Thurrott Daily: February 10

A few tidbits from around the web.

2/10/2016 4:03:16 PM

Major update coming to Minecraft

If you’re a Minecraft fan, hold on to your blocky underpants, because Microsoft is set to release a major update for both Minecraft: Windows 10 Edition Beta and Minecraft: Pocket Edition Explode “by the end of the month.” Here’s what you can expect:

• Additional redstone components. You’ll be able to make more advanced mechanical contraptions with these new redstone components; Comparators, repeaters, dispensers, droppers, hoppers, trapped chests and more.
• Witches and witch huts. “Tangle with spooky witches and their huts during your adventures,” Microsoft says. “Witch huts found while exploring swamps also now contain an exciting new feature – their cauldrons will be filled with a randomly generated potion that you can snag for your own if you’re feeling sticky-fingered.” And witch cauldrons can now be used to dye your armor an array of beautiful colors.
• Item frames and maps. Now you can display your coolest loot in your home with item frames or mount your maps on the wall to plan your adventures with a world overview.
• New gameplay elements. Minecraft: Pocket Edition and Windows 10 Beta are picking up slime blocks, wearable pumpkins, red sandstone and improved chicken jockey mobs.
• Import and export maps. Now, you can import and export maps into Minecraft: Windows 10 Edition Beta, so you can more easily share your favorite worlds with friends.
• New achievements. There are eight new achievements for Minecraft: Windows 10 Edition Beta, adding another 170 of additional Xbox Gamerscore points.

Looks cool.

LibreOffice 5.1 is now available

Yes, LibreOffice is still a thing, and the latest version, 5.1, offers “a completely reorganized” user interface (that still looks really old-school to me), improved compatibility with proprietary document formats, an improved formula engine for the Calc application, compatibility with (some) cloud storage (SharePoint, Google Drive and Alfresco, whatever that is), performance improvements, and more.

You can download LibreOffice 5.1 for free from the LibreOffice web site.

“Google to ban Adobe Flash-based advertising”

In 2017. Because “Internet speed.”

Apple Music goes live on Sonos

Sonos emailed me this morning to report that Apple Music is now live on the firm’s connected speaker solutions. I’ve been using Apple Music on Sonos during the beta, and it works as expected.

Google improves Gmail security

Google reports that it has improved the security of Gmail in two ways.

1. If you receive a message from, or are about to send a message to, someone whose email service doesn’t support TLS encryption, you’ll see a broken lock icon in the message.
2. If you receive a message that can’t be authenticated, you’ll see a question mark in place of the sender’s profile photo, corporate logo, or avatar.

These are apparently in the web app. Not sure if/when it happens on mobile as well.