Month: May 2026

Anthropic does not offer its services in China. So China has invented a black market for Claude tokens

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Claude has become in the most desired model by the most demanding developers and engineers, but it is not available in mainland China for regulatory and safety reasons. The demand there remains notable, and to satisfy it, an underground token economy has emerged that allows local developers to access models such as Claude Opus 4.7, avoiding all the measures imposed by the blockade. No paying with Alipay. One of the measures that Anthropic imposes to prevent the use of its models in China is to only accept international credit cards such as Visa or Mastercard. Their payment gateways reject local payment methods like Alipay or Wechat Pay, giving Chinese users a first and important hurdle. One that they have already overcome. Virtual cards. What they are doing in China to overcome this problem is using virtual credit cards (VCC) like DuPay or WildCard. With these services it is possible to obtain Hong Kong or US credit cards financed with cryptocurrencies or through local transfers. This makes it possible to deceive the billing systems of Anthropic and other companies that offer banned services to Chinese users. SMS verifications They are also solved through “SMS farms” that also avoid this problem and even others such as identity verification that also have implemented in Anthropic. The “Transfer Stations” arrive (中转站). Another problem is that even overcoming that first barrier, latency and micro-cuts mean that the use of Claude in China is affected by continuous connection problems. To avoid them, so-called “Transfer Stations” have emerged, which are nothing more than servers that act as a bridge between foreign servers and Chinese users. These gateways receive requests from China and forward them to Anthropic servers as if they were coming from an authorized location. The latencies are also relatively low, which means that for Chinese users the experience is basically identical to that of a user in the US or Spain, for example. These stations are publicly known and do not only appear in listings on GitHub: there is a ranking with the best. Claude is almost free in China. The surprising thing about these methods is that they don’t just give Claude access in China: they do with ridiculous prices which can be 10 and even 5% of (growing) original price of the service thanks to those transfer stations. The question, of course, is how it is possible to access Claude at those prices. The almond tree trick. Thanks to the transfer stations, developers can access Claude at a price of 1 yuan for every dollar of tokens, or in other words, up to a 90% reduction in the official price. It is something that is discussed publicly and that makes it clear that several methods are used to achieve this: Mass purchase of capacity, Use of accounts created with stolen or fraudulent cards, Use of promotional credits, and A simple hook: providers lose money with Claude, but they manage to attract developers to whom they then sell more profitable local models like DeepSek. Am I really using Claude? One of the growing risks in the cheap token market is direct fraud. Some Chinese resellers have been caught red-handed offering what they call the “Claude API” when in reality what they were providing were much cheaper and mediocre models. For a user to detect this type of deception it’s very difficult unless you are working with complex tasks or you have already used models and know more or less what to expect from them. For victims, the effect is clear: they believe they are paying for the intelligence of Opus 4.7 when in reality they are receiving answers from a low-end AI model. Goodbye to privacy. When a user purchases tokens at one of these transfer stations, they completely give up the confidentiality of their data. All queries and responses end up passing through the intermediary’s servers, which can and apparently does use them to sell them to AI companies that use them to post-train their models. So everything they do and say when using these models is filtered and used as training data without the user knowing. A double business. For these providers, this business of reselling conversations is especially interesting in the face of the famous “distillations” of US models that take advantage of this data to “copy” the capabilities of those models and apply them to Chinese models. Anthropic can read us, but (theoretically) it doesn’t. It is true that the conversations we have with Claude (from Spain, for example) are also stored on Anthropic’s servers, but the company makes it clear in your privacy policy that does not use that data. In fact, we can even explicitly prohibit the company from using them in the privacy settings of Claude’s account. The game of cat and mouse. At Anthropic they know very well what is happening and they are trying to prevent it. For example, they have begun to intensively block IP ranges associated with VPN services or data centers known to be used in these transfer stations. Even so, Chinese providers usually respond with an “elastic” architecture that allows IPs of domestic residences to rotate, making the traffic appear completely normal. Image | Xataka with Magnific In Xataka | There is a thing called “Ornn price index”, it is out of control and it is bad news for everyone

There are a lot of people replacing the oil on ham toast with coffee and orange. And oddly enough, it makes sense.

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“You insist on putting olive oil on our Iberian ham toast and this is like putting sugar on top of a chocolate cake.” Víctor Sanchego did not know it, but with those words was about to make thousands of people prepare the strangest breakfast we’ve seen in a long time. How come you don’t have to add oil to the ham? Sanchego’s argument is that “the fat of Iberian ham contains more than 60% oleic acid, the same component of extra virgin olive oil.” Therefore, as happens in a perfumery when we have already worn several colognes, when we mix oil and ham at the same time our taste buds become saturated. “Instead of helping it enhance the flavor, it is subtracting it,” says the ham man. The reality, of course, is more complex. The general idea is true for Iberian ham: adding oil (especially if it is an intense and complex one) blurs the flavor profile and can actually oversaturate the bite. This, however, does not happen with the rest of the hams or with the rest of the oils. It is, so to speak, a borderline case. And a well-known one, at that. The normal thing when we talk about Iberian ham, in fact, is that it is recommended to enjoy it alone or with an accompaniment that cleanses the palate, such as a piece of neutral bread. Nobody usually proposes eating a plate of ham with a glass of EVOO on the side. The striking thing about all this is not that. The striking thing is the coffee with orange zest. Because Víctor Sanchego does not propose to eat ham with white bread, nothing like that. He suggests smearing the bread in a mixture of black coffee and orange peel, toasting it and, now, putting the Iberian ham on top. It’s a strange thing, yes; but we cannot define it as madness either. We said before that the ideal thing is to eat Iberian ham with something that ‘cleanses the palate’ and Sanchego’s idea goes directly there: coffee, due to its dry and intense qualities, allows us to enhance the organoleptic properties of our ham. Is it the most interesting decision? Well, the truth is that I couldn’t say. On a theoretical level, there could be dozens of similar combinations that fit better with our usual organoleptic repertoire; but without a doubt it is bold and many of those who try it (on social networks) They are delighted with the result. And that, without a doubt, is good news. Not because of the ham, not because of the coffee, not because of the orange zest. It’s good news because culinary Talibanism It is a practice that greatly impoverishes our understanding of food. And it limits us for no reason. Being open to ‘playing’ with products as iconic as Iberian ham is a symptom of a gastronomic maturity that, used well, can help us resolve problems in a much simpler way. big problems of the food security of the century. Image | Stephan Coudassot | Nathan Dumlao In Xataka | We’ve been telling ourselves for 100 years that breakfast is the “most important meal of the day.” The problem is that it is not true In Xataka | We’ve gone from “breakfast is the most important meal of the day” to “I grab something quick and stick with it.” And that has problems A version of this theme was published in 2025

AMD has made a decision that until now seemed impossible

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Lisa Su, AMD’s CEO, visited Samsung’s campus in Pyeongtaek, South Korea, in March. At that time, some Asian media considered the possibility that the purpose of this visit was to negotiate an agreement. about 2nm node from this semiconductor manufacturer. And it has just been confirmed: according to DigiTimes AsiaSamsung is going to manufacture 2nm chips for AMD. We still don’t know for sure what products these will be, but they will possibly be next-generation processors. EPYC Venice and Summer. Venice will incorporate Zen 6C cores and will be able to integrate a maximum of 256 cores distributed in eight CCDs (Core Complex Die). An important note: CCDs incorporate the cores and the cache memory subsystem, among other essential elements of the CPU. On the other hand, the EPYC Verano processors will arrive in 2027 and will work hand in hand with the Instinct MI500 GPUs in data centers to artificial intelligence (AI). Curiously, when AMD presented the EPYC Venice family in April 2025, it announced that TSMC would manufacture these chips in its 2nm node. Nvidia dominates the AI ​​GPU market, but AMD is doing increasingly better in this sector. And the company led by Lisa Su has closed the first quarter of 2026 with revenues of 10.25 billion dollarsa figure that represents an increase of 38% compared to the same period in 2025. Its data center division has invoiced 5.8 billion dollarswhich represents a growth of 57% compared to the same stage last year. These figures reflect an unappealable reality: sales of EPYC processors and Instinct GPUs are growing. TSMC can die of success The agreement that AMD and Samsung have agreed upon has arrived just a week after the leak that maintains that Apple is exploring the possibility that Intel and Samsung manufacture the advanced chips for their devices in the US. In all likelihood, the loss of influence and priority in the TSMC production chain that it has maintained for more than a decade has led to this decision. Now Nvidia has these privileges. The agreement that AMD and Samsung have agreed upon does not imply that Lisa Su’s company will stop being a TSMC client Whatever the agreement that AMD and Samsung have agreed upon, it does not imply that Lisa Su’s company will stop being a TSMC client. At least not in the medium term. In all likelihood, what AMD is looking for is to diversify and increase its production capacity in a context in which Nvidia and Apple largely monopolize TSMC’s 2nm nodes. The latter are so in demand not only by Nvidia and Apple, but also by Qualcomm, Google or AMD itself, that they cannot cope. TSMC is doing very well, there is no doubt, but everything seems to indicate that its inability to satisfy the demand of its most advanced nodes is going to cause it to lose certain orders from some of its customers. Of course, Samsung has a big challenge ahead to build customer loyalty and attract more chip designers to its 2nm nodes. Currently the per wafer performance of its 2nm nodes ranges around 55%so it is below the 60% threshold that needs to be reached to ensure node profitability and attract more customers. The per-wafer performance of TSMC’s 2nm nodes, however, ranges between 60 and 70%which places this Taiwanese company, which is Samsung’s biggest competitor and the leader of the chip manufacturing industryin a very favorable position when it comes to attracting new clients. Image | amd More information | DigiTimes Asia In Xataka | Apple had been able to maintain prices despite the crazy rise in RAM. That’s over

models point to worst El Niño in 140 years and one of the key reports is published on Thursday

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All the meteorological agencies in the world are looking at the same building on the east coast of the United States. On Thursday, May 14, before markets open, in College Park, Maryland, a room full of oceanographers and meteorologists will discuss a four-page pdf. In that pdf it will be written the future of the planet. It sounds epic, but it’s more prosaic than it seems. It will not be written clearly, sharply, or with absolute certainty: but it will be. What’s in that PDF? NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center (CPC) publishes the second Thursday of each month your ENSO Diagnostic Discussion. It is the most important report from the global El Niño monitoring systems and, from what the models are saying, the probability of a “very strong” El Niño is going to exceed 25% (and growing). But if it’s monthly… why is this specific report important? Because the index the agency uses to monitor and predict ENSO has changed. Until this year, NOAA I used ONI: an index to measure the sea surface temperature anomaly, but which does not discount the average anomaly produced by climate change. What is expected is that the predictions under the new index (I’ll call it RONI) is significantly less than under normal conditions. If the magnitudes shoot up despite the correction, things will look worse. This report is important because it is the first that will capture the “acceleration” of El Niño at full capacity. What would this entail? Each new NOAA report translates into a cascade of decisions in agricultural, energy, fishing and fire policies. He last major El Niño (2023-24) coincided with 2023 would be the second warmest year on record and 2024 the warmest ever: a strong 2026-27 El Niño could push 2027 to another global record and the impacts are not well measured. It is true that between March and May the reliability of ENSO forecasts drops sharply (because the equatorial Pacific anomalies go through their transition phase); but, in the absence of the June report, this is the best clue we have. What can we expect? We already know that there is a 61% chance that El Niño will be with us between May and July 2026. A 25% chance that it is “very strong.” The important thing to keep in mind is what that means. 61% measures the probability that the equatorial Pacific crosses the threshold of what we understand as El Niño. But, unfortunately, it does not measure how much it will rain in Cádiz, nor what will happen to the crops in Misiones, nor how many hurricanes the Yucatán will see. It is worth remembering that, during the warm phase (that is, during El Niño), the absence of strong trade winds that cool the surface of the equatorial Pacific causes the temperature of that area of ​​the ocean to skyrocket. It is this, through different atmospheric teleconnectionswhich disrupts all the weather systems in the world. What we are not clear about is exactly how. The effects are varied and change depending on the region (“drier conditions than normal in certain parts of the world; while in others it causes more precipitation. Some countries have to deal with major droughts and others with torrential rains”, says AEMET); but when we talk about temperatures there is no doubt: El Niño is synonymous with heat. Everything else remains to be written. Image | Xataka In Xataka | “It is so extreme that it is difficult to believe”: El Niño forecasts depict an event of unprecedented intensity.

“In five years, robots and AI will have to pay taxes for the middle and lower class”

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They say that the devil knows more because he is old than because he is a devil. Therefore, when it comes to have a vision of the future In the technological field, few voices have the weight of Bill Gates. After all, he was one of the avant-garde protagonists of the revolution that brought about the arrival of the personal computer into our lives. The co-founder of Microsoft gave an interview to the middle Australian Financial Review in which he presented his vision on the impact of AI on employment and warns of something that is already being debated in some political and technological circles: whether AI and robotics are going to reduce the need for laborHow will the subsistence of those who lose their jobs be guaranteed? Taxation of the future: robots that pay taxes. The millionaire exposes a concern that other technological billionaires like elon musk or Sam Altman have already expressed on numerous occasions. As Gates explained in his interview, the arrival of AI and robotics to industrial production will have a direct impact on millions of middle and lower class workers who you may lose your job without the option to return to one of the newly created jobs that are expected to replace current jobs. As Gates explained, “We have not yet reached the point where it is necessary to completely change tax structures, but we may do so within five years.” The businessman suggests that the solution could be to “shift the tax burden from labor, at least from medium or low-income workers, to capital, or specifically to the taxation of robots or artificial intelligence.” The millionaire’s proposal is that, if a robot or an algorithm occupies the position of a personthat machine should contribute financially, also replacing the employee in his tax obligations. Gates does not ask that innovation be stopped, but rather that the benefits of automation not remain solely in the hands of those who own the technology, but that the benefit of this advance be distributed to society as a whole. The debate, he insists, must occur now, before the displacement of workers is irreversible. On the verge of an inevitable transformation. The Microsoft founder acknowledges that the current focus is on the productivity offered by AI and robots, but points out that his real concern is how governments are going to manage the displacement of human workers from their jobs. It is not a question of if it will happen (something the millionaire takes for granted), but of when and with what speed. The International Monetary Fund has already warned that up to 40% of global jobs have some degree of exposure to AI, with a special impact on middle-class workers and administrative positions, much more susceptible to automation with AI. Gates argues that governments must begin to design fiscal policies adapted to an economy where a growing percentage of the work will not be done by a contributing employee, but will fall to automated systems. Most AI companies will fail. In his speech, the technology millionaire also left room to analyze the current scenario of technology companies participating in the AI ​​race, and he does so with a serious warning: “If you chose the right company, like Microsoft, Google or Apple, you will have done very well. But most AI companies will fail. It is difficult for a non-technical investor to distinguish which ones will prosper.” The businessman advises not to get carried away inflated valuations and bet on established names. The notice comes at a time of massive investment in AI projects, with prices that skyrocket the capitalization of these companies even before having demonstrated that their products They are really competitive. As in the Internet boom of the late 1990s with the dotcomwhen the dust settles only a few actors will still be standing. Global competition and monopoly risk. Beyond the impact on AI employment, Gates warned about geopolitical competition in the development of this technology in this kind of space race that we are living. “What we are seeing now is fierce competition.” China, for example, offers AI models for free, which puts pressure on other companies to set very low prices. “China offers free models and the rest of the companies offer very, very low prices. We would not want a single country or a single company to be the only one good at AI. But I do not see things going that way, at least for now,” said the millionaire in the face of the technological race for AI that the US and China are starring. In Xataka | While technology companies dispense with juniors to replace them with AI, IBM is doing the opposite: catching bargains Image | Flickr, amazon

There is a “nuclear” gift from Russia to North Korea off the coast of Spain

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In the 1990s, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, many Western experts began to fear that Russian scientists and military technology would end arriving in North Korea through opaque means, silently fueling Pyongyang’s weapons programs. Since then, every strange move between Moscow and the North Korean regime has been observed with a mixture of concern, secrecy and suspicions that are difficult to prove. A collapse full of unknowns. counted this morning CNN in an extensive report that the sinking of the Russian freighter Ursa Major off the Spanish coast has ended up becoming one of the strangest and most opaque stories to emerge around the Ukrainian war, as well as one of the most delicate. Officiallythe ship suffered several explosions in December 2024 before sinking in the Mediterranean. However, from the first moment they began to accumulate details difficult to fit into the version of a simple maritime accident: a cargo absurdly described as “manhole covers”, a Russian military escort for much of the journey, strange maneuvers before the sinking, subsequent explosions on the wreck and a very unusual silence from both Moscow and the Spanish authorities. Little by little, the case began to look less like a conventional shipwreck and more a strategic operation that went wrong in the middle of an extremely sensitive geopolitical context. The suspicion that changes everything. The great suspicion arose when Spanish researchers and sources cited by CNN They began to point out that the Ursa Major could transport nuclear reactor components similar to those used in Russian submarines. The captain himself would have ended up admitting to Spanish investigators that those supposed “manhole covers” were actually linked pieces to two naval reactors, although he claimed not to know if they contained nuclear fuel. The most disturbing hypothesis is that the final destination was not Vladivostok, despite officially appearing on the route, but the North Korean port of Rason. That is where the story takes on a completely different dimension, because the sinking would no longer be just a maritime incident, but the possible interruption of a technology transfer extremely sensitive between Moscow and Pyongyang, just after North Korea sent thousands of soldiers to support Russia in the Ukrainian war. The WC-135 off Spain. The arrival of the WC-135 aircraft Americans was the detail that definitively set off all the alarms. These planes, known as “nuke sniffers,” are not just any aircraft: they are extremely specialized platforms designed to detect radioactive traces and analyze nuclear contamination in the atmosphere. Washington normally uses them to monitor nuclear tests, atomic accidents or sensitive activity in places like the Russian Arctic or Iran, in any case, not to routinely fly over the Mediterranean off Spain. that the United States will send twice These devices over the area where the Ursa Major rests immediately fueled the suspicion that he feared something much more serious than a simple shipwreck. Although there is no public confirmation of radioactive contamination, the simple deployment of these planes left a sensation that is very difficult to ignore: Russia could have had a nuclear “gift” destined for North Korea sunk in front of Europe. Let us remember that a few months later, Kim Yong Un showed the world his alleged nuclear submarine. Explosions, spy ships and an uncomfortable wreck. The sequence after the sinking made the story even stranger. According to the research quoted by CNNthe ship did not seem doomed to sink immediately after the first explosions. However, hours after Spanish rescue resources arrived, the Russian ship Ivan Gren It launched red flares over the area and new explosions were recorded, detected even by Spanish seismic systems. Days later it also appeared the Yantarofficially a Russian research ship but designated for years by NATO as spy platform submarine. He remained on the wreck for several days before to register more explosions underwater. All of this continued to fuel the theory that Moscow may have attempted to destroy sensitive evidence at the bottom of the Mediterranean, especially if the ship was carrying advanced military nuclear technology or compromised documentation related to North Korea. The theory of silent sabotage. Another of the most surprising aspects of the investigation is the possibility that the Ursa Major was attacked with an extremely unusual weapon. The Spanish authorities are handling the hypothesis of a small hole just 50 centimeters caused by a supercavitating torpedo Barracuda typea weapon capable of moving at very high speed by reducing the friction of water using a gas bubble. The disturbing thing about this type of torpedoes is that they can pierce a hull without necessarily generating a large audible explosion, something that would fit with the account of the Russian captain, who stated not having heard no impact as the ship began to lose speed. Other experts believe the use of limpet mines or attached charges to the helmet. In any case, the mere fact that sophisticated sabotage is contemplated in waters near Spain reveals to what extent the case has stopped looking like a conventional accident. The reflection of a new alliance. Beyond the concrete mystery of the Ursa Majorthe case reflects something even more important: the rapid rapprochement between Russia and North Korea. For years, Moscow avoided crossing certain lines related to the transfer of strategic military technology to Pyongyang. However, the war in Ukraine has changed many priorities. As we have been countingNorth Korea contributes ammunition, missiles and soldiers, and Russia could be returning the favor with technical knowledge much more sensitive. The images released months later of the sinking with Kim Jong Un showing the helmet of a supposed North Korean nuclear submarine fit closely with this possibility. If there really was an attempt to move Russian naval reactors to North Korea, the sinking of the Ursa Major could represent one of the most important (and most secret) episodes of the new military relationship between both countries. Whatever it is is still in the Mediterranean. To this day, the wreck remains at about 2,500 meters deep … Read more

The RAM memory crisis is complicating the task of upgrading a PC, but there are alternatives if you don’t want to spend a fortune

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Straight to the point: if you want to upgrade or build a PC right now, you’re going to have to dig deep into your pocket. The price of RAM it’s shot right nowsomething that It is already being extended to storage as well.. But what if you have no choice and need to upgrade your PC or a new one in parts? Assuming that RAM is going to cost you more than it did a year ago, There are alternatives to spend less money. There are certain aspects to take into account that we will talk about a little further down, but in order not to spend a small fortune, the most economical option is to get some 32GB DDR4 RAM like these from Corsair: we have them available for 199.99 euros. CORSAIR VENGEANCE LPX DDR4 RAM 32GB (2x16GB) 3200MHz CL16-20-20-38 1.35V Intel AMD Desktop Computer Memory – Black (CMK32GX4M2E3200C16) The price could vary. We earn commission from these links An especially interesting option if your PC is already a few years old Let’s go in parts. The first thing to take into account is the price, obviously. The price history of this article tells us that these RAM memory modules They have been between 50 and 60 euros before the month of August last 2025. Obviously, if we compare those prices with what it costs now, it is obvious that the same product costs much more. But of course, it must be seen from the perspective of the current price crisis suffered by these components. It’s not all bad news. These same modules They cost more than 280 euros in February of this yearan absurdly high price. So are they worth buying right now? The situation with the RAM does not seem to be getting better in the short term, but it is 32 GB of DDR4 RAM, which means that you have to take some things into account before buying them. If you already have a PC at home and it is already a few years old, then DDR4 RAM is a very interesting option. It is much cheaper than DDR5 which, despite offering more performancehas an even more skyrocketing price. In addition, this DDR4 memory offers more than enough performance for simple tasks such as office automation, Internet browsing or even undemanding games. DDR5 RAM prices are still high, but not as high as a few months ago Now, imagine that you want to build a PC and you want the most current so that it lasts longer. Here the ideal would be to go for DDR5 RAM, but the problem is, as you can imagine, the price. Among everything that there is right now, we also have from Corsair these two 32 GB modules per 399.99 euros. Yes, they have a very high price (more so if we take into account that they cost around 120 euros last year), but they have reached over 500 euros. CORSAIR Vengeance DDR5 RAM 32GB (2x16GB) up to 6000MHz CL36 Intel XMP 3.0 Desktop Computer Memory – Black (CMK32GX5M2B6000C36) The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Keep in mind that your motherboard and processor must be compatible with this memory, so if your PC is a few years old, you will also have to update these components. Now, in return, we will have a longer PC and that will also allow us to upgrade to other components in the future without spending too much. Other Corsair RAM memories that may interest you CORSAIR Vengeance DDR5 RAM 32GB (2x16GB) 6000MHz CL36-44-44-96 1.35V AMD Expo & Intel XMP Desktop Computer Memory – White (CMK32GX5M2E6000Z36W) The price could vary. We earn commission from these links CORSAIR VENGEANCE RGB PRO DDR4 RAM 32GB (2x16GB) 3200MHz CL16-20-20-38 1.35V Intel AMD Desktop Computer Memory – Black (CMW16GX4M2C3200C16) The price could vary. We earn commission from these links CORSAIR Vengeance DDR5 RAM 32GB (2x16GB) up to 6000MHz CL30 AMD Expo Intel XMP 3.0 Desktop Computer Memory – Gray (CMK32GX5M2B6000Z30) 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 | corsair In Xataka | DDR4 or DDR5? What RAM to choose so as not to pay even more than necessary in the middle of the price crisis In Xataka | Buy and assemble your PC in parts: guide to choosing processor, SSD, RAM and graphics card

The Golden Age of television is over. Specifically, when Netflix assumed it was the second screen in your preferences

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There’s a note that Netflix executives have been writing on the scripts they receive for years: “this is not enough second screen“. That is to say, it is not “second screen” enough, that the scene forces the viewer to pay attention. Apparently, paying attention to the series is now a problem. And although This has been talked about for months.it is now that it is being named. The problem is cataloged. And above all, it raises a vital question: is television ceasing to be creativity and innovation and becoming, once again, background noise? Origins. One of the triggers for this conversation was an article published in December 2024 in the literary magazine ‘n+1’. Its author collected the testimonies of several scriptwriters who had worked for Netflix: A common note from the platform’s executives was to ask the characters to announce out loud what they were doing, so that viewers who had the series playing in the background could follow the thread without having to look at the screen. The article went viral a year or so ago, and gave a name to something that many suspected: Netflix not only tolerated its users being distracted from what was seen on the screen, but also designed its content to encourage that distraction. Second screen. If we look at previous studies on Netflix’s footprint in fictional narrative, we can name the phenomenon: researcher Daphne Rena Idiz had published a study called ‘Local Production for Global Platforms: How Netflix Shapes European Production Cultures’, in which it described how Netflix internally labeled certain series as “second-screen shows” and developed them accordingly. One of their interviewees, for example, explained that the platform had even asked them that, if a character was sad, they expressly said so while crying and violins playing in the background. The logic. Another producer interviewed by Idiz related that Netflix had literally told them: “what you have to know about your audience is that they will watch the series while doing something else and talking to their friends, so you have to show and tell, you have to say a lot more than you would normally say.” And all this is pure commercial logic: what matters is not that the user pays attention to the screen (that’s how traditional advertising worked), but that they do not cancel their subscription. The content should not be boring, but it should not require effort either. When a study in January 2025 made it clear that 91% of Americans looked at their cell phones from time to time while watching a series, it is clear that Netflix is ​​not going against the current. Whether it is part of the problem or its true germ, it is obvious that Netflix is ​​fully riding this wave. More precedents. None of this is new: already during the actors’ strike of 2023, the first steps in this direction began to be detected. Actress and director Justine Bateman declared in a podcast who had spoken with showrunners that they received notes from the platforms telling them that their content “was not sufficiently second screen“, and proposed a term for that: “visual muzak“, television as elevator music. Even earlier, in November 2020, writer Kyle Chayka had coined the concept of “ambient TV“ to describe a sliver of Netflix’s catalog (‘Emily in Paris’ was its prime example) that it defined as content that “you don’t need to follow closely to enjoy, but that is seductive enough to capture your attention if you decide to watch it for a moment.” The proportions. From Serialized They explained that the data collected through Big Data had even determined which was the perfect series, and that it fits with these content decisions that we have seen: the perfect genre is a procedural (doctors, firefighters, detectives, lawyers), it must include a twist or hook visual every eight minutes, a proportion of 70% plot and 30% character development, and the aforementioned explanatory dialogues so as not to get lost. On the contrary. There are those who deny all these visions of work at Netflix which, let’s not forget, do not come from official sources. In this articlethree scriptwriters who had written for the platform claimed to have not received instructions of that type. Screenwriter Danny Brocklehurst, known for his adaptations of Harlan Coben, stated that no one had pressured him to simplify his work or adapt it for distracted viewers. Idiz herself warned in her study that it is advisable not to generalize, since Netflix operates in more than 190 countries with very different production teams and cultures. Something old, something new. The soap operas, the sitcoms of the eighties, the reality shows They have been designed for decades with the partially distracted viewer in mind. It is not new to create content that works in the background, but it is striking to do so when the platforms of streaming Current ones, preceded by the cable era where brands like HBO were born, are sold to us as quality alternatives to conventional television. The Golden Age of Television did not refer to ‘The Price is Right’, but if ‘The Sopranos’ were produced now, it would need a spin every eight minutes. In Xataka | In 2023, watching Netflix without ads cost 7.99 euros/month. Today its cheapest plan with ads costs 8.99 euros/month

Corning has the solution to accelerate Nvidia chips even more

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There are good reasons why a company of Nvidia’s stature would want to collaborate with a company like Corning, specialists in manufacturing the glass that protects our mobile phones. Corning offers more products than your Gorilla Glassand that is precisely what Jensen Huang’s company is interested in. And it is that Nvidia is going to invest about 3.2 billion dollars at the glass manufacturer with the intention of multiplying the optical connectivity production capacity on US soil tenfold. What’s on the table. The financial scope of the agreement has been revealed in parts. It was initially announced that Nvidia would receive warrants (stock purchase rights) to acquire up to 15 million Corning shares at a price of $180 per share, representing a potential investment of up to $3.2 billion. Added to this is a pre-financed warrant for another additional 500 million. But the CEO of Nvidia confirmed on CNBC that the company has also made “a prepayment of several billion dollars” to finance the construction of the new factories, a figure that was not part of the initial official announcement and whose exact amount has not been made public either. Fiber optics are the thing. The data centers that power AI They house hundreds of thousands of GPUs that must communicate with each other continuously and at high speed. For decades, this communication has been carried out using copper cables, and in fact for short-distance connections within the rack (from the server to the switch), they are still used, but fiber optics end up being superior in everything, both in terms of speed, energy consumption and lower signal loss. Which Nvidia has in mind. The technical term at the center of this agreement is co-packaged optics, which refers to the integration of glass fiber directly into chip systems, progressively replacing copper cables. Inside Nvidia rack systems (such as the Vera Rubin) there are currently about 5,000 copper cables that could be replaced by Corning fiber optics. Already at last year’s GTC, Huang rated this technology “essential for the deployment of AI.” The company has been preparing the ground for months: in March invested $4 billion in Coherent and Lumentumtwo companies specializing in lasers and components that convert data between light and electrical signals, which then travel through Corning fiber cables. Who else is in the race. Nvidia is not the only one betting on this technology. Its competitors Broadcom and Marvell They have already launched similar productsand Intel also develops its own co-integrated optics solutions. For its part, Corning already had Meta as a reference client. In fact, Zuckerberg’s company announced an agreement of up to 6 billion dollars for Corning to expand its optical cables plant in Hickory, North Carolina. The alliance with Nvidia now adds three more facilities and multiplies the company’s optical connectivity manufacturing capacity in the United States by ten, in addition to increasing its fiber production by more than 50%. ““Made in America”. The agreement comes precisely at a time when the Trump administration is pushing to relocate technological supply chains that have been built for decades in Asia (Taiwan, China or Vietnam). Huang counted to CNBC that “it is an extraordinary opportunity to reinvest and revitalize American manufacturing for the first time in generations.” According to the CEO of NVIDIA, the tech sector would not be the only one to benefit, since the construction and operation of these data centers generates demand for electricians, construction workers, chip manufacturing operators and infrastructure specialists. “The skilled worker shortage and demand are incredibly high,” mentioned Huang in the middle. Converted company. Corning has become another of those companies that have seen their business benefit from the AI ​​boom. And the signature accumulates an increase of more than 300% in the last year, driven by its repositioning towards the AI ​​market and moving away from its best-known image as a manufacturer of glass for mobile screens. In Xataka | If the question is whether using ChatGPT or Claude in English is more efficient and saves tokens, the answer is: yes

Spain wants 90% of the people on this map to have an AVE station 30 minutes away. There is small print

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The Ministry of Transport and Urban Mobility wants to turn the train into one of the great mobility axes of our country. To this end, the objective has been proposed to promote the use of high speed in the west of the Iberian Peninsula. The project has a clear headline: an AVE station half an hour away for 90% of the inhabitants of the Atlantic corridor. What has been announced? 9% of the population of the Atlantic Corridor will have access to a high-speed station within half an hour in 2030. This is the conclusion reached by the Territorial accessibility analysis carried out by the Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobilitythrough the Office of the Commissioner of the Atlantic Corridor. If the plans are fulfilled, the Ministry assures that in less than five years a total of 62 high-speed stations will be ready, spread across 28 provinces and 11 autonomous communities. The jump will have to be substantial because right now there are 33 stations available with high-speed service distributed in 8 autonomous communities and 19 provinces. What is the Atlantic Corridor? Within the mobility of the European Union, the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) defines nine major corridors to define your roadmap and investments. These corridors are large spaces through which a very important part of the citizens of the European Union and their goods move. In the different corridors, therefore, all mobility nodes are taken into account, from ports and airports to railways and roads. In the case of the Atlantic Corridor we are talking about a set of communication nodes that link the south of Germany with Paris and the entire west coast of France with Spain (on its western slope) and Portugal, culminating in the Cádiz area. In these moments, the Atlantic Corridor as it passes through our country offers the following data: 5,400 kilometers of railway tracks 2,900 kilometers of roads Nine seaports Five international airports Nine intermodal stations Four cross-border crossings with Portugal or France And it is linked to 13 autonomous communities and 40 provinces By train. Among the infrastructures designed to facilitate movement through all these places is the train. And, specifically, the boost to high speed that the European Union wants to give to encourage the use of this means of transport instead of the plane. These investments, according to the Ministry of Transport, will have to be completed before December 31, 2030 and represent an investment of 3,123 million euros. It must be taken into account that the European Union has been demanding better connectivity by train from Spain and Portugal than should crystallize with a Madrid-Lisbon in 2030. But It won’t be until 2034 when this line is completely a high-speed route. What does it imply? In order to achieve the milestone set by the European Union, it will be necessary for Spain to complete the “Basque Y”, the high-speed project that has been underway for more than 20 years to provide the region with a qualitative leap in railway connections. that seem not to arrive. Additionally, the entire project will need to be completed to connect Spain with Portugal through Extremaduraa journey in which, at the moment, it is not always possible to travel at high speed. And it will also be necessary to bring high speed to Huelva. 90% with small print. The big headline, as we said, is that 90% of the population of the Atlantic Corridor will have a high-speed station less than half an hour from their home… as long as such a station exists in their province. Here is the headline’s trick, if the province does not have a high-speed station, the percentage drops drastically in some cases. For example, in the press release no reference is made to Salamancaone of the conflicting points when talking about high speed in the Atlantic Corridor. The European Union roadmap marks a connection between the Spanish city and Porto but there is little progress in this regard. Another of the region’s usual demands is also discarded: recover the Vía de la Plata railway. The truth is that this project is neither here nor expected. Other data must also be taken carefully. The Ministry of Transport says that 100% of the inhabitants of the Basque Country will have access to a high-speed train station… but in this case less than an hour away and not 30 minutes. La Rioja will also make a qualitative leap, from the current 14% to 99% although no high-speed train stops in the region. These data lead us to the fact that, in 2030, 70% of the population of the Atlantic Corridor will have a high-speed station less than an hour from their home. The Ministry of Transport puts this number at 26.8 million people. Some controversies. However, having a high-speed line close to home does not mean that we have a high-speed train that is always accessible. Spain, the second country with the most high-speed roads in the world (second only to China), is a good example of how a poorly studied growth ended with high speed stations with very little traffic. Nor does living in a provincial capital guarantee that the train always stops. A paradigmatic example of this is Zamorawhere they fight so that more high-speed trains that cover the Galician corridor stop at their stop. And sometimes, The best solution is to offer high-speed stations in the middle of nowhereas a link between large populations. Increasing the number of high-speed stations does not automatically mean having ample schedules to take a high-speed train. However, this shouldn’t be bad in and of itself. A good example is Japan’s dense high-speed network where there are trains that stop exceptionally between origin and destination and others that dot their journey with more or fewer stops. Of course, there the density of passage in the number of trains facilitates mobility and the connection between “fast” trains and those that stop more frequently. Photo | Adif In Xataka | High speed in Madrid … Read more

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