As countries and territories put the financial squeeze on Russia, it’s turned into a major test of cryptocurrencies and their exchanges. Many of the biggest cryptocoins, like bitcoin and Ethereum, have rallied in the past few days. Is this due to an influx of Russian money as the ruble tumbled in value? Or is this due to crypto investors and owners pushing that narrative to bump up values and reignite interest? I don’t know. I’m not an economist.

At the same time, Ukraine had raised over $13 million in cryptocurrency contributions as of February 28th. Reuters reported last week Binance had restricted crypto accounts affected by sanctions against Russia, while Kraken is warning Russians their accounts might be frozen if there's a "legal requirement" to do so.

Despite requests from Ukraine to go further, major crypto exchanges, including Coinbase and Binance, are saying that doing so would harm civilians and be counter to their ideals. "To unilaterally decide to ban people’s access to their crypto would fly in the face of the reason why crypto exists,” a Binance spokesperson told CNBC.

For now, cryptocurrency continues to exist on the fringes of governmental influence.

— Mat Smith

The biggest stories you might have missed

• Ethernet co-inventor David Boggs dies at 71

• Engadget Deals: Apple's Mac Mini M1 drops back down to $570

• Engadget Deals: AMD Ryzen 5000 processors fall to all-time lows at Amazon

• Amazon's Luna cloud gaming service officially launches in the US

• 'Monument Valley 2' and 'Alto's Adventure' are coming to Apple Arcade

• Facebook will demote Russian state media across its entire platform

• Cyberattack forces Toyota to suspend vehicle production in Japan

• Apple halts sales of all products in Russia

• Paramount+ anniversary sale drops plans to $1 for new subscribers

Google wants devices to know when you're paying attention

All in the name of more intuitive experiences.

Google

Google has been working on a "new interaction language" for years, and today it's sharing a peek at what it's developed so far. This new "interaction language" could help machines around us become more intuitive and perceptive of our desire to interact with them. This means reading our body language and movement so devices better know when to remain in the background instead of bombarding us with information. The team used the company's Soli radar sensor — first seen in Google’s Pixel 4 — to detect the proximity, direction and pathways of people around it. Read on for a breakdown of Approach, Pass, Turn and Glance — four of the new interaction terms Google is tackling.

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Jeep's first all-electric SUV arrives in 2023

An electric Ram 1500 is due in 2024.

As part of its new Dare Forward 2030 strategic plan, the automaker has unveiled the first all-electric Jeep SUV. Stellantis, the owner of Jeep, didn't provide a name, but its Jeep EV will launch in early 2023 and appears to be relatively compact. Autoblog reports that Jeep might be using the STLA Small platform that supports up to an 82kWh battery and 300 miles of range — but nothing’s confirmed yet. For now, it’s a cautious rollout that leaves Stellantis behind Ford, GM and other car brands that already have multiple EVs either on the road or coming this year.

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What we bought: Echelon's Connect Sport bike

It pairs well with an Apple Fitness+ subscription.

Engadget

Late last year, Engadget’s Jon Fingas resolved to get back in shape and bought a $397 Echelon Connect Sport exercise bike, using it alongside an $80-per-year Apple Fitness+ membership. Yes, that makes it much cheaper than Peloton, whose Bike ($1,495) and full subscription ($39 per month) demand a fair chunk of cash. Using Apple’s fitness platform to program workouts means it doesn't matter if Echelon’s own connected bike isn’t as smart as Peloton’s. And the end result is the same: a sweaty workout in the privacy of your home.

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Sonos' Roam SL is a mic-free version of its portable speaker

It costs $20 less than the original Roam.

It’s been about a year since Sonos released the Roam, its smallest and least expensive speaker yet. As with most modern Sonos speakers, the Roam has a built-in mic, so you can interact with voice assistants. The new Roam SL ditches that mic, meaning no more Alexa or Google Assistant. You also lose the Auto Trueplay feature, which uses the microphone to tune the speaker to sound better wherever you place it.

The $159 SL is otherwise identical to the original Roam. It's a small speaker that can connect to your WiFi network and be part of a Sonos multi-room audio system.

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This smart mosquito repellent system obeys voice commands

And you can control it with an app.

Thermacell has released a smart mosquito repellent system called Liv, which connects multiple repeller units to a smart hub. You can switch the system on and off using the hub or bark voice commands through Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant. You also have control of the repellers through the Liv+ mobile app. Just in time for sunnier months, it's available to order now. Liv starts at $699 for a pack of three repellers (which the company says will cover up to 945 square feet).

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With the Polestar 2 already in production, Polestars 3 and 4 on the horizon and the Precept concept slated to become the Polestar 5 in 2024, Polestar the company has just unveiled its latest electrified vehicle idea: the Polestar O2 convertible concept.

Polestar

“Polestar O2 is our vision of a new era for sports cars," Polestar’s Head of Design, Maximilian Missoni, said in a Tuesday press statement. "By mixing the joy of open top driving with the purity of electric mobility, it unlocks a new mix of emotions in a car."

The O2 will reportedly be built upon the same "bespoke" bonded aluminum unibody platform that the company is using for the Polestar 5, and generally resemble the Precept concept design it is derived from which, according to Polestar PR, "shows how Polestar’s evolving design language can be adapted to different body styles with a strong family resemblance." That is, while the Polestar 5 will be a high-performance four-door grand touring vehicle, the O2 will offer a more compact, 2+2 sportscar feel, despite both being built on the same basic underpinnings.

Polestar

Now, you might be wondering how a convertible EV would even work given that traditional convertibles are rather inefficient — their frames are thicker and heavier to offset the structural strength lost by cutting off the roof and their aerodynamics are a mess because, again, no roof — and that is an excellent question. The company doesn't yet have drag coefficient data to share, but it did assert that "disguised design features like integrated ducts that improve laminar air flow over the wheels and body sides, and rear lights that function as air blades to reduce turbulence behind the car," are being investigated to maximize the vehicle's range.

With a shorter wheelbase and only an afterthought of rear seats, the O2 offers a sportier, more aggressive stance than the Polestar 2. And those wheels! The exterior is a study of sharp lines with a low-slung cabin seated between angular fender flares and an acutely angled glass-top roof that retracts back into a broad trunk. It looks like if you mashed up a Ford F40 with a Porsche 718 Spyder and then flattened out all the curves. It looks like a roadster you'd see on the streets of Los Santos. I am a fan.

Polestar

The interior sounds equally supple, featuring a "thermoplastic mono-material" throughout for the hard bits, paired with recycled polyester as "the sole material used for all the soft components." Because nothing beats the seat-squelching experience of sitting on polyester and plastic in full sun with the roof down. 

Polestar

Drivers will also be able to film their top-down adventures thanks to the O2's integrated cinematography drone. Developed in collaboration with Hoco Flow, this autonomous camera drone rides in an area of negative pressure generated from an airfoil deployed behind the rear seats. The drone can follow along at speeds up to 56 MPH and the captured footage can subsequently be edited and shared from the central infotainment system once the vehicle is parked. I mean, personally, I'd prefer an eATV or even an electric skateboard if automakers are going to bundle in secondary transports with their vehicle offerings, but sure, a camera drone will definitely remain cool and novel and useful after the first couple flights. I mean, just look at how well they turned out for the Renault KWID or the Lexus LF-30 Electric Concept. 

Polestar

Like the Precept, we won't likely see street legal O2 as it is now. Instead, Polestar plans to launch three new cars over the coming three years, "each of which has potential to gradually realize some of the ideas presented by these concept cars," so keep an eye out for low-flying drones. 

Netflix has today announced that it will acquire Next Games, a Finnish mobile game developer that has already made an RPG based on Stranger Things. The deal will see Netflix hand over around €65 million (around $72 million), with all of the paperwork expected to be finalized by the summer. Next Games has plenty of experience courting the TV-tie-in market, and previously made The Walking Dead: Our World which was kept updated in sync with the (in)famous zombie show.

As Michael Verdu, VP of Games at Netflix explained, Next Games will become a “core studio,” “expanding our internal game studio capabilities.” This is very in-line with Netflix’s strategy to broaden out what it can offer to users beyond prestige TV miniseries that regularly last 2-3 hours longer than they should. As well as titles spun-out of Stranger Things and The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, Netflix has also launched a Hearthstone-esque card battler called Arcanium: Rise of Akhan and Krispee Street. Not to mention its projects in “interactive fiction” like Bandersnatch and the recently-released Cat Burglar.

Google has blocked users from being able to edit Maps in Ukraine, Russia and Belarus, according to BuzzFeed News. It's also deleting all user-submitted places and contributions, such as photos, videos and business information in those countries made since February 24th. The tech giant came to the decision "out of an abundance of caution" after people claimed across social networks that the Russian military has been relying on pins created by users on Maps to coordinate air strikes on Ukraine. 

As BuzzFeed News explains, there are posts circulating on websites like Twitter with screenshots of Maps showing pins labeled "“ФЕРМЕРСЬКЕ ГОСПОДАРСТВО" or Ukrainian for "farm" in Kyiv. People were reportedly claiming that user-made tags saying "farm" or "agriculture" created on February 28th matched the locations of the missile strikes on cities that include Kyiv and Kharkiv. 

Google told the publication, however, that some of the user edits marking locations in Ukraine as "farms" were made a year ago. Even so, it's disabling user contributions to Maps since the Russian invasion had started. A company spokesperson said:

"Out of an abundance of caution, we are removing user contributions like photos, videos, reviews and business information and all user-submitted places from Google Maps in Ukraine, Russia and Belarus since the invasion began, and are temporarily blocking new edits from being made."

A few days ago, the tech giant also removed live traffic data on Maps in Ukraine, most likely to protect the locations of fleeing locals. It blocked the YouTube channels of Russian state-owned media outlets RT and Sputnik on across Europe, as well, following the European Commission's announcement that it would ban what it calls "Kremlin's media machine" in the EU. Other tech companies had also responded to calls to limit their services in Russia and to block access to its state-owned media outlets. Facebook took down fake accounts spreading Russian disinformation and restricted RT's and Sputnik's access to its platform, for instance. More recently, Apple halted all product sales in Russia and disabled all traffic data in Ukraine after a request from Ukrainian Vice Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov. 

General Motors has sold its stake in struggling electric pickup maker Lordstown Motors, TechCrunch has reported. It reportedly unloaded its 5 percent investment (worth $75 million originally) in the fourth quarter of 2021, as originally disclosed by The Detroit Free Press and confirmed by GM.

Lordstown recently reported a loss of $81.2 million for the fourth quarter, and said in an earnings call earlier this week that it planned to sell only 3,000 of its Endurance electric trucks through 2023 — a far cry from the 32,000 it predicted when it went public via a SPAC deal back in 2020. It aims to build 500 of those this year, but it will need to raise an additional $250 million to do so. 

Last year, Lordstown warned that it didn't have enough cash to produce its electric trucks. Later in 2021, the SEC announced that it was investigating the firm, and then-CEO Steve Burns was subsequently pushed out after he was found to have lied about the number of Endurance pre-orders. 

GM got involved with Lordstown Motors after closing its Lordstown, Ohio plan in 2019, and selling it to EV manufacturer Workhorse, founded by Burns. Burns subsequently started Lordstown Motors with the aim building electric pickups at the plant, and obtained $75 million in investment from GM. The idea was to follow the path of Rivian and build electric pickups for businesses, but it's now in competing in a tougher market against giants like Ford, which recently launched the F-150 Lightning pickup. 

Lordstown Motors recently revealed that it didn't have enough cash to last through to 2023, so it subsequently agreed to sell the Lordstown plant to Foxconn for $230 million and rent space in it. However, Lordstown said that the deal is not as far along as they'd anticipated, a situation that's compounding the company's problems.

Woot's following up its Xbox sale from a few days ago with a Prime-exclusive deal on the Nintendo Switch Lite. Prime members can get $10 off the handheld console, bringing it down to $190. You'll have to sign in with your Prime account credentials before you can add the Switch Lite to your cart and see the discount automatically applied at checkout.

While it's a modest discount, $10 off is still a good deal, particularly on a console like this that rarely goes on sale. The standard Nintendo Switch has its perks, especially the OLED version that just came out, but the Switch Lite remains the better option if you're going to primarily play on the go. You can't connect the Switch Lite to a TV, nor can you remove the Joy-Cons from its sides. But those are small sacrifices to make if you care most about portability.

The 0.6-pound console feels light and comfortable to hold, and the attached controllers actually help it feel quite sturdy. It has a 5.5-inch display that's more than suitable for all kinds of games, but considering it is smaller than that on the standard Switch, you may find yourself squinting to read text. It has 32GB of onboard storage, but like the standard Switch, you can easily expand that with a microSD card. We were also happy to find that the Switch Lite has a battery life of up to seven hours, depending on the types of games you're playing. It's not quite as long as the refreshed, non-OLED Switch, but it's close and should be enough to keep you busy during a long car ride or flight.

As always, we recommend checking out Woot's return policy before you buy. The online retailer is owned by Amazon, and although this is a Prime-exclusive deal, the return policy you may be used to with Prime doesn't apply here as Woot has it's own rules.

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

Rivian has raised the original $67,500 base price of its quad-motor R1T electric pickup with large battery packs to $79,500 (sans destination charges). That's a whopping $12,000 increase that will apply to most reservation holders except for those in the very final stages of purchase. The price of the R1S SUV (below) is also being hiked by $12,000 from $72,500 to $84,500.

"Like most manufacturers, Rivian is being confronted with inflationary pressure, increasing component costs, and unprecedented supply chain shortages and delays for parts (including semiconductor chips)," said Rivian's chief growth officer Jiten Behl.

Rivian

If you were still hoping to pay the lower prices, there is another option. Rivian has introduced dual-motor versions of the R1T and R1S EVs, with both starting at the original $67,500 and $72,500 prices. You also have the option of equipping the dual-motor vehicles with the large battery packs, priced at $73,500 for the R1T and $78,500 for the R1S. 

However, neither of those vehicles will be available until 2024, and both will have smaller "standard" battery packs that deliver less range than the large packs (260 miles instead of 310 miles). So you'll be getting quite a lot less vehicle for the same money. 

The dual-motor variants (one at each axle) will have motors designed, engineered and manufactured by Rivian. They'll deliver 600 HP and 600 pound-feet of torque, according to Rivian, delivering a 4.0-second 0-60 mph time. That's about a second slower than the fastest quad-motor R1T (835 HP and 908 pound-feet of torque), but still pretty darn fast.

In his first State of the Union address, President Biden has asked Congress to implement new laws to increase child safety on Facebook, TikTok and other social media platforms. "It's time to strengthen privacy protections, ban targeted advertising to children, demand tech companies stop collecting personal data on our children," he said on Tuesday evening. 

To get started on implementing those changes, the White House will specifically ask for funding to study the question of child safety on social media. Biden also plans to request $5 million in next year's budget to research the mental health impact of social media, while launching a "national Center of Excellence on Social Media and Mental Illness." The aim of that is to develop new guidance on the impact of adolescent social media use.

Much of the motivation for the changes appears to have come from the Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen, who attended the address as a guest of Jill Biden. She recently testified before Congress, accusing Facebook parent Meta of disregarding child safety on the platform. 

Her revelations impacted politicians on both sides of the aisle, who agreed that stronger rules were required. Last month, Democrat Senators Marsha Blackburn and Richard Blumenthal introduced a bill, the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), that would give parents and children more control over their privacy and safety on social media, while setting new rules for social media platforms.

"As Frances Haugen, who is here with us tonight, has shown, we must hold social media platforms accountable for the national experiment they’re conducting on our children for profit ," the President said.

During his first State of the Union address, President Biden announced that the same website where Americans could order free at-home covid tests will open up for a second round of distribution next week. 

The effort to mail out free tests began in mid-January, from an initial stockpile of 500,000,000. While the initiative was a welcome change — especially as an agreement between the White House and several retail chains to keep costs of these tests down had just expired — it was also criticized as being inadequate. Its major shortcoming was limiting each recipient address to four tests, an insufficient number for some households. 

Presumably this limitation was to prevent the nation's cache of tests from becoming depleted. But according to reports late last week, around half of that initial half-billion are yet to be claimed.

Unfortunately, this next round of distributions will be much like the first. While Biden was not specific in his speech to the nation, the covidtests.gov site states that "Starting next week, every home in the U.S. will be able to order an additional set of 4 tests." 

Covid testing in clinics around the country remain free, even to those without insurance coverage. The number of new cases continues to fall after the winter Omicron spike, and the CDC recently updated its guidance to suggest that the majority of Americans no longer need to wear masks in most circumstances. 

SEC officials do not know the whereabouts of Satish Kumbhani, the founder of crypto trading platform BitConnect, who was charged last week with defrauding investors of $2.4 billion in a Ponzi scheme. This puts the SEC in quite a bind, since they have to serve the 36-year old entrepreneur with his court papers. In a court filing from Monday, the SEC stated that they did not have an address for Kumbhani, an Indian citizen, and suspected that he likely fled to another country. 

The DOJ is charging Kumbhani with a number of offenses, including conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit commodity price manipulation and conspiracy to commit international money laundering.

“Kumbhani’s location remains unknown, and the Commission remains unable to state when its efforts to locate him will be successful, if at all," wrote the SEC in its filing.

In order to buy some time, the SEC is asking the US District Court for the Southern District of New York for an extension of 90 days. Since BitConnect is an unincorporated entity and not a formal corporation, all court papers have to be served to Kumbhani himself.

First founded in 2016, BitConnect attracted a lot of attention on social media for its “Lending Program” which allowed users to lend their Bitcoin in exchange for a propriety Bitconnect cryptocoin. The program claimed it could guarantee returns by using investors’ money to trade on the volatility of the cryptocurrency markets." 

“Under this program, Kumbhani and his co-conspirators touted BitConnect’s purported proprietary technology, known as the 'BitConnect Trading Bot' and 'Volatility Software', as being able to generate substantial profits and guaranteed returns by using investors’ money to trade on the volatility of cryptocurrency exchange markets. As alleged in the indictment, however, BitConnect operated as a Ponzi scheme by paying earlier BitConnect investors with money from later investors,” wrote the DOJ’s Office of Public Affairs in a press release.

After years of crypto existing in a legally murky universe, U.S. government officials are cracking down on cryptocurrency fraud and scams at an increasing rate. Last year, the DOJ launched a national cryptocurrency enforcement team to handle complex cryptocurrency investigations, and recently appointed veteran cybersecurity prosecutor Eun Young Choi as its director.

BitConnect is just one of many cryptocurrency schemes that law enforcement has pinned down in recent months. The founders of BitMex, a crypto derivatives exchange, plead guilty to skirting anti-laundering laws in the US and were ordered to pay $20 million in fines. Earlier this month, the DOJ arrested Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather Morgan, two entrepreneurs who allegedly attempted to launder more than 25,000 Bitcoins stolen from the 2016 Bitfinex hack.