browser – Page 2 – Tech Today w/ Ken May

Chrome 62 Released With OpenType Variable Fonts, HTTP Warnings In Incognito Mode

An anonymous reader writes: Earlier today, Google released version 62 of its Chrome browser that comes with quite a few new features but also fixes for 35 security issues. The most interesting new features are support for OpenType variable fonts, the Network Quality Estimator API, the ability to capture and stream DOM elements, and HTTP warnings for the browser’s Normal and Incognito mode. The most interesting of the new features is variable fonts. Until now, web developers had to load multiple font families whenever they wanted variations on a font family. For example, if a developer was using the Open Sans font family on a site, if he wanted a font variation such as Regular, Bold, Black, Normal, Condensed, Expanded, Highlight, Slab, Heavy, Dashed, or another, he’d have to load a different font file for each. OpenType variable fonts allow font makers to merge all these font family variations in one file that developers can use on their site and control via CSS. This results in fewer files loaded on a website, saving bandwidth and improving page load times. Two other features that will interest mostly developers are the Network Quality Estimator and the Media Capture from DOM Elements APIs. As the name hints, the first grants developers access to network speed and performance metrics, information that some websites may use to adapt video streams, audio quality, or deliver low-fi versions of their sites. Developers can use the second API — the Media Capture from DOM Elements — to record videos of how page sections behave during interaction and stream the content over WebRTC. This latter API could be useful for developers debugging a page, but also support teams that want to see what’s happening on the user’s side. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Chrome 62 Released With OpenType Variable Fonts, HTTP Warnings In Incognito Mode

Ubuntu 17.10 Artful Aardvark Released

Canonical has made available the download links for Ubuntu 17.10 “Artful Aardvark”. It comes with a range of new features, changes, and improvements including GNOME as the default desktop, Wayland display server by default, Optional X.org server session, Mesa 17.2 or Mesa 17.3, Linux kernel 4.13 or kernel 4.14, new Subiquity server installer, improved hardware support, new Ubuntu Server installer, switch to libinput, an always visible dock using Dash to Dock GNOME Shell extension, and Bluetooth improvements with a new BlueZ among others. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Ubuntu 17.10 Artful Aardvark Released

Over 500 Million PCs Are Secretly Mining Cryptocurrency, Researchers Reveal

Ad blocking firm AdGuard has found that over 500 million people are inadvertently mining cryptocurrencies through their computers after visiting websites that are running background mining software. The company found 220 popular websites with an aggregated audience of half a billion people use so-called crypto-mining scripts when a user opens their main page. Newsweek reports: The mining tool works by hijacking a computer’s central processing unit (CPU), commonly referred to as “the brains” of a computer. Using part of a computer’s CPU to mine bitcoin effects the machine’s overall performance and will slow it down by using up processing power. The researchers found that bitcoin browser mining is mostly found on websites “with a shady reputation” due to the trouble such sites have with earning revenue through advertising. However, in the future it could become a legitimate and ethical way of making money if the website requests the permission of the visitor first. “220 sites may not seem like a lot, ” the researchers wrote in a blogpost detailing their discovery. “But CoinHive was launched less than one month ago on September 14. The growth has been extremely rapid: from nearly zero to 2.2 percent of Alexa’s top 100, 000 websites. “This analysis well illustrates the whole web, so it’s safe to say that one of every forty websites currently mines cryptocurrency (namely Monero) in the browsers their users employ.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Over 500 Million PCs Are Secretly Mining Cryptocurrency, Researchers Reveal

MacOS High Sierra is well worth the upgrade

MacOS High Sierra was never meant to be truly transformative. As we covered in our preview of Apple’s new desktop OS , it’s mostly focused on refining its predecessor, last year’s Sierra . At the same time, it also lays the groundwork for bigger changes down the line. Since there’s not much you’ll actually notice, and barely anything has changed since we published our extensive preview, we won’t be doing a full review of the new OS. But with High Sierra officially launching today , it’s worth highlighting the handful of notable features. A better Safari Apple claims that Safari 11 in High Sierra is the world’s fastest web browser. My testing with the JetStream benchmark confirmed that it was faster than both Chrome and Firefox on my MacBook Air. Safari clocked in with a score of 176.8, while the other two browsers came in around 129 (and yes, higher is better). Even so, I still found myself relying on the other browsers most of the time. Some of Google’s services, like Hangouts, only work on Chrome. And Firefox is typically the browser I use for dealing with anything related to work (it’s helpful having two browsers open at once for managing multiple Google accounts). While Safari tended to load some sites faster, that wasn’t enough to make me switch over. As for other tweaks, Safari 11 mutes auto-playing web videos by default, which should help bring some peace as more sites push unwanted video on their readers. You can also enable the cleaner “Reader” mode automatically for specific sites, or have it automatically turn on for every website that supports the feature. That’s something you can only do with Chrome through settings hacks, or by installing third-party extensions. Apple also claims Safari will let you browse the web for two hours longer than the other two browsers, as well as watch Netflix for four hours longer. Photos upgrades As we covered in our preview piece, the Photos app got a slew of tweaks. But after testing the OS for the past few months, I ended up appreciating the new Live Photos capabilities the most. Just like in iOS 11, you can now turn Live Photos into short animated clips that resemble GIFs. You can choose from Loop, which just repeats the clip; Bounce, which moves it back and forth in time; and Long Exposure, a unique effect that mimics the dreamy photos you can get by manipulating exposure settings on bigger cameras. They’re not groundbreaking effects, but they finally make Live Photos seem useful, rather than a waste of space. All of other Photos upgrades from iOS 11 also show up in High Sierra. That includes smarter people recognition (which can sync across all of your iCloud-connected devices), more automatic Memories options, and a wider assortment of photo filters. Another helpful upgrade: Third-party companies can now create extensions for Photos, which allows you to do things like prepare photo books without leaving the app. VR support Thanks to Metal 2, Apple’s updated graphics API, MacOS can finally handle virtual reality. Right now, it’s limited to the HTC Vive using SteamVR — sorry, Oculus Rift fans. And, just like with typical games, not every title supports Macs yet. Sure, it’s very much early days for VR on Macs, but at least it’s possible now with High Sierra. We didn’t have any beefy Macs to test out the OS’s VR capabilities, unfortunately. As we’ve noted before, figuring out which Macs can actually support VR is surprisingly confusing. But at least High Sierra also brings support for external GPU docks, which means you can conceivably upgrade any Thunderbolt-equipped Mac with faster graphics capabilities. Metal 2 should also make High Sierra more efficient at rendering windows and typical UI elements, especially if you have a decent dedicated GPU. I didn’t notice much of a difference on my 2014 MacBook Air as I tested the new OS over the past few months. Wrapping up A few other points worth noting: Apple made a big deal about its upgraded Apple File System when it first announced High Sierra, but I didn’t notice much of a difference as I was testing the OS. Surprisingly, the company also dropped support for APFS on hybrid Fusion drives — at this point it only works on SSDs. Siri brings over its improved voice and DJ abilities that we first saw in iOS 11. You can now check on your airline flight status right from the Spotlight search bar. We always knew High Sierra was going to be an iterative update for Apple, but I’m surprised by how few visible changes there are. It’s tough to tell you’ve even upgraded from Sierra unless you peek at your system’s settings. Together with a similarly humdrum iOS 11 update (unless you’re on an iPad), it seems like Apple was more focused on its new hardware this year than its software.

Chromium To Get Support For MP3

An anonymous reader shares a post: Chromium, the open source project behind Google Chrome, Opera and several other browsers, is going to support MP3. This would enable users and websites to play MP3 files in Chromium browser. A Chromium contributor informed about this, “We have approval from legal to go ahead and move MP3 into non-proprietary codecs list.” The MP3 support in Chromium is targeted for version 62. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Chromium To Get Support For MP3

Avast Now Owns CCleaner After Acquiring Piriform

An anonymous reader writes: Security firm Avast has acquired software firm Piriform. Not only does the acquired company make CCleaner, but many other solid programs too. In fact, the rest of Piriform’s library — Recuva, Speccy, and Defraggler — are staples of the Windows freeware community. “CCleaner is a leading brand in the market, used by 130 million people, including 15 million Android users. CCleaner has an extensive and extremely loyal community of tech-savvy users, who need to speed up and optimize their PC and Android experience. Avast will maintain the CCleaner brand of products along with Avast’s existing performance optimization products, Avast Cleanup and AVG Tune Up. With the addition of CCleaner, Avast has dramatically expanded its product offerings in the PC and smartphone optimization market reaching customers around the world who demand faster performance, ” says Avast. Vince Steckler, CEO of Avast explains, “We see many commonalities between CCleaner and Avast, allowing for great new products for our user bases. Avast and CCleaner are the top two downloaded products on popular download sites. They are both known by advanced users as focused on performance, so we believe there will be a great interest from our CCleaner customers in using Avast security products and vice versa. In today’s connected world, it’s all about speed and high performance, and with Piriform’s robust technology we can address this need perfectly. We look forward to working with the Piriform team to grow the business together.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Avast Now Owns CCleaner After Acquiring Piriform

Team Collaboration App Slack, Valued at $9 Billion, Draws Attention of Amazon

Amazon is in the running among a handful of companies looking to acquire the popular chatroom startup, reports Bloomberg. From the article: San Francisco-based Slack could be valued at at least $9 billion in a sale, the people said. An agreement isn’t assured and discussions may not go further, said the people. Buying Slack would help Seattle-based Amazon bolster its enterprise services as it seeks to compete with rivals like Microsoft and Alphabet’s Google. The company’s cloud-hosting unit, Amazon Web Services, in February unveiled a paid-for video and audio conferencing service — Amazon Chime — that lets users chat and share content. Kara Swisher, reporting for Recode: Slack, the popular business communications company, is in the midst of raising $500 million at a $5 billion post-money valuation, an effort that has attracted several potential buyers interested in taking out the company ahead of the funding. Those include Amazon, Microsoft, Google and Salesforce, several of which have previously shown interest in acquiring Slack. Bloomberg reported the interest by Amazon today, with a $9 billion sales price. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Team Collaboration App Slack, Valued at $9 Billion, Draws Attention of Amazon

Netflix Has More American Subscribers Than Cable TV

According to Leichtman Research estimates from the first quarter of 2017, there are more Netflix subscribers in the U.S. (50.85 million) than there are customers for major cable TV networks (48.61 million). While it doesn’t mean Netflix is bigger than TV because it doesn’t account for the 33.19 million satellite viewers, it represents a huge milestone for a streaming service that had half as many users just 5 years ago. Engadget reports: The shift in power comes in part through Netflix’s ever-greater reliance on originals. There’s enough high-quality material that it can compete with more established networks. However, it’s also getting a boost from the decline of conventional TV. Those traditional sources lost 760, 000 subscribers in the first quarter of the year versus 120, 000 a year earlier. Leichtman believes a combination of cord cutters and reduced marketing toward cost-conscious viewers is to blame. Cable giants might not be in dire straits, but they’re clearly focusing on their most lucrative customers as others jump ship for the internet. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Netflix Has More American Subscribers Than Cable TV

Tor Browser 7.0 works harder to protect your anonymity on its own

The latest update for privacy-minded folks’ favorite way to surf the web should make others’ attempts at tracking what they do even more difficult. The Tor browser’s 7. 0 version introduces a sandbox feature that, according to an interview on the Tor blog , should “make life a lot harder” for people using a Firefox exploit to discern the identities of a user. “It’s like Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, ” Tor developer Yawning Angel said. “The only reality Tor Browser knows is inside of the sandbox (cave). We prevent it from interacting with the rest of your computer (the outside world), except via the Tor Network (shadows on the wall).” The college philosophy class you barely remember aside, what the sandbox does is hides your files, your real IP address and your MAC address from the browser. Therefore, “the amount of information Tor Browser will learn about your computer, and thereby you, will be limited, ” Angel said. At the time of that interview last October, the sandbox was still unstable and very much in testing, but the recent update has brought the digital safe-zone online for Linux and macOS, and by default. Next up? Sandbox protection for Windows users. The update also imposes a few new requirements for users on Windows and macOS: Tor apparently won’t work on non-SSE2-capable Windows hardware and you need to be running OSX 10.9 or higher on Apple machines. Considering that last year a federal judge said that the FBI no longer needs warrants to hack a computer connected to the internet, this is an important update. “Even an internet user who employs the Tor network in an attempt to mask his or her IP address lacks a reasonable expectation of privacy in his or her IP address, ” judge Henry Coke Morgan, Jr commented at the time. For the full rundown of what’s changed with the browser, hit the source links below. Source: Tor (1) , (2)

Wikipedia’s Switch To HTTPS Has Successfully Fought Government Censorship

Determining how to prevent acts of censorship has long been a priority for the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation, and thanks to new research from the Harvard Center for Internet and Society, the foundation seems to have found a solution: encryption. From a report: HTTPS prevents governments and others from seeing the specific page users are visiting. For example, a government could tell that a user is browsing Wikipedia, but couldn’t tell that the user is specifically reading the page about Tiananmen Square. Up until 2015, Wikipedia offered its service using both HTTP and HTTPS, which meant that when countries like Pakistan or Iran blocked the certain articles on the HTTP version of Wikipedia, the full version would still be available using HTTPS. But in June 2015, Wikipedia decided to axe HTTP access and only offer access to its site with HTTPS. The Harvard researchers began by deploying an algorithm which detected unusual changes in Wikipedia’s global server traffic for a year beginning in May 2015. This data was then combined with a historical analysis of the daily request histories for some 1.7 million articles in 286 different languages from 2011 to 2016 in order to determine possible censorship events. After a painstakingly long process of manual analysis of potential censorship events, the researchers found that, globally, Wikipedia’s switch to HTTPS had a positive effect on the number censorship events by comparing server traffic from before and after the switch in June of 2015. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Wikipedia’s Switch To HTTPS Has Successfully Fought Government Censorship