Spotify has introduced a new feature called Pick & Play for users on its free tier, allowing them to select and play any track from its library instead of being limited to shuffle play. This change aims to enhance user engagement and satisfaction, potentially attracting a broader audience and increasing the time spent on the platform.
Concerns about online safety have led to increased use of Android spy apps, which provide access to messages, calls, and real-time locations. Testing shows that top apps can sync data in under 5 seconds and track over 15 social platforms. Users can monitor behaviors and interactions through a single dashboard, with effective tools operating in stealth mode.
uMobix is highlighted as the best Android spy app, scoring 9.8/10, with real-time updates every 3–5 seconds, access to calls, SMS, deleted messages, and GPS locations. It supports tracking for over 30 data types and has a starting price of .99/month.
XNSPY, scoring 9.5/10, offers detailed monitoring with call and SMS updates every 10–15 seconds and remote control features, starting at .99/month.
xMobi, rated 9.2/10, provides essential features with quick setup and a responsive dashboard, starting at .99/month.
SpyBubble Pro, scoring 9.0/10, specializes in stealth monitoring with data syncing every 15 seconds, starting at .49/month.
AccountViewer, rated 8.9/10, focuses on social media insights, starting at .99/month.
PeekViewer, scoring 9.1/10, allows anonymous profile viewing, starting at .99/month.
mSpy, rated 9.4/10, is designed for parental control, starting at .99/month.
Effective Android spy apps should provide real-time tracking under 10 seconds, support multiple social platforms, and operate in stealth mode. Installation typically requires physical access to the device, and monitoring begins immediately after setup. The legality of using these apps depends on consent and local laws.
Transitioning from Windows to Linux reveals a wealth of open-source software that enhances user experience. A key moment was switching from Fedora to openSUSE Tumbleweed, where Snapper, a snapshotting tool, was encountered. Snapper allows users to take snapshots of system files, enabling easy reversion to previous states without data loss. It automatically tracks significant changes, while Timeshift offers similar functionality in distributions like Linux Mint.
KDE Plasma provides a fully customizable desktop environment, allowing users to personalize their experience with widgets, themes, and KDE applications. KDE Connect connects phones to Linux, enabling notification mirroring, file sharing, and media control, surpassing Microsoft's Phone Link.
Linux package managers offer users significant control over their operating system, providing detailed information about downloads and dependencies. Although the command-line interface may seem intimidating initially, it becomes a preferred method for software management. Additionally, Linux distributions typically come with a wide range of high-quality applications pre-installed, enhancing the overall user experience.
A new Android malware called NoVoice has been found in over 50 applications on Google Play, with more than 2.3 million downloads. The malware targets older Android versions, specifically those patched between 2016 and 2021, and attempts to gain root access by exploiting vulnerabilities. It conceals malicious components within the com.facebook.utils package and uses steganography to hide an encrypted payload within a PNG image file. NoVoice avoids infecting devices in certain regions and has checks to detect emulators and VPNs.
Once activated, the malware contacts its command-and-control server to gather device information and polls it every 60 seconds for tailored exploits aimed at rooting the device. It can exploit 22 vulnerabilities, including kernel bugs, and establishes persistence by replacing key system libraries and installing recovery scripts. The malware injects code into applications, particularly targeting WhatsApp to extract sensitive data for session replication, which is then exfiltrated to the C2 server.
The malicious apps containing NoVoice have been removed from Google Play, but users who installed them should consider their devices compromised. Upgrading to devices with later security patches is recommended to mitigate the threat.
WhatsApp has approximately three billion monthly users, while Viber has over 200 million. In a recent poll, user preferences for messaging apps were as follows: WhatsApp (31%), Signal (40%), Viber (3%), Facebook Messenger (4%), Telegram (11%), and something else (11%). Signal has an estimated user base of 40 to 100 million monthly active users. Signal offers end-to-end encryption and minimal data collection, unlike WhatsApp and Viber, which track user interactions and device information. WhatsApp uses Signal's encryption protocol.
Spotify users are experiencing issues with locally stored tracks disappearing from playlists when accessed through Android Auto, despite these tracks remaining intact on their devices and functioning normally within the Spotify app. This problem has been reported by multiple users, indicating a potential communication issue between Spotify and Android Auto. Additionally, album art on the Android Auto screen is also missing, although it appears correctly in the task widget. Standard troubleshooting methods have not resolved the issue, and there is no acknowledgment or solution provided by either Spotify or Google. This situation coincides with ongoing connectivity issues and bugs affecting Android Auto, leading to user frustration. The root cause of the problem—whether it lies with Spotify or Android Auto—remains unclear.
The project focuses on enabling temporary tables in PostgreSQL's parallel query execution by benchmarking sequential writes and reads of temporary buffers. Functions were introduced to measure buffer flush operations, and tests were conducted to estimate the cost of flushing temporary table buffer pages to disk. Findings indicate that sequential writes are about 30% slower than reads, leading to a proposed cost model. Temporary tables have limited parallel usage due to their function as relational variables and the complexity of parallel workers accessing the leader process's local state. Two enterprise PostgreSQL distributions already support parallel operations on temporary tables, and discussions on logical replication of DDL highlight the need for improved tooling for temporary tables.
A significant challenge is that temporary buffer pages are local to the leader process, and if not flushed to disk, parallel workers cannot access them. A comment from 2015 suggests flushing the leader's temporary buffers to disk before parallel operations to allow workers to scan the table in parallel. However, this raises concerns about the cost of writing buffers versus the benefits of parallelism.
The benchmarking toolkit includes modifications to PostgreSQL to facilitate measurement of local buffers. Two key commits added statistics infrastructure to track allocated and dirty local buffers and UI functions to manage buffer operations. The methodology involves creating a temporary table, flushing buffers, measuring I/O, and evaluating scan overhead. The tests reveal that the cost of writing a temporary table approximates the cost of a sequential page, leading to a proposed formula for flushing costs.
The results show that larger buffer sizes lead to higher write overhead and increased variability. A comprehensive formula for pre-flushing temp buffers is suggested, factoring in the number of dirtied and allocated local buffers. Next steps include adding planner flags for temporary objects, implementing executor support for worker access to temporary table storage, introducing a temp-buffer flush operation, and integrating the cost model into the planner for parallel scans of temporary tables.
- 75% of respondents would not allow their child to play games on Android Auto
- Android Auto's latency does not make for a satisfying gaming experience
- The dashboard screen is designed for front passengers, not for kids in the rear seat
- Normalizing gaming on Android Auto within the car could negatively affect children when they eventually learn how to drive
- The priority of adding kids' games to Android Auto is questioned, considering other features that could have been added first
Fans are encouraged to subscribe to the official INDYCAR YouTube channel for updates on the 2026 racing season, which includes a diverse lineup of races at various venues. The schedule features:
- March 29: Barber Motorsports Park
- April 19: Streets of Long Beach, California
- May 9: Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course
- May 27: The 110th Indianapolis 500
- May 31: Streets of Detroit, Michigan
- June 7: World Wide Technology Raceway
- June 21: Road America
- July 5: Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course
- July 19: Nashville Superspeedway
- August 9: Portland International Raceway
- August 16: Streets of Markham, Ontario, Canada
- August 23: Streets of Washington, D.C.
- August 29: Milwaukee Mile Race 1
- August 30: Milwaukee Mile Race 2
- September 6: WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca
Every race will be broadcast live on FOX, the exclusive U.S. television home for INDYCAR. The Official INDYCAR App powered by NTT DATA is available for real-time updates. The NTT INDYCAR SERIES features notable drivers such as Alex Palou, Will Power, Scott Dixon, and Josef Newgarden.
