The Justice Department wants to keep Sam Bankman-Fried on a flip phone

It's Monday, March 06, 2023.

FTX founder and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried may be stuck using a feature phone. In a letter seen by Bloomberg, prosecutors said Bankman-Fried’s lawyers had agreed to modify the terms of his bail agreement. Provided the judge overseeing the case agrees to the changes, SBF will be restricted to using a “non-smartphone” without internet connectivity. Unless a lawyer is present, he will also be forbidden from contacting current or former FTX and Alameda Research employees. The proposed restrictions came after Bankman-Fried allegedly attempted to contact the general counsel of FTX’s US subsidiary over Signal at the start of the year. District Judge Lewis Kaplan threatened to revoke Bankman-Fried’s bail and send him to jail before the start of his trial after learning the disgraced entrepreneur may have influenced potential witnesses.

Under the modified bail agreement, SBF would be allowed to use a laptop to surf the web, but his access would be filtered through a VPN that would limit him to two categories of websites. One category would include resources his defense team says are critical to his case. The other has 23 websites SBF could use to order food, read the news and watch streaming content.

– Mat Smith

The Morning After isn’t just a newsletter – it’s also a daily podcast. Get our daily audio briefings, Monday through Friday, by subscribing right here.

The biggest stories you might have missed

A commuter plane flew for 15 minutes with a hydrogen fuel-cell engine

Sonic the Hedgehog co-creator Yuji Naka pleads guilty to insider trading

Eight months post-Roe, reproductive-health privacy is still messy

Hitting the Books: AI is making people think faster, not smarter

Amazon is shutting down some of its cashier-less Go stores

It’s paused construction on its second headquarters, too.

Amazon is closing down two cashierless Go stores in New York City, two in Seattle and four in San Francisco on April 1st, according to multiple reports. Bloomberg noted these are part of Amazon's latest cost-cutting moves amid slowing sales growth. In January, the company expanded its planned job cuts from 10,000 to 18,000 positions. Company spokesperson Jessica Martin said: "We remain committed to the Amazon Go format, operate more than 20 Amazon Go stores across the US and will continue to learn which locations and features resonate most with customers."

Continue reading.

Tesla slashes Model S and X US prices by up to $10,000

It's the second big price cut on those models this year.

Tesla has cut the prices of its high-end Model S and Model X electric cars by $5,000 and $10,000, respectively, according to changes on its website seen by TechCrunch. It's the second time this year the company has chopped prices, so the Model X has dropped $21,000 from $120,990 at the beginning of the year to just $99,990 currently. The Model S, meanwhile, has fallen from $104,990 to $89,990 since January 1st – a steep $15,000 reduction. However, neither car qualifies for Federal Tax rebates set to expire later this month, as those only apply to SUVs priced below $80,000.

Continue reading.

Amazon offers Mar10 Day sale discounts on popular Nintendo Switch games early

If you don’t already own 'Mario Kart 8 Deluxe,' it’s 35 percent off.

Super Mario celebration/sales opportunity, March 10th (Mar10) might not be for another few days, but that’s not stopping retailers like Amazon from offering Mario Day deals early. Ahead of Friday, the company has discounted a handful of Nintendo Switch titles that feature the mustachioed plumber. For instance, Super Mario Odyssey is 33 percent off, making it $40 at the moment. Meanwhile, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is $39 currently, down from $60.

Continue reading.

Razer Edge review

A new breed of gaming handheld.

Engadget

With the rise of cloud gaming, there's a newer breed of mobile machines, like the Razer Edge, trying to make things even more travel friendly. Instead of relying solely on local performance, the Edge runs Android for lightweight apps, while services like GeForce Now and Xbox Cloud gaming provide the computing power for more demanding titles. But is the Razer Edge something you really need?

Continue reading.