Eliana Willis

ZDNETFirst things first: ArcoPlasma (which is a spin of ArcoLinux) isn’t best suited for those with little to no Linux experience. I had a few issues with the distribution (such as the db.lck file blocking updates — which was an easy fix if you know what you’re doing), so keep that in mind as you read on. Even with those issues, I found ArcoPlasma to be a pretty groovy desktop OS. What are ArcoLinux and ArcoPlasma? ArcoLinux is an Arch Linux-based project focused on education and customization. ArcoLinux offers multiple ways to install the operating system, including 17 different ISO options catering to various user preferences and skill levels.  Also: How to install Arch Linux without losing your mindArcoLinux doesn’t assume anything about the user and offers both easy and advanced routes to installing the OS. The advanced installation is quite an impressive feat and allows you to select everything — from the kernel used all the way up to the desktop environment (and everything in between). ArcoPlasma is a specialized version of ArcoLinux that delivers a polished, feature-rich KDE Plasma desktop environment. Thanks to KDE Plasma, ArcoPlasma offers users a sleek, elegant interface that is intuitive and highly customizable. When all of that combines together, you wind up with a pretty impressive desktop operating system. What makes ArcoPlasma special? Also: 10 Linux apps I can’t do without — and whyIt’s all in the details… and the Arch Linux Tweak Tool. Tweaking ArcoPlasma I could go on and on about KDE Plasma, but needless to say, it’s beautiful. ArcoPlasma delivers the usual KDE Plasma elegance that is sure to please and impress everyone. The big-ticket item, however, is called the Arch Linux Tweak Tool. The Arch Linux Tweak Tool (ATT) is a powerful application that was designed for customizing ArcoLinux but eventually expanded to other Arch-based distributions, including vanilla Arch Linux, EndeavourOS, Manjaro, and several others.  Also: Bluestar Linux is a gorgeous MacOS-like take on KDE Plasma that’s easy to useArch Linux Tweak Tool is to ArcoLinux (and ArcoPlasma) what YaST is to openSUSE. Think of it as the Settings tool for the system. With ATT, you can configure things like auto-start, themes, which desktop to install, fastfetch information, fixes, grub (bootloader), login, mirrors, packages, pacman, privacy, services, shells, terminals, terminal fun, and more.  For those who only want to customize the desktop, use the default tool for that purpose (such as KDE Plasma System Settings). For everything else, use ATT.  More

Maria Diaz/ZDNETRight now, you can get a Ring Stick Up Cam Pro More

Sabrina Ortiz/ZDNETThe launch of ChatGPT sparked a generative AI craze, igniting a tech revolution that has forced companies to rapidly innovate to stay competitive in this evolving landscape. Although Apple was late to the AI race, its launch of Apple Intelligence promised a transformative overhaul, putting Siri at the center of the Apple ecosystem as a context-aware personal assistant. However, a new Bloomberg report suggests this vision may take longer to materialize than expected.When can you expect the AI-improved Siri?In his latest Power On newsletter, Bloomberg correspondent and Apple watcher Mark Gurman reports that people within Apple’s AI division believe that the fully upgraded, conversational version of Siri won’t reach consumers until iOS 20 — which would place the release at around 2027. When Apple originally showed off the concept at WWDC last June, it was marketed as a personal assistant that seamlessly integrates into a user’s existing device ecosystem to provide meaningful behind-the-scenes help. Additionally, it would finally make Siri more conversational, enabling more human-like conversation, a highly requested upgrade.Also: I replaced my iPhone 16 Pro with the 16e for 24 hours – here’s everything I learnedHowever, since then, the company has rolled out only a handful of Apple Intelligence features, most of which have low helpfulness value. For example, users with eligible phones can now access Genmoji, Image Playground, notification summaries, writing tools, voicemail transcriptions, Visual Intelligence, and a ChatGPT integration. Ultimately, all of these features have fallen short, not adding much to the everyday smartphone experience. Apple Intelligence also continues to trail behind competitors. Just last week, Amazon launched Alexa+, a conversational voice assistant with agentic capabilities that allow it to perform everyday tasks for you. It also uses your personal context and habits to provide better assistance and is coming to Alexa-enabled products already in people’s homes. Two workaroundsBefore Amazon’s Alexa+ launch, Google and ChatGPT each unveiled their own AI-powered conversational assistants, Gemini Live and Advanced Voice Mode. These assistants understand your prompts in natural language, meaning you can speak to the AI as you would a friend. They also have multi-turn conversations, so you can keep the conversation going as long as you’d like without losing prior context.  More

Geary/ZDNETI’ve used every Linux email client on the market, from the terminal-based Alpine (originally just Pine) to the Evolution groupware, and everything in between. Some of those email clients I stuck with for years, but eventually walked away from them for one reason or another — too ugly, too inefficient, too outdated, too slow, too broken, etc.Also: How to use Linux without ever touching the terminalHad you asked me five years ago which email client I would take to my grave, the answer would have been Thunderbird. Between then and now, I’ve found that email client to be a bit too outdated in the UI and a bit too slow for my needs. There is one email client that I went back and forth on for a while, but eventually came back to and, unless someone develops something new and amazing, will most likely stick with Geary for some time. Why?Let me answer that question. 1. The clear interface One of my issues with several Linux email clients is outdated UI. But it doesn’t end with looking more like early 2000s software; some of those clients have a UI that’s too busy to be efficient. Sure, that old-school interface worked for a long time, but with nearly every Linux distribution now enjoying highly modern desktop environments, the apps that go along with those operating systems should at least look like they came from sometime during the last five years. One of the few clients to do that is Geary, and I’m all for it. Also: 6 features I wish Linux would borrow from MacOSThe Geary UI is clean and modern enough to blend right into nearly all Linux desktops. Even with multiple email accounts configured for Geary, it’s still a cleaner UI than Thunderbird or Evolution. 2. The one-trick pony of it all For those who need a groupware suite, Evolution is your way forward. If you’re like me, however, you’d prefer your email client to do only one thing — email. I have other tools I use for calendars, contacts, and tasks, so I don’t need or want my email client to offer those same features; it’s a redundancy I don’t need. Also: The best Linux distros for beginnersGeary is a one-trick-pony app; it does email and that’s it. The good news is that Geary does its one trick really well. I’ve found Geary to be as good at handling email as Thunderbird, but it doesn’t get bogged down with the other features. More

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Khanchit Khirisutchalual/Getty Images Partnerships between AI companies and the US government are expanding, even as the future of AI safety and regulation remains unclear. On Friday, Anthropic, OpenAI, and other AI companies brought 1,000 scientists together to test their latest models. The event, hosted by OpenAI and called an AI Jam Session, gave scientists across […] More

Opera/ZDNETThe team behind the Opera web browser has announced a new AI agent called Browser Operator, capable of performing browsing tasks for users. This new agentic browsing marks a paradigm shift that could mark the next evolution of web browsers. Also: Which AI agent is the best? This new leaderboard can tell youAccording to Krystian Kolondra, EVP at Opera, “For more than 30 years, the browser gave you access to the web, but it has never been able to get stuff done for you. Now it can. This is different from anything we’ve seen or shipped so far.” Kolondra continues, “The Browser Operator we’re presenting today marks the first step toward shifting the role of the browser from a display engine to an application that is agentic and performs tasks for its users.” Key features of AI agentics include: AutonomyPerceptionDecision-makingAction ExecutionLearning and AdaptingMajor efficiency boostVia the AI agentics, the Browser Operator is designed to give the user a major efficiency boost. This is accomplished by allowing the user to explain what they need to do in natural language, and the browser will then perform the necessary tasks. Also: Crawl, then walk, before you run with AI agents, experts recommendFor example, you could ask Browser Operator to buy you a pair of pink running shoes from Nike in a size 8.5. The Browser Operator will then perform the task. As Browser Operator performs the task, the user can see what’s happening at any point in the process, so they are in control the whole time. User-focused ecosystemEssentially, Opera is turning the browser into more of a user-focused ecosystem that uses native client-side solutions to complete tasks while protecting user privacy.Also: How businesses are accelerating time to agentic AI valueThe Browser Operator runs natively inside the browser and uses the DOM Tree and browser layout data to get context. According to Opera, that makes the solution faster because the browser doesn’t need to “see” and understand what’s on the screen from its pixels or navigate with a mouse pointer. Browser Operator can access an entire page at once, without the need to scroll, which means it reduces overhead and time required. And because it all happens natively within the browser, the Browser Operator doesn’t require a virtual machine or cloud server. More