Month: March 2026

how to dissipate heat in a vacuum

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We call it a cloud, but in reality it lives on solid ground, more specifically in mammoth buildings with endless corridors, or that’s how it has been until now. The idea of ​​​​taking data centers into space It sounds increasingly louder and is presented as the solution to the insatiable energy appetite of artificial intelligence. In the midst of this growing obsession, the player who holds the key to all current hardware has just had a reality check. NVIDIA puts on the brakes. Google, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos…everyone has talked about taking data centers to space. Even NVIDIA itself He has participated in projects of this type, but it seems that he has changed his mind. As published in BezingaDuring the company’s latest earnings call, Jensen Huang took the opportunity to lower short-term expectations for orbital data centers. dissipate heat. The idea of ​​bringing data centers to space was born from the need for energy. In space, energy is practically unlimited because solar panels can be receiving light all the time. The problem, according to Huang, is dissipating heat. On Earth, data centers use air or water for cooling, but in the vacuum of space there is no air. The only way to dissipate heat in space is by conduction to radiators which, in the CEO’s words, must be “quite large.” NVIDIA knows this well because already has a satellite with H100 GPUs in space. Why it is important. Huang’s intervention is relevant because NVIDIA is the main provider of the infrastructure that xAI, Amazon, Google and other technology companies need for their space plans. If the biggest beneficiary of selling chips for these projects warns about their viability, the market listens. Even so, his words have not been a complete refusal, but rather a “not yet.” Analysts agree. In a Gartner report to which he has had access The Registerclaim that companies are wasting money pursuing the dream of space data centers. Their argument is that orbital facilities are not profitable, but they also claim that they could not satisfy the necessary computing demand. In addition, it also highlights the technical challenge that cooling these structures in the vacuum of space would entail and another problem: the extreme temperature fluctuations that can go “from 100 degrees kelvin to 400 degrees kelvin” (between 126ºC and -173ºC). This would require the use of special materials and components, much more expensive than their terrestrial equivalents. Musk vs Altman. There is little that the CEOs of xAI and OpenAI agree on and data centers in space were not going to be any different. Elon Musk announced a megaproject with SpaceX and xAI to launch a constellation of one million satellites. At an event a few days ago, Altman called the idea ridiculous.although he also admitted that “it will make sense one day (…) we are not there yet.” In Xataka | Aragón is becoming a Spanish data center giant thanks to Amazon. There is still a big unknown Image | İsmail Enes Ayhan and NASA

Say the type of trip you want and the artificial intelligence will find your destination and itinerary

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Let’s explain to you how to plan routes with Claudeusing a new function like this artificial intelligence. The function will Claude It will start asking you questions to find out the type of route you want to take, and then it will offer you a destination and an itinerary with places to visit. This function is intended for when you are not clear about a destinationbut you do know the type of trip or route you want to plan. You will end up having a Google Maps module with places to visit, schedules and a complete itinerary. Plan your trip with Claude The first thing you have to do is write the initial prompt to launch this feature. It’s a pretty generic prompt where you don’t specify anything, because we’re going to have Claude ask us all the questions. The prompt would be the following: Help me plan a full day trip! Ask me questions to get more details about what I want to do. When you write the prompt, Claude three initial questions so that you can specify the characteristics of the trip you have in mind. First, it will ask you how many people are going and where you are leaving from. You will be able to choose between several answers. Then he will ask you What kind of excursion do you fancy?. Here you can choose answers that talk about nature, coastal, cultural or gastronomic excursions. You also have the field Another thing to specify a specific one. Lastly, it will also ask you how much effort do you want to make on your trip. Here you can choose between making little effort, walking a little or having long or sports routes chosen for you. Once you answer everything, Claude will ask you additional questions based on the data that I have given them so far. For example, since in my configuration I put that I am from Castellón, it asks me how far I am willing to drive to go to the destination. He also asks me about my preferences. When configuring my trip I have stated that I want it to be a cultural one, so analyzing what I have close to me He will ask me about cultural styles or eras that I would like to visit. And that’s it. After the three initial questions and additional questions that he asks you, Claude will plan an excursion and will show you a Google Maps module with the route. You will have a button to open the route in Maps, and you will also be able to see that it has been organized for you by planning the times at which you can visit each site, and the route to choose. In Xataka Basics | Claude: 23 functions and some tricks to get the most out of this artificial intelligence

SPC was the mobile brand for seniors. Now it has a system that learns when your grandfather stops behaving as usual

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SPC has been digesting for a year the change that Teresa Acha-Orbea, its general director, described us at MWC 2025: going from a telephone manufacturer for seniors to a comprehensive technological services company. Again in Barcelona and again at the MWC, the company from Alava has presented the first product that materializes this transformation. It’s called Zeus Halo, and it’s a predictive telecare platform built around a hub domestic 5G with a 12-inch screen, four microphones and IoT connectivity to integrate sensors, activity bracelets and other home devices. It appears on the right in the image that heads these lines. The proposal is based on a demographic premise that defines our country today: Spain ages. According to INE projections, In 2030 almost a third of the population will be over 60 years oldand a growing portion of that group lives alone. Current telecare systems work reactively, waiting for something to happen before acting. Zeus Halo points in the opposite direction: the system learns the user’s behavior patterns. What time do you get up, how many times do you go to the bathroom, when do you leave the house… When these habits change abruptly, the device generates a preventive alert that reaches the smartphone of family members or caregivers, or directly to third-party telecare platforms. “If this person usually goes to the bathroom several times a day and suddenly they are only in the living room, something is happening,” explains Acha-Orbea in the stand of SPC in the Spanish Pavilion. It can also detect falls through the activity bracelet, monitor heart rate or temperature, and send alerts if the person leaves and does not return. The hardware does not require a router, or even that there is a WiFi network in the house, because the hub It carries a 5G SIM and covers all the sensors in the home, which eliminates a common installation barrier for this user profile. Compatible sensors include presence, door opening and smoke detectors, in addition to wearables. Cameras are technically possible, but SPC has decided not to incorporate them by default: “We all want to maintain our privacy, at least visually,” says Acha-Orbea. The second leg of Zeus Halo is the conversational agent. The platform includes a voice assistant that learns the user’s tastes and interests and maintains conversations adapted to them, with reminders for medication, medical appointments or birthdays that are delivered as voice calls instead of text messages, because “SMS are not usually read”, something that was already explained to us a year ago. The system can also organize secure video calls with family members through its own application, suggest activities inside and outside the home or connect Zeus Halo users with common interests. The unwanted loneliness of older people has been on the public agenda for years, The product will be launched before the end of the year in two modalities: ORa version for retail intended for families who want to install it in their parents’ or grandparents’ home And another institutional version for councils, municipal social services, residences, telecare and insurance companies that need to monitor their users proactively. SPC has clients such as CaixaBank or the Generalitat of Asturias in its portfolio, which gives it direct access to the type of organization it targets with the B2B version. The launch of Zeus Halo is accompanied by a brand repositioning. SPC launches logo, website (now in onspc.com) and a new definition of itself: “technology consultancy” that combines manufacturing, systems integration and consulting under the umbrella ‘human by design. The company, founded at the end of the eighties taking advantage of the liberalization of telecommunications, which for decades lived by selling landlines and mobile phones adapted for the elderly, today has 78 employees and headquarters in Vitoria, Lisbon and Shenzhen. It sells about 400,000 units per year of basic phones for seniors and about 30,000 adapted smartphones. It is, according to its own figures, the first Spanish brand in that niche with 50% of the national market. The transition that Zeus Halo embodies has not come for free. SPC has had to recruit software engineers and is setting up its own engineering in China to work directly with software manufacturers. chipsets. He 2G blackoutwhich forced the company to redesign its catalog a few years ago, turned out to be the lever that turned “dumb” devices into platforms capable of exchanging data. Zeus Halo is the next step in that same logic: a little hardware gadget that becomes the connected brain of the home. In Xataka | There is a good thing about having your grandchildren put in a hat: science suggests that it is a great shield against cognitive decline Featured image | Xataka

The Earth turned on its great geological engine billions of years earlier than we estimate. We know it from a microscopic crystal

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For a long time, textbooks They have painted the primitive Earth like a ball of infernal and static magma, being a “lid” of inert rock where life or complex geological movement was impossible. Specifically, it was thought that the plate tectonicsthe engine that shapes the continents and recycles our planet’s nutrients, had taken much longer to start. However, we were wrong. How he did it. Science, in a recent article, has just put on the table the definitive evidence that indicates that the Earth began to move much earlier than we believed: at least 3.3 billion years ago, and most likely, more than 4 billion ago. And the key is not in the gigantic mountains under our feet, but in small fragments of glass smaller than a grain of sand. And if we want to travel in geological time, you have to go to jack hillsin Western Australia, where the oldest known fragments of terrestrial rock are found. The protagonists of this story are zircon crystals, extremely resistant minerals that act as authentic geological hard drives. The interesting thing is that, when they form, they trap isotopes and tiny amounts of other elements inside that tell us exactly what the environment was like at the time of their crystallization. The results. According to detailed analysis that collects Natureand supported by key works such as those published in the prestigious magazine PNASthese S-type zircons hide unmistakable geochemical signatures. Specifically, they reveal that, instead of a static and dead Earth’s crust, subduction processes already existed. That is, the oceanic crust was already colliding and sinking under other plates, melting back into the Earth’s mantle. A double life. But researchers have not limited themselves to looking at a specific era, but have traced the proportions of trace elements such as uranium, niobium or scandium in different zircons from Australia, Greenland and South Africa. Here they observed that during the Eoarchean, the Earth did not have a single geological behavior. Instead, it had two tectonic regimes. The first of these, known as a ‘stagnant lid’ with areas of crust dominated by plumes of oceanic magma that simply pushed upwards. On the other hand, it also had the ‘moving lid’ zone, which were active zones where volcanic arcs were already forming and there was subduction, very similar to modern plate tectonics, recycling the Earth’s crust. But there is more. As if that were not enough, other published studies in Science and Geology have contributed even more pieces to the puzzle, such as the transform faults in the Pilbara Craton of Australia that show horizontal movements 3,000 million years ago, and even inclusions of fresh water in zircons from more than 4,000 million years ago, which suggests that there were already emerging continents interacting with the atmosphere and the water cycle. It changes everything. Knowing that plate tectonics started so early is not a mere geological whim, since tectonics is the Earth’s thermostat: it regulates the carbon cycle, releases fundamental gases into the atmosphere and creates the necessary environments for the chemical breeding ground. In this way, if more than 4,000 million years ago our planet was already recycling its crust, having primitive continents and fresh water, it means that the conditions for life to emerge occurred much earlier than what science books dictated. Once again, the Earth shows us that, from its most remote beginnings, it has always been a living world. Images | Javier Miranda In Xataka | There are scientists deliberately causing earthquakes in the Alps and they have a good reason for it

John Cazale’s impossibly perfect career

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There was an actor who never starred in a mediocre movie because he simply didn’t have time for it. John Cazale died of cancer in 1978, at the age of 42, leaving behind a filmography of just five titles. All of them were nominated for the Oscar for Best Picture. An achievement incomparable to that of any other actor in the history of cinema. The perfect filmography. The scale. There’s a way to measure the quality of a film career that’s more telling than any box office or individual accolade: the percentage of an actor’s films that have been nominated for a Best Picture Oscar. Based on this criterion, the absolute winner is a semi-unknown actor: John Cazale participated in five feature films between 1972 and 1978. All five were nominated for the Oscar for Best Picture. Even more: three of them took home the statuette: ‘The Godfather’ (1972), ‘The Godfather. Part II’ (1974) – in which he played the unforgettable Fredo Corleone – and ‘The Hunter’ (1978). His entire filmography generated a total of forty Oscar nominations. And the culmination: all his feature films were selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the United States Library of Congress. 5 out of 5, 100% of his work, in the most important category of the most influential awards in the industry. Let’s compare. To understand: Meryl Streep, the actress with the most nominations in the history of the Oscars (21 nominations in total) has a filmography that exceeds ninety films in five decades of career. A dozen of his works have touched the category of Best Film, but the proportion with respect to his total filmography does not reach 15%. Jack Nicholson, with around eighty film credits, or Al Pacino, with more than sixty, present similar proportions. The greater the volume of work, the greater the exposure to relative failure: a mediocre director, a box office failure, a slight setback. Cazale didn’t have time to make a mistake. The momentum. Cazale entered the cinema at the height of New Hollywooda trend that transformed the American industry between the late sixties and mid-seventies: directors such as Francis Ford Coppola, Sidney Lumet and Michael Cimino broke with the model of the big studios and opted for darker stories, more ambiguous characters and character actors. Like Cazale: without the weight of fame, without the burden of stardom, available to embody weakness, betrayal and fear with ruthless effectiveness. Who was it? Born in 1935 in Revere, Massachusetts, John Cazale studied acting at Boston University with the help of a tutor who pushed his students towards the darkest aspects of each character. Before coming to the movies at the age of 36, he spent a decade in the New York off-Broadway theater, where he won several awards, and worked as a taxi driver and messenger, a job in which he met Al Pacino. a casting director recommended him to Coppola for ‘The Godfather’ and there he aroused glowing praise from colleagues like Pacino himself. He died shortly after turning forty, a victim of bone cancer. The case of the hunter. The admiration that Cazale aroused is perfectly summarized by what happened in ‘The Hunter’, a film that he filmed while he was sick. Michael Cimino hired him knowing the diagnosis, but Universal didn’t know, and when they found out they pushed for him to be replaced. What happened next is one of the most cited episodes of loyalty in Hollywood at the time. To start, De Niro paid the premium out of pocket of Cazale’s insurance because the production company could not cover it. Meryl Streep, then Cazale’s partner, threatened to walk out of filming if he was removed, and Cimino rearranged the production schedule to film all of his scenes first. ‘The Hunter’ was nominated for nine Oscars in 1979 and won five, including Best Picture, Best Director for Cimino and Best Supporting Actor for Christopher Walken. Cazale died nine months before the premiere. He was not able to see the film but his legacy, with an absolutely perfect filmography, will always endure. In Xataka | What would have happened to the 80s (and beyond) if Steven Spielberg had not been born

five gifts to surprise with on the next Father’s Day

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There are two weeks left until the arrival Father’s Day. If this year you don’t want to get caught out and buy the typical last-minute socks or purse, you have time to do it right and surprise your father in 2026. Below we offer you a selection with some gifts that he will surely love. Pack Kindle Colorsoft Signature Edition + wireless charging case and base by 267.38 euros: with seven-inch color screen and various accessories. Razor Philips OneBlade 360 by 39.99 euros: with a guide comb and autonomy of up to 60 minutes. Wine accessories set Fackelmann by 17.99 euros: with cooling sleeve, aerator and corkscrew. Smart TV Haier H32K702FG by 139.99 euros: 32-inch LED and Android TV. Pack of two surveillance cameras Blink Mini by 24.99 euros: with two-way audio and compatible with Alexa. Kindle Colorsoft Signature Edition Pack + case and wireless charging base If your father is a book devourer and keeps linking one title to another, perhaps a good gift (especially to save space at home) is to give him an e-book reader. Now, on Amazon, they have reduced the Kindle Colorsoft Signature Editionwhich comes in a pack with a case and wireless charging base for 267.38 euros. He Kindle Colorsoft stands out for its seven inch color screen. Its battery is charged via USB-C and can last up to eight weeks. Although, thanks to this pack, you can also charge it with the wireless charging base that is included. If your father travels a lot or takes the subway or bus every day, this Kindle is very thin and light, making it very comfortable to transport. Kindle Colorsoft Signature Edition (32 GB) + case + wireless charging base The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Philips OneBlade 360 ​​razor More and more men have beards and if your father has one, you surely want him to have it in perfect condition. This shaver Philips OneBlade It is a real bestseller and now it has a discount of 20 euros on Amazon and you can buy it for 39.99 euros. This shaver from Philips is effective even on the longest hair and is 360, meaning it can be tilted in all directions. comes with a guide comb so you can choose the appropriate length and with its double-sided blade you can create precise edges. It works with a battery, which is charged via USB and offers a range of up to 60 minutes. Philips OneBlade 360 ​​- Hybrid Razor The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Fackelmann Wine Accessories Set A very useful gift for parents who like to enjoy a good glass of wine at home can be this Fackelmann set. Thanks to this set, you will be able to serve wine in perfect condition and now it only costs 17.99 euros. The set comes with a cooling sleeve for wine and cava bottles, a aerator and a corkscrew. The cover is equipped with a cooling gel that can be repeatedly frozen and is made of elastic nylon, to provide a universal fit. As for the aerator, it optimizes the oxygenation of the wine through the Bernoulli effect, improving its flavor. Fackelmann Wine Accessories Set The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Smart TV Haier H32K702FG If your father likes to watch TV in bed, you might be interested in giving him a small TV for the bedroom. This Haier H32K702 FG It is perfect, not only for its size, but for its price: 139.99 euros. The LED panel of this TV is type 32 inch LED and it offers Full HD resolution and for the price it is not bad. Works under the operating system Android TV and has Bluetooth 5.1 connectivity, WiFi and Ethernet port. As far as audio is concerned, its speakers offer 8 W RMS power and are compatible with Dolby Audio. Haier Direct LED Full HD H32K702FG – 32″, Smart-TV, HDR, Dolby Audio, Android 11, Smart-TV, Google Assistant, Bluetooth 5.1, DBX TV, HDMI 2.1 x 3, Frameless The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Pack of two Blink Mini surveillance cameras Finally, if your father is worried about home security and, every time you go on a trip, he says he has to buy a surveillance camera; Now, on Amazon, there is a very interesting offer. This is the pack of two Blink Mini surveillance cameras, which has gone from costing 44.99 euros to 24.99 euros. You can get these indoor surveillance cameras in black or white and are compatible with Alexa. They offer images in HD 1080p resolution and have two-way audioso they are ideal even if you have pets at home and want to calm them while you are not at home. Blink Mini | Compact Smart Security Camera, 2-Pack 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. Image | Amazon, Blink, Haier, Fackelmann, Philips and Freepik In Xataka | Best e-books: which one to buy and nine recommended models In Xataka | Five things to keep in mind before buying an e-book

He has been vetoing the shipment of weapons to Israel for months

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The bases of Rota and Morón have been two pieces discreet but essential of the United States military machinery in the Mediterranean. From them operations have started in the Middle East, strategic bombers, anti-missile shield destroyers and even part of the naval device that watches over the Strait of Hormuz. Spain shares them with Washington since bilateral agreements signed in the middle of the Cold War, and since then they had hardly generated relevant diplomatic friction. Until now. The threat that opened an unprecedented crisis. Tension broke out yesterday when Donald Trump threatened with cutting off trade with Spain after the Government refused to allow the use of bases of Rota and Morón for the bombings against Iran. The warning represented an unprecedented escalation between two NATO allies, because the US president did not speak of simple trade retaliation but of the possibility of a total economic embargo. Pedro Sanchez just responded with an institutional declaration in which he summarized the Spanish position in a phrase that evoked the popular rejection of the 2003 invasion of Iraq: “No to war.” The president defended that Spain rejects both the Iranian regime and the current military escalation and demanded the cessation of hostilities before the conflict causes a spiral of violence with global consequences. Tariffs and embargoes: two very different weapons. Trump’s threat drew attention because he did not resort to his favorite tool for years, the tariffsbut to something much more extreme: a trade embargo. Tariffs make specific products more expensive and are used to pressure or protect industries, while an embargo involves blocking practically all economic relations with a country. The difference is enormous: an embargo can prevent exports, investments, financial operations or even access to the dollar system. Furthermore, Trump began talking about this option after the US Supreme Court declare illegal the use of an economic emergency law to impose global tariffs, although that same legislation does allow blocking trade with countries considered a threat to national security. A tool reserved for “enemies”. They remembered in The World Which is precisely why the threat has generated so much surprise in Europe. Economic sanctions based on that law have traditionally been applied against governments considered hostile or authoritariancountries such as Iran, North Korea or Venezuela, or even against specific companies and leaders accused of human rights violations, corruption or illicit activities. Hence, using this mechanism against an allied country, a member of the European Union and NATO, would be something practically unpublished and legally very controversial and complex. Furthermore, it would have enormous economic consequences. for both sides Atlantic: The United States sells more than double what it buys to Spain and numerous American multinationals operate in the country, so an embargo would cause an unprecedented financial and commercial clash between strategic partners. The fine print that explains the climb. And while the controversy grew, the newspaper The country has released details that shed light on Washington’s virulent reaction. According to the official statistics documents sent to Congress, in reality Spain had been discreetly blocking the transit and export of weapons for months. bound for Israel. How much? In 2024 they were denied seven ship calls with weapons (including the prohibition of the cargo ships Maersk Denver, Maersk Seletar and Marianne Danica from calling in Algeciras and Cartagena) and They vetoed 57 operations export of military or dual-use material to that country. Some of these decisions had already caused tensions with the United States and even a file of the US Federal Maritime Commission. Although after the Hamas attack on October 2023 Sales were progressively restricted until they were prohibited by law. In 2024, military material worth 1.45 million euros was still exported from previous licenses, mainly sensors, electrical systems or returns of defective equipment, in addition to some components destined for third countries or the A400M aircraft. The total veto. Already in 2025 no sale was authorized of defense or dual use to Israel, only licenses with no economic value for repairs of equipment of the Spanish Armed Forces. At the same time, the report has also revealed that Spain has sold military material to Ukraine for 110.3 million between January 2024 and June 2025 (mainly artillery ammunition) in addition to donations of military equipment valued at 384 million. For their part, global exports of Spanish weapons reached 3,491 million in 2024 and rebounded strongly in the first half of 2025, with record new licenses and controversial clients such as Equatorial Guinea or Eritrea, which has generated criticism from organizations such as Amnesty International. A long conflict. In short, this context helps to understand why the American reaction it’s been so hard. He veto to the use of the bases to bomb Iran was the visible trigger of the crisis, but not the only reason for friction. The traffic restrictions of arms towards Israel, added to the refusal to participate in the military operation, outline a Spanish policy that tries to set limits in the Middle East and prioritize diplomacy over armed intervention. For the White House, however, this shift means a direct challenge to its strategy in the region, whatever it may be. The result is a dispute that has for the first time placed a European ally under the threat of an economic tool that the United States had until now reserved. for his adversaries. Image | Phan J. Alan Elliott, US Army In Xataka | In 1988 Spain and the US signed an agreement. Thanks to him, today Spain can refuse to use its bases to attack Iran In Xataka | The great paradox of Spain is 7,000 million euros: nobody wants to take up weapons, but they are making money by selling them

TSMC is the ‘kingpin’ of chips and Apple has always been its best friend. That just changed

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TSMC is the foundry of the world. Although there are others like Samsung that have muscleit is the Taiwanese company that has conquered the high-performance chip segment. It has achieved this through capacity, technology and an alliance: that of Apple. For a decade, TSMC was Apple’s great friend, the one that manufactured its chips and the one that revolutionized – with the designs of Apple Silicon– the laptops. Now NVIDIA rules. And he has elbowed his way through. In short. In the midst of the AI ​​era and with a technological current in which it is impossible to separate oneself from NVIDIA, Apple has more than enough reasons to feel jealous. While the mobile segment faces cuts unprecedented due to the crisis of RAM and components, and with Tim Cook himself -CEO of Apple- commenting on the difficulties they will have This 2026, artificial intelligence is going like a rocket. Major memory manufacturers have pivoted to high-bandwidth memory for AI GPUs, and companies like NVIDIA, Phison, amd and even the Chinese ones like SMIC and Huawei They are clapping their ears. They have made the AI ​​Big Techs dependent on their hardware, and no one makes that hardware like TSMC. Result? According to the latest reports, NVIDIA will become its largest customer this year. The importance of ‘Customer A’. It may seem like an unimportant change of chips, but it is actually more relevant than we think. The difference between a ‘Customer A’ and a ‘Customer B’ implies that, faced with production bottlenecks, one of the two is given priority. We already saw this in the 2020 semiconductor crisis when, precisely, half of the industry was drowning (cars, cameras, TVs and mobile phones) while Apple did not have such bad forecasts because it was the darling of a TSMC that was going to focus on iPhone chips to consolidate a lucrative relationship that began with the Apple A8 of the iPhone 6. Jensen Huang himself -CEO of NVIDIA- has commented the quite proud play on a podcast. “Morris –Morris Chang, founder of TSMC and friend of Huang – will be happy to know that NVIDIA is TSMC’s largest customer right now,” said the CEO. It is because little margin: 19% for NVIDIA compared to 17% for Apple, but it is an achievement and a thermometer of how the industry is doing. Last year, NVIDIA’s contribution to TSMC was 12%, which is a considerable jump in a very short time. “I need a lot of wafers”. Obviously, this does not imply that TSMC is going to stop pampering Apple over other companies. Apple has a huge percentage of the mobile segment, but NVIDIA is crucial to keep the AI ​​machinery rolling. Despite the Google attempts with its TPUsthe agreements of OpenAI with Broadcomthose of Goal with NVIDIA and AMD or those of xAI manufacturing its chipsNVIDIA is still the one who splits the cod. Even Chinese companies need NVIDIA GPUs and, of course, NVIDIA is more than willing to take a cut. On a recent visit to Taiwan,. Huang met with local industry heavyweights and noted that “NVIDIA would need a lot of wafers this year,” putting even more pressure to a TSMC that is crucial in the artificial intelligence chain. Synonym of success. Samsung, Huawei and SMIC They are fighting to be alternatives in case TSMC collapses. But TSMC has put us on the couch and has been looking at how to diversify the business for a few years. In Taiwan they maintain the heart and the muscle, but the plant in Europe – in Germany – is underway and they already have an operational foundry in the United States. In fact, there are plans to expand it because they have more and more clients who need a very specific product that works like a Swiss watch. But this has a B side: all the industry’s eggs are in the same basket. If TSMC fails, the house of cards can collapse. There is already some report that indicates that the American plant that manufactures for Apple, Intel, NVIDIA or AMD is overwhelmed due to a huge amount of orders. And there, precisely, lies the importance of being a client A… or a client B. Images | TSMC, NVIDIA In Xataka | SK is one of the chip whales and it is clear about one thing: not all the money in the world will satisfy AI’s hunger for RAM

Tecno has finally seen a future for the old modular dream

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Being able to update the phone without having to change it for a new one is the dream of many of us who love telephony. Throughout history there were several brands that tried it, such as Motorola: Project Ara to the commercial materialization of that format, the Moto Z and its Moto Mods. Currently, one of the manufacturers that has most opted for modularity It’s Fairphone. Now, Tecno has decided to skip what is established and take that dream one step further. Although with a difference from the original Ara: Tecno proposes a magnetic, not structural, modularity. Techno It is not a manufacturer that we know in Europe for its smartphones. Even so, it is one of the brands that the more it grows in share and distribution at a global level. Despite having a clear orientation towards accessible mobile phones, Tecno is characterized by being one of the most innovative and risky. Apart from those two adjectives, there is a third that occurred to me while holding the modular mobile: surprising. But can you still add more things? There are LEGO boxes that have fewer pieces than this mobile When I approached the Tecno stand, and saw all the phone pieces scattered on the table, I thought about the LEGOs I had when I was little and how I was combining the parts to make new figures. What Tecno brought to MWC is more or less the same, at least in essence. The base is an extremely thin phone that features a small camera module in the upper area. Tecno has provided all the components with a good number of magnets, it surely used up the store’s stock. Because everything comes together through magnetism. You can add a telephoto camera module by simply “gluing” this piece to the base lens, for example. Everything fits into place with magnets, just like the external battery module, microphone, speaker… Or the SLR camera accessory. When asked how many modules you can put on the phone at most, Tecno said: “Yes.” I have not put the parallel with LEGO at random: the phone supports a good number of pieces on top. Furthermore, there is another important point: The modules can also be combined without having the base telephone. And they work independently You can put a clip on the microphone and use it as a tie microphone. The same for the speaker, for example. Or use the stand to support the pieces outside the mobile. Everything is anchored by magnetism and in its place. With the drawback that it has to be placed correctly the first time, the system does not offer a visual guide to know how to build the LEGO. An idea that seems extravagant and yet works Modular mobile phones were already invented. And Tecno has come to give the concept a twist to take it to the extreme. Because the mobile works, the parts make sense, the entire concept transcends experimentation to become a product that could be viable. Wow, I could totally buy it. The pieces are solid and well thought out, it shows that Tecno has designed each component with precision. And maturity. Now, it’s not perfect, because the pieces can come apart somewhat easily. The magnetic anchor is strong, but it is still that: magnetic. If the camera gets caught in your pocket, it gets left behind. And if the modular phone falls to the ground… Instead of a phone you have a puzzle. Still far from being able to be bought It is beautiful, it is impressive and it appears solid beyond doubt due to the magnetic union between the pieces. Even so, it probably won’t see the light of day in the near future. Tecno is characterized by experiments, by trying to make smartphones show a different face. Many of their concepts end up as a hook to attract the real catalog, the one that really works. I thought that modular mobile phones, as designed by Motorola with Project Ara, would have no future. Tecno has shown me the opposite: apart from being feasible, with a little imagination you can achieve use cases that no one imagined before. That something like this is so refreshing says more about the current stagnation of the smartphone than about modular phones themselves. Images | Ivan Linares In Xataka | The best mobile phones (2026), we have tested them and here are their analyzes

a solution to hang things without drill or screws

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Marco Agustín Secchi is an Argentine Industrial Engineering student who has created a coating capable of turning any wall into a magnetic surface. He called him Ironplacand basically works as if it were a regular plaster, but with the particularity that it allows objects to be fixed directly to the wall with magnets, without having to drill holes. The idea is quite interesting, and below these lines we tell you all the details. What is Ironplac and how does it work?. Why do you have to drill holes in the wall every time you want to hang something? That question was what Secchi himself asked himself and was in fact the starting point of this project. According to counted the 29-year-old young man told the Argentine media La Nación, the material is presented in powder form, mixed with water and applied to the wall as if it were a conventional fine plaster, that is, the mixture that is applied to walls to cover them at the end of a work. According to what he says, once dry, the surface is prepared to attract magnets. The trick is that the mixture incorporates a formulation with mineral and ferrous fillers that convert the coating into a passive ferromagnetic surface. Secchi explains that the mixture does not emit any magnetic field on its own, but responds to magnets that are brought close to it. The user only needs to stick a magnet to the object they want to hang (be it a painting, a knife, a tool, etc.) and place it on the wall. Secchi assures having already tried tools, panels, small boards and even a shovel. An idea with a more practical use. Incorporating ferromagnetic particles into mortars or cements is not unknown in materials research. Normally have been explored this type of composites for applications such as radiation shielding or the improvement of mechanical properties. But the Ironplac skips all that to give it a much more practical approach: hanging things on a wall without the need for holes. And of course, on the other hand, it must be said that we love magnets. Click on the image to go to the post and video What is not yet resolved. The project is in an advanced stage of development, with functional prototypes and demos installed in real construction sites, but it is not yet commercialized. Aspects remain to be demonstrated, such as how much weight it can withstand in the long term, how it is applied to construction regulations and whether the cost will be competitive enough with other types of solutions such as metal panels or magnetic strips to make it viable to scale it to an industrial level. According to share In the middle, the patents are pending and Secchi acknowledges that he is currently working on finding financing and investors to scale production. Where do you want to go? The young inventor is clear about the type of spaces where he sees the most potential: workshops, classrooms, laboratories, kindergartens, offices. Places where the ability to rearrange space without damaging walls has real practical value. “I’m interested in understanding what it takes for an idea to work in the real world and be sustained over time,” declared Secchi. According to share The young man, Ironplac does not aspire to be a closed product, but rather “a construction platform capable of evolving and integrating with different materials.” We will see if it finds financing to scale the project. At the moment we know that the idea is quite attractive, especially because of being able to stick anything to the wall (as long as the element is accompanied by a small magnetic piece). Cover image | Marco Agustín Secchi In Xataka | 30 years ago the US was the country that dominated rare earths. This graph shows how China devastated at dizzying speed

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