Month: May 2026

Best MediaMarkt deals on technology and entertainment, today May 9

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This week MediaMarkt has launched a good assortment of discounts through its campaigns. There is a lot to choose from with Apple computers at quite a discount, the Nintendo Switch 2 with a free video game and even a very attractive Samsung television. Do you want to know which are the best offers? We are going to review them in this article. Mac mini M4 by 679 eurosone of Apple’s best value for money devices. Samsung TQ55S93FAEXXC by 949 eurosan excellent TV to enjoy movies and series. nintendo switch 2 by 479 eurosthe hybrid console along with a video game from the Super Mario saga. HyperX Cloud III by 49.99 eurosone wired headphones almost at the lowest price in the store. ‘Star Fox’ (Nintendo Switch 2) by 49.99 eurosthe remake of the iconic Nintendo saga. Nintendo Switch 2 + Super Mario Bros. Wonder + keychain The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Mac mini M4 He Mac mini M4 It remains one of Apple’s best value devices, especially when it’s on sale. It is so small that it fits in the palm of your hand, does not make noise even in the summer heat and rides the M4 chipthus offering excellent performance at all times. It is ideal for studying and even for working (it is the computer that I use every day) and now it is on sale for 679 euros. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Samsung TQ55S93FAEXXC If you are looking for a good television to enjoy movies and series, be careful because MediaMarkt has the model Samsung TQ55S93FAEXXC by 949 euros. It is a TV with OLED panel technology and anti-reflective treatment, its diagonal is 55 inches and its audio system is compatible with Dolby Atmos. In addition, it is compatible with both Alexa and Google Assistant. Samsung TQ55S93FAEXXC (55 inches) The price could vary. We earn commission from these links nintendo switch 2 There are only a few days left for MediaMarkt to finalize the offer it has in the nintendo switch 2. The console can be purchased for 449 euros or in a pack for 479 euros. In the latter case it includes the video game ‘Super Mario Bros. Wonder‘ along with a ‘Mario Kart World’ keychain. In any case, we are talking about two of the best offers that the store has had to date on the Nintendo Switch 2. Nintendo Switch 2 + Super Mario Bros. Wonder + keychain The price could vary. We earn commission from these links HyperX Cloud III If you are looking for good wired headphones to enjoy your favorite video games, MediaMarkt will have the HyperX Cloud III by 49.99 euros. They are wired headphones compatible with 3.5 mm, USB-C and USB-A (includes adapters), works on computers, on consoles PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4, also on Nintendo Switch (1 and 2), on consoles Xbox Series XXbox Series S and Xbox One and, of course, on mobile phones. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links ‘Star Fox’ (Nintendo Switch 2) One of Nintendo’s most beloved franchises returns in ‘Star Fox‘, a remake of ‘Star Fox 64‘ and you can now reserve it in some stores. MediaMarkt has it right now in physical form for 49.99 euroswhich is what the digital edition costs. It will be released for Nintendo Switch 2 next June 25but you can reserve now. Star Fox (Nintendo Switch 2) – Physical Edition 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 | MediaMarkt and Compradicción (header), Apple, Samsung, Nintendo, HyperX In Xataka | Best televisions in quality price. Which one to buy and seven recommended 4K smart TVs In Xataka | Best wireless headphones. Which one to buy and 21 models from 15 euros to 470 euros

In 1962, someone donated shares in a company to the elderly in his town. The company was Nokia and today they live like millionaires

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There are stories that seem taken from a Hollywood script. That of Onni Nurmi, a young Finnish entrepreneur, has a name, surname, date and even a street named after him. The story of our protagonist It has all the elements for a script worthy of an Oscar: a man who was born in misery, fell into debt with his neighbors, crossed the Atlantic to settle his outstanding accounts and returned to his country. Decades after he died, he has become the greatest benefactor of his people. All this, for having donated to the nursing home in his town the shares of a rubber company that did not attract anyone’s attention. A Nurmi always pays his debts Onni Nurmi was born in 1885 in Savijoki, a small town within the municipality of Pukkila, in Finland, a town of just under 1,700 inhabitants. Nurmi grew up in a humble home marked by the hardships of being raised by a single mother who worked in the fields and ran a small canning store in the town. When she died unexpectedly at age 49, Onni was only 13 years old and had no future in Pukkila, so he moved to Helsinki. In 1912, he returned to Pukkila and resumed the family business by opening a store. However, his business did not work out. The following year, indebted to dozens of neighborstook a ship to America and spent 15 years working as a game warden in Minnesota. When he returned in 1928, he went door to door paying off every outstanding debt owed to Pukkila residents, some of them incurred a decade earlier. He didn’t do it because no one demanded it. Onni was simply that type of person. Onni Nurmi. Source: Kylä Savijoki Helsinki’s most unlikely investor With his debts paid off, Onni moved back to Helsinki, where he worked as a property manager and led an orderly, quiet life. He never married or had children. At some point he discovered investments in the stock market and, without financial training and with the only help of his intuition, he decided to buy shares of a small company that manufactured paper, rubber, rubber tires and boots which had its headquarters in the city that gave it its name: Nokia. In 1959 he wrote his will and decided to leave all the shares of that company that manufactured wellies to the municipality of Pukkila, with two conditions: They should never be sold and his donation was to be used solely for the well-being of the town’s elders. Onni Nurmi died in 1962 at the age of 77. The 780 shares he donated to the town where he had lived most of his life were then worth about $30,000, the equivalent of about $320,000 today. His gesture was undoubtedly generous, but not extraordinary…yet. The Buffett Effect: Let Time Do Its Work The clause preventing the sale of the shares seemed a problem at first. If the town had been able to cash in on the stock portfolio at any time, it would have obtained funds to improve the nursing home. However, the will was blunt on that point: shares had to be keptand they could only use dividends that these actions will generate over time. However, what seemed like a limitation to local authorities eventually became the best investment decision anyone in Pukkila could have made. The will was forcing them to apply a technique that for more than six decades has become a millionaire to Warren Buffett: leave let time do its work. Throughout the 80s and 90s, Nokia left rubber boots behind to become the largest mobile phone manufacturer in the world, position he held between 1998 and 2012. The original 780 shares that Nurmi had donated multiplied by a thousand due to its growth in the stock market and the overwhelming sales domain of their phones. At the height of the technology boom, Pukkila’s portfolio was valued at around 90 million dollarsmaking their Pukkila retirees the most prosperous in Finland, at least on paper. What do we do with so much money? The prosperity of the actions opened a new debate among the residents of Pukkila. They were sitting on a fortune and doing nothing to profit from it. In 1997, the city council proposed selling part of the shares to diversify the portfolio and reduce the risk of a hypothetical fall of Nokia. Not everyone agreed. A section of the town argued that selling the shares was against Nurmi’s will. Another sector even proposed that the benefits be used so that residents would not pay municipal taxes for 12 years. Given the disagreement, the debate reached the courts and lasted for several years. Ironically, the “Buffett effect” came into play again, and the judicial paralysis was the best possible news for the people’s coffers: while the issue of the sale of shares was being settled in court, Nokia shares did not stop increase its value. The courts finally approved an agreement by which the municipality could sell a part of the portfolio and diversify its funds, always respecting the original will of the will to support the town’s elders. as main beneficiaries of those actions. With that money the Onni Wellness Centeropened in 2008. The building stands on Onnintie Street (which in Finnish literally means Happiness Street) and includes sheltered housing, spaces for people with memory disorders, a health center, pharmacy, swimming pool, gym, library, cafeteria and a Japanese garden. All this in a municipality of less than 2,000 inhabitants. Onni Nurmi never imagined the magnitude of his donation decades after his death, but in some ways, he more than repaid the patience his neighbors had in waiting decades to pay off their debt. In Xataka | Giving money away wasn’t enough: Warren Buffett turned Christmas into an investing masterclass for his family Image | Unsplash (Pawel Czerwinski, Joe Zlomek, MW), Kylä Savijoki.

Germany is the European mecca of the combustion car. That Spain becomes the electricity supplier goes through Mérida and 800 million Chinese

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Hunan Yuneng International Spain New Energy Battery Material SLU already has its excavator blades in Mérida. The Chinese battery manufacturing company You already have the land and have obtained the building license from the town hall, so the preparation work on the ground has already been visible for a few days. The speed with which one of the strategic electric car factories is materializing is scandalous: in February we were talking of environmental approval and be careful because it is expected that be operational at the end of the year. That Hunan Yuneng has achieved it in such a short time says a lot about both parties involved. The factory is going from strength to strength. The plant will produce cathode materials for cells LFP batteriesmore specifically lithium iron phosphate, a technology that is emerging due to its lower cost, greater durability and better thermal resistance. As collects Badajoz Newsthis project involves an investment of close to 800 million, will have a productive capacity of up to 300,000 tons per year and will directly generate 500 jobs. According to MotorpasiónIn this first phase there will be an initial investment of about 116–125 million euros of investment and about 160 direct jobs. One of the most revealing developments about the real status of the project is the appearance of an auxiliary satellite industry: the Chinese company Jinhong Gas has constituted formally in Mérida the company ‘Jinhong Gas (Spain) SL’ to directly supply the Hunan Yuneng plant with nitrogen, an essential element for the manufacture of LFP cathode materials. Why is it important. Because it is one of the largest industrial investments captured by Extremadura and the first plant of this type in Europe, as explains the Junta de Extremadura. This makes Mérida strategic, a reference for the European automobile industry from the moment it is operational. LFP batteries are the key to cheap electric cars: they are more affordable because lithium and iron are cheaper than nickel or cobalt and they are also safer and resist charging cycles better, which makes them more durable. It is true that its energy density is lower than those of NMC chemicals, but due to longevity and cost they are ideal in the entry or medium segment, precisely where Europe needs it most compared to China. Furthermore, producing the cathode material on European soil is almost a necessity by law and a process that opens doors to aid such as Auto+ plan. Context: the lithium triangle. Extremadura has been gaining weight in the electric car supply chain for years. In Navalmoral de la Mata there is already a plant in the oven to produce complete batteries. It was initially intended for NMC batteries, but has pivoted to manufacture LFP accumulators. On the other hand, in the surroundings of Cáceres it is believed that there is one of the largest lithium deposits in Europealthough exploiting it is another story: is paralyzed after the neighborhood opposition and environmental platforms. However, the European Commission has mineral and rare earth exploitation projects in its portfolio. three located in Extremadura of the seven total in the Spanish state. Unblocking it would mean that the region could control extraction, cathode material production and battery assembly, all in the same territory: just what the Critical Raw Materials Act It has been encouraging for years without much success. The manufacturing of electric cars and their parts in Spain speaks Chinese. Chinese brands have understood that the way to avoid European tariffs on vehicles manufactured in China is that they have a shortcut to negotiations with Brussels: produce directly on European soil. Spain, which abstained from voting on those tariffshas become your favorite destination. Yes, but. The structural weak point that we have already reflected but that is worth remembering: the factory will produce lithium iron phosphate, but the lithium it needs to do so will not come from Extremadura, but probably from Australia, Chile or again China. According to the IEA report on critical minerals 2023China controls more than 60% of global lithium refining, so strategic sovereignty is relative. On the other hand, we also have to keep an eye on employment: the experience with other Chinese plants in Europe, such as lfrom CATL in Zaragozahas generated debate about what proportion of the initial qualified personnel comes from the investing country. It’s fine print that should be on the table and resolved before the machinery is operational. In Xataka | MG, BYD, Lynk&Co, Omoda: who’s who of Chinese car manufacturers in Spain In Xataka | China appears to dominate the global market for electric car batteries. He has an obvious Achilles heel Cover | Michael Fousert and Rafa Esteve

someone has built a map with more than 7,000 letters

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At its peak, the Roman Empire It covered three continents: from Great Britain to the Carpathians in Europe, North Africa and Asia Minor, an immense terrain under the umbrella of the same civilization. The Romans They had more roads than we thoughtbut to govern, negotiate and maintain power at a distance they used cards. Precisely these epistles have served to document how that civilization faded away, but also how they lived and thought. The problem is that these letters were scattered, in Latin and in academic editions, which in practice distances them from most mortals. So a dev has thought of changing it with a website that collects more than 7,000 letters from the late Roman world: Roman Letters. What is Roman Letters. It is a website that brings together 7,049 letters from 100 to 800 AD and constitutes the largest corpus of late Roman correspondence in English, with 54 collections of epistles by individual authors. In reality, the project tells a story in eight chapters, from the fervent connection of the 11th-century Empire to the silence that falls on the West after the year 600. And it does so precisely with those letters translated and accompanied by a map of the correspondence, a graph of networks between characters, an academic thesis and the source code on GitHub. The good thing is that the same can be used for academic research, to analyze networks or specific periods, since the project is registered in the CERN academic repository and can be cited, but also as complementary material in teaching or mere curiosity. Letter 1001, from Pliny the Younger to Septitius Who has done it. The project is carried out by Craig Vander Galiena software developer who was inspired by Patrick Wyman’s doctoral research on the fall of Rome to develop it. The dev signs both the data corpus and the academic thesis that supports it. There is no university behind it or institutional funding, but rather it is an individual work. The result is impressive, but the effort is even more so: it has 3,123 translations into English made for the first time, which means bringing some of this material closer to the Anglo-Saxon world. Why is it important. Because the decline of Rome can be seen graphically: in the period of greatest correspondence activity (the years 350 and 390) 2,112 letters survive per generation. In the year 600, that number drops to 182. When the roads deteriorate, the postal system disappears and literacy is concentrated in the monasteries, then it is the end of letters. This project demonstrates it with testimonies, maps and graphs. On the other hand, it shows that historians such as Peter Brown They are right: the Eastern Roman Empire did not collapse in the 5th century, since thousands of letters continued to be sent. It came to an end two centuries later, with the Arab conquests. Roman roads and communication flows. Roman Letters How to use it. If you enter out of curiosity, the easiest thing is to access the main page, scroll down and let the eight chapters tell the story from ‘The connected world’ to ‘After the letters stopped’. Each letter takes you to the author’s collection, where you can see the complete available letters and their context. If you prefer something more visual, you can use the ‘Maps’ sections to view the cartographies with Roman roads and the flow of superimposed charts, being able to filter or move the timeline. For more advanced use, the network graph in ‘Network’ shows who was writing to whom and who were the central nodes of the system. And a recommendation to contextualize everything better: take a look at Vander Galien’s methodological thesis. The fall of Rome, in letters The decline of the Empire, in letters. Among the very interesting topics in which the correspondence is classified, there are some such as plagues and famine or women, but there is a common event that marks a before and after in the perception of the Romans about their destiny: the sacking of Rome in 410. An example: Epistle 127 of Jerome of Strydon. One of the voices that best captures the end of the West is Sidonius ApolinarGallo-Roman aristocrat and bishop of Auvergne who, with more than 100 letters, constitutes a first-hand source for knowing the history of the 5th century in Gaul. Yes, but. It is worth remembering that despite the effort and size of the project, this corpus only includes what has survived and what remains is a biased sample: a good part are from ecclesiastical figures or from the high aristocracy, so there is a lack of voices that are not from the upper class (whether they knew how to write or not) to better understand what their society was like. The decrease in the number of letters shows the collapse of the elite’s communication networks, which can be extrapolated to the entire society. On the other hand, those unpublished translations are valuable, but the peer review process is missing. Not that they are incorrect, but they should be taken with caution like any other unreviewed source. In Xataka | Someone has created the definitive interactive map of the roads of the Roman Empire: there are more than we thought In Xataka | The death of one empire is the birth of another: the graph that reviews the history of civilizations from 4,000 years ago Cover | János Szüdi and Cover | Valentin de Boulogne and Tataryn

psychologists see something much deeper

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Look next time you go to eat at a restaurant or cafeteria with family or friends. When the waiter comes to remove the plates to serve the next course or because the meal has finished, someone at the table, spontaneously and instinctively, will bring the plates closer or group them even before the waiter arrives to make his task easier. It is an almost imperceptible gesture for most, but according to the psychologist Francisco Tabernerothis very common and spontaneous gesture can reveal much more information than it may seem. “That simple gesture of helping the waiter means several things,” says Tabernero. It’s not just good education Beyond being a gesture of good manners, the act of selflessly and spontaneously carrying out a collaborative action with the waiter shows two personality traits very well defined main ones. Tabernero highlights that, on the one hand, “providing selfless help to the waiter denotes a trait of empathy,” which is manifested by “helping simply out of altruism.” This behavior can be considered a sign of what psychologists call prosocial attitude. That is, voluntary behaviors that benefit other people without seeking any direct compensation or recognition. People who help clear the table at the end of a meal may be demonstrating internal capabilities such as empathy, humility and social responsibility, which are often not seen at first glance but which have significant weight, even in the professional environment. Although the studies carried out Regarding this type of behavior, they attribute much of the credit to acquired habits and parental modeling. There is also evidence that this type of behavior connects directly with an active understanding of other people’s efforts. Deficit in assertiveness and social judgment Likewise, Tabernero highlights that this behavior can also demonstrate a type of passive assertiveness, which “causes excessive fear of the negative evaluation of others. This trait is observed in people who are excessively helpful both to their acquaintances and to their strangers.” According to the psychologist, “sometimes it is no longer just that altruistic gesture, but rather a need to please and avoid being negatively evaluated prevails. It is a need to ‘be well seen’.” What all recruiters are looking for: team spirit The expert also recognizes some features of prosocial behavior represented in the proactive initiative of collaborating with the waiter to make his contribution to ensuring that the work that occupies his attention at that moment (clearing the table) is carried out. with the greatest speed and efficiency possible, showing involvement even when it is an unrelated task. This collaborative attitude is included among what has been called Soft Skills or soft skills that are increasingly taking a greater role in personnel recruitment. A meta-study collected in the Journal of Applied Psychology concluded that employees who show prosocial behaviors They consistently improve productivity and reinforce the environment in work teams. The study collects data from more than 9,800 employees from multiple sectors and reveals that this type of gesture generates less internal tension and greater cohesion within teams, which is why they are profiles highly valued by companies. According to a published work for the Harvard Business School“teams with the greatest number of employees who act on their own initiative for the benefit of the group showed an increase of 16% in productivity levels and a 12% increase in internal cohesion indicators.” However, Tabernero highlights that, in this case, the action of “collaborating to clear the table may be more linked to a previous condition of the person (being very restless or nervous),” which leads them to everything that happens around them having to be done immediately, rather than to a conscious and premeditated attitude of collaborating with the waiter or helping them to be more efficient in their work. In Xataka | Neuroscientists believe they have found the trick to solving the most complicated problems: taking a nap Image | Pixabay (JM TABEL) Unsplash (Kate Townsend)

which cars can circulate and which rest on May 9

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This Saturday the Hoy No Circula Saturday scheme comes into force again, the mechanism with which the Environment Secretariat of Mexico City (SEDEMA) limits the circulation of certain cars to help control pollution in the Valley of Mexico. Once again, those who plan to use their vehicle should carefully review the finish of the license plate and the verification hologram before putting a wheel on the street. The restrictions do not only apply to the 16 municipalities of CDMX, but also extend to various metropolitan municipalities of the State of Mexico. The program is also valid in: Atizapan of Zaragoza Coacalco de Berriozábal Cuautitlan Cuautitlán Izcalli Chalco Chicoloapan Chimalhuacan Ecatepec de Morelos Huixquilucan Ixtapaluca Peace Naucalpan de Juárez Nezahualcoyotl Nicolas Romero Tecámac Tlalnepantla de Baz Tultitlan Chalco Valley Also, keep in mind that, even if you only cross one of these demarcations during your journey, the Today No Circula Saturday scheme also applies to you. What cars and license plates does Hoy No Circula Saturday affect? The central objective of the program is to reduce the number of vehicles in circulation to reduce emissions, but on Saturdays it is governed by particular criteria that complement what is established from Monday to Friday. Not all drivers rest on the same weekend: the type of hologram, the last digit of the license plate and whether Saturday corresponds to an even or odd week are the factors that determine who can go out and who must leave the car parked. It is also key to consider that Hoy No Circula Saturday does not operate 24 hours a day. The application schedule goes from 05:00 to 22:00so outside of that period —that is, during the night and early morning— the program does not limit the circulation of vehicles, unless an environmental contingency or another extraordinary measure is activated that imposes additional restrictions. For May 9, 2026, the calendar indicates that it is the third Saturday of the month, so it is classified as an “odd week.” In this scenario, cars with hologram 1 whose plates end in an odd number are the ones that must remain off the road while the program is in effect that day. If your car falls into that category, you must keep it stored until after 10:00 p.m. On the other hand, vehicles that carry hologram 0 and 00 retain the possibility of circulating without restrictions within the Today No Saturday Circula scheme, while those with hologram 2 are prohibited from circulating on any Saturday. In addition to the previous cases, it is important to remember that there is a set of exempt vehicles that can travel without being affected by these rules. Among them are: Electric, natural gas or hybrid technology vehicles Units with plates registered in the name of people with disabilities All those intended for urban public transport services (including funeral services) Vehicles used for school or passenger transportation Those assigned to public security and/or civil protection duties Those who decide to ignore the provisions of Hoy No Circula risk receiving a considerable financial penalty. The fine for failing to comply with the program ranges from 20 to 30 times the Measurement and Update Unit (UMA), which represents a minimum of close to 1,924.40 pesos and a maximum of approximately 2,886.60 pesos, in addition to the possible immobilization of the vehicle and the time that will have to be invested to resolve the offense before the competent authorities. These penalties are directly linked to compliance with the rules of Hoy No Circula Saturday. In conclusion, if you are going to travel by car this Saturday through CDMX or through the suburban municipalities of the State of Mexico contemplated in the program, the most prudent thing to do is to check before starting the engine which hologram your vehicle has, what the ending of your license plate is and if the calendar indicates an even or odd week. Hoy No Circula Saturday focuses on removing the most polluting vehicles from the streets, but it also forces us to better organize trips and evaluate mobility alternatives when the car has to stay at home. Photo | Osmany M Leyva Aldana In Xataka | The countries that pollute the most in the world, gathered in a detailed graph

Two men thought it was a good idea to lend their houses to a North Korean laptop farm. It went wrong

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Teleworking has accustomed us to a very comfortable idea: if someone delivers work, attends meetings and responds to messages, perhaps it doesn’t matter too much where they do it from. The problem appears when that distance becomes an advantage to hide identities, move money and enter companies that believe they are hiring a legitimate professional. North Korea has been exploiting precisely that rift. And the case of two men convicted of hosting laptops in their homes shows the extent to which the plot could rely on domestic infrastructure. Two men condemned. Matthew Isaac Knoot, of Nashville, Tennessee, and Erick Ntekereze Prince, of New York, have been sentenced in the US to 18 months each in prison for their role in fraudulent schemes involving remote IT workers linked to North Korea. according to the Department of Justice. The house as a piece of the plot. The mechanism was more domestic than one might imagine. Companies shipped corporate laptops to American addresses because they believed the contracted workers were there. Once received, the computers were housed in those homes and configured with remote desktop applications installed without authorization. This allowed the fake workers to operate from abroad while, to the companies, the connection appeared to come from an address within the United States. What did each one do?. Prince, according to official information, facilitated at least three North Korean IT workers to obtain remote employment in US companies between June 2020 and August 2024, and used his company Taggcar Inc. to fraudulently supply “certified” workers, despite knowing that they were outside the US and using false or stolen identities. Knoot, for his part, operated a laptop farm from his Nashville residences between July 2022 and August 2023. Money, companies and damages. The Justice Department maintains that the two schemes together generated more than $1.2 million for North Korea and affected nearly 70 U.S. companies. In the Prince case, the companies paid more than $943,069 in salaries to IT workers linked to the file. In Knoot’s case, the payments exceeded $250,000. More than labor fraud. The US justice system presents the sentences as part of a specific line of action against facilitators located in the US. The note itself highlights that these are the seventh and eighth convictions of “laptop farmers” obtained in the last five months within their efforts to interrupt North Korea’s illicit generation of income. It is an important nuance: the focus is not only on those who connect from abroad, but also on the local network that makes the operation viable. Expansion into Europe. As we have seen in the pastthese cases are also present outside the United States. The Record discovered in April 2025 an investigation by Google Threat Intelligence Group according to which North Korean operatives had increased their activity in Europe following US police actions against laptop farms and financial networks. At the center were job searches linked to the United Kingdom, Germany and Portugal, in addition to the use of local facilitators to support the alibi of a work presence in the corresponding country. AI and fake identities. One of the most current layers of this story is not only in the laptops, but in the ease of building increasingly credible profiles. BISI points out that North Korean operations combine stolen identities, manipulated professional profiles and AI tools capable of writing localized CVs and cover letters. In the Old Continent, platforms such as Upwork and Freelancer are usually used, in addition to Telegram. The consequence is obvious: detecting the fake candidate can become much more difficult before the company even ships the equipment. What started with laptops housed in private homes ends up having something much bigger than a criminal conviction. The companies were not attacked from outside in the classic sense, but ended up opening the door to workers they believed to be legitimate. So everything seems to indicate that in these times it is no longer enough to protect servers, credentials or repositories, but rather to review the processes that we consider normal, such as the hiring of personnel. Images | Xataka with Grok In Xataka | The ‘vibe coding’ promised to democratize software. Your first gift is 5,000 apps with open sensitive data

Big tech had ambitious climate goals. Then the AI ​​came and started devouring them

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There was a time when technology seemed to have found a comfortable way to tell its climate future. The big companies talked about “clean energy”net zero emissions, increasingly efficient operations and commitments dated to 2030 or 2040. It was an attractive story because it coexisted with our daily use of the internet, services and applications. Generative AI, however, has complicated that picture: not only does it bring more smart services, it also requires more infrastructure, more electricity, and climate pressure that is much more difficult to square with the promises those same companies made just a few years ago. The most recent movement comes from Microsoft. Bloomberg has published that the company would be considering delaying or even abandoning one of its most ambitious energy goals, at a time when the race for AI requires increasingly more computing capacity. Tell OpenAI or Anthropic. This case does not appear in a vacuum: other large technology companies are also facing increasingly visible challenges to fit their climate commitments with the expansion of their data centers. The question is no longer just what they promised, but what happens when those promises collide with the actual scale of AI. The companies did not reach these commitments in a single way nor did they promise exactly the same thing. Some focused on the purchase of renewable energy, others on zero-carbon electricity, others on net-zero emissions, and others on eliminating more carbon than they generate. There were also different reasons for doing so: regulatory pressure, investor expectations, reputation and a fairly widespread conviction that digital infrastructure could grow. without triggering its climate impact. What interests us here is not to review all those promises, but to follow some of the most ambitious ones and see how they are holding up to the AI ​​race that is unfolding before our eyes. Climate promises in the face of expanding data centers As we say, the fundamental change is that many of these commitments were formulated before generative AI became an absolute priority for the industry. Until then, the growth of data centers was already a challenge, but it could be projected with a more gradual logic. The new race has altered that pace: training models, deploying them in massive products, and answering large-scale queries requires computing power that grows very quickly. What once seemed like a difficult but manageable roadmap now faces a different dynamic. Microsoft was one of the companies that formulated one of the most demanding goals. In July 2021 he announced his 100/100/0 commitment, a way of saying that by 2030 he wanted match 100% of your electricity consumption100% of the time, with zero-carbon energy purchases. The nuance matters: it was not just about offsetting annual consumption with renewables, but about getting closer to an hour-by-hour correspondence. Furthermore, the company proposed doing so in the same electrical networks from which it took that energy. Now that commitment is under obvious pressure. The aforementioned economic media indicated that the Redmond company is studying delaying or even abandoning it, according to anonymous sources with knowledge of the matter, while seeking to clear obstacles to powering its data centers. Microsoft has not confirmed that change and its director of sustainability, Melanie Nakagawa, maintained that the company remains committed to its environmental goals. He also left an insight that sets the tone for the official response: any adjustment would be part of a review of approach, not a change in long-term ambition. Google also set a powerful goal. In 2021, the Mountain View company set the goal to achieve net zero emissions across its operations and value chain by 2030, including its consumer hardware products. To achieve this, he proposed reduce 50% its absolute emissions compared to 2019, not only those generated directly by the company, but also those linked to its activity and its supply chain. What it could not reduce, according to its roadmap, it would compensate by removing carbon from the atmosphere through natural and technological solutions. The current situation shows how difficult it is to put this roadmap into practice. In its 2025 environmental reportGoogle points out that in 2024 its emissions were 11.5 million tons of CO2 equivalent. That is 11% more than the previous year and 51% above its 2019 base. The nuance is important: they did not increase 51% in one year, but rather compared to the starting point chosen by the company. The report itself also recognizes that integrating more AI into its products can complicate the reduction of emissions due to the greater demand for computing and technical infrastructure. Amazon also presented a high-ambition climate pledge. In September 2019the e-commerce giant announced together with Global Optimism The Climate Pledge, a commitment to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2040ten years before the horizon set by the Paris Agreement. The company founded by Jeff Bezos became the first signatory of that initiative, which called for measuring and reporting emissions on a regular basis, applying decarbonization strategies and neutralizing remaining emissions with additional, quantifiable, real, permanent and socially beneficial compensations. Amazon’s situation shows that these promises already had gray areas even before AI was at the center of the debate. In September 2023, Data Center Dynamics published that the Science Based Targets initiative had removed the Amazon commitment from its panel and placed it in the “expired commitment” category. The reason, according to the media, was that both parties were unable to agree on a sufficiently significant emissions target. Amazon responded that the requirements had changed and that it would continue to look for credible third-party validators. In this sense, general photography goes in the same direction. The US Department of Energy estimates that the Data centers consumed around 4.4% of the country’s electricity in 2023 and could be between 6.7% and 12% in 2028. The International Energy Agency also projects a relevant leap on a global scale: from about 415 TWh in 2024 to about 945 TWh in 2030. Not all of this growth can be attributed solely to AI, … Read more

Vivo X300 Ultra vs Xiaomi 17 Ultra, we put two of the best phones of 2026 in photography face to face

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If you value the photographic section of a mobile phone above the rest, this year we are seeing very good proposals. Therefore, now that we have a greater variety of phones, we are going to take the opportunity to put two of the most notable of this year face to face: the Xiaomi 17 Ultra and Vivo X300 Ultra. Vivo X300 Ultra (1 TB) – Photography kit The price could vary. We earn commission from these links The price could vary. We earn commission from these links The differences between the Vivo X300 Ultra and the Xiaomi 17 Ultra Camera configurations Before getting into the matter, it is advisable that we take into account which sensors come in each of the mobile phones. Furthermore, it may not be the biggest claim, but we will also mention the front sensor in each case. Vivo X300 Ultra 50 MP front camera, f/2.45. Rear camera module: 200 MP main sensor, f/1.85, OIS. 200 MP telephoto, f/2.67, OIS. 50 MP wide angle, f/2.0, FOV 123.4º, OIS. Xiaomi 17 Ultra 50 MP front camera, f/2.2. Rear camera module: 50 MP main sensor, f/1.7, OIS. 200 MP telephoto, f/2.4 – 3.0, 3.2x to 4.3x, OIS. 50 MP wide angle, f/2.2. main sensor Perhaps the most attractive thing about this section is the difference in megapixels in both main sensors. The Vivo X300 Ultra has 200 MP and the Xiaomi 17 Ultra with 50 MP. Is one better than the other? Well the truth is that no. To give you an idea, having more megapixels is relevant especially when we want to crop an image, since what we want is to be able to enlarge it without losing too much detail. But it is not the only thing we should focus on, because megapixels do not really equal image quality. The Xiaomi 17 Ultra has a one-inch sensor, being the largest on the current mobile market. This means it can capture much more light, offer truer colors and a much more natural blur effect. In this way, the Vivo It is also especially relevant to stop at the focal aperturebecause it is different in both cases. The Vivo mobile phone offers an f/1.85 aperture while the Xiaomi phone has an f/1.67 aperture. The lower the number, the more light enters through the lens, which makes for better photos in low-light conditions. Telephoto lens In the telephoto sensor there are many points to discuss. First of all, both brands are betting on 200 MP sensors, which, as we have already mentioned, serves above all to not lose so much detail when enlarging an image to crop it. In the focal aperture of this sensor we do find differences and some other peculiarities. The aperture of the Vivo is f/2.67 while that of the Xiaomi is f/2.4 – 3.0. And… what does this mean? The Xiaomi 17 Ultra can vary its focal aperture between f/2.4 and f/3.0, which allows it to adapt to different light conditions automatically. We must also point out something important and that is that the Xiaomi 17 Ultra allows you to vary between 75 and 100 mm through zoom, which allows you to change between 3.2x and 4.3x. This previously had an impact on the image quality, but the mobile processing works very well, so it is practically not so noticeable. In addition, we also have a 200 mm, which is a sensor cutout, which approaches optical quality. ultra wide angle camera In both cases we find two 50 MP ultra-wide-angle sensors, so they offer the same detail. What does vary is the focal aperture: the Vivo’s (f/2.0) is more open than the Xiaomi’s (f/2.2), so more light will enter and it can perform better in difficult conditions. The attractive thing about the Xiaomi 17 Ultra is that it offers a 115º field of viewwhich means you can capture more information in a single photo. However, our recommendation is that to take close-up photos, we move away a little and take them at 100 mm and crop the image. The result is much better. The accessories Both phones have their respective photographic kits; However, they are very different. Xiaomi is betting on an accessory that, in general terms, is a case with a battery and physical controls to take photographs. There are two with different prices, with the most expensive being the one with the most controls. On the other hand, the Vivo X300 Ultra comes with a much more attractive photographic kit, since in this comparison it is the only one that has a teleconverter. In this case, it is 400 millimeters and, although it works well for photographing at long distances, we loved the quality it offers in portraits. Prices Price is a key factor when choosing a mobile phone and here we are going to find a big difference. The Xiaomi 17 Ultra (512 GB) is on sale right now for a price of 1,249 euroswithout the photographic kit. On the other hand, the Vivo X300 Ultra (1 TB) can currently only be purchased with the photographic kit, so the price shoots up to 2,399 euros. To understand the price difference between both phonesthe Xiaomi is located by 1,249 euros without kit. If we wanted the photographic kit, we would have to pay additionally 280 euros for Photography Kit Pro or 116 euros for the Photography Kit. The first has more buttons and a larger battery to function as a powerbank. On the other hand, the Vivo X300 Ultra comes with the photography kit included in the price of 2,399 euros. That is, in addition to the mobile phone we find a Vivo ZEISS Gen 2 Ultra teleconverter with an equivalent focal length of 400 mm, a grip with an integrated battery to function as a powerbank and an adapter ring for a tripod. In summary: In any case, we are talking about two mobile phones with very powerful photographic sections. It is difficult to assess which is better and which … Read more

Today the latest from a master of horror arrives on Disney+, a survival show that was about to end up in a drawer

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The last time before this year that Sam Raimi directed a horror film was in 2009, with ‘Drag Me to Hell’, a return to his roots after the ‘Spider-Man’ trilogy and which remains, perhaps, his best film along with ‘Darkman’ and the ‘Evil Dead’ trilogy. After extensive work in the ‘Oz’ franchises and Marvel, he returns to the humor, suspense and violence of that marvel with this fantastic ‘Send Help‘you just landed on Disney+. In it we will meet a shy and lonely woman (Rachel McAdams) who travels with her arrogant and insufferable boss on a flight that ends up having an accident and leaving them on a desert island in the Pacific. What begins as a survival story becomes an inversion of the work hierarchy: the person who knows how to survive in nature is not the same person who rules in the office. From there, a strange and hilarious mix of ‘Cast Away’ and ‘Misery’ that doesn’t cut corners either in the intensity of its most violent scenes or in the grotesque humor with which it portrays its protagonists. The original idea for the film dates back to before the pandemic, when Raimi came across this script from the authors of ‘Freddy vs. Jason’. When COVID happened, cuts came to the industry, and the studio tried convince the director to reduce the budget and release it on platforms. Raimi wanted the production to reach theaters, so the project was presented to the former Fox, now owned by Disney. In an especially profitable year for traditional horror films like ‘Sinners’ or ‘Weapons’, and for thrillers with a twist like the hit ‘The assistant‘, ‘Send Help’ is placed, as is usual for Raimi, in an intermediate and unclassifiable terrain. Extremely dark humor, a description of characters between social caricature and classic horror comics and a load of impossible plot twists for the enjoyment of those who think that plot coherence is for the weak when there is emotion and narrative pulse. In Xataka | Netflix premieres today the dystopian series that has risen to the throne of the best in history in six seasons

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