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France is developing an app to track the spread of COVID-19
France's Stop Covid app could help fight the coronavirus, but questions remain about privacy.
Elizabeth Warren campaign open sources its organizing tools
The impact of Elizabeth Warren's presidential campaign might be felt well after it ended. The Warren for President team is open-sourcing some of its key get-out-the-vote projects to help other politicians and cause supporters with their own efforts. These include the peer-to-peer texting platform Spoke, the polling location search tool Pollaris, a Caucus App used in Iowa (above) and the data handling app Redhook, among other tools.
Windows 10's built-in Linux kernel will be available to everyone soon
You won't have to be a tester to try Windows 10's new, built-in Linux kernel in the near future. Microsoft has confirmed that Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 will be widely available when Windows 10 version 2004 arrives. You'll have to install it manually for a "few months" until an update adds automatic installs and updates, but that's a small price to pay if you want Linux and Windows to coexist in peace and harmony. It'll be easier to set up, at least -- the kernel will now be delivered through Windows Update instead of forcing you to install an entire Windows image.
DuckDuckGo shares a list of thousands of web trackers that gather your data
Over the past couple of years, the privacy-focused browser DuckDuckGo has been compiling a data set of web trackers. The company calls it Tracker Radar. Today, DuckDuckGo is sharing that data publicly and open sourcing the code that generates it.
Google open-sources the tools needed to make 2FA security keys
Security keys are designed to make logging in to devices simpler and more secure, but not everyone has access to them, or the inclination to use them. Until now. Today, Google has launched an open source project that will help hobbyists and hardware vendors build their own security keys, and contribute to the technology's ongoing development.
Boston Dynamics gives its robot dog a developer SDK
Now that Spot is more clever and polite, Boston Dynamics is ready to set it free. The Softbank-owned robotics company announced that it's making Spot's SDK available to anyone who wants it via GitHub, starting today. The release will allow developers and even non-traditional roboticists "develop custom applications that enable Spot to do useful tasks across a wide range of industries," said Boston Dynamics VP Michael Perry.
Reachy is an expressive, open-source robot
Seems like everybody's getting into the AI and robotics game -- at least the companies and research institutions that can afford to build their platforms from the ground up are. France's Pollen Robotics, on the other hand, aims to kickstart the robotics revolution with its open-source system, Reachy.
Twitter will fund development of an open social media standard
Twitter is funding a team to develop an open and decentralized standard for social media. CEO Jack Dorsey announced the effort, called Bluesky, today. In a series of tweets, Dorsey said Twitter will fund a "small independent team" of up to five open source architects, engineers and designers, and that the platform will provide just one direction: find an existing decentralized standard to advance or create one from scratch.
GitHub will store all of its public open source code in an Arctic vault
Let's face it, there are a lot of things that could bring about the end of the world as we know it -- heightened political tensions, climate change, even an asteroid. In the event that things go FUBAR, what will happen to the masses upon masses of data and digital stuff that humanity relies upon every day? If open source coding platform GitHub has anything to do with it, it'll all be stored safely at the very ends of the Earth.
Google open sources Cardboard as it retreats from phone-based VR
Google's decision to back away from phone-based VR may have an upside for creators. The internet giant is releasing a Cardboard open source project that will let developers create VR experiences and add Cardboard support to their apps. It covers basics like head tracking, lens distortion rendering and input, but also includes a QR code library to ensure that you're not dependent on Google's Cardboard app to pair viewers. Between this and existing open source tools for making viewers, companies and homebrew teams alike could create all the hardware and software they need without asking Google for help.
Tap Strap 2 adds gesture control to any Bluetooth-enabled device
Tap made a name for itself with its futuristic wearable keyboards, now it's introduced a new Minority Report-style feature guaranteed to make you feel like you're in a sci-fi movie. The Tap Strap 2's new AirMouse feature lets you control any Bluetooth-connected device with a simple, untethered wave of the hand.
Vodafone tests open cellular radio tech that could lower call costs
Your wireless carrier is usually beholden to using proprietary cellular network tech from the likes of Ericsson or Nokia, but there may soon be a more universal technology that could benefit your bank account. Vodafone has started the first European tests (specifically, the UK) for OpenRAN, an Intel co-developed open access radio system that harmonizes hardware and software in cellular infrastructure. It doesn't sound exciting, but it effectively opens the door to lower-cost cell networks -- and that, in turn, could lower the costs of your calls and data.
GNU founder Richard Stallman resigns from MIT, Free Software Foundation
After reports revealed the lengths undertaken by some at MIT to accept donations from convicted sex offender and sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, MIT Media Lab director Joi Ito resigned. Now, computer scientist Richard Stallman, founder of the GNU operating system and author of an associated manifesto that pushed the idea of free software, has stepped down from his position with MIT's CSAIL and as president of the Free Software Foundation.
Microsoft releases its first preview of PowerToys for Windows 10
If you've been a PC user since the days of Windows 95 and Windows XP, then you may recognize the name PowerToys from a set of Microsoft-developed system utilities. After a few generations on the shelf, the concept has returned and now the first preview release of PowerToys for Windows 10 is available. Going along with Microsoft's open source shift, the set of utilities and their source code is available from GitHub, where people can also make suggestions, create utilities of their own or report issues.
Google, Intel and Microsoft form data protection consortium
It's common to secure data when its sitting put or flying to its destination, but not so much when you're actually using it -- there's still a risk someone could peek at your content while you work. Industry heavyweights might help keep your info secure at every step, though. Google, Intel, Microsoft and seven other companies have formed the Confidential Computing Consortium to help in "defining and accelerating" open source tech that delivers truly private data access. Ideally, data will always be encrypted or otherwise limited to whoever is meant to be looking.
Can an open-source AI take on Amazon and Google?
It's only been a few years since Amazon unveiled the Alexa-powered Echo, but since then, smart speakers have become a major consumer-electronics category. Key to its success is the notion of the always-on virtual assistant, which other companies like Apple and Google have adopted as well. In fact, not only has Google made Assistant the driving force behind its Android smartphones, it has launched its own line of Echo rivals.
Facebook releases tools to flag harmful content on GitHub
Facebook wants to rid the internet of garbage. But it can't do that alone. So today, it's making two of its photo- and video-flagging technologies open-source and available on GitHub. It hopes the algorithms will help others find and remove harmful content -- like child exploitation, terrorist propaganda and graphic violence.
Google pushes for an official web crawler standard
One of the cornerstones of Google's business (and really, the web at large) is the robots.txt file that sites use to exclude some of their content from the search engine's web crawler, Googlebot. It minimizes pointless indexing and sometimes keeps sensitive info under wraps. Google thinks its crawler tech can improve, though, and so it's shedding some of its secrecy. The company is open-sourcing the parser used to decode robots.txt in a bid to foster a true standard for web crawling. Ideally, this takes much of the mystery out of how to decipher robots.txt files and will create more of a common format.
Cloudflare wants to protect the internet from quantum computing
Quantum computing has the potential to revolutionize health care, AI, financial modeling, weather simulation and more. It's also going to shake up encryption as we know it. Without advances in post-quantum cryptography, quantum computing could make it easy for hackers to access sensitive data, like credit card info. To prevent that, internet infrastructure company Cloudflare is testing post-quantum cryptography technology, and it's sharing its open-source software package, CIRCL, or Cloudflare Interoperable Reusable Cryptographic Library, on GitHub.
CERN turns to open source software as Microsoft increases its fees
For the last 20 years, CERN -- home of the Large Hadron Collider -- has been using Microsoft products under a discounted "academic institution" rate. But in March, at the end of its previous contract, Microsoft revoked CERN's academic status. According to a CERN blog post, under the new contract, licensing costs have increased more than tenfold. In response, CERN is pulling back the curtain on a now year-old project to migrate to open source software, and it's calling it the Microsoft Alternatives project, or MAlt.
