Month: February 2026

It has Taiwan in front of it and Japan is going to fill it with missiles

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At the westernmost tip of Japan there is a paradise place where, on clear days, you can see another territory from the coast. It is the same enclave where they live more native horses than school-age children. That isolated corner, for decades outside the big headlines, has begun to occupy an unexpected space in the strategic conversations of the Indo-Pacific. Also to become in a fort. A red line. That island has become the new red line against China. The reason? Japan will deploy missiles 100 km from Taiwan. In this way, Yonaguni, the westernmost point of the Japanese archipelago, has gone from being a remote enclave in just a few years. a centerpiece of the Indo-Pacific strategic board. Its location, at the end of the Nansei island chainplaces it right in the geographic arc that connects the East China Sea with the Western Pacific, the same corridor that worries Tokyo and Washington facing a possible conflict in the Taiwan Strait. The calendar changes. A few hours ago, Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi set for the first time a very specific horizon: before March 2031, a set of surface-to-air missile medium range, projectiles with 360 degree coverage capacity and the possibility of intercepting multiple targets simultaneously. The decision is not isolated, but is part of the strategic turn started in 2022 to reinforce defenses on the southwestern islands, shifting the historical focus from Russia to growing Chinese military activity in the East China Sea. The diplomatic context and Chinese pressure. The announcement also comes after months of deterioration between Tokyo and Beijingaggravated by the statements of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi about the possible Japanese involvement if there was an attack on the island of Taiwan that represented an existential threat for the nation. China’s response It was devastatingresponding with trade restrictions, diplomatic pressure and a battery of military demonstrations that, how do we countincluded drone flights and an increased naval presence in the area, while maintaining its claim to Taiwan and its dispute with Japan through the Senkaku Islandsadministered by Tokyo but claimed by Beijing as Diaoyu. The internal transformation. Since 2016, the island has hosted a surveillance unit coastal with about 160 troops, to which electronic warfare capabilities and new military infrastructure will be added. In a community of barely 1,500 inhabitants, where depopulation has been a constant since the postwar period, the presence of military personnel and their families alters the structure demographic and economicgenerating a division between those who see militarization as an investment opportunity and those who fear that the enclave will become a priority objective in the event of conflict. From peripheral paradise to strategic bastion. From that perspective, the expansion of the base, the plans to improve the airport and port and the possible installation of advanced defense systems They consolidate Yonaguni as a key link in the Japanese deterrence architecture. What for decades was a marginal territory is now integrated into a defensive network designed to complicate any attempt to alter the status quo in the Taiwan Strait, sending a clear message about even where is it arranged Japan to arrive to protect what it considers its most sensitive front. The new map. If you will also, the Yonaguni decision reflects a broader transformation in Japanese defense policy, one underpinned by a historic increase of the military budget and the security treaty with the United States, which could drag Tokyo into a larger scale regional conflict. What is clear afterto official statement of Tokyo is that, on the new strategic map of the Indo-Pacific, the small island is no longer a lost point in the ocean: it is the place where Japan has decided mark your limit and where any future crisis could have its first warning signal. Image | GetArchivejpatokal In Xataka | The Japanese island of Yonaguni was known for its beauty and Bad Bunny. Now it is a military fortress because of Taiwan In Xataka | Satellite images leave no doubt: China has concentrated thousands of fishing boats off Japan, and its idea is not to fish

Three AIs clashed in ‘War Games’. 95% of them resorted to nuclear weapons and none ever surrendered

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In ‘War Games‘ (John Badham, 1983) the WOPR machine (‘Joshua’) constantly played at simulating nuclear wars for the US Government. The objective: to learn from these simulations so that if there was a nuclear war, the US could win it by taking advantage of that knowledge. That led to a legendary final lesson – “Strange game. The only move to win is not to play” – and left a strong message for later generations, but now a professor at King’s College London has decided to do the same experiment that was done in the film, but with current AI models. The result has been equally terrifying and conclusive. what has happened. Kenneth Payne, professor at King’s College in London, faced three LLMs (GPT-5.2, Claude Sonnet 4 and Gemini 3 Flash) against each other in war game simulations. These scenarios included border disputes, competition for limited resources or existential threats to inhabitants. They could negotiate, or go to war. From these situations, each side could try to resort to diplomatic solutions or end up declaring war and even using nuclear weapons. The AI ​​models played 21 games in which a total of 329 turns took place, and produced 780,000 words with the reasoning for their actions. and here comes the terrible. Pressing the red button. In 95% of those simulated games, at least one tactical nuclear weapon was deployed by one of the AI ​​models. According to Payne “the nuclear taboo does not seem to be as powerful for machines as it is for humans.” Never back down, never give up. Not only that, no model ever made the decision to give in to one of their opponents or surrender to them, and it didn’t matter that they were losing completely against those opponents. In the best of cases, the only thing the models did was reduce their level of violence, but they also made mistakes: accidents occurred in 86% of the conflicts and the measures that should be taken based on the reasoning of these models They went further than they should have gone. Nuclear weapons rarely stopped the opponent, acting more as catalysts for further escalation. How the models performed. These models are by no means the most advanced on the market at the moment, but they are still models with more than decent capacity and they still performed fearsomely. How he maintains Payne’s studythe most determining factor was the time frame: models that seemed peaceful in open settings became extremely aggressive when facing imminent defeat. Each one had their own “personality”: Claude: He dominated the open stages with strategic patience and calculated escalation, but was vulnerable to last-minute attacks from his rivals. GPT-5.2: showed pathological passivity and an optimistic bias in long games, but became a nuclear earthquake if there was time pressure: at that time its success rate went from 0% to 75%. Gemini: was the most unpredictable model with the greatest tolerance for risk, being the only one that chose to bet on a total nuclear war from very early turns. Experts say. As pointed out in New Scientist James Johnson, of the University of Aberdeen, “from a nuclear risk perspective, the conclusions are disturbing.” Tong Zhao of Princeton University believes this experiment is relevant because There are many countries that are evaluating the role of AI in military conflicts and as he says “it is not clear to what extent they are including AI support when actually deciding in these processes.” The red button seems safe at the moment. Both Zhao and Payne believe it is difficult to believe that a government give up control of its nuclear arsenal to an AI, but as Zhao says, “there are scenarios in which in very short time frames, military planners have a very strong incentive that leads them to depend on AI.” It is something that is reflected precisely in the recent ‘A house full of dynamite‘ (Kathryn Bigelow, 2025), a film in which this fear of using nuclear weapons raises a clear reflection. Image | United Artist In Xataka | The password for the US nuclear button was so absurdly simple for years that the strange thing is that no one violated it

Wild chimpanzees drink the equivalent of almost two glasses of alcohol a day

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If we test chimpanzees for blood alcohol levels, we would most likely see that they test positive as sI would have had a drink or two. And here the fault is not in the fact that they have a hidden bottle of whiskey, but in the sugars present in the fruits they consume and their microbial fermentation. But from here on, science has debated whether our attraction to alcohol It is due to an ‘evolutionary accident’ or a direct inheritance from our primate ancestors. Something that has been determined now. A new study. Published by researchers at the University of California and which suggests that wild chimpanzees consume substantial amounts of ethanol in their daily diet. To demonstrate this, the team went to Kibale National Park, Ugandato be able to monitor several chimpanzees. And instead of doing a blood test, the researchers opted for a non-invasive method by analyzing the urine of the 19 wild chimpanzees. In this case, what was being sought was not raw ethanol, but a very specific biomarker called ethylglucuronide which tells us that ethanol has been processed. Your diet. As we have said before, the secret of this discovery is not in the alcohol that we know, but in the fruit. That is why during the research the chimpanzees fed almost exclusively on a species of canopy tree called the African star apple. When specifically analyzing this apple, it was found that it contained alcohol in a proportion of 0.09%, while in some harvests it could reach 0.4%. The results. After performing urine analyzes on the chimpanzees, it was possible to see that, of the 20 individual urine samples collected, 17 tested positive for ethylglucuronide, exceeding a threshold of 300 ng per milliliter of urine. But in addition, of a set of 11 of these positive samples, 10 tested positive again when subjected to a much higher clinical threshold of 500 ng/ml. The “drunk monkey.” The researchers point out here that this continuous intake of fermented fruit translates into an average dose of 14 grams of ethanol per day for the chimpanzees. In human terms, it is as if they had drunk one and a half drinks a day. These findings offer vital physiological support to the famous “drunken monkey” hypothesis which suggests that the attraction that modern humans feel for alcohol has its evolutionary origin precisely here: in an adaptation of our ancestors to locate, through long-distance smell, crops of ripe fruit and, therefore, more caloric thanks to the smell of ethanol. A mismatch. The problem is that this vestige of the past has gone down the wrong path, since the current problem lies in an evolutionary imbalance. While our ancestors chronically consumed ethanol in low concentrations through a fruit-centered diet, today humans have access to distilled alcohol in massive quantities and not through a survival system. Now, this discovery not only changes our understanding of primate feeding ecology, but opens the door to future research into how this natural alcohol consumption could affect the social behavior of chimpanzees, including factors such as aggression or reproduction. Images | David Trinks Brian Jones In Xataka | We believed that war was a unique and exclusively human invention. Until we look at chimpanzees

review with features, price and specifications

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I’ve had the opportunity to try out what Dyson describes as its “lightest, most maneuverable” vacuum cleaner. Beyond the slogan, I wanted to see how much that focus on lightness and maneuverability really changes the cleaning experience at home. PencilVac Fluffycones It is not designed as a vacuum cleaner for everything, but as a very specific tool for hard floors, with a head of four conical brushes designed to reduce tangles from long hair and pets. With that clear premise, let’s see what it can offer for anyone in their daily life and is really worth the investment it entails. The first contact begins even before turning it on. The box is surprisingly compact and consistent with the product’s own approach. When I opened it, I found several pieces and, for a moment, I had that slight moment of uncertainty that usually accompanies the first assembly. However, the feeling does not last long because on one of the internal sides of the packaging there is a clear and numbered guide with the steps to follow. There is no need to look for a separate manual or interpret complex diagrams: the process is there, visible and explained logically, and that is tremendously useful and practical. Dyson PencilVac Fluffycones technical sheet Dyson PencilVac Fluffycones Vacuum cleaner type Cordless Handheld Electric Vacuum Cleaner height 1.60cm Length 22.6cm Broad 3.8cm autonomy 30 minutes Charging time 3.5 hours Cube volume 0.08L Suction power 55 AW Weight 1.8kg Filtration 99.99% at 0.3 microns price 499 euros Dyson PencilVac Fluffycones Vacuum Cleaner The price could vary. We earn commission from these links A proposal with obvious advantages and defined limits Once the basic assembly was completed, the next step was to start it up. The packaging itself invites you to download the MyDyson app via a QR code. The process is direct: scan, download and follow the instructions. After attaching the mast to the main body and fitting the handle where the battery is integrated, just turn it on to start the operation. Bluetooth pairing. In a few minutes, after selecting the language and confirming the connection, the vacuum cleaner is linked to the mobile phone. As soon as I connected it, a software update appeared that I decided to install before starting to use it, to evaluate the product with the most recent version available. Once set up, the app proves that it’s not just there to show a battery percentage. From my mobile I can check the charging status and receive notifications when it is advisable to perform maintenance tasks, especially cleaning the filter. The most interesting thing is the didactic approach: it includes clear videos that explain how to use the accessories, how to install the charging base, how to properly clean the filter or how to resolve possible incidents. So I can say with some certainty that that digital layer simplifies the experience. In hand, the first thing you notice is the weight contained. Beyond the official figure, which is 1.8 kg, the feeling is that we are looking at a vacuum cleaner designed to be used effortlessly, especially in short and frequent sessions. I think the narrow format favors a natural grip and the whole thing feels balanced when moving across the ground. Regarding materials, the plastics and adjustments convey a correct feel: They do not seek to impress for the sake of luxury, but they do not generate distrust either. The design is sober and functional, clearly oriented towards practicality. The differential element is the Fluffycones head. Instead of a single roller, it incorporates four soft conical brushes whose shape responds to a specific logic. When hair comes into contact with the moving cones, it tends to move toward the ends instead of staying coiled in the center, reducing the tangles that often accumulate in other systems. In practice, this translates into fewer interruptions for manual hair removal and more continuous collection, something especially relevant in homes with long hair or pets. Added to this proposal is the lighting integrated into the head. The green light located on the front and back projects a stripe that highlights fine dust above the floor, even in well-lit rooms. In my experience, it has been useful not only in low light conditions, but also in natural light, where certain particles blend into the reflection of the pavement. This additional visibility allows you to adjust the route and check with greater precision if the area has really been cleaned. During cleaning, the set follows the natural movement of the hand well. The head moves freely and facilitates tight turns, allowing you to work around furniture without awkward maneuvers. The power can be adjusted in three levels, which introduces a balance between performance and autonomy. There is a “Boost” mode that offers the highest suction, but significantly reduces the time available; The screen shows a countdown with the estimated time remaining and, in my tests, it was around eleven minutes. At the opposite extreme, Eco mode offers longer use that approaches half an hour in normal conditions, sufficient for maintenance tasks in small spaces. It is not, however, a vacuum cleaner designed to be left charging for a few minutes and immediately continue with full autonomy; Battery recovery requires time, specifically 3.5 hours for a full charge. On a practical level, there are details that improve the daily experience. The LED located next to the battery visually informs about the charging process and, if we want to check the status before starting, the integrated screen offers the information by simply touching the corresponding button, without having to open the application. The accessory exchange system is also well resolved: Simply press the release button to detach the head and place the multifunction accessory, with a firm fit and virtually no play. If we talk about that accessory, I have used it in corners, baseboards and cracks where the main head does not reach with the same precision, as well as in window tracks and in narrow … Read more

If anyone was waiting for the AI ​​bubble to burst, NVIDIA’s results have a message: sit tight

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NVIDIA just published your results of the fourth quarter of its last fiscal year and has left Wall Street speechless. Revenues of $68.1 billion, a net profit that almost doubles that of the same period of the previous year, and a forecast for the following quarter that has far exceeded analysts’ expectations. And all this in a turbulent context where more efficient models and other alternatives are beginning to appear. The crash of DeepSeek is far away, and the demand for chips does not slow down. We tell you the numbers in detail. In case your position was not clear. Only a handful of companies in history have exceeded $100 billion in annual profit. Alphabet, Microsoft and Apple are in that club. NVIDIA has just joined them, with $120 billion in profits in the last twelve months, according to the report. The difference is speed: just three years ago, its annual profit was 4.4 billion. We can say with certainty that no technology company has ever grown so quickly on that scale. AI, and more AI. The engine that has driven these profits is its data center business, which generated $62.3 billion in the quarter, 71% more than a year ago. Within that segment, if we focus on their Blackwell chips, they have gone from entering 32.6 billion to 51.3 billion, while the networks (NVLink, Spectrum-X and InfiniBand) grow from 3,000 to 11,000 million. Gross margin is 75%, and earnings per share nearly double to $1.76 in GAAP terms (which is the official rulebook that companies follow to demonstrate transparent accounting). What Jensen Huang says. “Without computing, there is no way to generate tokens. Without tokens, there is no way to grow revenue.”, counted directly the CEO of NVIDIA in the meeting with investors. Their thesis is that in the new AI economy, computing power directly equates to revenue for their customers. That is why the large cloud service providers (Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Meta) continue increasing your capex budgetswhich together will exceed 500,000 million dollars in 2026 to build AI data centers. And NVIDIA is the main beneficiary of that expense. What DeepSeek has not broken, but accelerated. At the beginning of 2025, the emergence of the Chinese DeepSeek model generated an unprecedented tremor in the markets, leaving a simple question in our minds: if AI becomes more efficient, why do we need so many chips? The answer from NVIDIA’s results is that efficiency does not reduce infrastructure demand, it multiplies it. Every improvement in inference efficiency lowers the cost per token, encouraging more companies to deploy more AI applications, which in turn requires more compute. It’s like Jevons’ paradox, but applied to AI: efficiency expands the market instead of contracting it. Agentic AI as the next catalyst. On the same call with investors and analysts, Huang stood out that “enterprise adoption of agents is skyrocketing.” AI agentsthese systems that make decisions and execute tasks autonomously, require many more inference cycles than chatbots. They are the next step in the AI ​​value chain, and NVIDIA is once again in a privileged position. Colette Kress, CFO of the company, confirmed In addition, the first samples of Vera Rubin, the next generation of chips that will arrive later this year, have already been sent. China and the competition. Not everything is green. NVIDIA acknowledged that its forecast for the next quarter ($78 billion) does not include computing revenue in China. The company has generated just about $60 million from H20 chips since the Trump administration reapproved some sales in August 2025, according to SEC filings, and has yet to earn revenue from the most recently approved H200. Regulatory uncertainty with Beijing remains a small China in Huang’s shoe. In parallel, competitors such as AMD, Broadcom or Google’s own custom chips (TPUs) are gaining ground. But the NVIDIA CEO remains focused on his vision. And according to pointed at the meeting: “Every company depends on software, and all software will depend on AI.” As long as this is fulfilled, everything indicates that NVIDIA will continue selling the blades and picks. Cover image | NVIDIA In Xataka | NVIDIA was founded by three engineers, but only Jensen Huang remains CEO: “I wish I had kept some shares”

It had been listed as “scrap” in a museum for 100 years. Now we know that it is the piece that advanced Egyptian engineering by 2,000 years.

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If we think about the ancient egyptian technologythe images that come to mind are the monumental ones pyramids of giza or the great obelisks of the New Kingdom. However, the foundations of this technological feat were forged long before, as pointed out by a new archaeological study that has identified the oldest rotating metal drill in Egypt, a discovery that advances the mastery of this tool by more than two millennia and that rewrites the history of the technology in the Nile Valley. Where was it found? The story of this discovery, the truth is, could fit into a series called “Archaeological CSI”, since it all started with an identified object like a tiny piece of metal that measures just 63 millimeters and weighs 1.5 grams. This was excavated a century ago in tomb 3932 of the Badari cemetery in Upper Egypt, and had lain forgotten ever since. Literally ignored in a drawer at the Museum of Archeology and Anthropology at the University of Cambridge, was this object that caught the attention of a research team that decided to follow his trail using the most modern technology. A drill. What was initially classified as a simple and insignificant punch was actually a bow drill. This is the conclusion of this new exhaustive analysis of the piece, where they have been able to see unmistakable marks of its mechanical use such as rotational grooves, a specific curvature for tension and microscopic remains of leather rope. How it worked. What today is a drill that works connected to electricity, in ancient times, the bow drill worked by winding the string of a bow around an axle that held the drill bit. In this way, by moving the bow back and forth, the drill bit rotated at high speed. Its importance. As the researcher points out, the Egyptians had the ability to master this rotation technology more than two millennia before the first sets of drills that humanity knew today. This once again shows us how advanced it could be in its context in the art of construction. Unusual alloy. The big question here is how such an ancient tool could drill hard materials without deforming. And the answer is in chemistry. In this case, the researchers they used portable X-ray fluorescence spectrometry and saw that the drill was not made of just copper, but was an alloy of arsenic, nickel, lead and silver. A combination that is not coincidental, since the presence of arsenic gave the copper a much higher hardness, transforming the metal into a high-performance tool capable of resisting continuous friction. The trade. Beyond the mechanical value, for historians this mixture of metals is also really important because it points to strong commercial connections with the eastern Mediterranean, revealing that predynastic Egypt was not only innovating technologically, but was connected to a global network of exchange of exotic materials long before the unification of the pharaohs. The technological history. Until now, the official narrative placed the perfection of these rotating metal tools much later in the Egyptian timeline. But now, this tiny forgotten object forces us to recalibrate our understanding of human ingenuity. Images | Martin Odler Osama Elsayed In Xataka | To transport us to Ancient Egypt, researchers have been doing one thing for months: smelling mummies from 5,000 years ago

will no longer pause dangerous models if the competition releases them first

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Anthropic is in the middle of an important issue with the Pentagon in the United States that may end up shaping the future of the company. Founded with security as its reason for being, it has just rewritten the rules that defined it. And his “Responsible Scaling Policy“, the document that established when to stop the development of a model that is too dangerous, has evolved into a mere roadmap with flexible objectives. And this change is much more important than it seems. Not only for Anthropic, but for the rest of the industry. Let’s get to it. What exactly has changed. Until now, Anthropic policy stated that the company would pause training or delay the launch of a model if its capabilities exceeded the speed at which sufficient safeguards could be developed. That is to say: if the model was too powerful to be controlled safely, it was stopped. This is over. And it is that the new policy removes that automatic braking mechanism and replaces it with a series of public commitments, along with regular third-party audited risk reports. The change was confirmed by the company itself in an official statement. Why have they done it? The company gives two main reasons. The first is the competitive environment: OpenAI, Google and xAI advance without those types of restrictions. “We didn’t feel it made sense to make unilateral commitments if competitors are moving full speed ahead,” counted Jared Kaplan, chief scientific officer at Anthropic, told Time. The second, as it could not be otherwise, is political: Washington has turned its back on AI regulationand Anthropic acknowledges on its blog that the current anti-regulatory climate makes its own safeguards asymmetrical with respect to the rest of the sector. Paradox. From Anthropic’s point of view, it is not a renunciation of security, but a decision made based on it. Their reasoning: if the actors who are more responsible (they fall into this bag, logically) stop while the less careful ones move forward, the net result is “a less safe world.” The logic has a certain coherence, but it also means accepting that security depends on what the competition does. And that is a very dangerous game. Context. Anthropic was founded by former OpenAI executives, including Dario Amodei, who left that company precisely because they believed that it did not pay enough attention to the risks of AI. The new policy comes at a time when several security researchers have left the company. Just like shared Wall Street Journal, one of them, Mrinank Sharma, wrote a letter to his colleagues this month saying that “the world is in danger” because of AI, before announcing his departure. In fact, according to sources close to the media, his departure would be partly related to this decision. What’s happening with the Pentagon?. The announcement comes in full tension with the Pentagon. US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth gave Anthropic an ultimatum the same Tuesday that the policy change was made public: modifying its red lines on the use of Claude or risk losing a $200 million contract with the Department of Defense. Anthropic has made it clear that both issues are independent, but the temporal coincidence has not gone unnoticed. What remains of the security policy. It is not a total abandonment. Anthropic remains committed to delaying the development or deployment of “highly capable” models in specific circumstances, and is committed to publishing detailed, externally verified risk reports every three to six months. The company also now separates its own internal guidelines from its recommendations for the rest of the sector, implicitly acknowledging that the commitment to a “race to the top”, which other companies are adopting, has not worked as expected. Cover image | Wikimedia Commons and Anthropic In Xataka | The US has a message for AI companies: if necessary, that AI belongs to the State

in a 34 gram running watch

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The Huawei Watch GT Runner 2 arrives with two great arguments under its arm: It is the clock running in titanium, lightest in its categorywithout direct competition from Amazfit or Garmin in that material. And it debuts a completely redesigned GPS antenna architecture that promises 20% more precision compared to the GT6. With all this, Huawei aims directly at the high-end of the category, with models such as the Garmin Forerunner 970 or the Coros Pace 4. Technical data sheet of the Huawei Watch GT Runner 2 HUAWEI WATCH GT RUNNER 2 DIMENSIONS 43.5 × 43.5 × 10.7mm WEIGHT 43.5g (with strap) / 34.5g (without strap) SCREEN AMOLED, 3,000 nits GLASS Kunlun Glass 2nd generation CASING Aerospace grade titanium alloy BATTERY 540 mAh / up to 14 days normal use / 32 h outdoor training GPS Dual band, all systems (GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, BeiDou, QZSS) HEART RATE Continuous, 99% accuracy vs. chest band HEALTH ECG, arrhythmia detection, continuous HRV (including sleep), SpO2 BELT AirDry Nylon + Fluoroelastomer (22mm standard) COMPATIBILITY iOS and Android APP Huawei Health (AppGallery, App Store, Galaxy Store) PAYMENTS Independent NFC PRICE 399 euros Titanium where no one else uses it The decision to build the case in aerospace grade titanium alloy has a clear logic in the watch segment. running pure: neither the Garmin Forerunner 970 nor the Coros Pace 4, the rivals it targets, offer titanium at this weight level. Garmin does use titanium in its Fenix ​​range, but they are larger, thicker and heavier watches, aimed at multisport adventure. The result is a weight of just 34.5 grams without the strap, which with the included nylon strap rises to 43.5 grams, compared to the 56 g of the Forerunner 970 or the 50 g of the Coros Pace 4 with their respective straps. To maintain that weight without sacrificing durability, Huawei has replaced the sapphire glass of previous generations with its own Kunlun Glass second generation. It’s a trade-off that not everyone will like, although the 3,000-nit AMOLED screen more than makes up for it in outdoor visibility. Image: Xataka. The 44mm case and 10.7mm thickness, 2.2mm thinner than the Forerunner 970, are deliberately unisex decisions: this watch can be a little small for some and a little big for othersand it is a risk he takes to try to get closer to a middle point. Standard 22mm interchangeable straps allow compatibility with virtually any accessory on the market. The nylon strap incorporates AirDry technology, with more holes to improve breathability by 25% and accelerate drying. Sweat and shower are not usually friends of this type of straps and Huawei believes that with this jump it will be somewhat more bearable. The big leap: a GPS antenna that comes out of the motherboard The most ambitious technical change in the GT Runner 2 is in the GPS. Huawei has removed the antenna from the motherboard and created a 3D floating antenna on the outside of the watch, with a dielectric bezel under the titanium bezel acting as a signal polarizing element. The system, which they call sunflowermaintains a simultaneous connection with two GPS signals. Image: Xataka. Image: Xataka. The real-life result is a 20% improvement in accuracy over the GT6, with coverage even in tunnels, and a 10% improvement in distance and pace data. The comparative graphs against the Forerunner 970 (Huawei has become obsessed with it in its comparisons) in dense urban environments, the worst possible scenario for any GPS, show a trajectory noticeably more faithful to the real route. Health and metrics: this is for very methodical runners Heart rate monitoring reaches, according to Huawei, 99% accuracy compared to chest bands in training, a figure that they themselves support with internal tests on a sample of more than 42 people. The watch includes 5-second ECG, arrhythmia detection, and continuous heart rate variability, even during sleep. There are two new metrics that deserve special attention: The first is the racing powerwhich combines terrain resistance via GPS, air resistance estimated through the weather app and resistance by inclination. It is an estimate, not a direct measurement, and should be taken into account. The second is the real-time lactate threshold detection using an algorithm developed with the Beijing Sports University. This is a metric that in real time normally requires laboratory blood analysis. AI training and marathon mode The GT Runner 2 relies heavily on personalized training plans generated by AI, which dynamically adjust based on the results of each session, sleep status and stress. If one day you train more or less than planned, the app automatically reorganizes the entire planning. Image: Xataka. The so-called marathon mode (although the distance is configurable to any race) allows you to record a specific event, such as the Barcelona Marathon, and The app generates a week-by-week plan with days of running, strength and legs, synchronizable directly with the mobile calendar. During the race, the watch acts as a coach on the wrist with mileage pace guidance and refueling strategy. Good detail that we will try later. Something unique is the integration with Kotcha, the AI ​​training app used by Eliud Kipchoge’s team. Also compatible with Intervals.icu, Strava, Komoot and import of GPX routes. Price and availability of the Huawei Watch GT Runner 2 Each box includes two straps, AirDry nylon and fluoroelastomer. All colors are unisex. The price in Spain is 399 euros, although there are some stores that are already selling it for 379 euros. HUAWEI Watch GT Runner 2 Black Featured image | Xataka In Xataka | Huawei Mate X7, analysis: a powerful camera for a foldable that doesn’t need Google for (almost) anything

It is Samsung’s plan to conquer AI in mobile phones

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Samsung has just unveiled its new high-end: the new Galaxy S26 family is here and arrives with a conservative proposal but at two speeds where the Ultra model is the one that comes out the best. And it also brings more artificial intelligence than ever. Leaving aside the long list of functions that were already in Galaxy AIthose that have improved and new features such as ‘Now Nudge’ or Agentic AI, the big surprise It’s a confirmation: Perplexity lands as a full-fledged assistant alongside what already existed, Bixby from home and Gemini of Android. Full integration. Perplexity comes to compete head-to-head with the home assistant and Google assistant as long as it is integrated at the operating system level. What does this mean? That you can invoke it to use it in system apps such as Notes or Reminder, but also with some third-party applications. It is not a downloaded app: it operates on the device’s framework layer. And as such, you can invoke it via ‘Hey, Plex’ (without Aitana’s boyfriend appearing) or from the side button. This point is more than a simple detail: it is using the hardware as a distribution lever: whoever controls the hardware controls how the user accesses it. A reminder: Google paid a million to Apple to be the search engine on iOS. Context: Samsung’s pending issue. Few mobile manufacturers bet as much and as well on AI as the Korean firm. Samsung It is the brand that sells the most mobile phones within the Android ecosystem, but the assistant battle has been lost with Bixby. On the other hand, he has to integrate Gemini by contract. In short, Samsung cannot control its entire artificial intelligence layer sovereignly and that is a dangerous strategic dependency if you want to be the best. Samsung’s trump card: being a Swiss army knife. According to an internal Samsung investigationabout 80% of users already use two types of AI agents in their daily lives, so they have turned flexibility into a plus. Since Samsung knows that it cannot go to war with the best language model alone and win, it has opted to become a neutral hub, which allows it to attract advanced users who want to use the best of each house without friction. As declared Won-Joon Choi, President, COO and Head of R&D Office of Mobile eXperience Business at Samsung Electronics: “We are committed to building an integrated, open and inclusive AI ecosystem that offers users more choice, flexibility and control to perform complex tasks quickly and easily. Galaxy AI acts as an orchestrator, integrating different forms of AI into a single, natural and cohesive experience.” Why is it important. Because with this movement Samsung has changed the rules: it declares itself platformnot an assistant. It is a layer that coordinates several agents, leaving behind the “one assistant to rule them all” thing. The Korean firm thus differentiates itself from Apple’s vertical control and closed integration or Google’s tactic of prioritizing Gemini above all and even putting it in the soup. The movement is most intelligent: it thus neutralizes his weakness (Bixby) to transform it into a virtue. They deliberately decide to open up and let the user choose with whom and for what. Why Perplexity and not another. Here is an elephant in the room that should be remembered first of all: because the most mainstream AI, ChatGPT, She is already married to Apple. From here, it must be clear that Samsung has chosen the best possible strategic partner for its corporate interests at this time. And there are a few reasons: Because it offers a differentiated and complementary value proposition: it is a quality conversational chatbot that cites sources, without advertising and verifiable answers. Its presence is not a redundancy of Gemini, which can be used for productivity and the Google or Bixby ecosystem, for the device. A starting point in the most favorable negotiation: Perplexity is a startup that needs alliances for massive distribution against the power of Google and OpenAI, whose valuation exceeds half a billion dollars. This puts Samsung in a position to get better conditions. He already had a relationship with the startup, whose AI It is already present on the Korean brand’s TVswhich implies that they are not starting from scratch: their teams already know the respective APIs. Its anti-ad positioning. Samsung, which is betting heavily on privacy, has a strong argument here to offer a differential experience compared to Google. Reduce the Googledependency. With Perplexity, Samsung diversifies its partners without fanfare with Google in a move of corporate geopolitics. The Korean firm has a multi-million dollar deal of distribution with Google and with this twist, their position is more advantageous when negotiating or putting pressure on the Mountain View company: they have Perplexity in the bedroom as a third agent. In Xataka | Mobile AI promises, but I only see repeated tricks. The real ace up your sleeve is called “agent” and he is on the way Cover | Eva R. de Luis

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