Mobile Tech & Gadgets

The Spanish telecom market was quiet. Until Bertín Osborne arrived

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Spain already has your most patriotic telephone operator. It is called Española de Telefonía, its logo fuses the WiFi symbol with the horns of a bull and the colors of the flag, its slogan is “Things done well, things right” and its creator is none other than Bertín Osborne. And this is just the beginning. “Proudly Spanish and with the best coverage.” With this phrase (and with many Spanish flags) he welcomes us the Spanish Telephony websitethe new virtual operator that operates under the coverage of Movistar and boasts of being 100% Spanish. The most traditional teleco In case it was not clear, in the Who we are section, Española de Telefonía reminds us that they are “a Spanish company that pays its taxes in Spain, creates local employment and contributes to the development of our national economy. Every euro invested in our services remains in Spain.” They also presume that Your call center is located in Spain and is attended by “qualified Spanish staff” who “understand and share our values.” Of course, 24-hour attention is handled by an AI that we hope is also Spanish. They also promise a “clean and tidy installation” by their own technicians. On his Instagram account, Bertín Osborne has been promoting this new project and assures that it is founded by five businessmen “Antonio, Paco, Ernesto, Fran and Bertín, came together to offer a premium telephony service, for people who love their country, that is, Spain.” Mobile and fiber rates for patriots As it could not be otherwise, the rates all have the names of illustrious figures of our country such as Colón, Bécquer, Murillo and of course the Spain rate, which is its strongest bet. One detail to keep in mind is that the Colón and Bécquer rates say that the data is unlimited, but there is a limit of 120GB. SPAIN COLON BECQUER MURILLO calls Unlimited national Unlimited national and EU Unlimited national and EU Unlimited national and EU data 15GB Up to 120GB Up to 120GB Unlimited extras – – Antivirus, VPN and priority personal attention Antivirus, VPN, priority personal attention, advanced line management, call and SMS redirection included monthly price 7.50 euros 12.99 euros 19.99 euros 24.99 euros There are three fiber rates, they are named after Spanish cities and start at 29.95 euros per month. They all include a fixed IP and offer the option of installing a VPN for 5 euros per month. This is how the offer looks like: MADRID SANTANDER SEVILLE speed 300Mbps 600Mbps 1Gbps monthly price 29.95 euros 39.95 euros 49.95 euros Española de Telefonía also offers several combined fiber+mobile rates, for the most patriotic patriots. They are these: MADRID + Columbus SANTANDER + colón SEVILLE + Columbus Fiber 300 Mbps Mobile phone with unlimited calls and 120GB of data Fiber 600 Mbps Mobile phone with unlimited calls and 120GB of data 1Gbps Fiber Mobile phone with unlimited calls and 120GB of data monthly price 39.95 euros 49.95 euros 59.95 euros Beyond the packaging, if the question is whether Española de Telefonía offers something competitive, the answer is: no. Its most competitive mobile rate gives us unlimited calls and 15GB for 7.5 euros, but for example O2 has a rate with 50GB for 7 euros, and There are more operators that match and even exceed their proposal. As for fiber, Movistar itself offers the 300Mbps fiber for 19.9010 euros less than them. What Española de Telefonía does have, and that no other MVNO can easily replicate, is a logo with bull horns, an exacerbated love for Spain and above all for Bertín Osborne. If that is a sufficient purchase argument for you, you know where to call. Spanish people who understand your values ​​will assist you. Image | Spanish Telephony In Xataka | Angie Corine has made a name for herself in the Spanish rap scene with an unexpected commercial turn: she is right-wing

The biggest problem for Spanish olive trees is neither costs nor climate change: it is ‘ghost oil’

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Something smells bad in the olive oil market. We knew it for a long timebut it is now with the collapse of prices at source (almost 46%) that everyone has become nervous. The figures do not add up and the bill will not be paid by the large olive oil groups, but by the small producers. For this reason, on June 15, a COAG representative stood in front of the microphones and reported that 81% of olive oil Tunisian was entering Spain undercover. But how do you put 65,500 tons of oil under the radar? It has not been easy to determine, the truth is. But if the organization is right, the oil ship has more than one leak compromising its future. But it doesn’t have it. Always according to the COAGa good part of that oil comes from Portugal. But the ‘Portuguese way’ does not add up: with the data from the 2024-2025 campaign, Portugal produces between 160,000 and 195,000 tons of its own and imported only 3,406 of Tunisian oil. Those 3,406 tons cannot explain the 131,877 that it re-exports to Spain. Some part yes, but not all of it. And then? The problem seems different. It looks like ours, in fact. Because what COAG does seem to be right about is that a good part of the oil that entered the country did so under a special regime: that of active development. It is a formula of the Customs Code of the European Union that allows the importation of non-EU merchandise without tariffs or VAT as long as it is transformed and exported again. What the producers point out is that a good part of the oil that arrives in Spain to be “perfected” ends up being sold in the country without appearing in the statistics (marked, in fact, as community). The consumer does not notice it substantially in the price, but it is noticeable at the source. And a lot. But there is more. A few years ago, honey became a problem. Nobody really knew what they were eating in Europe. The key to this was to mix it up. Above all, because with completely insufficient regulation, it was enough to put “mix” so that there was nothing more to ask. This was attempted to be resolved with Directive (EU) 2024/1438 (the “Breakfast Guidelines“) which has not come into force in Spain until June 14, 2026. Among many other things, Brussels demands that the package states where what is inside comes from. Easy, clean, effective and… …non-existent for oil. The big problem, as almost always, is traceability. Not that we have problems, but that there is almost no real interest in doing it. As we have said many times, the Spanish agricultural market is a giant with feet of clay and now is the time to think if we want it to be something else. In Xataka | Something strange is happening with the price of olive oil and farmers have just denounced it: there are up to 2.8 billion at stake

A researcher has created a formula to know if you have too many clothes in your closet. This is what it says about yours

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Who hasn’t ever looked at their closet and thought that maybe they have too many clothes? When we are choosing an outfit for an event we don’t think about it, but when it comes to changing our wardrobe when moving from one season to another, we probably do. The truth is that it is difficult to quantify how much is too much clothing. There are no absolute figures in this regard, but there are some approximations. The European Union itself has made calculations of the number of times we should wear each type of garment to compensate for the carbon footprint what it means to manufacture it. With this, the designer and researcher at Torrens University in Australia Alicja Kuźmycz has devised a simple mathematical formula that helps us make the calculations in a much more personalized way, taking into account our real volume of garments. Mathematics answers. According to the European Union (EU)to offset our carbon footprint we should use each of our shirts and blouses 40 times and our T-shirts 45 times. As for pants, dresses, skirts and jumpsuits, the figure rises to 70 uses. Cardigans, sweaters and sweatshirts must exceed 85 uses and with coats and jackets it would be necessary to reach 100. It is something that seems achievable, but the more garments we have, the more complicated it is. To get an idea of ​​the time it would take to meet the European Union’s objectives, we can do a simple calculation: multiply the objective by the volume of garments and divide the result by the frequency. For example, in a study carried out by Kuźmyczparticipants owned an average of 23 dresses or similar items of clothing. The target in this case, if you look at the EU figures is 70. Suppose we wear a dress one day a week. That’s 52 uses in the year, because the year has 52 weeks. Now we do the calculation. We multiply 23, which is the volume, by 70, which is the goal, and divide the result by 52, which is the frequency. The result is 30.91 years. We talk about years because we divide uses by uses per year. The uses are gone and we have years left. It would take us 31 years to offset the carbon of making the 23 dresses. life changes. 60 years ago, a person used to have on average 40 items of clothing. Today surveys indicate that we usually have around 199, of which between 25% and 50% are abandoned in the back of the closet. Therefore, the carbon footprint is never offset. The origin of carbon. The machines used to make a garment, especially if it is on an industrial level, emit a lot of carbon dioxide. At the same time, resources are spent and materials are used, the production of which has also required the emission of these gases. This ranges from the oil used to obtain some plastic fibers to the emissions from raising sheep for wool. Obviously, the emissions are not the same and wool is a better option, but it all adds up. On the other hand, the transportation for these garments to reach our closets also involves specific carbon emissions. All of this is what the European Union took into account when making its calculations. Donating is not enough. As Kuźmycz explained in an article for The Conversation, donate clothes we no longer wear to charities is not always the best option. He points out that many times these institutions are overwhelmed and end up using a very small fraction of the clothing they receive. The rest ends up in landfills or is moved to other countries, so the problem does not disappear. It just moves. Each case is different. Since not all clothes are the same nor does everyone get them in the same way or use them in the same way, Kuźmycz wants to develop an interactive calculator that will help each of us have the ideal wardrobe in environmental terms. We could know how many clothes we need of each type so as not to overdo it and accumulate. With this in mind, we could indulge ourselves as we see fit, but at least we will have the necessary information about the consequences that this entails and, perhaps, it will help us find a balance. Image | Burgess Milner Xataka | Converse sneakers were once the symbol of the millennial generation: now they have been in free fall for years

SSD prices are already so absurd that a 2TB drive for the PS5 costs more than the PS5 itself

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The PS5 currently costs 649.90 euros in large stores in Spain. The digital version without Blu-ray drive, 599.90 euros. Both have an 825 GB SSD unit that for some users may fall short, but “fortunately”—the quotes are important At this time—it is possible to expand that section with an internal SSD drive. And therein lies the problem: these units They are today a luxury. This is demonstrated by the launch of the new SanDisk Optimus GX Pro 850Poffering capacities ranging from 1 to 8 TB and offering transfer speeds of up to 7,300 MB/s. All promising until you see the prices, because, attention: The 2 TB version costs 795.99 euros. That is 22.5% more than the console itself costs, but things are even worse if we talk about the 4 and 8 TB models: 1 TB: 397.99 euros 2 TB: 795.99 euros (22.5% more than the price of a PS5). 4 TB: 1,566.99 euros (You could buy two PS5s and you would have more than 250 euros left over) 8 TB: 3,088.99 euros (You could buy almost five PS5 or three PS5 Pro and have money left over) If the prices of RAM and SSD units already seemed crazy to us, these SanDisk units are an ode to the absurd. The saddest thing is to discover that they are not even close to the best SSD drives out there. That drive is twice as fast as the SanDIsk one, but its 1 TB version costs 799.99 euros. How crazy. We have models like the MP700 Pro XT from Corsair, which thanks to their support for the PCIe 5.0 standard achieve speeds up to 14,900 MB/smore than double those of SanDisk. And of course, they are also much more expensive: the 1 TB version costs 799.99 euros nowadays. Price evolution of an SSD unit very similar in performance to what SanDisk proposes for the PS5. If you want to get even more depressed, you can check the prices of units of this type a year ago. The SanDisk Optimus GX Pro 850P is virtually identical to the WD Black SN850X, and the 8TB variant went on sale in 2025 and was available for 600 euros: five times less. In fact, right now it is 1,200 euros on Amazon with limited availability. But that’s the world we’re in currently: the DRAM memory crisis and NAND chips have taken us to an “unsustainable” situation which is making us today buy memory modules or an SSD unit for our PC, laptop or even for our PS5 much more expensive than it was a year ago. And the worst thing is that all the experts say that things will get worse. Bad business. In Xataka | What is happening with the Raspberry Pi 5 is amazing but very real: they were born cheap, they are becoming luxury

AI is going to generate unprecedented wealth. The question everyone is starting to ask is who is going to stay with her?

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There is a hot debate surrounding the profitability of AI. For now, the wild investment in data centers It is not contributing at all to the growth of the US economybut there are those who believe that AI is already generating wealth, The problem is that we still don’t know how to calculate it.. Meanwhile, a crucial question is emerging in all of this: If AI ends up being the goose that lays the golden eggs, is it fair for companies to keep it all? Give back to the people. A few days ago, Donald Trump made a comment that went somewhat unnoticed, but is very relevant. During a conversation with reporters in the Oval Office, he said he hopes AI companies will “give something back to the public,” that is, to share the wealth they are generating. His exact words, according to Reuterswere: “I’m going to meet very soon with the 12 or 15 most important executives, and we are talking about giving something back to the public, and if we do that, the public will be very rich (…) I think they will do it, and I think that will make it very popular.” Why is it important. That the president of the United States mentions the possibility of sharing the wealth that AI is going to generate is a way of admitting what we have been observing for a long time: AI is reconfiguring the labor market and that for many people that means being fired. Of course, Reuters contacted OpenAI, Meta, Anthropic and Google to evaluate the president’s statements and none of them did so. Yes, but. These statements They arise in a context in which the popularity of AI among citizens is at a minimum, so it may be a way to appease the growing rejection in American society. According to a Reuters and Ipsos poll53% of citizens fear that AI will leave them or someone in their household without a job. Additionally, 73% were concerned about the increase in the use of AI. A public fund. It is one of the options that are circulating and that OpenAI itself recently proposed. The logic is that, since AI is going to generate a lot of wealth, the state buys shares and then distributes the profits among the population. That is, the state becomes a partner in AI and shares the return on that investment, like Norway’s sovereign fund with oil, but with AI as a resource. The other option would be to impose a tax on company profits, but for whatever reason they do not defend this idea as much. Qmaybe it’s not enough. The most apocalyptic scenarios They point to a future in which AI does all the office work. In one opinion column in Financial TimesVinod Koshla, founder of a venture capital firm, anticipates that AI will do around 80% of the economically valuable work that humans do today, causing massive unemployment. In this scenario, a sovereign wealth fund may not be enough, so it proposes several changes, such as equalizing capital gains taxes with wages, and creating a 20% “token” tax from 2030 on income derived from AI computing and replacing human payrolls with automated systems. This collection would first go to cover unemployment for those who lose their jobs and, if the bet on AI goes well, it could then be used to lower the cost of basic services that can be automated (healthcare, personalized tutors or legal assistance) so that they stop being a luxury linked to income. Image | Igor Omilaev in Unsplashedited In Xataka | The future of geopolitics is played in AI models: Claude Fable 5’s veto indicates that Europe is offside

Philips launches new air fryer for small kitchens with double basket and windows to see the food

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Philips has new air fryer. This appliance has become an essential in many kitchens, no matter if it is for large or small families. There are different capacities to cook large quantities of food, but when it comes to cook variety instead of quantitybetter if the fryer has two baskets. That’s where the Philips 4000 series fits in, available in Spain for 229.99 euros. 4000 series Airfryer with double stackable basket The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Double basket, but without taking up half the kitchen As we say, there are many air fryers that have double baskets. This is something very interesting because it allows you to cook two foods at the same time, each with its own temperature and cooking time. For example, you can make some wings in one of the baskets while you have vegetables or potatoes in the other. Philips is committed to this distribution with its 4000 series, but it does so with a compact appliance that barely measures 24 centimeters wide. Each of these baskets has a total capacity of 5 liters and the fryer is designed so that the air circulates evenly throughout the interior. Furthermore, each basket It has a window so we can see the inside without having to open itsomething key because, by doing this, we are releasing a large part of the heat from the interior. The fryer has 6 automatic programs and up to 13 different cooking techniques, such as dehydrating or gratin, among others. One of its best features is that it has a system that allows you to automatically synchronize the time of both basketsso you can set different temperatures and cooking times, but both will finish cooking at the same time. ⚡ IN BRIEF: Philips 4000 Series Air Fryer ✅ THE BEST Double basket for small kitchens: This type of double compartment fryers is usually very large. The Philips breaks this trend and is positioned as a top option if you don’t have much space. Window to see its interior: Being able to see the inside of the basket without opening it is not only very cool, but it is very useful when cooking. Cooking synchronization: You can put two foods in the baskets that require different times and temperatures and they will still finish at the same time. ❌ THE WORST It has a high introductory price: It costs almost 230 euros and arrives in stores without a launch promo, which means it is not for all budgets. 💡 BUY IT IF… You want an air fryer that allows you to cook two dishes at once and you have a small kitchen or you want it to take up as little space as possible. ⛔ DON’T BUY IT IF… You’re on a tight budget or you usually use the air fryer for a single food. You may also be interested Cosori Large Air Fryer with Double Basket 8.5L Air Fryer, High Power and Speed, Max 8-10 People, 10 Functions, Stainless Steel Interior with Bail, Healthier, Intuitive Touch Panel, Cleanable The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Cecotec Oil-Free Air Fryer 9L or Double Bucket 4.5L Cecofry Advance 9000 Window Plus. 2200W, Dividing Wall, Dual Temperature, Display Window, 8 Menus, Temp 60-200 ºC, Touch Panel 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 | Philips In Xataka | Which Cosori air fryer to buy according to your needs In Xataka | The best air fryer for 4 people. Which one to buy? Tips and recommendations

The new Chinese gem of semiconductors is called Enflame. This is the new member of “the four chip dragons” of China

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The name Enflame may not ring a bell yet. But it is very likely that in the coming months it will end up giving us a lot to talk about. And this Chinese AI chip company just got the go-ahead to go public on the STAR market in Shanghai, the preferred market for the country’s large technology companies. After this, we see how the scheme of large chip manufacturers begins to take shape. Enflame enters the select group of the four big technology companies that are dedicated to AI chipsand that are already listed or are about to do so on the public markets. Who is Enflame and where does it come from? The company was founded in Shanghai in 2018 by Zhao Lidong, an engineer who came from AMD, where he led the development of high-performance processors at the American company’s R&D center. Together with his co-founder Zhang Yalin, Zhao set out to replicate that knowledge in Chinese territory and build a domestic alternative to Nvidia. In seven years has developed five AI chips distributed across four generations of architecture, and has built a catalog that includes processors, accelerator cards, computing clusters and software platforms. Its most recent chip, the L600 module, has passed silicon verification testing, although it has not yet entered large-scale commercial production. Why this IPO matters. Enflame plans to raise up to 6 billion yuan (about 888 million dollars) selling between 10% and 15% of its shares. The money, as could not be otherwise in these times, will be used to accelerate the development of its next generation of AI chips in the cloud and build the software that surrounds them. However, the operation also has a certain symbolic character, since it is the fourth and final addition to the group known as the “four little dragons” of Chinese chips. The other three (Moore Threads, Biren Technology and MetaX) have already debuted on the STAR market, and have been received enthusiastically by investors. In fact, Moore Threads, nicknamed “the Chinese Nvidia”, rose 425% on its first day of trading in December of last year, according to Bloomberg. Restrictions. The reason China is betting so big on these manufacturers is that the United States has been applying restrictions on chip exports for years advanced towards the Asian giant. Nvidia’s most powerful models are blocked, which has created a real shortage in the Chinese market and a strategic urgency to develop its own alternatives. Beijing has responded with public moneyincluding a relaxation of STAR board rules to allow loss-making companies to list, and a $295 billion plan to build data centers that do not depend on American chips. In this framework, Enflame and its groupmates become part of an infrastructure of technological sovereignty. What does it look like? Tencent. Enflame’s greatest asset is also its greatest vulnerability. Tencent owns about 20% of the company and in 2025 it represented 84% of its income, compared to 38% the previous year. That is, almost everything that Enflame sells is bought by Tencent. The Chinese tech giant uses its chips to power large-scale data centers, recommendation systems, chatbots and generative AI infrastructure. The company itself acknowledged in its IPO prospectus that “Tencent’s demand has far exceeded its supply capacity.” That’s good in the short term, as it guarantees income. But how they point out In The Next Web, a chip maker that relies on a single customer for the majority of its sales ends up being exposed if that customer changes priorities. The numbers. Enflame is growing at breakneck speed, as revenues have multiplied a compound rate greater than 80% between 2023 and 2025, but still in losses. Net losses were reduced to 1.2 billion yuan in 2025, compared to 1.5 billion the previous year, and the company plans to close the first half of 2026 with losses of about 600 million yuan. For the same period, it expects its revenue to grow more than three times compared to the previous year, reaching between 10.6 billion and 11.5 billion yuan. On the other hand, investment in R&D has exceeded 100% of sales over the last three years, which says a lot about the phase the company is in (still building, not harvesting). Before the IPO, the Hurun Index valued the company at around $2.8 billion. Where Enflame fits in. Not all dragons are the same. Within China, Enflame competes in a market where Huawei and Cambricon They continue to be the benchmarks in the sector and are already profitable. Enflame, Moore Threads, Biren and Iluvatar CoreX make up a second, younger layer that is trying to break through. Technically, Enflame has opted for application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), a more specialized architecture, rather than the general-purpose GPUs used by Moore Threads or Biren. Xu Dawei, of Jintong Private Fund Management in Beijing, points out Bloomberg that Enflame “benefits from solid comparatives,” given that its Chinese competitors are already listed on the stock market with valuations well above what their revenues would justify. Companies like ByteDance are actively looking for domestic alternatives to Nvidiaand second-tier manufacturers, including Enflame, are on the radar. Cover image | Enflame In Xataka | TSMC is on the ropes and its biggest problem is not competition: it is water

Chile wants a tunnel under the Strait of Magellan to link Tierra del Fuego with the continent. The project exists, the agreement with Argentina does not

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Today, if a person wants to cross from Chile or Argentina to the island of Tierra del Fuego, they depend on ferries and barges. Normally, about 600 vehicles and around 2,000 people They cross the island every day. The extreme southern region of Patagonia is also a complicated area in meteorological terms, which leads to the suspension of maritime transport services every now and then. Hence, it makes all the sense in the world that they are considering building an underwater tunnel that connects both regions. The idea is to build an underpass of about 3.7 kilometers in the First Angostura, thus replacing ferry transportation. The project has existed on paper for a long timebut now it has just gained some political momentum. What exactly is proposed. The project would consist of an underwater road tunnel that connects Punta Delgada, in the continental zone, with Bahía Azul, on the Big Island of Tierra del Fuego. This section, known as First Angostura, is the point where the Strait of Magellan narrows to the maximum, making it the most technically reasonable place to attempt a work of these characteristics. Why is it resurfacing now? The project has been included since June 2025 in the Extreme Zones Development Plan 2025–2035 of the Magallanes Region. The governor of Magallanes, Jorge Flies, has been the main person responsible for restore some visibility to the initiative in recent weeks, according to some media reports. What the technicians say. Francisco Hernández, academic at the University of the Andes, counted to the Uruguayan edition of El País that the work is technically possible, but warns that it should not be seen “as a simple work.” The media also points out more difficulties than the length of the route, including the detailed study of the geology of the seabed, the water pressure, the currents or the seismic behavior of an area located very close to the mountain range. Depending on the results of these analyses, the project could be executed with a TBM-type tunnel boring machine or using conventional rock excavation techniques. According to account According to La Nación, Norwegian engineers have already reviewed the proposal in a preliminary phase and concluded that the conditions could be favorable. cHow much does it cost and who pays. The estimates oscillate between 500 and 1.5 billion dollars. As it is a binational project, Chile and Argentina would have to agree on the distribution of the investment, the management model and long-term maintenance guarantees. The media also points out that viability does not depend only on engineering, but on there being a firm agreement between both countries on who pays, under what conditions and with what operating scheme. What point is it really at? For the moment, the tunnel is nothing more than a proposal included in Chile’s planning. There is no official confirmation of the start of works, no definitive agreement between the two countries, nor guaranteed financing. The next step would be to complete the geotechnical and geophysical studies that allow the design, costs and security, evacuation and emergency systems to be refined. Until then, we will have to wait to find out if the project finally comes to fruition. Cover image | Vincent Etter and Ricardo Gomez Angel In Xataka | With 3,500 tons and 15 meters in diameter, China already has the largest tunnel boring machine in the world for high-speed trains

Fernando Sáenz, one of the best ice cream makers in the world, puts the dots over the i’s, “Mercadona has modified the palate of the Spanish people”

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A few days ago, Fernando Sáenz, one of the best ice cream makers in Spain (and, quite possibly, the world) gave an interview that left everyone confused. It’s not just that Mercadona “has its clientele totally dedicated,” it’s that they have “modified the palate of the Spanish.” Coming from an ice cream maker famous for its strange gourmet flavors like ‘fig shade’, one might think this is a typical “elitist chef vs. super normie” outburst. And it is possible, yes; but what if it’s true? Can a single chain shape what a country eats? Who Fernando Saenz? An ice cream authority: the head behind sellaSera, in Logroño and one of the key suppliers of the best elite restaurants in the country (from Mugaritz to El Celler de Can Roca through Quique Dacosta or Eneko Atxa). Best Pastry Chef in Spain from the Royal Academy of Gastronomy, Best Sweet Space in Madrid Fusion and Prix ​​Chef Pâtissier 2025 of the International Academy of Gastronomy. In other words, not only is he someone who knows the world of ice cream deeply, he is someone who thinks about it deeply. Therefore, such a harsh statement is worth examining. Because Mercadona has a lot of power. After all, almost one euro out of every three spent in supermarkets she takes it. Not only that, between 2018 and 2023, the manufacturer brand references on their shelves fell 45%. Increasingly, Mercadona is judge and party in what is sold or not: its size allows it to do something that almost no competitor achieves and that is to convert each assortment decision into a change in habits on a national scale. And how does that change the “taste” of an entire country? It doesn’t just happen with ice cream, of course. But the sustained strategy of “short assortment and dominated by own brand” reduces the number of flavors, formats and recipes to which the regular buyer ends up being exposed. It’s not so much that ‘taste’ gets worse, as that the frame of reference becomes narrower and more homogeneous. In fact, some experts such as Howard Moskowitz talks about “hijacked palate” due to industrial dynamics. Can’t we do anything? We are trying to do it, in fact. In recent years the National Reformulation Plan has managed to reduce sugar, salt and saturated fat in most packaging categories, according to a study from the CEU San Pablo University; and Mercadona has reformulated its own products downwards. Ironically, Saénz puts his finger on the sore spot because one of the few categories where reformulation has not yet worked is ice cream. A palate at two speeds. The reduction in assortments is causing the industry to begin to concentrate on two levels: large stores and specialty stores. The “middle class” is dead and the problem may come in the long term: a generation raised on a narrow menu sets expectations that are difficult to move. Image | Fernando Saenz | DAP In Xataka | Spain’s favorite ice creams are from Mercadona and have no “brand”. And there is a Valencian company making gold with them

“They are an ecosystem of unprecedented aesthetic pressure”

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Technology has shaped the way we interact with the world and, by extension, with ourselves. For decades, the debate about unrealistic beauty standards focused on traditional photographic retouching to remove the wrinkles of age or stylize the figure to fit into what is conceived as the ‘model’ body. However, the arrival of artificial intelligence has changed the rules of the game and we are no longer passive spectators of unattainable bodies, but now we have algorithms in our pockets that, in real time, return to us an artificially “optimized” version of our own face. They are studying it. Empirical research has begun to isolate the specific effect of AI-based filters versus mere social media exposure. A robust study published in it Journal of Consumer Behavior analyzed almost 800 users in two phases and identified the exact mechanism of the psychological damage generated by AI and the false reality into which it puts us. In this case, the use of beauty filters that have AI behind them generates a direct drop in our own self-esteem and increases rejection of our current body image. The reason for this stands out in the “discrepancy theory” as the AI ​​creates a hyper-realistic “ideal self”, and when the camera is turned off, there is an anxiety-inducing clash between the algorithmic version and the “real self”. New terms. This phenomenon has led the medical literature to coin a new clinical term: filter dysmorphia. Here is a review that synthesized 18 studies from the last two decadesconcluded that the amplification of unrealistic ideals by AI and filters in general is triggering not only body dissatisfaction, but also eating disorders and anxiety and depression. And, as expected, the most vulnerable groups are adolescents and young adults. A new evolution. Until now we could see how technology offered us filter tools to improve our beauty and look more beautiful in photographs or videos. But now AI has become a facial evaluation tool. That is to say, there are people who submit to the scrutiny of artificial intelligence to know if they are handsome or ugly, internalizing the machine’s gaze in case many ‘defects’ begin to appear. Internalizing this speech directly correlates with low self-esteem and an increase in compulsive behaviors to improve your appearance. There is no neutrality. Here, a study from 2025 shows us as important data that 82% of images generated by AI lack cultural inclusivity. This means that aesthetic evaluation models such as SCUT or MEBeauty They present significant disparities and ethical biases, causing AI to impose culturally restrictive ideas of beauty. It has impact. To measure it, Dove’s 2024 macroscopic report, carried out on 33,000 people in 20 countries, provides figures that contextualize the severity of this aesthetic pressure. For example, it is projected that 90% of online content will in the future be generated or altered by AI, but it is also suggested that 2 out of 5 women would be willing to give up a year of their life in exchange for achieving the “ideal body.” This exposure to “digitally curated beauty,” mediated by social media algorithms, has consequences in the physical world, as a 2024 systematic review established a clear causal line: body dissatisfaction derived from these digital ecosystems pushes 70% of young women and 60% of young men to seriously consider undergoing cosmetic surgery. The experts They agree on the great problem involved in the use of AI for these purposes of seeking rational beauty and making decisions based on what the machine says. This is something we find in statements by Nuria Oliver, doctor in artificial intelligence from MIT, for El Paíswhich points to the following: “Its impact on aesthetic violence operates on at least three interrelated levels: the active definition of canons of beauty, the modulation of the visibility of content and the incorporation of aesthetic bias in analysis and decision-making systems. All three are worrying; together, they constitute an ecosystem of unprecedented aesthetic pressure.” Images | Kevin Costello In Xataka | Cosmetics experts are clear about the future: “People are generally very receptive to products from China”

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