Mobile Tech & Gadgets

the great paradox of Spanish energy

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The Spanish energy market has broken into two halves that seem to have no relationship with each other. On the one hand, the trench of the retail market—direct sales to consumers—has become a scenario of continuous attrition where historical giants are bleeding customers at an unprecedented rate. On the other hand, the boardrooms of these same corporations celebrate the highest profits in their entire history. How is it possible to make more money than ever by losing hundreds of thousands of customers? The answer defines the new paradigm of the sector: large electricity companies are ceasing to be “light sellers” to consolidate themselves as managers of colossal infrastructures. The real business is no longer in fighting the average citizen’s monthly bill, but in controlling the cables, regulated assets and energy demanded by the new technological giants. The bleeding of the 1.3 million contracts. The closing figures for 2025 draw a historic leak. As detailed The IndependentIberdrola and Endesa suffered an “unprecedented fall”, jointly losing almost 1.3 million customers (1,279 million exactly) in the electricity and gas markets. Endesa left 645,000 contracts behind, while Iberdrola lost 634,000. The attitude of companies towards this flight of users is radically different. The president of Iberdrola, Ignacio Sánchez Galán, downplayed to the matter during the presentation of results, calling it “normal rotation” and boasting of the “enormous loyalty” of its hard core of users. On the other side of the coin, Endesa yes it has set off the alarms: has announced an injection of 900 million euros until 2028 with the urgent objective of recovering half a million customers, even relying on strategic alliances such as the recent purchase of Masorange’s energy business. The feast of alternative firms. In the last year, an absolute mobility record was broken, more than 7.25 million changes of marketer. In other words, almost one in four Spaniards decided to change their rate. The big winners of this stampede have been companies like Octopus Energy, the MásMóvil group and, most especially, Repsol. The oil company has already established itself as the fourth electricity operator in the country, exceeding 2.1 million customers and taking market share directly from traditional electricity companies. The model breaks, but the box is full. Any traditional economics textbook would say that losing more than a million customers is a financial catastrophe. However, the balance sheets say the opposite. How to publish Five DaysIberdrola pulverized its brands by earning 6,285 million euros in 2025 (12% more than the previous year), while Endesa reached 2,351 million (18% more). The secret of this paradox explains it perfectly The Mail When analyzing Iberdrola’s accounts: the net benefits that come from the management of distribution networks skyrocketed by a brutal 77%, while the contribution of the energy generation business fell by 27%. In simple words, they earn less by selling electricity to the end customer, but they earn much more by charging the regulated “toll” for using their cables, especially in markets with very attractive legislation such as the United States and the United Kingdom, which already account for 60% of their investments. The future runs through the cables. Electricity companies are going to stop obsessing about installing solar panels at any price to focus on the sockets and transmission highways. Endesa will invest a record figure of 10.6 billion until 2028, allocating more than half (52%) exclusively to electricity networks. Simultaneously, it will put the brakes on renewable energy, cutting its investment by 20% due to the “cannibalization” (plunging prices) that solar energy suffers during peak production hours. Iberdrola follows the same path: 62% of its gigantic investments last year went to the networks. The other great vector: data centers. Endesa already has some 3,000 MW of capacity ready to feed these insatiable technological infrastructures, highlighting its hybrid macroproject in Pego (Portugal). All of this will require a much more robust national backbone; Therefore, Redeia (parent company of Red Eléctrica) will skyrocket your investments 70%, injecting 6,000 million into the high-voltage transmission network to support this technological boom and the electrification of the country. Furthermore, this scenario comes with strong pressure of both companies for extending the useful life of Spanish nuclear plants, such as Almaraz, defending that they can operate safely up to 80 years to guarantee cheap and stable base energy that the system urgently needs. Network saturation and market clearing. The regulatory context explains many of these operational decisions. Spain faces a monumental bureaucratic funnel: 83.4% of electricity distribution nodes They are administratively saturatedwhich keeps 130 GW of renewable energy locked in, even though the grid is physically underutilized. To avoid the collapse of reindustrialization, the CNMC is designing new “flexible access permits” that will change the rules of the game. At the same time, the bottom of the market pyramid is undergoing a silent purge. The Government started a few months ago a historic cleanup of the “ghost marketers.” Of the more than 900 firms registered in Spain, only 416 had real activity. The Ministry for the Ecological Transition has already begun to disable inactive or delinquent companies, transferring their clients to avoid systemic risks and clean up a hypertrophied market. The definitive metamorphosis. The traditional electricity bill is no longer the main battlefield for the great energy totems. While they gladly cede – or out of pure wear and tear – the exhausting hand-to-hand combat of the retail market to independent marketers and oil companies in the midst of a green conversion, Iberdrola and Endesa have ascended to a much safer, more profitable and macroscopic ecosystem. They have understood that the future does not belong to whoever sells electricity to the final consumer, but to whoever owns the highways on which, inevitably, all that energy will have to circulate. Image | freepik and Alex Quezada Xataka | Spain has a giant problem: its electrical network claims to be “full” when in reality it is underused

Spain is not one of them

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Compare the salary you earn with that of a worker in Luxembourg and it is likely that the difference left you speechless. Europe is a continent that shares a currency, a single market and open borders, but where salaries tell very different stories depending on the country. where you live and work. Visual Capitalist has prepared a graph that represents the weighted salaries of different countries in Europe based on the most recent data from Eurostat and the oecd. The graph shows an uncomfortable reality. Despite sharing many common regulatory elements, within the European Union, the average annual salary can be multiplied by more than five depending on the country in which you live. A simple graph, but it reflects a reality sculpted by decades of economic, historical and geopolitical differences. A stocking that is not what it seems Before going into figures, it is worth understanding what exactly Eurostat measures when talking about salary in this map. The indicator used by Eurostat and the OECD to compile this statistic is called “adjusted average full-time salary per employee” and does not reflect what most workers earn. In reality, what it represents is a weighted average that takes the total salaries paid in a country and divides it by the number of full-time equivalent employees. In other words, if many workers in a country work part-time, those hours are converted to their full-time equivalent before calculating the average. That means that the resulting number tends to be higher than the most common salary in that country, the one received by the real majority of workers. Although it is not a “literal” representation of what the majority of the country’s workers earn, this data is a useful tool for comparing countries with each other. However, it must be taken for what it is: a statistical photograph, not the exact reflection of the salary you receive at the end of the month. The countries in which they charge the most In 2024, the adjusted average annual full-time salary in the European Union stood at 39,800 euros. That represents an increase of 5.2% compared to 37,800 euros registered in 2023. Above that average the same names as always stand out clearly. Luxembourg tops the European ranking with an average annual full-time salary of almost 83,000 euros, driven by its powerful financial and technology sector. In fact, the Grand Duchy not only has the highest salaries in Europe, they are also from the world. Iceland occupies second place with just over 77,000 euros annually, and Switzerland is in third with 75,100 euros, also being the country with the largest population among the first three. Next, the Scandinavians Denmark and Norway appear with 71,600 euros and 64,025 euros respectively, completing the leading group. A simple glance is enough to realize that the Nordic and Western European countries clearly dominate the top of the table. Belgium, Austria, Germany and Finland also exceed the European average of 39,800 euros, while the Scandinavian countries maintain a constant presence among the best paid thanks to its collective bargaining models and its robust welfare states. The gap between East and West The graph of Visual Capitalist A fracture that separates the west and north from the east and south of the continent is evident, at least as far as salaries are concerned. At the lower end of the ranking are Bulgaria, with salaries of just 15,387 euros per year, Greece with 17,954 euros and Hungary with 18,461 euros. Poland, another large economy in the Eastern European bloc, records an average of 21,246 euros per year. The salary gap between Luxembourg and Bulgaria exceeds 67,500 euros annually, a gap that is no coincidence. The legacy of the Soviet bloc left weakened economies decades behind in investment, productivity and industrial infrastructure. Although countries such as Poland and the Baltic States have closed the gap by modernizing their economies in recent years, the Actual convergence with the west remains a slow process. Spain: above average… in the south Spain occupies an intermediate salary position, although it remains below the EU salary average. In 2024, the adjusted average full-time salary reached 33,700 euros gross per year, which represents an increase of 4.6% compared to the 32,216 euros recorded in 2023. Still, that number is 6,100 euros below the European average of 39,800 euros, and a considerable distance from Germany, which reaches 53,751 euros, or France with 43,790 euros annually. Where Spain does maintain a relatively comfortable position is in comparison with its southern European neighbors. For example, it surpasses Italy (33,523 euros), Portugal (24,818 euros) and clearly distances itself from Greece and Bulgaria. The sustained growth of Minimum Interprofessional Wage In recent years it has contributed to raise the salary floor since Spain will not remain in the rear of the eurozone economies, although the distance with the countries of the north and west is still notable. In Xataka | Good news, salaries in Spain are rising: the problem is that if you are young you probably don’t know it Image | Visual Capitalist

We have been wondering for decades if being vegetarian prevents cancer. We already have a very clear answer

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There is a endless diets in different parts of the world, conditioned largely by local society and culture, such as in Spain, where the Mediterranean dietwhich is varied. But the focus of the debate is on what is the best diet to maintain good health in the long term. And here the vegetarian diet has a lot to say. Giving answers. For years, we have known that reducing our consumption of processed meat is beneficial for our health, but a new macro study led by the University of Oxford has put compelling data on the table about how dietary choice directly impacts the risk of developing different types of cancer. The work published in the magazine British Journal of Cancer is consolidated as the further analysis performed to date on this topic. And it is no wonder, since researchers have been able to analyze the histories of 1.8 million women and men who participated in nine prospective studies across three continents. A shield. Until now, previous studies they were already pointing that vegetarians had a lower oncological risk, but there was not the necessary statistical power to refine the data and make this categorical statement. But this study has come to change this, since researchers reveal that vegetarians have a significantly lower risk of suffering from five types of cancer compared to people who eat meat regularly. Results. Obviously, there are many other factors that influence this matter such as weight or lifestyle, but even adjusting the data, a clear result has been seen, which is summarized in the following risk reductions: 31% lower risk of suffering from multiple myeloma. 28% lower risk of kidney cancer. 21% lower risk of pancreatic cancer. 12% lower risk of pancreatic cancer. 9% lower risk of breast cancer. But the curious thing about these data is that for ten other types of cancer studied, such as lung cancer in non-smokers, science has not found a significant difference. And this opens the door to seeing why this diet is so specific for specific cancers. The small print. Not everything is so positive with this diet, since the study has shown that vegetarians have almost double the risk of developing esophageal cancer compared to people who eat meat in their diet. Because? According to researchers, the benefits of a vegetarian diet in cancer are explained by the greater intake of fruits, vegetables, fiber and the absence of processed meats. But the fact that they have a higher risk of having esophageal cancer is related to the nutritional deficiencies that vegetarians may have. And the lack of certain exclusive or more present nutrients in foods of animal origin could be weakening the natural defenses of this tissue. The rest of the diets. In addition to the war that may exist between meat and vegetables, researchers wanted to go further to look at the rest of the diet. In this case, the pescetarianswho do not consume meat, but do consume fish and seafood, had a lower risk of developing breast, kidney and colon cancer. But when we talk about vegansis where there are certain important nuances, since it has been seen that they have a higher risk of suffering from colorectal cancer. However, the researchers themselves point out that there are still not enough statistical cases to accurately evaluate the impact of veganism on rarer cancers. The recommendations. Given this study, everything that had been done in oncology is maintained, since the norm is to prioritize whole grains, legumes, fruits and vegetables in the diet, limiting the consumption of red and processed meats. Although logically always ensuring that all nutritional needs are met and following medical advice. Images | amin ramezani In Xataka | Having a beer or a wine at 65 seems like a harmless indulgence. We have more and more evidence to the contrary.

There are alternatives if you don’t want to depend on Google Drive or other US clouds. Internxt is one of them and it only costs 16 euros per year

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Having cloud storage is ideal for giving your cell phone or laptop a break. You upload your photos, your videos or your files there and you always have them at hand. Most people tend to go directly to the most popular clouds like Google Drive or iCloud, services that have nothing wrong, but there is something in common: They are owned by US companies. There is a trend that increasingly attracts more people than Try to depend as little as possible on services from this country. If you are one of those people or this is something you have been thinking about for some time, then you might be interested in betting on a European cloud service like Internxt Drive: if you use the code ‘XATAKA‘ you have 1 TB of storage per 16 euros per year. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links A cloud of Spanish origin that includes VPN and antivirus Internxt is a company of Spanish origin and is ideal if, as we said above, you are looking for a cloud service that is not from the large US tech companies. The cheapest option costs 16 euros per year and includes 1 TB as we said a little above, but includes VPN and antivirusmaking it a very complete package at a very attractive price. What can we highlight about this cloud? Internxt uses what is known as ‘Zero-Nowledge’ or ‘Zero Knowledge’. This means that their servers store your photos or files, but they cannot access these files in any way. In fact, Because they don’t store, they don’t even save your password. You will not lack privacy. Then there is the issue of end-to-end encryption. This company encrypts your files before uploading them to the cloud. This way, even if someone intercepts your data while you are sending it to the cloud, they will not be able to access it. In fact, its service is already prepared to even combat against quantum computers when these arrive in a few years. If you are concerned about the whole issue of privacy, it is also worth noting that Internxt is open and transparent sourceso anyone can access it through GitHub. What does this mean? That its entire architecture is transparent, so it cannot hide any type of function or secret way so that your data ends up in the hands of third parties. Premium Plan: 3 TB of storage, VPN, antivirus and cleaner per 31 euros per year (or 377 euros for life) Ultimate Plan: 5 TB of storage, VPN, antivirus, cleaner and meet per 47 euros per year (or 507 euros for life) 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 | Internxt In Xataka | Google Drive alternatives: the best cloud storage services for your files In Xataka | Best VPNs 2025: guide with the 17 best services to protect your online privacy

the invisible leak that locked a town in an industrial dystopia

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This afternoon, the Basque authorities restrictions have been lifted in Muskizbut the fear still remains. Living in the shadow of the largest refinery in the Basque Country, Petronor, has turned this Biscayan municipality into a scene straight out of England at the end of the 19th century. Its streets have been empty, schools with minimal activity and neighbors equipped with masks. The mist that covered the town on Thursday and part of Friday was not fog, but a toxic cloud. The invisible escape. It all started on Thursday morning due to a technical incident in a gasoline tank at the petrochemical plant, which caused the evaporation and emission into the atmosphere of the volatile fraction of the fuel. According to the Muskiz city councilbetween 10:15 and 11:00 a.m., stations such as the one in the San Julián neighborhood recorded peaks of between 100 and 200 micrograms per cubic meter (µg/m³) of benzene. To put the figure in perspective, the regulatory limit value for the annual average is just 5 µg/m³, meaning that emissions far exceeded the recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO). In addition, the chemist Néstor Etxebarria (UPV/EHU) warned that not only benzene escapedbut also toluene and xylene, completing the dangerous chemical cocktail known as BTEX, very volatile and toxic substances. The real danger of hydrocarbons. To understand the severity of the leak, it is necessary to explain what benzene is. Simply put, it is a colorless, volatile liquid with a sweet smell. that penetrates very easily into the bloodstream through the lungs. In the short term, acute inhalation causes poisoning similar to that of solvents: drowsiness, dizziness, headaches, tremors and, in severe levels, loss of consciousness. However, the real danger lies in its long-term effects. International health and environmental agencies (IARC, ATSDR, EPA) classify benzene as a confirmed human carcinogen (Group 1). This substance directly attacks the bone marrow, depressing the formation of blood cells, which can trigger aplastic anemia and acute myeloid leukemia. The WHO itself assumes in its guidelines that, being a genotoxic agent, there is no exposure threshold that the human body can safely tolerate. Any dose, no matter how small, increases the risk. Communication chaos, dizziness and fear. Despite the obvious chemical danger, the management of the crisis has outraged those affected. Although the escape occurred on Thursday morning, The Mail denounced that the Basque Government It did not issue preventive confinement recommendations until 8:17 p.m., ten hours after the incident. The usual Petronor emergency sirens, which sound every Thursday as a drill, remained silent yesterday, and neither mass alert was sent (ES-Alert) to cell phones because Public Health considered that “it was not an emergency.” While the Local Police patrolled with megaphones asking residents to lock themselves in, the director of Public Health, Guillermo Herrero, minimized the crisis in Radio Euskadiensuring that there was no “risk for the population” and that a “normal life” could be led. This vision contrasted head-on with that of the mayor of Muskiz, Eduardo Briones, who to the microphones Chain Being, He recommended not going out because “it is better to sin by excess.” The human impact was immediate. In statements to The MailItxaso Etxegarai recounted how her asthmatic daughter lost her appetite and suffered severe headaches, while her eyes stung. For his part, retiree José Taboada had to go look for his wife at work because, after inhaling the air, “he had gotten dizzy” and “had lost consciousness a little.” Panic also crossed the walls of the refinery. chow to detail The Jumpdozens of contract workers abandoned their jobs on Friday morning. “No one has told us anything clearly. While we are waiting, we are at the site of toxicity,” an operator reported to the BEsuffering from a sore throat. Unions such as LAB and CCOO demanded the paralysis of the plant. Impunity and legal loopholes. This episode is not an isolated event, but rather the straw that breaks the camel’s back for a population accustomed to living with industrial pollution. In fact, it is the third incident in just two months (in December there was another leak, and this same Sunday an electrical failure caused immense flames and black smoke) As detailed by the chemist and environmental disseminator Julen Rekondo in COPE chainthe problem lies in a flagrant legal vacuum: Spanish regulations sanction companies if they exceed the annual average of benzene, but does not contemplate punitive limits for sharp point peaks. This allows serious episodes not to count as an infraction. Neighborhood fatigue. Petronor’s shadow is long. The refinery is responsible of more than 10% of greenhouse gas emissions and Public Health data show that the Muskiz area registers mortality rates from lung cancer between 11% and 45% higher than the Basque average. Added to this is citizen distrust due to “revolving doors.” The residents gathered this week remembered that former senior officials of the Basque Government, such as Josu Jon Imaz or Iñaki Zudaire, ended up occupying positions of maximum power in Petronor and Repsol, which raises doubts about the rigor of institutional control. To channel this satiety, the neighborhood platform “Las Karreras Variant Stop“has called a protest demonstration for this Sunday, March 1, at 12:00 p.m., demanding real solutions. The air clears, but the indignation remains. The sirens never sounded, but the silence in Muskiz has been deafening. Although at two in the afternoon on Friday, February 27, the authorities lifted the preventive confinement when benzene stabilized at 2 µg/m³, normality here is a fragile concept. The gas will dissipate with the wind currents, but the uncertainty of living in a chemical Russian roulette remains entrenched in the lungs of a people who demand to stop being the collateral damage of industrial progress. Image | Zarateman and Gustavo Fring Xataka | The United Kingdom has found lithium under its feet, but extracting it is going to be a billion-dollar logistical nightmare

Huawei has had half the West against it for six years. Your answer is the Mate 80 Pro

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The market had been warning for some time: Huawei was going to return. Google’s veto United States ostracized to a Chinese company that was taken as a scapegoat at the dawn of the current trade war. What was initially a blow has ended in a big comeback leading he domestic market with more than 18% share. and he Huawei Mate 80 Pro It is another example that the brand does not want us to forget about its mobile phones outside of China. There are a couple of very important asterisks. In short. We told it a few days ago: Huawei’s best feature has been neither its technological innovation nor its investment to give wings to the Chinese foundry. His best quality has been resilience. That translates to 880 billion yuan (about $127 billion). registered in 2025. Put in context, it is the company’s second best year after the glorious 2020 in which it hugged Samsung and Apple and in which it achieved 891,000 million yuan (129,000 million dollars). And it has achieved this by looking at the local market, building an ecosystem under the name of HarmonyOS (something that is very popular in China, and Xiaomi is an example of this) and managing to be in all parts of the business. Huawei was no longer just consumer technology: it was home automation and even cars. The Western blow pushed not the reinvention of a company that was already on that path, but rather to seek that goal more ardently. And it seems that they are moving, again, outside their borders. Mate 80 Pro. In Spain we have continued receiving Huawei devices. For example, smart watches are some of the best you can buy – we just published our review of the Huawei Watch GT Runner 2-, in headphones they have models as interesting as the FreeClip 2 and we have continued receiving tablets and some mobile phones like the Huawei Pure 80 or the Mate X7a foldable. However, not all of them arrived and the Mate 80 Pro, the company’s spearhead, seemed trapped in China. In a recent presentation that we were able to attend in Madrid, Huawei has shown a slide in which it confirms the price in euros of the Huawei Mate 80 Pro, a mobile phone with a 6.75-inch OLED screen, with 8,000 nits of brightnesswith its own Kirin 9030 processor and a triplet of cameras made up of: 50 Mpx main with variable aperture from f/1.4 to f/4.0. 40 Mpx wide angle. 48 Mpx 4x telephoto with an impressive f/2.1 aperture. They have not talked about markets, yes. No concessions. The price? 1,299 euros that are a declaration of intentions. In the analysis of the Huawei Mate X7 we have seen that the performance of that chip is more similar to that of a mid-range than that of a TOP range. It is commendable that they have managed to develop it without being able to access the resources of the West – of ASMLmainly-, but it is not a processor for a 1,300 euro mobile. It also doesn’t have 5G at this point. However, in the rest of the sections in which they can innovate and grow as they did before the veto, they are doing so. 100 W charging, cameras that promise a lot, good storage speed and screens to match. It’s a “here we are, we continue making high-end mobile phones”, a declaration of intent and a kind of “because I can”. The reality: it’s complicated. However, there is no denying the elephant in the room: the Huawei Mate 80 Pro, no matter how good it looks, still cannot natively access Google mobile services. It is no longer not being able to install your apps, but others that depend on those GMS They won’t work on the phone. It’s a huge concession for many users, but it may not sound so bad to others. We are in a time in which many Europeans are beginning to resonate with the idea of ​​abandoning American technology and softwareand that’s where Google comes in. In hardware there are proposals such as Fairphone 6 and every time more alternatives appear of software so as not to have to depend on those American programs. Who had… retained? As I say, it is undeniable that Huawei’s position by sneaking a mobile phone for 1,300 euros with so many concessions is complex and optimistic, but it is still an interesting approach: they are gaining confidence thanks to rising like foam in the local market and they know that they have good foundations and, at least, a name that continues to sound good in the heads of many who have good memories of beasts like the P30 Pro. At the moment, we don’t know where this Mate 80 Pro will end up being released. Perhaps that announcement of the price of 1,299 euros is putting its foot in to test the temperature of the water, but although they know that they are competing at a disadvantage, a mobile phone of that price is a better thermometer of how the European market vibrates than a 2,100 euro foldable like the X7. In Xataka | Chinese mobile phones conquered the market by dividing into a thousand different brands. Now they are doing just the opposite.

Genetics suggests that Neanderthal males preferred human females

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We have known for years that today’s non-African populations They preserve between 1 and 4% Neanderthal DNA as a legacy of the prehistoric crossings that existed. However, when looking at our X chromosome (which determines sex), geneticists repeatedly encountered an absolute void, a phenomenon that has been dubbed ‘neanderthal desert‘since there was no ancient DNA. And the question here is quite obvious: Why did the imprint of this species disappear from our sex chromosome, but not from the rest of the chromosomes? The key data. From here science began to investigate, and a new published article in Science proposes an answer much more focused on demographics: sex between both species It had a very strong gender bias. That is to say, the fact that a member of each species had sexual relations with great frequency has survived to this day with this genetic imprint. How do you know? What was done to be able to see what happened to the genetic material and its passage between generations within the Neanderthal populations was simply to analyze genomes. Specifically, the DNA of women from current African populations, who do not have any Neanderthal genetics, and compared them with genomes of female Neanderthals, mainly the Neanderthal of Altaibut also specimens of Chagyrskaya and Vindija. The result. Here the researchers realized that the X chromosome of the Neanderthals analyzed presented a large amount of DNA that came from the Homo sapiens. Specifically, an excess of 62% was seen compared to the rest of the organism’s chromosomes. The only thing that confirms is that the genetic exchange between both species was not a one-way change, but rather that both parties were enriched, causing the Neanderthals to also have sapiens DNA, but in different proportions. A matter of preferences. How is such a brutal asymmetry in the sex chromosomes explained? Until now, the most accurate hypothesis to justify our “Neanderthal desert” was biological incompatibility between species. Here it was thought that male hybrids suffered fertility or viability problems if they received this DNA, which caused a negative selection of testicular genes that erased the Neanderthal imprint of our X chromosomes. However, science has now ruled out that this 62% excess on the Neanderthal side is due to the sapiens DNA giving them an evolutionary advantage, since they ended up disappearing in a until now inexplicable way. The conclusion. Everything indicates here that there was an extreme sexual bias in the miscegenation. That is, the crossings occurred overwhelmingly between Neanderthal males and females. Homo sapiens, and always with this pattern. This mating preference persisted across generations, where Neanderthal males preferred females sapiensand the resulting hybrid offspring were also “preferred” in group dynamics. In this way we are faced with the piece that fits into the bidirectional puzzle of our evolutionary history. There are nuances. As usual, there is always a ‘but’ in these stories. In this case, the researchers point out that, although the genetics are quite clear, the behavioral interpretation has nuances, since the pattern we see today could be the result of a mixture of factors. One of them is that societies where women sapiens They left their tribe to join the clans of their Neanderthal partners, introducing their X chromosome into the genetic pool of the other species. Images | Jan Jakubowski In Xataka | The extinction of Neanderthals has always been a mystery. Science now believes that they are still with us

It turns out that to innovate in mobile phones, only one thing was needed: (very) useful little things.

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Neither the latest Qualcomm processor, nor “agent” AI, nor a camera with 200 megapixels. What surprised us most this week with the launch of the Galaxy S26 Ultra It was his anti-gossip screen. A friendly reminder that, perhaps, innovation in technology does not involve the most technical characteristic, but rather the most useful one. A touch of attention. We have been criticizing for years (and rightly so) that mobile phones do not innovate. For some time now, attending the presentation of a new model is usually summarized in: Same mobile Best camera (sometimes not even that) More power AI functions that, with a high probability, we will never use The umpteenth improvement in hardware that has been nearing its peak for years This is why, as soon as we see one of those novelties of the “oh, I want that in my daily life“, we return to that smile from when mobile phones were devices designed to make our lives easier, and not so much to sell hardware deployments at the highest possible price. The anti-peeping screen. Yes, we already know that there are €1 screen protectors that perform a similar function, but the point is that this screen includes it from the factory, and with brutal technology. It is capable of regulating the emission of the pixels so that we are only able to see the panel from the front. This opens the door to having a native security layer on our screen and, by the way, being able to put a quality screen protector on it (protection ones are usually not). The matte screen. A couple of years ago, Samsung surprised the world with the matte screen of the Samsung Galaxy S24an anti-reflective layer that represented a before and after when viewing content. Apple tried something similar in its last generation, but couldn’t come close. Once again, a silent innovation that did not impress on the technical sheet, but in terms of utility it was outstanding. Apple’s square sensor. People take selfies, lots of selfies. And turning the phone to do them is not a drama, but if you can save it, all the better. It is just what Apple invented with its iPhone 17 and the square sensor: one that allows the mobile to record and take photos both vertically and horizontally in the same position. NXTpaper screens. Although the superiority of the physical book over the electronic reader is a debate that I do not want to open (and that I do not intend to lose), TCL has been doing something for some time that its competition does not dare to imitate: dual panelswhich can be used as an electronic reader and as a traditional panel. How does it work? These phones and tablets are modified LCD panels with a different matrix than the rest. The backlighting system, the anti-reflective layer and the microtexture of the surface itself are adjusted to emulate an electronic ink panel, and thus be much less aggressive to the eye when we are reading. 10,000mAh batteries. Quietly, smartphone batteries are undergoing their biggest revolution. The main change: betting on silicon to give us much more generous capacities. Because yes, innovating is making the phone last three days, and not one as we have been accustomed to for years. Image | Xataka In Xataka | Mobile phones have been stagnant for five years when it comes to innovation. There is an explanation

How to know if the music you listen to on Spotify or Apple Music is from a real artist or made by artificial intelligence

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Let’s give you some clues about how to detect if the music you are listening to Is it by a real artist or is it made by artificial intelligence. We are going to focus on that music that is on streaming platforms like Spotify or Apple Music. The way to detect it is not by looking for things in the music itself, but looking at the artist who created the song. Music made by artificial intelligence does not stop flood streaming servicesand they are having enough trouble stopping it. Many times it is easy to detect, it is music without soul, but one way or another, they are there taking clicks and listens, and the money that should go to real musicians. Therefore, we are going to give you a list of things you should pay attention to to detect if what you hear is from a real musician or not. It is not that if one of these points is met it is music made by AI, but that the more of these red flags it raises, the more it will be pointed in that direction. Listen carefully to the music If you are going to check if an artist is real or if they are songs made by AI, it is possibly because you are noticing something strange in the music. Here, you will be able to notice it especially depending on the musical genre you listen to. This is because elements such as excessively clean voices or lack of natural breathing can be the first indication, although in some commercial genres you will also find this due to excess production. Ultimately, the music will sound artificial, soulless. The phrases in the case of singing will sound mechanical and without any emotion, and the lyrics will also be quite bad. Pay attention to how the instruments sound musicals, because if they sound too compact, like a mush where you can’t distinguish each one of them and their clean sound, it could also be due to AI… or again, due to bad production. Biography and photo of the artist If music has left you suspicious, play then Click on the artist’s name to enter their profile within the streaming platform. The first thing that may make you suspicious is that there is no photo of the artist or the bandand instead there is some landscape or generic image. The fact that the photo of the band is not a photo of the musicians or the soloist is something that should make us suspicious. In the case of a photo of people appearing, you can check if it is made by AI, if it looks unnatural or if there is an excess of processing of the image, but normally AI artists do not usually risk this. It is also worth checking the biography of the artist or band. Look out for some suspicious signs, like the fact that it doesn’t include names of the members, where they are from, or those biographical data that usually give you a little more context about the artists. Instead, “musicians” made by AI will give ambiguous descriptions, and there will be times when in a fit of honesty they will directly say that it is music made by artificial intelligence. Discography and volume of releases The next step would be to look at your albums. If you see that their first releases have been around for many years, this would indicate that they are a normal band, because the AI ​​that generates music has only been able to resemble real music for a couple of years or three. If the releases they have are all new, it could also be because they are a new artist. Then look at the volume of the pitches. Human musicians, those of flesh and blood, can take from one to five or six years to release each new record. If you see that the artist has 2 or 5 full albums released in two monthsthen this should set off all the alarms. It’s AI. And by this we mean albums, not singles or individual songs. you should also pay attention to how the music sounds. If all the songs seem too samey you should also be suspicious, and if the track titles are too generic and simple too. Real artists are not a donut factorythey are not going to release an album every two weeks or every two months, because this requires a process of composition, recording, mastering, and creation of physical formats. Nobody is going to release 40 songs to you in a year if they don’t cheat. Find information about the artist and his concerts If your suspicions are still there, then comes the next level, that of looking for information about these artists on other pages. The first thing could be search for photos or videos of live concerts on YouTube, Facebook or Instagram. Also look for news on music websites. You can also search for concert dates, if they appear at festivals, if they are mentioned on networks. Come on, there must be proof that they are artists that someone has seen or known, because the normal thing is that the objective of musicians is to play live, not simply record albums. You can also search for his name on specialized platforms. Discogs is the largest database of albums and music releases on the Internet, it is a good place to start, in addition to Wikipedia or All Music. Also look for specialized media, such as Metal Archives for rock and heavy metal, and those for other musical genres. In the end, If it seems as if the artist does not exist because there are no photos or any reference outside of streaming platforms… possibly because they don’t exist. There will be artists who use AI In short, if everything we have told you above points in one direction, you will have already located a fake musician who is really an AI algorithm. … Read more

OPPO Watch X2 Mini, analysis

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Wear OS left behind the obligation to charge watches every day with the enormous step forward that the OnePlus Watch 2. I was able to analyze it and was surprised by its duality: dual processor and dual operating system. OnePlus has promoted this innovation, so has OPPO. The Watch X2 Mini that I have tested is a worthy heir. Very compact, loaded with features despite being contained, with five days of autonomy and good performance in the sports record. At least for a smartwatch that is not specifically geared toward workouts. With these credentials, I have to say that the OPPO Watch X2 Mini seems like a great recommendation to me. I explain step by step why. OPPO Watch X2 Mini technical sheet OPPO Watch X2 Mini SCREEN 1.32 inch round AMOLED panel 466 x 466 pixel resolution 352 PPI Brightness from 600 to 1000 nits 2.5D Crystal DIMENSIONS AND WEIGHT 43.2 x 43.2 x 11mm 37.8 grams PROCESSOR Qualcomm Snapdragon W5+ BES2800BP RAM 2GB STORAGE 32GB BATTERY 354mAh 6.5W magnetic charging Autonomy from 2.5 to 7 days OPERATING SYSTEM Android 14 with ColorOS Watch 7.0 RTOS Compatible with Android 10 and iOS 14 CONNECTIVITY eSIM 5G and 2.4G WiFi NFC Bluetooth 5.2 OTHERS Resistance 5 ATM and IP68 Optical heart rate and blood oxygen sensor Compass Barometer Stainless steel case PRICE 299 euros OPPO Watch The price could vary. We earn commission from these links OPPO Watch X2 Mini, our experience Design: classic and with exaggerated frames. The watch is quite small for a large wrist like mine. Even so, it does not give a reduced experience, quite the contrary: OPPO has made an effort to maximize the X2 Mini in all aspects. From its excellent stainless steel case to the hardware that beats under the 1.32-inch round screen. The watch is mini, the front shows it. Even so, the frames are thick: around 5 mm. It includes two control buttons that are enough to control anything that is beyond touch. And the back side maintains the heart sensors and a POGO connector for charging. The alignment with the charger is magnetic and said charger has a USB-C port. This way the cable, which also comes in the box, is not damaged. The OPPO Watch X2 Mini seems like the perfect watch for those looking for a complete smartwatch without feeling like they are lifting weights every time they raise their arm. He’s small, but he’s tough. And with a detail: the strap pin is the standard 18 mm. Finding compatible straps is as simple as it is cheap. Blood oxygen saturation measurement The screen shines with its own light. OPPO mounts an OLED panel that is perfectly visible outdoors, even training in sunlight. The brightness is automatic and adapts without problems to the light conditions. It is compatible with Always On, with what that entails: battery life is reduced in that mode. The screen has smoothed edges so that the edges do not interfere with gestures. It is tactile and is protected with hardened glass: I did not scratch it during the weeks of testing (miracle). The watch includes a good number of watch faces, supports video watchfaces, and is compatible with the thousands of Wear OS on Google Play. It’s impossible to get bored. Two is much more than double. When I tested the OnePlus Watch 2 I marveled at the idea of ​​including a dual processor and dual operating system. After the evolution, the OPPO Watch For me it is the way to go in Wear OS. Smartwatch and activity bracelet chip; with software that maintains this duality: Wear OS when the watch uses apps and RTOS for the rest of the tasks. The result is an experience out of ten: the X2 Watch Mini 2 switches between the SoC and soft tandem without the user noticing anything. I have not seen it slow, the jump between sports activities is fast, the registrations are accurate, it has access to Google Play and there are no problems with NFC payments. OPPO has the recipe for the best smartwatch and knows how to cook it perfectly in the Watch X2 Mini. What do smartwatch manufacturers have against mountain biking? A good watch for amateur athletes. Although I play sports every day (or try to), I do not consider myself an athlete. Yes, I like to keep track of all the training sessions to see the evolution. I use a Garmin Epix 2 and it’s fantastic for me. Well: the OPPO Watch X2 Mini is not far behind. I have tested the watch running, walking, high intensity routines, strength training and mountain bike rides. The results have been good for a general purpose smartwatch: It supports more than 100 sports training modes. Too bad the mountain bike is not available (neither is the padel, sorry). Heart rate tracking is sufficiently accurate at low and medium heart rate. Above 150-160 I have seen a margin of error of up to 40 keystrokes. Everything compared to a chest strap connected to the Garmin. Above, OPPO Watch X2 Mini; Below, chest strap connected to Garmin. The OPPO does not register variations or very high heart rates as well. Same exercise: 6.08 km run Related to the previous point, the Watch X2 Mini follows pulse variations as long as they are not triggered by high-intensity interval exercise. In outdoor distance measurements, the positioning system remains at a very good level: the margin of error of the routes is around 50 meters per kilometer. Very quick positioning before the start of practice: less than ten seconds is usually enough. The track record has some saw teeth and may not follow the paths on the map 100% accurately. In terms of total distances, the overall result is decent. Left, Garmin GPS; right, Vivo GPS. About mountain biking practice The personal trainer is suitable for practice, the watch looks great outdoors and withstands harsh weather conditions. Also sweat. Recording height is also suitable: use the … Read more

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