Month: May 2026

The much cheaper LG OLED C5, locator packs for iOS and Android, the iPhone 17 at a minimum price and more. Hunting Bargains

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We arrive at last Friday after a week in which we have been finding very interesting technology offers. And like every week, we return with a Bargain Hunting in which we will comment on the best bargains that we have seen and that, of course, are still available. LG OLED C5 by 869 eurosthe television that we recommend most for its quality-price ratio. iPhone 17 by 899 eurosthe best price we have seen on an Apple mobile to date. Asus Rog Xbox Ally by 448.99 eurosa powerful console with a good discount. Huawei Watch Fit 5 Pro by 299 eurosone of the best smartwatches of the year (for the moment) along with some free headphones. Ugreen FineTrack Duo by 33.99 eurosa pack of four locators for iOS or Android. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links LG OLED C5 He LG OLED C5 is he television that we recommend most for its quality-price ratioand it is a model that incorporates a screen that looks exceptionally good. Your panel has OLED technology and, in this case, it has a diagonal of 55 inches. It offers a refresh rate of up to 144 Hz (VRR), is compatible with Dolby Vision and its speakers are compatible with Dolby Atmos. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links iPhone 17 He iPhone 17 It is taking much longer to get down time than it did for previous generations. But little by little it is doing it and right now we have it in MediaMarkt for 899 eurosthe lowest price we have seen so far. It is a fairly compact mobile with a 6.3-inch screen, it offers a 120Hz refresh rateits chip is Apple’s A19 and it comes with 256 GB of internal storage. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Asus Rog Xbox Ally Yes now that The Steam Deck has increased in price you want to buy an alternative, the Asus Rog Xbox Ally It has a quite attractive price at Neobyte, which leaves it for 448.99 euros. This is a consolidated PC that has the AMD Ryzen Z2 A processor, comes with 16 GB of RAM (LPDDR5) and has Windows 11 preinstalled. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Huawei Watch Fit 5 Pro Whether you do a lot or a little sport, Huawei Watch Fit 5 Pro It is one of the best smartwatches that have been launched so far this year, and if you buy it on Amazon for 299 euros you get free headphones. The watch stands out for many reasons such as its battery, which lasts up to 10 days of use, or its screen that offers good brightness to be able to see it perfectly outdoors. Besides, allows you to make payments through NFC. Huawei Watch FIT 5 Pro + headphones The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Ugreen FineTrack Duo Now that there is less time left until the arrival of summer, if you are looking for a locator to use on any trip, Amazon has an offer for 33.99 euros a pack with four Ugreen FineTrack Duo. This is a set of locators compatible with iOS or Android that stands out above all because they can be recharged through its USB-C port. The autonomy is approximately one year and it has a hole to hang a keychain. 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 | LG, Apple, Asus, Huawei, Ugreen In Xataka | The best mobile phones, we have tested them and here are their analyzes In Xataka | Best smartwatch in quality price. Which one to buy based on use and seven recommended models

This Norwegian valley has rocks on either side of the river that act like a giant pile. Maybe that explains your ghost lights

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The Hessdalen lights are a mysterious phenomenon which has been reported in the valley of the same name, in Norway, since 1811. However, it was in the 1980s when they began to be taken more into account, especially in 1984, when the Hessdalen project was established, aimed at monitoring them and trying to explain them. Unfortunately, despite all the efforts that have been put into this, it is currently not known exactly what this is due to. Although it is true that there are some hypotheses. A very disparate phenomenon. Both witnesses who have seen them and scientists who have recorded or photographed them describe the Hessdalen lights as a very disparate phenomenon. Sometimes they are formed at ground level, other times on roofs or at the height of mountain peaks. Sometimes they move more or less homogeneously, other times they move erratically, changing direction for no apparent reason. They are normally white and yellow, although they have been observed in other colors. Some last only a few seconds, while some can remain in the air for more than an hour. Even the shapes vary from an American football to an upside-down Christmas tree. The only thing that most witnesses seem to agree on is that they are about the size of a car. Hessdalen Project. A multidisciplinary team of scientists from several Norwegian institutions launched a project aimed at monitoring the lights of Hessdalen. Since then, they have been monitored thanks to the installation of radioelectric spectrum analyzers, magnetometers, seismographs, photo cameras, Geiger counters and infrared cameras. That is, earth tremors, magnetism, radioactivity and, ultimately, the emission of energy at different lengths of the electromagnetic spectrum are analyzed. This tracking system began operating in 1984 and is still active today. A peculiar hypothesis. One of the most peculiar hypotheses that have been made about the Hessdalen lights is that they could be the visible result of the formation of a wormhole micrometer that connects two points in space time. In reality, this hypothesis was raised in a magazine with little scientific reputation, very given to conspiracy theory and the supernatural, so it is not the most accepted at all. Hypotheses in the air. Thanks to the monitoring of these lights, there are much more plausible hypotheses. To begin with, it is thought that the Hessdalen lights could be due to the decay of radon, a very abundant gas in the Norwegian atmosphere. This disintegration would produce alpha particles capable of ionizing the molecules present in the air and dust, giving rise to structures capable of emitting light, called Coulomb crystals. Hypotheses on the ground. There are also hypotheses that point to the geology of the valley. For example, it is believed that it could be due to the combustion in the presence of air of dust clouds rich in scandium, an element that is abundant in the soil of this Norwegian region. It could also be a piezoelectric effect. This is the effect by which some materials are capable of emitting electricity when pressed or deformed. Quartz, for example, has great piezoelectricity and turns out to be very abundant under the valley floor. Copper is also abundant, which is a great conductor of electricity. And speaking of electricity, a battery effect could also be occurring. On one side of the river in the valley there are rocks very rich in zinc and iron. On the other side, rocks very rich in copper. The former could act as the anode of a battery and the latter as the cathode. In turn, local mines rich in sulfur could be releasing this element into the river, which would act as the bridge of a battery, allowing electricity to flow. If there is electricity, there is light. All these electricity emissions could be causing the ionization of molecules present in the air, giving rise to a process in which light is emitted. It is something similar to what happens with the northern lights, although the origin of the ionizing particles is totally different. The color of light depends on the molecules in the air. That is why it is not always exactly the same, although white and yellow tend to be abundant. In short, it is still not known where these mysterious lights come from, which can be seen both day and night. But that is precisely why they are so fascinating. Image | Bjørn Gitle HaugeØstfold University College, Fredrikstad, Norway In Xataka | Norway works little but produces a lot and that stresses them out. Generation Z has found the solution: the four-day week

with cars prepared to take advantage of them

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The United States has been playing catch-up for some time when it comes to high-power chargers for electric vehicles, many of them capable of delivering 500 kW, 600 kW, and even one megawatt. The problem is that, right now, almost no electric car sold there can swallow such power. In Europe, however, we are starting to see cars that take advantage of this capacity. And although at the moment it is still somewhat testimonial, for the electric promises to be fulfilled, the infrastructure must accompany the innovation of these cars. Why is it important. For years, recharging has been the great brake on electric cars convincing the general public. The promise of charging as fast as you fill a tank of gas has been promised for some time, and now the technology is starting to live up to it. But a one-megawatt pump is of little use if the car you connect only accepts a fraction of that power. More fast charging in the US. According to collect InsideEVs, the company ChargePoint presented last month a 600 kW device that it described as “the fastest independent charger for electric cars in the world”, while the Swiss ABB announced 1.2 megawatt units and Kempower showed a charger with an MCS connector capable of delivering 1.2 MW. The Italian Alpitronic, for its part, is preparing chargers that provide up to 1,000 kW to trucks and 600 kW to passenger cars, and which will begin to arrive on American soil at the beginning of next year. Even Tesla, historically limited to 250 or 325 kW, is slowly rolling out its 500 kW V4 Superchargers. Few take advantage of it. As the same media points out, right now there are no electric cars for sale in the United States that accept more than 500 kW. He Tesla Cybertruck It has been seen charging at 500 kW, but its official specifications still indicate a maximum of 325 kW. The most capable models on the market or about to arrive, such as the Lucid Gravity, the Porsche Cayenne Electric or the BMW iX3reach 400 kW. The reason for such a rush. Loren McDonald, CEO and Chief Analyst at Chargeonomics, explains told InsideEVs that some of the high-powered Chinese cars could arrive in the United States in the next five years, so these chargers “shield” the facilities for when that happens. The idea, furthermore, is to distribute the load intelligently between several points according to what each car can absorb, so that a modest model and a high-end model can be plugged in at the same time without either wasting power. Who is really ahead?. China and Europe are setting the pace in this regard, with systems such as BYD’s 1.5-megawatt “Flash” stationsto which we were able to access first-hand with the presentation in Europe of the Denza Z9GT. More in China than in Europe, the difference is not so much in the raw power of the plugs as in the fact that manufacturers are releasing vehicles prepared to take advantage of it. In Europe we also have a long way to go to be able to take advantage of these capabilities in commercial passenger cars, but little by little we are getting to know more brands that want to join. And Spain, where is it? He latest Barometer of ANFAC Electromobility, corresponding to the first quarter of 2026, makes it clear that the priority here continues to be the basics, that is, having enough points and making them work. Spain closed March with 55,077 public access charging points, after adding 2,005 in the quarter, a growth that the report itself describes as lower than that recorded in the same periods of the previous three years. The quality problem. Beyond the total number, ANFAC data points to two weaknesses. The first, power: only 31% of the infrastructure exceeds 22 kW, far from the 55% objective that the association sets for 2026. The remaining 69% are low power points that require charging times of at least three hours. The second, reliability: ANFAC estimates that 17,073 points are out of service (24% of the total installed) due to breakdown, poor condition or lack of connection to the electrical network. If they worked, Spain would be close to 72,150 points. The high power, still testimonial. Chargers of 250 kW or more, those that truly allow recharging in minutes, There are only 2,469 units in all of Spain.. They grew by 309 during the quarter, and the report indicates that around 75% of high power points respond to projects by the automobile manufacturers themselves. The big obstacle, according to the association, continues to be administrative, since processing difficulties and, above all, access to the electrical distribution network keep many projects paralyzed. Cover image | myenergi In Xataka | The hydrogen fuel cell at 250º C that solves a decades-old problem: the constant need for water

The surprise of the new Claude Opus 4.8 is not that it is (a little) better. The surprise is the “I only know that I know nothing”

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We didn’t expect it so soon, but here is Claude Opus 4.8the new version of Anthropic’s frontier model. Only 41 days have passed since release of Claude Opus 4.7which seems to make it clear that the company was not entirely happy with said model, which did not end up getting very good reviews either. With Claude Opus 4.8 the really curious thing is not that it once again sets records in most benchmarks. The surprise is his honesty. It’s better, yes, but it’s not what matters. In the internal results of the benchmarks published by Anthropic it is clear that Opus 4.8 is above Opus 4.7, but also GPT 5.5 and Gemini 3.1 Pro (curious, they do not compare it with the recent Gemini 3.5 Flash. It surpasses all of them in those tests except in TerminalBench 2.1, in which GPT-5.5 is somewhat superior. It is actually expected that each new model surpasses its predecessor, but what is striking here is the approach of the model. Honesty above all. Boris Cherny, head of Claude Code at Anthropic, explained that the model not only programs better: “it is significantly more honest about its own work. It tells you when it is unsure about something and detects its own failures instead of declaring victory too soon.” I only know that I don’t know anything. Another Anthropic engineer, Catherine Wu, influenced in that new “personality” of Claude Opus 4.8, who is capable of admitting that he does not know something instead of answering for the sake of answering and overlooking errors in his answers or in the code he generates. Those who have tried it match in that it is a more “aligned” model, that is, one that adjusts to human values, intentions, ethics and objectives. Less hallucinations, more humanity. For some time we have been seeing how new AI models are better in benchmarks, but there have also been significant jumps in the reduction of hallucinations. Not only do they invent and make fewer mistakes: they begin to recognize that they don’t know everything. That is very important… and very human. The very complete “System Card” It includes numerous metrics that certainly seem to demonstrate that we are facing a much more polished model than its predecessors in this area. Workflows. One of the new features presented along with the model are the dynamic workflows (Dynamic Workflows), which are available in preview and are aimed at one thing: being able to work with more complex tasks in Claude Code. Thanks to this option it is possible to deploy hundreds of parallel agents in a single session, something for example useful for analyzing and migrating code repositories of hundreds of thousands of lines. No Sonnet and Haiku. Claude Sonnet 4.6 was released on February 17, 2026, but Anthropic has not updated this model since. Things are even worse for Claude Haiku, whose latest version is 4.5, released on October 15, 2025. These models were more modest versions in terms of performance but much cheaper (especially Haiku), and so far Anthropic has not updated them. That benefits their interests, because if you want the best, you can only have the best and the most expensive, but not the best in its “affordable” version. Mythos Capability Models Coming Soon. In the official Anthropic announcement they made it clear that “Users will detect that Opus 4.8 is a modest but tangible improvement over its predecessor”, but they also pointed out something important, and that is that in the coming weeks we will have AI models with capabilities similar to Claude Mythos, but publicly available: “We plan to launch a new class of model with even greater intelligence than Opus. As part of Project Glasswing, a small number of organizations are currently using Claude Mythos Preview for cybersecurity work. Models with this level of capability require more robust cybersecurity measures before their general release. We are making rapid progress in developing these measures and look forward to offering Mythos class models to all of our customers in the coming weeks.” In Xataka | Welcome to the AI ​​duopoly: the sector already has a turnover of 80 billion a year, but OpenAI and Anthropic take 89% of the revenue

a legal battle for control of Nexperia

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A company can be many things at the same time: a factory, a subsidiary, a patent portfolio, a piece within a supply chain. But, in the technological war we are seeing between China and Europe, it can also become a battlefield. Nexperia fits right in there. We are not just talking about who owns a semiconductor company based in the Netherlands and owned by the Chinese Wingtech, but about who can decide on it when courts, governments and the fear that certain industrial capabilities end up under another center of power come into play. The new demand. The latest movement comes from China. According to ReutersWingtech Technology and a subsidiary have filed a lawsuit against Nexperia BV and five other entities before a court in Guangdong, which has already accepted the case. The company provisionally claims 8 billion yuan, about $1.18 billion, for the economic losses it attributes to the conflict. SCMP adds another relevant element: Wingtech is not only asking for compensation, it is also demanding to regain full control over Nexperia, a point that once again places the case in the field of corporate governance. The origin of the crash. To understand why the demand does not come from nowhere, you have to go back to September 2025. So, The Dutch Government intervened Nexperia and removed Wingtech from effective control of the company, citing fears about a possible transfer of operations and intellectual property to China. The administrative decision was later revoked, but the problem did not go away. Wingtech maintains that its scope of control remained limited by a parallel Dutch court ruling, still relevant to the dispute. Nexperia’s response. The Netherlands-based firm has responded by downgrading the immediate scope of the judicial move. In statements reported by the aforementioned news agency, Nexperia stated that it “has taken note of Wingtech’s announcement” and that it understands that the corresponding court “has not opened the case to trial.” He also regretted the strategy of its Chinese owner and maintained that Wingtech does not seem interested in reaching a solution beneficial to all parties, including its own shareholders. The Chinese legal route. The lawsuit is not only based on a business claim, but on a politically charged legal framework. Wingtech invokes China’s Foreign Sanctions Law to seek compensation for damages it attributes to restrictions on Nexperia. The company maintains that Nexperia and its executives applied “discriminatory restrictive measures” within the meaning of that law. The financial blow. The financial blow. The push for Nexperia is also leaving its mark on Wingtech’s accounts. Reuters notes that the company closed 2025 with a net loss of 8.7 billion yuan, compared to 2.8 billion the previous year. The deterioration continued in the first quarter of 2026: income plummeted by 94%, after the foreign business stopped consolidating its results. A conflict still open. The lawsuit does not close the battle for Nexperia, rather it prolongs it in another area. SCMP points out that Beijing and The Hague have defended that the case should be resolved “between the two companies without government interference,” as explained on April 17 by the Dutch Minister of Economy, Heleen Herbert, after meeting with the Chinese ambassador to the Netherlands, Shen Bo. The message seeks to limit the conflict, but the evolution of the case itself shows how difficult it is to separate business, courts and industrial policy when a semiconductor company is caught in the middle of the fight between China and Europe. Images | Nexperia In Xataka | Brussels has just fined Temu the largest fine in its history with the Digital Services Law: 200 million euros

Smart glasses for police seemed like science fiction. Some Chinese agents have already started using them

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The image is powerful because it is easy to visualize: a police officer walks down a street in Tianjin, looks around, and connected glasses return useful information in real time. What until not so long ago could have sounded like science fiction is beginning to have much more earthly applications, from ordering traffic to helping locate a lost person. In this city in northern China, according to China Dailytechnology is already part of some police tasks. And that’s the interesting thing: we are not just talking about a futuristic promise, but about a use that is beginning to hit the streets. Smart glasses for police. The key is that we are not just talking about glasses placed on an agent’s face, but about a system designed to be integrated into police routine. They are officially presented as a development of the local public security system, with national software and hardware, and places them in three areas of use: traffic, patrols and urban management. It is a very immediate effectiveness-oriented approach. An invisible screen for the agent. The device works as a layer of information added to police work. It can recognize text, interpret voice commands and provide responses from a connected platform, with the camera as an entry point to identify elements of the environment. In practice, this allows identity checks to be carried out or information associated with a person to be searched without leaving the scene. The source presents it as a responsive improvement, although such a tool also opens up obvious questions about surveillance and privacy. The glasses on the ground. Zhao Baoxin, an officer at the Jiefang Road police station in Heping district, told the aforementioned media that during a patrol they found an elderly man at an intersection who could not express himself clearly or indicate his name or address. According to his version, the glasses made it possible to quickly identify him and, in about 20 minutes, contact his family so he could return home. Traffic as a daily test. Another of the uses described brings the technology down to a very recognizable scene: the entrance and exit of a school. In that case, parents can pre-register their license plates through a mini-program developed with the participation of the public security system, and that information is linked to the platform consulted by the glasses. Thus, agents identify authorized vehicles, order short stops and divert other cars during peak congestion hours. It is efficient on paper, but it also normalizes automated license plate reading. What the numbers say. Sun Yinghua, agent in the science, technology and IT area of ​​the Municipal Public Security Bureau, places the recognition accuracy above 95% and speaks of results in milliseconds. They also explain that the design also seeks comfort: they weigh about 40 grams and offer a first-person perspective that avoids the framing changes typical of a body camera when the agent leans or turns. The autonomy, however, is 1.5 or 2 hours of continuous use. It hasn’t come out of nowhere. Police glasses with facial recognition had already appeared in China years ago. In 2018, SCMP counted that were being used at Zhengzhou East station during Chunyun, the huge Lunar New Year travel period, to locate fugitives and detect cases of identity fraud. What we see now seems less like a one-off test and more like a piece within an ecosystem: China Daily cites uses in different areas of the country, coordination with drones in large operations and plans to connect the glasses with robotic dogs, intelligent police vehicles, humanoid robots and other terminals. Efficiency gains ground, but so do questions about surveillance. Images | Xataka with Nano Banana In Xataka | The metaverse wasn’t dead, it was on a spree. And Meta wants it to flood Instagram and Facebook

We obsess over giving up meat completely, but the science of longevity asks us for something much more pragmatic

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The debate about whether we should consume more or less meat is often plagued by ideology, but when we stick strictly to science, the reality is that it is sensed that a reinforcement of vegetable protein It can give us a few more years of life. And it is not about completely eliminating foods of animal origin, but about doing nutritional mathematics to replace a small fraction of animal protein with vegetable protein. Great studies there is behind it to be able to reach this conclusion, one of the most compelling being the published in The BMJ in 2020which brought together 31 prospective studies and more than 715,000 participants. Here it was clearly seen that a increased intake of plant protein It was associated with lower mortality from all causes and, specifically, cardiovascular disease. Translated into percentages, every 3% increase in daily energy from plant protein was associated with a 5% lower risk of death from any cause. On the contrary, animal protein did not show a clear association (neither for nor against) with cardiovascular or cancer mortality at a global level. There is more. That same year, the magazine JAMA public data from the NIH-AARP prospective cohort, which followed more than 416,000 people. Their findings further refined the shot, as they pointed out that replacing only 3% of the energy of animal protein with plant protein was associated with 10% less total mortality. The protective effect was especially marked when this vegetable protein entered the diet to replace eggs and, above all, red meat. The only problem is that, although the claim has a solid scientific basis, the relationship has only been demonstrated through observational studies. That is, we are not facing unequivocal proof of causality. The reason Whether vegetable protein from soy or lentils extends life is something that is still quite debated. The most solid biological hypothesis does not defend that plant protein is a magical elixir, but rather that, by displacing animal sourcesseveral risk factors for stroke tend to decrease. This is what is known in nutrition as the “package” effect. By swapping a steak for a plate of legumes, not only are you changing the amino acids that are introduced into the body, but you are drastically reducing your intake of saturated fat, iron, sodium, and, if we’re talking about processed meat, pro-inflammatory compounds. In exchange, fiber, polyphenols and other bioactive compounds present in whole grains, seeds and legumes are introduced into the body and can reduce the overall carbiometabolic risk. The small print. One cannot generalize here, and these results do not suggest that all animal protein is a poison or that any plant product is automatically a ticket to immortality. The expected result depends largely on the specific food that we are substituting on our plate, since it does not have the same metabolic impact to replace a processed sausage as a natural yogurt, nor is it equally beneficial to change chicken for legumes than for an ultra-processed vegetable substitute full of refined flours. Age matters. The age It is a very relevant factor which science has shown through a study published in Nature that analyzed national protein supplies in 101 countries over 60 years. Here it has been seen that, although the greater availability of vegetable protein is associated with a longer life expectancy, in children under five years of age the relationship seems to be reversed, suggesting that animal protein may be essential for their development. Images | Anna Pelzer Eiliev Aceron In Xataka | Chinese researchers believe they have discovered a simple “trick” to lose weight: eat raw vegetables

Tomorrow the spin-off of one of the best space uchronias of recent years arrives, and it comes with an unexpected twist

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On May 29 Apple TV+ does two things at the same time: closes the fifth season of ‘For All Mankind’ and premieres its spin-off, ‘city ​​of stars‘, from its own creators. The original series has been telling the alternative space race from Houston for seven years, and the new project contemplates it from Moscow, within the Soviet space program that in this uchronic universe reached the Moon first. ‘For All Mankind’ started in 2019 with a simple premise: what would have happened if the Soviets had put a man on the Moon before the Americans? The series This parallel vision has been escalating until it lands on Mars and extends beyond, accumulating five installments and a sixth (already confirmed as the final one) that will close the complete narrative arc. ‘Star City’ is a prequel that returns to the seventies, to the founding moment of that alternative universe, but with the perspective reversed. Where ‘For All Humanity’ assumed the Soviet triumph as a starting point and contemplated it from the United States, the spin-off is installed within the USSR space program: laboratories, cosmonaut barracks, corridors guarded by the KGB… An excellent setting for a proposal maintained by the team from the last seasons of its predecessor, among which stands out Ronald D. Moore, screenwriter remembered for ‘Galactica’, ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation’ and ‘Deep Space Nine’. The cast is led by Rhys Ifans in a role inspired by the Soviet engineer Sergei Korolev (who died in 1966 but survived in this universe and took the space program to unknown heights). And the tone of this ‘City of Stars’ clearly diverges from that of its mother series: if in ‘For All Mankind’ we had a humanist drama of space adventure, here we go to the espionage thriller also inspired by the real Soviet project, where ships less reliable than those of the Americans, deaths hidden from the outside and the presence of the KGB in mission control itself met. In Xataka | Today on Prime Video, a series with a superb Nicolas Cage that is already said to be Marvel’s best proposal in years

Alcasec managed to access hundreds of thousands of banking details in Spain: now it has accepted prison

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There are cybersecurity cases that seem distant until they force us to look inward. We are not talking about a large foreign technology company or a gap lost in some remote corner of the Internet, but rather about banking data of citizens in Spain, access linked to public infrastructure and a chain that, according to the Prosecutor’s Office, ended with hundreds of thousands of records entered into a portal for sale. What we have seen with Alcasec It matters not only because of the name itself, but because of what it reveals: personal information has become a very valuable commodity. The agreement. This part of the case has been settled in the National Court with an agreement between the accused and the Prosecutor’s Office. According to EFEJosé Luis Huertas, alias Alcasec, has accepted a sentence of two years and seven months in prison for the crimes of illegal access to computer systems and discovery and disclosure of secrets. The Prosecutor’s Office initially requested three years, but applied the mitigating circumstance of confession. Along with him, Daniel BE and Juan Carlos OG, thus identified in the judicial information, have also accepted a sentence: two years and two months for the first as a cooperator and one year and three months for the second for discovery of secrets. The access. The indictment describes an entry built in layers, not a simple stroke of luck. On October 19, 2021, Alcasec contracted two massive data storage systems with Cherry Servers, a company based in Lithuania, using an email account created when he was a minor to hide his identity. Later, Daniel BE, whom the Prosecutor’s Office links to Russian forums specialized in the unauthorized sale of passwords, provided him with a stolen digital certificate issued to the General Directorate of Traffic. With that certificate, always according to the accusation, he managed to navigate the SARA network, connect to the CGPJ Judicial Neutral Point website and obtain the credentials of an official from a Bilbao court. The impersonation. The next step, always according to the Prosecutor’s Office, was to convert that first access into a way to obtain more credentials. Alcasec and Daniel BE created a page that pretended to be the access website to the Judicial Neutral Point, and the former sent a text chain to different courts that redirected to that false page. Two officials mistakenly entered their passwords, which allowed the scope of the attack to expand. The mechanics are important because they show that the intrusion did not depend only on a technical vulnerability, but also on deception of real users. The scale. With these credentials, according to the indictment, Alcasec made 438,099 requests to the Tax Agency’s “extended bank accounts” web service and shortly after carried out a second attack. The data is not minor: we are not talking about an isolated query, but rather a massive volume of queries to sensitive information through a system connected to the Administration. For the sale of data, some of relevant people, the portal was available. The reduction. The accepted sentence does not come out of nowhere, but from an agreement in accordance with the Prosecutor’s Office. As we noted above, the initial request was for three years in prison, but it was reduced to two years and seven months when the mitigating circumstance of confession for the recognized crimes was applied. The prosecutor also valued the collaboration of the accused during the investigation, particularly in providing their codes and passwords. In addition, they accepted the confiscation of the effects and the physical and virtual money seized in the searches carried out in Madrid, Cartagena and Dos Hermanas. Another investigation. There is an important nuance to not mix planes. Alcasec has been in provisional prison for a year for a different reason, related to a network of cyberattacks that seized sensitive and private data of millions of citizens and that he allegedly led. In that investigation he was arrested along with former Secretary of State for Security Francisco Martínez, currently on trial for Operation Kitchen. The reading. What this case leaves behind is not only an accepted conviction, but a fairly clear photograph of where part of cybercrime has moved. We are no longer just talking about entering a system, but about chaining access, taking advantage of real credentials, consulting sensitive services and preparing information for sale. Images | Capture YouTube In Xataka | We have spoken with one of the leading cybersecurity companies in Spain. And his diagnosis is not encouraging

The heat is uncovering one of the biggest problems with smart rings

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A quarter of a century ago (seriously), Sonia and Selena sang that “When the heat comes, the boys fall in love.” Today we can add one more phrase to the song: your hands swell and, if you are wearing a ring, forget to take it out. If it is also a smart ring, with its sensors and lithium battery, we have a problem. This is what many users are discovering. This is tight. If it is hot and we also start exercising, it is quite common for a small swelling to occur in the hands. That’s exactly what happened to him to this journalist when he went out for a route through the forest: shortly after starting, he felt how the ring began to tighten more than necessary and he had to take it off. In the case of a watch or bracelet there is no problem because we can loosen it, but the rings are completely rigid devices, often made of metal, and with a thicker design than a conventional ring so they end up being more annoying. The effects of heat. When the temperature begins to rise, blood vessels dilate to release heat, causing more fluid to leak into the tissues. The areas where it usually ends up accumulating are hands and feet due to the effect of gravity. It is what is known as heat edema and it is quite common in the summer months or when we exercise. Not only do the fingers swell. The battery can also expand due to a defect or heat itself, making the ring feel smaller. This Oura Ring user He noticed that as time went by his ring felt tighter and the battery also lasted much less. When he contacted the brand, they confirmed that it was a battery problem and they ended up changing the device. There is more similar cases on Reddit. Miss a plane. The case of youtuber Daniel Rotar It is perhaps the most striking of all. The battery in his Galaxy Ring began to swell causing the ring to get completely stuck on his finger. It hurt and there was no way to get it off, not even with soap and water. As if that were not enough, Daniel was about to take a flight, but was denied boarding because the ring’s battery posed a security risk. He ended up missing his flight and had to go to the emergency room to have the ring removed using ice and lubricant. What companies say. Samsung has a help page with tips on how to remove a Galaxy Ring in case it gets stuck on your finger. They suggest using soap and water, dipping your hand in cold water, or holding your hand up high. If none of this works, they recommend going to the emergency room and having them cut the ring, even indicating the points where to cut so as not to damage the battery and which could end up causing burns. In the case of Oura They also offer the same advice and a guide to know where to cut if necessary. Rethink the design. Smart rings are sold as the solution to monitor our health with an ultra-compact design and more comfortable than a watch, until it gets stuck and you have to cut it off, of course. In this sense, perhaps the future of this product involves sacrificing that rigid and continuous aesthetic, giving way to open designs that can better adapt to these natural changes in the body. It is a path that the company has already started Movano with the Evie ring. Image | Xataka In Xataka | Best smart rings 2026. Which one to buy based on use and six recommended models

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