Mobile Tech & Gadgets Archives - Page 126 of 1642

in Cádiz they have decided that playing soccer on the beach is a prohibited activity

June 23, 2026 by usatoday24

It doesn’t matter the year, the city, or the beach. Every summer on the sandy beaches of Spain there are a series of images that are religiously repeated: the queues in the beach barsthe crowded parking lotsthe tourists who They approach at dawn to the beachfront to hang his umbrella and reserve the best spaces… and the groups of children playing with balls among bathers who just want to lie in the sun, which sometimes leads to the occasional fight. In Cádiz they have decided that they want to save that last one. What has happened? For a few days now, the beaches of Cádiz have been the protagonist of a curious controversy: Balls yes or balls no? Should ball games be prohibited on sandy beaches? Do a group of children who want to have a party in the sand have the same right to enjoy the coast as a retired couple who just want to sunbathe, or should the latter be prioritized? These are questions that tend to be repeated year after year, but a few days ago Canal Sur recovered them in a report in which he reveals that in Cádiz the Local Police have gotten to work to put an end to the little parties on the beach. @zona.cousins 🚨€750 FINE for playing ball on the beach? 😳🏝️ Is it fair or does it seem exaggerated? #zonacousins #fine #beach #cadiz #news ♬ original sound – Zona Primos Why’s that? By pure regulations. The ordinance of Cádiz is very clear and limits the spaces in which you can (and cannot) play with balls in the city’s sandy areas during the summer. The key is that the City Council has decided to move from theory to action and has mobilized local agents to enforce this rule. In a matter of two days they seized 18 balls. And that is the least of the problems for the ‘hunted’ players red-handed. Those who disturb other bathers by playing with a ball may commit a minor offense, for which they risk fines of up to 750 euros. If they are also repeat offenders and are caught twice, the punishment can increase to 1,500. He reportage of Canal Sur shows another reality, just as important: the norm is far from arousing consensus. Their reporter interviews bathers who call it “atrocious” or “exaggeration” that someone is fined 750 euros just for kicking a ball. Also to others who complain about “lack of control.” “The boy with the ball again, I’m going to have to get up because if he hits me with the ball…” complains one of the women interviewed. “What bothers me is that they get close, hit me with a ball and break my glasses.” What does the ordinance say? The most curious thing, as a local Cádiz police officer reminds Canal Sur, is that the restrictions that affect ball games on the town’s beaches are not new. The ordinance It was published in the Provincial Gazette in August 2023 and in its article 29, dedicated precisely to “games and recreational activities” in the city’s sandy areas, it is very clear about it: “The walk, the stay or the bath in the sea will have preference over any other use on the beaches of Cádiz (…). People who practice sports on beaches will make normal, rational and peaceful use of the beach space, without causing inconvenience or damage to the rest of the users or to the natural attributes of the beaches.“. And in case it is not clear, underline: “During bathing season, and in order to avoid possible inconvenience to other users, the activities and ball sports will take place in the areas marked and enabled for this purpose, included in the Operation Plan. When the sports activities in question may cause inconvenience to other users, the sports areas will be provided with protections and background nets, in order to prevent the projection of balls and balls towards the bathing area, walkways over the sand, shower areas, changing rooms, first aid kits or any other facility. Does it only happen in Cádiz? Not at all. Controversy has arisen in Cádiz due to the Local Police campaign and the removal of 18 balls in just 48 hours, but the Cádiz City Council is not the only one that prioritizes bathers over those who want to play with the ball on the beach. At least during the summer months. The municipal regulations de Vigo also clarifies that games with balls or paddles “both in sand and water” can only be played when “they do not pose a nuisance” to the rest of the users. A similar pattern is found in the ordinances of To Coruña, Alicante either Malagato cite a few examples. More or less clearly, permanently or depending on each context, all the rules agree on the same thing: the games cannot interfere with the rest of the people who enjoy the sand. “It is prohibited in bathing areas and waters and during the bathing season (…) to carry out activities, games or exercises that may disturb others,” he clarifies. the Malaga norm. Does it only affect the beaches? No. A quick Google search comes in to find articles and forums in which the loss of spaces is pointed out in which a few years ago one could play without a problem and now they veto the use of balls. “In this park where generations have grown up playing soccer and with a ball in their hands, they have put up this sign prohibiting it,” commented In February, a Reddit user next to a photo showed a sign banning balls. “I can’t help but wonder: where does the city council want to focus children’s leisure? There are fewer and fewer spaces for free play and more regulations.” What is the priority? “Then we worry that children will spend more time with screens, consoles and mobile phones, ‘like zombies’, but what real alternatives are we leaving them if even the most basic … Read more

The price of Steam Machine was predictable. The worrying thing is what it tells us about PS6 and Xbox Helix

June 23, 2026 by usatoday24

After announcing it in November of last year and keeping it in a dangerous limbo due to component crisisValve has confirmed the Steam Machine priceending weeks of rumors with a result that surprises few. that the Steam Machine had ballots to cost 1,000 euros, it was not a surprise (and even more so after the stratospheric Steam Deck price increase), but the worst is what is advancing for the next generation of consoles. Nails PS6 and Xbox Helix that they should be a generational leap and that are being given the price of the most expensive consoles in history. The 1,000 euros. When Valve announced the PC, it did so without a price. He invited experts to his offices so they could try out some games, see the machine both inside and out, and experience what the new Steam Machine could do (because there were already some that They failed more than a decade ago) could offer. The price debate immediately arose and, when doing the math, it was estimated among the 600 and 800 euros in the most pessimistic estimate. Reality has ended up far exceeding that forecast because the 1,039 euros are for the version with 512 GB of storage, the 2 TB version goes to 1,359 euros and then you have a pack with the controller for both configurations. Clearly, it is a very high price and, although it has the advantage of the form factor and a dissipation that seems very efficient, there are no performance advantages over a piece-based PC. It’s not ‘next gen’. Because, beyond the price, something that is being discussed is that the performance is nothing like the other Thursday either. Gamer Nexus either Digital Foundry They have already been able to get their hands on the system and the conclusion is that the performance (roughly) is similar to a 12 GB RTX 3060, an RTX 3050, an Arc A770 or an RX 6600. We are not talking about cutting-edge hardware at all. Not at all. It’s something that depends on the game and its optimization, but that’s where the shots go. And, if we want a simpler comparison, putting it next to a PS5 In performance mode (prioritizes FPS rate), making the game’s visual specs on Steam Machine match those of PS5, performance is very, very similar. Sometimes above PS5, sometimes below. We are talking about the base PS5, the one from 2020, not the PS5 Pro. More than 1,000 euros to move around the performance of a six-year-old machine is not good news. Steam Machine vs PS5 in ‘Forza Horizon 5’. Screenshot of the Digital Foundry video Steam Machine vs PS5 in ‘007 First Light’. Screenshot of the Digital Foundry video Steam Machine vs PS5 in ‘Black Myth Wukong’. Screenshot of the Digital Foundry video Steam Machine vs PS5 in ‘Alan Wake 2’. Screenshot of the Digital Foundry video Steam Machine vs PS5 in ‘Crimson Desert’. Screenshot of the Digital Foundry video PS6 and Xbox Helix, when. The more than 1,000 euros with the component crisis (which will last a few more years) no one will lower it to us anymore, but… what about the new generation consoles? We have been in the current generation for six years and it is an open secret (in the case of Xbox it is not even a secret) that both Microsoft and Sony are working on their new machines. If everything had continued as it seemed, PS6 and Helix should have seen the light between 2027 and 2028. PS5 has a good sales pace with 90 million units sold and ‘GTA VI‘ is postulated as that title that will allow the Sony machine to have a final run before the next generation. The problem is the same one that Valve has faced: the component crisis. A few weeks ago, Asha Sharma, CEO of Xbox, pointed out that at the beginning of 2027 they would send the Helix development kits to companies, which indicates that we would see the machine at the end of the year or the beginning of 2028 and something more important: the console was going to be expensive. Rposing things. Since then, the wheel has continued to turn and Microsoft itself has spoken again about Helix, pointing out that what they wanted to achieve at the hardware level was getting out of hand because it is more expensive every day to set up a platform. Sharma commented that mass audiences “won’t spend thousands of dollars on a new generation of consoles,” so they were rethinking things with “radically different business models,” whatever that means. What is clear is that assembling a console that represents a generational leap compared to what we have had since 2020 is not cheap for companies that have to calculate the price/performance ratio very well and, although consoles are not the main source of income for the video game divisions of Sony and Microsoft, they cannot go to wild losses either. Hold on a little longer. The bad thing is that hope is not something that is in the equation at a time when we see that a machine like the Steam Machine, with its more than 1,000 euros, hopefully equals the performance of a base PS5. And that anticipates two futures: new consoles that are more powerful and much more expensive than current ones or hybrid consoles that rely on streaming gaming, which would further complicate the already damaged preservation scene. A third option? May both Microsoft and Sony hold on to their current generation a little longer. It is something that would be easier for Sony, which has the PS5 Pro on the market and much more stock than Microsoft, but by holding PS5 longer and delaying PS6 it would be able to take advantage a little more of a current generation that feels wasted in some aspects and, above all, it would be giving the component market time to recover. If not, consoles costing more than 1,000 euros at launch will be … Read more

“The guideline is not to practice it three hours before going to sleep”

June 23, 2026 by usatoday24

When it comes to combating the hated insomnia, there are many techniques that are commonly used, such as stay away from cell phone screenshaving a room with a good temperature or even relaxation techniques. But one of the most important tips we can also give is not to exercise several hours before going to bed, because instead of making us sleep peacefully, it will make us wide-eyed. An inconsistency. Under the principle of logic, it is known by all that when we do an intense workout we end up exhausted and wanting to lie down in bed after a shower. This relationship may make us believe that doing sports can actually cause us to rest much better, but the reality is quite different. It’s not the sport. With this statement, we should not fall into the idea that exercising is bad for getting a good night’s sleep, because it is false. The opposite happensas official guidelines point out, such as that of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, which point because practicing regular exercise is one of the most effective tools to maintain good sleep hygiene. In fact, massive population studies show that those who play sports sleep better than sedentary people. The conflict is in the time we leave between finishing a sports session and going to sleep. And if we finish playing sports at nine at night and want to sleep at ten thirty, we are going to find ourselves with a highly stimulated nervous system that does not allow the body to secrete melatonin and lower body temperature. Demonstrated. A comprehensive systematic review and meta-analysis published in Nature concluded that moderate intensity exercise during the day is the best ally for sleep, since it reduces the time we are awake once we fall asleep. However, researchers drew a red line when they saw that crossing the barrier of 90 minutes of intense exercise at night is directly associated with poor quality rest. This idea is reinforced by recent research, such as Leota’s studiowhere it is shown that very long training sessions in the evening generate such metabolic excitement that they drastically hinder the onset of sleep. Beyond melatonin. This is known as the ‘sleep hormone’ and without a doubt the one that has transcended the most to society and who tries to compensate through pills that are sold in any supermarket. But there is another very important molecule that explains this phenomenon, which is orexin. This is nothing more than a natural neuropeptide of the brain that is very high in the morning to activate us and that cAs the day goes by, your concentration decreases. until it is at a minimum concentration so that we can sleep at night. The problem is that exercising intensely activates its production and that is why, when we want to sleep, it remains at a high concentration that can cause us to have problems falling asleep. The experts. One of the voices that has pointed to this period of hours between exercise and going to bed is that of Alfredo Rodríguez Muñoz, professor of Psychology, through a interview in The Voice of Galicia. In this one he points out “the guideline is not to practice it three hours before going to sleep.” The recommendation given in this case is that the exercise should always be done first thing in the morning or first thing in the afternoon. In this way, we manage to maintain the benefits during rest, but we do not sacrifice our hours of rest. Images | Tania Mousinho Victor Freitas In Xataka | We thought that sleeping was only good for rest. It actually helps us build new muscle.

These are the best offers in technology

June 23, 2026 by usatoday24

As usually happens every year around this time, Amazon has just kicked off a new edition of its Prime Day. On this occasion, with four days full of offers on all types of devices that will end at midnight on Friday. Offers that we can take advantage of if we are Prime members because, unlike the Black Friday or the Spring Sale Party, this is an exclusive campaign for Amazon Prime subscribers. However, if we are not, All we have to do is register without paying anything through the 30 day free trial for new registrations and thus access both the Prime Day bargains and the free and fast shipping, the Prime Video catalog and other benefits associated with the Prime subscription. Amazon Prime – 30 days free trial The price could vary. We earn commission from these links As in every edition of Prime Day, Amazon It has its own devices such as phones, hardware, accessories and all types of devices on sale. And below we compile some of the most interesting offers that we can already take advantage of: Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Select by 23.99 eurosexcellent quality-price ratio for Amazon’s best seller Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition by 144.99 eurosthe cheapest option in the Amazon reader catalog, now even cheaper Pixel 10 by 549 eurosprecious for Google’s latest phone Xiaomi F Pro Smart TV 75 per 499 euros75-inch pants at a very reasonable price 13-inch iPad Pro M4 with 2TB by 1,749 euroshistorical minimum for the best possible variant of this high-end tablet Google Pixel 10, Obsidian, 128 GB The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Select A regular at Amazon’s Prime Days are its Fire TV Stick devices and this time it was going to be no different. The Stick 4K Select model is usually the best in value for money and now it is even more so. Reduced to only 23.99 eurosit is perfect for turning any old television into a current smart TV (as long as it has at least one HDMI port available). Plays content in 4K, includes remote control and is compatible with Alexa+. Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Select (latest generation) The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition Although some others Kindle readers have also dropped this Prime Day, we highlight the Paperwhite Signature Edition for a simple reason: it barely costs 25 euros more than the original model and It is an investment that can be very worthwhile. If we are going to take advantage of its wireless charging or need that extra storage. It has a 7-inch 300 dpi screen, autonomy for several weeks, self-adjusting front light and 32 GB capacity. Reduced to 144.95 euros in all three colors. Amazon Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition (latest generation) The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Pixel 10 For 100 euros less than its RRP and at its historical minimum price on Amazon (549 euros), this is the best opportunity to buy the Pixel 10 in its most economical variant (128 GB) at the best price. A high-end phone from Google that stands out for its great photography section, its 6.3-inch OLED screen with a refresh rate that reaches 120 Hzits 12 GB of RAM and, above all, its Android experience. Without going any further, it has just been updated to Android 17 just a few days ago. Google Pixel 10, Obsidian, 128 GB The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Xiaomi TV F Pro 75 Typically, large televisions are much more expensive than more compact models. Things change this Prime Day with the Xiaomi TV F Pro 75, now that it has dropped to just a few 499 euros that They seem like a bargain considering their usual price and, above all, that it mounts a 75-inch panel. We are looking at a QLED television with 120 Hz, ideal for watching DTT, series and movies, as well as for playing games. PS5 Pro either Xbox Series. As for its operating system, it has Fire OS8. XIAOMI TV F Pro 75, 75 Inch The price could vary. We earn commission from these links 13-inch iPad Pro M4 Although the new generation of iPad Pro M5the iPad Pro M4 They are still excellent purchase options if we find them at a better price because there are very few changes between them. This 13-inch M4 iPad Pro reduced to 1,749 euros is a good example of this: This is the maximum configuration that exists for said tabletwith 2 TB of storage, WiFi plus 5G connectivity and nano-textured glass finish. The usual thing is to find it exceeding (by a lot) 2,000 euros and now it doesn’t even reach 1,750. Apple iPad Pro 13 Inch (M4): 2 TB, Wi Fi 6E and 5G, Nano-textured glass 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 | Amazon, Apple, Xiaomi, Google In Xataka | Best Amazon Fire TV. Which one to buy and recommended models to convert your TV into a smart TV depending on use In Xataka | Best laptops in quality price. Which one to buy based on use and eight recommended models

For thousands of years, Neanderthals and Homo sapiens tried to mate insistently. History had another idea

June 23, 2026 by usatoday24

In 1856, while working on a limestone quarry Near Düsseldorf, two Italian workers found a basin full of bones. They thought they were the remains of a bear and brought them to a professor from a nearby city, known to be a bone collector. They had no idea what they were about to do. When he saw the bones, Johann C. Fuhlrott realized that they were not from a bear, he took the bones to the University of Bonn and, together with Hermann Schaaffhausen, they communicated the discovery to the world. Nobody took them very seriously. It was even said that he was a Russian Cossack with rickets who pursued Napoleon through Europe. Until almost a decade later, the Anglo-Irish geologist William King came to a revolutionary conclusion: that we had not always been alone. But why are we now? With the discovery of Homo neanderthalensis many unknowns were openedbut there is one that has been haunting us for almost 200 years: why did they disappear? How is it possible that a species so ancient, so robust, that had survived so many things, simply disappeared? Why had we been left alone? Throughout all these years, scientists have come up with numerous hypotheses and theories. From prehistoric genocides to a slow and agonizing eclipse. However, Ludovic Slimak, researcher at the Center for Anthropobiology and Genomics of Toulouse and one of the leading international experts on Neanderthals, have another idea. The forms of love (and what love is not). For Slimak, if we apply the knowledge of cultural anthropology to what paleogenetics is telling us, the picture is quite different. And, as in all traditional societies in which strong identities coexist, it seems that the different human communities exchanged women. From our perspective, mere expression is already savage. But from the perspective of anthropology, those “family crossing” processes were basic to ensure stable alliances between different communities. And that, if we take into account that we are loaded with Neanderthal DNA, seems to be what happened. However, as Slimak points outthis “fusion” of lineages never fully occurred. The question is why. A (genetically) impossible story. We know that Neanderthals and Sapiens interbred and they had offspring. But we also know that, although the communities tried to establish these relationships and alliances based on miscegenation, things did not work. It was thought that many of the descendants of these relationships were sterile people unable to reproduce. But, as explained Platt, Harris and Tishkoff in February 2026everything seems to indicate that it was mating preferences and sexually biased breeding that decided which Neanderthal DNA survived and which was lost. Searching. It’s curious, said Slimak in an interview for LiveSciencethat “when you’re looking for ancient DNA (from 40,000 to 45,000 years ago) all of these sapiens early have recent Neanderthal DNA, and that’s why we have (neanderthal DNA) today. But when you arrive and try to extract DNA from the last Neanderthals, contemporaries of these first sapiensLet’s say that between 40,000 and 50,000 years ago there was not a single Neanderthal with DNA sapiens“. In 2025, Slimak came to describe Neanderthal disappearance as “a kind of suicide” due to isolation and social fragmentation. Curious and very possibly one of the keys that explain why the most numerous and genetically diverse population of sapiens won the game over the Neanderthals. That is, why we are left alone. A previous version of this article was published in February 2024 Image | Suchosch In Xataka | We usually see Neanderthals as a different species, what if we are wrong?

“The most beautifully designed thing most customers own is an Apple product”

June 23, 2026 by usatoday24

I have a brand new 15″ MacBook Pro from 2027. It is the one with the TouchBar, the thin one and the one with the butterfly keyboard, but also one of the best examples of an Apple that has remained in the past: the Apple that prioritized design over functionality. Because my MacBook Pro gets incredibly hot, its butterfly keyboard has left it useless, and the fact that it came with just four USB-C ports in 2017 didn’t make any sense. The radical change of latest MacBook Pro shows that Apple realized that a professional laptop needs to have ports and it does not need to be thin than a Macbook Air. However, the arrival of John Ternus at the head of Apple announces winds of change, a change that will return design to where it should be in decision-making within the company and that responds to a single idea. Get Apple’s design team out of the basement. More or less The return to the Apple of design This year, Apple’s back to school will have an important change. Ternus will begin his “mandate” on September 1. Ternus comes from cacharreoof hardware, and will replace a businessman as a Tim Cook that has transformed the entire operations of the Californian company. Something logical that we can think is that, in a company as large as Apple, the CEO is not so important because decisions are made together and, although it is true that there are strategies with which it is difficult to turn a corner, the vision of the company is that of long mandates in which being able to maintain what worked from the pastbut seeing where they can develop new ideas and lines of business. In this sense, and as point Mark Gurman’s Bloomberg newsletter, Ternus has been closely supervising Apple’s hardware and software design team for a few months now. According to Gurman himself, he has been investing a considerable amount of time with the industrial design team, one that, in recent years, would not have seen its best period. Apple devices continue to give great importance to design, but after questionable decisions, that team took a backseat within the company. Yes with Jony Ive They came to dominate the conversation, weighing heavily on the appearance and functionality of the devices (that famous ‘form over function’ or “design over functionality”), the last decade they sank within the company’s balance. Jeff Williams, COO, took over after Ive’s departure in 2019but when Williams left at the end of last year, the team had even lost more relevance within the company. As an example, there was no senior design position within Cook’s leadership team. Now, according to Bloomberg, Ternus intends to revitalize the department and, in an internal meeting, told them that Apple will continue to focus “in design, since design is fundamental to what we do at Apple”. In fact, the company’s new boss went further, noting that “the most beautifully designed thing most customers own is an Apple product. We need to make sure that remains the case.” I started by talking about my MacBook because it is one of the most representative cases of those devices of design over functionality, but not the only one in Apple’s history. Famous are other devices like that iPod Shuffle to which you had to send messages by morse code with the cable controls because it didn’t have buttons or the Magic Mousewhich remains, to this day, the official mouse sold by the company. But that Ternus wants to return to that idea that design is vital for the company It does not necessarily imply returning to those devices. The current MacBook Pro or the mac studio and mac mini Full of ports are examples of beautiful, but functional devices. own MacBook Neo It was born under the direct supervision of Ternus and has only two USC-C (and one very slow), but this is due to a limitation due to the processor used. Simply put, I understand that Ternus wants to once again have people from the design department having a say in the new Apple, one that will face the launch of the new products in the short term. iPhone 18 Prothe iPhone 18 that it seems that they will go to 2027, the new Siria long-awaited renewal of the AirPodsthe rumored foldable iPhone or some glasses. In Xataka |

It is not enough to work hard, it is more important to get along with the boss

June 23, 2026 by usatoday24

There is a widespread belief that if you try hard at workIf you arrive early and leave later, job success comes on its own. Is a nice idea. But, several psychological studies have shown that it is absolutely false. According to the conclusion of psychologists, what really determines whether an employee is promoted, if he is evaluated well or if he simply survives staff cuts In a company it is not only what it produces. It has a lot to do with the relationship you have with your boss and other employees. And that depends, to a large extent, on your social skills and the relationship that exists between them. The bias that no one recognizes, but everyone practices. Since the 1970s, researchers have been studying something they call LMX or Leader-Member Exchange (Leader-Member Exchange Theory). The idea behind this theory is simple: bosses do not treat all their employees the same. With some of them they build a relationship of trust, support and access to opportunities, while with others they maintain a colder and more distant bond. According to a study By Josephine Campbell, that difference has direct consequences for performance reviews, promotions, and career development. The most striking thing about the different studies that have been carried out is that the quality of this relationship predicts work success more accurately than one would expect. Research on the persistence of the LMX phenomenon carried out at the University of Portland, show a clear link between supervisors’ ratings of the possibility of promotion, salary progression and professional satisfaction. The employees most valued by their bosses are usually the ones who get along best with them, even if they are not the ones who put in the most hours at the end of the day. Seeing your boss’s face matters more than it seems. According to published data by Euronewsemployees who work 100% remotely have 31% fewer promotion options and 38% fewer bonuses than their in-person counterparts. All this based on the same performance as his office colleagues. A 2019 study from the University of California, collected in Organization ScienceI had already observed it previously: the fact that your boss see you face to face generates positive results for the employee, regardless of their work performance. This has a name. Is called proximity bias or proximity bias and is an unconscious behavior of the human being, in which prioritize people more or events happening around you. Bosses tend to favor those who are closest to them, not necessarily those who perform the most. It is estimated that 96% of managers admitswhich perceives more contributions from those who are physically in the office than from those who work remotely. Communicating counts a lot. There is one more factor that also decisively influences how bosses and supervisors perceive some of their employees: whether you say what you think. a study carried out by researchers from the universities of Waikato (New Zealand) and Bergamo (Italy) published in Personnel Review analyzed the behavior of 218 employees and supervisors in a Japanese company. Employees who expressed opinions out loud got better ratings from their bosses. Their superiors saw them as more capable. More involved. The voice, in itself, and its reputation was built. However, the study itself recognizes that this factor cannot be extrapolated to all companies. “It is important to carefully consider the degree of politics in the workplace before expressing one’s opinion,” the study’s authors note. In business environments with a lot of internal politics and hierarchies, where power dynamics are complex, speaking up can be counterproductive. Working more hours does not move the marker. a report from the employment platform Deel Using data from more than a million employment contracts around the world, it showed that remote workers work almost twice as much overtime as their in-person colleagues, but they are still less likely to receive promotions. The extra effort, if it is not visible, does not translate into recognition and, therefore, does not materialize in promotions or opportunities for professional growth. This connects with something that psychology has been telling us for decades: The boss’s perception of you is not built only on your results. It has a lot to do with you saying good morning every morning at the office. The merit exists, but it goes faster if, in addition to doing it, you tell your supervisors about it. In Xataka | Productivity has doubled in recent years. Stanford believes it’s not AI: it’s teleworking Image | Unsplash (Vitaly Gariev)

The first major exam has left Binance on the ropes

June 23, 2026 by usatoday24

It is no secret that Binance has become one of the names in the crypto world. For many users, talking about buying, selling or storing cryptocurrencies is talking about Binance, a platform that the company itself presents as the largest crypto exchange in the world. Precisely for this reason, the fact that its regulatory future in Europe is now in question is not just another administrative detail: it is proof of how far the European Union wants to go when it says it wants to put order in this market. The signal came in the form of a letter published by Binance on June 16. In it, the company does not announce a departure from Europe nor confirm that it has lost its authorization, but it does recognize that its path towards the license Mica It still doesn’t close. Binance assures that “we will provide a new update before June 30, 2026” and promises more details about “next steps and available options.” That’s where the real issue begins: not in what Binance categorically states, but in what it avoids closing. MiCA, acronym for Markets in Crypto-Assets, is the regulation with which the European Union wants to provide a common framework for a large part of the crypto market. Until now, many companies have operated relying on national registries or transitional regimes, with relevant differences between countries. The new rule changes that logic: crypto service providers need a specific authorization, or a valid route under MiCA if they are already regulated financial entities, to operate under the European umbrella. Simply put, Europe wants to move from a fragmented map to a shared rule for who can provide these services and under what conditions. MiCA, Greece and the underlying consequence The design of MiCA has a fundamental consequence: the license is born in one country, but can be deployed throughout Europe. The provider must have an entity with its registered office in an EU Member State, apply to the regulator of its home Member State and, if approved, activate the passport mechanism to provide services in other countries. This is what changes the scale of the case. We are not just talking about a national supervisor reviewing a specific file, but also that his decision may end up affecting users, competitors and regulators throughout the Union. Greece appears in this story because Binance channeled its request there. In its letter, the company says it submitted a complete application and worked for months with the Hellenic Capital Market Commission, the Greek regulator. He also maintains that, according to his understanding, the HCMC completed its review and considered that the application met the requirements of MiCA. Binance’s tone is not that of a company that wants to file a withdrawal, but neither is that of a company that can already show a closed authorization. In the letter, it maintains that it “remains committed to Europe and its European users,” and adds that it will continue to operate in accordance with applicable law. At the same time, it recognizes that its priority is to “minimize disruption and keep users informed.” This combination explains the ambiguity of the message: Binance tries to convey continuity, but leaves room for changes that it has not yet specified. Reuters put on the table the most delicate reading of the file. According to the agency, which cited two people familiar with the matter, Binance’s application to the HCMC was expected to be rejected, which would leave the platform without MiCA authorization that it needs to continue providing services in the EU under the new framework. Of course, Binance does not formulate it that way in its letter and the Greek regulator has not publicly confirmed that outcome. That is why it is advisable to keep the two layers separate: the official version of the company and the information attributed by Reuters. This is where ESMA, the European Securities and Markets Authority, comes in. It is not the one who directly grants the MiCA license, a task that corresponds to the competent national regulator, but it does have a relevant role in supervisory convergence and in the coherent application of European standards. The concern is not abstract: ESMA has already indicated in 2025 problems in the authorization and early supervision of a crypto provider in Malta, detecting material issues that were not fully resolved and risk areas that had not been adequately assessed. While Binance tries to close its European footprint, some competitors have already begun to turn MiCA into a commercial argument. Kraken posted a communication in which it recalls that on July 1 it narrows the margin for platforms that do not have a MiCA license and encourages users to switch to “one of the oldest licensed exchanges in Europe.” Revolut has also played that card: in a message in X stated that it is authorized under MiCA and asked those investing in crypto to move to a “trusted partner.” Regulatory uncertainty has already become a battle to attract users. Images | Binance In Xataka | They were promised a bitcoin paradise and zero taxes for 120,000 euros. Today there is only one desert island on the verge of disappearing

China just reminded you who moves the most pieces

June 23, 2026 by usatoday24

The United States has been trying for months to open an exit door in one of the territories where China retains the most industrial power: rare earths. We’re not just talking about mines, but about processing, magnets, permits, entity lists and a supply chain that connects defense, automotive, semiconductors and advanced technology. What we have seen now is a fairly direct reminder of that reality: Beijing has targeted American companies that are part of that attempt to build an alternative. The measurements. China’s latest move materializes on two levels. On the one hand, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce added ten American companies to its list of entities, which in practice means restricting operations with them. Those affected include MP Materials, owner of the Mountain Pass mine in California, as well as USA Rare Earth and Aveox. On the other hand, the Chinese Ministry of Finance announced purchasing restrictions on another 46 American companies in the defense sector. Beijing presented the measure as a response to the “unjustified” inclusion of Chinese entities on the US list of “Chinese military companies” and as a way to protect its “national security and interests.” The immediate context. The move comes less than two weeks after the Pentagon will reinstate Alibaba, Baidu and BYD to a list of Chinese companies considered a risk to US national security due to their alleged links with the People’s Liberation Army. Chinese companies denied such military connections. Therein lies one of the keys to the movement: Beijing presents its response as a response to Washington’s decisions. Washington’s plan. The United States has begun to move with unusual intensity, according to CSIS diagnosis. The think tank outlines an industrial policy strategy that combines more than $7.3 billion in capital, direct investments, public financing and procurement commitments to accelerate magnet mining, processing and manufacturing. The Department of Defense, for example, agreed to take a $400 million stake in MP Materials and set a floor of 110 dollars per kilo for ten years for its production of neodymium-praseodymium. It’s a lot of money, but also a race against industrial deadlines. The difficulty. CSIS noted that the April 2025 restrictions on heavy rare earths and permanent magnets caused rapid disruptions in allied defense and industrial chains, and exposed the fragility of a system that then remained highly dependent on Beijing. Nevertheless, Financial Times collects a cautious reading of China’s recent move. An American executive in the Asian giant, cited anonymously, described it as “measured and symbolic,” because companies in sensitive sectors, such as defense technology, already have very restricted access to contracts from the Chinese Government and Army. Are rare earths important? The key is that rare earths are neither a laboratory oddity nor a footnote in the trade war. They are much closer to our daily lives than it seems. These 17 elements appear into components such as magnets, batteries, phosphors and catalysts, which are then used in sectors such as healthcare, transportation, electricity generation, oil refining and consumer electronics. That is, we are not just talking about minerals: we are talking about tiny pieces that can end up in a wide range of devices, including military components. Images | Xataka with Nano Banana In Xataka | In China, a university student can now study a degree in one of its best businesses: rare earths

China has found an unexpected shortcut to bring AI to millions of homes: the robot vacuum cleaner

June 23, 2026 by usatoday24

You may already be using Chinese AI at home without giving it much thought. Not necessarily in the form of a chatbot, nor as a hidden function on the mobile, nor as another promise within the television. Maybe it’s in something much less solemn: a robot vacuum cleaner that runs across the floor of your living room while you do something else. The history of the robot vacuum cleaner did not begin with devices running around pointlessly. He Electrolux Trilobitemarketed in Europe in the early 2000s, and the Roomba Intelligent FloorVacpresented by iRobot in 2002, already incorporated sensors and navigation routines to move around a home with a certain autonomy, although their capabilities were far from current ones. What has changed since then is the perception layer: advanced models no longer just detect walls or stairs, but build richer maps, recognize objects and make decisions with more context. Electrolux Trilobite The scale data helps to understand why this story is not just about technological curiosity. According to IDCthe global home cleaning devices market reached 32.72 million units in 2025, up 20.1% from the previous year. Within that universe, smart robot vacuum cleaners remained the main category, with 24.12 million units and a growth of 17.1%. IDC measures shipments, not installed homes, but the scale helps to understand the dimension of the phenomenon: we are talking about tens of millions of home cleaning robots moving through the global market in a single year. AI also enters the house through the floor The most striking thing is who occupies the center of that category today. In the first three quarters of 2025, the global Top 5 of smart robot vacuum cleaners consisted of five Chinese brands: Roborock, Ecovacs, Dreame, Xiaomi and Narwal. The consulting firm speaks of a reorganization of the market, with 17.42 million units shipped in that period and a year-on-year growth of 18.7%. The reading is quite clear: China is not entering this sector as an aspirant, but as the block that sets the commercial pace of an increasingly technological category. And here the interesting thing begins: we are not just talking about a cleaning product. An advanced robot vacuum cleaner is probably one of the most complex home devices we can have moving around the house, because it must clean, orient itself, avoid problems and make decisions in an environment that changes every day. When he avoids a wire to avoid getting trapped, surround a sockdistinguishes a carpet or adapts its route room by room, there is more than just aspiration: there are sensors and artificial intelligence. Xiaomi H50 Pro At Xataka, for example, we have tested the Roborock Saros Z70, a robot vacuum cleaner with a robotic arm capable of lifting objects weighing up to 300 grams. In our experience, it reached for a sneaker, and Roborock claims it can also pick up socks, small towels, or tissues, although it doesn’t always recognize everything it finds. When we talk about the artificial intelligence race, we usually look towards the great models: OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, DeepSeek or Alibaba Qwen, systems designed to summarize, schedule or respond from one screen. That terrain is still the most visible, but it is not the only one. China is also pushing a much more physical and everyday path: products capable of bringing perception, navigation and decision capabilities to household tasks. The iRobot case summarizes the change of era very well. Roomba made the idea of the robot vacuum cleaner famous, but the company no longer occupies the central place it had for years: it was left out of the Top 5 global smart robotic vacuum cleaners indicated by IDC and declared bankruptcy before pass into the hands of the Chinese firm Picea Robotics. This, added to the most recent market data, suggests that the old Western benchmark lost ground while a new generation of Chinese brands conquered the market. Images | Roborock | Electrolux | Xiaomi In Xataka | A man tried to control his robot vacuum cleaner with a remote control: he ended up having access to 6,700 devices around the world In Xataka | The problem is not that there is AI on TikTok. It’s already more than half of what you see as soon as you enter.

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