Mobile Tech & Gadgets Archives - Page 52 of 1532

Elon Musk is going to turn 4,000 workers into millionaires and himself into a billionaire thanks to one thing: SpaceX

June 12, 2026 by usatoday24

Trevor Hise was 22 years old when he graduated and, as is often the case, his parents begged him to accept a stable, well-paying position at General Electric. However, led by the passion of youth and curiosity, he preferred to dedicate the next 12 years of his professional career to the madness of launch rockets into space and catch them in flight again on their return to earth. The company was called SpaceX and Hise no longer works there. However, as how did he count The New York TimesHise has discovered that the Space The story of this former employee of Elon Musk could seem like one of those caroms that life sometimes gives. But, broadly speaking, it is the story of thousands of people who are going to wake up tomorrow with a fortune in your stock portfolio after Space X’s IPO. The largest IPO in history. Friday, June 12, 2026 has been marked in red on the calendars of thousands of investors for months: SpaceX debuts on the Nasdaq under the symbol SPCX. The company’s maneuvers in the months prior to its listing on the stock market make its figures be the most ambitious ever recorded in a stock market IPO: a fixed price of $135 per share and 555.6 million securities placed to raise $75 billion. It is almost three times higher than the previous record held Saudi Aramco since 2019. The expectation it has raised is no wonder, since the company founded by Elon Musk stands on three of the legs with the greatest growth projection: artificial intelligence with xAI integrationspace race as the main activity of Space X and communications deployment via satellite with Starlink. The total valuation of the company before its IPO reaches 1.77 trillion dollarsa figure that places it above JPMorgan, Berkshire Hathaway, Meta and Tesla itself. Only six S&P 500 companies are valued above Space NVIDIA in the lead with 5.2 billion. More than 4,000 people about to become millionaires. According to published Fortunemore than 4,400 Space X employees and former employees will become millionaires thanks to the company’s stock market debut. Of that group, some 400 employees and managers will earn more than $100 million or more from the operation. The fact of turning its employees into millionaires is another of the peculiarities of this IPO since, as Andrew Benson, executive director of the platform, recognized Hill.com investments to the American media, “you usually only see founders become billionaires.” The company included participations in the compensation packages of welders, cooks and facility technicians who agreed to collect part of their salary on paper. It was a risky bet on their part because those shares could have remained a dead letter, but trust in the company will bring them a juicy reward. Gavin Petit joined in 2012 as a launch engineer with a salary of $80,000 and received shares valued at $13.80 each at the time. The engineer agreed to collect his bonuses in more shares year after year, something considered risky in a company whose rockets were still failing. Now more than 50,000 shares, which are equivalent to about 6.75 million dollars. Those who endured Among the great beneficiaries of this Initial Public Offering is Gwynne Shotwellpresident and chief operating officer of SpaceX. She was employee number 11 when she joined the company in 2002, leaving a stable job to bet on a startup that then had everything to prove. The board accumulates almost 12.6 million shares, according to the documents presented before the SEC, which at IPO price represents a fortune of about 1.7 billion dollars. Shotwell herself recognized to CNBC that for years it was not clear that they would go public: “Now seems like the right time.” As and as you remember Expansionthe IPO will also generously reward those investors who have provided financial support to the company since its inception, as is the case with Peter Thiel o Luke Nosek, co-founders of PayPal and members of the group known as “PayPal Mafia“. The first billionaire in history. According to official data According to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Elon Musk owns approximately 42% of SpaceX shares. That’s about 4.8 billion shares, plus hundreds of millions of additional stock options. At the IPO price, that stake alone is around $688 billion. Adding that figure to his stake in Tesla and the rest of his businesses, Forbes esteem and his fortune at $982.3 billion before the stock market debut, which leaves him just a breath away from crossing $1 trillion, a milestone that no one has reached before. To gauge the magnitude of this figure, his personal fortune already exceeds the capitalization of ExxonMobil and rivals that of Berkshire Hathaway. Although, as Musk himself has pointed out on more than one occasion, almost all of that money They are stocks, not cash.. A number on a screen that goes up and down according to the market. In Xataka | The who’s who of SpaceX’s competitors: which other companies are making a big splash in space Image | Flickr (Gage Skidmore), SpaceX

What science says about mixing CrossFit, Hyrox and running to get you ‘clubs’

June 12, 2026 by usatoday24

Traditional weight rooms are changing, and where previously routines divided by muscle groups and the atrocious fear of doing cardio because it “destroys the muscle” reigned, today we have a hybrid training that aims to prevail among all gym lovers. New trend. Disciplines like CrossFitthe explosion of events like Hyrox and the fashion of combining heavy weight lifting with running They have created the figure of the total athlete who leaves nothing aside. But, beyond the marketing that this sports strategy may have, what really happens to our body when we try to be the strongest and the fastest at the same time? A myth. For years, a thought that has been on the minds of many athletes is that running has an “interference effect” with their bodybuilding routines. The reasoning here was that resistance training such as cardio sent molecular signals opposite to strength training, limiting muscle hypertrophy, which is what is sought in the gym. But now there are many nuances about it. For example, an analysis published in 2024 analyzed 59 studies with more than 1,300 participants and pointed out that in women, combining strength and cardio does not produce any interference significant in leg strength. In the case of men, there is a small interference in the development of lower body strength when mixing both modalities, but minimal. That is, it does not justify leaving it aside if we want to improve our health as a priority over hypertrophy. What is the best training? As we have mentioned, hybrid training groups traditional strength exercises with cardiovascular training, such as running on a treadmill. But the reality is that there are many options available, such as Hyrox or CrossFit, and each one has its own peculiarities. Hyrox. A hybrid training that combines 8 kilometers of running interspersed with 8 bodybuilding routines and is often defined as the definitive hybrid test. But here a study from 2025 pointed out that the aerobic factor is the undisputed kingthat is, Hyrox considerably increases people’s aerobic capacity and this is essential to determine the quality of life in old age, since, in addition to cardiorespiratory improvement, it also makes oxidative metabolism more efficient and muscular endurance. Contrary to what many believe when seeing heavy sleds, maximum strength is not a key predictor of success in this competition, but rather it is a systems sport where the entire body is mobilized and makes our cardiovascular system play a leading role. CrossFit. This presents a better metabolic profile, since, by addressing 10 different physical domains, it is postulated as a more complete but less specialized discipline. Here the science indicates that CrossFit dramatically improves cardiorespiratory fitnessoxidative metabolism and muscle resistance. But in addition to all this, it also stands out for the high levels of motivation and adherence thanks to the community component that it has associated. How to do it. If we want to join the hybrid fever, how do we prevent cardio from eating into our strength gains? Here the key seems not to be in stopping training, but in programming each of the steps we take in the gym, since the interference depends directly on the modality, frequency and duration of aerobic exercise. For example, running interferes much more with leg strength than cycling, due to the eccentric muscle damage caused by the stride. One of the most important points here is that, if we want to improve strength over cardiovascular endurance, the best always is to do strength exercises first before starting to run on a treadmill in order to have greater strength gains. When to start. If you want to join this combined exercise fever, the reality is that there is nothing that can stop a person as long as they do not have an injury or a doctor’s recommendation not to do high-intensity exercise. It is true that on the first occasions it may be interesting to go to a personal trainer or a gym where they also have specialists who can develop the best hybrid training plan. And, although this modality is not going to take us to a bodybuilding platform, it does prepare our body for any situation and above all for a much higher quality old age. Images | Alora Griffiths In Xataka | The 11 best apps for exercising at home

It seemed impossible to surpass Qatar as the worst organizer in the history of the World Cups. The US is getting it

June 12, 2026 by usatoday24

Can a democratic country offer a starker image than an authoritarian one when organizing a sporting event? The United States seems to be searching for the limits. With the connivance of FIFA, of course, which in recent years has awarded its most media and important sporting event to Russia and Qatar and which will repeat in this series of controversial awards with Saudi Arabia. And it has found in the United States a country that has stepped on the accelerator to catch up with what we consider authoritarian regimes. It is true that the World Cup has been used as a weapon of sportwashing since long before we knew what this meant. This has always implied a certain opening of the most reactionary policies during the time the event lasted to offer a friendlier image to the outside world. That is why it is even more surprising that the United States has barely made concessions in its way of doing politics. The competition hasn’t started yet and we already have a referee who has had to return home, public searches of players as if they were terrorists. A team that has tried to be expelled. And the constant threat towards its own citizens. Welcome to the 2026 Soccer World Cup. The World Cup in Canada, Mexico… and the United States. Hold my cubata, Qatar Standing on the shoulders and cheered by thousands of people in a packed stadium. The images of Omar Artan received as a national hero They surprise. They are surprising because Omar Artan is a referee. And I don’t think a referee has ever received such a welcome back to his country. The reason: being rejected by the United States. And Artan, a Somali, will not referee in the 2026 World Cup because one of the host countries He has not let him cross the border. The United States prohibits entry to citizens of Somalia. And he has made no exception with Omar Artan, who was going to be the first referee from his country to officiate a World Cup match and one in which, according to The CountryFIFA’s director of refereeing, the Italian Pierluigi Collina, had high hopes. The reason for the rejection?: “Concerns in the background check.” There are no more details. There are no more reasons. With those words the United States Customs and Border Protection Service (CBP) has settled the matter. Although it has been known that FIFA has tried to mediate in the matter, the organization has only issued a weak statement in which it points out that they do not have any type of influence on the migration policies of the host countries. The Artan case is the latest in a list of controversial decisions that continues to grow. In March, Donald Trump tried to intimidate the Iranian team football team, assuring that their safety could not be guaranteed if they went to the United States. Iran’s first two games are being played in Los Angeles and the third in Seattle, and the United States has toyed with the idea of banning players from entering, citing national security risks. In April it was put on the table that it was Italy, out of the World Cup for the third consecutive time, which Iranian will take over but it was rejected by FIFA. In May, Donald Trump assured that he would allow the Iranian team to enter in statements in which he assured that Gianni Infantinopresident of FIFA who has been very close to the president of the United States until now, would have given him carte blanche to accept or not the Middle Eastern team. Finally, Iran will play in the United States. Yes, but his players will have to concentrate in Mexico, 15 members of the delegation have been rejected and Their fans will not be able to go to the stadium. Click on the image to go to the original tweet Click on the image to go to the original tweet Obviously, Iran is the most striking case but by no means the only one. According to BBCmore than 25% of the countries participating in the World Cup have border restrictions with the hosts. This has led to intense searches of the Uzbekistan and Senegal teams in which metal detectors, dogs and controls on the airport runway itself have been used before giving them the go-ahead. From the official account of the Senegalese team on X They assure that this procedure was carried out on the airport runway to speed up airport control procedures. However, the country’s own soccer federation indicated a few months ago that They would not send fans to the United States on an official trip because the applications had been rejected. Entering the United States is increasingly complicated for a greater number of travelers. Since 2016 to the Spanish It is not possible for us to travel to the United States without a visa if we have previously visited Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Sudan, Syria, Libya, Somalia and Yemen since 2011. And from 2023 the same thing happens with Cuba if we have passed through the island in the last five years. These types of measures are those that on other occasions have been omitted in favor of give some sense of normality in sporting events that take place in authoritarian countries. In Spain we know well how the whitening of authoritarian regimes through sport works, How to bring the Spanish Super Cup to Saudi Arabia and even defend the regime and equate it with Spain, like Xavi Hernández did as coach of FC Barcelona in 2023. FIFA will take the 2034 World Cup to Saudi Arabia, with the approval of FIFA, which created an adhoc competition for the country to win the award and overlooked any risk of attacks on human rights to the point that the candidacy has been the best score in history in a selective process. Some human rights which they also seem to want to omit with the United … Read more

TSMC is on the ropes and its biggest problem is not competition: it is water

June 12, 2026 by usatoday24

CC Wei, the president and CEO of TSMC, has just participated in the inauguration of the Pingtung technology park, southern Taiwan. The ceremony was held under very intense rain, and the head of the largest chip manufacturing company of the planet has celebrated it publicly: “Last month I was still wondering: what should we do with the water? Should we start using tankers?” Wei has compelling reasons to be concerned about water. In Taiwan it is a very scarce resource, and it is also essential for its semiconductor factories. The integrated circuit production industry faces five major shortages: water, energy, labor, land and talent. And water is probably the most precious resource of all and the most difficult challenge to overcome. Lai Ching-te, the president of Taiwan, has communicated CC Wei the Government’s plans to connect the island’s reservoirs together in a clear attempt to alleviate this problem. The water we are familiar with, such as that which comes from the tap, spring water, and even bottled mineral water, is full of impurities. It contains bacteria, dissolved gases, mineral salts and microscopic particles in suspension. This is not a problem for most of the everyday applications for which we usually use it, but this water is not suitable for making chips. Even the smallest impurity invisible to the human eye is pure poison when involved in the production of cutting-edge semiconductors, such as 2nm integrated circuits which are currently being manufactured by TSMC, Intel and Samsung. Droughts are the biggest threat to TSMC The integrated circuit manufacturing process requires cleaning silicon wafers dozens of times. Every time a geometric pattern is transferred to wafers using lithography, they need to be cleaned. Also after pouring chemical reagents and photoresist fluids on them. However, the water used to remove any residue that may have deposited on the wafer cannot have the slightest impurity. It must be absolutely pure. In fact, the industry standard calls for water with an electrical resistivity of 18.2 megaohms per centimeter, which is the theoretical limit of water purity at room temperature. The problem is that producing ultrapure water is not easy. And it is not because it is necessary to subject it to reverse osmosis in multiple stages and ion exchange treatments. It is also necessary to degas it under vacuum, eliminate any microorganisms that it can contain with ultraviolet light and filter it using membranes expressly designed to capture the slightest impurity. In this article we do not need to delve into these processes, but there is something that we cannot ignore: this treatment consumes energy and requires the use of a large amount of chemicals. Furthermore, a significant part of the water that is processed is not transformed into ultrapure water, so it cannot be used. In 2021 Taiwan faced the most aggressive drought in recent decades In 2021 Taiwan faced the most aggressive drought in recent decades. The reservoirs that supply the north of the island, which is the region where most of the integrated circuit manufacturing plants are located, reached a critical level. This scenario forced the Government to suspend agricultural irrigation in order to protect industrial supply. Even so, TSMC had to resort to tanker trucks to transport water from other areas of the island. This crisis passed, but it exposed a structural vulnerability of an industry that is deeply sensitive to extreme climate phenomena and for which water is as valuable as silicon or some rare earth elements. At the moment TSMC reuses 85% of water that it consumes in its processes, but its plants require so much water daily that the 15% that cannot be reused continues to be a very large amount. Paradoxically, some of the most important chip factories in the US reside in Arizona, which is the second driest state in the country only behind Nevada. Both Intel and TSMC have state-of-the-art plants in this region, and Samsung manages several state-of-the-art factories in Texas, another state where water is not exactly plentiful. Besides, Intel has several very important plants in Israelagain a country for which water is a scarce resource, and, therefore, of great strategic value. The choice of these locations responds to geostrategic and geopolitical factors, and not to planning that prioritizes sustainability. In addition, there is another unappealable reality that further complicates this panorama: the most advanced integrated circuit manufacturing nodes. consume more ultrapure water than mature nodes. A 3nm chip from TSMC goes through more than 1,000 individual stages, and many of them require washing with ultrapure water As transistors become smaller and chips become more sophisticated, the number of stages required for their production process is higher, making it necessary to clean the wafers with ultrapure water more times. A 3nm semiconductor from TSMC goes through more than 1,000 individual stages, many of which require washing with ultrapure water. 2nm chips are even more demanding, and those that will arrive in the future will surely multiply water consumption. The problem faced by TSMC, Intel, Samsung, SK Hynix, Micron, GlobalFoundries and other semiconductor manufacturers is daunting. These companies are developing solutions, but at the moment they are not enough. TSMC, Samsung and Intel have very advanced water recycling and reuse programs. In addition, these companies are developing dry cleaning systems for wafers using reactive plasmas instead of water for use in some steps. And they are even looking for new materials for the ultrapure water distribution pipes with the purpose of minimizing losses in the circulation system. The problem is that these solutions do not eliminate the deep dependence that chip factories have on water. The definitive solution has not yet arrived. And it is urgent. It is very urgent. Image | TSMC More information | Reuters In Xataka | ChatGPT blocking mode: what it is, what it is for, who can use it and how to activate it In Xataka | AI is replacing one of the most hated jobs in the world: the tailcoat collector

China will build the world’s largest AI network with its own chips, although they are not enough

June 12, 2026 by usatoday24

The Chinese Government is launching a project that seeks to invest $295 billion in five years in the deployment of a national network of data centers of artificial intelligence (AI). In the current scenario of confrontation in the technological field between the US and China, this plan is not surprising at all. However, we cannot ignore the fine print: at least 80% of the underlying technology, including AI chips, must come from domestic suppliers, such as Huawei or Cambricon. Early October 2024 the Administration sent Chinese AI companies were given a recommendation asking them to use chips produced in China as much as possible. Ten months later, this recommendation became a requirement. The Chinese government forced state-owned data centers across the country to use at least 50% Chinese integrated circuits in their servers. Now, as we have just seen, this figure rises to 80%. Be that as it may, this scenario clearly favors three companies: Huawei, Cambricon and Moore Threads. Nvidia and AMD no longer count for China Huawei invests more than 25 billion dollars annually in developing your hardware for AIso presumably it will not take long to match the performance of the GPUs produced by Nvidia or AMD. However, this company faces an enormous challenge that will probably prevent it from meeting the demand for AI chips from the Chinese market in the short term. In mid-June 2025 Jeffrey Kessler, the Under Secretary of Commerce for Industry and Security at the US Department of Commerce, made this statement in Congress: “Our assessment indicates that Huawei’s Ascend chip production capacity by 2025 will be 200,000 units or less, and we anticipate that most or all of that production will be delivered to companies within China.” This limitation has a specific technical basis: yield per wafer The integration technologies used by the Chinese semiconductor manufacturer SMIC to produce Huawei or Cambricon chips have a very wide room for improvement. The per-wafer performance of SMIC integration technologies has a very large room for improvement SMIC already has the capacity to manufacture 6nm integrated circuits, and will soon also be able to produce 5nm semiconductors, but is limited by the performance of the deep ultraviolet lithography equipment (UVP) that you have in your possession. It is commendable that SMIC and Huawei engineers have managed to refine their integrated circuit manufacturing processes enough to be able to produce 5, 6 and 7 nm chips with ASML’s UVP equipment, but a priori it is very unlikely that with these machines they will be able to go beyond 3 nm. And it is because the technique of multiple patterningwhich is what they are using, imposes important limitations. A note: this strategy broadly consists of transferring the pattern to the wafer in several passes with the purpose of increase resolution of the lithographic process. Its problem is that it usually has an upward impact on the cost of chips and a downward impact on production capacity. For Huawei, it is a big problem not to have the necessary technology to produce cutting-edge semiconductors comparable to those manufactured by Intel, TSMC or Samsung, which is why it is working on the development of its own equipment. extreme ultraviolet photolithography (EUV). This scenario has caused the Chinese semiconductor industry to question whether national hardware can maintain the pace demanded by the Government. SMIC co-CEO Zhao Haijun has warned that this hasty addition of capacity can leave data centers idlecomparing this situation to building highways before there is traffic. In addition, several Chinese executives in the chip sector have recognized separately that his country is five to ten years behind in the cutting edge in silicon for AI data centers. In the current situation, the decision has its logic. Another thing is whether China can comply with it. Image | Cambricon Technologies More information | Tom’s Hardware In Xataka | NVIDIA has to deal with the absolute distrust of several US legislators. Your plan in China is in danger In Xataka | The US wants to end Chinese AI chips sold abroad. And China knows how to defend itself

The Trump Mobile T1 wanted to be the quintessential American mobile. It has turned out to be an absolutely Chinese mobile

June 12, 2026 by usatoday24

Donald Trump was determined that Apple will build the iPhone in the United States and he managed to get them to take steps in that direction, but it soon became clear that the 100% American iPhone was a utopia. Things didn’t go as planned, so he did something very Trump: announce its own smartphone made in the USA. After almost a year since its announcement, the Trump Mobile T1 is already has reached the hands of several analysts and the conclusion is that nothing American. The mobile phone is an old acquaintance and It is mostly made in China. An HTC U24 Pro with a coat of paint It is the summary of what they have discovered after analyzing it in detail in iFixit. The mobile phone that promised to be 100% manufactured in the United States is an almost carbon copy of the HTC U24 Prowith the main difference that its back cover is gold and has the American flag engraved with the text ‘Trump Mobile’. The differences come down to color, the camera module and little else There are other cosmetic changes, such as the speaker grill having a different pattern and the camera module having a different design, with an oval piece encompassing the three lenses (which by the way is completely misaligned in the photos on the official website). At the specifications level, the only change is that the battery is a little larger than in the original HTC, but it loses the 60W fast charge and is left with only 30W. At the internal design level, iFixit says that matches point by point with the original HTC model: same component layout, same motherboard and same screen. In terms of specifications, the HTC U24 Pro was launched in summer 2024, so it does not have the most cutting-edge features. We are talking about a Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 chip, 12GB of RAM, 512GB of capacity and a 6.78-inch screen (although the Trump Mobile website says it is 6.8 inches). Made in China, assembled in the USA (or almost) First of all, it should be noted that the mobile was announced as “designed and built in the United States”, but In January of this year they lowered the promise by others like “designed with American values in mind” or “proudly assembled in the USA.” This already gave clues of what was to come and the iFixit breakdown confirms it: it is very little American. In 2017, HTC sold a large part of its smartphone division to Googleabandoning frontline manufacturing. Since then, HTC has turned to Chinese ODMs to be able to manufacture and assemble its phones. Although they have not confirmed it directly, according to The Verge investigation Everything indicates that the HTC U24 Pro is manufactured in Guangdong Yuanchang Electronics, located in (surprise) Guangdong, China. According to Trump Mobile, the device is assembled in Miami, Florida. Specifically, they say the phone is assembled from “about ten pieces,” which is just enough for the FTC to allow them to use the label. ‘assembled in the USA’. To achieve ‘made in USA’ status that Trump so desired, the FCT is much stricter and requires that “all significant processing” and “all or substantially all” components be manufactured in the United States. Image | Xataka with Magnific In Xataka | In its quest to manufacture the iPhone at home, the US has achieved something historic: that the majority of its smartphones come from India

We sensed that there were areas in Spain where longevity was greater. A map has just confirmed where the “Holy Land” is

June 12, 2026 by usatoday24

The year before the new millennium entered, the Belgian demographer Michel Poulain arrived in a small town in Sardinia looking for a statistical error: too many male centenarians to be credible. What he found there would end up giving rise to the concept of the “Blue Zones”the regions of the world where living for more than a hundred years is not a rarity, but almost a custom. Now, the same researcher claims to have found something similar much closer: in Spain. The map that confirms an old intuition. For years there was a suspicion almost intuitive in Spain: there were territories where people not only lived longer, but also aged better. Now a map has made it black on white. The demographer Michel Poulainwho, as we said, is one of the world’s great experts in longevity and creator of the modern concept of the Blue Zoneshas applied its extreme longevity index to the Spanish territory and the result draws a very clear pattern: The north and part of the interior have a probability of reaching 100 years that is up to three times higher than that of the south. It is not a cultural perception or a family anecdote. It’s demographic statistics. Where is the Spanish corridor. The map pinpoints a species privileged belt. Navarra, La Rioja, Soria, Guadalajara and Segovia top the classification, followed by other areas of Castilla y León, Catalonia, Álava and a good part of the northwest of the peninsula. In it opposite end appear Seville, Cádiz and Málaga, where the possibility of reaching a centenary falls very noticeably. The big surprise is not only the gap, but its magnitude: tripling the odds within the same country, with the same health system and political framework, forces us to look beyond genetics. We no longer talk about “blue zones.” The finding also changes the way we study aging. For years the dominant model was that of the Blue Zonesthose iconic places like Sardinia, Okinawa or Icaria where centenarians accumulate. But Poulain believes that model has fallen short. Now science speaks of “longevity corridors”: large areas where the combination of social, environmental, health and cultural factors generates a favorable ecosystem for living longer and better. Spain, and especially its northern halfone of those European corridors begins to emerge. It’s not magic, it’s lifestyle. The key, researchers insistit is not in a miracle recipe or a hidden superfood. Eating meaningfully, moving naturally, sleeping well, avoiding chronic stress, maintaining strong family ties, living connected to nature, and having purpose in life appear again and again as common patterns. They are simple habits, but sustained for decades. And therein lies the real lesson: longevity is not manufactured at 70, it is built from childhood. That is why experts insist so much on prevention and early education. The invisible factor. There is more, since one of the elements that is most repeated in these territories is something that rarely appears in an analysis: the social network. It talks about having support, not feeling alone, maintaining family and community ties, in short, continuing to be useful to others. That human tissue seems to act like silent protection against physical and mental deterioration. In many of these provinces, especially rural ones, there continues to be a denser social structure than in large cities. And that could be as important as diet or exercise. The great warning. Last but not least, there is a clear warning. The researchers they warn that these corridors are not eternal. Changes in diet, sedentary lifestyle, accelerated urbanization, loss of community and social isolation are eroding precisely the factors that made them possible. In other words, healthy longevity can be lost in a single generation if the environment changes. That is why the great objective now is not to admire centenarians as a rarity, but to study how they have gotten there to replicate those conditions. Because the map not only tells where you live most. It also points out perhaps something more important: where a way of living that the rest of the country is losing is still preserved. Image | Pexels,ELI, Adam Jones In Xataka | They don’t bring suitcases, they bring medical records: how Spain has become the new European mecca of longevity In Xataka | Putin has become obsessed with eternal life. And that’s why he has scientists experimenting with organs in pigs

Today Steve Ballmer is richer than Gates

June 12, 2026 by usatoday24

If one thing has become clear in Bill Gates’ 50-year professional career, it is that he has good nose for businessalthough sometimes he has failed in his decisions. This has led him to remain for almost four decades in the top 10 of the greatest fortunes. In his biographical book ‘Source code: My beginnings‘, the millionaire remembers what his biggest bet was: sign Steve Ballmer and offer you a good piece of the Microsoft pie. United through the halls of Harvard Bill Gates recalled in his book his years as a student at Harvard University in the fall of 1976, where the millionaire forged a close friendship with someone who, two decades He would later replace him at the helm of Microsoft. Gates met Ballmer through a mutual friend in a Harvard graduate economics class. “Steve looks a lot like you,” his friend told him. Unlike the rest of the mathematics students, Gates was impressed with the personality of his new friend. “Steve had incredible energy and a unique ability to motivate people,” Gates has written. I didn’t know it then, but that combination of skills made Ballmer the ideal candidate to help transform Microsoft from a small startup to a global corporation. In those years, Ballmer was already pointing out ways in the direction of sports. He was responsible for the university’s football team, oversaw advertising for its student newspaper, and was president of Harvard’s literary magazine. Gates describes in his book how he remembered attending a football game and seeing Ballmer “expend as much energy walking back and forth and jumping up and down the side of the field” as any of the players who were playing. Both companions they connected quickly and they became inseparable, chatting about the future, the power of business and how to revolutionize the world. Of course, among their big plans, they developed their particular strategy for success: skipping economics classes, and hurriedly studying at the last minute just before taking the exam…and passing it “triumphantly.” The millionaire says in his biography that the charismatic Ballmer was responsible for expanding Gates’ social circle during his time at Harvard, and introduces Bill Gates to the Fox Club. As the millionaire describes in his book, this club was known for its “black tie parties, secret handshakes, and other archaic rules and rituals,” which the Microsoft founder would have avoided if it weren’t for his effusive friend Ballmer. Steve, come to Microsoft In 1980, Bill Gates made a decision that would change the course of Microsoft and the technology industry. Gates needed a strategist, a partner who could handle the sales department to sell the product, while he focused on the technology. This is where Gates recalled Ballmer’s good social skills. In principle, the young founders of Microsoft were willing to offer up to 5% of the shares of their new company to recruit Steve Ballmer as a director. Finally, and thanks to Ballmer’s undeniable negotiating talent, Gates ended up agreeing to give him the 8.75% of Microsoft shares. Gates reflected on this decision years later: “Giving Steve those shares was one of the best decisions I ever made.” Microsoft’s success in the decades that followed demonstrated the wisdom of this choice, cementing the company’s position as a leader in the technology industry. The founder of Microsoft recognized the importance of having someone like Ballmer, who had a business vision complementary to his. “We needed someone who could help us grow as a business,” Gates explained in his memoirs. This decision demonstrated Gates’ long-term vision and willingness to sacrifice immediate gains for greater future benefit. The incorporation of Ballmer had a profound effect on the trajectory of Microsoft, beyond showing signs of the energy that conquered Gates. sweating his shirt on stageor doing for Gates to lose his shame in order to increase your sales. Ballmer’s years of leadership at the head of Microsoft cannot be considered the most brilliant of the company, which did not know how to rise to the top. mobile phone train. Ballmer returned to his passion After leave the world of technology and with 8.75% of the shares of a Microsoft catapulted to the financial success thanks to Satya NadellaSteve Ballmer has been able to dedicate himself body and soul to his passion: basketball. Bought the equipment of the NBA Los Angeles Clippers and that has led him to become the eleventh largest fortune in the world according to the Forbes millionaires list. Steve Ballmer has a net worth of 121.3 billion dollars, surpassing in wealth to his friend and mentor Bill Gates. In Xataka | Bill Gates earned $5.545 billion sleeping. This is what it means to have a fortune of 130,000 million Image | Flickr (Wired Photostream, World Bank Photo Collection)

$200 a month gives access to $14,000 in tokens

June 12, 2026 by usatoday24

Most of those who pay to use AI models do so with subscriptions. They take advantage of platforms like ChatGPT Plus either Claude Pro and with them they access an all-you-can-eat buffet that at first seems quite generous. Those who are in this modality surely have divided opinions: some will say that they immediately cross the limits and others that they almost never cross them. They are both right. Bargain subscriptions. The prestigious SemiAnalysis has carried out an investigation most curious. They signed up for Anthropic and OpenAI subscription plans and then tried to get the most out of them. The question they wanted to answer was simple: are they really profitable, or is it better to pay per use with the API? His conclusion is forceful: these subscriptions are an absolute bargain… if used well. You pay 200 dollars in tokens, they give you 14,000. SemiAnalysis research took advantage of these subscription plans to execute complex programming tasks that also extended over time to exhaust the weekly usage limits of each account. Popular belief is that these plans have a consumption limit of about $2,000 (costing $200). However, their tests showed that Anthropic’s plan allowed them to consume $8,000 per month in API tokens. In the case of OpenAI, things were even better: they managed to consume the equivalent of $14,000 worth of tokens per month. The savings are simply amazing and make one thing clear: if you make the most of your subscription, it is almost a free gift. The all-you-can-eat buffet trap. The figures make it clear that OpenAI and Anthropic are using the same model of business than that of gyms or free food buffets: users who do not go or eat little finance those who do not stop going and put on their boots. The technology companies are taking huge losses with the power users of AI that do not stop using these plans with autonomous agents that squeeze them. Risk. But that group is balanced by many subscribers who pay the flat rate but only ask a handful of fairly simple questions each day. According to analyst Ed Zitron, that’s dangerous: it is enough for 25% of users to decide to squeeze those usage rates for the profit margins of these companies to be negative. Price drop in sight. Coinciding with the study, in The Wall Street Journal they indicated this week how OpenAI is considering entering a price war by lowering the prices of its subscriptions. It could thus anticipate Anthropic—which could do the same—but for experts that could end badly. Gary Marcus explained that OpenAI is already surviving by creating hypeand a decision like that could go very badly for them. The Ghost of DeepSeek. This hypothetical price war could also be motivated by the costs of Chinese models such as DeepSeek, which offers much of the capacity of GPT or Claude, but at a much lower cost. Opposite that, of course, are the APIs that allow payment per use and that both Anthropic and OpenAI are increasingly forcing. These APIs impose a surcharge of between 40x and 70x the price of the subscription tokens according to some experts. Agents against subscription plans. What is threatening the future of these subscription plans are AI agents that are capable of completing complex tasks autonomously and in long sessions. These agents “burn” millions of tokens quickly, which is why both OpenAI and Anthropic limit (or ban) the use of their subscriptions to use them for example in OpenClaw. Amjad Masad, CEO of Replit, believe that the subscription tap will soon be closed in the face of these costs triggered by agentic AI. “Intelligence” keeps getting cheaper. But in the face of all those realities that seem to threaten the end of AI subscriptions, there is a factor that can contribute to their survival. As they point out in SemiAnalysisthe market laws themselves are confirming that generating tokens is increasingly cheaper. Efficiency improves and the costs of producing tokens decrease, and they could do so at such a pace that in the end access to AI remains profitable for these free buffets. Companies are subsidizing AI for us. All this leads to think that in many cases AI companies are subsidizing the use of their models. They do it by taking advantage of that scheme that only a few really take advantage of the subscription plans. The question is, of course, whether this situation has an expiration date. In Xataka | Anthropic is at the most important moment in its history and has a warning: we must lift the AI accelerator

that’s why it’s back to science fiction

June 12, 2026 by usatoday24

Steven Spielberg has been using science fiction for almost fifty years as a reflection of the concerns of American fears (that is, planetary, because pop culture works the way it does). In 1977 he captured the post-Vietnam spiritual void with aliens coming in peace. In 2005, he processed 9/11 with aggressive invaders. ‘The Day of Revelation’ has some ingredients similar to all of them, although perhaps for the first time in his career, reality has gotten ahead of him. The constant. Of the 37 films Steven Spielberg has directed, about a quarter are fantasy or, more specifically, science fiction. And of them, six include aliens in their plots. Let’s review some of the most relevant ones: Encounters in the third phase (1977): Two years after the end of the Vietnam War. The United States saw the moral authority of its institutions plummet. Spielberg gave the public some hope with a film in which contact with the unknown did not end in war but in amazement: the aliens came in peace and the protagonist followed them into space. Decades later, the Library of Congress included the film in its archives as being “culturally, historically and aesthetically significant.” ET the exterrestrial (1982): In the midst of the Reagan era, political discourse insisted on rebuilding the nuclear family as a central value of society. Spielberg put a broken family at the center of his film, with a mother raising her children alone after a divorce, and offered as reparation for domestic trauma the most unlikely friendship: a child and an alien. ‘ET’ claimed that solutions had to be found to heal a fractured society. As Spielberg himself has said, “My favorite science fiction is based on terrestrial problems”. ‘War of the worlds’ (2005): Spielberg once said of the 9/11 attacks that “the image that I can’t get out of my head It is that of all the people of Manhattan fleeing over the George Washington Bridge.” It is perfectly perceived in a film that is pure panic, nothing rooted in a specific policy, since as screenwriter David Koepp said in his day, it also functioned as an allegory of Iraqi fear of an American invasion. Koepp also signed ‘Jurassic Park’, the film that showed us the only good billionaire, and now he returns with ‘The Day of Revelation’. And even if it is outside the topic of invasions and dealing with social aspects that are not so clearly politicized, it is inevitable to remember science fiction films like ‘AI, Artificial Intelligence’where many first discovered the fashion acronym; ‘Minority Reportas a bridge between the paranoia of the fifties and the era of hypervigilance we live in now; and in a more (sadly) banal tone, ‘Ready Player One’about The Video Game and its implications. The secrets are over. In December 2017, The New York Times published a report about AATIP, the Pentagon’s secret program to investigate anomalous aerial phenomena with a budget of 22 million dollars. The report described objects that moved in ways that defied known engineering. That journalistic piece, according to Spielberg, restored his interest in the alien topic. In the summer of 2023 he spent two months writing a 50-60 page synopsis of what would happen the day that information became public. The project was officially announced in April 2024. The year when reality did not waitOn May 8, 2026, five weeks before the premiere of ‘Revelation Day’, the Trump administration ordered the publication of the first 162 declassified files on UAPsincluding diplomatic cables, FBI reports, NASA transcripts and graphic material, all accessible without prior authorization on the war.gov/UFO portal. On May 22, a second delivery arrived with six PDF files, seven audios and 51 videos. The portal intends to continue expanding. When NASA was worried. Spielberg himself has acknowledged that those congressional hearings “changed everything” for him and that “this stopped being sensationalism and became something that the mainstream media took very seriously.” In this way, ‘The Day of Revelation’ continues to be a social thermometer, although now it does so perhaps at the opposite pole to ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind’, once the debate has been institutionalized. In fact, while preparing ‘Close Encounters…’ in the 1970s, Spielberg received a letter from NASA asking him not to make the film. “When I found out that the government was opposed to the film, I found my faith”declared in 1978: “If NASA took the time to write me a twenty-page letter, something was up.” It cannot be said that the Spielberg of today raises the same suspicions as the one from then, and perhaps his new film should be read under that code. In Xataka | When Spielberg heard one of the best soundtracks in history, he didn’t get it: “I thought it was a joke”

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