Month: August 2025

The English Court changed the credit card model. And along the way it has become a Fintech

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In just two years, El Corte Inglés has financed 1,372 million euros in purchases outside its commercial universe, according to reports Expansion. All for allowing you to use your card anywhere in the world. A silent transformation that has made these department stores an unexpected rival for traditional banks and Fintech emerging. Why is it important. With 11.7 million cards in circulation, the chain has converted its loyalty program of the sixties into a powerful financial weapon. Has moved more money than many Fintech that aspire to revolutionize the sector. The transformation. The change arrived in 2022 Thanks to an agreement with Mastercard. For the first time in its history, the card was the surroundings of the department stores to compete with the banks in neutral territory. The strategy is being a success. They maintain traditional advantages (interestless payments up to 60 days in ECI, 30 in other shops) but add functionalities Fintech: mobile application, notifications Pushcontrol of limits and geolocated promotions. The numbers. The total volume of the card reached 3,778 million euros in 2023, adding internal and external purchases. It is far from the 2018 record (4,895 million), but the new modality is growing. 1,372 million financed outside ECI in two years. Only 191 million in modality Revolving (Interest of 19.56% TAE). Free: without issuance or maintenance expenses. 4% bonus in Repsol for future purchases. The play. The English Court already had the largest loyalty clients in Spain. I just needed to open the doors. A much more interesting and advantageous play than the Fintech forced to find users from scratch. Yes, but. His proposal remains conservative. The revolving model barely represents 5% of the business, well below the standards Fintech. They prefer the safe margin of the interestless interest that monetize via cross consumption. The threat. For traditional banks, the English Court represents something worse than a Fintech Disruptive: a competitor with financial muscle, a huge customer base and brand credibility built for decades. Financiera El Corte Inglés, 51% controlled by Santander since 2013is the giant of consumption financing in Spain. In perspective. The chain has achieved what many financial startups only dream of: monetizing an existing user base without burning millions of euros in marketing. Its competitive advantage is not so much the technology and the confidence of 11.7 million Spaniards who already carry their card in the portfolio. In Xataka | Mercadona earns more and more money selling money, no food: the effect of interest rates on their results Outstanding image | Financiera El Corte Inglés

You can get the 10 Pro XL pixel at a better price in the Google store. And with a reimbursement of up to 850 euros

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We already know that Pixel 9 They triumphed, along with the Pixel 9abut Google already has the new successors ready. He has just announced the new Pixel 10 with new very interesting functions, assuring them as two of the best phones of the year, almost certainly. The launch comes with this promo, where we can take the pixel 10 pro xl With a refund of up to 850 euros In the official Google store. * Some price may have changed from the last review The Google Pixel 10 Pro XL at a good price, if you deliver your old mobile The new pixel 10 pro xl can be bought from 1,299 euros (in its most economical version) and Pixel 10 Pro from 1,099 euros. The XL model has a 6.8 ”Super OLED screen, with a maximum brightness of up to 3,300 nits and with adaptive soda of up to 120 Hz. It comes with the new G5 tensioner chip and with artificial intelligenceintegrating functions such as Magic Cue, Camera Coach, and the Pro Zoom mode that allows a digital zoom of up to 100. In addition, its 5,200 mAh battery offers more than 24 hours of normal use and with rapid 45W charging and 25W Qi2 wireless load. Take advantage now that in Google store This promotion is already located, from today to September 21and it works in this way: you can take a refund of up to 850 euros delivering your old phone. This is the maximum refund you can get, because the amount will depend on the phone you deliver. If you want to have the new pixel 10 pro xl, you can welcome this program since you receive the new pixel and with a period of 30 days You can send Google your old phone. It will be the company’s experts who value it and, according to this assessment, you will receive the corresponding refund. So, keep in mind that if your previous phone is well taken care of, when delivering it in the best conditions, you can receive a greater reimbursement. And the best, this promotion has another additional advantage, The valuation will go with an extra of 250 euros. So, in addition to delivering an old phone, you can take that extra. Of course, those 250 euros are included in the maximum refund, which is 850 euros. Some of the links of this article are affiliated and can report a benefit to Xataka. In case of non -availability, offers may vary. Images | Google In Xataka | The best mobiles (2025), we have tried them and here are their analysis In Xataka | The best price quality price (2025). Your analysis and videos are here

Spanish stadiums seek money desperately, and it is not by whim. 19 days of business a year are no longer enough

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The City has just signed the one who wants. The Al-Hilal has paid Neymar more than 100 million a year. Chelsea spends 300 million in a summer and nothing happens. And meanwhile, Real Madrid has to convert the Bernabéu into a shopping center with retractable grass to try to keep up. This is the story that nobody tells when he talks about Why are Spanish stadiums transforming into money 365 days a year. It is not so much innovation as survival. The problem began when the Premier League began to distribute 2,000 million a year only in television rights. Then the clubs arrived. The City, the PSG, the Newcastle. Then Arabia Saudi appeared offering contracts that make the gulf sheikhs look poor. Spanish clubs look at their income and make accounts. The last of the Premier enters more on television than the Liga room. Nottingham Forest can pay wages that Sevilla or Valencia cannot be allowed. And when they try to compete for a decent player, a Saudi club appears offering the triple. The solution? Squeeze the stadium to the last drop. Concerts, weddings, tours, restaurants, hamburger competitions, whatever. Because 19 League games a year no longer give to pay the squad of a half -table team. The Valencian metaphor The Roig Arena is about to open its doors and already has A long list of confirmed events. It will be the largest covered pavilion in Spain, with capacity for 18,600 people in concerts. Juan Roig, owner of Mercadona, has set 280 million pocket to make it come true. Six kilometers, on the other side of Valencia, is the skeleton of the Nou Mestalla. Abandoned for 16 yearsin an uncomfortable limbo for all – club, hobby, city, town hall – but it’s too late to reculate. The works have just resumed because there was no other. Among those six kilometers there is an uncomfortable reality: Roig Arena is going to eat the event market that Valencia CF needs desperately. The club expects the Nou Mestalla, when finished in 2027, it works 365 days a year to generate the income that allows you to survive. But by then, Roig’s pavilion will have already taken many of the concerts and large events that are not outdoor football. Roig’s play is brilliant: A multipurpose space that does not depend on signings, or qualify for Europe, or compete with petrodollars. It only needs people to want to see Taylor Swift, Bad Bunny OA who visits Valencia now that he will have an ideal place. And that fits wonderful with the culture of the event that prevails in this era. Meanwhile, Peter Lim has Valencia on the edge of the abyss, with a half -stadium to make when open will be late for the party. And there go the shots of this story. How Spanish football has discovered that the sports brick business does not work as before. And cases in Madrid and Barcelona Real Madrid had everything calculated. Great 1,347 million in the new Santiago Bernabéu was not a whim, it was a need to continue competing against City or PSG. The plan was brilliant: concerts all year, A 900 square meters StarbucksTours to 30 euros per head. Taylor Swift left 9 million in two nights. At that rate, you amortized the investment and you have to sign. But they did not pay enough attention to a detail. The neighbors. 95 decibels when the legal limit is 58. 24 complaints that did not see enough the club’s proposal to sound free home. 2.6 million in fines. Concerts suspended until further notice. The most expensive stadium in Europe cannot do its business because the houses are 30 meters. And without that extra income, how do you compete with petrodollars? Atlético tried to capture that value thanks to the fact that its stadium, the Metropolitan, is in the middle of nowhere compared to the central Bernabéu. And with it it started until The threats of complaints arrived. But for now he will shelter ten concerts by Bad Bunny, a million admitted by concert. Meanwhile, Barça is getting 1,450 million at Camp Nou after losing 100 million a year playing in Montjuïc. Is The perfect paradox: You need to spend money that you don’t have to generate money you need to compete with clubs that have infinite money. The plan is that the new stadium Generate 247 million annually. Not only football, of course. Of everything that can be monetized. Because with 19 League games it does not even arrive to pay the interests of the Goldman Sachs credit. The boom that everyone wants to hunt Spain He invoiced 725 million in live music in 2024. Third consecutive record. Fomo and social networks are gasoline. The clubs look at these figures and salivan. If they can stay with a piece of that cake, they can sign a decent side. Maybe. That’s why everyone looks at their stadiums thinking: how is more paste of these bricks? Betis is reforming Villamarín, not to give many concerts or host a shopping center, but for Give a hotel, a well -being center and a clinic. Athletic studies what to do with San Mamés while throwing very expensive entrances in exchange for a postin experience, talk with a player and manager included. Everyone has understood the message: or you find new sources of income or become the quarry of the Saudis. The stadiums of the future will not be football stadiums that also do other things. Will be multipurpose spaces where football is occasionally played. Juan Roig has understood it perfectly. That is why he builds pavilions, he does not buy soccer clubs. He could rescue Valencia CF – his brother has Villarreal and is managing it wonderfully – but that movement has not been given and already seems completely discarded. Another without running out presided over the club in the nineties and came out regular. The clubs that understood this in time may survive. Those who continue to think that … Read more

Buying US technology has always been more expensive in Europe. Fairphone 6 is a sweet revenge

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He Fairphone 6 It is the last of the members of a very special family. One that has always been characterized by its modularity and repability, but that now others leaves us a unique detail. This mobile designed in Europe is a sweet revenge for users of the old continent. We are normally used to paying more for our devices than users pay in the US, but in this case the opposite happens. How much does an iPhone cost here and there. Let’s put a simple example of the situation of electronic devices prices in the US and in Europe. An iPhone 16 Pro of 128 GB Cuesta $ 999 In the US. At that price we must add state taxes, which vary between each State and that can become 10%. Thus, the price can amount to about $ 1,100, taxes included. To the current change that would be equivalent to about 944 euros. The price of that same device in our country, taxes included, is currently 1,219 euros. It is 29.13% more expensive. A different mobile. And now let’s talk about Fairphone 6. We are facing a smartphone that is very different from its competitors. Not so much for its benefits – always more modest than its competitors in the same price range – but for an approach that bets to the maximum for modularity and repair. In Europe the price of Fairphone 6 with Android 15 (8/256 GB) is Available for 599 eurostaxes included. Long live the right to repair. Fairphone 6 are not going to win any career for the power or the best cameras, but the Right to repair. Simply remove conventional screws – still of strange or owner heads – to access the interior and be able to extract up to 12 parts of the terminal, from the screen to the battery through the speakers or the camera. The normal thing is that technology is more expensive in Europe than in the US. With Fairphone 6, the opposite is the opposite. Own elaboration with Apple and Fairphone data. The Fairphone 6 with E/OS. And here comes the interesting thing, because in addition to the Android version the Fairphone 6 is also sold by the Murena company. In this case he does Preinstalling E/OSa version of Android AOSP that “releases” us from Google’s services and applications although we can later urge them thanks to the Microg support. In Europe Murena sells its Fairphone 6 with E/OS for 649 euros, and that is precisely the model that is available in the US. This mobile is expensive in the US. Murena also offers Fairphone 6 with E/OS in the United States, but in that case the price of is $ 899. If we apply the same state rate, which can reach 10%, that price becomes about 989 dollars, which the change involves 849 euros. That is: in the US this mobile costs $ 200 more, 30.82% more than it costs us in Europe. Duty. There are several reasons for that difference between the price of Fairphone 6 in Europe and in the US, but One of them is that of tariffs. This mobile is manufactured in China but is barely affected by tariffs when marketing it in Europe. On the other hand, the commercial war with the US makes them apply Export tariffs from Chinawhich suppose an important extra cost for companies that want to offer these products in the North American country. Sweet revenge. And to that fact is added another: in Europe we usually pay more for electronics products than they do in the US even taking into account the Euro-Doming parity (which now favors us) or the different state taxes of that country. But it is also in Europe, we usually “earn less” than in the US and therefore “it costs us more than our money” to buy those products. In 2023 According to the World Bankthe GDP per capita in the US was $ 86,000, while for example in Spain it was $ 56,000. Image | Fairphone In Xataka | In the middle of the war against the right to repair, there are some brands giving you the instructions for you to fix your little pots yourself

The last O2 movement is not a simple rate change. It is an unexpected turn that can shake the market

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O2 has surprised us this week with a change that, although it seems small, tells us a lot where the operator is directed inside The new telephone. A rate It has disappeared From its catalog, and with it, O2 has eliminated the 300 Mbps of its offer and the possibility of hiring fiber and mobile for 30 euros per month. It is not good news for the market, let’s see why. Goodbye at 300 Mbps. O2 decided to charge a few days ago the fiber combined of 300 Mbps + two mobile lines of 10 GB and 30 GB, and also eliminated the possibility of hiring only 300 Mbps fiber. The only option that remained with that speed was the fiber combined 300 Mbps + Mobile 50 GB for 30 euros per month. That rate has disappeared this week, so the minimum speed that O2 offers throughout its catalog has become 600 Mbps. It doesn’t matter if you want only fiber or mobile fiber, you can no longer have 300 Mbps. It is only possible to choose 600 Mbps or 1 Gbps, just like Movistar. A higher input price. By eliminating that package of 30 euros per month, the most cheaper fiber and mobile team of O2 costs 35 euros per month. Of course, you have two modalities to choose from that price: 600 Mbps + 60 GB mobile fiber. 600 Mbps + Mobile 10 GB + Mobile 40 GB. These two plans offer twice as a speed and more gigabyes that the rate eliminated by a little more, yes, but there will be those who agree with those 300 Mbps to pay 5 euros less. When an operator eliminates its cheapest plan, the access price is more expensive to its products and that is never good news for the user. Quiet, O2 is not going to upload the price. The strategy of O2 goes to keep the customer happy, so the price never uploads or change the conditions of your rate unless it is an automatic and free improvement. Therefore, if you have hired the team that has eliminated, you can continue enjoying it, at the same price and with the speed of 300 Mbps. The competition does offer 300 Mbps. O2 is a very important actor not only for Telefónica, but for the Spanish market. And we have already seen on several occasions that, when O2 takes the first step, others usually move file. But that the panic does not travel, for the moment, there are still several 300 Mbps options for that price (or even less): In areas with own coverage, Digi It offers 300 Mbps + mobile 25 GB for 13 euros per month (15 euros if you want 50 GB). In areas where there is no smart fiber, DIGI proposes the same thing that has just eliminated O2: fiber 300 Mbps + mobile 50 GB for 30 euros per month. Lowi It has a pair of combined with 300 Mbps fiber for 30 euros per month. One with a 50 GB mobile line (like the rate that has removed O2) and another with two mobile lines of 25 GB each. Pepephone It gives the possibility of hiring 300 Mbps + Mobile fiber with 50 GB cumulative for 30 euros per month. But attentive to its next movements, because Pepephone is usually One of the first to imitate O2. Moremobile It also maintains a 300 Mbps + mobile fiber rate with 40 GB for 29.90 euros per month. O2 moves away from the low cost. Since its launch, O2 has offered much more competitive prices than its sister Movistar. And many expected Telefónica to be even more aggressive with O2 after have been released from regulatory obligations that limited their commercial capacity. That is why this movement has caught us by surprise. Now you can’t have fiber and mobile with O2 for 30 euros per month. If you want O2, you have to pay a minimum 35 euros. That amount enters its reasonable price policy, but it moves a lot away from the cheapest proposals of many of its low cost rivals (read Digi). With Murtra in command, one of the unknowns is which strategy will continue with O2. And who knows, perhaps the objective of O2 with this change is precisely that: to move further away from the concept of low cost that, for many, is synonymous with poor quality. Images | O2 In Xataka | If someone believed that the optical fiber was at the limit of their possibilities, Japan has arrived to show him the opposite

Solar storms are increasingly threatening for the earth. NASA wants to prepare with a “digital twin” of the sun

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The sun, that star that gives us life, also has an unpredictable character and potentially destructive. So much so that A large solar storm It could return to us technologically to the stone age in the blink of an eye. To avoid this, NASA and IBM They have joined forces To create a model that simulates the behavior of the sun. And how could it be otherwise, it has been generated with artificial intelligence. A authentic twin of the sun to understand it better. The union of forces of these two institutions has resulted in the creation of Surya, an artificial intelligence Designed to act as a digital twin of the sun and anticipate their violent outbursts with precision that with the models that are currently used cannot be achieved. Training an AI with the heart of a star. The challenge of predicting the space climate is undoubtedly a great challenge For scientists. To build Surya, the engineers turned to an inexhaustible data source: the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) NASA Hala. For nine years, this probe has State watching the sun without restcapturing images of very high resolution every 12 seconds in different wavelengths and measuring its complex magnetic field. Once you have all this information is where artificial intelligence comes into action to be able to organize and interpret them for experts. That is why the first thing Surya did is standardize all data formats to be able to process them together. Intelligent filtering of all this information. Once the data was unified, the next step was to use a long -range vision transformer, an architecture capable of analyzing gigantic images to identify patterns and relationships between points of solar activity, regardless of how far they are from each other. But he did not stay here, because thanks to a mechanism known as ‘spectral door’, the system was able to filter the ‘noise’ of the data to reduce memory use and improve the quality of the information with which it worked. Therefore, researchers were removed a lot of work to have to label all the images, causing it to adapt rapidly. More precision and twice as much time to react. The results of the initial tests are very promising. Until now, Traditional models barely gave us an hour in advance before a solar eruption. With Surya it has been shown to be able to launch a reliable warning two hours in advance, doubleing the humanity preparation window. But it is not only faster, but also accurate. The IBM and NASA team recorded a 16% improvement in precision when classifying solar rashes compared to the models used right now. Something that is also thanks to the ability to integrate information from other missions such as Parker solar probe or the Soho Observatory. An open tool for the science of the future. Far from saving this powerful tool in a key drawer, IBM and NASA have made it available to the entire scientific community. Surya is now available on platforms such as Hugging Face, GITHUB or even the Terratorch library. Kevin Murphy, NASA scientific data director, is clear: “We facilitate the analysis of the complexity of our star’s behavior with unprecedented speed and precision. This opens the door to a better understanding of the impact of solar activity on the systems on which our daily life depends.” The goal is for the Earth to be prepared. Although we see the central star of our system as harmless, the reality is that at any time this sensation can change. In this way, preparation and anticipation is fundamental and for the moment all hopes are put in this model of where it is possible to learn from the processes behind the evolution of the sun with the aim of having a greater amount of information. Images | Javier Miranda In Xataka | How the Solar System was formed: So that the Earth was born, a star had to die

Flight 10 was a success and showed that the rocket can launch Starlink satellites

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After Three failed attempts And the occasional catastrophic explosion, Spacex can breathe calm. He Starship’s tenth test flight He has fulfilled all the objectives that until now had resisted. Short. He larger rocket in the world Not only did it take off and reached space. He also displayed his first payload, a engine in vacuum re -founded and survived an infernal reentry to merit in a controlled way in the Indian Ocean. Starship’s tenth test flight demonstrates that Spacex’s iterative design still works. And although the vision of a totally reusable ship to colonize Mars is still far, Starship can already start throwing Starlink satellites. A promising start. At the scheduled time, the 33 Raptor engines of the Super Heavy propeller came alive, promoting with a deafening rumble the mole of more than 120 meters high. Although one of the engines failed halfway, it did not affect the mission at all, demonstrating the redundancy of the system. As he burned his 4,900 tons of propellant, the huge Starship rocket exceeded the phase of greater aerodynamic stress and hot separation, lighting the motors from the upper stage before separating. The Super Heavy began its return, but this time it did not look for a soft landing, but to complete a series of risky maneuvers. A skyscraper floating in the air. Booster 16 successfully performed its air in the air to change trajectory. After planning for a few minutes with its aerodynamic grilles and approaching the Gulf of Mexico, intentionally deactivated one of its central engines to test if a backup engine could take over. The most incredible moment came just after, when the 70 -meter rocket used two engines to fly over the ocean in stationary flight before turning off and meriting. As A commentator said“A 20 -story building in the air has just floated.” A milestone that demonstrates to what extent Spacex has controlled the capture of the super heavy with the launch tower, although the reentry is hard. The dispenser fish in action. While the Super Heavy completed its mission, the Starship 37 ship continued on its way to space. Once in his suborbital trajectory, the time for two of the most anticipated tests of the day came. First, the opening of the load bay and the first deployment of a payload. Using a mechanism that Remember a caramel dispenser fishthe ship eject one by one eight Starlink satellite simulators. This test is essential, since Starship’s future as a heavy load vehicle depends on it. Everything ready to launch Starlinks. Spacex plans to launch up to 60 Starlink V3 satellites in future Starship missions, adding 60 tbps capacity to the constellation with each launch, A more than 20 times higher figure to which a Falcon 9 can carry with the current V2 Mini. The rocket is able to reach orbit, display load (yes, it takes a minute per satellite) and then exorbitant. Flight 10 has returned to demonstrate the redempted of a huster engine in a vacuum. This capacity is indispensable to stop the rocket in a controlled way or perform a translunar injection for NASA Artemis missions. Surviving hell to tell. After an hour of flight, Starship began his reentry in the Earth’s atmosphere at hypersonic speeds. This is the time when the previous missions had failed. On this flight, however, the ship showed a robustness that reminds of the first releases. Although the cameras on board showed visible damage (some parts of the ailerons burned and the engines bay suffered a small explosion), the crucial thing is that Starship maintained aerodynamic control throughout the descent. Guided by its spoilers, the incandescent plasma of the resentment with total stability furrowed. The flight culminated with gentle and controlled ameter In the Indian Ocean. Although the ship was quite chamuscada, the simple fact of having completed the reentry and frightening in this way after three consecutive failures is a gigantic victory for Spacex. It is the definitive proof that Starship can start with Starlink launches. Image | Spacex Em xataka | It was hired by Spacex at age 14. Now, with 16, the young genius has turned his back on Elon Musk to go to Wall Street

For me listening to music was always something private. Spotify’s social functions invaded that shelter but I already took action

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The announcement that Spotify users We can send us direct messages It was an immediate reminder for me: the time had come to thoroughly review the privacy in the application. I have always been clear that what I hear and when I hear it belongs exclusively to my personal sphere. With that idea in mind, I decided to take action on the matter. I opened the app and went to Configuration and privacy > Privacy and social. There is the panel that marks what is shared and what is not, so I took the time to go calmly. Private session. It is Spotify’s unknowns Annual Wrapped. It expires automatically at six hours. I did not activate it because I decided to adjust the rest of the options permanently. Reproduction activity. Spotify can transmit your reproduction activity to your followers (which feeds the feed of friends on the desk). If you are listening to a certain song, your followers that are in the desktop app can see it almost in real time. I deactivated it. I do not need my listening from the minute by minute to be exposed. Recently heard artists. As I mentioned, your profile can show a “artists heard recently”. If you don’t want others to see what your last artists or genres were, you can deactivate that option. I prefer that this information does not appear, so I chose to disable it. Public lists vs. private lists. Something that at the time made me a little noise is that when you create a new playlist in Spotify, by default it will be public. This means that any user could access it if he finds the link, and will appear listed in your profile (if the privacy settings allow it). If a playlist contains songs that you prefer not to be visible, you can mark it as “make private”, which totally hides it: no one else can access, not even with the direct link. The private playlists only see them. Even so, there is a useful nuance: in the desktop version you can manually choose which concrete playlists you want to show in your profile. It is a way of maintaining fine control: all private by default, and I only highlight what I decide. Profile visibility. I deactivated followers and following that no one can see who I follow or who follow me. Less noise, less exposure. Messages in Spotify. It should be said that they are not yet active in Europe and that Spotify has begun a progressive deployment in other regions. On a personal level, the idea does not attract me too much: as I said at the beginning, my relationship with the application is that of a musical refuge, not that of a social network. As the company has advanced, the function will have its own privacy controls and can be completely deactivated, something that you will surely receive it. In any case, there will also be complementary measures, such as blocking unwanted users or rejecting message requests. As a complement, out of that menu I checked two more sections: I deactivated personalized advertising and removed the option to share data with Facebook. Thus I limit the crossing of information with third parties and I prevent my account from relating to a social network that I do not need to listen to music. The final experience does not change in the essential: I still search, choose and reproduce as always. What does change is my sense of control. My playlists are not published alone, my activity does not appear in the feed of others, my profile does not show recent artists or monitoring relationships. And if one day I need an extra layer, I know that private session is waiting there. Images | Xataka with Gemini 2.5 Flash | Screen capture In Xataka | Spotify is no longer a music player. It is a “audio netflix” who wants to devour your whole day

A 25 Gbps mini-laser to connect absolutely everything

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Two out of three satellites that orbit the earth are Starlinks, but Spacex does not conform to being the world’s largest satellite operator. Now he wants to become the trunk network of everything that is in space. The new Starlink laser mini. Minutes before aborting For the second consecutive day The tenth launch of Starship (this time for bad weather), Spacex published an unpublished video from its Starlink factory in Redmond. The company takes advantage of the video to show off its incredible production capacity, but also to reveal a technology that will change the rules of the game while competition Keep trying to deploy Its own constellation: a “mini laser” integrated in Starlink so that any satellite or space station can connect to its network from space. They are already testing it in orbit. Until now, Starlink’s laser links were able to transmit data to almost 200 Gbps: A technology that Spacex uses internally so that their own satellites communicate with each other, creating a interconnected mesh In space. The mini laser goes much further. Michael Nicolls, Vice President of Engineering of Starlink, confirmed in his X account The function of this new component: “The mini laser is designed to reach 25 Gbps link speeds at distances of up to 4000 km.” And it is already successfully tested aboard a satellite of the Starlink G10-20 mission. 25 Gbps to connect them to all. A 25 gigabits link per second, available for anyone who wants to integrate it, would allow land observation companies, scientific missions, commercial space stations or even other satellite constellations stop worrying about how to send their data to the earth. They would simply connect to Starlink’s “Wi-Fi Network” and take advantage of their global infrastructure. With this novelty, Starlink would go from being an Internet provider for Earth to an Internet provider for Earth and Space. A strategic movement that positions Spacex in the center of the future orbital economy, as well as travel to the moon and Mars. Is the X37B trying this technology? The timing of this announcement is at least interesting. Just a few days ago, on August 22, Spacex launched the eighth mission of the mysterious x-37b military plane. As it details Daniel Marín in Eurekaone of the few unscathed objectives of this mission is to make “demonstrations of communication technologies between satellites through infrared lasers with a high bandwidth”. This is a clear reference to Starlink, but it could also be related to the Starshield military constellation, which is, in essence, a militarized version of Starlink. The possibility that the X-37B is testing a version of this “mini laser” or a derived technology is very high. For the United States space force, to connect any of its assets in orbit to a low latency network such as Starshield or Starlink would be a huge tactical advantage. A factory that does not rest. These technological advances would not be possible without the industrial capacity that supports it. The Redmond factory is producing 70 satellites a week, which translates into more than 3,600 per year. This production cadence, which has gone from 120 satellites per month in 2020 to almost triple that figure, is what has allowed Starlink to deploy a constellation of more than 8,000 operating satellites, two thirds of all active satellites. With this new “mini laser”, Spacex is not only expanding its own network. The bridges are tending so that the rest of the space industry connects to it, consolidating a future where, if you want to be connected in orbit, you will have to knock on Elon Musk’s door. Image | Spacex In Xataka | The Ukraine Army has an almost important problem as Russia: Starlink belongs to Elon Musk

It’s so strange that science has had to investigate it

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A sports fisherman in Costa Rica was surprised by his life by capturing something that seemed taken from a fantasy film: a two -meter shark of an intense orange yellow color and with completely white eyes. Something that I had never seen in his life, but that was not a new species, but A specimen of nodriza shark with such a rare genetic condition that has left fascinated scientists. A shark so special that it has deserved to be investigated. The finding, which took place near the Tortuguero National Park, on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica, has been documented in a scientific article Posted in the magazine Marine Biodiversity. And this shark was not any: it is the first case of xantism Total scientifically documented in a nodriza shark (ginglymostomacirratum) worldwide. And the first registered in the Caribbean Sea. A unique shark in its kind. On August 10, 2024, while fishing at a depth of 37 meters, a fisherman captured, photographed and released this incredible exemplary. The images revealed an adult shark of approximately 200 cm in length, whose skin, normally of a grayish brown color, was of a vibrant yellow-orange tone. What is Xantism. It is a genetic condition that causes predominantly yellow pigmentation in the skin of an animal. Although It has been observed in various speciesfrom reef fish to reptiles, it is a phenomenon considered ‘rare’, especially in the marine environment. The reason for its rarity could be in the natural selection itself: such a striking color could make the animal an easy target for predators. Why this shark is special. But what caught the attention of the researchers, led by Marioxis Macías-Cuyare, were his eyes. The animal had white eyes, without visible iris, which suggests an even more complex condition than simple xantism. Scientists have called it ‘albino-xantochromism’, a combination of xantism (excess yellow pigment) and albinism (absence of other pigments such as melanin in the eyes). The unknown is in its survival. One of the great questions posed by this discovery is How has such striking animal survive. As a general rule, animals with such striking colorations are easy prey, since their inability to hide makes them a perfect target for predators. However, this Nodriza shark was a two -meter adult. This shows that, despite its spectacular color, it has been able to survive for years, hunt successfully and no one has been able to hunt. The fact that it will reach maturity, suggests, according to the authors of the study, that “Xantism does not hinder the survival of this species.” The most plausible theory is that this type of sharks live in night environments, which could have helped him go unnoticed. The new questions that opens this golden shark. This sighting is not just a curious anecdote, but it opens a new field of research. This Nodriza shark is currently classified as ‘vulnerable’ species in The IUCN Red Listso understanding its genetics and adaptation capacity is crucial for its conservation. In this way, science now wonders if this can be an isolated case or if it can represent an emerging genetic tendency in the region. In addition, environmental factors are also on the table, since it points to the high temperatures of the Caribbean could influence the expression of different genes through epigenetics. In Xataka | The white shark is an exceptional swimmer. His secret is in his “denticles”

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