Month: January 2026

the projects that still keep the free and free web alive just as we dream of it

by

The Internet has never had so many users or so much content, and yet it increasingly looks like a handful of repeated screens. Much of what we read, watch or search for goes through the algorithms of a few large platformswho compete for our attention and they convert many of our clicks into measurable data. In the midst of this standardized landscape, projects survive that operate with a different logic, such as Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap or the Internet Archivewhich are not financed by ads, do not sell detailed profiles of their users and continue to support a simple and demanding idea at the same time: that information and knowledge should be a shared good. The web did not begin as a showcase for large platforms, but rather a dispersed and almost artisanal laboratory. In the early nineties, those who published on the web They did it from university serversinstitutional or domestic, using open standards such as HTML, HTTP and URIs. They were fundamental pieces of a network designed so that information could circulate without depending on technological owners or closed systems. This technical architecture fueled the idea that the Internet could be an open and accessible space. The Internet was not born to sell data: the market found how to do it That enthusiasm, however, lived with obvious limits. As we say, participation was concentrated in universities, research centers and a minority of enthusiasts with technical knowledge and resources. The figures of the time show that just one minimum fraction of the world’s population had access to the Internet, which means that this supposed openness was real in technological terms, but not socially widespread. Starting in the mid-nineties, and especially at the end of that decade, the Internet began to receive more attention. Companies saw economic potential in a network that connected millions of people and allowed information and services to be distributed on a global scale. Commercial providers, popular browsers and the first portals emerged, and with them came the logic of the market: there was traffic, there were users and, therefore, there were business opportunities. Access to the web stopped being an experiment and began to become a massive, measurable and profitable activity. This change promoted a model that would quickly consolidate: segmented advertising. It was not just about showing ads, but about analyzing user behavior and obtain data about your interestshabits and preferences. It was the moment when human attention began to acquire a concrete economic value. Clicks, dwell time and browsing patterns ceased to be technical traces and became raw material for a new digital market. In this increasingly commercialized context, some projects maintained another way of understanding the Internet. They were not born to attract traffic or to compete for attention, but to build public information infrastructures. Wikipedia was launched in 2001 with a goal that seemed unrealistic at the time: to create a free, collectively written encyclopedia available to anyone with an Internet connection. OpenStreetMap began its journey in 2004 with a similar idea, but applied to the territory, collaboratively documenting the streets, roads and places of the world. Since 1996, the Internet Archive had been preserving pages, documents, audio and video so that they would not disappear over time. Two decades later, these projects are not only still active, but are central pieces of the current web. Millions of people consult Wikipedia every day to check a fact, understand a context or learn something new. OpenStreetMap maps power everything from mobile applications to public services and humanitarian projects. And the Internet Archive has become a long-term digital memory, a place where the web is not deleted, but preserved. They are initiatives collectively built that have achieved global impact without adopting the dominant business model. Wikipedia is supported by millions of small donors, most of them are readers who contribute small amounts, usually around ten euros a year. The Wikimedia Foundation manages these resources and maintains the technical infrastructure, including servers, software development and security systems. He also manages the Wikimedia Endowmentan independent fund created in 2016 to ensure that the project can continue operating even if revenue drops one year. Since 2021, there is also Wikimedia Enterprisea way for organizations that intensively reuse content, such as search engines or artificial intelligence companies, to access structured and stable versions of the data. Financed on the backs of the people OpenStreetMap has a different and much more decentralized structure. The OpenStreetMap Foundation is responsible for servers and general coordination, but much of the work comes from local communities organizing events, training and collaborative mapping tasks. The financing comes in the form of voluntary duestechnical sponsorships and support from organizations that use the data in logistical, humanitarian or educational projects. In the case of Internet Archive, the costs fall on an infrastructure that stores millions of pages, documents and files, financed through individual donations, grants from foundations and public organizations, and archiving and digitization services for institutions. When we talk about open projects, we can confuse openness with absence of organization. However, its operation is based on explicit rules and distributed structures. Wikipedia exemplifies this better than anyone. Editorial decisions are not made by a small group, but by thousands of people who apply public standards such as neutral point of view or verifiable content. The profile of the person contributing does not matter, but rather whether their contribution meets those criteria. Administrators can intervene to protect pages or resolve disputes, but their role is primarily technical and maintenance, with no hierarchical editorial authority over content. OpenStreetMap works with a similar logic, but on geographic data: the information is built from the local and is review collectively to ensure consistency. There are regional communities They coordinate tasks, organize meetings and define practices, but the base remains open. In the case of Internet Archive, the process is not so much editing as cataloging and preservation, and external collaboration focuses on improving the quality of records and avoiding the loss of digital documents. Living with the technological giants … Read more

a third of the world’s data centers are in a single country

by

Currently there are more than 11,000 data centers operating worldwidewhich is said soon. Seeing the huge investment by technology companies, The figure is going to grow exponentially in the coming years. Now, thanks to the interactive map of Data Center Map We know where they are. An overwhelming majority of them are in the northern hemisphere, with one country accounting for almost a third of the total. United States rules USA To no one’s surprise, the country with the largest number of data centers is the United States. Considering that the major cloud infrastructure companies are American, this is also not surprising. In total they have 4,303 data centers spread throughout the territory, but not on a regular basis: there are regions in which the concentration is brutal. In the state of Virginia alone there are a whopping 668 data centers, which is more than Germany, the second country on the list with 494 centers. The weather too We already know that data centers consume a lot of energy and much of it goes into cooling their components. The hotter it is outside, the more it will cost to cool it and therefore the more energy is consumed, as well as water. According to the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers, The ideal temperature for a data center is between 18 and 27 degrees Celsius. Location has a notable impact on electricity and water expenses, which is why technology companies usually choose places with lower temperatures to set up their infrastructure. The south also wants its piece of the pie Indonesia It is striking that, despite the temperature recommendation, there are many data centers in countries where heat is a problem. Rest of World has done an extensive analysis about this phenomenon and estimates that at least 600 facilities are operating in areas outside the optimal range. In fact, following the list of countries with the highest number of data centers, we see that Indonesia is in third place with 184 facilities, followed by Brazil with 196. Both have a average temperature of more than 26 degrees, which means that for much of the year temperatures exceed that threshold. Singapore A striking case is that of Singapore, where the average temperature is more than 28 degrees. It has 78 data centers, a low figure compared to those we have mentioned, but they are concentrated in a very small area, which makes it one of the countries with a higher data center density. Other countries where demand for data centers is increasing are IndiaVietnam and the Philippines, all of them with quite hot climates. The heat challenge Why build in such hot areas? For many countries, data being within their own borders is more important than optimal operating temperature. The risk that arises is that, with the temperatures increasing year after yearwhat is now a manageable situation can become a difficult problem to solve, especially in areas such as Southeast Asia and the Middle East. They say in Rest of World that precisely in Singapore there is an initiative in which more than 20 technology companies and universities participate with one objective: to develop a refrigeration system Specific for humid and hot climates. The most common cooling system is air, but in these areas it is most effective to use a hybrid cooling system that uses air when possible and water when it is hotter. In some areas with extreme temperatures such as the United Arab Emirates, they are even considering build them underground. In China they are testing an even more radical solution: build a data center under the sea. Image | ChatGPT, with data from Data Center Map In Xataka | Aragón is not afraid of AI: it has just approved three more new mega data centers in full commitment to renewables

“You can’t trust your eyes to know what’s real anymore.” Instagram CEO announces that the feed is dead

by

That the Internet as we knew it no longer exists is not a surprise: it has been filled with search results generated by artificial intelligence and from ‘slop‘. The consequences are already visible: clicks have been reduced by halfwhich is catastrophic for the media. But not only the text is suffering from this barrage of AI that blurs everything: already We do not know how to distinguish if an image is real or notwe have gone from document our life on social networks to the era of influencer content favored by the algorithm to videos and images that are not real, but can pass as such. There are no longer four fingers that are worth it. Instagrammers, the feed is dead. And this is also going to take its toll on social networks. Adam Mosseri, CEO of Instagram, closed 2025 with a publication in the form of a presentation of 20 images where he reflected in depth on what is coming: “the era of infinite synthetic content”, the antithesis of a more personal Instagram that has been dead for years. For Mosseri, AI has turned the carefully maintained grid with its algorithm into something of the past: “Unless you are under 25 years old and use Instagram, you probably think of the app as a feed of square photos. The aesthetics are careful: a lot of makeup, skin softening, high-contrast photography, beautiful landscapes,” Mosseri’s sentence falls like a stone on this millennial, who still uses Instagram as a kind of photo album. “That feed is dead. People largely stopped sharing personal moments on the feed years ago.” Tap to go to the post In search of something real. Mosseri explains that now its users keep their contacts up to date on their personal lives with “improvised photos of unflattering shoes and poses” shared via DM. And this also affects content creators: the omnipresence of images made by AI is going to bring a change: goodbye to those pro-looking photographs in favor of a more real and improvised aesthetic: “Flattering images are cheap to produce and boring to consume. People want content that feels real.” In fact, the CEO of Instagram points to manufacturers, applicable to cameras and mobile phones, who he says are making a mistake by democratizing the ability to “look like a professional photographer from 2015.” Because RAW images with defects are still a sign of reality until AI is able to copy them. But what is real? The time has come to unlearn to believe what our eyes see, something we have been doing all our lives. Javier Lacort explained that our entire epistemology (ranging from court testimony to photo albums) is based on the fact that seeing is a way of knowing. If you see a tiger, there is a tiger. If you see a photo of a tiger, someone has been close to one. This no longer applies: the era of uncover organized fake news has made way for anyone with Nano Banana Pro can get such an absurdly realistic image with a basic prompt in just a few seconds. Now creating a deepfake is trivial. Adam Mosseri think equal. “For most of my life I was able to safely assume that photographs or videos were largely faithful captures of moments that actually happened. That’s clearly no longer the case, and it’s going to take years to adjust. We’re going to go from defaulting to assuming that what we see is real to starting from skepticism. To paying attention to who’s sharing something and why. This will be uncomfortable: we’re genetically predisposed to believe our eyes.” If you can’t beat them… The paradigm shift has already occurred, so now Instagram and other platforms have to adapt to this new reality: “we have to build the best creative tools. Label AI-generated content and verify authentic content. Show credibility signals about who is posting. Continue to improve the ranking of originality.” It is the apocalypse of what is a photo that we have been predicting for years. Focusing on Instagram, Mosseri talks about how “we like to complain about ‘AI junk content,’ but there is a lot of amazing content created with AI.” He doesn’t give concrete examples or talk about Meta tools to make this possible, but Meta has already added AI tools on Instagram and Facebook. Without going any further, his AI Studio allows you to create personalized chatbots to deal with your followers. New times, new identification measures. It is increasingly difficult to identify content in AI, so it proposes fingerprints and cryptographic signatures in cameras to identify real content, forgetting about labels or watermarks. In any case, it advocates greater transparency about who publishes on the platform and improve creativity so that its human users can compete with content made in AI. In Xataka | The future of the Internet is to be flooded with AI. And there are those who have already seen a business niche: content made by humans In Xataka | There is a generation working for free as a documentarian of their own life: they are not influencers but they act as if they were.

China sold cheap batteries for years. The problem is that in the meantime no one built an alternative

by

For more than a decade, the world became accustomed to an idea that seemed unquestionable: batteries—the heart of electric cars, of renewable energies, of data centers and of modern warfare— would be increasingly cheaper. China mass-produced them, dominated the technology, controlled critical materials and accepted minimal margins, even losses. For the West, the model was comfortable: import, reduce costs and accelerate the energy transition. That normality, however, has begun to crack. A turning point in the Chinese market. In recent months, several lithium battery manufacturers have begun to announce price increases after almost three years of fierce competition and below-cost sales. According to South China Morning Postthe most visible case is that of Deegares, which reported an increase of 15%, opening a debate on whether the sector is beginning to emerge from the “involution” cycle, a dynamic in which producing more, selling cheaper and earning less had become the norm. The immediate trigger has been the rise in the price of lithium, which has risen around a 70% from its annual minimum. This rebound responds to several overlapping factors: the rise of data centers for artificial intelligence, a rebound in demand for electric vehicles in China and an increasingly explicit intervention by the State to organize the sector. The Chinese Ministry of Industry itself has gathered to the main market players and has promised to accelerate measures to stop the so-called “irrational competition”. A stressed model. Sales prices for energy storage systems in China have plummeted by up to 80% in just three years. Some companies operate with gross margins of 15% to 20% in the domestic market, a far cry from the 40% or 50% common in the United States. The real profitability, analysts cited by SCMP admitwas in exports. And exporting, China has continued to dominate. This year it has managed to sell lithium batteries worth more than $69 billion. According to the analysis of energy expert Gavin Maguire in Reutersthis milestone is explained by the voracious hunger of Germany and the United States for large-scale storage systems, essential to stabilize electrical networks saturated by renewables and data centers. In practice, every new AI data center in Europe or North America starts with a silent dependency: thousands of batteries designed, manufactured and assembled in China. The low price hid an uncomfortable reality. All this time there was a truth that no one said out loud, perhaps because it was so obvious: there was no real Chinese alternative. This new year 2026 will be marked by the massive expansion of data centers that power artificial intelligence, facilities that consume amounts of electricity comparable to that of a small city and that need large-scale batteries to guarantee a continuous supply. Google has installed more than 100 million lithium-ion cells in its data centers, while Microsoft plans to eliminate diesel generators before 2030, replacing them with batteries to meet their climate goals. The forecasts confirm that the risk is not theoretical. The International Energy Agency sums it up crudely. If in 2024 China manufactured 99% of the world’s LFP cells and refined most of the critical materials such as lithium and graphite. For its executive director, Fatih Birol, depend on a single country For a strategic technology, it is a risk comparable to that posed to Europe by its dependence on Russian gas. The Chinese adjustment. Far from retreating, Beijing now seeks to organize the sector without losing its dominance. State intervention translates to braking the most extreme overcapacity, review mining licenses, limit sales at a loss and allow prices to rise to sustainable levels. The objective is not to make batteries abruptly more expensive, but to prevent a strategic industry from self-destructing by competing with itself. Control of raw materials remains the central lever. China process around of 80% of the world’s lithium and produces nearly 90% of the anodes and electrolytes used in batteries. When the United States or Europe impose tariffs, China responds by restricting exports of critical metals. The message is unmistakable: the power lies not only in making batteries, but in controlling every link in the chain. The Western Response. In parallel, the United States and Europe are trying to react. According to Sprott’s reportWestern governments have begun to treat lithium and batteries as strategic assets. Washington has invested directly in mining projectshas multiplied the number of planned gigafactories and has included restrictions on the purchase of Chinese batteries in defense legislation. Europe is following a similar, albeit slower path, supporting local extraction and refining projects and seeking to reduce its dependence on China. Big oil companies like Exxon either Chevron have entered the lithium business, and countries like Germany finance domestic production to ensure supply and reduce geopolitical risks. Still, the consensus among analysts it is clear: replicating the Chinese model will take years. Environmental regulations, labor costs and the absence of centralized industrial planning make competing on price impossible for now. Decoupling, if it comes, will be slow, expensive and politically uncomfortable. A planned domain. It is the direct result of the plan Made in China 2025with which Beijing decided to stop being the world’s cheap factory to become a technological leader. China already dominates solar panels, wind turbines, electric vehicles and lithium batteries. In addition, it controls strategic minerals such as graphite and has vertically integrated the entire value chain. In fact, the Asian giant It is the first “electrostate” in the world: a power whose power is no longer based on oil, but on renewable gigawatts, electrons and batteries. This strategy has reduced its emissions, weakened petrostates and turned its energy industry into a tool of global influence. The true cost of batteries. For years, this low price allowed us to accelerate the global energy transition, but it also created a deep and silent dependency. Now that China begins to organize its market, raise prices and prioritize its own industrial strategy, the world begins to discover the real cost of having delegated the heart of its energy system. Batteries are no … Read more

Five offers in technology and entertainment from MediaMarkt during its Three Kings campaign, today, January 4

by

The year 2026 has started almost the same way it ended: with very interesting offers in several of the most important stores. One of them is MediaMarkt, which continues to be active his Kings promoalthough only It will be until next Tuesday at 9 in the morning. Until then, we have a little time to take advantage of their best deals. And there is where to choose. We have significant discounts on mobile phones, consoles, laptops and more. It is difficult to make a selection that everyone likes, but below we leave you a selection of five offers that we find very interesting: Galaxy S25 Ultra by 890.10 eurosa great price for one of the best phones of 2025. Lenovo Legion 5 laptop by 1,299 eurosgaming equipment designed to squeeze out any game at 1080p. Apple Watch Series 11 by 365 eurosone of the best prices for this Apple wearable. PlayStation 5 Slim Digital by 369 eurosthe cheapest of the PS5 along with a card with credit to spend in the PlayStation store. Apple AirPods 4 by 109 eurosheadphones that stand out for offering great sound and good autonomy. Galaxy S25 Ultra It is true that Samsung has its next batch of phones in the oven, but that does not mean that the S25 Ultra be a bad option. Nothing could be further from the truth, and even more so considering that we can get hold of it for 890.10 euros if we register in myMediaMarkt (it’s free and only takes two minutes). As for the phone, there is little that we don’t already know: large screen, good performance and an outstanding camera system, as well as seven years of guaranteed updates. Mobile – Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, Titanium Black, 512 GB, 12 GB RAM, 6.9″ WQHD+, Snapdragon 8, 5000 mAh, Android 15 The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Lenovo Legion 5 laptop With the current price of RAMAssembling a gaming PC in parts is really complicated. As an alternative, we can always buy a complete and pre-assembled device, as is the case with this Lenovo Legion 5 15IRX10. It is a device designed to play at 1080p with outstanding performance, something that we will achieve thanks to its RTX 5060. It also has 32 GB of RAM, 1 TB of SSD and a 15.1-inch OLED screen. It is reduced to 1,299 euros. Gaming laptop – Lenovo Legion 5 15IRX10, 15.1″ WQXGA OLED, Intel® Core™ i7-13650HX, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD, GeForce RTX™ 5060, Windows 11 Home, Black The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Apple Watch Series 11 If we are looking for a new watch and we want something from the Apple ecosystem, this Watch Series 11 has a great price on MediaMarkt: it is reduced to 365 eurosone of its best prices. This version of it, 42 millimeters, uses an OLED screen and mounts the Apple S10 chip, so we will get top performance from it. With it, we will be able to keep track of our training or our health. Apple Watch Series 11 (2025), GPS, 42 mm, Rose gold aluminum case, Blush pink sport band, S/M, Sleep quality, 24h battery life The price could vary. We earn commission from these links PlayStation 5 Slim Digital This MediaMarkt promo also has some interesting offers on consoles. We can get a PlayStation 5 for 369 eurosa good price, but it looks even better if we take into account that it includes a 20 euro credit card to buy in the PlayStation digital store. It should be noted that this is the version without a console reader, although we can purchase it separately whenever we want. Console – Sony PS5 Slim Digital Edition, 825 GB SSD, 4K, D Chassis, White + PS Plus Card €20 The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Apple AirPods 4 To close this selection of offers, we have these AirPods 4 in their most economical version. As usual with Apple headphones, we can expect very good sound from them, IP54 certification against water and dust and an autonomy that goes up to 30 hours of music playback if we add the battery in the case. They are reduced to 109 eurosits historical minimum until today in this store. Apple AirPods 4 (2024 4th gen), Wireless, Bluetooth®, USB-C charging case, H2 Chip, Siri, USB-C, White 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 | Purchaseddiction, Samsung, Lenovo, Apple, PlayStation In Xataka | Best wireless headphones. Which one to buy and 21 models from 15 euros to 470 euros In Xataka | The best mobile phones, we have tested them and here are their analyzes

There is an age at which we should stop drinking alcohol forever. Neuroscience is clear why

by

For years, popular culture and certain observational studies have sold us a comfortable idea: moderate alcohol consumption could be harmless and even beneficial for the heart. However, when we focus on the brainthe story changes radically. It is neurotoxic. A growing stream of neurologists and new epidemiological evidence point to an uncomfortable reality: alcohol is a neurotoxinand there is a biological age from which our brain loses the ability to tolerate it. Although official guidelines do not prohibit retirees from drinking, scientific literature suggests that The ages of 65-70 mark a critical boundary. Crossing it with a drink in hand could be accelerating cognitive decline and dementiawhich are very prevalent diseases at that time of life. Although there are exceptions, with people who are very long-lived and point out that their ‘secret’ is having a glass of alcohol daily. Although genetics may play an important role here. The neuronal reserve. Neurologist Richard Restak popularized a strong clinical recommendation: you should stop drinking completely at 70 years old. Is it an arbitrary number? Not at all. It is based on the concept of “neural reserve”. According to science, a young brain has room for maneuver before the arrival of these toxins. It has enough neurons and plasticity to compensate for the slight damage caused by ethanol, but, however, natural aging leads to a loss of neurons. That is why drinking in old age is, basically, burning fuel from a tank that is already in reserve and that is not going to be refilled. It is accelerating. Science in this case is quite clear that alcohol-related brain damage along with intense and prolonged consumption accelerates brain aging. And the fact is that with the same alcohol consumption, an aged brain has greater damage than a young one. Something that is explained because the neuronal repair mechanisms are also aged and do not have the same capacity as when a person is 20 years old to compensate. The data. The biggest blow to the idea that a little drinking “doesn’t hurt” comes from large cohort studies, such as the famous Whitehall II studiowhich followed thousands of people for 23 years. In this case, it was seen that people who drank between 14 and 21 glasses of alcohol per week were three times more likely to suffer from hippocampal atrophy compared to those who did not drink. And this is the fundamental region to have memory. For those who exceeded 30 units per week, the probability of atrophy shot up to almost six times more. But the most worrying thing is that no protective benefit was observed in the light consumption group (less than seven drinks a week) compared to general abstinence. Zero alcohol. These data along with brain imaging studies They point out that even ‘moderate’ consumption is associated with a significant brain alteration. This means that it can be stated that the safety margin for the brain is practically non-existent. The limit age. Why can 65 be a turning point? Although there is no international “dry law” for people over 70, organizations such as the Alzheimer’s Society from the UK warn that those over 65 are a special risk group. This is because there is already an aging liver that processes alcohol slowly, which means that the alcohol circulates through the body for longer. This is also added to the interactions that alcohol has with medications that can increase its toxicity and most importantly: increases the risk of dementia. You have to be careful. With all this data, science is quite clear that any consumption increases the risk of health problems, especially in regards to the brain. Although clinical guidelines still recommend simply “not exceeding 14 units per week,” the recommendation of experts like Restak and reading the most current evidence suggest a more aggressive prevention strategy. Given that we have no cure for dementia and that neuronal reserve is our only shield, giving up alcohol when entering old age is not an option, it is a logical cognitive survival strategy. Images | CHUTTERSNAP Simon Godfrey In Xataka | The alcohol industry’s biggest fear can be summed up in just five words: being teetotal is fashionable.

If it seems expensive to change the battery in an electric car, wait until you see what it costs in a Ferrari LaFerrari: more than 200,000 euros

by

For the majority of mortals, considering costs such as consumption or maintenance are a must when purchasing a car. And if we talk about buy an electric carAlthough the maintenance is less, there is one operation that makes the difference: changing the battery. Depending on the brand and model, prices vary. between 4,000 and more than 30,000 euros. That’s for EV cars, but those of hybrids They are not exactly cheap either. But there are cars and cars and obviously, The Ferrari LaFerrari plays in another league. The firm’s first hybrid hypercar offers performance typical of its range: it is capable of going from 0 to 100 km/h in 2.9 seconds and exceeds 350 km/h thanks to its 963 HP. But no matter how Ferrari it is, it does not escape suffering from the weak point common to hybrid technologies: the battery. If we take into account that there are only 499 examples of the Ferrari LaFerrari and that each one was launched with a base RRP of 1.3 million euros (over time, it has gotten worse: it is around four million on the second hand market), the price of its battery is not far behind: exceeds 200,000 euros. Ferrari’s lucrative solution: replace the entire battery With just 1,440 kilometers traveled, one of the few and exclusive owners of a 2014 Ferrari LaFerrari in Croatia discovered how his precious car ran out of traction battery. The first diagnosis indicated that the hybrid battery was out of service. The solution proposed by Ferrari was to replace the entire battery pack at a reasonable price: from 213,000 euroswithout counting on labor. So the owner decided to explore other more economical options, arriving until EV Clinica Croatian workshop specializing in electric and hybrid vehicle batteries. After an exhaustive analysis of the state of that group of batteries, with 120 cells and weighing about 60 kilos, they identified two failures: defective cells and a defect in the manufacturing assembly. Good news. The battery was not a brick, but had a localized fault that could be fixed without having to perform a complete replacement. Although the price of this meticulous and precision work has not been released, the owner had his LaFerrari back saving the price of the entire package. What of ask for quotes from other workshops It is always a good idea, whether you have a Dacia Sandero or a Ferrari. And if they don’t tell the owner of this Bugatti Veyronfrom whom the company asked him for 11,000 euros to change the button for the electric adjustment of the rearview mirror when the workshop in his town did it for less than two euros. Fortunately for those who own a hybrid Ferrari, last year the Italian firm launched an additional guarantee extension, so it will replace the traction batteries of the cars covered in this service in years 8 and 16 of their life. In Xataka | China has discovered another front to elevate its electric car: competing face to face against Ferrari and Lamborghini In Xataka | They are founders and ultra-rich, but they have not always driven luxury supercars: a review of the cars of tech millionaires Cover | Ferrari, EV Clinic

Energy companies are switching from oil to MW. The new mine is the support for data centers

by

Gluttonous artificial intelligence and its demanding data centers are reshaping the decarbonization plans. When the world had begun a journey towards renewableswith countries like Chinaand Europeans betting big, and even some US states getting on the traindata centers arrived with needs that were almost impossible to satisfy. At the end of December 2024 we already have that data center consumption had skyrocketedpushing big technology companies to bet so much on renewable as, above all, for immediate access energy such as gas and even coal. Some were even aiming for nuclear to be able to operate. Shortly after, in January 2025, a Reuters report noted that European energy companies, which had embarked on a path of commitment to renewables, were doubling down on oil and gas. Giants like BP and Shell slowed down their investments in clean energy to return to fossil fuel projects. But it’s not all about where data centers extract energy from, but rather who provides them infrastructure. And that, and not so much oil or gas, may be the next energy mine. The new oil mine In an article of Financial Times It is suggested that the fleeting growth of data centers is generating a market that energy companies do not want to miss. As demand for traditional drilling weakens (although it is something that goes by “neighborhoods”), energy sector groups such as Baker Hughes, Halliburton or SLB are taking advantage to pivot to the data center sector. Not building them, not just supplying energy: supporting logistics. Taking advantage of their knowledge of the energy sector, these large companies would be providing equipment such as turbines and power generation systems to those who own data centers, but they also provide generators, batteries, dissipation systems and all the necessary framework to maintain correct energy efficiency. They would also oversee the team. It is, in short, what they already know how to do, but applied to a new sector such as data centers. Because these three examples are not typical oil companies, but technology providers for other companies to extract gas or oil. All three provide services to companies with oil fields, but also supply technology such as gas turbines, compressors or systems. LNG and they were inside sectors such as new energywith carbon capture and storage systems. All of this resonates with the idea that ‘Big Tech’ had when they began to build huge data centers, until they saw that increasingly demanding equipment needed more immediate and stable sources of energy. Data centers = El Dorado It is estimated that US electricity demand will increase by 90 GW -a real nonsense- from now to 2030 only to power the data centers. Traditional electrical grids may not support this load, and it is at that point that these companies that provide energy services They seem like a key entity. Pivoting toward artificial intelligence infrastructure is “key to the evolution of oil and gas,” said Lorenzo Simonelli, CEO of Baker Hughes. And it makes sense when we see that the number of US oil rigs contracted 7% year-over-year in 2025, margins have contracted and demand for drilling services is in interdict. On a business level, it is a masterstroke. Hypothetically speaking, when the new oil crisis arrives and the fall of the market for both crude oil and gas, companies that have pivoted to data centers, going from being service providers for energy companies to being service providers for ‘Big Tech‘, they will not have to take a turn in their strategy because they will already be where the money will be. Because that’s another question: whether the new MW gold for AI will be a lasting business or a passing fever. Image | freepik and Harpagornis In Xataka | The problem with renewables is what to do when there is excess energy. China believes it has the answer with a unique turbine

will go find an “Earth 2.0” on his own

by

China has stepped on the accelerator in space sovereignty and is already at cruising speed: in 2025 it has broke his record of rocket launches with 80 units throughout the year and only in December complete four space missions. It has even successfully executed a stress test to verify that they can level up. So much so that they already have in mind exploring space in search of an Earth 2.0. China’s plan to find a new Earth. This is the name of the video that the Chinese network CGTN published a few days ago in their Hot Take space. This footage details four missions that the China National Space Administration (CNSA) has scheduled within the 15th Five Year Plan of the country (2026–2030) to support its position as a first-order space power and whose spectrum is as broad as we will see below. Among these missions is a radio astronomy experiment to study celestial objects by measuring their radio emissions, in this case aimed at better understanding the hidden side of the moon; a solar observatory that will investigate meteorological conditions such as solar wind or geomagnetic storms, the construction of a space telescope that will monitor black holes and neutron stars and a satellite hunter of planets outside the solar system. The latter has an ambitious goal: to search for a planet analogous to Earth. A peculiarity of these missions is that They are run by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), an independent institution of the Chinese Space Agency and its major space projects. The CAS manages its own missions (such as HXMT or Wukong) independently and do not follow government guidelines, but are born from proposals by researchers and universities, following a low-cost and flexible model similar to NASA’s Discovery program. China is looking for an Earth 2.0 and to know space much better Hongmeng Project. This plan It intends to deploy ten low-frequency telescopes that will orbit the moon. Like other observatories focused on its hidden side, they will hear radio frequency signals from the period known as the “Dark Age of the Universe“. This time corresponds to a time of the early universe where there were no stars or galaxies or planets, only neutral hydrogen that absorbed light, creating darkness, and emitted a characteristic radio signal 21 centimeters. Why the hidden side of the moon? Essentially, because it is free of radio interference from terrestrial sources and regular emissions from the Sun. This mission is complementary to others such as that of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to study those early epochs, which are currently undetectable to conventional telescopes. The Kuafu-2 solar mission. The two in its name already reveals something: there was a Kuafu-1 launched in 2022 and also known as the Advanced Space-based Solar Observatory (ASO-S). The first was launched to study the sun’s magnetic field and its phenomena, such as sudden and intense releases of electromagnetic radiation (flares) or coronal mass ejections. But Kuafu-2 will go one step further: it will be the first satellite to orbit the hard-to-reach areas of the Sun, the polar regions, thus providing data on the solar magnetic field and the dynamics of the solar cycle (which lasts approximately 11 years). With this information, the scientific team hopes to be able to predict solar storms and their cascading effects throughout the solar system. Screenshot CCTV News In search of a planet analogous to Earth. Exo-Earth is a satellite exoplanet prospecting which the show has defined as a “planetary detective on a mission to see if Earth is one of a kind.” Its objective will be to monitor thousands of stars in our galaxy in search of rocky planets of a size comparable to that of Earth that orbit within the habitable zone of their stars, that is, at a sufficient distance for liquid water to exist on their surface. An analogue to Earth. This observatory will be launched in 2028. How do the laws of physics work out there?. The fourth and last is the Enhanced X-ray Polarimetry and Timing Observatory, an international project led by the Chinese giant that combines X-ray observations with “unprecedented polarimetry and timing capabilities.” Or what is the same, the ultra-precise measurement of brightness variations over time and the study of the orientation of the oscillations of electromagnetic waves to infer the geometry of magnetic fields. If it sounds dense and scientific, that’s because it is: it helps you learn how the laws of physics apply in environments as extreme as around black holes, neutron stars, supernovae, and other astrophysical objects. Its technical proposal details that this observatory will have advanced spectroscopic focusing systems and polarimetric focusing systems. The launch is planned for 2030. In Xataka | China has built a space empire in 30 years after being kicked out of the ISS. His revenge is about to be completed In Xataka | While NASA faces the cancellation of 41 missions, China is doing real wonders in space Image | Xinhua Provided by Universe Today

welcome to connected straws

by

Imagine that you have just bought a sex toy and you are about to use it for the first time. It cost you more than 100 euros, but you wanted to treat yourself. You open the box, start reading the instructions and see that it has an app to control it. Well, well. You install it and then It starts bombarding you with permissions: location, telephone, photos… Is it really necessary? It’s time to admit that connected devices it’s gotten a little out of hand. There are many devices where it makes perfect sense to be able to control them remotely, but there are others where it seems totally unnecessary to me, such as a vibrator. Connected straws Lelo, SatisfyerWe-Vibe… many sex toy brands have their apps. The main function is to be able to control them from your mobile and play as a couple (or in a group) even if they are at a distance. If each person has a toy, you can synchronize them with each other and have them control the other’s. Some brands like We-Vibe or Satisfyer even offer the option to make video calls from the app itself. There is an app called joyhub that takes remote sex to another level. It is almost like a social network where there is a list of friends and you can create chat rooms to enjoy as a group. And at the next level we have Lovense Remotewhich has an option to connect you with strangers so they can control your toy and “explore the unknown.” Lovense has “Control Roulette”, to connect with strangers. Most apps give you the option to set custom vibration patterns, but some go further and have functions such as synchronizing vibration with music. And be careful because Satisfyer has a mode called High Touch Meditations which is basically like a guided meditation while you give yourself pleasure. One of his meditations is called Lullavulva Deep Sleep. No comments. Permissions and privacy Obviously all these extra functions mean that the apps need access to many functions of our phones, which is what I mentioned at the beginning of the post. Below these lines you can see an example of everything that the We-Vibe app asks for, one of the ones with the most functions and, therefore, that more permissions ask. One of the permissions that these apps always ask for is location, but there is a reason. Just as Lelo says in the description of his app in the Play Store: Since Android 6.0, Google forces all Bluetooth devices to also have access to the location. It also makes sense to access the camera and microphone if they have a video calling function, or the storage if it allows you to take and save photos. But even if everything has an explanation, they are still very sensitive data. The apps know how much we use the toy, at what intensity, who we use it with if we connect with more users and they can even know where we are. It is always important to check if any app collects data and for what purposes, but in the case of an app of this type even more so. In the Play Store, the data that is collected appears in the ‘Data security’ section. This is what each app collects: Satisfyer: They collect information about error logs and “in-app activity” for statistical purposes. Lelo– Collects error logs, device ID, name and email. We-Vibe: photos, although it says it is an optional feature. Lovense: crash logs, photos and videos (optional), activity in the app (optional), name and email address. joyhub: does not collect data. They count in this Wired report, that most apps collect information as a market study; For example, if they detect that people use one type of vibration more, they can design future toys taking this into account. However, data theft occurs and as we said, this information is very sensitive. As far as we know, there has not been any security breach related to one of these apps, but there is a striking case from a few years ago. It was starred by the manufacturer Svakom when it launched a vibrator with a camera on the tip. We don’t judge people’s tastes, the problem was that The password that protected the toy’s WiFi was “88888888” and it was also in the toy manual. A disaster. We return to the question at the beginning: are so many functions necessary in a sex toy? For most people, they probably aren’t, but perhaps for very specific cases of long-distance relationships it makes sense. In addition, you have to understand two things: on the one hand, most of the toys that work with these apps They cost more than 100 euros and we must give them added value beyond “look, vibrate”. On the other hand, sex toys have come out of hiding, especially with the Satisfyer boom and the competition is tight. You have to differentiate yourself. Image | Anna Shvets, Pexels In Xataka | Sex has entered a crisis in the West. If we want to save it, we already know how: by reading romances and

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.