Linux-powered robot kit aims for sweet spot between pro and kid products

Vincross has launched a Kickstarter campaign for a modular “MIND Kit” robotics kit ranging from $89 for the Linux-driven, quad -A53 compute unit to $799 for a complete kit with servo controller, motors, battery, bases, sensors, lidar, and a mic array. Vincross, which was founded in 2014 by Tsinghua University AI scientist Tianqi Sun, went to Kickstarter last year to launch its six-legged, all-terrain HEXA robot, controlled by a Linux-based MIND SDK. Now, the company has returned with a smarter and more modular MIND Kit robotics kit with an updated MIND 2.0 SDK. The company also announced a $10 funding round led by Lenovo (see farther below).

Android Leftovers

• Here’s our first look at the LG V50: 5G, triple camera, and a 4,000mAh battery

• An Android flagship you won’t be able to buy will ‘rewrite the rules’ in March

• Android Authority’s big book of smartphone firsts!

• Google announces expansion of its Android Enterprise Recommended program

• Android update - Google could soon make a very controversial change to your phone

• Thousands of Android apps bypass Advertising ID to track users

• Samsung’s One UI is the best software it’s ever put on a smartphone

• Alldocube X Android Tablet Quick Look: Low-Cost OLED

• Honor 8X vs. Moto G7: Which should you buy?

• A developer is working on turning a Nintendo Switch into an Android tablet

Leftovers: Windows 10 Being Called "Linux" (Again), Linux Foundation Controls TNS, Mozilla Developer Tools and LibreOffice at FOSDEM 2019

• Next Windows update brings better Linux integration [Ed: Disappointing to see even SJVN calling this "Linux" even though it is not Linux, it's Vista 10 hijacking the brand]

  The Windows 10 April 2019 Update boasts many improvements, not least of which is Windows Subsystem for Linux's new ability to let you access Linux files safely from Windows.

• The Future of Artificial Intelligence at Scale

  For this week’s episode of the The New Stack Analysts podcast, TNS editorial director Libby Clark and TNS London correspondent Jennifer Riggins sat down (via Zoom) with futurist Martin Ford, author of “Architects of Intelligence: The truth about AI from the people building it,” and Ofer Hermoni, chair of the technical advisory council for The Linux Foundation’s Deep Learning Foundation projects, to talk about the current state of AI, how it will scale, and its consequences.

• ArcticFox has working DevTools again

  The past release of 27.9.15 ArcticFox has the Developer Tools working again, they were broken previously because of excessive work on Private browsing.

• FOSDEM 2019 video presentations are online

  LibreOffice developers and other community members were present at FOSDEM 2019, the biggest European meetup of free and open source software developers. Check out the talks that they gave! Click a link to find out more and watch the videos…

Red Hat on Middleware, RHEL AUDITD, and More Security Issues

• Open Outlook: Middleware (part 1)

  Middleware, both as a term and as a concept, has been around for decades. As a term, like other terms in the Darwinian world of IT jargon, it has followed a typical fashion lifecycle and is perhaps somewhat past its apogee of vogue. As a concept, however, middleware is more relevant than ever, and while a memetic new label hasn't quite displaced the traditional term, the capabilities themselves are still very much at the heart of enterprise application development. Middleware is about making both developers and operators more productive. Analogous to standardized, widely-used, proven subassemblies in the manufacture of physical goods such as cars, middleware relieves developers from "reinventing the wheel" so that they can compose and innovate at higher levels of abstraction. For the staff responsible for operating applications in production, at scale, with high reliability and performance, the more such applications use standardized middleware components and services, the more efficient and reliable the running of the application can be.

• RHEL AUDITD

• Security updates for Tuesday