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New Multi-Platform 01flip Ransomware Supports Multi-platform Architecture, Including Windows and Linux  CybersecurityNews

Building Rust Apps For Cheap Hackable Handheld Console  Hackaday

Linux Foundation Launches Agentic AI Group to Set Standards for Autonomous Systems  Hackernoon

Set up your child's new phone or tablet for a safer holiday with these quick tips for Google Family Link.Set up your child's new phone or tablet for a safer holiday with these quick tips for Google Family Link.

NASA has lost contact with its MAVEN Mars orbiter after it passed behind Mars. When it remerged from behind the planet, the spacecraft never resumed communications. SpaceNews reports: MAVEN launched in November 2013 and entered orbit around Mars in September 2014. The spacecraft's primary science mission is to study the planet's upper atmosphere and interactions with the solar wind, including how the atmosphere escapes into space. That is intended to help scientists understand how the planet changes from early in its history, when it had a much thicker atmosphere and was warm enough to support liquid water on its surface. MAVEN additionally serves as a communications relay, using a UHF antenna to link the Curiosity and Perseverance rovers on the Martian surface with the Deep Space Network. NASA's Mars Odyssey and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft also serve as communications relays for the rovers, but are both significantly older than MAVEN. The spacecraft has suffered some technical problems in the past, notably with its inertial measurement units (IMUs) used for navigation. In 2022, MAVEN switched to an "all-stellar" navigation system to minimize the use of the IMUs. MAVEN has enough propellant to maintain its orbit through at least the end of the decade. NASA's fiscal year 2026 budget proposal, though, zeroed out funding for MAVEN, which cost $22.6 million to operate in 2024. MAVEN was one of several missions "operating well past the end of prime mission" the proposal would terminate, despite MAVEN's role as a communications relay.

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OpenAI, Anthropic, and Industry Leaders Form Agentic AI Foundation Under Linux Foundation  CXO Digitalpulse

FOSS Weekly #25.50: Linux Power Users, Helium Browser, Two New Linux Phones, Ubuntu Starter and More  It's FOSS

An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Apple on Wednesday released its annual list of the most downloaded apps and games for the year. For the U.S. market, OpenAI's ChatGPT topped the ranks of free iPhone apps (not including games) with the most installs in 2025. The AI app was followed by Threads, Google, TikTok, WhatsApp, Instagram, YouTube, Google Maps, Gmail, and Google's Gemini. ChatGPT made it to No. 4 last year, but the top spot was taken by Chinese shopping app Temu. In 2023, the AI app didn't make the top-10 list despite being released on the iPhone in May 2023 to a strong debut.

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OpenSUSE vs. Manjaro: Which powerhouse Linux distro is best for you?  ZDNET

Intel's Vulkan Linux Driver Merges Shader VMA Allocator For Ray-Tracing Capture/Replay  Phoronix

Update December 2025: SoFi announced some changes to their available features and what is only available with their SoFi Plus “Premium” membership program. I feel that they are trying to build something like “Robinhood Gold”, but hopefully better promos are coming because I don’t feel the perks are worth the cost right now. First, there are now three different ways to earn their higher APY tier (any single ONE of these is enough):

• Eligible Direct Deposit of any amount (even $1). Many people can split their paycheck multiple ways.
• $5,000+ in combined balances across SoFi Checking and Savings accounts
• SoFi Plus members that pay $10/month fee.

You can see this on their rate sheet (as of 11/12/25):

Second, SoFi Plus is now paid-only at $10/month. You no longer get it for free with a direct deposit, although they are extending complimentary access to all SoFi Plus benefits through March 30, 2026 with eligible deposits. You can see a list of SoFi Plus benefits here.

For the most part, the SoFi Plus benefits are the same as before. A notable new addition is the SoFi Smart Card which is a charge card linked to your SoFI Bank accounts that offers unlimited 5% cash back at grocery stores.

Otherwise, I would say the most valuable SoFi Plus perks that existing Direct Deposit folks lost with this change are:

• 10% rewards boost on the SoFi Unlimited 2% Credit Card, which turns the 2% cash back into 2.2% cash back.
• 2% match on recurring IRA contributions, plus a 1% match on recurring deposits made through SoFi Invest taxable brokerage accounts.
• Possibly the ability to “schedule an unlimited number of appointments with a financial planner”, although I’m not sure of the quality of this advice. There is no indication you’re guaranteed at least a CFP. I’ve never used this feature, but it might be nice if you wanted to get some general advice.

Update April 2024: SoFi made a few notable changes recently, both positive and negative:

• The SoFi Unlimited 2% Credit Card added 10% boost on their rewards with direct deposit into SoFi Checking or Savings. This would work out to 2.2% cash back rewards points on everyday purchases. (As of December 2025, this is now restricted to SoFi Plus members paying $10 a month.)
• There is a new inactivity fee of $25 per account for every 6 months of login inactivity.
• The outgoing ACAT transfer fee was increased to $100. Previously $75.

Original post:

SoFi (“Social Finance”) is an all-in-one finance app that expanded from students loans into banking, stocks, crypto, credit cards, and more. Here are their current promotional offers; New users can receive a separate opening bonus for each separate part of SoFi (Money, Invest, Loans, etc).

• SoFi Checking Referral Offer: Up to $325 new user bonus. Open a new SoFi Money account and add at least $10 to your account within 5 days, and get $25. Then get up to $300 additional bonus with qualifying direct deposit. Plus up to 4.30% APY.
• SoFi Credit Score Tracking Offer: $10 in rewards bonus points. You’ll earn $10 in rewards points when you activate free credit score monitoring
• SoFi Invest Referral Offer: $25 new user bonus. Taxable brokerage account. Open an Active Investing account with $10 or more, and you’ll get $25 in stock.
• SoFi 401(k) Rollover Offer: Up to $10,000 Bonus. Get a 1% match when you roll over your 401(k) into a SoFi IRA. Partnered with Capitalize to make the transition easier.
• SoFi Student Loan Refi: $300 bonus. Warning: Do your research before refinancing your Federal student loans to a private lender.
• SoFi Doctors and Dentists Student Loan Refi: $1,000 bonus. Special low rates just for doctors and dentists.
• SoFi Private Student Loan: $300 bonus.
• SoFi Personal Loans Referral Offer: Fixed $300 bonus. Fixed $300 bonus, 90 days after successful funding. The loan has no fees and you can pay it back in full after 90 days (you can pay it down to $50 before then to accrue minimal interest, thus making a new profit after the bonus).

A startup called Operation Bluebird is petitioning the US Patent and Trademark Office to strip X Corp of the "Twitter" and "tweet" trademarks, hoping to relaunch a new Twitter with the old brand, bird logo, and "town square" vibe. "The TWITTER and TWEET brands have been eradicated from X Corp.'s products, services, and marketing, effectively abandoning the storied brand, with no intention to resume use of the mark," the petition states. "The TWITTER bird was grounded." Ars Technica reports: If successful, two leaders of the group tell Ars, Operation Bluebird would launch a social network under the name Twitter.new, possibly as early as late next year. (Twitter.new has created a working prototype and is already inviting users to reserve handles.) Michael Peroff, an Illinois attorney and founder of Operation Bluebird, said that in the intervening years, more Twitter-like social media networks have sprung up or gained traction -- like Threads, Mastodon, and Bluesky. But none have the scale or brand recognition that Twitter did prior to Musk's takeover. "There certainly are alternatives," Peroff said. "I don't know that any of them at this point in time are at the scale that would make a difference in the national conversation, whereas a new Twitter really could." Similarly, Peroff's business partner, Stephen Coates, an attorney who formerly served as Twitter's general counsel, said that Operation Bluebird aims to recreate some of the magic that Twitter once had. "I remember some time ago, I've had celebrities react to my content on Twitter during the Super Bowl or events," he told Ars. "And we want that experience to come back, that whole town square, where we are all meshed in there." "Mere 'token use' won't be enough to reserve the mark," said Mark Lemley, a Stanford Law professor and expert in trademark law. "Or [X] could defend if it can show that it plans to go back to using Twitter. Consumers obviously still know the brand name. It seems weird to think someone else could grab the name when consumers still associate it with the ex-social media site of that name. But that's what the law says."

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Linux Foundation launches Agentic AI Foundation to drive open agent standards  eeNews Europe

EU regulators say Google's Play Store changes still don't meet fairness rules and are preparing a potentially hefty 2026 fine unless Google makes deeper concessions. Reuters reports: Google Play has been in the European Commission's crosshairs since March, with regulators singling out technical restrictions preventing app developers from steering users to other channels for cheaper offers. Another issue is the service fee charged by Google for facilitating an app developer's initial acquisition of a new customer via Google Play which the regulator said goes beyond what is justified. Tweaks to Google Play announced in August to make it easier for app developers to direct customers to other channels and choose a fee model are still falling short, the people said, with the EU antitrust regulator viewing Apple's recent changes to its App Store as a benchmark. [...] Google can still offer to make more changes before regulators impose a fine, likely in the first quarter of the next year, the people said, adding that the timing of any sanction can still change. "We continue to work closely with the European Commission in its ongoing investigation but have serious concerns that further changes would put Android and Play users at risk of malware, scams and data theft. Unlike iOS, Android is already open by design," a Google spokesperson said.

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Agentic AI Foundation unites MCP, goose and AGENTS.md under Linux Foundation | ETIH EdTech News  EdTech Innovation Hub

Linux 6.18: All About the New Long-Term Support Linux Kernel  The New Stack

Bazzite isn’t the best Linux gaming option anymore — this is  MakeUseOf

An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: On Tuesday, India's Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade released a proposed framework that would give AI companies access to all copyrighted works for training in exchange for paying royalties to a new collecting body composed of rights-holding organizations, with payments then distributed to creators. The proposal argues that this "mandatory blanket license" would lower compliance costs for AI firms while ensuring that writers, musicians, artists, and other rights holders are compensated when their work is scraped to train commercial models. [...] The eight-member committee, formed by the Indian government in late April, argues the system would avoid years of legal uncertainty while ensuring creators are compensated from the outset. Defending the system, the committee says in a 125-page submission (PDF) that a blanket license "aims to provide an easy access to content for AI developers reduce transaction costs [and] ensure fair compensation for rightsholders," calling it the least burdensome way to manage large-scale AI training. The submission adds that the single collecting body would function as a "single window," eliminating the need for individual negotiations and enabling royalties to flow to both registered and unregistered creators.

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Qualcomm has acquired RISC-V startup Ventana to strengthen its CPU ambitions beyond mobile, "reinforcing its commitment and leadership in the development of the RISC-V standard and ecosystem," the company said in a press release. CRN Magazine reports: The San Diego-based company said Ventana's expertise in RISC-V, a free and open alternative to the Arm and x86 instruction set architectures, will enhance its CPU engineering capabilities and complement "existing efforts to develop custom Oryon CPU technology." Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Qualcomm, which has already been using RISC-V for some products outside the PC and server markets, said Ventana's contributions will boost its "technology leadership in the AI era across all businesses," indicating the broad impact expected by this acquisition. "We believe the RISC-V instruction set architecture has the potential to advance the frontier on CPU technology, enabling innovation across products," Durga Malladi, executive vice president and general manager of technology planning, edge solutions and data center for Qualcomm, said in a statement. "The acquisition of Ventana Micro Systems marks a pivotal step in our journey to deliver industry-leading RISC-V-based CPU technology across products." Further reading: Qualcomm Is Buying Arduino, Releases New Raspberry Pi-Esque Arduino Board

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Longtime Slashdot reader MadCow42 writes: Canonical just announced that they're packaging AMD's ROCm libraries (for AIML and HPC with both data-center GPUs as well as desktop/laptop GPUs), directly into the Ubuntu Universe archive. You can run ROCm on Ubuntu today but you have to install it via a script from AMD and manually remove and reinstall for any upgrades or bug fixes. Having it in Ubuntu as a normal Debian package will make it much easier to install and also to maintain in the long run via normal apt tooling ('apt upgrade'). This also means that ROCm can be an automatically-installed dependency for other packages, which doesn't happen today. And, interestingly, Canonical has committed to providing long-term-support for ROCm in Ubuntu -- which is particularly exciting for edge and IoT devices that may have a long life in the field and need regular security patches and updates.

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