Hasta La Gadget!

It would appear that part of Wordle’s acquisition and transition moves to the New York Times was removing obscene words and phrases from all parts of the game.

A fresh look at the available evidence suggests a Chinese booster will smash into the Moon in early March—and not a SpaceX Falcon 9 second stage as was previously believed. Experts say it’s an “honest mistake” and a sign that better processes are needed to track our junk in space.

Read more…

Polestar is counting on a time-honored tactic to get noticed in an increasingly crowded electric car market: a brazen Super Bowl ad. Volvo’s sibling brand aired a 30-second spot for the Polestar 2 during Super Bowl 2022 that took some not-so-subtle potshots at competitors and industry hypocrisy at large. The commercial was dominated by “nos” that included “no dieselgate” (hi VW), “no conquering Mars” (ahem, Elon) and “no greenwashing.” The company wants you to see rivals as either distracted from their mission or using eco-friendly products as cover — a possible dig at oil companies that flaunt green credentials, among many other potential targets.

The ad came during a Super Bowl full of tech marketing, including a two-pronged strategy from GM that included a Sopranos-themed commercial for the Chevy Silverado EV as well as the return of Austin Powers‘ Dr. Evil to pitch GM’s electrification strategy. Other tech promos came from Meta (pitching the Quest 2 and Horizon Worlds), Uber, Intuit and a host of cryptocurrency exchanges.

Whether or not the ad leads to a surge in demand is far from certain. Polestar may have the weight of Volvo (and joint parent Geely) behind it, but it’s still a tiny newcomer compared to Tesla, VW and other incumbents. It’s also not quite clear the Polestar 2 offers “no compromises” when it’s not the fastest, longest-ranged or most capacious EV. Still, the Super Bowl ad might be effective if it at least gets customers to consider Polestar if they’re planning to ditch gas-powered transportation.

The Manhart SL 800 R iteration of the 2022 Mercedes-AMG SL was revealed in a smooth set of colors and an all-wheel drivetrain (with Manhart Concave One wheels.)

The non-fungible token market is full of shady dealings, and British authorities hope to clean them up. BBC Newsreports HM Revenue and Customs has seized three NFTs as part of investigation into potential tax fraud. The suspects allegedly used 250 fake companies, false identities, prepaid phones, VPNs and other techniques to hide themselves as they sought to defraud the UK tax office of £1.4 million (nearly $1.9 million).

HMRC obtained a court order to take the unvalued NFTs as well as crypto assets worth roughly £5,000 ($6,760). This is the first time UK law enforcement has seized NFTs, the authority said.

The investigation is still ongoing. However, economic crime deputy director Nick Sharp believed the seizures would “serve as a warning” to other would-be crypto fraud perpetrators.

The lack of regulations and other protections around NFTs has led to significant problems with fraud and scams, including self-sales to boost prices (aka wash trading) and fake or plagiarized tokens. Cent recently halted most transactions due to “rampant” sales of bogus tokens, while marketplace giant OpenSea has been scrambling to develop safeguards after 80 percent of NFTs minted through a free tool were discovered to be fakes, copies or spam. Don’t be surprised if there are more seizures like this one, at least until NFT marketplace owners have more ways to discourage fraud and other harmful activities.