Xbox users can share screenshots and clips as Instagram-style stories

Microsoft is rolling out an update to the Xbox app for iOS and Android that includes a new social sharing feature. Players will be able to share screenshots, gameplay clips and achievements with their friends and others as Instagram- or Snapchat-style stories. You’ll be able to respond to other people’s stories with a reaction or message too.

You’ll find the stories on the home screen of the app. To share a clip, screenshot or achievement, access the channel, tap the plus sign on your gamertag and choose what you want to post from the gallery. You’ll be able to add a caption before sharing your story.

Although Instagram and Snapchat stories typically disappear after 24 hours, Xbox stories will be available for 72 hours. That means it’s more likely that your friends will see your updates, as long as they can tear themselves away from the new Halo Infinite season for long enough.

There’s another new feature for Xbox consoles as part of the May update. Microsoft calls it Quality of Service (QoS) tagging. It says this is a way of prioritizing “latency-sensitive outbound networking traffic such as party chat, console streaming and multiplayer.” The company says this feature could help to maintain your gaming experience amid connection issues on congested networks.

You can manage QoS tags in the Settings app. After selecting the General option, go to network settings, then advanced settings. You’ll then see the QoS tagging settings. DSCP tagging is enabled at the IPv4 and IPv6 packet level and works on both wired and wireless connections. WMM tagging works on the wireless packed level and is active only on Wi-Fi connections.

These updates are now live in Australia. Microsoft says they’ll arrive in other regions soon.

The best gifts to upgrade your grad’s tech setup

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Apple’s AirTag 4-pack falls back to $89

We don’t see deals on Apple’s AirTags very often, but you can now pick up a four-pack at Amazon for $89, or $10 (10 percent) off the regular price. They’ve been slightly cheaper at Woot, but it matches the best Amazon deal we’ve seen so far — so it’s a good time to act if you have multiple items to track. 

By Apple AirTag 4-pack at Amazon – $89

If you’re an Apple user, AirTags offer some large advantages over Tile and other rival trackers. The ultra-wideband functionality offers precise tracking with iPhone 11 or later devices up close, so you can narrow your search between a couch and love seat in the same room. Over larger distances, the AirTag network enabled by all Apple device users lets you track down an object you might have misplaced in a café.

It offers a simple coin-sized design and seamless experience thanks to the Find My app. You can also force an AirTag to emit a chime to help you hone in an object’s location, and Apple recently made that chime louder so the devices are easier to locate. 

It does lack a built-in keyring like rival trackers, so you’ll need to pay an extra $35 for that. And it only works with Apple devices, so Android users will have to buy something else. However, if you’re in Apple’s ecosystem and have been waiting for a discount, now is the time to act. 

Apple sues chip startup for alleged theft of trade secrets

Apple has accused a company of stealing its trade secrets. In a complaint filed Friday, the tech giant claims Rivos, a “stealth-mode” startup based out of Mountain View, California, led a recent “coordinated campaign” to poach employees from Apple’s chip design division.

According to Reuters, the first publication to report on the lawsuit, Apple alleges at least two former employees took gigabytes of confidential data with them to Rivos. Among the information those individuals allegedly stole are presentations that detail unreleased chip designs, reports Bloomberg.

“Apple has reason to believe that Rivos instructed at least some Apple employees to download and install apps for encrypted communications (e.g., the Signal app) before communicating with them further,” the company says in the complaint. We’ve reached out to Apple for comment.

Should the case move forward, it’s likely to draw a significant amount of attention, much like Waymo’s suit against Uber for stealing confidential information about its self-driving technology did in 2017. After years of litigation, that case ended with Uber agreeing to settle for $245 million, and with a court sentencing Anthony Levandowski, the engineer at the center of the dispute, to 18 months in prison before former President Donald Trump issued a pardon.

Google’s latest Pixel 6 and 6 Pro update fixes weak haptic feedback for notifications

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Scientists ‘knit’ soft robotic wearables for easier design and fabrication

Scientists have made considerable progress with soft robots used for assistive wearables, rehabilitative technologies and more. Powered by compressed air, they offer advantages over regular robots like sensing capabilities, soft touch, and high power-to-input ratios. 

Designing and building them has been a challenge, however, due to the need for a manual design and fabrication pipeline that requires a lot of trial and error. Now, scientists from MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) have come up with a new pipeline called “PneuAct” that uses computers and a special knitting process to design and digitally fabricate the soft pneumatic actuators. Their work could eventually lead to new assistive and rehabilitative devices. 

“PneuAct uses a machine knitting process — not dissimilar to your grandma’s plastic needle knitting — but this machine operates autonomously,” according to CSAIL researchers. The designer simply needs to specify the stitch and sensor design patterns in software to program actuator movements, which can be simulated before printing. The textile piece is then fabricated by the knitting machine, which is fixed to a rubber silicone tube to complete the actuator. 

The actuators use conductive yarn for sensing so they can essentially “feel” or respond to what they grab. As proof of concept, the team developed several prototypes including an assistive glove, soft hand, interactive robot and a pneumatic walking quadruped, as shown in the video above. 

The new devices are considerably improved over older designs, incorporating programmed bending when inflated and the ability to incorporate feedback. “For example, the team used the actuators to build a robot that sensed when it was touched specifically by human hands, and reacted to that touch,” the team wrote. The glove could be worn to supplement finger muscle movement, adding extra force for grasping to help people with finger or hand injuries. 

The team plans to explore actuators with different shapes, and incorporate task-driven designs with target poses and optimal stitch patterns. “Our software tool is fast, easy to use, and it accurately previews users’ designs, allowing them to quickly iterate virtually while only needing to fabricate once,” said Harvard University’s Andrew Spielberg, an author on the paper. 

Apple extends update deadline for outdated apps in danger of being deleted

Apple recently sent notices to some indie developers, warning them that their app will be pulled from the App Store if it’s not updated within 30 days. The tech giant has had a policy in place against outdated and abandoned applications since 2016, but the move suggests that it’s now more rigorously enforcing that rule. Some of the letters’ recipients criticized the policy for being a barrier to indie developers, what with how tough it is to keep up with platform changes and how much work it takes to roll out even a minor update. Now, Apple has published a post clarifying why some old apps are in danger of being removed, along with the announcement that it’s giving developers more time to update their applications. 

In the post, the company said that it will only send removal notices to developers whose apps haven’t been updated in three years, as well as to devs whose apps have not “been downloaded at all or extremely few times during a rolling 12 month period.” Apple said that dropping outdated apps makes newer ones more discoverable and also ensures users can enjoy games and tools that have been optimized for its latest OS and devices. 

As a lot of people know, there are older apps don’t work as well on the latest generation of phones, tablets and laptops anymore, delivering a subpar user experience. Still, 30 days might not be nowhere near enough time for smaller developers to conjure up an update. The good news is that Apple has extended its grace period and is now giving them up to 90 days to update their applications. Users will get to keep apps that are already installed on their devices even if they end up getting deleted, and developers can continue earning from them through microtransactions. 

Hidden AirTags should be easier to locate thanks to louder alert sounds

Apple announced back in February that it’s introducing changes that would make AirTags easier to find after several stories of bad actors using the tracker to stalk people came out. One of the upcoming changes it promised is adjusting the sound AirTags emit to be as loud as possible to make them “more easily findable.” Now, as MacRumors reports, the tech giant has started rolling out that capability with the device’s latest firmware update.

While Apple has published release notes to reveal what the update adds to the tracker, it didn’t mention that the company is gradually making the feature available on a staggered basis. According to the publication, only one percent of users received the update when it went out on Tuesday, but it will be delivered to 10 percent of users by May 3rd and to 25 percent by May 9th. Apple expects to complete the rollout by May 13th.

Earlier this April, Motherboard had obtained police data that included 50 cases of women receiving notifications or hearing alert sounds revealing that someone was tracking them with an AirTag. While that’s not a particularly large number, it suggests a growing number of cases wherein the trackers are being used for stalking purposes. In an effort to prevent the device from a creepy character’s tool of choice, Apple promised a handful of anti-stalking features that include showing people a warning that it’s a crime to use the device to track people. The company will also update newer iPhones’ precision finding technology to make them capable of displaying the direction and distance to an unknown AirTag.