January 2026 - Page 13 of 81

Ford has auctioned the most exclusive prototype of the 2017 Ford GT. So exclusive that no one will be able to drive it

January 27, 2026 by usatoday24

Ford has just auctioned a car so special and unique that, in fact, it was not made for customers, but for the engineers who were working on the development of the Second generation Ford GT to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Ford’s triplet at Le Mans in 1966. So much so that the car was auctioned with a naked, unpainted body. However, it is such an exclusive supercar that Ford has made sure to keep it away from prying eyes, so although its engine runs perfectly, no one can show it off in public. Above all, its owner. First prototype, second legend The Ford GT Mk II, which has just been auctioned on the Barrett-Jackson portal, was designed at the end of 2015 as mechanical test mule for the new engine that would be mounted in the second generation of the Ford GT that was presented in 2017. Engineers used this car in the early testing phases of the project to collect real-world data on the dynamic behavior of the design, its aerodynamic stability and the response of the suspension under extreme conditions. So it was the intermediate step between the designs on paper and the model that would finally hit the market two years later. Being an early design means the car still retains the essence of original designsbefore aerodynamics or technical requirements forced certain profiles of its bodywork to be polished. However, its usefulness as a test mule meant that technical usefulness was prioritized over aesthetics. It was a laboratory tool on wheels, not a rolling showcase, and this was taken to the extreme that the engineers did not even consider painting the carbon fiber body, sensing that sooner rather than later it would need touch-ups. Only five prototypes were built, so this unit spent years stored in the collection. Ford Heritage Fleetan internal collection with which the brand protects its most valuable prototypes and vehicles with historical pedigree, until the time came to bring it to light. Its recent sale makes it a unique case: it goes from being a corporate secret to becoming a private trophy. Driving in public is prohibited However, the brand had a hidden ace up its sleeve. The purchase of this unique supercar was linked to a very restrictive clause: the explicit and absolute prohibition of registering it, insuring it as a vehicle or driving it on any public road. That is, its owner will never be able to wear it in public, except to use it on a private circuit. In this way, the first prototype of the 2017 Ford GT becomes a sculpture with an engine that can only be admired in the buyer collection who has paid $467,500 for that unique specimen due to its technical and historical pedigree. Be the first Ford GT prototype to break the garage confidentiality Ford classifies it as an exclusive collector’s piece, especially for those who already have a street GT in their collection. Under that rough and rough untreated carbon fiber body there is still the 3.5 EcoBoost V6 biturbo engine that it shares with the final GT, a brutal engine with a double turbocharger that delivers its power through a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission, optimized for pure rear-wheel drive. When you open its doors upwards, you are greeted by an interior as austere and practical as its exterior, designed to give your all on the track, but without the fine Alcantara finishes that you expect to find in a car for which you have paid almost $500,000. It features a single fixed bucket seat molded in carbon fiber for the test driver, position-adjustable pedals to adapt to different drivers, and a flattened Formula 1-style steering wheel with integrated buttons. No sign of the passenger seat, which underlines its single-seater work role, whose objective was to push it to the limit the performance of your engine and its bodywork. An untamed beast…that no one can legally drive on a road. In Xataka | In 1982 someone became unhealthy obsessed with a Mercedes-Benz 500 SL: in 43 years he has not driven it even a single kilometer. Image | Barret&Jackson

emergency patches to fix problems from other patches

January 27, 2026 by usatoday24

The users of Windows 11 They possibly started 2026 with a simple expectation: that the first update of the year would be just another procedure, one of those that is installed and forgotten. But things have not been so simple: Microsoft has had to publish “out of band” patches to correct problems detected after that initial update. What’s interesting about this episode is not just the error itself, but what it reflects on the actual experience of updating. The origin of the problem. It all started with the January 2026 security update for Windows 11. After incidents were detected on some computers, the company published an emergency update over the weekend to correct bugs related to system shutdown. Just a few days later, and exactly a week later, lbequeathed a second correction outside the usual cycle to address a new front: crashes and crashes in apps linked to synchronization and cloud storage. The problems when turning off some computers occurred with Windows 11 23H2, specifically in the Enterprise versionwhich points to a more limited scope. The second emergency update focused on different bugs and affected machines with Windows 11 24H2 and 25H2, where crashes and stability problems had been detected in apps related to OneDrive or Dropbo. Additionally, in an alert to administrators, Microsoft said it was investigating reports of boot failures in 24H2 and 25H2 after installing the January update, without closing the diagnostic yet. A difficult issue to ignore. There is a structural reality behind the Microsoft operating system that can help understand why these types of problems would appear frequently. Windows does not operate in a controlled ecosystem, but rather as a universal operating system that must work on millions of hardware combinations. This is what many call “the problem of fragmentation of the PC ecosystem”, which includes everything from basic laptops to high-end equipment, from recent computers to others that are more than ten years old. Risk of eroding trust. Software failures are inevitable, even more so in a system like Windows, forced to operate on millions of different hardware configurations. The problem comes when these setbacks are repeated too frequently, because then what suffers is not only the specific experience, but the user’s confidence. And that’s a tough blow to take right now, when Microsoft needs Windows 11 to be perceived as the logical replacement after the end of support of Windows 10and not as a transition full of doubts that pushes some to look towards other platforms. Images | Andrey K | Rui Silvestre In Xataka | Schrödinger’s Office: at this point it is impossible to know if Microsoft keeps it alive or if everything is AI and Copilot

less than fixing the gasoline engine

January 27, 2026 by usatoday24

What if your car’s engine breaks after 10 years? What are you doing with the car? With how expensive it has to be to change an entire engine… do you throw the car into the scrapyard? And if you don’t, do you invest thousands of euros in it? It is very likely that when you have told a friend, a cousin or a co-worker that you are thinking of buying a gasoline car, they have never asked you these questions. What if it were electric? Would they ask you what happens if your battery breaks when the car is 10 years old? In that case, the questions are not so strange anymore. Now, the answer will be less uncomfortable if you are one of the latter, one of those who are thinking about jumping into the electric car. At least not so much if you compare it with a combustion car. As expensive… as a combustion one How much does a serious gearbox breakdown cost? How much does a serious breakdown caused by the timing belt cost? How much does a serious engine cylinder head breakdown cost? These questions, and many others, are answered by RACE. Whether due to the amount of time that has to be invested, either because the replaced parts are expensive or due to a combination of both, the three aforementioned breakdowns can easily cost over 5,000 euros. An electric car, most commonly, does not have a gearbox. It will also not have a timing belt or an engine with cylinder heads, connecting rods or injectors. In fact, its maintenance is so simple that there are those who were wondering If electric cars have oil and if it is necessary to change it. However, there is a large public that continues to worry about the health of the battery and how much the bill may increase in the event of a forced change. This question was already answered by Recurrent study supported by Goldman Sachs. In it it was stated that in 2030 Changing an electric car battery will be as expensive as facing a serious breakdown of a combustion engine. According to his calculations, collected by Hybrids and ElectricsIn less than five years, changing batteries will cost between 3,200 and 4,800 euros for larger batteries. For lower battery cars, the forecast is for it to be below 3,000 euros. The bulk of the calculation to make these estimates is based on the price of its minerals and their impact on battery cells and packs. According to the data of Bloomberg NEFthe total cost of the battery in 2025 stood at $108/kWh. That is, a car battery with an 80 kWh accumulator (for which a highway range of between 350 and 450 kilometers is usually expected) would cost $8,640 right now, just over 7,200 euros. The number, however, has plummeted in a decade. In 2015 they calculated that the cost was $475/kWh and in 2013 it was $827/kWh. The evolution is promising. That Recurrent report already anticipated a price of $65/kWh cost for a complete battery replacement in 2030. That is, a car with the aforementioned 80 kWh battery would cost about $5,200 (about 4,380 euros). The study mentions the chemistry used (NMC are predictably more expensive than LFP) but it does not indicate whether there would be any additional cost between the cars that use CTC or CTB batteries. The first are batteries that are installed on the chassis of the vehicle but in the second the chassis itself is used as the vehicle’s casing and the cells are attached to it. In this way, energy density is increased and, therefore, there is a greater amount of electrical energy available in the same space. What is certain is that the price of changing batteries should fall over the years. The economy of scale itself will lower what remains the main cost of an electric vehicle. To this we must add that firms like Toyota They are already offering guarantees of ten years or one million kilometers if maintenance is carried out in their official workshops. To the above we must also add that some studies suggest thatOnly 2.5% of electric cars replace the battery due to breakdowns. Of course, it must be taken into account that the figure may have been distorted by the high cost that, until now, this operation has had. Photo | seat In Xataka | Toyota’s weapon to dominate the electric car is 1,200 kilometer batteries. And he has already set a date for them

Qwen3-Max-Thinking rivals Google’s Gemini 3 Pro more than ever. The key is in what is not being told

January 27, 2026 by usatoday24

There are days when it feels like we open the phone and the dashboard changes again. Since ChatGPT broke out in November 2022the artificial intelligence race has continued to accelerate, and every few weeks a new model appears which promises to push the bar a little further. Sometimes it is an update, other times it is a “flagship” with a different surname, but the pattern repeats itself: more power, more ambition and an increasingly global story. In this context, China is gaining visibility in an increasingly evident way, and the name that is now entering the conversation is Qwen3-Max-ThinkingAlibaba’s proposal with which it wants to play in the same league as the great references of the moment. At first glance, Qwen3-Max-Thinking might seem like just another name in the endless list of models. But there is a relevant nuance here: he presents it as his star model for reasoning tasks, and explicitly places it in the same conversation as Gemini 3 Pro. The company says it has scaled parameters and invested computing resources in reinforcement to improve several dimensions at once, from factual knowledge and complex reasoning to instruction following, alignment with human preferences and agent capabilities. In other words: you are not just selling raw power, but a way to “think” better. What benchmarks teach To land that promise, the most useful thing is to look at the comparative table that we have in hand, with 19 benchmarks and a direct count: Gemini 3 Pro leads in 11, Qwen3-Max-Thinking does it in 8. This data, by itself, does not decide “who is better”but it does help to understand the type of fight that Alibaba poses when faced with Google. Here it is worth being very literal with what we are measuring: each benchmark focuses on a specific skill, from general knowledge to programming, use of tools, following instructions or long context analysis. If we look for the point where Qwen3-Max-Thinking really hits home, there is one that stands out above the rest: following instructions and aligning with what humans prefer in a conversation. In Arena-Hard v2Qwen wins with 90.2 compared to Gemini’s 81.7, which is the largest difference in its favor in the entire table (8.5 points above). It is not a minor nuance, because this type of benchmark does not reward only the technical “success”, but rather the final result that a person considers most useful when blindly comparing answers. Added to that IFBenchwhere Qwen wins by the minimum (70.9 versus 70.4). Translated into real life: when the user does not formulate a perfect instruction, when the assignment has ambiguity or requires interpreting intent, Qwen seems more oriented to nailing what is asked of him and doing it in a way that feels natural. The other area where Qwen supports his “thinking model” narrative is mathematical reasoning and logical problem solving. On HMMT, in both the November 2025 and February 2025 issues, Qwen is ahead (94.7 vs. 93.3 and 98.0 vs. 97.5, respectively). And in IMOAnswerBench it also wins, although by a minimal margin: 83.9 versus 83.3. These numbers do not suggest a beating, but they do suggest a consistent pattern: when the problem demands several steps of logic and it is not solved only with memory or a nice answer, Qwen tends to take advantage. To these improvements Alibaba adds a component that is already becoming the new standard: that the model does not remain in the text, but can act. In its presentation, the company talks about an adaptive use of tools that allows information to be retrieved on demand and a code interpreter to be invoked. And this orientation also appears in the benchmarks: in HLE (w/ tools), Qwen wins with 49.8 compared to 45.8 for Gemini, which suggests a better ability to perform when the model can rely on external tools. Here the fundamental change is important: it is no longer just “what he responds”, but how he investigates, how he decides what tool to use and how he synthesizes what he finds. There is a part of this comparison where the Gemini 3 Pro feels more “engineer” than “conversational,” and it is precisely where many professional users put the focus. The Google model wins in MMLU-Pro and MMLU-Redux, two tests closely associated with general knowledge, and also in GPQA and HLE, which in this table appear as demanding evaluation benchmarks and complex questions. In code, Gemini prevails in LiveCodeBench v6 and also in SWE Verifiedwhich reinforces the idea that, for programming tasksis still a very solid bet. Added to this is AA-LCR, where it leads in analysis of long documents. The fine print hides beyond the price At this point, there is a question that weighs as much as any benchmark: how much does it cost to use these models seriously. In standard prices per 1M tokens, the contrast is clear. On Gemini 3 Pro, the entry moves between 2 and 4 dollars depending on the tranche of input tokens, while in Qwen3-Max The input is listed at $1.2. But the most important difference appears at the output, which is where the “thought” of the model is paid: Gemini marks 12 to 18 dollars compared to the 6 dollars of Qwen. Translated into proportions, in standard use Gemini is approximately 1.67 times more expensive in entry and 2 times more expensive in exit in the usual section. If the tranche exceeds 200,000 entry tokens, the distance increases to 3.33 times in entry and 3 times in exit. Gemini is approximately 1.67 times more expensive on entry and 2 times more expensive on exit in the usual section. And here we come to the part that is usually left out of the conversation when everything focuses on power and price: what happens to your data when you use the model, and under what rules. In the case of Qwen, two worlds must be clearly separated. On the one hand there is the consumer web chat, whose terms They contemplate the use and storage … Read more

Japan has attempted to power up the world’s largest nuclear power plant. It only lasted a few hours

January 27, 2026 by usatoday24

The nuclear debate, which Japan thought closed, returns to the scene. The recent authorization to reactivate Kashiwazaki-Kariwa, the largest atomic plant in the world, has set off alarms: citizen distrust, the shadow of Fukushima and doubts have surfaced about whether TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Company) is the right company to lead the country’s new energy stage. Fifteen years of waiting for a reboot that didn’t even last a day. In Niigata, reactor number 6 went from complete silence to emergency shutdown in less than 24 hours. The failure, located in critical safety systems, has turned the great revival energetic of Japan in a lesson in technical fragility. A slow giant. Kashiwazaki-Kariwa had not produced a single kilowatt since 2012. That closure was not an isolated event, but the shock wave of Fukushima in 2011, which put all reactors of similar design in the spotlight. But for TEPCO, this complex of seven units and more than 8,000 MW is much more than energy: it is its financial lifeline. According to Japan Forward estimatesthe electricity company needs these reactors to inject some 100,000 million yen annually into its coffers, essential oxygen to pay the endless bill for the dismantling of Fukushima Daiichi. The Japanese Government, under the command of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, has positioned this reopening as a strategic pillar. The objective is ambitious, in saying that nuclear energy represent 20% of the energy mix by 2040. This energy is needed to power new AI data centers and semiconductor factories, thus reducing dependence on imported fossil fuels, made more expensive by the fall of the yen and current geopolitics. Chronicle of a fleeting reboot. The reactivation process of reactor No. 6 was marked by setbacks even before it began. The restart, initially scheduled for Tuesday, January 20, had to be postponed one day after it was detected that an alarm designed to warn of the accidental removal of control rods did not work during the tests, as reported by The Japan Times. After correcting this error, operations formally began on Wednesday at 7:02 pm. At 8:28 pm, the reactor reached the “critical state” (sustained nuclear fission). However, the celebration in TEPCO’s control rooms – where staff tensely monitored screens – was short-lived. At 12:28 a.m. Thursday, just 16 hours after the start, an alarm sounded again. This time it indicated a failure in the engine control panel that operates one of the reactor control rods (the devices that regulate or stop the nuclear reaction). TEPCO attempted to replace electrical components and inverters, but the anomaly persisted. Given the uncertainty, the company announced a “planned temporary shutdown” to reinsert the control rods and stop the fission, a process that concluded Friday morning. “We do not assume that the investigation will be resolved in one or two days; at this time we cannot say how many days it will take,” admitted Takeyuki Inagaki, director of the plant, at a press conference. Security under suspicion. Although TEPCO maintains that the reactor remains under control and without leaks to the outside, the incident has served to poke into a wound that was never closed. It is not just the present that is worrying, but a tarnished record: just five years ago, the Financial Times I already put the focus on the plant after a security scandal where an employee circumvented access controls using a foreign identification, revealing the fragility of its surveillance systems. However, distrust does not only fall on TEPCO. The Japanese nuclear sector is experiencing a systemic credibility crisis. Earlier this month, Chubu Electric admitted to manipulating seismic data to minimize the impact of potential earthquakes at its Hamaoka plant, leading the Nuclear Regulatory Authority (NRA) to describe the act as “scandalous” and to suspend its security review after a decade of paperwork. A divided society in Niigata. Outside the plant and at TEPCO headquarters, protesters like Yumiko Abe, 73, express their indignation: “Electricity is for Tokyo, but we in Kashiwazaki run the risk. It doesn’t make sense.” The figures support this discomfort. According to surveys cited by South China Morning Postabout 60% of Niigata residents oppose the restart. Furthermore, 70% of citizens fear that TEPCO will not be able to manage an emergency based on its history. On the other hand, prominent seismologists warn in the Financial Times that the plant is located near an area of very high seismic risk where a large earthquake could cause billions of dollars in damage. The future of the atom in Japan. The path to full operation of Kashiwazaki-Kariwa is once again up in the air. While TEPCO makes cost cuts of 3.1 trillion yen To fund the decommissioning of Fukushima, the NRA has promised strict on-site inspections to verify corrective actions following this latest failure. Experts like Dr. Florentine Koppenborg suggest that this “nuclear renaissance” It could be just a “drop in the ocean” as security costs have skyrocketed and public trust remains at rock bottom. Japan is at an energy crossroads: the urgency to decarbonize and feed its technology industry collides head-on with the memory of a disaster that, 15 years later, is still very present. The Kashiwazaki-Kariwa giant has shown that, in nuclear energy, the distance between strategic success and technical failure is measured in the sound of a single alarm. Image | IAEA Imagebank Xataka | Here is news that will surely reassure you: Europe’s largest nuclear power plant is running on diesel generators

The Line and Trojana were the jewels of the new Saudi Arabia. They will also be the first to face reality: they are very expensive

January 27, 2026 by usatoday24

Saudi Arabia imagined an almost dystopian future based on futuristic ski resorts, 170 km linear skyscrapers and paradise islands for millionaires. Reality has forced the Saudi authorities to wake up from their reverie and face serious cost overruns in the construction of their pharaonic projects and lack of budget to cover them. He Financial Times uncover in an article that an internal report in which auditors propose cutting the NEOM project in half, reusing what has already been built, but reorienting its objectives and, above all, its budgets. However, this cut is conditioned by the commitments that Riyadh has already adopted, organizing the 2030 World Expo and the 2034 World Cup. Oil gives no respite: we must cut back. According to Financial Times sources, the audit of the project that is about to conclude leaves no room for maneuver and forces Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to rethink the NEOM project. applying new cuts and changes in construction plans to a “much smaller” project. The reason for the cut is found in oil priceswho have not recovered from their downward trendseriously damaging the solvency of the nearly $1 trillion Saudi Public Investment Fund that finances NEOM. With a fund that does not grow at the rate it used to and huge investmentsPrince Mohammed has been forced to lower expectations and achieve short-term profitability from what has already been built. Put your feet on the ground. The NEOM project was born in 2017 as the flagship to transform the Saudi economy, moving from a model focused on the exploitation of natural gas and oil resources to one based on attracting investments, tourism and renewable energy. NEOM consisted of different big-budget projects to build infrastructure in a territory the size of Belgium on the Red Sea coast. The Line, the crown jewelpromised a linear city 170 kilometers long flanked by two 500-meter-high buildings, without cars or streets, and powered 100% by renewable energy. It was estimated that by 2030 this project would house 1.5 million people, at an approximate cost of 500 billion dollars. In 2024, the first phase of The Line has already suffered an important snip reducing its length 2.4 kilometers away. The Line was going to be a city, now your data will live. FT sources point out that Riyadh finally admits the initial design flaws, prioritizing what has already been built. Thus, The Line would go from being a futuristic megalopolis to reusing its foundations to become a data center hub to put Saudi Arabia in the AI race. This shift reflects a change in strategy aimed at achieving more specific goals that provide a short-term return on invested capital, leaving behind the vision of infinite skyscrapers in the desert. Other cuts already announced include $8 billion less from the Public Investment Fund for the five main megaprojects, representing 12.4% of their total valuation. A ski resort in the desert. The cuts also seriously affect the construction of Trojena, the ski resort futuristic project that was to serve as the venue for the 2029 Asian Winter Games. However, the Asian Olympic Council that organizes this sporting event has announced in a statement “confirming the postponement of the 2029 edition to a later date that will be announced in due course”, and that experts link directly to cuts in its budget. According to published Bloombergthe project was initially budgeted at around 19 billion dollars and was going to offer 30 km of ski slopes that ran on the roof of the resort itself and different luxury hotels, in a desert area with little snowfall during the year, which added an added challenge to keep the artificial snow necessary for the operation of the station in good condition. This first postponement sows uncertainty about the future of other competitions to which it has already committed, such as the football stadium that was going to be built. on the roof of The Line. In Xataka | Siranna: the new luxury destination for the super-rich is a spa that looks like Minas Tirith and only ships arrive Image | NEOM

There is an island without which the world would not function. This is how Taiwan has become a world technological epicenter: Crossover 1×35

January 27, 2026 by usatoday24

In February 1974, the Prime Minister of Taiwan met with a small group of experts and together they came to a conclusion: the country had a difficult time with the economic strategy of the time, and they had to make a bet on the future. That bet They were, of course, the semiconductors. That famous meeting marked a before and after for a country that has a very delicate geopolitical situation. China considers it a rogue state, but while they have their own government and currency. Despite this tension, Taiwan has managed to become a strategic partner of countries such as the aforementioned China or the United States, and in both cases for the same reason: chips. Taiwan has managed to become a absolute giant in the semiconductor industry, and this is demonstrated by the company that It is the crown jewel of the country: TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company). Since it was founded in 1987, the company has grown and its alliance with Apple in the early 2010s has proven crucial to its current dominance. But before all that happened, Taiwan went through a complicated process that included wars and dominance by Japan for nearly half a century. In this episode of Crossover we precisely analyze the history of this peculiar island and how it faces a future that, even with its current position, is full of challenges. On YouTube | Crossover In Xataka | TSMC’s only problem was that it was in Taiwan. So the United States has decided to get her out of there

consolidates a terrain where Google has not yet reached

January 26, 2026 by usatoday24

Don’t know where your suitcase ended up after a trip? Or have you lost sight of your keys just when you were in the most hurry? To clear up doubts in this type of situation, Apple users have had the AirTagthe company’s tracker, which is now renewed with discreet but important changes. And it is advisable to be clear about them if you are thinking of buying one. What exactly does the new AirTag bring?. We are facing the first update since the launch of the original AirTag in 2021. On the outside, the device is identical to the first generation model. The difference is on the inside: Apple has updated the hardware to introduce concrete improvements without increasing the price. That is, more benefits without paying more. Second-generation ultra-wideband (UWB) chip: it is the same component that devices such as the iPhone 17 incorporate, the iPhone Air or the Apple Watch Ultra 3 and Series 11. The result is a 50% improvement in Precision Search, the function that guides you with arrows, vibrations and sound to the object. New speaker: Also with a 50% improvement in power, which makes it easier to hear the AirTag from a greater distance and speed up the location process. Precision Search from Apple Watch: if you have a Apple Watch Series 9 or later, or a Apple Watch Ultra 2 or later, you can use this function directly from the watch to find the AirTag and, by extension, whatever you have attached to it. If we talk about the price, it can now be reserved on the Apple website and in the Apple Store app, and it will arrive in Apple Store stores later this week. It is available for 35 euros the unit or in a pack of four 119 euros. And, for those who want to complete the set, Apple also sells the fine braided keychain for AirTag for 45 euros. How the AirTag works. The key point of the AirTag is that it does not have integrated GPS. Its operation is based on Bluetooth and Apple’s Find My network: the AirTag emits a signal and, when an iPhone, iPad or Mac passes nearby, it detects it and sends an approximate location to iCloud. That location is what we then see on the map from the Search app. When you are already close, ultra-wide band (UWB) comes into play, which is the technology that allows Precision Search: locating the AirTag with much more accuracy at short distances. Google still does not release its own. As we can see, the AirTag works solely within the Apple ecosystem, and that integration is a big part of its appeal. On Android there are alternatives, but an equivalent commitment signed by Google is still missing: its own tracker that plays in the same league, and that can compete head to head with Apple’s proposal. On Android there are trackers, but… The temptation is to think that Android is at a disadvantage because it does not have an official AirTag. But the picture is more nuanced. Google has Find Hub and around that network a fairly active market of compatible trackers has already been built, with names like Chipolo either Pebblebee. The problem is that this ecosystem does not have a single direction: there is no iconic model that sets the standard, that pushes specific functions and that serves as a reference point for everything else. In practice, there are many trackers, but not such a uniform experience. The technology that makes the difference. To understand why Apple insists so much on ultra wide band (UWB) You have to look at the most complex moment of any search: when you are already close, but you don’t see it. Bluetooth can help you narrow it down, even make it sound, but it’s not particularly fine. UWB, on the other hand, is designed for that final phase: it allows precise location within a few meters, with clear guidance and in real time. That’s the difference between “it’s over here” and “it’s two meters away, to the left.” Why UWB is so rare on Android. If you’re wondering why UWB is still so rare on Android, there’s a pretty simple explanation: the market isn’t pushing it hard yet. Most Find Hub trackers are designed to work with Bluetooth, which is more universal and helps control the price. The side effect is that UWB is reserved for few models and, therefore, for few users. Samsung and its commitment to UWB. UWB, as we say, exists on Android. There are cases like the Moto Tag 2 or the Samsung SmartTag+ as the most representative model. But that advantage in the case of the South Korean brand comes with fine print: its proposal is linked to the Galaxy ecosystem and SmartThings. It is not an “Android” experience in the broad sense, but rather a branded solution. And that reinforces the underlying idea: there is progress, but dispersed, without a common standard pushed by Google. “Pixel Tag”: more than a device, a push. In this context is where the great absence makes sense: a Google tracker. Not so much because of the gadget itself, but because of what it would drag behind it. A “Pixel Tag” would be, above all, a declaration of intent: a product capable of setting a benchmark experience on Find Hub, pushing the real use of UWB and forcing the platform to mature faster. What changes for users. If Google took the step, the change for the user would not be so much “having another tracker”, but rather gaining a more coherent experience. Today, many solutions work well, but vary too much depending on the model and brand. With its own product as a reference, Find Hub could become more consistent: better search accuracy, more integration, and more features. Images | Apple | Samsung In Xataka | Apple has made the quietest turn in its history: its design teams no longer report to design

North Korea believed the threat was miles from its border. A video has revealed that it is a few meters away with a huge warhead

January 26, 2026 by usatoday24

For years, North Korea has built your security on the idea that the most dangerous thing came from afar and could be seen coming in time. But on the peninsula, threats do not always come from the other side of the world: sometimes they develop much closer than anyone imagined. A “monster” missile. a video has revealed that South Korea has begun to operationally deploy the Hyunmoo-5its largest ballistic missile to date and one of the most peculiar in the world due to the combination of size and mission. Although it remains shrouded in secrecy and there are no publicly confirmed test launches, its input in units indicates that Seoul already considers it a real instrument of deterrence. A weapon designed for an extreme scenario on the peninsula, where the problem is not just attacking, but hitting what is buried, protected and designed to survive. The key: the head. What it places to Hyunmoo-5 In a category of its own is its warhead gigantic penetrationmuch heavier than that of usual conventional missiles. Where it is normal to carry loads of less than a ton, here we are talking about a block that can be around several tons, with an important part dedicated to dense metal and structure to pierce before detonating. The logic is simple and we have seen it before in the United States MOP: enter the ground at enormous speed, break through like a kinetic hammer and then explode once inside, attacking bunkers, command centers, warehouses and shelters designed to withstand traditional attacks. Ballistic bunker-buster. In terms of effect, it is reminiscent of bunker buster bombs launched from a planebut with a decisive difference: here it is not falling from a bomber at subsonic speed, but rather hits like a ballistic projectile at speeds close to hypersonic or directly hypersonic. This multiplies the penetration capacity by pure impact energyeven before counting the explosion. It does not make the weapon “nuclear,” because the type of destruction is different, but it does create a conventional tool with the power of entry and demolition that seeks to get closer to what a regime fears most: losing its underground shelters. Ceremony celebrating the 65th anniversary of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Korea The mystery of scope. The huge warhead penalizes the range, and that is why many estimates They place their radius of action around about 600 kilometersmore typical of a short-range missile despite the size of the set. For South Korea that is not a problem, because the priority objective is close and it’s concrete: Hardened facilities in North Korea. Still, if the load were lightened, it could reach much greater distances, even entering intermediate-range missile parameters, opening the door to broader regional readouts. Total design freedom. For decades, Seoul developed missiles under agreed limits with Washington, first very strict and then increasingly relaxeduntil those guidelines disappeared completely in 2021. That change was not symbolic: it came at the pace of North Korea’s advance in missiles and nuclear weapons, and left South Korea with room to create heavier, more capable systems with greater range options. Hyunmoo-4 had already raised the bar with a powerful charge, but Hyunmoo-5 represents the definitive jump to the idea of “demolition power” as a main feature. The three-way strategy. Plus: the Hyunmoo-5 is integrated into the South Korean scheme designed to avoid or respond to a North Korean nuclear attack, with three pillars that complement each other: a preemptive strike plan on nuclear and missile capabilities if deemed inevitable, an air and missile defense to intercept launches, and massive conventional retaliation against leadership and strategic infrastructure if the North strikes first. On that board, the missile serves both to punish and to decapitate capabilities, because its specialty is attacking what the adversary hides underground to guarantee its continuity. Deterrence and escalation. They counted the TWZ analysts that the South Korean bet aims to maintain a “balance of terror” with increasingly forceful conventional means, but it also fuels an uncomfortable debate about the future. If Seoul one day decided to pursue a nuclear arsenal of its own, a missile from this family would be a natural candidateand a nuclear charge would also be much lighter than the current conventional one, which would expand range and flexibility. Meanwhile, the mere existence of Hyunmoo-5 already serves as an unmistakable message: even without crossing the nuclear threshold, South Korea wants the ability to open any relevant bunker and force Pyongyang to assume that his depth no longer guarantees security. Beyond Pyongyang. In public, South Korea frames these weapons as an answer to North Korea, but the regional background weighs more and more. Have a missile potentially adaptable in range and with a devastating payload add margin facing scenarios where the threat is not only from North Korea, but also from nearby powers such as China or Russia. The idea of increasing their survival and employment options with future naval platforms is even contemplated, following the trend global from “arsenal ships”because in deterrence it is not enough to have the weapon: we must also guarantee that it will remain alive when the time comes to use it. Image | Lightrocket, 촬영 – 이헌구 기자 In Xataka | “It’s a level 10 Godzilla, but they only see a tiger”: South Korea’s surprising response to North Korea’s rearmament In Xataka | If the question is what has North Korea achieved in the last four years, the answer is simple: an unimaginable arsenal

The number of new apps coming to the App Store has skyrocketed. We have a culprit: “vibe coding”

January 26, 2026 by usatoday24

The arrival of tools based on generative artificial intelligence has caused a real explosion in mobile application stores, especially since we have development environments with AI that allow us to create and deploy applications without needing to know programming. According to data from venture capital fund Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), new apps launched in the iOS App Store in the United States increased 60% year-on-year in December, after remaining practically stagnant for the previous three years. The accumulated year-on-year growth in the last twelve months reaches 24%. The person responsible has a name: the “vibe coding“, that way of programming in which AI does much of the work. What is happening. 2025 has been the year in which “sensation programming” has exploded. And it is that in environments of ‘agentic programming‘ or vibe coding, just explain to an AI tool what application you need and the machine takes care of writing the code. Platforms like CursorBolt, Google AI StudioClaude Code or V0 have democratized app creation to the point that anyone with an idea can turn it into a working prototype without writing a single line of code. This opens many doors, as thousands of new developers without technical training are publishing applications in stores. That’s also a problem. Going back to 2008. As points out a16z, the situation evokes the early days of the iPhonewhen Apple launched its SDK and in a matter of months went from 500 applications to downloads that exceeded 1,000 million. That ecosystem ended up generating hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue. Here the phenomenon is even more overwhelming, since the creation of applications is no longer ‘limited’ to experienced developers, which means that in an afternoon we can create any simple app, as long as we know what to ask of the AI. Image: a16z The problem. Things are clear: you will not be able to create a complex application in one sentence. And now he told us Miguel Ángel Durán, a software engineer known as midudev, in March of last year: “don’t think that just saying something without knowing anything about programming is going to give you the next Airbnb.” As my colleague Javier Pastor mentioned some time ago, the case of Leoa user who created an entire SaaS platform with vibe coding and even got paying customers, perfectly illustrates the risks, since two days after bragging about his achievement, he had to ask for help because his app displayed public API keys, had an easy-to-jump paywall, and crashed his database due to basic programming errors. Quality matters. “You can do very basic things. We have tried Cursor, Bolt, etc., and you reach a level that one may think is advanced, but in reality what usually happens is that they are cloning a Github repository and changing its colors,” we say. counted Some time ago Daniel Ávila, co-founder of CodeGPT. There is a flood of low-quality apps, much more than before, since now many more inexperienced people can easily publish them in any app store. And the problem is that many of these applications do not even reach the prototype level, being unfinished products that work superficially and then end up accumulating all kinds of technical errors. Even worse if the app has a paywall. Between optimism and caution. “Vibe coding is super interesting to extend the prototyping of ideas and empower people,” we say. explained last year Nerea Luis, doctor in computer science. But he also recognizes that “it has risks” because completing these projects requires knowledge that neither the user nor the AI possess. On the other hand, Omar Pera, Chief Product Officer of Freepik, was more optimistic: “vibe coding turns top engineers into 2x or 3x engineers.” Does it democratize access to application development? Yes, of course. The problem comes when the AI-generated application of someone without experience goes from a project to learn, as a hobby, or as an app development for one’s own use, to a project that encompasses more ambition and seeks to attract many clients. Cover image | James Yarema In Xataka | We believed that the AI talent war is about engineers and developers. Actually, it’s about plumbers and electricians.

Log In

Sign In

Forgot password?

Your password reset link appears to be invalid or expired.

Log in

Privacy Policy

Add to Collection

No Collections