Hasta La Gadget!

The Mercedes EQB holds a unique place in the automaker’s US lineup: unlike other EQ vehicles, it’s built upon a platform that supports gas, hybrid and electric drivetrains. If you’re familiar with Mercedes vehicles, you’ll see it’s unmistakably the electric-powered version of the GLB SUV, but it’s had a small makeover to make it fit better with the rest of the EQ line. Those tweaks are mostly saved for the exterior – the interior is nearly identical to its gas counterpart.

The vehicle’s approximate range of 230 miles and DC fast-charging capability of up to 100kW don’t stack up favorably to the latest generation of purpose-built EVs, which could hurt its sales with potential buyers. But for an around-town family SUV, the EQB is hard to beat, offering a combination of comfort, utility and technology in a Mercedes SUV that starts under $60,000. Watch the video below for the full story.

Maryland’s Republican governor said he wouldn’t let GOP nominee Dan Cox “in the governor’s office, let alone vote for him for the governor’s office.”

I’m exhausted. Years of reviewing laptops and I still eavesdrop on Best Buy employees telling customers to either buy very obscure Windows laptops or to “just go with the MacBook and Surface.” Part of the problem is competition. Hold on now, no reason to start sharpening pitchforks–I’m all for having options,…

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Intel and MediaTek have formed a strategic partnership to build chips for “a range of smart edge devices” using Intel Foundry Services (IFS), Intel announced. The aim is to help MediaTek build a “more balanced, resilient supply chain,” with added capacity in the US and Europe. 

MediaTek is a fabless chipmaker that supplies processors for smartphones made by OnePlus, Samsung and others, with most of its capacity currently handled by fab giant TSMC. However, it looks like Intel will build chips for less glamorous devices used for industrial computing, medical devices, internet-of-things applications and more. Intel currently manufactures chips for MediaTek used in its 5G data card business.

Still, the partnership meets Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger’s pledge to seek customers for its foundry business. Intel launched IFS in 2021 to take advantage of surging demand for semiconductor manufacturing by offering “leading-edge process and packaging technology,” along with committed capacity in the US and Europe. As one of the leading fabless chip makers, MediaTek would be a key client. 

Last year, Intel announced that it would build chips for Qualcomm as part of its foundry launch. It also detailed its “IDM 2.0” strategy to catch rivals TSMC and Samsung by 2025, kicking it off with a $20 billion investment in two Arizona fabrication plants. Later in 2021, the Biden administration spurned plans by Intel to manufacture silicon wafers in China as a way to relieve global chip shortage issues, citing security concerns. 

The US Senate is set to vote on the CHIPS Act designed to bolster domestic semiconductor manufacturing with tax credits and up to $52 billion in subsidies. However, some industry players are concerned that it could unduly favor Intel, to the detriment of smaller manufacturers like AMD, Qualcomm and NVIDIA. Those companies design their own chips but don’t manufacture them, so would see no direct benefit from subsidies. 

In something out of Black Mirror meets Queen’s Gambit, a chess robot accidentally broke the finger of its seven-year old opponent during an exhibition in Moscow, The Guardian reported. The child apparently moved his piece too soon and the robot grabbed his finger and squeezed it, causing a fracture before help could arrive. “The robot broke the child’s finger,” said Moscow Chess Federation president Sergey Lazarev. “This is of course bad.” 

Video shows the robot grabbing the boy’s finger and holding it for several seconds a group of people come to free him. It’s not clear what went wrong, but Lazarev said the child had “made a move, and after that we need to give time for the robot to answer, but the boy hurried and the robot grabbed him.” He implied that the robot’s suppliers may need work on the safety aspects, saying the are “going to have to think again.” 

The boy was identified as Christopher and went on to play the next day, finishing the tournament. His parents, however, have reportedly contacted the public prosecutor’s office. Russian chess official Sergey Smagin downplayed the incident, calling it “a coincidence” and saying the machine was “absolutely safe.” 

In any case, the incident can be seen as a modern parable of the dangers of robots, even in something as innocuous as chess. On a larger scale with things like robotic cars, however, the stakes are considerably higher.