Hasta La Gadget!

If you thought Elon Musk was upset about frequent attention from the SEC… you guessed correctly. Musk and Tesla have written to a Southern District of New York court accusing the SEC of conducting a “harassment campaign.” The regulator allegedly broke a promise to pay Tesla shareholders $40 million as part of its 2018 settlement with Musk over his tweets about taking the EV maker private, and instead devoted its resources to “endless, unfounded investigations” into the CEO and his company.

The two maintained the SEC was sending subpoenas “unilaterally” and that the court, not just the Commission, was to monitor his compliance with the consent decree from the settlement. The SEC was supposedly retaliating against Musk for being an “outspoken critic of the government,” and more interested in stifling his First Amendment right to free speech than fairly enforcing the law. There haven’t been any findings of wrongdoing, according to the complaint.

Musk and Tesla asked the court for a “course correction” including a conference to discuss the SEC’s alleged failure to pay as well as the frequent investigations. They hoped the court would put the claimed harassment “to an end” while forcing the SEC to pay shareholders.

We’ve asked the SEC for comment. The government body has made repeated inquiries into Musk’s tweets in the years since the settlement, writing Tesla in 2019 and 2020 over posts it found concerning. While it’s true the SEC hasn’t found Musk at fault for those tweets, officials still claimed Musk was discussing key financial topics (such as production levels and stock valuations) without the pre-approval required under the 2018 agreement. Tesla argued these tweets weren’t covered under the terms of the deal, but it’s safe to say the situation isn’t entirely clear-cut.

A smooth new all-electric MINI Cooper SE Resolute Edition (a special edition, at that) was revealed as part of the full 2023 MY product range.

Who doesn’t love a hero story? Asus’s ROG Zephyrus G14 is the protagonist of AMD’s recent resurgence. When the original model arrived a few years ago, it proved Ryzen processors could outmuscle Intel chips while delivering class-leading runtimes. For Asus, its symbiotic relationship with Intel’s rival gained it a…

Read more…

You have about one more week to pre-order Samsung’s latest smartphones before they come out on February 25th. Samsung has a number of offers available to those who pre-order, but now Amazon is matching one of the discounts. The online retailer has knocked up to $100 off the higher-storage variants, so you can essentially get extra onboard space at no additional cost. The 256GB Galaxy S22 Ultra is $1,200 and $100 off, while the 512GB version is also $100 off and down to $1,300. As for the Galaxy S22+ and S22, the 256GB models of those handsets are $50 off and on sale for $1,000 and $800, respectively.

Buy Galaxy S22 Ultra (256GB) at Amazon – $1,200Buy Galaxy S22+ (256GB) at Amazon – $1,000Buy Galaxy S22 (256GB) at Amazon – $800

Samsung unveiled the three smartphones last week and the Galaxy S22 Ultra is the most premium of the bunch. It has a mesmerizing 6.8-inch QHD+ OLED screen with a 120Hz refresh rate, an impressive rear camera array, and is outfitted with the highest specs you can get in a Samsung phone — a Qualcomm’s 4nm Snapdragon Gen 1 chip, up to 12GB of RAM and up to 1TB of onboard storage. Samsung married the designs of its S- and Note-series phones in this new model, and fans of the Note family will be happy to see that the S22 Ultra comes with a built-in S Pen. While we had a bit of time to test out the Galaxy S22 Ultra before Samsung’s announcement, stay tuned for a full review coming soon.

The Galaxy S22+ and S22 may not have all the bells and whistles found on the Ultra, but Samsung made important updates to the insides of both smartphones. They share a design that looks similar to last year’s flagships, but they’re now made partially of post-consumer recycled material and come in new colors. The 6.6-inch S22+ and the 6.1-inch S22 both have FHD+ displays with 120Hz refresh rates, a triple rear camera array, a 40-megapixel selfie camera and a new Vision Booster feature, which adjusts screen settings automatically throughout the day to make it easier to view in different environments. As far as performance goes, both handsets run on Qualcomm’s 4nm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip, 8GB of RAM and up to 256GB of storage. Keep an eye out on Engadget for our full review in the coming weeks.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

Four Wordle puzzles at once? That was so five hours ago. Now, a site called Sedecordle has come up with a version that lets you do no less than 16 Wordle-style puzzles at a time, following the path of Octordle (eight), Quardle (four) and Dordle (two). 

When I checked out a Sedecordle puzzle, I thought “that’s not so bad” before I realized it didn’t fit on the screen and I had to scroll (and scroll) to reach the end of the puzzle. Sedecordle ups the ante on Octordle in terms of the number of guesses too, giving you 22 shots at each puzzle compared to 13. That increases your odds of avoiding a failure that would really suck if you got, say, the first 15 correct. 

With Wordle becoming an online phenomenon, clones have taken over app stores, with some dubious versions even tacking on hefty subscription charges. At least online versions like Sedecordle are expanding on the idea by adding an element of challenge — though 16 puzzles is maybe taking it a bit too far. 

I would love to tell you that I tried to do one, but even Quardle is a huge time sink that has been driving users mad. Suffice to say, you’d have to be a massive Wordle fan and slightly masochistic to try one four times that size. Much as folks expanded on the original Rubik’s cube with up to 22 sides, knock-offs are now taking Wordle to its logical, very silly conclusion.