usatoday24

the fine print matters as much as the price

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If you were thinking about signing up for PlayStation Plusit may be worth checking the calendar. Sony has announced a price rise for its subscription service, which offers monthly games, online multiplayer and other benefits to users of its consoles. The change comes into effect tomorrow, Tuesday, May 20, although with an important nuance: it will not affect all users equally. The announcement has come through a message posted on X. The Japanese company has indicated that the increase responds to current “market conditions” and that the new rates will start at 10.99 dollars, 9.99 euros and 7.99 pounds for one-month subscriptions, and at 27.99 dollars, 27.99 euros and 21.99 pounds for three-month subscriptions. Click to see the original publication in X The immediate question is which markets exactly this rise will reach. At the moment, Sony has not published a official list of countries not one entry in the PlayStation blog with more details. We only have that message, quite brief, for reference. Sony explains that the new PlayStation Plus prices will only apply to new subscribers in “select regions.” It also adds the following: “This price change does not apply to current subscribers (except in Türkiye and India) unless the existing subscription changes or expires.” The statement leaves some unknowns open. The expression “prices will start at” presumably points to the plan essentialthe entry level of the service. In Spain, this modality currently costs 8.99 euros per month and 24.99 euros if contracted for three months. If the increase is finally applied to the Spanish market, the change would mean paying 1 euro more in the monthly plan and 3 euros more in the quarterly plan. What we still don’t know is what will happen with the other levels of the service. PlayStation Plus Extra and PlayStation Plus Premium are the most expensive modalities and include additional benefits, such as Ubisoft+ Classics, a broader catalog of games, classics and title trials, depending on the contracted plan. For now, Sony has not given details about possible changes to these subscriptions. We’ve contacted Sony for more information about the extent of the upload and will update this article if we hear back. Images | sony In Xataka | Pluto is in Sagittarius and that can only mean one thing: the third trailer for ‘GTA VI’ will be out on May 14

The million-dollar question in Cupertino is whether Apple can continue being Apple without Tim Cook: Crossover 1×45

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Tim Cook will stop being CEO of Apple after almost 15 years at the head of the company. It will do so next September 1, the date on which will pass the baton to John Ternusa man of the house with a different career. While Cook has proven to be a genius of logistics and efficiency, Ternus is a man of product and not so much of numbers. This makes us think about the impact that this movement can have from an Apple that in recent years many have criticized for having lost its innovative spirit. The company has shown great success in making the iPhone the absolute center of its strategy, but will that continue to be enough?

12 premieres this week on Netflix, including a sci-fi mystery series from the creators of ‘Stranger Things’

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We’re halfway through May, and although Netflix slows down its pace of releases a little, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have attractive proposals for this week. On the one hand, a curious mystery and science fiction film with a seal of distinction: the Duffer Brothers from ‘Stranger Things’, tireless in their search for new veins. And it’s not the only thing: the occasional exclusive film and a documentary about a true diva. Let’s review everything. series Kylie Three-episode documentary series that covers five decades of Kylie Minogue’s career, from her beginnings on television to her consolidation as a global pop icon with more than 80 million records sold. She starts from her now-forgotten beginnings as an actress in the series ‘Neighbors’ to becoming one of the most influential pop figures worldwide. The director of the series is a renowned specialist in celebrity documentaries, with titles such as ‘Beckham’ and ‘Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie’ to his credit. The series not only reviews the milestones of her career but also moments as difficult as the breast cancer diagnosis that interrupted her career, in footage punctuated by statements from close friends such as Nick Cave, Jason Donovan and producer Pete Waterman. Premiere: Wednesday, May 20 The Boroughs: Rebel Retirement Matt and Ross Duffer, creators of ‘Stranger Things’, take us this time as producers to a luxurious retirement complex in the middle of the New Mexico desert. The creation of this nice ‘The Boroughs: Rebel Retirement’ has been left to Jeffrey Addiss and Will Matthews, from ‘Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance’, and it stars Alfred Molina, who plays a newcomer who soon faces a mysterious monster that stalks the residents of the idyllic community. To do this, he allies himself with a group of misfits from the neighborhood, with whom he will unravel what the complex hides. The cast includes names such as Bill Pullman, Geena Davis and Jena Malone. The brothers’ reference, as they have said, is the legendary ‘Cocoon’ by Ron Howard. Premiere: Thursday, May 21 Other series Very expensive – Wednesday, May 20 James – Thursday, May 21 One Tree Hill – Thursday, May 21 Season of zeal – Friday, May 22 Future desert – Friday, May 22 Movies Ladies first British adaptation of the French comedy ‘I’m not an easy man’, which addressed the reversal of gender roles with a satirical tone. Here we will meet an arrogant and successful man who, after suffering an accident, wakes up in an alternative reality where women dominate all spaces of power, from companies to social life, experiencing firsthand the dynamics of inequality that he was previously unaware of. Katie Silberman, writer of the wonderful ‘Super Nerds’, co-writes this story that mixes humor and social criticism and whose cast is headed by Sacha Baron Cohemn and Rosamund Pike. Premiere: Friday, May 22either In Xataka | One of the most brilliant films and also the most ignored by the last Oscars arrives today on Prime Video

Volkswagen has hope to make electric cars cheaper: sodium batteries

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Sodium-ion technology It has been promising for years without ever taking off. Gotion High-Tech, a Chinese company in which Volkswagen is its largest individual shareholder, has just taken the most serious step to date: for its own brand of sodium batteries to have a product ready to be manufactured at scale. An evolution is urgently needed. Lithium-ion batteries They have been dominating for decades the energy storage and mobility sector but they have an underlying problem that more and more companies want to tackle: lithium is a geographically concentrated resource, with fragile supply chains and dependent on a few countries. Sodium, on the other hand, is one of the most abundant elements on the planet. If sodium-ion technology reaches competitive energy densities and can be manufactured on a large scale, the game changes. And that is precisely what Gotion has in mind. Production-ready batteries. At its 15th Global Technology Conference, the company introduced the Gnascent brandwhich groups three versions of sodium-ion battery designed for specific applications, not a single multipurpose cell. The brand already has production lines ready in Tangshan and Hefei, China, and they are on the order of gigawatt-hours. Three versions. Each Gnascent variant targets a different niche: High energy: reaches 261 Wh/kg, 60% more than conventional sodium batteries. It is designed for light electric vehicles and drones for commercial use, where weight is a critical factor. Power: with 162 Wh/kg, it supports discharge at temperatures down to -50 °C. Its target market is commercial vehicles and equipment in extreme cold regions, where the performance of lithium batteries drops dramatically. Energy storage: with 180 Ah per cell and more than 20,000 useful life cycles, it maintains 88% of its capacity at -40 °C. The company claims to have passed penetration tests with 8 mm nails and heating to 400 °C without ignition. It can become a serious option for network installations and industrial use. What your technology is about. Just like account The company, Gnascent is backed by more than 90 patents covering cathode materials (sheet oxides, polyanions and sodium-manganese-iron pyrophosphate), hard carbon anodes and electrolyte additives. On the other hand, its anode-less design reduces material costs while increasing energy density. Who is behind. Gotion High-Tech, founded in 2006 and headquartered in Hefei, has Volkswagen Group as its largest shareholder. At the end of 2025, the company had a cumulative production capacity of 400 GWh and 20 manufacturing bases spread around the world. Just like share According to CarNewsChina, in the Chinese market it is the third supplier of batteries for electric vehicles, only behind CATL and BYD, with a share of 6.6%. Who climbs it first and best?. Gotion is not the only one on this path. CATL and BYD too are accelerating their own sodium ion programswhich points to a broader strategy in which this chemistry is the protagonist and ends up becoming a real alternative to lithium. And now what. For the moment, Gotion wants to enter the large-scale energy storage segment through Gnascent. That is electrical networks, industrial facilities or residential use, complementing with smaller markets such as two-wheeled vehicles. It only remains to be seen if the strategy ends up being given the green light and if more companies choose to consider this option in the near future. Cover image | Gotion High-Tech and Volkswagen In Xataka | Putting pistachio in everything has a limit. Or not: Córdoba already makes batteries with its shells

The most advanced ship China has ever built doesn’t know if it’s an aircraft carrier or an assault ship. And that’s exactly what makes it dangerous

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Some time ago we knew the existence of the Type 076a warship very suitable to take the recognition of the most advanced that China has ever built. After completing his training maneuvers, he recently was seen crossing the South China Seaquite turbulent waters from a geopolitical and military point of view. And of course, having a 40,000-ton giant there does not go unnoticed. Your own category. The Sichuan is technically an amphibious assault ship, designed to transport troops, armored vehicles and all types of vessels. But to call it just that would be an understatement. With a full-length flight deck, a double-island superstructure and, above all, an electromagnetic catapult Capable of launching conventional fixed-wing aircraft, this ship also functions as a light aircraft carrier. In this way, you could say that the Type 076 is in a category of its own. It is a category of its own, a hybrid between an assault ship and an aircraft carrier that can operate fighters like the J-35the latest generation Chinese stealth, as well as drones and helicopters. Its length is around 260 meters and can house up to 1,000 navy soldiers. Your catapult. Most of the amphibious ships that exist in the world can carry aircraft, yes, but only those with the ability to take off vertically or over very short distances, such as the American F-35B. The Sichuan does not have this limitation, since its electromagnetic catapult, between 100 and 130 meters in length, is of the same generation as that of the aircraft carrier. Fujian and equivalent to the technology that the United States has developed for its latest superaircraft carriers. This gives it unparalleled versatility for a ship of its type and a much greater operating margin in terms of load, range and armament of its aircraft. Electrified. The Sichuan propulsion system it’s electric. Of course, to power it, two 21 MW gas turbines need to be combined with six 6 MW diesel generators, which gives a total power of about 78 MW. This design is used both to power the propulsion motors and also to manage the energy peaks demanded by the electromagnetic catapult. This type of engine has several advantages over conventional diesel, including faster starting, greater operational flexibility, less vibrations and a smaller underwater acoustic footprint, making it more difficult to detect. Testing in the most tense place in the world. The Chinese Navy confirmed At the end of April, the Sichuan had set sail for the South China Sea to carry out its first tests in waters other than those of its base. Zhang Junshe, military expert, counted to the Global Times that it is “rapid and efficient progress” that brings the Sichuan closer to its official commissioning. The previous tests that we reported on last year were carried out in waters near Shanghai, where they evaluated the stability of the propulsion system and electrical systems. Now, in the South China Sea, it is time for something more demanding: complex climatic and maritime conditions, high humidity and variable waves, an environment that will help them validate flight operations, amphibious maneuvers and test the performance of their combat systems in real conditions. A whole birthday has come together. The Sichuan reached the South China Sea at the same time that the United States, the Philippines, Japan, Australia, Canada, France and New Zealand began the Balikatan maneuvers, a set of military exercises that are carried out annually and involve nearly 19,000 soldiers, according to Admiral Samuel Paparo, head of the US Indo-Pacific Command, before the Senate Armed Services Committee. In addition, the Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning He also headed towards the same sea those days. And of course, in the face of such deployment, there are many who think that China is carrying out a calculated show of force in waters that it claims for the most part as its own, and where precisely it has open territorial disputes with the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and other countries in the region. What comes next. Once these tests in the South China Sea are completed, the tests should include integrated operations with embarked fighters, helicopters and amphibious forces. When all test cycles are complete, the Sichuan will be ready to enter service with operational combat capability. Junshe counted told the Global Times that the ship’s construction speed is “considered fast” and reflects China’s increasing maturity in building large warships. Cover image | Xinhua In Xataka | China is manufacturing missiles at an unprecedented speed. And the final objective is not Taiwan, it is another island 3,000 km away

more than half fear being replaced by an AI

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The technology sector has been one of the most attractive in the Spanish labor market for years, and the data continues to point in that direction: they enjoy better salariesmore savings capacity and greater confidence when requesting increases. But there is an elephant in the room that does not go unnoticed by anyone: artificial intelligence. A study of InfoJobs has just put figures to the technology sector, highlighting that workers in this sector they live better than average of Spanish workers in almost all indicators economic, but more than half fear that the AI ends up destroying jobs in their activity, a percentage much higher than that recorded among the rest of the employed population. Better salaries, more satisfaction. The salary perception of employees in the technology sector stands at an average score of 5.8 out of 10, above the 5.2 recorded by the employed population in general. In fact, 23% of workers in this sector say they feel very satisfied with their salary, compared to 20% among all workers. On the other hand, tech employees who they declare themselves dissatisfied Their salaries are also less, being 27% in the technology sector, compared to 33% among all employees as a whole. This difference in perception is based on an objective reality, since 43% of technology professionals earn more than 2,000 euros per month, while among the general employed population that figure remains at only 23%. At the opposite extreme, the most common salary range among all workers is between 1,001 and 1,500 euros per month, which makes clear the salary distance that separates the technology sector from the rest. They do not shut up and ask for salary increases. As detailed in the report of InfoJobs65% of technology professionals have received some salary increase in the last two years. This represents an average of seven points more than the figure for the entire employed population. And they also feel more encouraged to ask for salary increases. Proof of this is that 31% have intention to ask for a salary increase to their company, a proportion that almost doubles that of the rest of the workers, which remains at 17%. Among those who plan to ask for this increase, expectations are also higher: 34% aspire to an increase of more than 5,000 gross euros per year. To this we must add that they save more than the average, allocating 14% of their salary to it, four percentage points above the general figure. Inflation has conditioned purchasing power. Despite starting from an almost privileged position within the workplace in Spain, employees in the technology sector do not escape the deterioration in purchasing capacity that affects the entire Spanish society. 37% assure that your economic situation has worsened in the last two years, a percentage almost identical to that of the general employed population, which stands at 38%. Only 29% of this sector considers that it has improved, while 34% believe that it has remained the same. That loss of purchasing power It has a direct impact on daily spending, forcing 85% of these employees to cut expenses, although they remain below the 92% who declare having done so among all employed people. The items most affected by these cuts are leisure and free time, vacations and getaways, and personal and household purchases. Fear of AI, the elephant in the room. However, the most striking fact of the study has to do with the sword of Damocles that these professionals have been noticing hanging over their heads for some time: artificial intelligence. They are the professionals who use these tools the mostbut also those who most They fear its consequences. 52% of technology workers fear that AI destroys jobs in their activity, a figure that is 13 points higher than the 39% recorded by the average of the employed population in Spain, largely based on specialized manufacturing sectors and service professionals with tasks that are difficult to automate. In Xataka | The best paid jobs in Spain in 2026: from 56,000 euros for a doctor to 250,000 for directing private banking Image | Unsplash (Arvin Mogheyse)

Telecinco faces one of the toughest summers in its history. He has bet all his chips on Paz Padilla

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Last August, Telecinco closed the month with an 8% audience share, the worst monthly figure in its history. In May 2026 it averages 9.2%: somewhat better, but it certainly does not provide a much better diagnosis of the state of suspended animation that the channel lives. Mediaset has been setting annual historical lows for four consecutive years, and the response for this summer has a name and surname: old acquaintances such as Carlos Lozano or Paz Padilla return to the channel, in a decision that makes it clear that Mediaset’s bet is not based on risk. Four years in free fall. The channel signed its historic low audience for the fourth consecutive year in 2025, with a 9.5% annual feeafter 2024 had already been the first below 10%. The problem is not only with the public, but with everything that comes with it: the net advertising income of Mediaset España fell 8% in 2025. For the first time, the group was surpassed in advertising billing by Atresmedia. To this we can add a structural crisis of the environment: Daily linear television consumption time fell by 7.7% in 2025, with an especially pronounced contraction among viewers aged 14 to 49. Telecinco competes, like all of them, against the changing habits of a generation more attentive to streamingTikTok and video games. Lozano, Padilla and other old acquaintances. Under the motto “Open for holidays”, Telecinco has presented its summer strategywhich includes the dating show ‘Love or whatever arises’ (with Carlos Lozano returning to the channel eight years after leaving it, reviving the spirit of ‘Women and men and vice versa’ in the same afternoon slot) or the daily version of ‘De friday’ called ‘Monday to Friday’with Santi Acosta and Beatriz Archidona. Finally, the entertainment format ‘The Peace Show’ with Paz Padilla at the helm, the weekend afternoons and reducing the ‘Party’ time. The presenter was fired by the channel in 2021 in quite tense circumstances, which says a lot about how both parties need each other, in a cessation of hostilities pact that must not have been easy. The changes will start in the second half of June. What goes away and what resists. To adjust this whole grid, there are programs that go on vacation. ‘Jorge’s Diary’ takes a break until September, coinciding with Jorge Javier Vázquez’s vacation. Hold ‘Allá tú’ with Juanra Bonet in the afternoons from Monday to Friday thanks to its good audience of close to 10% of share. The same thing happens with ‘The Fair Price’ by Carlos Sobera, which will also try out on the weekends, filling the gap left by the resounding failure of ‘Seen what has been seen‘. The goldmine of dating programs. Along with the realitiesand sometimes incurring almost unnatural matings between both variants, the dating shows They are the only thing that now invariably works for Telecinco. ‘The island of temptations‘has maintained competitive audiences during this four-year crisis; ‘Married at first sight’ was last season’s surprise. ‘Love or whatever arises’ tries to get away from this trend, and also with a specific format that has been tested previously with success. However, even if all these proposals work, they will be nothing more than mere patches to liven up the summer of a chain that needs a deeper reinvention. The return of Lozano or Padilla are symptomatic of the lack of originality of the resources of a Telecinco that survives on the basis of patches and proper names that drag audiences down. Because an ‘Island of Temptations’ is something that only happens from time to time: to get there you have to keep taking risks and, possibly, try formats that don’t smell like you’ve already seen them. In Xataka | The last bullet that Telecinco has left in the audience’s gun is a promo generated by AI and based on a TikTok success

Spain’s problem is not the lack of buildable land. It is a huge land jam that blocks three million apartments in cities

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The brick crisis at the beginning of the century may be left far behind in time; But the truth is that, almost 20 years after the bubble burst, the sector has not yet recovered from its hangover. And that has dragged it into a paradox: although the country drags a serious deficit residential (some 700,000 homes) and prices they don’t stop going upin Spain there is a huge amount of immobilized buildable land, plots that after the crisis have ended up in the hands of municipalities incapable of promoting housing on them or of groups, funds and companies that have not been able to develop them or have not considered it viable. It might seem like a minor issue if it weren’t for the fact that there are calculations who estimate that that ‘big traffic jam’ of land is costing the cities of Spain 2.9 million potential apartments. That is, houses that could be built on developed lots, but for one reason or another they still do not go beyond paper. Just over half (1.5 million) are also concentrated in the 15 main metropolises. One figure: 1.5 million. The data comes from a study published in the last notebook of the Civic Circle of Opinion by Ignacio Ezquiagaeconomist and expert in the real estate sector. In it he basically dedicates himself to reviewing the “pending planned housing” in the main urban areas of the country. These are apartments and houses that should be built on plots of land in an “advanced state of urban development” or sectorialized (endorsed by a plan and the corresponding city council), but that still do not go from paper to work. Why is it important? Because as Ezquiaga’s study recalls, that bag of land could accommodate millions and millions of new homes. To be precise, it speaks of about seven million properties, although a good part is located in rural areas where the gap between supply and demand is not as serious as in the capitals. If we focus on the 86 urban areas of Spain, we find vacant land with the potential to host 2.93 million of housing. If we refine the shot even further and limit ourselves to the 15 main metropolitan areas of Spain, the figure remains at around 1.51 million homes. Of these, half a million would be located in areas with already urbanized land. Madrid, in the lead. In your studioEzquiaga includes a table prepared with data from the Ministry of Housing that shows that the largest housing stock planned and pending execution is located in the Madrid area, at least if we talk about raw figures. There the potential is 351,000 properties, almost 15% of the total existing housing stock in 2021. The potential is equally high in Murcia (226,600 units), Seville (142,900) and Barcelona (142,900), although in general terms it adds up to thousands of homes in all areas of the country. The smallest is Palma, with almost 12,000. In “dead hands”. To understand part of this large pool of stuck housing we have to go back almost two decades ago, to the bursting of the real estate bubble and its subsequent hangover. When brick ceased to be the business of the century and many developers were forced to close, the plots that had recently hosted residential projects began to become an asset with an uncertain future. A part ended up in private hands. Another, from the town councils. Their casuistries are different, but in the end the result is the same: what Ezquiaga calls properties in “dead hands”parked plots, stuck despite having the potential to inject millions of homes into a market that, 20 years later, is once again tense. “Judging by its urban status, blocked for more than two decades in which many have remained vacant, these are not temporary but structural situations; that is why they remind us, overcoming the distance, of those owners who went down in history as dead hands,” reflect. Who controls that land? As remember The Country There are two major fronts. 30% has remained in the hands of municipal administrations that once received them from the developers as part of the land that they had to give up to carry out their real estate projects. The problem is that not all town councils have the capacity, will or simply the resources to take advantage of that land and convert it into public housing (VPO). The result is that it ends up blocked, up for sale or redirected towards other uses, such as endowment services. The remaining 70% of the land depends on private entities, but that does not guarantee that it will be exploited and converted into housing. The key is whether or not its development is profitable. And if they can finance it. This also explains that when city councils opt for public-private collaborations to take advantage of the land they control, they do not always find partners willing to embark on the projects. One of the keys is provided by Ezquiaga in your studio: The 15 main metropolitan areas in Spain have land with potential for a million and a half homes, but only a third are located in environments with already developed land. “Vacant land”. Last year, in another study published by the think tank Funcas on the Sareb, Ezquiaga I already warned of the complexity of the scenario: “With a development industry with lower capacities compared to previous decades, the original projects were discontinued. Thus, many of the still viable lands would not adapt to the regulatory changes or the new territorial needs, paralyzing them and contributing to a surplus of vacant lands with negative consequences on the valuation of Sareb’s portfolio and, above all, for the long-term generation of new residential supply.” He is not the only one who has drawn attention to the land with still pending potential in the cities of Spain. The Ministry of Housing itself has analyzed the main pockets of land available in Spain for new apartments, focusing above … Read more

After more than 20 years using Microsoft Office, I have switched to LibreOffice. Now I realize everything I’ve missed

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After more than two decades of unwavering loyalty to Microsoft Word, a couple of years ago I made the leap to LibreOffice. This change was not something I had planned, but rather a spontaneous decision born of frustration and fatigue. It happened one day after formatting my PC, at which point I decided to take the step and install LibreOffice. Below these lines I tell you what my experience has been like in case you are also considering something similar. 20 years of Word and Excel are exhausting For practically my entire life with computers, Microsoft Word has been my inseparable companion. I have installed it religiously on every new version of Windows, from XP times to current versions. I have witnessed its evolutionits interface changes, its sometimes controversial ribbon, and how little by little it was integrating with the cloud. I also spent some time using the web version of Office, one of the methods to have it for freewhich although I found it useful for simple tasks when I was away from home, always seemed like a decaffeinated version of its older brother. It’s fine to get by, but when you need all the features, there is no color. LibreOffice, download, install and that’s it Everything changed a few weeks ago. My PC was beginning to show symptoms of fatigue, slowness, and some random errors that made me suspect that it was time for a format. I started using it on Windows 10 before its end of support, since I had Windows 10 and 11 on different computers to stay up to date with everything that happens in Microsoft systems. So I proceeded with the formatting, installed Windows 10 again and quickly installed everything I had before and without bloatware. And that’s when I stopped to think: Do I really want to go back to Office, go through the hoops of having a Microsoft account linked, keeping track of the subscription and a thousand other moves just because I like Word? It is incredibly comforting to use free, comprehensive, open source software like LibreOffice I was honestly tired, so that It was my turning point. to opt for LibreOffice once and for all. And I know that I don’t discover anything new to those who have been using it for a long time, but this change tasted so good to me that I wanted to share it through this article. Other colleagues too They have taken this leap and explained it. LibreOffice was not unknown to me. I had tried it occasionally in the past and it had always seemed like a decent alternative, but inertia and the comfort of sticking with the familiar had kept me in the Microsoft ecosystem. This time, however, I decided to give it a serious chance.. I downloaded the latest version and installed it. The process was surprisingly easy compared to what I was used to before: download, install and go. No product keys, no linked accounts, no subscriptions. A refreshing sensation. My main work tool is the word processor, so LibreOffice Writer was my first stop. The interface, although different from Word, was quite intuitive to me. Yes, there are notable differences, but after a couple of days of continuous use, my workflow was almost as efficient as before. It should be noted that It is a very complete tool. All the functions that I usually use in my work were there: track changes, paragraph styles, spell check, page numbering, indexes… Even some options that in Word are hidden in submenus were more accessible here. It is true that the transition was not perfect. Some old DOCX documents opened with minor differences, but nothing I couldn’t fix in a few minutes. Writer saves by default in ODT format, but can export directly to PDF or save in DOC or DOCX format if you need to share documents to other users who use Office. I’m not a spreadsheet expert, but I need something reliable to organize information, create simple graphs, and occasionally apply a formula. Therefore, Calc has pleasantly surprised me. The transition from Excel was even easier than from Word. The basic formulas work practically the same, the creation of graphs is intuitive and, for my level of use, I have not missed anything at all. What I value most about LibreOffice is the feeling of freedom it gives me. It’s incredibly reassuring to use free, comprehensive, open source software like what you offer, which doesn’t rely on renewable subscriptions or constant connections to cloud services. During these years of intensive use I have not experienced any crashes or loss of information. Furthermore, another notable aspect is its lightness. LibreOffice starts noticeably faster than Office and consumes much less system resourceswhich is always appreciated. Regarding the interface, I must admit that At first I found it a bit cumbersome.. Unlike the Office ribbon, LibreOffice presents a jumble of features that can be overwhelming for a newcomer. However, as the days go by and you become familiar with its layout, you begin to appreciate having all those possibilities in view. Now that I’ve gotten used to it, I find it even more efficient to have direct access to so many features without having to navigate through multiple tabs like in Office. LibreOffice is not perfect. It has its quirks, and during this time I’ve dealt with things like opening DOC and DOCX documents almost always ending up in a bad modification of the document structure, although this is something that it has already been solved. However, for daily professional use it more than meets the requirements. The transition requires a bit of a learning curve and some patience, but the freedom you gain is worth every minute invested. After 20 years with Microsoft Office, I can say that LibreOffice is not only a viable alternative, but it will become my default tool from now on. In Xataka Basics | Microsoft 365 for free: how to get free Office on your PC … Read more

From today you can pay with Bizum in stores, this is how it works

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Let’s tell you How Bizum payments work in stores physical. This is the long-awaited function with which the Spanish application begins to compete with the American Visa, Mastercard, Apple or Google to take over our mobile payments. The deployment of this function will be progressiveand it will be each banking entity that will decide when to implement it. So, the technology already works as of now, but since Bizum is implemented directly in your bank’s app, it will be up to you when to add the touch payments feature. How this feature works This new function is used to pay with Bizum at the establishments’ dataphones. Businesses will not have to change their POS terminals, since the financial institutions themselves will be the ones to enable this new function in the terminals they already have. All this so that the implementation of this function is quick and easy. Currently, when you pay with your mobile phone in a store, you open your wallet application, choose the card and bring your mobile phone closer to the POS. The NFC chip in your mobile phone and the dataphone establishes the link between them and that’s it, you’ve paid. Now, You can do this from your bank’s app without having to configure the mobile wallet app. In addition to this, An app called Bizum Pay is also going to start arrivingwhich will be like a Bizum wallet application with which to make the payment easier, just as if you did it with Google Pay or Apple Pay, and without having to enter your bank app. The Bizum system will have the same security guarantees as the rest of the mobile payment options. You’ll have to unlock your device to pay, so it’s safer than paying with a card that others can use. Bizum currently has 39 participating banking entitiesamong them the most important banks in Spain, but also many neobanks. Therefore, if you are going to pay for your mobile phone, you can do so with this Spanish alternative instead of resorting to the American ones. The way it works will be exactly the same. When can you pay with Bizum in a business When your bank wants. This is the quick answer. From now on, it will be up to each bank to implement this technology in their mobile applications for customers and in the POS terminals of businesses. Each bank will have its own rhythm, that is, it will arrive progressively. In any case, you will have to pay attention to notifications from your bank’s appthe one you already use to send money with Bizum, because that will be when you will be told when you can start using this. In Xataka Basics | Bizum in 2026: everything that changes (and what does not) in transfers with this system

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