Month: December 2025

I have received more than fifty automated Christmas greetings. They all lie

by

I would love for my next sentence to be an innocent one, but it is completely factual: I have received more than fifty Christmas greetings by email. Not written to me specifically, but automated by companies that thought it was an excellent idea. They all say the same thing with different words, They all pretend a closeness that does not exist. And the most striking thing is not that they do it, but that the person who sends them knows that the recipients know that it is a lie, and they still send them. Welcome to the theater of obligatory cordiality, where we are all actors conscious of acting. These christmas They usually come signed by the communication department, but it is not ‘communication’, it is maintenance of social infrastructure. Like watering a plastic plant: the gesture doesn’t make any sense, but doing it makes you feel better. The company that congratulates you has no feelings for you. The LinkedIn contact who hasn’t written to you in 364 days, either. But both have calculated that the cost of sending you that message (zero) is lower than the risk of you forgetting about them. It is calculation disguised as warmth. It works because we have accepted a tacit agreement: We’re going to pretend these messages mean something if you pretend you appreciate them. Nobody believes anything. But we all participate. The real message is not “I wish you a brutal Christmas” but “I still exist on your radar.” They don’t wish you anything, they only mark territory in your attention. And this contaminates even royal congratulations. We have turned a gesture of affection into a signal so degraded that it no longer communicates anything. Like when you repeat a word many times until it loses meaning: Merry christmas. Merry christmas. Merry christmas. Merry christmas. It doesn’t mean anything anymore. It’s just noise. The bad thing about the system is that it generates its own incentives to perpetuate itself. If you don’t send your massive congratulations, someone will interpret your silence as disdain. So you do it. And in doing so, you contribute to the noise that you yourself hate. Each individual message seems innocuous, but the aggregate effect is the destruction of the meaning of the words. And then there’s the absurd escalation. Because as everyone knows it is a lie, some try to differentiate themselves by adding layers of production. Videos with smiling employees, animated GIFs, Canva designs. As if the problem were packaging. Christmas spam is not a volume problem. The thing is we have forgotten that silence is also valid. That saying nothing is better than saying something empty. But we live terrified of silence, we prefer constant noise. And if you refuse to participate, you will be the odd one out. This is the sad thing: we know that it is a lie, that it contaminates real communication. But we keep doing it. Merry christmas. In Xataka | Calling without warning has gone from being normal to being rude. And in that change we have lost something Featured image | Xataka

Spanish banks have no problem letting you buy cryptocurrencies. What they don’t want to do is advise you on them.

by

In March 2025 BBVA he stuck out his chest. It was the first large traditional bank in Spain that allowed its clients to operate in cryptocurrencies. Then other entities such as CaixaBank and OpenBank followed. In all of these cases there is a crucial detail: one thing is that they let you operate with cryptos. It’s quite another to advise you on how to do it. You cook it, you eat it. That traditional banking has made this move is definitive proof that cryptocurrencies have managed to convince even this very conservative sector. But these institutions are not willing to risk too much, so although they allow their clients to buy or sell cryptocurrencies, they leave all responsibility to the client: they do not advise or advise. And it’s not likely that they will. Nobody wants to advise. A report published by the ESMA and the EBA reveals that the vast majority of entities follow the same pattern: they allow trading with cryptocurrencies, but do not advise clients about them. Of the 110 entities that have achieved authorization of the MiCA regulation in Europe, only 20 have requested to provide crypto advice. 11 provide recommendations (like eToro) and another nine offer portfolio management. There is a clear reason why these entities leave the ball in the clients’ court. Too much risk. Caution is absolute not only on the part of traditional banking, but also of traditional exchanges or trading markets. These entities, which have traditionally been the only resource for users to operate with cryptocurrencies, have never offered advisory services, and one was clear when investing that they assumed full responsibility for their actions. The surprise is that exactly the same thing happens with traditional banking. They ignore it, and they do so because they have no interest in advising: the reputational risk is too high, and the volatility of these assets makes it especially difficult to make reliable recommendations. Crypto analyzes guarantee (almost) nothing. As explained in five days Gliroia Hernández Aler, co-founder and partner of finReg360, “Crypto assets have the value that the market assigns to them. By not having an underlying that can be analyzed, such as an income statement, for example, it is difficult to base advice on objective data. Although there is more and more news that can impact bitcoin, it is difficult to do a quantitative analysis with traditional methods.” MiCA opened the market. Europe wanted to try to regularize that “wild west” that the crypto market had become. To this end, in mid-2023 it approved the MiCA (Markets in Crypto Assets) regulation, a European regulation to regularize this activity. Among other things, it offers consumer and investor protection and establishes measures to prevent market abuses. Banks as the new exchanges. We had to wait two years to see how the first banks took advantage of this regulation, but little by little more and more entities joined in. The message was clear: you no longer have to resort to “mysterious” cryptocurrency trading markets (exchanges). You can buy at your usual bank. Image | BBVA | André Francois McKenzie In Xataka | A British man was not allowed to look for his bitcoin disk in the trash for years: now he is considering buying the landfill

There was a time when the Lottery Jackpot “took you away from work.” Today it barely takes away a part of the mortgage

by

Someone who already has gray hair still remembers that, thirty years ago, May you get the Christmas Fat Man It was practically the key to financial freedom. With the full prize of one tenth (about 30 million pesetas in the 90s) you could buy several houses, pay mortgages and even ensure the well-being of your family with that stroke of luck. Today, with a prize of 400,000 euros (328,000 euros after taxes), that story sounds very different. One of the main conditions is that, in the mid-nineties, the real estate market in Spain I played in another league. Buy an apartment…or several In cities like Madrid, a home of about 90 square meters could be found for less than 14 or 15 million pesetas, according to official statistics. That meant that Fatty Christmas allowed to buy two apartments medium-sized in a big city, or buy one, pay off the mortgage and a good pinch to maintain a good margin of liquidity. In those years, the award was not just help: it was a complete break from financial worries. As was often heard at the doors of lottery administrations while the winners uncorked bottles of champagne, it was a prize that “kept you off work.” Thirty years later, the prize is still striking in terms of numbers, but its real purchasing power has changed. El Gordo has been frozen at 400,000 euros per tenth for more than a decade, while the price of housing has followed an almost constant upward trajectory. In Madrid, the average house price It ranges between 5,500 and 5,758 euros per square meter, which implies that with the 328,000 euros net of the prize, you can barely purchase 60 or 70 square meters at an average price. In practice, this means that Gordo no longer even guarantees a standard floor in many neighborhoods of the capital. Barcelona offers a similar image. With average prices located at 3,084 euros per square meter, the Gordo de Navidad allows buy a modest home or a medium-sized apartment in peripheral areas, but it is far from the purchasing capacity it had in the nineties. The comparison leaves no room for doubt: where before the prize opened the door to buying an apartment in the city and a house on the beachtoday it is barely enough for one, and not necessarily in the best conditions. The contrast is softened slightly if the market is viewed from more affordable cities. In capitals like Zamora or Lugo, where average prices are between 980 and 1,300 euros per square meter, El Gordo continues to allow you to buy spacious homes or even more than a small property. However, even in these more affordable markets, the premium no longer equivalent to that massive asset leap that it represented three decades ago. The difference is not so much in the amount of the prize as in the uneven evolution of prices. This purchasing capacity is also explained by the general price context. He housing cost It was much more aligned with the average income of the population and access to property was not subject to the housing and demand pressure that characterizes the current market. El Gordo, in that scenario, functioned as a real wealth multiplier. A Gordo with more salary, but less power make a salary comparison helps to better understand this change of scale. In the 90s, the average annual salary in Spain was around 2 million pesetas (about 12,000 euros). In that context, the Gordo of 30 million pesetas was equivalent to approximately 15 times the annual salary of a worker medium, which reinforced its perception as an immediate economic transformation: decades of income concentrated in a single stroke of chance. Today, according to the latest data from the National Statistics Institute, the median salary annually in Spain is around 23,300 euros. With this reference, the current Gordo’s 328,000 euros is equivalent to just over 14 times the median annual salary. The proportion, curiously, is not that different from that of the nineties. The big difference appears when that salary multiple faces the price of housing (and all goods in general), which has grown much faster than income. That’s the key to change. Although the premium maintains a similar relationship with salaries, your ability to buy a home has deteriorated drastically. The real estate market has become decoupled from wage growth, and El Gordo, by remaining fixed, has been trapped in the middle of that gap. What was previously enough to buy two apartments today barely covers one, and in many cases forces them to continue getting into debt, although to a lesser extent. The social meaning of Gordo has changed. In the nineties it was synonymous with total economic independence. In 2025, it is still an extraordinary stroke of luck, but its role has shifted, no longer guaranteeing financial freedom, but financial relief. In Xataka | There is something even more difficult than winning the Lottery Jackpot: not making mistakes with the Treasury when collecting it Image | Flickr (srgpicker)

This year’s El Gordo is not in the Lottery. There are Christmas baskets that offer fortunes and the prize does not go through the treasury

by

The Christmas basket, today converted into an almost mythological object of the work calendar and Spanish commercialwas not born as an innocent gesture or as a marketing strategy, but as a very ancient expression of power, hierarchy and dependence. If the Romans raised their heads today they would not believe it: their sportula is no longer a simple basket, it is something much bigger than the Christmas “Gordo” himself. Literally, From Rome to the draw of the 21st century. In imperial Rome, during the Saturnalia in December, patrons gave their clients the sportula: a wicker basket with quality food (figs, bay leaves, select products) that was offered during the morning greetingthe morning ritual in which the protected came to pay respect to the patron. That basket It wasn’t just food.: It was a tangible reminder of who protected whom and how subsistence was articulated around personal relationships of fidelity. Centuries later, this logic reappeared in other forms in the Anglo-Saxon tradition of Boxing Daywhen the wealthy classes distributed boxes with gifts to their domestic servants, and also in the medieval ecclesiastical sphere, where the “Christmas boxes” functioned as donations to the most disadvantaged. The central idea was always the same: close the year with a material gesture that strengthened social, work or moral ties. The Spanish basket. In Spain, the Christmas basket began to consolidate late 19th century in public organizations and administrations, but it was not until the 1950s when it became widespread as a recognizable business gift, first in the public sector and later in the private sector. Those baskets, wicker and almost Roman in appearance, combined Christmas sweets, sausages, cheeses and bottles of wine or cava, and were usually delivered along with the extra pay. They were not a luxury, but yes a symbol: the worker brought home something that was opened as a family and consumed on key dates, integrating the world of work into the domestic ritual of Christmas. As the decades passed, the lot stopped being an accessory and became an identifying gesture of the company, an object that spoke of both the budget and the corporate culture. From ham to musical. The social and labor evolution of the country has been pushing the basket to transform without extinction. Generational diversity, changes in consumption habits and new food sensitivities have made the unique model stop working. Today, traditional baskets coexist with digital catalogs where employees choose between technological products, cultural experiences or gourmet gifts. The whole ham gives ground to slicing for economic, practical and demographic reasons, and high-proof beverages are reduced. Vegan, gluten-free or alcohol-free batches appear, and more care is taken with design, sustainability and the continent. However, even those driving the change recognize that a “romanticism” that is difficult to replace persists: the experience of coming home with a box, opening it as a family, and associating that moment with the recognition of the work done during the year. An industry that lives on a month. Behind this apparently simple gesture there is a highly specialized economic sector that concentrates a good part of your billing in just three months. Companies that think about baskets all year round, that negotiate with suppliers, adjust prices in response to inflation of ham, cocoa or oil, and that have survived crises like that of 2008 by becoming professional and gaining scale. Large stores and wholesale distributors move hundreds of thousands of lots each campaignfrom modest baskets of less than 10 euros to premium proposals that exceed 1,000. At the same time, the basket has also become a delicate tax area: it is a remuneration in kind when the company delivers it, a capital increase when it is won in a raffle, and a detail that, depending on its value, may require taxation. That fiscal component, paradoxically, has driven some of the most striking innovations. Promotional image of the “basket” of El Paisano When the basket surpasses the Gordo. The definitive leap from the symbolic to the spectacular comes when the basket stops being a set of foods and becomes a great vital draw. The best-known case this year is that of the grill The Countrymanin the province of Seville, which since 2008 has been expanding its “Great Basket of Kings” until reaching a value in 2025 close to 850,000 eurosa figure that doubles the net prize of one tenth of the Gordo de Navidad. High-end cars, motorhomes, motorcycles, an apartment on the coast, technology, gold bars and food coexist in a single prize that, in addition, is awarded with taxes and expenses assumed by the organizer. For ten euros of participation, the winner can wake up with a completely different material life. Here the basket stops being a metaphor and becomes an economic, media and social event. The bizarre thing is also Christmas. But if anything shows how far this tradition has come, it is its ability to embrace the unusual without complexes. In Ourense, a funeral home decided to put together its Christmas basket inside a coffin displayed in the window. The content, valued at 2,300 eurosincludes everything from technology and appliances to ham and sweets, and the coffin itself can be carried “if the whim is too much.” Far from being a gratuitous provocation, the raffle has a solidarity purpose and seeks to energize the life of the neighborhood. The scene well summarizes the contemporary spirit of the basket: an object that no longer fears excess, uncomfortable humor or exaggeration, because its main function is to attract attention, generate community and close the year with a story to tell. Tradition that was never innocent. As we see, since the sportula roman to the basket that is raffled in a coffin or the one that is worth more than the Fat Man without going through the Treasurythe Christmas basket has changed in form, content and scale, but not in profound meaning. Deep down it is still a closing ritual, a material transfer loaded with social meaning, or a way of saying “you … Read more

Dreame seeks to become the third largest in China along with Xiaomi and Huawei. Far away from wanting to be the new Dyson

by

Dreame is a Chinese manufacturer that has crept into the European conversation based on muscle. Muscle for the home, specifically. Founded in 2015, it soon emerged as a serious rival of Dyson thanks to its numerous vacuum cleaners of all kinds and beauty devices. Now it has been filtered the Dreame E1, the company’s first mobile with which they seek to replicate the strategy of the “Apple from China”. They no longer want to be Dyson, they want to be Xiaomi. The Dreame E1. In September, Dreame dropped the bomb: robot vacuum cleaners They were going to move into the smartphone segment and electric cars. Since then, Dreame’s phone had kept a low profile, but it recently appeared in the European database EPREL with the name ‘W5110’. We have to wait for the official announcement, but it seems that it will have a AMOLED screen 6.67 inches, a 108 megapixel main camera, a 4,850 mAh battery and only 33 W charging, as well as seven years of system updates. This would aim to satisfy European regulators. Divide the world. Its features are not revolutionary and the sketches look like those of a Samsung Galaxy S25but it is a first step. No price or key details such as the processor or something so on everyone’s lips like the RAM memorybut in an internal communication, the CEO of Dreame pointed out high: they want to be one of the three tigers of consumer technology. The other two would be Huawei and Xiaomi, companies that have been shaping an ecosystem in which a multitude of home devices are controlled by a single brain: the mobile phone. In a scenario in which we can have our house full of Dreameit is a vision with all the sense in the world. 1+8+N from Huawei. Many devices, a single brain Xiaomi, the birthplace of Dreame. To understand this strategy, it is essential to understand the model that Xiaomi has been developing for more than a decade. The company began by selling its own products, but also making investment strategies in promising startups, like Dreame. These companies developed a product and gained access to Xiaomi’s distribution network, but also to its name. A rice cooker from an unknown company does not attract attention. One from that same company, but under the name Xiaomicalls much more. This way, the risks are also lower. And, precisely, Dreame manufactured vacuum cleaners that they formed part of the Xiaomi ecosystem while simultaneously operating its own catalog. It is something that explains the rapid growth of many Chinese brands, something impossible, or very difficult, if they had operated independently from the beginning. Roborock too was in that Xiaomi ecosystem. Meteoric. The rise they have achieved since their independent birth has been brutal. According to some analyses, Dreame is the third manufacturer of robot vacuum cleaners with a share of 11.3%. They only have Ecovacs ahead with 13.6% and Roborock with 19.3%. In Europe they are very well positioned, reporting great growth in revenue during the first half of this year, and the consequence is what we saw during the presentation at the IFA a few months ago. The mobile phone will be the control center, that N+1 that we have seen in companies like the aforementioned Xiaomi or Huawei, and at the German fair they announced that, along with the consolidation of their personal care range, robot vacuum cleaners, vacuum cleaners, lawnmower robots and pool cleaner, will launch in Spain in the coming months televisions, air conditioners, dishwashers and kitchen appliances. They are already at itwith small appliances, accessories and even smart lighting. In this photo the ecosystem is that of Xiaomi. It could easily be Dreame’s future. Image | Xataka Ford already said it. It is, as we said, a carbon copy of the strategy that has worked so well for Xiaomi. They entered with competitive technology at a good price to gain market share and customer loyalty, and now they want to expand the ecosystem with all types of connected devices. It is a strategy within the reach of not all companies, but it is drawing the attention even of people like Jim Farley. Farley is the CEO of Ford and, in his quest to understand why chinese cars are winning toast to Westerners, he has been driving the Xiaomi SU7. Apart from other characteristics, what impresses him most is the ecosystem: With your cell phone you control the car, and from the car you control the house. Ambition. Given this, the fact that a robot vacuum cleaner manufacturer launches a mobile phone is not a surprise and responds to a strategy in which manufacturers want us to have a house full of their devices, controlling everything from a single app. And, if possible, from your mobile. And it is not surprising if we look at the investment figures in research and development. Dreame has 5,000 employees and 60% of its staff is dedicated to R&D. They invest 7% of their annual income in this segment and it is evident that Dreame wants to stop being the Chinese Dyson. It wants to be the new Xiaomi. Images | HuaweiXataka, Dreame In Xataka | A Chinese company you don’t know makes 35% of all microwaves in the world. Probably yours too

Baba Yaga was an old woman who devoured skulls at night. So Ukraine just turned Russia’s worst nightmare into a drone

by

In Slavic folklore, Baba Yaga She is an ancient figure associated with nocturnal fear, a witch who devours skulls and flies in the dark, punishing the reckless and inhabiting a territory where normal rules no longer apply. It is not a spectacular monster or the usual one, but a persistent presencedisturbing, impossible to ignore. Ukraine remembered it… and transformed it into a drone. The nightmare in war. This symbolic load explains why the name was not born in Ukrainian propaganda, but in the Russian channels themselves: when the soldiers began to describe night attacks that fell almost silently from the sky, the collective imagination did the rest. Today, “Baba Yaga” does not designate a fairy tale creature, but a family heavy bomber drones Ukrainians who have transformed the night of the front into a permanent hostile space for Russian forces. What really is a Baba Yaga. Under that name is grouped an entire class of heavy multicopters, many of them derived of agricultural platforms and others already designed for military purposes, capable of transporting from 15 kilos in their most common versions to several dozen in larger configurations. Unlike the kamikaze FPVs, the Baba Yaga They are reusable systemsconceived as aerial bombers themselves. They can launch mortar mines, fragmentation charges, adapted munitions or even converted anti-tank mines with remarkable accuracy from several hundreds of meters high. Its distinctive feature is not only the load, but the combination of thermal and optical sensors which allows them to operate at night, in fog, rain or wind, and remain effective where light drones begin to fail. This capacity has made them go from being a tactical complement to becoming a structural piece of the Ukrainian device. A Baba Yaga captured by Russian forces The night stops being a refuge. For months, trenches, concrete shelters or fortified buildings offered Russian infantry a relative sense of security from artillery and light drones. The Baba Yaga break that logic. If a point appears marked on a thermal image or reconnaissance map, no cover guarantees survival. A single drone can perform cascade attacksreleasing ammunition successively and dismantling a position section by section. The effect is cumulative: it not only destroys material, but forces units to disperseto rotate more frequently, to invest time and resources in camouflage and fortification, and to avoid concentrations of troops or vehicles. In a war of attrition, that behavioral change is as important as direct destruction. From tactical weapon to major system. Although they were born as a short-range solution, the Baba Yaga have been integrated into operations increasingly complex. They do not act in isolation, but as part of a drone ecosystem that includes FPV, long-range UAVs and, in some cases, naval platforms unmanned. In Crimea, for example, we have seen how maritime drones are used as advanced shuttles to allow heavy multicopters to reach radars and air defense systems like the Nebo-Mattacking antennas, technical installations and command posts. This logic is revealing: first the target is blinded or disorganized by other means, and then the Baba Yaga finish the job where it was previously considered too risky or inaccessible. Thus, these drones have ceased to be “flying artillery” and have become tools that connect the immediate front with the operational rear. Technical evolution. The development of these drones has not stopped. Ukrainian volunteer engineers and teams they have been improving engines, propellers, structures and suspension systems for ammunition of different calibers, while communications are reinforced with redundant channels, separate antennas and, in some cases, satellite links that expand the radius of action at the expense of payload. Russian electronic warfare has forced experimentation with system duplication control and backup plans to prevent the loss of a link from dragging down the entire set. This adaptation race explains why, even when Russia manages to shoot down some of these drones, the problem does not disappear: The threat materializes again the following night. Psychological impact. Beyond the technique, the Baba Yaga hits morale. Its low, recognizable hum does not announce an immediate explosion, but rather a tense wait– Someone, somewhere, is peering through a thermal scope and choosing the next target. Unlike artillery, there is no clearly safe haven or predictable pattern. Combined with FPV attacks and indirect fire, these drones create a sensation continuous pressure from above, from the front and from the rear. Military analysts match in which this constant stress accelerates organizational wear and tear, makes coordination difficult and forces commanders to focus on maintaining basic cohesion instead of planning offensive maneuvers. Lessons for the future of war. For Western observers and for NATO itself, the Baba Yaga are a practical demonstration of how future conflicts will be fought with swarms of relatively cheap, reusable and rapidly adapted platforms. It is not a miracle weapon, but a component within a system that combines intelligence, communications, flexible production and accelerated training. Ukraine has managed to assemble that system under extreme conditions, relying on industry, the State and voluntary networks. For Russia, the result is clear: the “witch” of folklore has returnednot as a myth, but as a technological presence that redefines the battlefield and makes it impossible to return to a war according to the standards of the 20th century. Image | Telegram, ArmіяІнформ In Xataka | Ukraine has asked Russia if they stop for Christmas like in the First World War. The answer could not have been more Russian In Xataka | Europe wanted to expropriate Russian funds on the continent to finance Ukraine. Until Belgium took the lead

Last minute gifts for Santa Claus with good discounts and fast delivery

by

Every year you promise yourself that you will never be caught out again when it comes to buying Christmas gifts. But, here you are, another year, looking for what to give. If you want to avoid the stress in stores that exist these days leading up to Christmas Day, you are in luck, because there are websites (like Amazon) where you can enjoy fast delivery on a multitude of products. We show you a selection with some gift ideas They arrive in time for Christmas Day. Shaver Philips OneBlade 360 by 34.98 euros: with 360 blade and autonomy of 45 minutes. Virtual reality glasses Meta Quest 3 by 499 euros– Compatible with Xbox Cloud Gaming. amazon Echo Show 8 by 179 euros: 8 inches and with spatial audio. smart ring OURA Ring 4 by 279 euros: waterproof and one week of autonomy. portable projector XGIMI MoGo 2 Pro by 339 euros: with Google TV and 8W speakers. Philips OneBlade 360 ​​Shaver We start our selection of gift ideas that arrive on time with one of the personal care devices best sellers among the male audience. This is this Philips OneBlade 360 ​​shaver, ideal for keeping your beard in perfect condition. Its usual price is 59.99 euros, but now it is available for 34.98 euros. It is used for the beard and body and stands out for being efficient even with the longest hair. Allows for an easy and comfortable shave and comes with a innovative 360 ​​bladewhich can be tilted in all directions. Its battery offers up to 45 minutes of autonomy and comes with three 360° blades, three beard combs, a body clicker and a protective cap. Philips OneBlade 360 ​​Authentic Barber, facial and body electric shaver and trimmer The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Meta Quest 3 virtual reality glasses If you want to give an innovative technological device, these virtual reality glasses Meta Quest 3 are a good option. Now, you can buy them on Amazon for 499 euros and you can have them at home tomorrow. The Meta Quest 3 They come with an Infinita Display 4K+ screen, with a 120 Hz refresh rate. They are compatible with spatial audio and include a dual RGB camera. They are also compatible with Xbox Cloud Gaming and its battery offers a range of up to 2.2 hours. Meta Quest 3 512 GB — The most powerful Quest The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Amazon Echo Show 8 Amazon has a good number of devices with Alexa that make good gifts for Christmas. One of his latest releases is he Next-generation Echo Show 8a smart screen ideal for a connected home. Now, you can take it for 179 euros. This Echo Show 8 has a eight inch touch screen with HD resolution. Comes with Alexa integrated as standard and stands out for its sound, since it comes with spatial audio. It allows you to play series and/or movies through streaming apps and, in addition, it allows you to play audiobooks through Kindle. Amazon Echo Show 8 (latest generation) The price could vary. We earn commission from these links OURA Ring 4 Smart Ring Although smart watches are the best-selling type of wearables, now you can surprise at Christmas by giving a smart ring. On Amazon, you can buy the OURA Ring 4 with a 30% discount. It has gone from costing 399 euros to 279 euros. This smart ring OURA Ring 4 It has a battery that offers up to a week of autonomy and is very comfortable to wear. Is waterproof and is made entirely of titanium. Plus, it comes with your first free subscription to Oura. OURA Ring 4 Smart Ring The price could vary. We earn commission from these links XGIMI MoGo 2 Pro Portable Projector If you want to surprise a movie buff, a portable projector is one of those essential gifts. Now, on Amazon, they have this one on sale XGIMI MoGo 2 Pro. It has a 24% discount and you can get it for 339 euros. This portable projector comes with operating system Google TV integrated. It has 430 ISO lumens and its configuration is very simple. It also integrates two 8 W speakers with Dolby Audio. Finally, its compact size will allow you to take it anywhere comfortably. XGIMI MoGo 2 Pro (New) 1080P Mini Portable Projector The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Some of the links in this article are affiliated and may provide a benefit to Xataka. In case of non-availability, offers may vary. Images | Freepik, OURA, XGIMI, Philips, Meta Quest and Amazon In Xataka | Best “smart” Amazon Echo speakers. Which one to buy and recommendations based on use In Xataka | Which Kindle to buy: buying guide with recommendations to get it right with Amazon e-book readers

What is coliving and why has it become the residential alternative of the moment

by

Arriving in a new city with a suitcase is not always the beginning of an idyllic adventure; It is often the result of desperate mathematical calculation. With rental prices climbing 51.4% in the last decade while salaries barely moved 3.4%, according to the joint report by Fotocasa and InfoJobsfreedom of choice has been replaced by scarcity management. In this scenario, the coliving It is not born from a romantic desire to share a kitchen, but from a structural necessity. It is the housing response to a world where the traditional market has built walls of unpayable deposits and rigid contracts that no longer fit with anyone’s life. Opening the door to a coliving is, for many, the only way to stop being “expelled” from the system and become a resident with rights and services, even if it is at the cost of reducing one’s own square meters. What is coliving and how does it work? He coliving It’s not just sharing a flat; It is a professionalized evolution of coexistence. According to the specialized media Minutthis model is a hybrid that combines the privacy of a room with integrated services. The operational performance, as detailed by ULI experts (Urban Land Institute) and the report The European Coliving Best Practice Guide, It is based on a comprehensive management model. In other words, the resident pays a single bill that covers rent, furniture, high-speed Wi-Fi, cleaning and supplies. This ecosystem removes the “mental load” of home management. As the MIT thesis points outcoliving was born to provide resilience to an exhausted real estate market, offering “ready to move in” spaces that allow the tenant to focus on their career or personal projects from minute one. Types of coliving The versatility of the model has allowed different formats to be created according to the user’s needs: Urban and Flex Living Models: It is the commitment to density. According to Savillsthese formats will represent 16% of the new rental offer in Spain. They are large buildings with hundreds of units that revitalize the city center. Thematic Colivings: The MIT report highlights spaces where the community is filtered by interests: from “hubs” for artists selected for their work to communities of programmers. Rural Coliving: Maybe the guy more transformer. Cases can be highlighted such as Send either Anceu in Galicia, where coliving is used as a tool against depopulation, allowing digital nomads from Google or Spotify to live in villages of 20 people, injecting talent and consumption into rural areas. Collaborative housing (Senior Living): To combat the epidemic of loneliness in the elderly. The Law 3/2023 of the Valencian Community It is a pioneer in Spain by regulating these homes where mutual support is the central axis. What advantages does coliving have? The immediate advantage is affordability. From the Coliving.com portal estimates that a resident You can save up to 40% compared to a traditional studio. However, there are invisible benefits. A report from Lund University emphasizes that coliving is a sustainable urban housing strategy, reducing energy and water consumption by sharing resources and appliances. Furthermore, the psychological impact is measurable. While urban isolation grows, 71% of “colivers” affirm feel more connected. Given the return-to-office policies in cities with impossible prices, living in a coliving near the workplace is the only alternative to avoid two-hour daily commutes. How much does it cost to live in a coliving: prices In cities like New York or London, the savings are drastic, but in Spain the model is also consolidated. According to CBREinvestment in the sector Living room It reached 3,730 million euros in 2024, which allows us to offer high-quality accommodation at prices that, although they seem high at first glance, are competitive by eliminating investment in furniture, maintenance and supply charges. It is, in essence, the transformation of the rental into a transparent monthly subscription. In the main urban nodes of Spain, these are the current ranges: Madrid and Barcelona: Between €750 and €1,300 per month. The price varies depending on whether the room has a private bathroom or if the complex includes luxury services such as a gym, pool or rooftop. Málaga, Valencia and Alicante: Between €500 and €900 per month. These cities are attracting digital nomads with an offer that prioritizes community and proximity to the sea. Difference between coliving and shared apartment There is no need to confuse them. In a shared apartment, coexistence is random and management is informal. In coliving, there is professional management 24/7. As Minut highlightsthe use of technology (noise and smoke sensors that respect privacy) guarantees that coexistence is not degraded. Furthermore, the contracts are individual; If a partner does not pay, it does not affect the rest, something that the Urban Lease Law (LAU) does not always guarantee in traditional group contracts. How to find a coliving Finding these communities is now as easy as booking a hotel thanks to platforms like Coliving.com. However, unlike a hotel, the community factor is vital here. Many managers as mentioned in MIT studiesthey conduct prior interviews to ensure that the resident’s profile fits with the vibe of the building, seeking a harmony that benefits all members. The coliving business for investors For the investor, coliving is a safe haven asset. CBRE points out that Madrid and Barcelona concentrate the greatest interest due to their high profitability per square meter. However, the Uría Menéndez office warns about “limbo” legal: since there is no clear national law, coliving navigates between the Civil Code and municipal regulations that seek to organize the market. In this context, Madrid has taken a step forward with the RESIDE Plana new roadmap designed to combat “tourism” and the escalation of prices caused by vacation rentals. This regulation is key for the sector because it draws a red line: it separates buildings for residential use from tourist ones. However, the City Council will allow private public buildings that are obsolete or in disuse. they transform in colivings or affordable rental housing, as long as their restoration is … Read more

Google’s secret weapon against CUDA dominance is called TorchTPU. And it’s an NVIDIA waterline missile

by

Google has launched an internal initiative called “TorchTPU” with a singular goal: to make their TPUs fully compatible with PyTorch. For the not so initiated, we translate it: what Google intends is to destroy once and for all the monopoly and absolute control that NVIDIA has with CUDA. Why is it important. NVIDIA has become the first company in the world by market capitalization for two big reasons. The first, for its AI GPUs. And the second, much more important, for CUDAthe software platform that is used by all AI developers and that has an important peculiarity: it only works on chips from NVIDIA itself. So if you want to work in AI with the latest of the latest, you have to jump through hoops… until now. What happens with Google and its TPUs. Google’s Tensor Processing Units (TPUs) were until now optimized for Jax, Google’s own platform that was similar to CUDA in its objective. However, the majority of the industry uses PyTorch, which has been optimized for years thanks to the aforementioned CUDA. That creates a barrier to entry for other chipmakers, which face a huge bottleneck in attracting customers. Goal is in the garlic. Anonymous sources close to the project indicate in Reuters that to achieve its goal and accelerate the process Google has partnered with Meta. This is especially striking because it was Meta who originally created PyTorch. Mark Zuckerberg’s company has ended up being just as much a slave to NVIDIA as its rivals, and is very interested in Google’s TPUs offering a viable alternative to reduce its own infrastructure costs. Google as a potential AI chip giant. The company led by Sundar Pichai has made an important change of direction with its TPUs, which were previously reserved exclusively for it. Since 2022, the Google Cloud division has taken control of their sale, and has turned them into a fundamental revenue driver because they are no longer only used by Google: Tell Anthropic. A spokesperson for this division has not commented specifically on the project, but confirmed to Reuters that this type of initiative would provide customers with the ability to choose. All against NVIDIA. This alliance is the last attempt to put an end to that great ace in NVIDIA’s sleeve. In these months we have seen how companies like Huawei prepare your own alternative ecosystem to CUDAbut they also participate in a joint effort of several Chinese AI companies for the same purpose. Hardware matters, software matters more. CUDA has become such a critical component for NVIDIA that if other semiconductor manufacturers have not been able to compete with it, it is not because of their chips, but because they cannot support CUDA natively. We have a great example in AMDwhich has exceptional AI GPUs. In fact, they are superior to NVIDIA in certain sections, but their software is not as powerful. In Xataka | Google’s TPUs are the first big sign that NVIDIA’s empire is faltering

We believed that everything happened because of the new fighters. The F-16 has been in the air for 50 years and continues to sell like hotcakes

by

For years we have heard that the future of air combat is called F-35a program associated with stealth, advanced sensors and a very specific idea of ​​Western technological superiority. It’s the plane that makes headlinesbudgets and strategic debates. But while that conversation progresses, there is a much quieter reality that dislodges the story: a fighter designed in the seventies not only is it still in service, but construction continues in South Carolinaand continues to find buyers in 2025. The interesting thing about the F-16 is not only that it continues to fly, but to understand why so many countries continue to bet on it when there are newer alternatives. To answer that question you have to go back to its origin, follow its evolution and look at the present with data, contracts and calendars. It is also advisable to separate promises from real capabilities, because not all air forces buy the “best”, they buy what they can operate on a sustained basis. The secret of a fighter that does not retire The F-16 was born from an internal discussion in the United States about the drift towards increasingly larger, more complex and more expensive fighters. In the early 1970s, the United States Air Force promoted the Lightweight Fighter program to see if a lighter plane could gain maneuverability and be more affordable without sacrificing efficiency. The YF-16 prototype first flew in 1974 and, in January 1975, was selected in the Air Combat Fighter (ACF) competitiona decisive step towards production. The idea was simple: operational performance before unlimited ambition. That philosophy translated into very specific design decisions. The F-16 opted for a compact cell with controls fly-by-wire that allowed finer control and relaxed stability difficult to achieve with traditional systems. The cabin was also part of the approach, with a high visibility dome, a stick side and a reclined pilot position to better withstand G forces. Over time, this approach focused on air-to-air combat expanded. The F-16 incorporated improvements in avionics, sensors and payload capacity that they pushed it towards a multi-role capabilitywith room for ground attack and increasingly demanding missions. In parallel, its international expansion was supported by cooperation, standardization and support programs between allies, which created a broad community of operators. That network remains one of the reasons the plane stays alive. Almost continuous modernization is the bridge between the original design and the F-16 currently rolling off the production lines. In its most recent standards, such as the F-16V and the new Block 70/72updated mission displays and computing, data link systems such as MIDS-JTRS, and a AESA APG-83 radar as a central part of the equipment. These newly manufactured devices are offered with a declared structural life of 12,000 hours. Almost continuous modernization is the bridge between the original design and the F-16 currently rolling off the production lines. Here the question stops being just technical and becomes operational. The F-16 continues to fit because it offers a relationship between capabilities, cost and availability that is difficult to match in many defense plans. It is a well-known aircraft, with acceptable maintenancescalable training and a mature logistics chain, something especially valuable in periods of tension and urgency. In addition, it facilitates interoperability with allies and the integration of Western weaponry in a predictable framework. Recent contracts illustrate that pattern with names and numbers, and are often channeled through government agreements and programs like the Foreign Military Sales of the United States. Slovakia has been receiving new F-16 Block 70 from 2024. Bulgaria has also opted for this modernized aircraft. Taiwan maintains an order for 66 F-16Vs approved in 2019with deliveries and testing affected by publicly acknowledged delays.Bahrain ordered 16 Block 70 and Jordan signed an offer letter and acceptance for eight units. The case of Ukraine introduces a different dimension. Here the F-16 does not arrive as part of a planned modernization, but as rexposed to an ongoing war and the need to reinforce air defense. The transfers have been materialized by the Netherlands and Denmarkand deliveries have been confirmed in phases with a limited level of detail for operational reasons. Beyond the exact figures, the jump is relevant because it introduces a platform compatible with Western doctrines, support and weapons in a real combat environment. Argentina is a different example, but just as revealing. In this case, the F-16 arrives to fill a long gap in air defense capabilities and recover supersonic flight after years without an equivalent fleet. The operation is supported by the transfer of 24 used aircraft from Denmark, with deliveries in sections, and the first batch of six devices arrived in December 2025. For Buenos Aires, the value is not just the plane, but also the training and support package that accompanies it. If we look at the current Western catalogue, the temptation is to think that the future has already been resolved. The F-35 has become the great bet of several allies and, in parallel, Eurofighter and Rafale have continued to grow with new variants, radars and weapons. The problem is that an air force is not measured only by the most advanced aircraft it can buy, but by how many it can sustain, train and deploy on a continuous basis. That’s where the balanced fleet model gains weight and the F-16 falls into place again. And if we look one step further, the conversation is already in the sixth generation. The United States works in NGADEurope pushes FCAS and the United Kingdom has allied with Italy and Japan in GCAPa proposal that aims to redefine sensors, connectivity and cooperation with unmanned systems. But they are programs with long calendars and a very high investment, in addition to the uncertainty inherent in any technological leap. In that gap, the F-16 maintains a clear space, because it offers real and available capacity while the future finishes arriving. Images | United States Air Force (1, 2, 3, 4, 5,) | Volodymyr Zelenskyy | Ministry of Defense of Argentina In Xataka | The Comac C919 … Read more

Log In

Forgot password?

Forgot password?

Enter your account data and we will send you a link to reset your password.

Your password reset link appears to be invalid or expired.

Log in

Privacy Policy

Add to Collection

No Collections

Here you'll find all collections you've created before.