechanical systems have already made Atlantic league games mercifully shorter by a full nine minutes. And I say mercifully from the perspective of a Brit who’s watched cricket matches.
  
  —Mat Smith
  
   
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  When it launched last year, the DJI Mavic 3 grabbed a lot of headlines with features like a Four Thirds sensor and a second 7X telephoto camera. But it launched without ActiveTrack and QuickShot features which meant potential buyers couldn’t get a full picture of the drone before paying up to $5,000 for one.
  
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  Samsung Gaming Hub goes live today with Twitch, Xbox Game Pass and moreThe game-centric menu is rolling out to 2022 Samsung smart TVs and smart monitors.'
  Samsung’s Gaming Hub is now live on its 2022 smart TVs and smart monitors, and it's adding two services from Amazon to its game-streaming lineup: Twitch and Luna. Twitch is available today, while Luna is coming soon. Gamers will also be able to access Xbox Game Pass now, as well as apps for NVIDIA GeForce NOW, Google Stadia and Utomik in the same designated area on their TVs. The company plans to release details about the gaming hub's rollout to earlier Samsung smart TV models at a later date.
  
  Boring Company's underground Loop just hit the Las Vegas StripWhy walk less than a mile?A swarm of Cruise robotaxis blocked San Francisco traffic for hoursThe service launched last month.'
  A small fleet of Cruise robotaxis in San Francisco suddenly stopped operating on Tuesday night, effectively blocking traffic on a street in the city's Fillmore district for a couple of hours until employees were able to arrive. Cruise — which is General Motor’s AV subsidiary — only launched its commercial robotaxi service in the city last week. The rides feature no human safety driver, are geo-restricted to certain streets and can only operate in the late evening hours.
  
  Continue reading.
  

• Google offers developers $90 million to settle Play Store billing fight
  Google has offered to put $90 million on the table to settle a brewing conflict between it and a number of Android developers. As statement, Google said that, if the court approves the offer, it will put $90 million into a fund to “support US developers who earned two million dollars of less in annual revenue through Google Play during each year from 2016-2021.” If it goes ahead, Google will automatically notify the people who qualify for a payout, as well as affirm several changes it’s already started to make. This includes lowering the commissionto 15 percent for the first $1 million in annual revenue, enabling developers to communicate with users outside of the app, and make it easier to use rival app stores and billing platforms.
  

• Tesla faces new lawsuit over claims of racism and harassment at its Fremont factory
  Tesla is facing another lawsuit by a group of former and current workers at its Fremont factory who allege that it knew about but failed to stop racist slurs, harassment and more, sued by six women who accused it of "rampant" sexual harassment at the Fremont factory with catcalling, inappropriate touching, sexual comments and more. In December, a jury awarded former elevator operator Owen Diaz $137 million over racial abuse. The award was later reduced to $15 million, but that was rejected by Diaz and a federal judge ordered a new damages trial. Tesla has yet to comment on the latest lawsuit and eliminated its press relations department in 2020. 
  

• Instagram test turns all video posts into Reels
  It looks like Meta truly is making a big push for Reels. Social media consultant Matt Navarra has posted a screenshot on Twitter showing a notice for an experimental Instagram feature that says all video posts would be shared as Reels on the app. If your account is public, that means anyone can discover your video and use your original audio to create their own Reel. Only friends would see your video if your profile is private, but other users can still create a remix with your Reel and download it as part of their remix. The only way to ensure nobody uses your Reel for remixes is to turn the option off in Settings or to disable it for each video you post.
  Instagram is now making EVERY video a Reel
  
  h/t @ChristinaSBGpic.twitter.com/YLRDhT1nw0
  — Matt Navarra (@MattNavarra) June 30, 2022
  As fourth quarterly earnings report for 2021, Mark Zuckerberg said that Reels is now Meta9s fastest growing content format. Meta chief product officer Chris Cox called Reels a "bright point" for the company, as well, in a recent memo shared with employees warning them about "serious times" ahead due to slowing growth. He also said that one of the projects Meta intends to focus on for the second half of 2022 is monetizing Reels as quickly as possible. 
  
  Apparently, time spent viewing the short-form videos has more than doubled since last year, with 80 percent of that growth coming from Facebook. That9s why the company will go as far as to redesign Instagram9s and Facebook9s home pages to better incorporate the short videos. Turning all video posts into Reels would give the company more content to circulate, which in turn would translate to more time viewing videos on the platform and bigger potential ad earnings for when the format is finally monetized. That said, not all experimental Instagram features make it to wide release, and it remains to be seen whether this one will survive the testing phase.
  

• The EU introduces new crypto rules to protect against fraud and climate impact
  Europe and its member states have provisionally agreed on new crypto regulations that aim to protect consumers and service providers, the European Parliament announced. Called "MiCA" (markets in crypto-assets), it9s designed to guard against things like fraud, criminal activity, climate impact and more. 
  
  "In the Wild West of the crypto-world, MiCA will be a global standard setter," said Germany9s MEP Stefan Berger in a statement. "MiCA will ensure a harmonised market, provide legal certainty for crypto-asset issuers, guarantee a level playing field for service providers and ensure high standards for consumer protection." 
  
  A new legal framework is designed to protect market integrating by regulating public crypto offerings. A key provision is a public register administered by the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) to address money laundering concerns. Major crypto-asset service provider (CASPs) will also have to disclose energy consumption and declare environmental and climate impact data to their national authority, which will in turn inform ESMA. 
  
  This new regulation strengthens the European framework to fight money-laundering, reduces the risks of fraud and makes crypto-asset transactions more secure. The EU travel rule will ensure that CASPs can prevent and detect sanctioned addresses and that transfers of crypto-assets are fully traceable.
  
  The law covers cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ether, but NFTs (nonfungible tokens) including "cinema tickets, digital collectibles from clothing brands or in-game items in computer games" will be exempt. However, those could later be re-classified as financial instruments or crytpo assets subject to MiCA, according to the rules. 
  
  The law is still provisional, with key details like whether CASPs will need to be located in the EU still being debated, according to collapse of TerraUSD and other tokens, the freezing of withdrawals at Celsius and a general decline in the market. The US has yet to implement its own rules on crypto, but US senators recently introduced a bipartisan bill designed to do just that. 
  

• What’s New in Debian 11 “Bullseye”?
  Image
  Debian is a preferred choice of millions of Linux users for some of the most popular and powerful operating systems, like Ubuntu and its derivatives are based on Debian.
  Debian 11has finally been released, finally, after a long development work of two years. Bullseye – that’s the name given to this latest Debian Linux distro. So what are the updates and upgrades? In this article, let’s check out what’s new in Debian 11.
  Debian 11’s ArchitectureDebian supports a good range of hardware architectures. 
  Supported Architectures
  ARM EABI (armel) ARMv7 (EABI hard-float ABI and armhf) 64-bit ARM (arm64) 32-bit PC (i386) 64-bit PC (amd64) Little-endian MIPS (mipsel) 64-bit little-endian PowerPC 64-bit little-endian MIPS IBM System z (s390x)Not Supported Hardware
  Old MIPS 32-bit CPUsLinux Kernel InformationDebian 11 supports the Linux Kernel 5.10 LTS. Debian 10 Buster, the earlier version to Debian 11, used Linux Kernel 4.19 while released. A newer kernel means a new set of bug fixes, new hardware support, and improved performance.
  This is the perfect kernel for Debian bullseye considering the Debian lifecycle.   
  Supports exFATexFAT is the shortened form of the Extensible File Allocation Table. It’s a filesystem used for flash memory, such as SD cards and USB flash drives.
  Now Debian 11 provides support for the exFAT. For mounting the exFAT filesystem, you don’t need the filesystem-in-userspace implementation provided by the exfat-fuse package additionally anymore. Thanks to kernel 5.10! exFAT comes in handy with it. Tools for checking and creating an exFAT are given in the exfatprogs package.
  Bauhaus Movement Inspired Theme & WallpaperDebian features cool wallpapers and a default theme for each of the major releases. Debian 11’s theme is inspired by the Bauhaus movement. Bauhaus means “building house” and it was an art and design movement from 20th century Germany. The Bauhaus movement revolved around abstract, geometric style featuring little emotion or sentiments. 
  Its modern aesthetic still is immensely influential for designers, architects, and artists. You can see this theme all through Debian 11 whether it’s the installer, login window, or the Grub menu.
  Newer Desktop Environment VersionsDebian 11 offers newer desktop environment versions. Desktop flavors you get here are, KDE Plasma 5.20, GNOME 3.38, LXDE 11, LXQt 0.16, Xfce 4.16, and MATE 1.24. Debian prefers stability and it’s quite clear from the desktop environments. You might not get the latest cutting-edge distributions like Fedora or Arch/Manjaro.
  Updated PackagesDebian 11 consists of more than 11,294 new packages out of 59,551 packages. It also reduced over 9,519 “obsolete” packages and removed 42,821 that were updated. A total of 5,434 packages remained as they were.
  A good number of software applications and package updates are included in Debian bullseye, such as Apache 2.4.48, Calligra 3.2, Emacs 27.1, LibreOffice 7.0, Inkscape 1.0.2, Linux kernel 5.10 series, Perl 5.32, PHP 7.4, Vim 8.2, PostgreSQL 13, and the list goes on. All these ready-to-use software packages are built with over 30,000 source packages.
  With this huge selection of packages and wide architecture support, Debian has always stayed committed to its aim of being The Universal Operating System.
  Improved Printer and Scanner FeaturesDebian 11 presents a new ipp-usb package. It is built with a vendor-neutral IPP-over-USB protocol that is supported by many latest printers. So, many modern-day printers will be supported now by Debian. And you won’t need the drivers for that.
  SANE driverless backend lets you use scanners without any trouble.
  EndnotesWant to try Debian Bullseye? Get it from here. You can also check “bullseye” with Live Images without installing it on your PC. This will load and run the entire OS in read-only mode. These live images are available for the i386 and amd64 architectures in the form of USB sticks, DVDs, and netboot setups. Debian Live has a standard image. So you can try a basic Debian without any GUIs.
  And that’s the ending of this article. Hope you find our Debian 11 guide helpful.
  #Linux Debian News

• Nvidia Linux drivers causing random hard crashes and now a major security risk still not fixed after 5+ months
  Image The recent fiasco with Nvidia trying to block Hardware Unboxed from future GPU review samples for the content of their review is one example of how they choose to play this game. This hatred is not only shared by reviewers, but also developers and especially Linux users.
  The infamous Torvalds videos still traverse the web today as Nvidia conjures up another evil plan to suck up more of your money and market share. This is not just one off shoot case; oh how much I wish it was. I just want my computer to work.
  If anyone has used Sway-WM with an Nvidia GPU I’m sure they would remember the –my-next-gpu-wont-be-nvidia option.
  These are a few examples of many.
  The Nvidia Linux drivers have never been good but whatever has been happening at Nvidia for the past decade has to stop today. The topic in question today is this bug: [https://forums.developer.nvidia.com/t/bug-report-455-23-04-kernel-panic-due-to-null-pointer-dereference]
  This bug causes hard irrecoverable crashes from driver 440+. This issue is still happening 5+ months later with no end in sight. At first users could work around this by using an older DKMS driver along with a LTS kernel. However today this is no longer possible. Many distributions of Linux are now dropping the old kernels. DKMS cannot build. The users are now FORCED with this “choice”:
  {Use an older driver and risk security implications} or {“use” the new drivers that cause random irrecoverable crashes.}
  This issue is only going to get more and more prevalent as the kernel is a core dependency by definition. This is just another example of the implications of an unsafe older kernel causing issue for users: https://archlinux.org/news/moving-to-zstandard-images-by-default-on-mkinitcpio/
  If you use Linux or care about the implications of a GPU monopoly, consider AMD. Nvidia is already rearing its ugly head and AMD is actually putting up a fight this year.
  #Linux NVIDIA News

• MuseScore Created New Font in Memory of Original SCORE Program Creator
  Image
  MuseScore represents a free notation software for operating systems such as Windows, macOS and Linux. It is designed and suitable for music teachers, students & both amateur and professional composers. MuseScore is released as FOSS under the GNU GPL license and it’s accompanied by freemium MuseScore.com sheet music catalogue with mobile score viewer, playback app and an online score sharing platform. In 2018, the MuseScore company was acquired by Ultimate Guitar, which included full-time paid developers in the open source team. Since 2019 the MuseScore design team has been led by Martin Keary, known as blogger Tantacrul, who has consistently criticized composer software in connection with design and usability. From that moment on, a qualitative change was set in motion in MuseScore.
  
  Historically, the engraving quality in MuseScore has not been entirely satisfactory. After the review by Martin Keary, MuseScore product owner (previously known as MuseScore head of design) and Simon Smith, an engraving expert, who has produced multiple detailed reports on the engraving quality of MuseScore 3.5, it has become apparent that some key engraving issues should be resolved immediately.That would have a significant impact on the overall quality of our scores. Therefore, these changes will considerably improve the quality of scores published in the sheet music catalog, MuseScore.com.
  
  The MuseScore 3.6 was called 'engraving release,' which addressed many of the biggest issues affecting sheet music's layout and appearance and resulted from a massive collaboration between the community and internal team.
  
   
  
  Two of the most notable additions in this release are Leland, our new notation font and Edwin, our new typeface.
  
  Leland is a highly sophisticated notation style created by Martin Keary & Simon Smith. Leland aims to provide a classic notation style that feels 'just right' with a balanced, consistent weight and a finessed appearance that avoids overly stylized quirks.
  
  The new typeface, Edwin, is based on the New Century Schoolbook, which has long been the typeface of choice by some of the world's leading publishers, explicitly chosen as a complementary companion to Leland. We have also provided new default style settings (margins, line thickness, etc.) to compliment Leland and Edwin, which match conventions used by the world's leading publishing houses.
  
  “Then there's our new typeface, Edwin, which is an open license version of new Century Schoolbook - long a favourite of professional publishers, like Boosey and Hawkes. But since there is no music written yet, you'll be forgiven for missing the largest change of all: our new notation font: Leland, which is named after Leland Smith, the creator of a now abandoned application called SCORE, which was known for the amazing quality of its engraving. We have spent a lot of time finessing this font to be a world beater.”
  
  — Martin Keary, product owner of MuseScore
  
  Equally as important as the new notation style is the new vertical layout system. This is switched on by default for new scores and can be activated on older scores too. It is a tremendous improvement to how staves are vertically arranged and will save the composer’s work hours by significantly reducing his reliance on vertical spacers and manual adjustment.
  
  MuseScore 3.6 developers also created a system for automatically organizing the instruments on your score to conform with a range of common conventions (orchestral, marching band, etc.). Besides, newly created scores will also be accurately bracketed by default. A user can even specify soloists, which will be arranged and bracketed according to your chosen convention. These three new systems result from a collaboration between Simon Smith and the MuseScore community member, Niek van den Berg.
  
  MuseScore team has also greatly improved how the software displays the notation fonts: Emmentaler and Bravura, which more accurately match the original designers' intentions and have included a new jazz font called 'Petaluma' designed by Anthony Hughes at Steinberg.
  
  Lastly, MuseScore has made some beneficial improvements to the export process, including a new dialog containing lots of practical and time-saving settings. This work was implemented by one more community member, Casper Jeukendrup.
  
  The team's current plans are to improve the engraving capabilities of MuseScore, including substantial overhauls to the horizontal spacing and beaming systems. MuseScore 3.6 may be a massive step, although there is a great deal of work ahead.
  
  Links
  
  Official release notes: MuseScore 3.6
  
  Martin Keary’s video: “How I Designed a Free Music Font for 5 Million Musicians (MuseScore 3.6)”
  
  Official video: “MuseScore 3.6 - A Massive Engraving Overhaul!”
  
  Download MuseScore for free: MuseScore.org
  #Linux Music Software FOSS

• Virtual Machine Startup Shells Closes the Digital Divide One Cloud Computer at a Time
  Image Startup turns devices you probably already own - from smartphones and tablets to smart TVs and game consoles - into full-fledged computers.
  Shells (shells.com), a new entrant in the virtual machine and cloud computing space, is excited to launch their new product which gives new users the freedom to code and create on nearly any device with an internet connection.  Flexibility, ease, and competitive pricing are a focus for Shells which makes it easy for a user to start-up their own virtual cloud computer in minutes.  The company is also offering multiple Linux distros (and continuing to add more offerings) to ensure the user can have the computer that they “want” to have and are most comfortable with.
  
  The US-based startup Shells turns idle screens, including smart TVs, tablets, older or low-spec laptops, gaming consoles, smartphones, and more, into fully-functioning cloud computers. The company utilizes real computers, with Intel processors and top-of-the-line components, to send processing power into your device of choice. When a user accesses their Shell, they are essentially seeing the screen of the computer being hosted in the cloud - rather than relying on the processing power of the device they’re physically using.
  
  Shells was designed to run seamlessly on a number of devices that most users likely already own, as long as it can open an internet browser or run one of Shells’ dedicated applications for iOS or Android. Shells are always on and always up to date, ensuring speed and security while avoiding the need to constantly upgrade or buy new hardware.
  
  Shells offers four tiers (Lite, Basic, Plus, and Pro) catering to casual users and professionals alike. Shells Pro targets the latter, and offers a quad-core virtual CPU, 8GB of RAM, 160GB of storage, and unlimited access and bandwidth which is a great option for software engineers, music producers, video editors, and other digital creatives.
  
  Using your Shell for testing eliminates the worry associated with tasks or software that could potentially break the development environment on your main computer or laptop. Because Shells are running round the clock, users can compile on any device without overheating - and allow large compile jobs to complete in the background or overnight. Shells also enables snapshots, so a user can revert their system to a previous date or time. In the event of a major error, simply reinstall your operating system in seconds.
  
  “What Dropbox did for cloud storage, Shells endeavors to accomplish for cloud computing at large,” says CEO Alex Lee. “Shells offers developers a one-stop shop for testing and deployment, on any device that can connect to the web. With the ability to use different operating systems, both Windows and Linux, developers can utilize their favorite IDE on the operating system they need. We also offer the added advantage of being able to utilize just about any device for that preferred IDE, giving devs a level of flexibility previously not available.”
  
  “Shells is hyper focused on closing the digital divide as it relates to fair and equal access to computers - an issue that has been unfortunately exacerbated by the ongoing pandemic,” Lee continues. “We see Shells as more than just a cloud computing solution - it’s leveling the playing field for anyone interested in coding, regardless of whether they have a high-end computer at home or not.”
  
  Follow Shells for more information on service availability, new features, and the future of “bring your own device” cloud computing:
  
  Website: https://www.shells.com
  
  Twitter: @shellsdotcom
  
  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shellsdotcom
  
  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shellscom
  #virtual-machine #cloud-computing #Shells

• Ubuntu 20.10 “Groovy Gorilla” Arrives With Linux 5.8, GNOME 3.38, Raspberry Pi 4 Support
  Article Images Image
  Just two days ago, Ubuntu marked the 16th anniversary of its first ever release, Ubuntu 4.10 “Warty Warthog,” which showed Linux could be a more user friendly operating system.
  
  Back to now, after the six months of development cycle and the release of the current long-term Ubuntu 20.04 “Focal Fossa,” Canonical has announced a new version called Ubuntu 20.10 “Groovy Gorilla” along with its seven official flavor: Kubuntu, Lubuntu, Ubuntu MATE, Ubuntu Kylin, Xubuntu, Ubuntu Budgie, and Ubuntu Studio.
  
  Ubuntu 20.10 is a short term or non-LTS release, which means it will be supported for 9 months until July 2021. Though v20.10 does not seem a major release, it does come with a lot of exciting and new features. So, let’s see what Ubuntu 20.10 “Groovy Gorilla” has to offer:
  New Features in Ubuntu 20.10 “Groovy Gorilla”
  
  Ubuntu desktop for Raspberry Pi 4
  Starting with one of the most important enhancements, Ubuntu 20.10 has become the first Ubuntu release to feature desktop images for the Raspberry Pi 4. Yes, you can now download and run Ubuntu 20.10 desktop on your Raspberry Pi models with at least 4GB of RAM.
  
  Even both Server and Desktop images also support the new Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4. The 20.10 images may still boot on earlier models, but new Desktop images only built for the arm64 architecture and officially only support the Pi 4 variant with 4GB or 8GB RAM.
  Linux Kernel 5.8
  
  
  Upgrading the previous Linux kernel 5.4, the latest Ubuntu 20.10 ships the new Linux kernel 5.8, which is dubbed��“the biggest release of all time” by Linus Torvalds as it contains the highest number of over 17595 commits.
  
  So it’s obvious that Linux 5.8 brings numerous updates, new features, and hardware support. For instance, Kernel Event Notification Mechanism, Intel Tiger Lake Thunderbolt support, extended IPv6 Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) support, Inline Encryption hardware support, Thunderbolt support for Intel Tiger Lake and non-x86 systems, and initial support for booting POWER10 processors.
  GNOME 3.38 Desktop Environment
  
  
  Another key change that Ubuntu 20.10 includes is the latest version of GNOME desktop environment, which enhances the visual appearance, performance, and user experience of Ubuntu.
  
  One of my favorite features that GNOME 3.38 introduces is a much-needed separate “Restart” button in the System menu.
  
  
  
  Among other enhancements, GNOME 3.38 also includes:
  Better multi-monitor support Revamped GNOME Screenshot app Customizable App Grid with no “Frequent Apps” tab Battery percentage indicator New Welcome Tour app written in Rust Core GNOME apps improvementsShare Wi-Fi hotspot Via QR Code
  
  
  If you’re the person who wants to share the system’s Internet with other devices wirelessly, this feature of sharing Wi-Fi hotspot through QR code will definitely please you.
  
  Thanks to GNOME 3.38, you can now turn your Linux system into a portable Wi-Fi hotspot by sharing QR code with the devices like laptops, tablets, and mobiles.
  Add events in GNOME Calendar app
  
  
  Forget to remember the events? A pre-installed GNOME Calendar app now lets you add new events (birthday, meetings, reminders, releases), which displays in the message tray. Instead of adding new events manually, you can also sync your events from Google, Microsoft, or Nextcloud calendars after adding online accounts from the settings.
  Active Directory Support
  
  
  In the Ubiquity installer, Ubuntu 20.10 has also added an optional feature to enable Active Directory (AD) integration. If you check the option, you’ll be directed to configure the AD by giving information about the domain, administrator, and password.
  
  
  Tools and Software upgrade
  
  
  Ubuntu 20.10 also features the updated tools, software, and subsystems to their new versions. This includes:
  glibc 2.32, GCC 10, LLVM 11 OpenJDK 11 rustc 1.41 Python 3.8.6, Ruby 2.7.0, PHP 7.4.9 perl 5.30 golang 1.13 Firefox 81 LibreOffice 7.0.2 Thunderbird 78.3.2 BlueZ 5.55 NetworkManager 1.26.2Other enhancements to Ubuntu 20.10:Nftables replaces iptables as default backend for the firewall Better support for fingerprint login Cloud images with KVM kernels boot without an initramfs by default Snap pre-seeding optimizations for boot time improvements
  A full release notes of Ubuntu 20.10 is also available to read right from here.
  How To Download Or Upgrade To Ubuntu 20.10
  If you’re looking for a fresh installation of Ubuntu 20.10, download the ISO image available for several platforms such as Desktop, Server, Cloud, and IoT.
  
  But if you’re already using the previous version of Ubuntu, you can also easily upgrade your system to the Ubuntu 20.10. For upgrading, you must be using Ubuntu 20.04 LTS as you cannot directly reach 20.10 from 19.10, 19.04, 18.10, 18.04, 17.04, or 16.04. You should first hop on to v20.04 and then to the latest v20.10.
  
  As Ubuntu 20.10 is a non-LTS version and by design, Ubuntu only notifies a new LTS release, you need to upgrade manually by either choosing a GUI method using the built-in Software Updater tool or a command line method using the terminal.
  
  For command line method, open terminal and run the following commands:
  
  sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade
  
  sudo do-release-upgrade -d -m desktop
  
  Or else, if you’re not a terminal-centric person, here’s an official upgrade guide using a GUI Software Updater.
  
  Enjoy Groovy Gorilla!
  Ubuntu Groovy Gorilla GNOME GNOME 3.0 Raspberry Pi kernel

• Linux Mint 20.1 “Ulyssa” Will Arrive In Mid-December With Chromium, WebApp Manager
  Article Images Image
  As the Linux Mint team is progressing to release the first point version of Linux Mint 20 series, its founder and project leader Clement Lefebvre has finally revealed the codename for Linux Mint 20.1 as “Ulyssa”. He has also announced that Mint 20.1 will most probably arrive in mid-December (just before Christmas).
  
  Until you wait for its beta release to test Linux Mint 20.1, Clement has also shared some great news regarding the new updates and features that you’ll get in Mint 20.1.
  
  First, packaging of open source Chromium web browser and its updates directly through the official Mint repositories. As the team noticed delays between the official release and the version available in Linux distros, it has now decided to set up their own packaging and build Chromium package based on upstream code, along with some patches from Debian and Ubuntu as well.
  
  As a result, the first test build of Chromium is available to download from here.
  
  In last month's blog, the Mint team introduced a new WebApp Manager, inspired by Peppermint OS and its SSB (Site Specific Browser) application manager, ICE. It is a WebApp management system that will debut in Linux Mint 20.1 to turn a website into a standalone desktop application.
  
  However, the Debian package of WebApp Manager v1.0.5 is now available to download, which comes with UI improvements, bug fixes and better translations for languages.
  
   
  
   
  
  Another feature that you’ll be thrilled to see in Linux Mint 20.1 is the hardware video acceleration enabled by default in the Celluloid video player. Obviously, hardware-accelerated players will bring smoother playback, better performance and reduced CPU usage.
  
   
  
   
  
  Besides the confirmed features, the Linux Mint team is also looking for feedback on a side-project by Stephen Collins, “Sticky notes.” It is a note-taking app, which is still in Alpha stage. But if all goes well, who knows, you’ll see Sticky notes app in the upcoming Linux Mint.
  
   
  
   
  
  The Linux Mint team has also asked for opinion on IPTV (Internet Protocol Television). If you use M3U IPTV on your phone, tablet or smart TV, you can let them know. The team seems interested to develop an IPTV solution for Linux desktop as a side project if the audience is small or turn it into an official Linux Mint project, if demand is good enough.
  Linux Mint

• Newest IPFire Release Includes Security Fixes and Additional Hardware Support (IPFire 2.25 - Core Update 147)
  Image
  Michael Tremer, maintainer of the IPFire project, announced IPFire 2.25 Core Update 147 today. This is the newest IPFire release since Core Update 146 on June 29th.
  
  IPFire 2.25 Core Update 147 includes some important security updates including a newer version of Squid web proxy that has patched recent vulnerabilities.
  
  Beyond security updates, IPFire 2.25 Core Update 147 adds support for additional hardware, as well as enhancing support for existing hardware because the new release ships with version 20200519 of the Linux firmware package.
  
  IPFire 2.25 Core Update 147 also rectified a recurring issue relating to forwarding GRE connections.
  
  In addition, the update improved IPFire on AWS configurations.
  
  IPFire 2.25 Core Update 147 includes these updated packages: bind 9.11.20, dhcpcd 9.1.2, GnuTLS 3.6.14, gmp 6.2.0, iproute2 5.7.0, libassuan 2.5.3, libgcrypt 1.8.5, libgpg-error 1.38, OpenSSH 8.3p1, squidguard 1.6.0.
  
  You can download IPFire 2.25 Core Update 147 here.
  Releases

• Linux Mint 19.2 "Tina" Cinnamon Now Available, IBM Has Transformed Its Software to Be Cloud-Native and Run on Any Cloud with Red Hat OpenShift, Icinga Web 2.7.0 Released, Google Rolling Out Android Auto Design Updates and Kernel 5.1 Reaches End of Life
  
  News briefs for August 2, 2019.
  
  Linux Mint 19.2 "Tina" Cinnamonwas officially released today. This is a long-term support release that will be supported until 2023, and it brings updated software and many improvements. Go here toread about all the new features.
  
  IBM yesterday announced it has transformed its software to be cloud-nativeand run on any cloud with Red Hat OpenShift. From the announcement:"Enterprises can now build mission-critical applications once and run themon all leading public clouds, including AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google CloudPlatform, Alibaba and IBM Cloud and on private clouds.The new cloud-native capabilities will be delivered as pre-integratedsolutions called IBM Cloud Paks." IBM also announced Red Hat OpenShift onIBM Cloud, RedHat OpenShift on IBM Z and LinuxOne, and consulting andtechnology services for Red Hat.
  
  Icinga Web 2.7.0was released this week. Improvements include Japanese andUkranian language support, bonus functionality for Modules, an enhanced UIand much more. You can get the official packages from packages.icinga.com.
  
  Google begins rolling out new Android Auto design updates. ZDNetreports that "the new Android Auto starts playing media and Google Mapsas soon as the car starts. Maps will also show suggested locations. If aroute has already been planned on a phone, Android Auto automatically addsthe directions and displays routing information....Android Auto now also canuse widescreen displays to give extra space for step-by-step navigation,media playback, and call controls. Changes to improve visibility includeeasier-to-read fonts and a new dark mode.Overall, the design changes are meant to get users on the road faster andallow easier management of apps with fewer taps."
  
  Greg Kroah-Hartman recentlyannounced that Linux kernel 5.1 has reached endof life: "Everyone should bemoved to the 5.2.y kernel at this point in time. 5.1.y is nowend-of-life."
  Linux Mint IBM Cloud cloud native Red Hat OpenShift Icinga Google Android kernel

• Canonical Announces the Availability of Xibo as a Snap, Chrome 76 Released, Viruses Discovered in LibreOffice, Pop!_OS 18.10 Reaches End of Life, and Dutch Ministry of Justice and Security Warns of Microsoft Office Online Privacy Risks
  
  News briefs for August 1, 2019.
  
  Canonicalyesterday announced the availability of the Xibo open-source digital signageplatform as a snap. From the announcement: "Xibo provides acomprehensive suite of digital signage products, with its Content ManagementSystem (CMS) at the heart of this experience-led offering. Xibo for Linux iscompletely free and natively built for the Xibo CMS, which can be installedon servers or combined with Xibo cloud hosting."You can download the Xibo snap here.
  
  The Chrome team has promoted Chrome 76 to the stable channel for Windows,Mac and Linux. According to SoftpediaNews, "Highlights of the Chrome 76 releaseinclude Flash plugin blocked by default, Dark Mode support for websites,more improvements to the Payments API to allow merchant websites or web appsto respond when a user changes payment instruments, better support for PWAs(Progressive Web Apps), and the ability to control the 'Add to Home' screenmini-infobar."
  
  Silent macro viruses have been discovered in LibreOffice. TheRegister reports that there's an "issue where documents can beconfigured to run macros silently on opening". The vulnerability wasreported by Nils Emmerich and assignedCVE-2019-9848. According to The Register, "It appearsthat the supposedly fixed 6.2.5 is still vulnerable—confirmed by us."There is an updated bugreport here. To fix it, "disable LibreLogo immediately if it is present and enabled in your build of LibreOffice."
  
  System76announces that Pop!_OS 18.10 has reached end of life and will no longerreceive security updates. To keep your system secure and up to date, upgradeyour OS to version 19.04.
  
  Due to security and privacy risks, the Dutch Ministry of Justice and Security is warning governmentinstitutions not to use Microsoft Office online or mobile apps. According toTheRegister, "A report from PrivacyCompany, which was commissioned by theministry, found that Office Online and the Office mobile apps should bebanned from government work. The report found the apps were not incompliance with a set of privacy measures Redmond has agreed to with theDutch government."
  News Canonical Xibo Snap Chrome LibreOffice Security System76 Pop!_OS Microsoft Privacy

• Collabora Announces xrdesktop, Blender 2.8 Released, Arduino Selects Auth0 as Its Identity Management Platform of Choice, Microway Showcasing Its Data Science WhisperStation at PEARC19 and KDE Plasma Maintenance Update
  
  News briefs for July 31, 2019.
  
  Collaborayesterday announced xrdesktop. This new open-source project"enables interaction with traditional desktopenvironments, such as GNOME and KDE, in VR. Sponsored by Valve, xrdesktopmakes window managers aware of VR and is able to use VR runtimes to renderdesktop windows in 3D space, with the ability of manipulating them with VRcontrollers and generating mouse and keyboard input from VR." See the wikifor instructions on how to install xrdesktop.
  
  Blender 2.80 hasbeen released. This new version "features a redesigned userinterface that puts the focus on the artwork that you create. A new darktheme and modern icon set were introduced. Keyboard, mouse and tabletinteraction got a refresh with left click select as the new default. QuickFavorites menus provide rapid access to often-used tools." See the ReleaseNotes for details.
  
  Auth0 announces Arduino has selected Auth0 as its identity managementplatform of choice. Auth0 will be replacing Arduino's own Single Sign Onsolution for all of its public-facing web properties. From the announcment:"Arduino discovered its homegrown authentication solution would not scale tomeet the rapidly developing needs of its growing global community, andreached out to Auth0. In addition to Single Sign On, Arduino will takeadvantage of Auth0's new Universal Login, which enables developers tocompletely customise their branded authentication experiences quickly, andDevice Flow for browserless or input-constrained devices."
  
  Microway is showcasing its Data Science WhisperStation, a UniqueUltra-Quiet NVIDIA Data Science Workstation, at PEARC19 in Chicago this week(ending on August 1st). From the press release: "Up to 10 times faster thanCPU solutions from data preparation to result, the Data ScienceWhisperStation helps data scientists, analysts, and engineers transformmassive datasets into insights in less time." You can learn more about PEARChere, and more about the DataScience WhispterStation here.
  
  KDE released the fourth maintenance update to the latest KDE Plasma 5.16desktop environment. The release adds three weeks' worth of newtranslations and a few bug fixes, which are small but important. See the fullchangelog for details.
  News Collabora xrdesktop VR Valve Desktop Blender Arduino Auth0 Security Microway Big Data Hardware KDE Plasma