Hasta La Gadget!

For at least a decade, a shadowy hacker group has been targeting people throughout India, sometimes using its digital powers to plant fabricated evidence of criminal activity on their devices. That phony evidence has, in turn, often provided a pretext for the victims’ arrest.

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In case attempting to buy a graphics card at or near retail prices hasn’t been demoralizing enough, Best Buy is here to kick us while we’re down. The retailer is exploiting the ongoing supply shortage and our resulting desperation to force customers into paying another $200 for a shot at buying a graphics card.

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The Joint European Torus (JET) fusion reactor in the UK has generated the highest level of sustained energy ever from atom fusion. On December 21st, 2021, the “tokamak” reactor produced 59 megajoules of energy during a five-second fusion pulse. That’s double what it created back in 1997. (Yes, I know energy is not created or destroyed, but you get what I mean!)

The JET reactor is the flagship experimental device of the European Fusion Program, funded by the EU. It’s mainly designed to prove scientists’ modeling efforts, with an eye on future, bigger experiments with a much larger ITER reactor in France, set to start fusion testing in 2025.

JET hit a Q value of 0.33, meaning it produced about a third of the energy put in. The highest Q value achieved so far is 0.7 by the US Department of Energy’s National Ignition Facility, but it only hit that figure for 4 billionths of a second. The goal with ITER is to reach a Q factor of 10 or greater. Fun fact: ITER isn’t an acronym but means “the path” in Latin. And now you know.

— Mat Smith

The biggest stories you might have missed

• TAG Heuer’s smaller luxury smartwatch will set you back $1,800

• Wordle’s desktop site now redirects to ‘The New York Times’

• Corsair’s new K70 keyboard is a welcome improvement

• Apple’s 2021 iPad mini is up to $50 off at Amazon

• Apple’s latest iOS and macOS updates fix a major web security flaw

• Farewell Douglas Trumbull, visual effects pioneer

How to build a budget home theater setup

Decent surround sound comes cheaper than you think.

Getty

Maybe you’ve got a glorious new 4K TV. But maybe you’re still using sub-par built-in speakers. Thankfully, it’s never been easier to bring the surround sound experience home without investing thousands of dollars in Hi-Fi components. Senior Editor Devindra Hardawar guides you through your options.

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Tesla recalls more than 578,000 vehicles over pedestrian warning sounds

The Boombox feature risked overpowering safety alerts.

Tesla is recalling hundreds of thousands of cars over a technical issue. It has recalled 578,607 Model 3, S, X and Y vehicles over concerns the Boombox feature can overpower Pedestrian Warning System sounds. The ability to play external audio while the car is in motion violates a federal safety rule requiring a clearly audible sound when EVs and hybrids are moving at speeds below 18.6MPH. As with some of its previous recalls, the company will address the issue with a free over-the-air update. The patch will disable Boombox while cars aren’t parked, Tesla said.

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California is suing Tesla over ‘racial discrimination and harassment’

Tesla called the lawsuit “unfair and unproductive.”

More bad news for Tesla. A California civil rights agency has filed a lawsuit against the company for alleged racial discrimination and harassment at its Fremont factory, according to The Wall Street Journal. “After receiving hundreds of complaints from workers, DFEH found evidence that Tesla’s Fremont factory is a racially segregated workplace,” said California Department of Fair Employment and Housing director Kevin Kish in a statement.

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MoviePass will return this summer

But it’s really not the same thing.

MoviePass is making a comeback. Co-founder Stacy Spikes, who is back at the helm, says MoviePass 2.0 is being built on a Web3 framework and will have a kind of virtual currency. It will have tiered plans, but he didn’t mention pricing. Spikes said there’ll be ways for people to earn credits through the app via a “preshow experience.” That’s watching ads. To make sure you’re actually watching them, the app will employ facial recognition and eye-tracking. Wonderful.

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The first Android 13 developer preview is here

More privacy controls and themed icons are coming.

Google

Google is unveiling the first Android 13 developer preview today, and it’s clear the company is not going to avoid the “unlucky” number. Developers (and risk takers) can test their apps using the Android emulator or flashing a system image to the Pixel 4 or newer Pixel phones. Based on today’s announcement, it looks like we can expect finer privacy controls and more of Android 12’s Material You design licks throughout.

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Biden administration unveils $5 billion plan for EV charging infrastructure

States can apply for the funds to create an Alternative Fuel Corridor on US highways.

The Biden administration has announced a $5 billion plan to help states build half a million EV charging stations by 2030 — five times the current number. The goal is to allow EV owners to find a charging port anywhere within 50 miles of their location across all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. A total of $615 million will be distributed this year alone.

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Have you ever typed out an NSFW word (or two or five) on Wordle in a fit of frustration? Well, it’s time for you to get your verbal recall skills out of the gutter. The New York Times has yanked a handful of gendered slurs from Wordle’s internal dictionary, reported Polygon on Friday. The words “bitch”, “whore” and “sluts” have been removed from the game’s word list.

In other words, (no pun intended) typing out any one of these terms will have the same effect as if you type out a string of random letters like “asjfk” or “jkjkj”: a grey box will appear with the phrase “not in word list” — and you’ll feel dumb. And for what it’s worth, none of these expunged words have been solutions to prior Wordle puzzles, and there’s not much reason to believe they ever would have been in the future.

Not every profane term or curse word has been scrubbed off Wordle’s list as of yet. According to Engadget’s research, a number of slang terms for genitalia as well as some run-of-the-mill curses still pass muster. 

But given the Grey Lady’s avoidance of bad language in both its news coverage and crosswords, it may just be a matter of time. One thing that is certain, however, is this: you’ll never see a winning word in TheNew York Times version of Wordle that you couldn’t use in front of your grandmother. “Offensive words will always be omitted from consideration,” a Times spokesperson told Polygon.

The viral game created by developer Josh Wardle for his partner was purchased by the Times for a seven-figure amount late last month. Wordle just migrated to the Time’s website yesterday, and there have been a couple of hiccups. Some have noticed that their Wordle game statistics haven’t automatically transferred over, as the Times promised. Other people have opinions on the new, NYT-like game interface and the likelihood that the game may soon be under the newspaper’s paywall (though it remains free for now).

If you’re a naturally vulgar-minded person, don’t despair. There’s always Lewdle, Wordle’s X-rated cousin.

Another one bites the dust as Google is killing off one of the last remnants of its social network in favor of a slightly different service called Spaces.