Slack has announced several updates as parent company Salesforce's Dreamforce event gets underway. Among those is the rollout of its Stories-style feature, which will let users share audio, video and screen recordings in channels and direct messages. The company said last October it was experimenting with the idea.

Rather than sharing snippets from your life or whatever's on your mind (as you might on Instagram Stories), Slack Clips is more about sharing work updates. You might use them to share a briefing so colleagues in other timezones can catch up later, or to offer some feedback on a project without having to type out all of your thoughts. Clips could help teams avoid trying to find a time that everyone's available for a meeting and instead let folks watch recordings when it best suits them.

Slack says it designed the feature with inclusivity and accessibility in mind. Along with changing the playback speed, you can read live, automated captions. You can also use a transcript to skip the preamble and get to the parts of the recording that truly matter, and respond to a Clip with text, audio or video. Unlike Stories on other platforms, Clips won't automatically disappear and the transcriptions will be searchable.

Slack is rolling out Clips now. The feature should be available to all paid teams this fall.

Slack

One of the other things you can do with Clips is share them with people outside of your team through Slack Connect. That feature lets users interact with external partners and customers, and the company has some news on that front too. With Slack Connect sponsored connections, Enterprise Grid teams will be able to invite anyone else into channels, even if they aren't paid users.

Until now, only organizations on paid plans have been able to work in channels together through Slack Connect. (All users can DM each other regardless of what plan they're on.) The company suggests sponsored connections, named so because Enterprise Grid plans cover the cost of Connect, will help teams move forward with partners and customers faster. Enterprise Grid teams will have access to the feature this fall.

Elsewhere, Slack announced a version of the app for the public sector called GovSlack, which is designed to meet government security needs and certifications. GovSlack will be available next year. In a major surprise, the company is also working on deeper integration with Salesforce products.

ByteDance has announced that Douyin, the version of TikTok for China, will introduce new limits for minors under 14. These minors will now be limited to just 40 minutes of use per day and can’t access the app at all between 10 PM and 6 AM.

ByteDance is also urging parents to add in more comprehensive user data to avoid kids lying about their age to get around the ban. At the same time, the company unveiled a new TikTok-esque app called Xiao Qu Xing ("Little Fun Star"), which offers short educational videos.

This is another fairly dramatic move as part of China’s broader crackdown on digital media and video games. Officials have recently described gaming as “spiritual opium” and limited kids playtime to just three hours a week.

Chinese leaders are reportedly concerned that children are becoming addicted to video games, which is having a detrimental effect on their development. The science behind video game addiction is controversial and disputed, with research into the condition ongoing.

Either way, the changes to Douyin aren’t likely to be that wide ranging in isolation since it’s thought that less than half a percent of users are under 14. It’s just the overall trend that’s likely to be worth keeping an eye on, especially if this anti-game rhetoric spreads to other countries.

— Dan Cooper

Ikea's new $40 wireless charging pad mounts underneath your desk or table

No more drilling or unsightly charging plates on your table, desk or nightstand.

IKEA

When I added an Ikea-branded wireless charging plate to my Ikea nightstand, I had to buy a custom Ikea hole saw to drill through into the top. As it turned out, Ikea furniture is sufficiently weak that I managed to scorch the wood and the paint with just the friction of the saw. The charging plate was, mercifully, big enough to cover the burn marks, so I never got any lectures about being bad at DIY. I had, however, learned my lesson that drilling out a QI charger was not my forte.

Ikea seems to feel similarly and has now launched the new Sjömärke QI charger, which is strong enough to charge a phone from the underside of your desk. You can glue or screw the chunky $40 unit to the underside of a suitable wooden or plastic table top. Then, all you have to do is drop your phone on the right spot and watch as about 5W of juice wafts into your phone. Or, at least, you will when it arrives in October.

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ZTE Axon 30 review: An 'invisible' selfie camera comes at a cost

That cost being… awful selfies.

Mat Smith

ZTE’s Axon 30 is one of those rare smartphones offering a (pretty much) invisible front-facing camera. The lack of notch, punch-hole or cut-out means users can take full advantage of the 30’s gorgeous, 6.92-inch, 2,460 x 1,080 120Hz AMOLED display. But, for $500, there are a couple of teeny-weeny compromises you’ll have to accept, including, er, lackluster selfies. We won’t spoil the rest of Mat Smith’s review but, suffice it to say, his feelings on this handset are pretty complicated.

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iOS 15 is now available

Your iPad, Watch and Apple TV will also get updated operating systems.

Cherlynn Low

iOS 15 and its device-specific cousins have now arrived and are making their way to your tech as we speak. Some of the biggest new features include upgraded FaceTime and Messages, better notifications and a Google Lens-esque Live Text function. Some of the more notable features announced at WWDC haven’t arrived just yet, including SharePlay, but those are expected to drop later in the year. At the same time, Apple showed off the full trailer for Finch, the Tom Hanks-fronted post-apocalyptic movie about a man, his dog and his robot trying to survive after the world ends. I imagine it’s a bit like if Cormac McCarthy had written Turner and Hooch after watching Short Circuit.

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US officials can't decide if Honor smartphones are a national security threat

Uh-oh.

Honor

When Huawei went on the US entity list, the Chinese giant was prevented from working with pretty much every tech company worth mentioning. Huawei couldn’t source chips from Intel or Qualcomm or get software help (and Play Store access) from Google. Consequently, Huawei spun out and sold off Honor, its budget division, for it to thrive free from the sanctions threatening its own future as a global brand.

Unfortunately, those best laid plans may be undone by a quartet of federal agencies who are deciding if Honor should go on the same entity list. Reports suggest that teams from the Pentagon and Department of Energy are in favor of addition, while the Commerce and State Departments are against. If this deadlock can’t be solved, however, the decision could ultimately end up on Joe Biden’s desk to sort out.

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Roku OS 10.5 adds better voice support, 5.1 Roku speaker configurations

Apple has introduced new sharing and personalized recommendation features for Podcasts on iOS 15, all meant to help you discover new shows to listen to. Starting today, you'll find personalized recommendation sections in the Listen Now page that show you podcasts similar to the ones you enjoy. They'll be entitled "If You Like '[Show Name]'..." and then list titles in the same category or with the same theme or same format. They could also list shows from the same studio or titles other users listening to that particular podcast are also following.

You'll find new sections with recommendations based the topics you usually enjoy, as well. If you listen to a lot of shows under Books, for instance, you'll see sections recommending titles under related categories, such as Arts and Design. These new personalized recommendation features are going live today, September 21st, for those who've already installed iOS 15, iPadOS 15 and tvOS 15, and it will also be available for macOS Monterey when the OS goes live this fall. Their availability is limited to specific regions for now, however, namely the US, Canada, UK, Ireland, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand.

Podcasts is also getting the new Shared with You feature that rolled out for several apps with iOS 15. In Podcasts, you'll see the new Shared with You section in the Listen Now page when somebody sends you channels, episodes or shows over Messages. A button that says "From [contact]" will show you who sent it over, and you can tap it to bring up the part in your conversation on Messages when it was shared so you can send a reply.

While the feature could be a great way to find new shows to follow, you can completely disable it under Messages in Podcast's Settings. You can also just delete individual recommendations by pressing on the item and selecting "Remove." Take note that the section doesn't show up until you get at least one recommendation, and it will disappear the moment you delete the last item in the list. 

Snapchat is rolling out new augmented reality lenses and stickers that can give you cursory lessons on sign language. The company has developed the new features as part of its efforts for the Weak of the Deaf with guidance from its Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing team members. Its new AR Lenses use AI and computer vision technology by SignAll, which can recognize and translate American Sign Language. 

One of the lenses will teach you how to fingerspell, in which you form individual letters with your fingers to spell a word. The other new lenses will teach you how to fingerspell your username, as well as some common words like "love" and "smile." You can scan the Snapcodes below to access them and then share a clip of you signing on the app.

Snap

In addition to the new lenses, Snap has also launched new general, Bitmoji and Cameos selfie stickers with common signs. The hope is that these new elements can boost awareness and help more people learn a new way to communicate. Jennica Pounds, a deaf software engineer at Snap who was a key figure in the project said:

"A big motivation for me is my own oldest son, who absolutely loves to talk, but has had a hard time learning ASL. I'm passionate about this technology because I truly believe it's going to break so many applications wide open. It's tech like this that will help families like mine communicate and grow together."

Snap

Sony introduced smaller CFexpress Type A memory cards with the launch of the A7S III mirrorless camera, offering a high speed (700MB/s read/800MB/s write) option for recording bursts or 4K/8K video. Unfortunately, Sony itself is the only manufacturer using that slot and actually selling memory cards, so it's charging through the nose. Luckily, ProGrade has just released its own model, the CFexpress Type A Cobalt, with the 160GB card running $330 — $70 less than Sony's 160GB card.

As a reminder, CFexpress Type A uses the same high-speed CFexpress technology as the type B cards, so the Cobalt card can deliver burst read/write speeds of 800MB/s/700MB/s and sustained write speeds of 400MB/s. That's considerably faster than what SD UHS II can do (burst read/write speeds up to 300MB/s), though slower than CFexpress Type B (1,750MB/s read and 1,000MB/s write). Still, it's easily fast enough to capture high-speed photo bursts without any stuttering, along with 8K or 4K 120p video. 

ProGrade

Only two cameras actually use the slot, Sony's A7S III and A1, and both have dual slots that can accept either SD UHS II or CFexpress Type A cards. If you own either of those cameras, though, you know that CFexpress Type A is much preferred as it supports all of those cameras' video formats and works better for high-speed bursts. The latter is key, as the A1 can shoot 50-megapixel RAW photos at up to 30 fps. 

With few camera models supporting CFexpress Type A, other third-party card manufacturers had yet to jump on board until now, though Delkin also announced cards that are coming soon. Sony charges $200 for the 80GB card a whopping $400 for the 160GB version, but you can now pre-order the ProGrade 160GB version for a more reasonable $330.

Tesla may soon launch its latest FSD (full self-driving) Autopilot to a wide group of drivers, and US safety authorities aren't that happy about it. They have reason to be concerned, according to a new MIT study seen by TechCrunch. The researchers studied glance data and found that drivers become more inattentive when using Tesla's Autopilot system.  

"Visual behavior patterns change before and after [Autopilot] disengagement,” according to the study. “Before disengagement, drivers looked less on road and focused more on non-driving related areas compared to after the transition to manual driving. The higher proportion of off-road glances before disengagement to manual driving were not compensated by longer glances ahead."

Visual behavior patterns change before and after AP disengagement. Before disengagement, drivers looked less on road and focused more on non-driving related areas compared to after the transition to manual driving. The higher proportion of off-road glances before disengagement to manual driving were not compensated by longer glances ahead.

The fact that drivers may not pay as much attention to the road when using Autopilot is not exactly a shocker. What's new is that the researchers were able to see exactly where drivers were looking when the autopilot was engaged versus when it's disengaged.

Off-road glances were directed downwards and toward the center stack region, so they "were presumably non-driving related." Rather, looking in those directions is typically associated with activities like glancing down at a smartphone or interacting with the center-stack infotainment touchscreen. Those were often longer with Autopilot engaged and far more frequent than off-road glances in manual driving, according to the paper. 

Despite the name, Tesla's FSD (full self-driving) Autopilot is merely a driver assist system and far from being fully autonomous. As such, it requires that drivers keep their hands on the wheel and remain fully alert, but Tesla doesn't use cameras or other means to monitor the alertness part. 

The latest version, 10.0.1, supposedly makes more confident decisions on the road, but has so far only rolled out to a relatively small group of beta testers. Tesla plans to roll it out more widely starting September 24th, though, and may release it to all Autopilot FSD EVs, pending a seven day trial that will track owner behavior. 

The new release could pit Tesla against US regulators, however. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) head Jennifer Homendy recently said that Tesla shouldn't release the latest software update until it can address "basic safety issues." She also wasn't thrilled with Tesla essentially beta-testing upgrades on public streets.

Netflix has started offering potential paying subscribers in Kenya access to some of its content at no cost. The streaming service has launched a free tier in the country that offers around one-fourth the content available to paying subscribers. It has no ads and won't even ask for payment information upon sign-up — a new subscriber will only need to confirm they're over 18 and to type in their email address and password. 

That said, it does have limitations in addition to having a smaller selection: It's only accessible on an Android device and users won't be able to download episodes for offline viewing or to cast shows on movies to a TV. In the announcement post, Netflix's Director of Product Innovation Cathy Conk, said: "If you’ve never watched Netflix before — and many people in Kenya haven’t — this is a great way to experience our service." The company is hoping that the free tier would entice people to pay for the service.

This isn't the first time Netflix made some of its content free to access. Last year, it launched a "watch free" page where people can stream original movies such as Bird Box and the first episodes of popular shows like Stranger Things without even having to log in. The free plan is new, though, and a spokesperson told Variety that it's launching first in Kenya as a way for the company to gather information on how effective it is in generating paying customers. Netflix has been investing more heavily in new markets to offset its slowing growth in the US and other saturated markets and amidst an increasing number of rival streaming services. Based on what the rep said, we may see the free tier make its way to more regions in the future. 

With iOS 15 now available to download, developers both big and small have started updating their apps to take advantage of the operating system’s marquee features. One of those is Google, which detailed today the iOS 15-related enhancements you can expect from its apps.

The biggest change involves how Gmail, Meet, Tasks, Maps, Home and many of Google's other applications will handle notifications. Should you have iOS 15’s new Focus Mode enabled, Google says prompts that don’t require your immediate attention will go to the Notifications Center where you can deal with them later. More timely reminders, such as those Google Maps sends you when you’re trying to navigate somewhere, won’t be silenced, and you’ll see them as they’re sent to you. Google says its goal was to make notifications “as relevant and timely as possible.” You'll see these roll out to the company's apps in the "coming weeks."

Meanwhile, if you own an iPad you can look forward to new Google Photos and YouTube Music widgets that take advantage of the extra screen space Apple’s tablets offer. The company says it will roll these out in the coming weeks as well. Lastly, Google Drive and YouTube Music feature new Spotlight integrations. You can use the tool to search for specific files and to play a song directly in Google’s music streaming service. Those enhancements are available today — though you'll probably wish more apps worked with Spotlight in this way.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has opened a “wide-ranging” investigation into Activision Blizzard, per The Wall Street Journal. The outlet reports the SEC recently subpoenaed the company and several executives, including CEO Bobby Kotick. The agency has asked the publisher to share a variety of documents, including correspondence Kotick wrote related to complaints of sexual harassment tied to Activision employees and contractors.

Helaine Klasky, a spokesperson for Activision Blizzard, told The Journal the SEC’s investigation involves disclosures the company made regarding “employment matters and related issues.” The agency reportedly hopes to find out whether Activision properly disclosed those problems, as well as whether those disclosures should have been shared earlier.

An SEC investigation adds significantly more regulatory pressure on Activision Blizzard. In July, the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) sued the company, accusing its executives of fostering a “frat boy” workplace culture. According to the initial complaint, only 20 percent of all employees at Activision’s Blizzard Entertainment unit are women, and they’re consistently paid less and overlooked for promotions. One month later, DFEH expanded the scope of the lawsuit to include both workers and employees. It also accused the company of using non-disclosure agreements to interfere with its ability to address the workplace violations that had happened at the studio.

During a teleconference with journalists on Monday, NASA researchers revealed the decided landing and exploration site for its upcoming VIPER lunar ice survey. Lori Glaze, director of the Planetary Science Division at NASA Headquarters, announced that the VIPER mission will land along the western edge of "Relay crater" at the planet's south pole. 

NASA

The decision to select this landing site required balancing a number of competing factors. Mission control "considered critical parameters, such as Earth visibility — for communications from the moon to Earth — sunlight terrain that's well suited for the rover to navigate through, and most importantly, of course, the expected presence of ice and other resources," Glaze explained, "while analyzing all these constraints, one study area came out ahead of all the rest, maximizing science return and flexibility to help ensure mission success once Viper is on the moon."

During its 100-day mission, the VIPER rover is expected to investigate at least six potential sites covering 10 to 15 square-miles of lunar surface through one of the coldest areas in our solar system studied to date. That includes permanently-shadowed craters that have a good probability of potentially containing water ice. 

"We really don't know where that water is so we had to find a place where we could cover significant distances — and by significant distances I mean tens of kilometers — going in and out of thermal regimes that included everything from permanently shadowed craters with literally 50 Kelvin temperatures to areas that transitioned to a balmy 110 Kelvin, and then all the way up to 250 Kelvin," Anthony Colaprete, Lead Project Scientist at NASA Ames said during the call. "We want to study the entire range of thermal environments."