In ExtraBITS this week, we now know the full scale of the 2012 Dropbox hack, the BitTorrent client Transmission has been infected with malware again, and Walt Mossberg evaluates Tim Cook’s run as Apple’s CEO.

 

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Notable software releases this week include Alfred 3.1, Default Folder X 5.0.6, Nisus Writer Pro 2.1.5, DEVONthink 2.9.4, iFinance 4.1, and EagleFiler 1.7.

 

Read the full article at TidBITS, the oldest continuously published technology publication on the Internet. To get a full-text RSS feed, help support our work and become a TidBITS member! Members also enjoy an ad-free version of our Web site, email delivery of individual articles, the ability to make long comments with live links, and discounts on Take Control orders and other Apple-related products.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Neowin: Four years ago, Adobe made a decision to stop updating the Flash Player package (NPAPI) on Linux, aside from delivering security patches. It has made an about turn on this decision in the last week and has said that it will keep it in sync with the modern release branch going forward. In its announcement, Adobe wrote: "In the past, we communicated that NPAPI Linux releases would stop in 2017. This is no longer the case and once we have performed sufficient testing and received community feedback, we will release both NPAPI and PPAPi Linux builds with their major version numbers in sync and on a regular basis." Although this is great news for Linux users who don't want to struggle to watch Flash content online, there also a few drawbacks. Adobe writes: "Because this change is primarily a security initiative, some features (like GPU 3D acceleration and premium video DRM) will not be fully implemented. If you require this functionality we recommend that you use the PPAPI version of Flash Player." You can download the new NPAPI binaries from the Adobe Labs download page.

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An anonymous reader shares a Motherboard report: Freddie Mercury, frontman of Queen and transcendent being of pure performative joy and vitality, would have been 70 years old this Monday, September 5. To celebrate the occasion and honor Mercury's enormous impact on pop culture, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) has officially changed the name of Asteroid 17473, located in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, to "Freddiemercury." It's a fitting tribute to the man who exuberantly sang that he was "a shooting star leaping through the sky" in the heart-thumping rock rager "Don't Stop Me Now." Queen's lead guitarist Brian May, who also happens to be an astrophysicist with a namesake asteroid of his own, announced the news to the band's fans via YouTube on Sunday. Mercury's asteroid is about three and a half kilometers across, and has an albedo of about 0.3, which means it reflects only about 30 percent of the Sun's light. "It's a dark object, like a cinder in space, as many of these asteroids are," May said. "It's just a dot of light, but it's a very special dot of light."

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Duterte calls US leader "son of whore", and soon after Obama throws planned talks with Philippine president into doubt.

Duterte calls US leader "son of whore", and soon after Obama throws planned talks with Philippine president into doubt.

A right-wing, anti-immigration party defeats Merkel's CDU in her home state of Mecklenburg-West Pomerania.

A right-wing, anti-immigration party defeats Merkel's CDU in her home state of Mecklenburg-West Pomerania.

Nathan Law Kwun-chung, a 23-year-old pro-independence candidate has just been elected to Hong Kong's legislature.

Nathan Law Kwun-chung, a 23-year-old pro-independence candidate has just been elected to Hong Kong's legislature.

State-controlled broadcaster says 23 people killed in blaze at Adis Ababa jail housing opposition figures.

State-controlled broadcaster says 23 people killed in blaze at Adis Ababa jail housing opposition figures.

An anonymous reader writes:During an address to reporters at the G-20 international summit in China, President Obama stated that he'd like to prevent an "arms race" among countries that have various cyber weapons at their disposal. The remarks come after Russian president Vladimir Putin denied having any involvement with the hack of the Democratic National Committee's emails earlier this summer. Obama said that the world is "moving into a new era where a number of countries have significant capacities", before noting that the United States has "more capacity than anybody, both offensively and defensively" when it comes to cyber weapons.

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