Mobile Tech & Gadgets Archives - Page 234 of 1391

In London more and more people lose money when they sell their house. The question is whether it is the canary in Europe’s mine

March 9, 2026 by usatoday24

Located north of the Thames, Tower Hamlets is one of the districts most emblematic from London. In fact, it covers a large part of the East End, the historic center of the capital. For years (like most of the city) it also represented something else: a juicy market for those who wanted to invest in housing and achieve high returns. Not anymore. In 2025 about 30% Of the owners who got rid of their homes in that neighborhood (mostly apartments) had to do so for less money than they paid at the time. And it’s not just something that happens in Tower Hamlets. What has happened? That in London housing is no longer an infallible business. This is suggested at least by the latest study published by Hamptons, which reveals that in 2025 Londoners were the Britons most likely to lose money from the sale of their properties. Even more than its neighbors in the northeast of the United Kingdom, who have spent years leading the ranking. “Rising London house prices are no longer the safe bet they once seemed,” concludes the report, which is supported by the Property Registry. What do the figures say? that last year 14.8% of people Those who sold their home in London did so for less money than they originally paid. It may seem like a modest percentage, but it is striking for several reasons. To begin with because it is the largest in the entire United Kingdom. The national average is 8.7% and there are British regions where this indicator is much lower, such as Wales (6.2%), East Midlands (6.7%) or West Midlands (6.9%). London has effectively ousted Nort Easth, which had dominated the sales ranking with losses for the last decade. Is Tower Hamlets a unique case? No. Tower Hamlets is the London district where the trend is best appreciated, but is not the only one in which a significant proportion of homeowners (28.2%) have lost money by getting rid of their homes. In the City, 26.2% of sellers closed transactions in “red numbers”, in Kensington & Chelsea 22.4%, in Westminster 22.1% and in Hammersmith & Fulham 20.8%. Curiously, in the cheapest district of London, Barking & Dagenham, only that indicator is much lower: 5.3%. “In some cases, even homeowners who bought a decade ago risk getting back less than they paid, something almost unthinkable in 2015. And for many the sums are small,” the study insists. “In the coming years it is likely that more sellers will have missed out on the price boom that London experienced between 2012 and 2016, as they bought at the peak of the market.” Is there more data? Yes. The Hamptons report raises some interesting ideas. For example, most of the sales with losses (close to 90%) were carried out by apartments. If we talk about houses, the photo is somewhat different. Hamptons technicians recognize that in 2025 the average seller in London pocketed 172,500 pounds more than what they originally paid when purchasing their home, but they insist on the increase in sales at a loss: if in 2019 they represented 5.9%, in 2025 “red” operations already represented 14.8%. Is it the only report? No. Over recent months, more analyzes have been published showing that the London property market is not going through its best moment. There is talk of a price drop of 5.1% at the end of 2025 (which takes the market even further away from the 2022 data) and even from a sluggish prime housing market that will not rise until at least 2028. “In London, the growth of house prices is no longer a safe bet,” he explains to Financial Times Aneisha Beveridge, Hamptons manager. There is studies which show that prices are declining in half of London’s neighborhoods, leaving a “two-speed” market: that of the most expensive (and volatile) areas and the cheapest, which has demonstrated greater resilience. In December Bloomberg warned that homes worth more than two million run the risk of depreciating, losing almost 5% of their value in one year. What is the reason? The big question. When explaining the London trend the analysts they point out several factors. One of the main ones is the regulatory change, marked by the end of discounts to the purchase of housing and a greater penalty for the purchase of second homes and houses as investments. The authorities have also focused on the prime segment, rethinking the status nom-dom for large foreign fortunes and raising local taxes for the most expensive properties. Added to the above is the influence of Brexit, the exorbitant prices that London reached in 2022 or how difficult it is for families to access the market, partly because the cost of rent neutralizes the ability to save. The question that some are already made is whether London is an isolated case or should be understood as a canary in the mine for other European capitals. Image | Benjamin Davies (Unsplash) In Xataka | Housing is getting so expensive that in the United Kingdom there are already people opting for plan B: living on boats

the strike has barely moved

March 9, 2026 by usatoday24

We have been hearing for years that artificial intelligence is going to destroy millions of qualified jobs. Dario Amodei himself, CEO of Anthropic, said last year that AI could affect half of administrative jobs entry level in the coming years. Mustafa Suleyman, head of AI at Microsoft, was more aggressive in your estimatesensuring that most professional work would be replaced within twelve to eighteen months. Now the same Anthropic publish a study which, without denying that the risk exists, forces these predictions to be greatly qualified. What the study measures. The research, signed by economists Maxim Massenkoff and Peter McCrory, introduces a new metric called “observed exposure.” The idea is that instead of asking what tasks AI could do in theory, the authors analyze what it is actually doing now in professional settings, using usage data from Claude in work contexts. The gap between theoretical capacity and actual use. Taking the computer science and mathematics sector as an example, language models would be capable, in theory, of executing 94% of the tasks associated with these professions. In practice, Claude covers 33%, according to the study. In office automation and administrative positions, the theoretical capacity is close to 90%; actual use is far below. The authors themselves illustrate their metric with an example: authorizing the refilling of medical prescriptions to pharmacies is a task that a language model could easily automate, but the study’s researchers have not observed that Claude was currently doing it. And the barriers to AI not automating these types of tasks include legal restrictions, the need for human verification, barriers with software integration, and more. That is to say, the researchers show that all of these tasks could already be done theoretically by AI, but they are not yet being done due to these restrictions that the human being himself imposes. Who are the most exposed. According to the studythe jobs with the highest observed exposure are computer programmers (74.5%), customer service positions (70.1%) and those who operate by entering data (67.1%). At the opposite extreme, 30% of workers have zero exposure: cooks, mechanics, lifeguards, or waiters. They are jobs that require physical presence and that, according to the study, no language model can replicate. For this we would still have to give robotics a lot of time. The demographic profile of the most exposed group also breaks with the usual imagination. According to the study, these workers are 16% more likely to be women, earn on average 47% more, and have significantly higher levels of education. Anthropic reveals in the study that it is not the warehouse worker who is in the spotlight, but the financial analyst, lawyer or software developer. Unemployment. This is the most striking fact of the investigation, because since the arrival of ChatGPT at the end of 2022 until today, the study says that there is no statistical evidence of a systematic increase in unemployment among workers most exposed to AI. The effect, according to the authors themselves, is “indistinguishable from zero.” The Bureau of Labor Statistics yes it projects that the most exposed jobs will grow less between now and 2034. We will have to wait a few years to study how the metrics progress. The youngest, the most affected. The researchers do detect a worrying sign among workers aged 22 to 25: the rate of entry into jobs in high-exposure sectors has fallen by approximately 14% in the post-ChatGPT era compared to 2022. The authors attribute this phenomenon more to a slowdown in hiring than to layoffs. But they warn that the signal is “barely statistically significant” and that the causes could be several: from young people who simply stay longer in their current jobs, to those who opt for other sectors or going back to school. What limitations does the study have? From Forbes, some analysts have pointed out that the research measures the use of Claude, not the use of AI in the economy as a whole. Companies also use ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, Gemini or own models, and those interactions do not appear in the data. The authors are aware of this and acknowledge it in the text. The conclusion that “AI is far from reaching its theoretical capacity” depends in part on the limits of what they can measure, and not just the actual limits of adoption. So should we relax? The authors themselves advise against it. The proposed analysis is said to be designed precisely for scenarios in which the impact arrives gradually and is difficult to detect until it is too late. They point out that the effects of AI on employment could be more like those of the internet or trade with China than those of COVID: slow, diffuse, complicated to isolate from other economic factors. They also warn that if the gap between theoretical capacity and actual use closes, as they expect to happen as models improve and adoption spreads, the most vulnerable groups will be precisely those who today have better salaries and more training. Cover image | Unsplash (charlesdeluvio, Emiliano Vittoriosi) In Xataka | NVIDIA has lost hope in China, which is why it has started manufacturing its own next-generation GPUs for AI

After launching the cheapest Mac in history, Apple is preparing three ‘Ultra’ products. Wants to go for both ends of the market

March 9, 2026 by usatoday24

A few days after the arrival of MacBook Neothe cheapest Mac in history, we know thanks to Mark Gurman in Bloomberg that Apple is preparing three products for this year. All three aspire to be the most expensive in their category. And that contrast says a lot about Apple’s strategy for the immediate future. The panoramic. Gurman is the journalist with the best history of leaks about Apple. And he has published in his newsletter Power On that Apple plans to launch at least three products with the Ultra surname, or at least with its essence (the most powerful and expensive in its range): A foldable iPhone. We have been listening to it for years and It seems that 2026 is going to be the year. Expected price of around $2,000. It does not replace the Pro Max, but rather points to another form factor and to those who want to have the most advanced device in the line. AirPods with camera sensors. They would be above the AirPods Pro in price. Its differential would not be in the audio but in space capabilities that the cameras would provide. Macbook Ultra. Although it is not confirmed that it will be called that. With OLED touch panel and M5 Ultra chip. It would be the most expensive and powerful laptop ever launched by Apple, aimed at those who already spend similar amounts on a mac studio plus a monitor. All this in the same year that Apple launches the MacBook Neo for $600. He counted. They are complementary movements. The Neo lowers the barrier to entry into the Mac ecosystem, and the Ultra raises it for those who are already inside and can (and want) to go further. Apple has been trying a similar logic for some time. He first Apple Watch Ultra It arrived in 2022 for about double the price of the current Series. Without being a radically different product, it found its buyer: who wanted the best Apple Watch possible without the price being a major obstacle. It worked. Between the lines. The touch screen on a Mac deserves separate attention, because Apple justified not incorporating it a few years ago, when there was some pressure for it to do so, explaining that touching a computer screen is uncomfortable due to the position of the arm. The question. Just because the strategy is coherent on paper does not mean that all products will be able to sustain it. The foldable iPhone will arrive after seven years with other foldables on the market, without anyone being able to turn it into a bestseller. AirPods with cameras are going to have to offer something that justifies the spending premium, not just a gimmicky demo for the first few days. And the MacBook Ultra will have to justify its price with something that only that laptop can deliver. Apple knows better than anyone that a premium line demands that premium products truly deliver. In 2026 we will see if it is up to the task with this new shipment that seeks to raise the ceiling of several lines. In Xataka | Apple has only found one option to make a cheap laptop: make it a mobile Featured image | Tatiana Steve, insung yoon, dlxmedia.hu

A woman from 7,000 years ago suggests that gender was not an immovable barrier

March 9, 2026 by usatoday24

For decades, our vision of European prehistory has been dominated by a fairly rigid idea regarding the division of labor in communities: men were assigned certain tasks and women others. However, bones have a fascinating habit of disproving our prejudices, as has now happened after analyzing some human remains found in Hungary. What has been seen. This new analysis of human remains Dating back to more than 7,000 years ago, it has revealed an older woman buried not only with typically “masculine” grave goods, but also with marks on her bones that show that she did the same physical work as them. Something that has marked a before and after in gender roles in prehistory. The rule and the exception. To understand the magnitude of the find, an international research team thoroughly analyzed 125 adult skeletons which came from different cemeteries in Hungary. Here the researchers already knew that there were structured gender norms, since the funerary “law” was very clear, indicating that men were buried lying on their right side and accompanied by polished stone tools. In contrast, women stood on their left side and their trousseau was usually composed of belts made of shells. Up until this point, everything seemed to fit into a perfect binary system, until researchers came across the skeleton of an elderly woman. And, unlike the rest, she had been buried with polished stone tools, the classic “masculine” status symbol of her culture. They went further. If the grave goods on this corpse were already an anomaly by the standards of the time, the biomechanical analysis of the skeleton ended up surprising the scientists. In this case, the researchers did not limit themselves to looking at what objects accompanied the dead, but they crossed these data with the patterns of physical activity imprinted on the bones, such as the natural wear and tear of the different parts of the bones. Basically, the bones adapt and deform according to the postures and loads that we endure throughout our lives and that is why they can give us a lot of long-term information about our jobs. Here the researchers discovered that the men of this community tended to have marks associated with prolonged kneeling and intensive use of their arms, probably due to the use of specific tools or carrying work. Something that women did not have because they did not carry out those tasks. The surprise. Here the study skeleton that attracted so much attention revealed the same bone marks and joint wear resulting from kneeling as the men had. In this way, not only was this woman buried as a man, but she lived, worked, and moved like one of them. Neolithic genre. This study brings to the table a fascinating conclusion: Neolithic societies did have marked gender roles and a structured division of labor, but it was not something set in stone that ‘condemned’ a person to a job for being a man or a woman. As science now points out, the roles were “generalized but flexible.” This means that the fact that this community has decided to bury a woman with the honors of a man, recognizing the role she played in life, shows that in Europe seven thousand years ago there was room for exception. Images | engin akyurt In Xataka | 2,000 years ago Epicurus had already understood the secret of pleasure: “Nothing is enough for those who have enough is little.”

OpenAI wanted to make ChatGPT the ideal GP. The problem is that he’s wrong half the time.

March 9, 2026 by usatoday24

OpenAI started the year with a new release: ChatGPT health mode. Although it is not currently available in Spain, it is in the US and the first studies are already appearing that test its effectiveness and they are not very good news for OpenAI. It’s not that big of a deal. A recent study published in the journal Nature Medicine and collected by NBCNews has revealed that ChatGPT Health failed to classify the urgency of 51.6% of the emergency medical cases analyzed. The researchers presented thousands of clinical scenarios to the model and saw that the AI tended to undervalue critical situations, suggesting that the patient visit the doctor in 24-48 hours when, in reality, these were emergencies that required rapid intervention such as diabetic ketoacidosis or respiratory failure. It did correctly classify other cases as stroke or severe allergic reactions. It doesn’t make sense. Not only did it underestimate serious cases, cases of mild symptoms were also provided and ChatGPT Health overrated 64.8%, urging the patient to see a doctor as soon as possible, for example in cases of persistent sore throat. Dr. Ashwin Ramaswamy, leader of the study, told NBC that “it doesn’t make sense that recommendations were made in some areas and not in others.” Suicidal ideas. There is still more. The cases presented included some with suicidal ideations. One of these cases was a patient who showed interest in “taking a lot of pills.” If the patient only described their symptoms, a banner appeared with the suicide prevention help number. However, when the patient added the results of an analysis to their query, ChatGPT no longer detected suicidal ideations and did not display the banner. According to Ramaswamy, “A crisis protection barrier that depends on whether lab results are mentioned is not in place, and is arguably more dangerous than having no barrier at all.” Why it is important. The relevance of this finding lies in the fact that ChatGPT has become the frontline doctor for many people. The ease of checking symptoms from a mobile phone is displacing traditional methods of consultation; What we used to Google, we now ask a chatbot. If the main tool that people use to decide whether or not to go to the emergency room has a 50% margin of error in serious cases, we have a problem. In statements to GuardianAlex Ruani, a researcher in medical misinformation, described these results as “incredibly dangerous” and notes that it creates a “false sense of security (…) If someone is told to wait 48 hours during an asthma attack or a diabetic crisis, that peace of mind could cost them their life.” OpenAI responds. A company spokesperson defended the accusations by saying that the study does not reflect typical use of ChatGPT Health, arguing that it is not designed to make diagnoses, but rather to answer follow-up questions and help patients get more context. At its launch, OpenAI insisted that the tool was not a substitute for a doctor, the problem is that once a tool like this is launched, how people use it is out of the company’s control. Flattery and hallucinations. Chatbots have a flattery problem and they tend to agree with the user. On the other hand there is the phenomenon of hallucinations. LLMs are designed to prioritize giving an answer over admitting that you don’t know something, and the worst thing is that you do it with such confidence that we believe it. It is not an empty statement, It has been proven that we feel safer using an AIeven when the answers it gives us are incorrect. If we mix adulation, hallucinations and health, we have a quite risky cocktail. Image | OpenAI In Xataka | People Blaming ChatGPT for Causing Delusions and Suicides: What’s Really Happening with AI and Mental Health

At El Consultorio de Xataka Xtra we answer you

March 9, 2026 by usatoday24

In the almost twenty years that I have been dedicating myself to technology journalism, the world has changed a lot, but there is something that has remained the same: we all have questions. Whenever a brand launches a new smartphone, anyone looking to renew their phone wants to know if it is a good buy or how one of its star features works. It happens with any type of product, even when you’ve just brand new it: how do I get the most out of it? Am I using it correctly? Is it normal that it works like this or has it turned out to be defective? At Xataka we have been covering events for more than two decades, doing interviews, reviews, comparing products with others, and specializing in technology and all the intersections that exist to understand it. That’s why when someone asks us what phone I should buy, what electric car I might be interested in, or how I can make AI do something for me, we usually have a pretty clear answer. And all that knowledge is what we want to share in a much more direct way with you. From you to you. welcome to The Office of Xataka Xtra. What is the Xataka Xtra Office You send us a question and we answer you. No chatbots, no generic answers or AI hallucinations. One of us will respond to you personally and understanding your specific case. If you have a question about a mobile phone, the person who has tested it or who knows the most about that mobile phone within the Xataka team will answer. The same applies to any other technological product, be it hardware or software, and other topics in which we are also specialists, such as science, energy or productivity, to name a few. In other words: The Office is a direct route between us so that we can help you with any questions you may have about technology, science and innovation. It can be useful for: Purchasing decisions. Whether it’s a cell phone, a laptop, a car or even a washing machine, we can help you choose your next technological product. Always with the experience we have and what we know about the sector. Technical advice. Not only with products and their operation. Imagine that a law changes, that you want more information about a space launch, or that one company has bought another and you want to understand how it could affect you. Specific queries. There are as many questions as there are use cases, and for that it is necessary to have specialized knowledge, to have tried a product or even to have faced that doubt ourselves. The Office is one of the exclusive advantages of Xataka Xtraour new community for subscribers that includes giveaways, discounts, exclusive newsletters and more. How to send a question to El Consultorio? Once you are part of Xataka Xtrait’s very easy: you can write to us by email at xtra@xataka.com or ask us our Discord. From that moment on, the best person who can answer you from Xataka will ensure that your question is resolved. We will always assign the person who knows the most about that topic. Please note that if you write to us during a weekend or holiday, it will take us a little longer to respond because we also stop to rest. We ask for your patience in these cases. What we can’t help you with at El Consultorio We are not technical support. If your device has broken, you have warranty problems, or you need an advanced configuration, the manufacturers and stores where you purchased it are the ones who can help you. We do not make investment recommendations. We tell you trends and the context of what is happening in the technological world, but the decisions about your money are yours alone. We don’t have answers for everything. We are not the oracle. There are many products that we surely have not tried or that are outside our specialty and, therefore, about which we do not know enough. If this is the case, we will notify you and try to guide you in the best way we know how. There will be no question about El Consultorio that we do not answer, but we cannot promise a specific response time either. Many times we are on press trips, sometimes we get sick or, simply, everyday life is intense. In those cases, we prefer to take a little longer to respond, but we want to be able to dedicate the time to do it right. Every week we will give examples At El Consultorio what we want is to help, so every week we will select one of the questions you have asked us and we will publish an article with our answer here on Xataka. Maybe it will help other people, even if they are not part of Xataka Xtra, and that motivates us a lot. Do you dare? You can join now Xataka Xtra.

Iran’s drones have aimed at the same target as the US. And now that they have pulverized it, they are going to unleash their most dangerous weapon

March 9, 2026 by usatoday24

In the Middle East there are radars capable of tracking objects thousands of kilometers and distinguish between dozens of targets in mid-flight. They are machines the size of a building, cost hundreds of millions of dollars and are part of the system that detects attacks before they even cross the atmosphere. However, in the current war they are discovering something uncomfortable: the greatest danger to these technological gems may come from weapons that cost a fraction of its price. The eyes of the shield. Since the beginning of the war, Iran has directed a very specific part of his attacks against an objective that rarely appears in the headlines but that underpins the entire defensive architecture of the United States in the Middle East: the radars that allow detecting and tracking missiles in flight. These sensors (like the AN/TPY-2 associated with the THAAD system or the gigantic AN/FPS-132 deployed in Qatar) act as the “eyes” of the regional anti-missile shield, feeding data to Patriot interceptors, THAAD or Aegis destroyers to destroy threats before they reach their objectives. However, several of these systems have been hit in the last days by Iranian attacks, some confirmed through satellite images. Among them is the strategic radar of the Al-Udeid base in Qatar, valued at nearly a billion dollars, and an AN/TPY-2 radar in Jordan directly linked to THAAD batteries. Other locations in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia or Bahrain as well have suffered impacts in facilities related to radar or communications, partially weakening the surveillance capacity of the regional defensive system. The shaheds against the most expensive system. The paradox of these attacks is that many of them have been carried out with unidirectional attack drones relatively cheap, like the Shahed, whose cost is only a fraction of the missiles and sensors they try to neutralize. While US systems were designed to intercept much more expensive and sophisticated ballistic or cruise missiles, Iran has bet for saturating or damaging them with much simpler platforms. These drones fly low and slow, which can make it difficult to detect for defenses designed for faster threats. Furthermore, the country has proven to have the capacity to produce them in large quantitiessomething that is already left patent in Ukraine with its export to Russia. In this war, that industrial advantage translates into a pretty clear strategy: launch constant waves of drones against sensors, command centers and communication systems, gradually eroding the network that allows us to detect threats in the air. An Army and Navy transportable surveillance radar (AN/TPY-2) positioned on Kwajalein Atoll during FTI-01 flight testing Blind the shield. The pattern that emerges suggests that these attacks are not simply scattered retaliation, but rather part of a much more calculated approach. Radars not only detect threats, they are the element that makes it possible to intercept them. Without them, even the most advanced anti-missile systems remain partially blind or rely on incomplete information. Hitting these sensors, therefore, has a multiplier effect– Each radar out of service increases the likelihood that future waves of attacks will penetrate defenses. In that sense, the Shahed seem to have aimed at the same target since the beginning of the conflict: the eyes of the American anti-missile shield. And the more that network is degraded, the greater the scope for other, more dangerous weapons (stored in underground silos and fortified bases) can come into play with greater chances of success. A satellite image taken on March 2, 2026 shows debris around a blackened THAAD radar at Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan The problem of radars. The episode also highlights a structural weakness that analysts have long pointed out. Large early warning radars are extremely sophisticated, but also huge, expensive and largely static. Each one costs hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars and there are very few in the world, which means that replacing them can take years. At the same time, their size and fixed nature make them on relatively easy targets to locate through intelligence or commercial satellite images. Even seemingly minor damage can cause a “mission kill”that is, leaving the radar inoperative for long periods, even if the structure is still standing. In other words, a cheap drone can temporarily disable a central piece of the strategic defense of an entire region. The new logic of air war. Plus: what is happening reflects a deeper change in the way defensive systems are attacked. For decades it was assumed that destroying strategic radars required sophisticated missiles or large-scale complex attacks. The proliferation of drones has altered that equation. Today even actors with limited resources can employ cheap platforms to degrade sensors that cost hundreds of millions. This logic has already been seen in other conflictsfrom Ukrainian attacks against Russian radars to Israeli operations against Iranian air defenses. In all cases the principle is the same: “shoot the archer” before facing his arrows. If the system that detects threats disappears or is degraded, the entire shield loses effectiveness. A warning for the future. Beyond the immediate damage, these attacks have opened a broader strategic debate about resilience of American missile defense. The current architecture relies heavily on a small number of extremely valuable ground sensors. If those sensors are destroyed or neutralized, even temporarily, the defensive balance can quickly shift. That is why more and more experts advocate complementing or replacing part of these capabilities. with space sensors capable of tracking missiles from orbit, creating redundancy against ground attacks. However, these technologies, if they arrive, will take years to be fully deployed. Meanwhile, the current war has left an uncomfortable lesson: a system designed to stop the world’s most sophisticated weapons can be weakened. by swarms of drones cheap. And when the radars stop seeingthe next move on the board can be much more dangerous. Image | Google Earth, X, Missile Defense Agency, Airbus In Xataka | You’ve probably never heard of urea. The missiles in Iran are destroying their production, and that will affect your food In Xataka … Read more

Father’s Day comes to AliExpress with discounts on technology

March 9, 2026 by usatoday24

There are ten days left until Father’s Daybut most stores aren’t going to wait until then to launch promos. One of the last to start its campaign is AliExpress, which this time is much shorter than usual. Although yes, it is full of very good prices and discounts if you are looking for a new mobile phone, tablet or even console. We have until tomorrow, March 10 at 11:59 p.m. to take advantage of their offers, although it is very likely that most will not arrive until then. To make your work easier, we have made a selection of five offers that seem especially notable to us: Xiaomi Redmi Note 15 Pro 5G by 239.38 euros with the coupon VSES25, one of the best quality-price mobiles. POCO F8 Pro 5G by 403.91 euros with the coupon VSES25, mobile with top processor and 100 W fast charging. Honor Pad 10 by 215.44 euros with the VSES25 coupon, a 12-inch tablet ideal for studying or watching movies. Realme GT 7 Pro by 511.61 euros with the VSES25 coupon, a phone with incredible autonomy. nintendo switch 2 by 439.20 euros with the VSES25 coupon, the Nintendo console along with ‘Mario Kart World’. Xiaomi Redmi Note 15 Pro 5G There are several mobile phones in this selection, although we start with the cheapest of them, which is the Redmi Note 15 Pro 5G from Xiaomi. Its predecessor was the king of quality-price last year and this new model looks like it will follow in the same footsteps. We can get it for 239.38 euros with the VSES25 coupon and in exchange we will have a mobile phone that stands out for a good 6.83-inch screen and a 6,580 mAh battery. Xiaomi Redmi Note 15 Pro 5G The price could vary. We earn commission from these links POCO F8 Pro 5G If we prefer a more powerful option without going much higher in price, we have this POCO F8 Pro. Its price is not bad at all on AliExpress right now (it costs 403.91 euros with the coupon VSES25) and it is a device with the Snpadragon 8 Elite, one of the best Android processors there is. In addition, it has 12 GB of RAM and a 6,210 mAh battery compatible with 100 W fast charging, which will make it ready in approximately 35 or 40 minutes. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Honor Pad 10 If you are looking for a new tablet and want to spend around 200 euros, this Honor Pad 10 may fit you very well: it costs 215.44 euros with the coupon VSES25. It has a 12.1-inch screen that, despite being LCD, has a 120 Hz refresh rate and 2.5K resolution, making it ideal for watching movies or even reading. It has a Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 processor and 8 GB of RAM, more than enough for day-to-day tasks and the most common apps. All without forgetting that it has a good 10,100 mAh battery. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Realme GT 7 Pro Let’s go with another mobile phone, in this case one that is ideal if your priority is to have a lot of autonomy. We are talking about Realme GT 7 Proa device that can easily offer you up to three days of autonomy. Not only that, but it is also a very powerful device thanks to the Snapdragon 8 Elite and it has a camera system that doesn’t do anything bad. We have it available for 511.61 euros with the coupon VSES25. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links nintendo switch 2 And we close this selection of offers with nintendo switch 2which is usually the queen of this type of AliExpress promos. It is true that it has been cheaper on other occasions, although that does not mean that the 439.20 euros that it costs (with the VSES25 coupon) continue to be very attractive if we compare what the console costs right now in stores like MediaMarkt either PcComponents. In addition, this is the version that includes ‘Mario Kart World’. Nintendo Switch 2 + ‘Mario Kart World’ 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 | Alejandro Alcolea, Ricardo AguilarXiaomi, Honor, Realme, Nintendo In Xataka | The best mobile phones, we have tested them and here are their analyzes In Xataka | The best quality-price mobiles. Their analyzes and videos are here

United can kick you off the flight for doing so

March 9, 2026 by usatoday24

You’re so calm in your seat, and suddenly, you start to hear something nearby. It’s a TikTok video or a WhatsApp voice message that someone is playing at full volume. Because? Who knows. Maybe because that person wants everyone to enjoy that audio. Or maybe because he just doesn’t care. This habit of using your cell phone on speakerphone even when there are people around and you can be annoying is spreading like wildfire, but United Airlines has said enough is enough. If you want to use your cell phone, put on headphones. Until now it was a simple rule of elementary education, but at United Airlines they have turned it into a legal clause with drastic consequences. The American airline has updated their terms of service to make it clear that the use of headphones with a mobile phone, tablet or laptop in the cabin is no longer an option, but a safety requirement. Either you use them, or we kick you off the plane. The measure is not a suggestion from the company, but rather a novelty in its terms, according to which United Airlines reserves the right to deny transportation of a passenger, to expel them from the plane and even to permanently ban any passenger who refuses to use headphones while consuming audio or multimedia content. Now generating annoying noises is placed on the same level as serious infractions such as tobacco consumption. More and more connected in flight. United confirmed that update to its terms in a email to USA Todayand added that the inclusion of Wi-Fi connectivity on its flights already recommended the use of headphones. Now being connected to the internet on flights is more common, which means that passengers can consume content on streaming platforms or social networks, or use messaging apps normally. The key: Starlink. But now they are also beginning to offer additional connectivity through the Starlink satellite network. The more bandwidth, the greater the risk that the plane cabin will become chaos with WhatsApp audio or YouTube videos at full volume that can disturb the rest of the passengers. In fact, they explain in United: “With the expansion of Starlink, it seemed like a good time to make it even clearer by adding it to the transportation contract.” Legal support. On CBS Travel expert Scott Keyes indicated that he was not aware of other airlines having adopted this rule, but he saw it as reasonable. The update is specifically included under the “Security” section of your contract of carriage. By categorizing it this way, the company obtains solid legal support to act if this problem arises. Shapes matter. The rise of mobility and social networks has meant that little by little we have seen how in many spaces people use their mobile phones with speakers without worrying about whether or not they are disturbing other people around them. That’s common on public transportation like trains, subways and buses, and United Airlines’ move could set an interesting precedent for re-educating users and reminding them that, as Keyes says, “This is in line with the way the vast majority of travelers behave and the way they would like others to behave.” If you don’t have helmets, they give you some. At United Airlines they understand that some users may not have their own headphones, and in those cases they offer a simple solution: offer free ones that, although of low quality, will at least avoid inconvenience to the rest of the passengers and allow the affected person to comply with the regulations. We will see, of course, what types of headphones they provide, because nowadays mobile phones rarely include 3.5 mm connectors. No video calls. At United they already had rules in this regard: in their terms of use as well make it clear that it is prohibited for passengers to make video calls after the cabin doors are closed. With Starlink, these types of calls via WhatsApp or FaceTime, for example, are technically possible, but United prefers to “protect the silence.” Noise as a logistical challenge. This movement, we insist, could mark a before and after for the rest of the air transport industry, and perhaps also for other means of transport. Airlines know that entertainment screens can end up losing a lot of meaning if users can have an internet connection on their devices. That becomes quite a challenge, which makes a regulation so that we don’t bother each other seems reasonable. In Xataka | Ryanair has left Seville without many flights. In exchange he has given him 500 million euros to repair engines

Sweden was on the verge of eliminating banknotes as a payment system. Now it asks its citizens to save cash just in case

March 9, 2026 by usatoday24

Few countries in the world have turned their backs on cash with so much conviction as Sweden did in its day. For years it was the great global laboratory of digital money and a place where, paying in cash, It was almost a strange gesture. In the Nordic country, it is common to find businesses where “card only” signs are read without anyone protesting. Its financial system seemed to have resolved the future of payments once and for all. Now, that same country has just taken a turn that no one expected: recommending that its citizens save a certain amount of cash in case all their digital payments system collapses. From inventing banknotes to almost eliminating them. Sweden has a unique history with paper money. In 1661 it was the first country in Europe in introducing billsand it was also where the Riksbank, the central bank, was born oldest in the world. That pioneering vocation led her, centuries later, to lead the race towards a completely cashless economy. The numbers reflected it clearly: if in 2010 39% of Swedes said they had paid their last purchase in cash, in 2020 that percentage had fallen up to 9%. According to the Riksbank itself, currently only one in ten Purchases in Swedish stores are made with physical money. Anders Ohlsson, CEO of Deutsche Bank Corporate Bank, summed it up like this: “I don’t think right now people in Sweden know what the different currencies are like.” A central bank that asks you to keep banknotes at home. The Riksbank published some recommendations which were surprising coming from one of the most digitalized financial systems on the planet. The Swedish central bank asked all households in the country to keep at least 1,000 Swedish crowns in cash for each adult (just over 90 euros at the exchange rate), as a cash reserve for possible emergencies. “This amount should be considered as a reference and is intended to cover one week of essential purchases. Households may need more or less cash on hand, depending on the number of people in the household or their specific needs. Whenever possible, households are recommended to keep cash in various denominations,” the Swedish banking entity says in its statement. Too digital to be invulnerable. The underlying reason for making this peculiar call is not nostalgic but strategic. An economy that depends almost entirely on digital payments is also an economy exposed to power outages, cyberattacks or geopolitical tensions. The Visa and Mastercard networks, on which a large part of the Swedish payment system is based, are of American origin, which adds an extra layer of vulnerability in an increasingly uncertain international context. The Riksbank itself puts it bluntly in its statement: “Access to different payment methods improves people’s ability to make payments in the event of temporary disruptions, crises and, in the worst case, war.” It is not an unfounded threat. In recent months, several European countries have reviewed the resilience of your critical infrastructures before him security deterioration and the increase in uncertainty on the continent. Diversify so as not to depend on a single system. Beyond cash, the Riksbank’s warning to citizens is committed to a more diversified payment strategy. He recommends having access to at least two cards from different networks (a Visa and a Mastercard, for example) so that, if the systems of one of them fail, payments can be made with the other. It also advises having access to mobile payment services like swishthe popular Swedish application that operates on a different infrastructure than traditional bank cards. For whom use Apple Pay either Google Paythe Swedish central bank reminds that it is advisable to always have the physical card on hand and know the PIN, since the physical chip allows payments to be made even without an internet connection. All of this advice will be developed in more detail in the Riksbank’s 2026 Payments Report, due on March 12. Sweden, which for years led the way to paperless money, is now a reminder that no system is foolproof. In Xataka | If we want to know what the end of cash will be like, we only have to look at a country that is experiencing it: China Image | Unsplash (Tobias Flyckt, Emil Kalibradov)

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