News

Unboxing AI with the next generation

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Unboxing AI with the next generation

Technology and Artificial Intelligence (AI) are just about everywhere, all the time — and that’s even more the case for the younger generation. We rely on apps, algorithms and chatbots to stay informed and connected. We work, study and entertain ourselves online. We check the news, learn about elections and stay informed during crises through […]

The post Unboxing AI with the next generation appeared first on The Mozilla Blog.

Maintaining ownership

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TWIF generated on Thursday, 18 Apr 2024, Week 16

F-Droid core

Update 1.20.0-alpha1 added “tighter integration with the unattended updates code for Android 14 and later” as last week’s TWIF said, and we’ve covered a bit about this in TWIF24 week 6 when we said: “Each app has a new property about which app installed it last creating a bond between them. This property is set on install or on the next manual update”. Why is this important? Well, the EU Digital Markets Act asked Google (and not only 😉) to treat user installed application stores as a first class citizen, to give them the same importance as their own centralized proprietary store. In the past, users complained in our forum and elsewhere on the Internet, that Google Play tries (and most often fails) to update apps installed by F-Droid Client.

We start to see the changes, needed for the above legislation, in action already, as Play started to acknowledge where an app was installed from and to not force updates against the user’s will. Our own client developer, @grote, posted a screenshot here ✅.

As usual with software development, always test with the latest versions available, and Google uses this as a defense, this means latest Android, Play version and of course latest F-Droid Client version 1.20.0-alpha1.

Feedback is welcomed!

Community News

@linsui tunnels for a fix:

Tailscale is going through an app redesign that will be released soon. During this development two new versions were pushed to F-Droid, 1.61.105 and 1.64.0, those were not yet ready and were just crashing at start. Today, a fixed version was released, 1.60.1-t2caffeeb4-g6f7ae79a31c, and users are asked to update.

@Licaon_Kter craves for Material Me:

Conversations and Quicksy were updated to 2.15.0+free marking not only a 10 year anniversary of the app but also bringing an updated redesign of the UI. Started as an “what if?” experiment of an XMPP client that ‘cloned’ the current (at the time) Google Hangouts app, the old design language of the UI was a pain point for many new users. The new design lets all that go and embraces the current Material You language that leaves old users longing for the old familiar green 😢 and baffles new users that can’t just make the palette look like they want 😂. All Android versions get a new default theme, but on Android 12 or later users can enable the new in-app Dynamic color mode and use their Android system Settings to change colors. Theme feedback was massive so expect little tweaks and fixes as new versions are released too.

While the new design is nice (screenshots will be updated for the next version), most users care about the actual app functionality. Regarding the calling integration that 2.14.0 brought, users of Realme or OnePlus devices with stock ROM are asked to test both in and out calls, and provide feedback if they’re not working. And coming back to TWIF24 week 14, users on Android 7 or older that install Quicksy today might not be able to register an account pertaining to the Let’s Encrypt certificate expiration issue. The same advice applies, install the Let’s Encrypt ISRG Root X1 certificate so this is fixed system wide, but the developer is aware and a fix will be pushed in a new version soon.

Newly Added Apps

10 apps were newly added

Updated Apps

160 more apps were updated

Thank you for reading this week’s TWIF 🙂

Please subscribe to the RSS feed in your favourite RSS application to be updated of new TWIFs when they come up.

You are welcome to join the TWIF forum thread. If you have any news from the community, post it there, maybe it will be featured next week 😉

Microsoft shows banner in Settings app to push users from local accounts to Microsoft Accounts

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In this week’s Windows 10 Build 19045.4353 announcement blog post, there was this little gem in the changelog. This update starts the rolls out of account-related notifications for Microsoft accounts in Settings > Home. A Microsoft account connects Windows to your Microsoft apps. The account also backs up all your data and helps you to manage your subscriptions. You can also add extra security steps to keep you from being locked out of your account. ↫ Windows Insider Program Team It’s worded a bit cryptically, but this means there will be banners in the Windows settings application pushing you to switch from using a local account to using an online Microsoft account. The latter aren’t exactly preferred by quite a few people – many of you belong to that group, I would presume – and Microsoft is doing whatever it can to get people to stop using local accounts. Luckily, this banner ad is easily removable – if you close it, it won’t come back, and you can disable it by going to Privacy > General and toggling “Show me suggested content in the Settings app”. For now, of course – knowing how Microsoft is treating Windows users these days, these nag-ups will surely increase in both frequency and persistence as time goes on. You’ve been warned.

The new Mercedes-Benz EQS 580 4MATIC Interior Design in Silicium grey

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Since their launch, Mercedes‑Benz has continuously developed the EQS and its siblings. Independent of model updates and faster than ever before, innovations have been incorporated into the series for the EQS, EQE, EQS SUV and EQE SUV. The company has responded to market and customer feedback more quickly than ever before with numerous product upgrades. For the current change year 2024, the EQS is now receiving an extremely extensive update package. The electric flagship comes with up to 82 kilometres more range, a new radiator cover with chrome applications and an upright Mercedes star on the front hood as well as even more comfort in the rear.
The EQS was already one of the electric cars with the longest range. In the future, customers will be able to cover even more kilometres without stopping to charge. Thanks to an increased battery capacity from 108.4 to 118 kWh, the maximum range of the EQS 450 4MATIC, for example, increases from 717 to 799 kilometres. This means an increase in range of more than 11 percent. With a range of 683‑822 kilometres, the EQS 450+ even exceeds the 800-kilometre mark.

Submit your abstract now for MoodleMoot Global 2024!

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Submit your abstract now for MoodleMoot Global 2024!
by Sandra Matz.  

We are excited to announce that registrations and abstract submissions for MoodleMoot Global 2024 are now open!

We hope you will be able to join us in the vibrant and spirited city of Mérida in México from 22-24 October, to unlock potential, inspire change, and empower learners to envision and create a world where education is the heartbeat of progress!

With the focus on the main event theme “Unlocking human potential”, we invite Moodlers from any educational, training or learning field to come together as educators, developers, administrators, and learners to learn from each other, share findings and explore best practices to adapt, innovate, and make learning accessible to all. At Moodle, we’re excited to share and explore the vast possibilities of education in an open and diverse community and we are looking forward to hearing your ideas!

We invite you to submit your abstract now for the opportunity to present your ideas, examples, and case studies. The abstract deadline is 14 May 2024 (UTC-6).

This year’s event program will include three different Jam activities. All registered MoodleMoot Global attendees are welcome to book a place to attend one of the Jams, but places for these sessions are limited, so we recommend you register early to avoid disappointment!

Register to attend the event before 16 July 2024 (UTC-6) to benefit from early bird discounted rates. After you register for the conference, you can book your free place to join your preferred Jam event, which will give you an excellent opportunity to connect with fellow Moodlers and share your expertise.

We hope to see you in October in México for an inspiring convergence of minds and hearts in the world of education!

Best regards,

MoodleMoot Global team
moodlemoot.org
#MootGlobal24

Submit your abstract now for MoodleMoot Global 2024!