Mobile Tech & Gadgets

Spend a moment of real panic with these books that review the grotesque world of 80s horror and horror noire

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We peer into terror in ‘paper maze‘, the fantastic literature podcast that we do at Xataka in collaboration with Minotauro, and we do it with a couple of new features that combine classic and modern. On the one hand, an essay that delves into the disconcerting and insane world of horror paperbacks from the eighties. And on the other, a compilation of stories focused on black horror, the subgenre most concerned with the most terrible and chilling side of racial conflicts. For this he accompanies us Bernard J. Lemanan expert in horror literature with whom we break down these two volumes edited by Minotauro, and which confront the past, present and future of the genre in a unique mix. Paperbacks from Hell is the work of Grady Hendrix, author of novels that we have already talked about here, such as ‘How to sell a haunted house‘. Here he writes a wonderful essay analyzing with detail and a sense of humor the incredible panorama of brutal and exploitative horror literature of the eighties. With a chilling selection of covers and a good edition by Minotauro, which has taken care of the translations of the titles that have been published in Spain, it is an essential volume for anyone who wants to find out more about how the horror genre has gotten to where it is right now. . Jordan Peele, director of films like ‘Let Me Out’, ‘Nope’ and ‘Us’ is responsible for compiling the stories of ‘out there screaming‘, a volume of horror noire perfect for entering very uncomfortable areas of the genre. All the stories in the book have a racial component, and all genres are explored: from pure and simple satire to new meat, including horror of manners. Varied and very combative. How can you subscribe? If you liked this episode of the second season or if you want listen to ‘Paper Labyrinth’ from your favorite podcast applicationyou can subscribe through the main platforms: You can also listen to us and see us on our Youtube channel. In Xataka | Overpopulation taken to the limit, ultra-space thieves and other science fiction milestones by Harry Harrison

The obsession with slim mobile phones is back. And there are several reasons

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The new ones Samsung Galaxy S25 mark the beginning of the year in the high-end smartphone range, but they also tell us about the beginning of a new trend: the war to create the thinnest smartphone. Samsung briefly showed us the Galaxy S25 Edge and rumors of a iPhone 17 Air for this fall they are too coincidental to ignore them, in the absence of official confirmation. Both promise to be the thinnest phones ever created by their respective manufacturers. The question is whether we really need thinner phones. History has taught us that The obsession with thinness usually has consequences. The 2014 iPhone 6, with its 6.9 mm, was so thin that it ended up starring in the bendgate. AND the first Galaxy Edgealthough innovative, sacrificed durability for design. The interesting thing about this trend is not so much the technology itself, but the chosen moment. We have been seeing for years how manufacturers have been thickening their devices to include larger batteries, better camera systems and more sensors. Apple went from 7.6 mm on the iPhone 8 to 8.25 mm on the iPhone 16 Pro. Samsung did the same with its Galaxy line. And users never complained about their phones being “too thick”. In any case, it is common to read a fairly recurring request: more battery even at the cost of greater thickness. And although Oppo, Huawei or Vivo have already launched models in this thickness range in the past, they never set a real commercial trend. Apple and Samsung, as leaders, are capable of doing so. The price of thinness is high. According to leaks, the iPhone 17 Air will have a single rear camera instead of two or three, and will sacrifice one of its speakers. Samsung, for its part, has reduced its Galaxy S25 Edge to two cameras. These are important commitments in 2025, when mobile photography defines the high-end. Why now? The answer may be in the folding. Apple has been working on it for years your foldable iPhoneand Samsung already dominates that format, which on the other hand It is far from what the expectations were. six years ago, when the first ones arrived. A foldable phone needs to be as thin as possible when unfolded so as not to be excessively thick when folded. These new ultra-thin models may well be testing grounds for technologies that will end up in future foldables. He Oppo Find N5 points right in that direction: an ultra-thin foldable. There is also a differentiation factor. After years of incremental iterations, both Apple and Samsung need something to make their devices stand out. Extreme thinness, although it may seem like a step backwards, is visually striking. It’s the kind of feature that makes people stop in stores or pause their gaze when they spot a phone like that in someone else’s hand. And that’s something brands crave. But the success of these devices will depend on whether the compromises are worth it. The iPhone mini failed because it occupied a niche that no one had asked for. Or rather, that he did not ask for enough clients. Will it be different with ultrathin ones? Samsung seems to be starting with some caution, limiting the launch of the S25 Edge to select markets. The mobile industry moves in cycles. This wave of ultra-thin devices marks the beginning of another. But this time, the technology could be paving the way to something bigger: the next generation of foldables. Apple and Samsung are betting big. We’ll see if consumers sacrifice functionality for style. The war for the thinnest mobile phone has only just begun. In Xataka | The cameras of the Samsung Galaxy S25, S25+ and S25 Ultra, explained: their best asset is their inspiration in DSLRs Featured image | Xataka

Octopus tentacles have their own “brain.” We are now learning the implications

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Octopuses are invertebrate animals, but the absence of a central nervous system like that of birds or mammals does not make their brains less interesting than the rest. Brains, emphasizing the plural since neuronal systems of each of its extremities They have a degree of independence, which leads many to consider them as such. A nervous system not at all central. Now, a group of researchers has studied the nervous systems of these cephalopods to better understand how these nine neural organs operate together and to what extent they maintain their independence. What they observed is that each of these brains had the ability to operate individually. The team responsible for the new study believes that it is thanks to the unique segmentation of the nervous system of octopuses that these animals achieve the level of skill in the management of extremely flexible organs that serve these animals to move, feed, sense their environment, and even copulate. “If you are going to have a nervous system that is going to control such dynamic movement, that is a good way to organize it,” explained in a press release Clifton Ragsdale, co-author of the study. “We think it’s a feature that evolved specifically in soft-bodied cephalopods with suction cups to carry out these worm-like movements.” Studying segmentation. The new study focused on segmentation of this curious neuronal system, analyzing the distribution and function of the neurons of these tentacles, taking as reference an octopus of the species Octopus bimaculatus. Neurons that together add up to a greater number than the neurons located in the “central brain” of the animal, which is responsible for coordinating actions that require the use of various arms. These neurons in the extremities are concentrated, explains the teaminto an axial nerve cord (ANC), which “snakes” the tentacle connected to each of the animal’s suction cups. Neural columns. The ANC analysis showed that neurons in the octopus’s limbs were grouped into “columns” that in turn formed segments that the team compared to corrugated pipes. The segments were in turn separated by gaps called “septa” from which nerves and blood vessels made their way to the muscles of the limb. “From a modeling perspective, the best way to organize a control system for this long and flexible arm would be to divide it into segments,” Cassady Olson added.co-author of the study. “There must be some kind of communication between the segments, which you can imagine attenuates their movements.” Job details can be found in an article published in the magazine Nature Communications. Much to investigate. The tentacles of octopuses are very versatile limbs that allow this animal to navigate the seabed, but also, through their suction cups, they allow these octopods to perceive the world around them, hunt and feed on their prey. Knowing the details of the functioning of such complex limbs will still require new research. In Xataka | Octopuses are not aliens, and scientists have had to come out to explain why Image | Theasereje, CC BY-SA 4.0

Mobile phones have been stagnant for five years when it comes to innovation. There is an explanation

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Mobile phones have not innovated for years. Or, at least, not too much. There was a time when jumping from one generation to another was a box of surprises. New designs, completely new features, and crazy innovations to surprise the public iteration after iteration. For a few years now, the meme of Smithers and the doll with the new hat has become more true than ever. The new phone will be the same as last year, with a little more power, a slightly better camera and AI features that we may never use. All this has a reason for being. The times of innovating are (almost) over. There was a time when manufacturers were not afraid to break the mold to create different devices. Samsung did it with the curved screen of the Galaxy Round, LG had a G Flex 2 self-healing, and Xiaomi dared with pop-up cameras from the body with the 9T Pro. There was a time when manufacturers dared to innovate. A few years ago, jumping from one generation to the next meant a significant leap. Going from a Galaxy S2 to an S4 was a brutal change. The same thing happened between LG G3 and the G5. It is true that the brands were taking some blind steps, completely changing the phone from one generation to another: there was not much consistency, but there were significant changes. Apple, which has always moved at its own pace, was one of the few that continued to maintain designs and advance specifications discreetly, without disruptive changes between generations. On Android, every year was an adventure. Being groundbreaking doesn’t work. The most innovative ones have not fared too well. LG ended up closing its mobile divisionNokia stopped inventing and started selling traditional, simple mobile phones under the HMD umbrella, and major manufacturers like Samsung, Xiaomi and Huawei began to make iterations that were increasingly similar to each other. No matter how many critical voices are heard against continuity, continuity works. Or so the data says. If we look at the list of best-selling devices in the world We found that, year after year, the iPhone and Galaxy (both mid-range and high-end) are the ones that repeat the podium year after year. Those phones that precisely “innovate” the least are the ones that sell the most. A path to refinement. The image you see above is a good example: it is even difficult to distinguish last year’s model from the new model. Manufacturers have changed the philosophy: if something works, don’t touch it. For approximately four years now, improvements between generations have been slight. Changes in the camera, small refinements in the design, updated processor, and some technologies such as WiFi, Bluetooth or USB that change protocols. The great innovations of these years have been camera buttons, longer telephoto lenses and the arrival of AI (which, no matter how much it is sold as a gimmick, plays a very secondary role in daily use). And it’s not a negative thing.. Smartphones are at a point of maximum maturity. So much so that it is difficult to think about how to improve them. Screens: we have as much resolution as practically that of a television. Very high peak brightnessand calibrations worthy of studio monitors. The big leaps will involve the implementation of matte screens and better drivers so that these panels are increasingly more efficient. Batteries: 2025 has been the key year for the implementation of carbon-silicon, bringing with it more capacity in a smaller size. 6,000 and 7,000mAh batteries are a realityguaranteeing two days of full use in many cases. There is still a way to go, but the great leap has already been made. Microprocessors: today mobile phones they are so powerful That, in many cases, this is a problem. We have not reached peak power, but we are at a point where a phone is capable of playing triple A games as if it were a console. Cameras: It is one of the points where there is the most room for improvement, but this does not happen through the hardware, but through the software. Formats: Manufacturers want to break with traditional formats, and that is why they are betting on form factors such as folding ones. These grow slowly, but they represent just 1% of total sales. Again, innovation does not sweep. We are far from the real peak. We have been thinking for years that we are approaching the peak smartphoneto that point of no return where it will be practically impossible to improve what we already have. We are right in our approach: progress is becoming less and less and, to appreciate it, it is necessary to be more and more thorough. Despite this, progress is present and, although they are minor changes, they are there. Your 2025 mobile has a processor that allows it to run the applications with the best performance. The quality of its microphones is getting better and better, its fast charging system is very far from those 2/3 hours necessary to charge your old phone and, in short, if we look back 3 or 4 years, the advances are still present, for small as they seem. Image | Xataka In Xataka | The best quality-price mobile phones (2025). Their analyzes and videos are here

the keys that make me look for the Android experience at home

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Few devices have embraced the era of “smart devices” as much as mobile phonesbut there is one who, almost without realizing it, has adopted this strategy so much that In Spain it is difficult to buy one that is not: televisions. Until recently we could find models that did not have a system with apps, but currently it is somewhat complicated. It is even easier to buy a dumb phone, as those that do not have the ability to run apps are called, than a dumb TV. And it is not that there is no demand, since many users prefer to put their own devices to provide them with intelligence, such as Google TV Streamer. The main television brands in Spain are Samsung and LG, at least in the high range, but there are many others that are fighting to gain a foothold, not only in that category, but also in the entry range. There you sign as Xiaomi either TCL They lead the way. In part its sales pitch is not the hardware, but the software. Google TV for everyone These two Chinese brands also make mobile devices, and have taken a similar approach: use Android on your televisions. It is something that neither LG did when it was still in the smartphone market nor does Samsung do currently, despite the fact that it is the largest manufacturer of Android smartphones in the world. The reason why Xiaomi, TCL and other brands opt for Google TV is simple, but at the same time multiple: it is an option that attracts users, but does not involve the development or maintenance of your own operating systemwith what this entails in terms of resources and operating expenses. Although there are more options, such as WebOS or Tizen, Google TV (formerly Android TV) has positioned itself as the best option not only for manufacturers, but for many users who value what it gives them. And we are not only talking about integration with the smartphones they use, but also about functions and possibilities that they do not have in other models with other systems. Advantages of Google TV Many brands available. As with mobile phones, choosing Android as the operating system allows you to choose between more brands. Firms such as Xiaomi and TLC, but also industry giants such as Sony or Phillips opt for the Google system. The range of sizes, models, prices and brands is the largest when compared to other operating systems. Notifications for Android TV The Free Android Good voice control system. Typing on a television is complicated and tiring. Being able to dictate things is much more comfortable. Google TV is not the only system that allows it, but it does have very advanced voice recognition, in part because Google has been working on it for years. Google Assistant. And this function also enables integration with the Google Assistant, making the TV become a speaker if we want, because we can send content, ask questions, change channels… Integration with Google Home. The integration with Android of Google TV is obvious, but also with Google Home. The home automation application allows you to create routines using the television, use the phone as a remote control, etc. We’ll even look at how compatible headphones pair automatically to the TV. Button remapping. Remote control buttons rarely provide the shortcuts we all need. Thanks to applications like Button Mapper It is possible to change the behavior of buttons that we never use. Open applications, take screenshots, turn off the TV, change settings… everything is possible with this free application. Remote control Unsplash The Free Android All types of applications. Thanks to the fact that it uses Android, there are many developers who create applications for televisions, from casual or more advanced games to file management tools, video playback with all types of codecs, etc. Extreme customization. One particular type of apps are desktop replacements. These apps allow us to change the way the TV is shown to us, eliminating ads, sections that we do not use… If we want, we can make only the installed apps appear, to open them directly with the remote control. External storage management. And the memory possibilities skyrocket if we use external hard drives and want to play content. Android allows you to run all types of videos, either with pre-installed apps or with those you download from the Google Play Store. In addition, they usually have reading capacity not only for USB flash drives, but also for large capacity disks, in case we have our digital movie library stored there. bluetooth controls. Although television processors are not designed for games, some simple titles can be easily run on them, and having synchronized Bluetooth controls is an advantage. The number of options available is enormous. Especially if we use them with cloud streaming services. A person playing on TV Chromecast built-in. Of course, we could not ignore the fact that the televisions integrate a Chromecast system, which allows you to send content from a mobile phone on the same WiFi network. This makes it much more convenient to send a song from Spotify, a video from YouTube, etc. To these reasons we must add others such as the convenience that many users have in using a system that they already know because it is the same one they have on their tablet or mobile phone, knowing the applications because, again, they are the same ones that they already used. , etc. Of course, this does not mean that there are no disadvantages when compared to other systems, but the benefits outweigh the latter.

when you can no longer buy them and until when they can be used

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We are going to explain the times of the end of free public transport passesafter the Congress of Deputies has rejected the Royal Decree in which its extension was included. This also affects discounts of between 30% and 50% on some season tickets, the aid has simply run out. The free public transport passes They were designed for young, minor and unemployed users, and their medium-distance and suburban trips. Meanwhile, the 50% discounts were for long and medium distance passes, and 30% for multi-trip passes and tickets. All this disappears. When do the free and discounted passes end? Subscriptions have run out as of today. Yesterday afternoon the Royal Decree that included these passes was rejected, and Renfe immediately announced that they can no longer be acquired today. It has been immediate and lightning-fast. Today, Thursday, January 23, 2025, you can no longer purchase free passes or discounted passes for long and medium distance or recurring trips. Everything has returned to its original price, after the discounts have been in force since September 2022. What if you already have a subscription? If you recently obtained one of these subscriptions, don’t worry, because you will be able to use them until the end date of their validity. Free passes already issued may be used until April 30and Avant until the end of their validity period. Therefore, this means that you can no longer acquire more free passes or with discounts of 30% or 50%, however, if you already have one you will be able to continue using it until it expires. It remains in doubt whether an extension of these subscriptions will be attempted again, but for now they have ended. Cover image | Yubal Fernandez In Xataka Basics | Renfe discounts for people over 60: what they are like and how to get the Gold Card

Google TV will give you daily AI summaries of the news that matters most to you

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Have Google TV at home, either through the Smart TV itself or a dongle like the new Chromecastallows you to fully access the playback of multimedia content or access the most popular streaming platforms. Google now also wants it to become the user information node with an experience based on the use of generative artificial intelligence. It is already happening in the new Samsung Galaxy S25 that include an assistant on the lock screen to assist the user according to the context of using their mobile or simply give a daily summary of the topics that may interest you the most, such as the news of the day. Access to information is more flexible and what the technology giant wants is for the user to have it available on the devices or accessories they use the most, and one of them is the Smart TV you have in the living room. After making a previous announcement of the new “News Briefs” feature at CES in Las Vegas earlier this year, the technology giant has now announced that it will begin rolling out an experimental feature that is powered by generative artificial intelligence of Gemini. The deployment of its AI seems to have no end and can even be enjoyed through a widget on Google Home to give text summaries of the situation of connected smart devices in the user’s smart home. Google TV 9to5Google The Free Android “News Briefs” It is a feature designed to collect all the new news that arises throughout the day, and with the help of Gemini, its AI, Google TV will be in charge of making a summary of each of them as well as playing videos from them. sources that are related to the context of the news. The video content offered by Google TV through this new function will be extracted mainly from YouTube. The technology giant has given several details about this new feature in the support page: “Using Gemini’s artificial intelligence models and human evaluation, News Briefs presents summaries of the most important news and plays those videos from trusted news sources so that the user has all the information at hand available.” Manuel Ramirez The Free Android The availability of News Brief at the moment it will not be general and Google’s idea is to deploy it to some Google TV users first in their country this week. This new AI-powered news experience will appear on the For You page of Google TV.

Without the Omnibus Decree, aid from the MOVES III Plan has also fallen. It is terrible news for the electric car in Spain

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All the aid that the Government hoped to approve with the Omnibus Decree that had to pass the filter of the Council of Deputies has fallen. With 177 votes against added by the Popular Party, Junts and Vox, the Government was not enough the 171 votes in favor that he obtained to carry out his varied package of measures. Among the measures that this Omnibus Decree was found pension increase but also aid for public transport and, consequently, free or reduced transport passes and multi-trip tickets that can no longer be purchased. Only those that were purchased before January 23, 2025 or those of a regional nature whose town councils or autonomous communities maintain. And among those measures was also the extension of the MOVES III Planaid for the purchase of an electric vehicle, and the discount of up to 3,000 euros in the income tax return that can be deducted for the purchase of a car with these characteristics. The fall of some key aid The extension of the MOVES III Plan and the aid itself for the purchase of electric cars has been a huge headache for the Government in the last year. In February 2024Pedro Sánchez, President of the Government, assured in a Forum organized by ANFAC that they would review the MOVES III Plan “in the coming weeks.” Shortly after, Héctor Gómez, Minister of Industry, Commerce and Tourism, assured that they were “aware that the MOVES Plan has its strengths and weaknesses. From a temporal point of view, making the aid more flexible so that charged when the vehicle is purchased “It is a step that we are going to take, that is the commitment.” All MOVES III PLAN aid that is no longer active However, months later the situation had not changed. On the first day since the deadline to buy an electric car with aid expires (July 1, 2024), The Government extended this subsidy again, maintaining the same conditions. Until December 31, 2024, it was possible to buy an electric car with aid that starts at 4,500 euros and that in the best of cases reaches 7,000 euros in discounts if a vehicle that is more than seven years old is scrapped. Months later, as in trapped in timetwo weeks before the end of 2024 and, with it, the MOVES III Plan and its aid, we found ourselves in the same situation again: not knowing what would happen to the program. Just a few days later, on December 26, the Government confirmed that we would have Plan MOVES III until June 30, 2025 but that, again, the conditions were exactly the same. Now, with just over 20 days of the year 2025 already gone, anyone who has not had their request to receive purchase aid under the umbrella of the MOVES III Plan You may find yourself with the unpleasant news that you probably won’t receive it. Without support for the Omnibus Decree in which this extension that was already active was contemplated, everything remains up in the air. We do not know if, if a specific measure is approved in Congress (as the Popular Party has requested for an increase in pensions or transport aid), the delivery of aid will be retroactive to all those who formalized the request before its fall. but they did not have approval from the institutions. The news is terrible for the electric car in Spain. The first months of the year always They tend to be a little weaker in salesthe market accepting the last registrations from the previous year, and the electric car is growing but at a very slow pace. In 2024 it grew by 4.21% but its market share remains at 5.36% which represents a technical tie with the figure for 2023 (5.56%). When talking about the reasons for this stagnation, the MOVES III Plan continues to be pointed out as one of the big problems. In some cases The wait to receive aid has been up to three years and in July 2024 we learned that they had been granted aid worth 250 million euros for which there was no money because the fund had already been exhausted. The news coming from neighboring countries is not too optimistic either. In Germany, the largest electric car market in Europe, it has fallen by 27.4% according to ACEA data in his first year without aid for the purchase of electric cars. In Portugal, where purchase aid is direct when purchasing a car, the electric market share is close to 20%. To alleviate this situation and encourage buyers, it has been the manufacturers themselves who are providing a type of purchase aid to the new owners. To encourage sales, they show the car with 7,000 euros discount that, in reality, It is an interest-free loan. to be returned a few months later when (it is hoped) the new buyer has received the aid. The electric car market is having a hard time taking off in Spain. The lack of purchase aid means new stones on a very unpaved road. It remains to be seen what measures the Government takes, if it manages to carry out a new extension of a plan that requires direct aid for purchases or if, on the contrary, we are facing months of absence of government support. What we do know is that in Germany manufacturers trusted in a return to aid and They launched generous discounts in the first months after their subsidies fell. And, despite everything, it hasn’t worked. Photo | renault In Xataka | Norway and China have confirmed that the electric car can lead sales. With (a lot of) help, of course

Samsung Galaxy S25 vs Galaxy S24. Everything that has changed (and what has not) between the two generations

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At last! The wait has been worth it: we already know what the new Samsung Galaxy S25 and how they remain compared to the previous generation. It’s been a journey of rumors, leaks and expectations, but they’re here. In this article we are going to break down the specifications of the base model, the Samsung Galaxy S25and we are going to compare it with its equal from the last generation, the Samsung Galaxy S24. Will it be worth taking the generational leap? samsung galaxy s24 samsung galaxy s25 Dimensions and weight 147 x 70.6 x 7.6mm 167g 146.9 x 70.5 x 7.2mm 162g screen 6.2 inches FHD+ (2,340 x 1,080p) Dynamic AMOLED 120Hz Vision Booster 6.2 inches FHD+ (2,340 x 1,080p) Dynamic AMOLED 120Hz Vision Booster processor Samsung Exynos 2400 4nm Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite 3nm memory 8GB 12GB storage 128 | 256 | 512GB 128 | 256 | 512GB battery 4,000 mAh Charge 25W 15W wireless charging Reversible charging 4,000 mAh Charge 25W 15W wireless charging Reversible charging operating system Android 14 OneUI 6.1 Android 15 OneUI 7 front camera 12MP (f/2.2, 80º) 12MP (f/2.2, 80º) rear cameras Main: 50MP (f/1.8, 85º, OIS) Wide angle: 12MP (f/2.2, 120º) Telephoto lens: 10MP (f/2.4, OIS, 3x) Main: 50MP (f/1.8, 85º, OIS) Wide angle: 12MP (f/2.2, 120º) Telephoto lens: 10MP (f/2.4, OIS, 3x) connectivity 5G LTE WiFi 6E Bluetooth 5.3 eSIM 5G LTE Wi-Fi 7 Bluetooth 5.4 eSIM resistors IP68 certification Gorilla Glass IP68 certification Gorilla Glass others USB C (USB 3.2) NFC Ultra Wide Band GPS/Glonass/Beidou/Galileo/GZSS USB C (USB 3.2) NFC Ultra Wide Band GPS/Glonass/Beidou/Galileo/GZSS price From 639 euros From 909 euros Samsung Galaxy S24 (128GB) *Some prices may have changed since the last review Samsung Galaxy S25 (128GB) *Some prices may have changed since the last review What changes The biggest leap at the hardware level is found in the processors: Samsung Exynos 2400 versus Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite More RAM and a good freedom when choosing storage Mobile phones with a capacity of 128 GB can fall very short in a matter of a short time, especially at a time when apps and games increasingly take up more storage. With the change of generation, Samsung has maintained the options to buy the versions of 128GB, 256GB and 512GB. Although we do see a change, in this case, in the RAM memory. In the same way that we have been seeing this year in other brands, the Samsung Galaxy S25 comes with a good extra in terms of RAM memory. The Samsung Galaxy S24 has 8 GB, while the new generation has opted to offer 12 GBsomething logical taking into account the rest of the terminal’s specifications, as well as the arrival of various functions such as Galaxy AI. A notable change in processors The biggest change between the two generations is seen in the processor. The Samsung Galaxy S24 features the Samsung Exynos 2400, a processor that, far from being the most powerful, offers good performance in the terminal; On the other hand, the Samsung Galaxy S25 arrives with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite, the most powerful processor that we can find in Android phones. This change makes sense considering everything that will arrive with the Samsung Galaxy S25. There are many brands that have made it clear on paper that Artificial Intelligence is an important point when launching their phones, but this requires a set of hardware to be able to offer good performance. In this case, the Qualcomm SoC promises a 40% performance increase on NPU, 37% on CPU and 30% on GPU with respect to the Exynos 2400. A newer version of the operating system, but… A year has passed between the two generations, so the Samsung Galaxy S25 arrives as standard with a more current version of the operating system; Android 15 facing Android 14which is what the Samsung Galaxy S24 is based on. Although, obviously, Both phones have (and will have) the latest version of the software. But this should not be a reason to change or choose one model or another. Let us remember that both phones are based on the idea of ​​offering up to seven years of updatessix for the Galaxy S24 considering that it was launched a year ago. They still have many years to update, so in this sense, beyond the presence of Galaxy AI and what each specific terminal can offer, we are talking about two devices that comply perfectly. What doesn’t change A continuous screen Being continuous does not necessarily have to be something negative; When something works, why change it? Within the price range in which both terminals are found, the screens, which are practically identical, comply perfectly. Both phones integrate a panel 6.2 inch AMOLED which offers both Full HD+ resolution and a refresh rate of 1 to 120 Hz. Without seeing how the Samsung Galaxy S25 screen behaves, we can move on to our analysis of the Samsung Galaxy S24. He already mentioned it Ivan Linares“the screen is outstanding“. Samsung did its homework very well during the previous generation. The battery stays together with its charging, wireless charging and reversible charging At a time when brands have begun to launch their phones with batteries of up to 7,000 mAh, it is somewhat surprising that Samsung has been consistent with the 4,000 mAh battery that we can see in the Samsung Galaxy S25, and that we could also see in the Samsung Galaxy S24. But beyond the numbers, the key is in the efficiency of the processor. In the previous generation, autonomy was very good, so we hope it will be maintained (or improved) with the Galaxy S25. What is missing is an extra in other aspects related to the battery. The 25W fast charging It may be somewhat fair if we take into account that it is a figure that we no longer usually see in other brands. Fortunately, with the arrival of a new generation, both wireless charging and reversible charging have … Read more

the radical plan that Barcelona is considering for foreigners

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New year, old worries. In one of his first polls 2025, the CIS has confirmed (to no one’s surprise) that one of the issues that most worries Spaniards at this start of the year, if not the most, is housing. Their prices and accessibility keep more people awake at night than the progress of the economy or the political debate. With that backdrop, in Barcelona, ​​one of the cities in the country where the more they are getting more expensive rentals, have decided to make a move to protect their market from speculation. and has an idea: prohibiting foreigners from purchasing homes in Barcelona if it is not to reside in them. What has happened? That Barcelona City Council has placed duties on itself in terms of housing. Its Commission on Ecology, Urban Planning, Mobility and Housing has approved an ERC proposal that raises explore the legal form to prohibit the purchase of homes by investment funds and foreign people who are not going to reside in them. The measure has moved forward with the support of the Republicans, PSC and Barcelona en Comú and the rejection of PP, Vox and Junts. Click on the image to go to the tweet. What exactly have they approved? The proposal of ERC advocated that the City Council, together with the rest of the administrations with powers in the matter, “promote the necessary legislative tools to prohibit the purchase of housing by all investment funds and non-resident persons (natural or legal) in the country, if it is not for one’s own residential use or that of a direct family member”. The Newspaper clarify that the PSC proposed a compromise to the ERC proposal (accepted by this group) so that, instead of requiring the Consistory to “promote legislative measures”, it would first commit to studying them. In any case, the commission closed with a clear message from the municipal body: it is open to prohibiting the purchase of homes by foreign companies and people who are not going to reside in them. Objective: not to be Monopoly. Republican councilor Eva Baró insisted on the importance of the measure to prevent Barcelona from “being sold in pieces as if it were the board of a Monopoly game.” “The original sin is mainly one: having understood housing as a market good, at the service of capital, instead of understanding housing as a human right, a necessity, that the public powers had to protect,” claimed. But… Doesn’t the Government want to do that? If anything has become clear at the start of 2025, it is that housing has become a priority issue on the political agenda. In less than a month they have presented their recipe book to facilitate access to both the PP like the Government, which recently announced a plan 12 measuresamong them one that consists of limiting through taxes the purchase of homes by foreigners from outside the EU who do not reside in Spain. As? With a tax burden of up to 100% of the value of the property. ERC advocate for going further in Barcelona. Its proposal is not limited only to buyers from outside the EU, it also wants to extend to EU foreigners. “It is not worth stopping halfway. This initiative would not only affect non-resident non-EU citizens like the one announced by Sánchez, but also investment funds and ultimately everyone, including community members, who do not buy a home to live in” , Baró emphasizes. Looking beyond Spain. Republican Left argues that, if it ends up coming to fruition, his proposal for Barcelona would not be so strange. Not at least if you put it in the European context. The training assures that in Amsterdam or Utrecht, both in the Netherlands, measures have been applied “that go along those lines to limit speculation” in the market. And at least in the specific case of Utrecht the idea seems to have had effects, according to the broken down data by Baró: “78% of the homes sold in the last two years were acquired by residents, while investors only managed to acquire 11% of the homes.” In other countries On the old continent, restrictions also apply to the sale of homes to foreigners. It matters how… and when. The agreement of the Housing Commission of Barcelona City Council is important for its content, but also for its context. And this one is not marked only by CIS data or the package of measures announced last week by Pedro Sánchez. A few days ago it was revealed that the “Golden visa” they have broken records in Catalonia, with the granting of 314 of these visas, especially to Chinese, Iranian, American and British investors, according to the data shelled by The Vanguard. 98% of these permits (308) correspond to Barcelona. What do the “Golden visa” show us? This enormous flow of “Golden visa” is no coincidence. In April the Government will end these residence visasa figure approved in the time of Mariano Rajoy and which is designed for non-EU residents who want to invest in financial assets in Spain or acquire a property for which they allocate at least 500,000 euros. According to the BBC, between 2013 and 2023, more than 5,000 of these golden visas, especially to Chinese (2,712) and Russian (1,159) investors. Images | Enes (Unsplash) In Xataka | After leaving Catalonia due to the rent cap, the investment funds have a new objective: Valencia

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