open source – Page 205

Firefox 40 Arrives With Windows 10 Support, Expanded Malware Protection

An anonymous reader writes: Mozilla today launched Firefox 40 for Windows, Mac, Linux, and Android. Notable additions to the browser include official Windows 10 support, added protection against unwanted software downloads, and new navigational gestures on Android. Firefox 40 for the desktop is available for download now on Firefox.com, and all existing users should be able to upgrade to it automatically. As always, the Android version is trickling out slowly on Google Play. Changelogs are here: desktop and Android. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Firefox 40 Arrives With Windows 10 Support, Expanded Malware Protection

Why the Freemium Business Model Isn’t What It Used To Be

mattydread23 writes: A few years ago, every enterprise software company was trying freemium — the idea of giving a product away to build users, then charging for additional features. Now, that model seems to be losing favor, except with open source software. Business Insider talks to enterprise founders and VCs to figure out why ‘freemium’ wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Why the Freemium Business Model Isn’t What It Used To Be

Study: Ad Blocker Use Jumps 41 Percent

Mickeycaskill writes: A report from Adobe and anti-ad blocking startup PageFair says the number of ad block users worldwide has increased by 41 percent in the past 12 months to 198 million monthly active users. The study suggests the growing popularity of ad blocking software is set to cost online publishers $21.8 billion in 2015 and could reach $41.4 billion by 2016. “About 45 million of them are in the United States, with almost 15 percent of people in states like New York and California relying on these services. The figures are even higher in Europe, where 77 million people use versions of the software. In Poland, more than a third of people regularly block online ads.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Study: Ad Blocker Use Jumps 41 Percent

North Korea Is Switching To a New Time Zone

jones_supa writes: North Korea has announced that it is winding its clocks back by half a hour to create a new “Pyongyang Time” — breaking from a time standard imposed by what it called “wicked Japanese imperialists” more than a century ago. The change will put the standard time in North Korea at UTC +8:30. North Korea said that the time change, approved on Wednesday by its rubber-stamp parliament and officially announced on Friday, would come into effect from August 15, which this year marks the 70th anniversary of the Korean peninsula’s liberation from Japan’s 1910-45 colonial rule. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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North Korea Is Switching To a New Time Zone

LibreOffice 5.0 Released

New submitter ssam writes: The Document Foundation has announced LibreOffice 5.0, the tenth major release since the launch of the project, bringing new features including Windows 10, Android and Ubuntu touch compatibility, superior interoperability features, an updated UI, and lots of under the hood improvements. For people still running OpenOffice it is probably time to move over. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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LibreOffice 5.0 Released

Spyware Demo Shows How Spooks Hack Mobile Phones

An anonymous reader writes: Joe Greenwood, of cybersecurity firm 4Armed, recently gave a live demonstration of some of Hacking Team’s leaked spyware to the BBC. Tracking Bitcoin payments, recording audio from the microphone of a locked device, and secretly gaining control of an infected phone’s camera are just a few of the software’s capabilities. The BBC reports: “Both Mr Greenwood and 4Armed’s technical director, Marc Wickenden, said they were surprised by the sleekness of the interface. Both point out, though, that customers could be paying upwards of £1m for the software and would expect it to be user-friendly, especially if it was intended for use by law enforcers on the beat. For the tracked user, though, there are very few ways of finding out that they are being watched. One red flag, according to Mr Greenwood, is a sudden spike in network data usage, indicating that information is being sent somewhere in the background. Experienced spies, however, would be careful to minimize this in order to remain incognito.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Spyware Demo Shows How Spooks Hack Mobile Phones

Epson Is Trying To Kill the Printer Ink Cartridge

An anonymous reader writes: Inkjet printer cartridges have been the bane of many small businesses and home offices for decades. It’s interesting, then, that Epson is trying something new: next month, they’re launching a new line of printers that come with small tanks of ink, instead of cartridges. The tanks will be refilled using bottles of ink. They’re reversing the economics, here: the printer itself will be more expensive, but the refills will be much cheaper. Early reports claim you’ll be spending a tenth as much on ink as you were before, but we’ll see how that shakes out. The Bloomberg article makes a good point: it’s never been easier to not print things. The printer industry needs to innovate if it wants us to keep churning out printed documents, and this may be the first big step. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Giving Up Alternating Current

An anonymous reader writes: Yesterday we discussed Soylent, the artificial food substitute created by Rob Rhinehart and his team. As it turns out, this isn’t Rhinehart’s only unusual sustainability project. In a new post, he explains how he gave up on alternating current — a tough proposition for anyone living in the U.S. and still interested in using all sorts of modern technology. Rhinehart says, “Most power in the US is generated by burning coal, immediately squandering 67% of its energy, then run through a steam turbine, losing another 50%, then sent across transmission lines, losing another 5%, then to charge a DC device like a cell phone another 50% is lost in conversion. This means for 100 watts of coal or oil burned my phone gets a mere 16.” The biggest hindrance was the kitchen. As you might expect for the creator of Soylent, he doesn’t cook, and was able to get rid of almost all kitchen appliances because of that. He uses a butane stove for hot beverages. He powers a small computer off batteries, which get their energy from solar panels. For intensive tasks, he remotes to more powerful machines. He re-wired his apartment’s LED lighting to run off direct current. Have any of you made similar changes? How much of an effect does this really have? Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Giving Up Alternating Current

Soylent 2.0 Comes Bottled and Ready To Drink

An anonymous reader writes: Soylent has announced today their latest product, Soylent 2.0. It comes premixed and ready to drink in recyclable bottles. Each bottle is one fifth of a scientifically balanced daily meal plan, will last up to a year unrefrigerated, and will cost you $2.42. A Soylent blog post reads in part: “Not only are its ingredients vegan, Soylent 2.0 reaches an unprecedented level of environmental sustainability with half of its fat energy coming from farm-free, algae sources. This next generation agricultural technology has the potential to reduce the ecological impact of food production by orders of magnitude, signifying a major step towards a future of abundance, a world where optimal nutrition is the new normal.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Soylent 2.0 Comes Bottled and Ready To Drink

Microsoft now rolling out free Windows 10 upgrades

Today’s the day! Windows 10 is now available in 190 countries as a free upgrade to Windows 7 or 8.1 owners. Replacing an OS is no one’s idea of fun, but we’re actually looking forward to this one. First off, we’ll be leaving behind the most hated version of Windows ever (sorry, Vista). In return, we’ll get one Microsoft was so confident in that they skipped version 9 altogether because hey, Windows 10 sounds better. So how to get it? We’ve got a handy guide , and Microsoft has info here , but if you already reserved your free upgrade, hang in there, as Microsoft says it’s rolling out in waves. Organizations will start to see the new version on August 1st. The computer you have should work just fine, as the minimum requirements haven’t changed much from Windows 7 and 8: A 1GHz processor, 1GB of RAM (2GB for the 64-bit version) and 20GB of free space. The whole thing will take 30-45 minutes, according to Microsoft, not counting the 4-5GB download. Speaking of which, you’ll likely need to be patient, as the roll-out may actually break internet traffic records. As for what’s in it for you, the answer is plenty: you’ll get a much improved interface that takes the best of Windows 7 and 8.1, the new Edge browser, Cortana and better modern apps. You can read more about it in our Windows 10 review , but to cut to the chase, we gave it a stellar 91 rating. Filed under: Software , Microsoft Comments Source: Microsoft

Ken May

Tag: open source