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the best deals on Amazon today, May 12

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We are halfway through the week and almost reaching the middle of May. Amazon has surprised us today with a good batch of offers on technological devices (both its own and other brands). These are the best deals in technology that we have found today in the e-commerce giant. Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Select (latest generation) The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Smart TV TCL 98Q6C by 1,489 euros: 98-inch QD-MiniLED with Google TV. Fire TV Stick 4K Select by 27.99 euros– with early access to Alexa+. Activity bracelet Google Fitbit Air by 99.99 euros– Compatible with iOS and Android. air fryer Ninja MAX Pro by 84.79 euros: 6.2 liters and with accessory and recipe book. smartphone Xiaomi 17 by 899.99 euros: 6.3 inches and with Leica cameras. Smart TV TCL 98Q6C If you want a gigantic TV for your living room, this one from the firm 98 inch TCL It’s a bargain now on Amazon. Now a 32% discount has been applied, so it has gone from costing 2,199 euros to 1,489 euros. The panel it mounts is type QD-MiniLED and has Halo Control. The processor it has is AiPQTM Pro and its speakers are made by Onkyo and are compatible with Dolby Atmos and the operating system under which it works is Google TV. TCL 98Q6C Television 98 Inch QD-Mini LED 4K Smart TV The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Fire TV Stick 4K Select It has only recently been possible to enjoy early access to Alexa+ and this Fire TV Stick 4K Select It is the cheapest device to enjoy Amazon’s improved voice assistant. Now, it’s reduced to 27.99 euros. Supports 4K streamingalthough one of the main negative points for many is that it prevents the download and installation of third-party, external apps and from unknown sources. Its remote has a direct access button for Alexa and supports WiFi 5 connectivity. Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Select (latest generation) The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Google Fitbit Air activity bracelet If you like monitor your workouts through a device with a minimalist design, this bracelet Google Fitbit Air It’s perfect for you. Now, in addition, it has a discount of more than 30% and remains available for 99.99 euros. This wearables offers 24-hour cardiac monitoring. Is compatible with iOS and Android and its design is that of a comfortable high-performance strap, made with recycled materials and featuring a flexible fit. Google Fitbit Air – Screenless Activity Bracelet with physical activity monitoring The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Ninja MAX Pro Air Fryer Ninja has managed to revolutionize a sector that seemed stagnant, such as air fryers, thanks to its striking and different designs from the rest. Now, on Amazon you can get this airfryer Ninja Max Pro with a 43% discount, since it is available for 84.79 euros. This air fryer Ninja has a 6.2 liter capacity and a very elegant design in black and gold. It offers six cooking functions and in addition to the fryer, it comes with silicone tongs and a recipe guide. Ninja MAX PRO Air Fryer, 6.2L The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Xiaomi 17 Smartphone that he Xiaomi 17 It is one of the smartphones of the year is something indisputable. If you have been thinking about making the jump to the high-end for a while, now on Amazon you can do it while saving money. This mobile from the Chinese manufacturer has a 200 euro discount and you can buy it for 899.99 euros. This Xiaomi 17 mounts a 6.3 inch screen and its photographic system is signed by Leica, standing out above all for its Light Fusion 950 high dynamic sensor. Its brain is the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 and its battery has a capacity of 6,330 mAh and supports fast charging of up to 100 W. XIAOMI 17 – 12+512GB Smartphone 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 | Xiaomi, TCL, Google, Ninja and Amazon In Xataka | Best televisions in quality price. Which one to buy and seven recommended 4K smart TVs In Xataka | Best sound bars in quality price. Which one to buy and seven recommended models from 140 euros

China is neither nor does it want to be in the 2nm war between TSMC, Intel and Samsung. Your plan to win is different

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“Many people believe that competition in the semiconductor industry comes down to the advanced nodes and that we will only achieve success when we reach 2 or 3 nm. This is a misunderstanding“. This statement was made by Richard Chang Rujing, the founder of SMIC (Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp), the largest Chinese semiconductor manufacturer with a global market share of about 5%. Rujing has spoken these words with a very clear intention: he wants China to strengthen its supply chain and its position in the global integrated circuit market by developing its manufacturing capacity for mature chips. Currently the most advanced integration technology that SMIC has in production is 7nm photolithography due to their inability to access equipment extreme ultraviolet lithography (VVE) of ASML. And there is no doubt that it and other Chinese chip manufacturers would benefit greatly from having the capacity to produce 5, 3 and 2 nm semiconductors. In this way they could compete on equal terms with TSMC, Intel and Samsung. However, there is something very important that we should not overlook: advanced nodes represent less than 20% of the world market of integrated circuits by product volume, while more than 80% of demand It comes from the segments of mature nodes and specialized processes. Rujing wants SMIC and the other Chinese chipmakers to invest more in their mature nodes, and it makes sense. After all, this is the strategy that is allowing China resist US pressure. Mature chips are the medicine the Chinese industry needs During the first two months of 2026, China exported integrated circuits worth $43.3 billionwhich represents an increase of 72.6% compared to the same period in 2025. This information comes directly from Chinese customs records, so it is presumably reliable. However, the most astonishing thing is that this country’s exports as a whole have grown by 21.8% during January and February, so it is evident that the semiconductor industry has been stimulated with much more intensity than other sectors. More than 80% of demand comes from the mature nodes and specialized processes segments Domestic demand has stimulated the growth of the Chinese chip industry in recent years, but the figures I have collected in the previous paragraph show that external demand is also very strong. In this context it is reasonable for us to ask what type are integrated circuits that Chinese manufacturers are mass producing. And the answer is very revealing: these are chips derived from mature integration technologiesusually 28 nm or less advanced. After all, the semiconductors that we mostly find in electronic devices, household appliances or cars, among other products, have been produced using them. Many Chinese chip manufacturers, such as Hua Hong Semiconductor, China Resources Microelectronics or Guangzhou ZenSemi, are manufacturing 28 nm integrated circuits or with even more mature technologies. And the Beijing Yandong Microelectronics (YDME) company is going to build a 4.6 billion dollar plant expressly to produce 28nm semiconductors on 300mm wafers. It is evident that these companies would not focus on the manufacturing of mature chips in this way if it were not a profitable strategy, and, above all, necessary to sustain the Chinese integrated circuit industry at a time as critical as the current one. Image | TSMC More information | SCMP In Xataka | China is preparing for the worst scenario: it fears that the US will prevent TSMC from delivering chips for cars and smartphones

It also serves to set up a mobile karaoke

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One of the things that the world of social media, vertical video, and content creation has taught me is that average image quality can be supported by almost anyone, but bad sound cannot. That a TikTok or Reel looks bad is passable, but if it doesn’t sound good, the rejection is immediate. We have the greatest proof of this when we open TikTok: the mobile is the default camerabut the audio capture device is usually a wireless microphone. There are several options on the market and today we must add a very interesting proposal from a brand that knows a lot about audio: JBL. The firm has just announced the new JBL EasySing Mic Mini. And yes, they come with a twist: you can set up the world’s largest duffel bag wherever you want. JBL EasySing Mic Mini | Image: JBL Why an external microphone? Because the microphone (“microphones”, really, it is normal that there are several) of mobile phones is not designed for content creation. Not at least in a professional or semi-professional way. Mobile phones use very small, omnidirectional MEMS (Microelectromechanical Systems) microphone systems. They have a very high noise floor, they distort if we bring them very close to the sound source and they are omnidirectional, so they capture all the sound around them. They are useful for making calls, for everyday video recording, and for guerrilla content like a quick story. Now, from 20-30 centimeters away its performance drops greatly, even more so if we record outdoors. While mobile video has evolved at breakneck speed, audio remains a pending task. That’s why a dedicated microphone is still a good investment when creating content at a higher level. JBL EasySing Mic Mini | Image: JBL JBL EasySing Mic Mini. That is the name given to JBL’s new proposal. This new microphone has a more compact format than the EasySing Mics available so far, which are more reminiscent of a normal microphone. The new Mic Mini comes in a more compact case that we can carry in our pocket or backpack, and includes two devices: the dongle (which we will connect to the speaker or mobile phone) and the microphone, which we can hold in our hand, attach to an accessory or clip it to our t-shirt using the magnetic clip. A dongle… The dongle has a USB type C, AUX and Bluetooth connection, so it can be connected to practically any device, be it a mobile phone, laptop or speaker. The connection to the microphone is via 2.4 GHz and the effective range is about 20 meters. At the expense of testing it, it is to be expected that the sound quality will be much better than what we can achieve by recording with the mobile microphone. JBL EasySing Mic Mini | Image: JBL …a little bit of AI… One of the keys to the microphone is the built-in AI system, which works de facto on the device itself. The device is capable of reducing noise, separating the voice from any song and improving our voice to reach high tones. And why would we want the microphone to separate the voice from a song? …and karaoke. Because one of the curiosities of this microphone is that it allows us to set up karaoke anywhere. Simply connect the dongle to a compatible JBL speaker and play music. The dongle itself will be in charge of analyzing the song and eliminating, if we want, the background voice so that only ours can be heard. We can leave 25% of the original voice to use as a guide, use it as a 50% accompaniment, or eliminate it completely. If we connect the microphone to the JBL One app we can also access voice effects and additional settings, such as an equalizer. JBL EasySing Mic Mini | Image: JBL Versions and price. The JBL EasySing Mic Mini will be available for 149.99 euros from June 2026. Of course, it has not arrived alone. In addition to this new microphone, which is the most different proposal in the catalogue, JBL has renewed its product range with the following products. JBL Live 780NC | Image: JBL JBL Live 780NC and 680NC: supra-aural headband headphones that mount 40 mm drivers, incorporate active noise cancellation and offer 80 hours of autonomy. The difference between the two is that the 780NC uses six microphones for noise cancellation, while the 680NC uses four. Both are compatible with Smart TX. JBL Live 4 | Image: JBL JBL Live 4: TWS headphones in stick in ear (Live Beam 4), in ear (Live Buds 4) and semi-open stick (Live Flex 4) formats with smart casing. The main novelty is Perfect Call 2.0, a six-microphone system to improve call quality; and the new smart case with a screen and more functions, such as checking notifications. JBL PartyBox 330 | Image: JBL JBL PartyBox 330 and JBL PartyBox 130: your new speakers to mount the backpack anywhere. They have up to 280W of power, lights and, of course, microphone compatibility. Images | JBL In Xataka | The best song to test the performance of your headphones, according to a sound researcher who has been using it for 35 years

Science explains why your brain prefers paper to keyboard to learn

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In an era dominated by mechanical keyboards, touch screens and cutting-edge tablets, the ancestral gesture of slide a pen over the paper seems like an anachronism reserved for people who haven’t updated. And this is a reality in areas of study such as, for example, universities, where it is rare to see someone studying by hand. But the reality is that, to be much more productive while studying, it may be best to put the laptop aside and start writing. The ‘magic’ of the pen. Here science, in its different disciplines, has concluded that taking notes by hand significantly improves retention and comprehension compared to actively using digital devices. And it’s not a question of romanticism, it’s a question of neural processing. A transcription effect. One of the pillars of this evidence is in a study published in 2014 which pointed out that students who use laptops to take notes become authentic transcribers of what the teacher says. And we have reached the point where many people can write faster than teachers speak and become “transcription machines” without processing the information. and stay with what is most important. I have even seen that even jokes end up being copied. On the contrary, who writes by hand You can’t write it all down. This requires you to engage in active cognitive processing: you must listen, digest, synthesize, and rephrase the idea in your own words. This “desirable difficulty” generates a much deeper encoding in memory that lasts even a week after the study. Better paper. Beyond the transcription effect, neuroscience has confirmed that the benefit is not only strategic, but also physical. Here, a study from 2021 published by the University of Tokyo demonstrated using electroencephalograms that handwriting activates brain areas critical for memory, language and fine movement. This is why, when using a pen, it has been seen that the hippocampus is significantly activated, which is essential for memory and spatial coding of information. But it does not stop there, since up to 25% more neuronal connectivity has been detected in complex tasks when the analog method is used. This explains why students in highly demanding careers tend to perform better cognitively when they opt for neural methods such as engineering. Less distractions. Beyond neurons, paper offers a competitive advantage in the study environment, since it is a closed system. This is very important because a tablet or laptop It is also a tool with open doors to notificationssocial networks and messaging apps that can be a temptation when it comes to interrupting the study quite easily. In addition, it facilitates word recognition and visual memorization, something vital for competitive exams or high-level exams such as a competition. And while well-designed digital notes may be superior for quickly remembering a single fact, paper wins by a landslide in conceptual understanding. Images | yanalya in Magnific In Xataka | The 2-7-30 method has become one of the fashionable systems to study faster. Science has doubts

a window that goes from the Castro era to the Middle Ages

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The Cies Islands They are a natural gem. We have known that for a long time. It was first confirmed by Congress, which in 2002 declared them a National Park (along with other islands in the Rías Baixas), and later the British newspaper Guardianwhose reporters concluded almost two decades ago that the Galician archipelago hides the best beach on the planet. Which we just discovered Thanks to the archaeologists, the islands that appear in the Vigo estuary are something more: a site that tells us a story which extends from before the arrival of the Romans to the Middle Ages. Now the experts want to go one step further. What has happened? that archaeologists have rescued secrets that have been hidden for centuries on a hillside in the Cíes, the Vigo estuary archipelago that has been declared a Natural Park since 1980 and has been integrated into the Atlantic Islands National Park for almost a quarter of a century. Between April and the beginning of May, a group of researchers from the University of Vigo carried out a series of surveys on the islands that have allowed them to shed more light on their past. To be more precise, it has expanded what we know about life in the archipelago along a wide range from the castro culture to the Middle Ages. What exactly have they done? Focus on two points. The first basically expands the work done last yearwhen archaeologists identified a series of walls and what looked like part of a floor. The second survey was carried out in an area where the researchers noticed a change in elevation in the terrain, which led them to think that a wall could be hidden beneath the ground. The experts were not blindsided. The campaign focused on what is known as Hortas fortcataloged from the 90s and which stands out as one of the most emblematic Iron Age sites in Galicia. Unlike others castro settlements spread throughout the community, it is located at the southern end of the island of O Faro, a steep area that its inhabitants perhaps chose because of the control it offered them over the maritime routes. What did they discover? They have basically expanded what we know about the history of the archipelago. After clearing the area, at the first point the researchers discovered new structures and identified “two levels of occupancy” well differentiated. One dates from the late ancient period, between the 5th and 6th centuries AD). The other corresponds to the end of the Early Middle Ages, more specifically between the 9th and 10th centuries. This wide range reveals that the area probably had a more or less stable human presence for centuries. “This campaign allows us to affirm that the hillside of the fort was occupied from the fortress period until the Middle Ages, as well as its potential as a heritage element to deepen the knowledge of the ways of life on the islands during antiquity and up to the present day,” the researchers highlight. a statement from the University of Vigo. Did you find out anything else? Yes. The above is what they discovered in their first survey. The second, focused on the area in which they noticed a change in the terrain, revealed another piece of information just as curious: under the earth it was hidden a “cuncheiro“an area where the ancient inhabitants of the island accumulated the waste from their banquets. “From the beginning it was clear that it was an area for emptying food remains of the castro inhabitants of the area of ​​the island, with the appearance of a cuncheiro that almost reached three meters deep,” they explain. There is another important fact. These remains appeared outside a “great house” from the Castro era, the first of its kind identified in all of the Cíes Islands. It may seem like an anecdote or a minor detail, but for Galician archaeologists it is key information. “It is sure proof of the presence of an important human settlement prior to the arrival of the Romans,” clarify from the university, which remembers that the surveys are part of a larger initiative, Sentinel Projectwhich will continue until July. And now what? The information collected during the two surveys could still tell us more things about the ancient inhabitants of the islands. The reason? Archaeologists have not limited themselves to identifying the deposit of food remains. They have also recovered “several fauna samples” that now They will be in charge of analyzing specialists from the University of León in search of a key piece of information: what eating patterns the inhabitants of the Hortas fort followed in the Iron Age. The campaign also revealed a considerable amount of ceramics that will be studied in Ourense. Images | University of Vigo and Xunta de Galicia In Xataka | In the 20th century, lobster was an icon of the Rías Baixas, coveted in the kitchens of Spain. Today she is missing

how to access your Wrapped with your listening statistics from the day you registered

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Let’s tell you what is the new experience Your Years in Party Mode from Spotify, a kind of Wrapped with a summary of your main data since you registered on the platform. This is a special experience created by the streaming service to celebrate its twenty years of existence. Actually, this experience is quite simple, and it only shows you a few pieces of data, much less than what you can obtain with third-party services with which to collect your Spotify statistics. However, it still shows you some curious things like the first song you listened to or your most listened to artist. Therefore, we are going to tell you how can you launch this experience and what are the statistics that you will be able to see with it. In addition, you will also have a special playlist and several slides to share in stories of social networks. How to see your Wrapped with data since you signed up for Spotify To launch the experience of Your Years in Party Mode from Spotify, you have to enter the website spotify.com/20 in the browser of your mobile or your computer. If you do it on your mobile, you can directly open the Spotify app from within, and from your computer you will have a QR to scan with your mobile. Once you start the experience, you will have a kind of long history where your data is displayed. There are not several slides that you can navigate, but a single one where everything is shown little by little, but with buttons that allow you to interact with it. The first thing you will see is the exact date you registered on Spotify with your account. That was your first day. Below you can click on Next giftwhich is a poor translation of the follow to next data button that you will see on each screen. Then you will go to another screen where you are told the total number of songs you have listened to on Spotify from the day you registered. This is a good first piece of information to share and compare with your friends. Then you’ll be able to guess which one it was. the first song you heard between four options, game after which you will be shown the topic that was. And when you do this, then you will be taught What is the artist you have listened to the most? from the day you registered with Spotify, also indicating the number of minutes you have spent listening to it. Then comes one of the most interesting parts, and that is that Spotify gives you a playlist with your most listened to songs ever. Come on, the topics you’ve been listening to the most since the day you registered. When this screen appears, tap Save to library to save the playlist and listen to it whenever you want. Finally, you will go to a screen where 5 slides are shown to choose from, and in each of them you have a button to share it on social networks. You can share slides with your registration date, total songs listened to, most listened to song, your top artist and another with all this data together. In Xataka Basics | Spotify listening statistics: what they are and how to access them to know which artists you have listened to the most each week

Europe has been depending on Amazon, Google and Microsoft for its most critical data for years. You are about to cut off their access

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The European Commission is taking action. This organization is expected to present its “Technological Sovereignty Package” on May 27. This directive will include a series of measures aimed at boosting the EU’s strategic autonomy in sensitive areas, and that means something unique: stopping depending as much as possible on US hyperscalers to store critical data. The fear of the off button. The measures are being applied due to growing political instability and some recent cases that have demonstrated the power that the US has over the European technological infrastructure. In May Microsoft “cancelled” the email of Karim Khan, a prosecutor who had been directly cited in an executive order from Donald Trump. Microsoft he denied itbut the damage had already been done, and these problems have raised fears that Trump could use a kind of “off button” against European institutions that depend on the hardware and software infrastructure provided by companies like Microsoft, Google or Amazon. Legal espionage. The CLOUD Act (Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data Act) is a 2018 US law that allows law enforcement to force US-based technology companies (such as Google, Microsoft or Amazon) to provide data, regardless of where it is stored, whether inside or outside the United States. This law updates the Stored Communications Act to prioritize data control over its location. Or what is the same: if you use the services of US hyperscalers, the US may end up accessing your data. And since you’ve accepted their terms of use, you agree to let them legally spy on you if they “need to.” If you want my critical data, you’ll have to protect it. The new regulations require service providers who want to work with critical European data to demonstrate that they are not subject to requests from non-EU governments. This automatically excludes Microsoft, Google or Amazon, because all three are subject to the CLOUD Act. Europe is thus looking for providers that guarantee that critical data will not be in the possession of companies that then have to transfer it to foreign powers. Europe depends on the American cloud. The reality is that today Amazon (AWS), Microsoft (Azure) and Google (Google Cloud) currently control more than 70% of the Cloud Computing market in the old continent. Losing these institutional contracts would mean a significant financial blow, but it also sends a powerful signal to European private companies: if Brussels does not trust the US with its secrets, why should European corporations? The domino effect could be huge. Europe has its own clouds. This directive would give an important opportunity to initiatives that seemed stalled like GAIA-Xbut there are also companies with their own infrastructure such as OVH (France) or T-Systems (Germany). There are significant technical challenges in that area, because US hyperscalers have been refining their offering over the past two decades. However, Brussels seems willing to accept a somewhat less efficient or complete service in exchange for greater autonomy. The options existno doubt, but the challenge is enormous. Migrating is going to be expensive. It is one thing to make the decision and quite another to complete that migration that will require moving decades of data and systems to a different infrastructure. Current data centers would have to be expanded to meet demand, they say some analysisand that would mean a cost of between 14,000 and 24,000 million euros. Consulting companies like Forrester they don’t see anything clear that the EU can achieve cloud sovereignty, and other experts also make it clear that Europe will not abandon the hyperscalers. Traceability. In addition to changing suppliers, the board also wants to impose strict requirements regarding transparency. AI systems that have access to that data must be auditable by the newly created EU AI Office. The Commission wants to know who has access to the code, who maintains the servers and who has the technical capacity to manage and even intercept such data transfers. Data too sensitive. In comments to CNBCEU officials explained that there are active debates demanding that financial, judicial or health data used at the government level and in the public sector have a sovereign cloud infrastructure. That’s also true for military data, of course, and There are already movements in that direction. Fragmented Internet. The move confirms that the world appears to be heading toward a future with a fragmented internet and one that will have important geopolitical boundaries. While the US tries to defend its technology against China, Europe and the entire world are trying to avoid or at least mitigate their excessive dependence on American technological solutions. Image | İsmail Enes Ayhan and François Genon In Xataka | Europe no longer trusts Google. That is why several start-ups are designing an independent payment system on Android

His parents built the Chinese economic miracle by working 12 hours a day. Their children have decided not to work almost at all

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Working twelve hours a day, six days a week, was common in Chinese companies, especially in the technology sector. It is what is known as day 996 and fortunately, the government banned it in 2021. They did not expect that that same year a new concept called Tang Ping and it means just the opposite: doing the minimum to survive. Lay down on the couch. Its literal translation is ‘lie flat’, but we like the creative translation better. Tang Ping It is a social phenomenon that arises as a rejection of the culture of overwork and endless days that barely leave time to sleep. A person who follows a lifestyle Tang Ping He works the minimum necessary to survive and does not have great ambitions; He doesn’t want to buy a car or a house, he spends little on food and he doesn’t want to get married or have children. The latter has not been any fun in Beijing. National security concern. We have talked about the birth rate crisis that China is going through and how the government is doing literally everything for get young people married and have children, so this movement goes against everything they are promoting. The government’s discourse on this trend has taken on a more severe tone. Last April, They published an official warning in which they stated that it is an “ideological infiltration” financed by “hostile anti-China forces” with the aim of “eroding the minds of Chinese youth.” They have turned a lifestyle into a political act that must be repressed. The safety net. They count in Baiguan News that, to understand the rise of this trend, two social mechanisms must be understood. The first is that the parents of these young people were born in the 60s and 70s, so their professional career grew along with the economic development of the country and they are currently the richest demographic group in the country. This means that if their children have financial problems, they can provide support. The second factor is deflation, which is making everything cheaper. In China it is possible to eat for just 1 or 2 dollars in exchange, which makes it viable to live while spending very little money. If we add that youth unemployment is at 16.9% and job opportunities are shrinking, it is the perfect breeding ground for lying down. The generational contrast. The parents of these young people grew up in poverty and, if they worked 72 hours a week, it was not out of pleasure, but out of pure necessity and fear of continuing to be poor. That fear was the engine of Chinese economic growth and allowed the next generation to grow in the abundance that their parents built. The difference is that these young people do not feel that raising the country depends on them, nor do they feel the fear that drove their parents, and many have decided to put their well-being before their professional career. Image | HANVIN CHEONGUnsplash In Xataka | We have been talking about “day 996” in Chinese companies for years. The reality is more complex: “day 323”

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

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