Mobile Tech & Gadgets

If it seems expensive to change the battery in an electric car, wait until you see what it costs in a Ferrari LaFerrari: more than 200,000 euros

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For the majority of mortals, considering costs such as consumption or maintenance are a must when purchasing a car. And if we talk about buy an electric carAlthough the maintenance is less, there is one operation that makes the difference: changing the battery. Depending on the brand and model, prices vary. between 4,000 and more than 30,000 euros. That’s for EV cars, but those of hybrids They are not exactly cheap either. But there are cars and cars and obviously, The Ferrari LaFerrari plays in another league. The firm’s first hybrid hypercar offers performance typical of its range: it is capable of going from 0 to 100 km/h in 2.9 seconds and exceeds 350 km/h thanks to its 963 HP. But no matter how Ferrari it is, it does not escape suffering from the weak point common to hybrid technologies: the battery. If we take into account that there are only 499 examples of the Ferrari LaFerrari and that each one was launched with a base RRP of 1.3 million euros (over time, it has gotten worse: it is around four million on the second hand market), the price of its battery is not far behind: exceeds 200,000 euros. Ferrari’s lucrative solution: replace the entire battery With just 1,440 kilometers traveled, one of the few and exclusive owners of a 2014 Ferrari LaFerrari in Croatia discovered how his precious car ran out of traction battery. The first diagnosis indicated that the hybrid battery was out of service. The solution proposed by Ferrari was to replace the entire battery pack at a reasonable price: from 213,000 euroswithout counting on labor. So the owner decided to explore other more economical options, arriving until EV Clinica Croatian workshop specializing in electric and hybrid vehicle batteries. After an exhaustive analysis of the state of that group of batteries, with 120 cells and weighing about 60 kilos, they identified two failures: defective cells and a defect in the manufacturing assembly. Good news. The battery was not a brick, but had a localized fault that could be fixed without having to perform a complete replacement. Although the price of this meticulous and precision work has not been released, the owner had his LaFerrari back saving the price of the entire package. What of ask for quotes from other workshops It is always a good idea, whether you have a Dacia Sandero or a Ferrari. And if they don’t tell the owner of this Bugatti Veyronfrom whom the company asked him for 11,000 euros to change the button for the electric adjustment of the rearview mirror when the workshop in his town did it for less than two euros. Fortunately for those who own a hybrid Ferrari, last year the Italian firm launched an additional guarantee extension, so it will replace the traction batteries of the cars covered in this service in years 8 and 16 of their life. In Xataka | China has discovered another front to elevate its electric car: competing face to face against Ferrari and Lamborghini In Xataka | They are founders and ultra-rich, but they have not always driven luxury supercars: a review of the cars of tech millionaires Cover | Ferrari, EV Clinic

Energy companies are switching from oil to MW. The new mine is the support for data centers

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Gluttonous artificial intelligence and its demanding data centers are reshaping the decarbonization plans. When the world had begun a journey towards renewableswith countries like Chinaand Europeans betting big, and even some US states getting on the traindata centers arrived with needs that were almost impossible to satisfy. At the end of December 2024 we already have that data center consumption had skyrocketedpushing big technology companies to bet so much on renewable as, above all, for immediate access energy such as gas and even coal. Some were even aiming for nuclear to be able to operate. Shortly after, in January 2025, a Reuters report noted that European energy companies, which had embarked on a path of commitment to renewables, were doubling down on oil and gas. Giants like BP and Shell slowed down their investments in clean energy to return to fossil fuel projects. But it’s not all about where data centers extract energy from, but rather who provides them infrastructure. And that, and not so much oil or gas, may be the next energy mine. The new oil mine In an article of Financial Times It is suggested that the fleeting growth of data centers is generating a market that energy companies do not want to miss. As demand for traditional drilling weakens (although it is something that goes by “neighborhoods”), energy sector groups such as Baker Hughes, Halliburton or SLB are taking advantage to pivot to the data center sector. Not building them, not just supplying energy: supporting logistics. Taking advantage of their knowledge of the energy sector, these large companies would be providing equipment such as turbines and power generation systems to those who own data centers, but they also provide generators, batteries, dissipation systems and all the necessary framework to maintain correct energy efficiency. They would also oversee the team. It is, in short, what they already know how to do, but applied to a new sector such as data centers. Because these three examples are not typical oil companies, but technology providers for other companies to extract gas or oil. All three provide services to companies with oil fields, but also supply technology such as gas turbines, compressors or systems. LNG and they were inside sectors such as new energywith carbon capture and storage systems. All of this resonates with the idea that ‘Big Tech’ had when they began to build huge data centers, until they saw that increasingly demanding equipment needed more immediate and stable sources of energy. Data centers = El Dorado It is estimated that US electricity demand will increase by 90 GW -a real nonsense- from now to 2030 only to power the data centers. Traditional electrical grids may not support this load, and it is at that point that these companies that provide energy services They seem like a key entity. Pivoting toward artificial intelligence infrastructure is “key to the evolution of oil and gas,” said Lorenzo Simonelli, CEO of Baker Hughes. And it makes sense when we see that the number of US oil rigs contracted 7% year-over-year in 2025, margins have contracted and demand for drilling services is in interdict. On a business level, it is a masterstroke. Hypothetically speaking, when the new oil crisis arrives and the fall of the market for both crude oil and gas, companies that have pivoted to data centers, going from being service providers for energy companies to being service providers for ‘Big Tech‘, they will not have to take a turn in their strategy because they will already be where the money will be. Because that’s another question: whether the new MW gold for AI will be a lasting business or a passing fever. Image | freepik and Harpagornis In Xataka | The problem with renewables is what to do when there is excess energy. China believes it has the answer with a unique turbine

will go find an “Earth 2.0” on his own

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China has stepped on the accelerator in space sovereignty and is already at cruising speed: in 2025 it has broke his record of rocket launches with 80 units throughout the year and only in December complete four space missions. It has even successfully executed a stress test to verify that they can level up. So much so that they already have in mind exploring space in search of an Earth 2.0. China’s plan to find a new Earth. This is the name of the video that the Chinese network CGTN published a few days ago in their Hot Take space. This footage details four missions that the China National Space Administration (CNSA) has scheduled within the 15th Five Year Plan of the country (2026–2030) to support its position as a first-order space power and whose spectrum is as broad as we will see below. Among these missions is a radio astronomy experiment to study celestial objects by measuring their radio emissions, in this case aimed at better understanding the hidden side of the moon; a solar observatory that will investigate meteorological conditions such as solar wind or geomagnetic storms, the construction of a space telescope that will monitor black holes and neutron stars and a satellite hunter of planets outside the solar system. The latter has an ambitious goal: to search for a planet analogous to Earth. A peculiarity of these missions is that They are run by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), an independent institution of the Chinese Space Agency and its major space projects. The CAS manages its own missions (such as HXMT or Wukong) independently and do not follow government guidelines, but are born from proposals by researchers and universities, following a low-cost and flexible model similar to NASA’s Discovery program. China is looking for an Earth 2.0 and to know space much better Hongmeng Project. This plan It intends to deploy ten low-frequency telescopes that will orbit the moon. Like other observatories focused on its hidden side, they will hear radio frequency signals from the period known as the “Dark Age of the Universe“. This time corresponds to a time of the early universe where there were no stars or galaxies or planets, only neutral hydrogen that absorbed light, creating darkness, and emitted a characteristic radio signal 21 centimeters. Why the hidden side of the moon? Essentially, because it is free of radio interference from terrestrial sources and regular emissions from the Sun. This mission is complementary to others such as that of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to study those early epochs, which are currently undetectable to conventional telescopes. The Kuafu-2 solar mission. The two in its name already reveals something: there was a Kuafu-1 launched in 2022 and also known as the Advanced Space-based Solar Observatory (ASO-S). The first was launched to study the sun’s magnetic field and its phenomena, such as sudden and intense releases of electromagnetic radiation (flares) or coronal mass ejections. But Kuafu-2 will go one step further: it will be the first satellite to orbit the hard-to-reach areas of the Sun, the polar regions, thus providing data on the solar magnetic field and the dynamics of the solar cycle (which lasts approximately 11 years). With this information, the scientific team hopes to be able to predict solar storms and their cascading effects throughout the solar system. Screenshot CCTV News In search of a planet analogous to Earth. Exo-Earth is a satellite exoplanet prospecting which the show has defined as a “planetary detective on a mission to see if Earth is one of a kind.” Its objective will be to monitor thousands of stars in our galaxy in search of rocky planets of a size comparable to that of Earth that orbit within the habitable zone of their stars, that is, at a sufficient distance for liquid water to exist on their surface. An analogue to Earth. This observatory will be launched in 2028. How do the laws of physics work out there?. The fourth and last is the Enhanced X-ray Polarimetry and Timing Observatory, an international project led by the Chinese giant that combines X-ray observations with “unprecedented polarimetry and timing capabilities.” Or what is the same, the ultra-precise measurement of brightness variations over time and the study of the orientation of the oscillations of electromagnetic waves to infer the geometry of magnetic fields. If it sounds dense and scientific, that’s because it is: it helps you learn how the laws of physics apply in environments as extreme as around black holes, neutron stars, supernovae, and other astrophysical objects. Its technical proposal details that this observatory will have advanced spectroscopic focusing systems and polarimetric focusing systems. The launch is planned for 2030. In Xataka | China has built a space empire in 30 years after being kicked out of the ISS. His revenge is about to be completed In Xataka | While NASA faces the cancellation of 41 missions, China is doing real wonders in space Image | Xinhua Provided by Universe Today

welcome to connected straws

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Imagine that you have just bought a sex toy and you are about to use it for the first time. It cost you more than 100 euros, but you wanted to treat yourself. You open the box, start reading the instructions and see that it has an app to control it. Well, well. You install it and then It starts bombarding you with permissions: location, telephone, photos… Is it really necessary? It’s time to admit that connected devices it’s gotten a little out of hand. There are many devices where it makes perfect sense to be able to control them remotely, but there are others where it seems totally unnecessary to me, such as a vibrator. Connected straws Lelo, SatisfyerWe-Vibe… many sex toy brands have their apps. The main function is to be able to control them from your mobile and play as a couple (or in a group) even if they are at a distance. If each person has a toy, you can synchronize them with each other and have them control the other’s. Some brands like We-Vibe or Satisfyer even offer the option to make video calls from the app itself. There is an app called joyhub that takes remote sex to another level. It is almost like a social network where there is a list of friends and you can create chat rooms to enjoy as a group. And at the next level we have Lovense Remotewhich has an option to connect you with strangers so they can control your toy and “explore the unknown.” Lovense has “Control Roulette”, to connect with strangers. Most apps give you the option to set custom vibration patterns, but some go further and have functions such as synchronizing vibration with music. And be careful because Satisfyer has a mode called High Touch Meditations which is basically like a guided meditation while you give yourself pleasure. One of his meditations is called Lullavulva Deep Sleep. No comments. Permissions and privacy Obviously all these extra functions mean that the apps need access to many functions of our phones, which is what I mentioned at the beginning of the post. Below these lines you can see an example of everything that the We-Vibe app asks for, one of the ones with the most functions and, therefore, that more permissions ask. One of the permissions that these apps always ask for is location, but there is a reason. Just as Lelo says in the description of his app in the Play Store: Since Android 6.0, Google forces all Bluetooth devices to also have access to the location. It also makes sense to access the camera and microphone if they have a video calling function, or the storage if it allows you to take and save photos. But even if everything has an explanation, they are still very sensitive data. The apps know how much we use the toy, at what intensity, who we use it with if we connect with more users and they can even know where we are. It is always important to check if any app collects data and for what purposes, but in the case of an app of this type even more so. In the Play Store, the data that is collected appears in the ‘Data security’ section. This is what each app collects: Satisfyer: They collect information about error logs and “in-app activity” for statistical purposes. Lelo– Collects error logs, device ID, name and email. We-Vibe: photos, although it says it is an optional feature. Lovense: crash logs, photos and videos (optional), activity in the app (optional), name and email address. joyhub: does not collect data. They count in this Wired report, that most apps collect information as a market study; For example, if they detect that people use one type of vibration more, they can design future toys taking this into account. However, data theft occurs and as we said, this information is very sensitive. As far as we know, there has not been any security breach related to one of these apps, but there is a striking case from a few years ago. It was starred by the manufacturer Svakom when it launched a vibrator with a camera on the tip. We don’t judge people’s tastes, the problem was that The password that protected the toy’s WiFi was “88888888” and it was also in the toy manual. A disaster. We return to the question at the beginning: are so many functions necessary in a sex toy? For most people, they probably aren’t, but perhaps for very specific cases of long-distance relationships it makes sense. In addition, you have to understand two things: on the one hand, most of the toys that work with these apps They cost more than 100 euros and we must give them added value beyond “look, vibrate”. On the other hand, sex toys have come out of hiding, especially with the Satisfyer boom and the competition is tight. You have to differentiate yourself. Image | Anna Shvets, Pexels In Xataka | Sex has entered a crisis in the West. If we want to save it, we already know how: by reading romances and

One of the most hostile places on the planet is, ironically, our best “air conditioning” against the greenhouse effect

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We knew that the Southern Ocean It is, in essence, the thermal lung of the Earth that is essential to regulate the temperature of the entire planet. But what we didn’t know exactly was how it managed to process such an amount of energy. Now, science has revealed that storms play a leading role that may be key to facing the global warming. Its usefulness. To put ourselves in context we must know that the Southern Ocean It has the ability to absorb more than 75% of excess heat that is generated by the emissions of greenhouse gases that humans themselves produce. This is something that makes it a true heat sink, potentially becoming the most important in the entire world. In this way, if we remove this Ocean from the equation of current life, the temperature of the atmosphere today would be much higher. A blind spot. The climate models that we use on a daily basis have it, since when trying to predict how water heats up, the calculations did not quite fit with what was happening in reality. Clearly, some type of element was missing here that we did not fully locate. But this has come to an end, thanks to the team led by Marcel du Plessis and Sebastiaan Swart who They have found the missing piece of the puzzle: ocean mixing driven by summer storms. A phenomenon that literally allows the ocean to ‘swallow’ atmospheric heat. How is it possible? The mechanism that this ocean follows is as violent as it is efficient. During the southern summer, the sun heats the surface layer of the ocean, and if the water remains stagnant, then the heat will remain on the surface stored in the water, making it easier for it to return to the atmosphere or accelerate the melting of ice. The correct thing to do in this case would be to literally bury it in the depths. And this is where storms come in, where the intense winds and extreme waves that are produced act like a giant mixer. In this way, the energy of the storm agitates the water, pushing heat from the surface into much deeper layers. Towards the depth. In this way, storms help the surface of the ocean cool, which gives it the ability to continue absorbing heat from the air in a more efficient way. And where does all this energy go? Well literally, When you go down to the deep sea you are ‘trapped’ there for decadesslowing down immediate atmospheric warming. Although we must keep our eyes on what will happen in the future. How it has been measured. This is a practically obligatory question when we talk about the deep sea, which are truly hostile places for anyone. That is why our best ally has been marine robotics. Instead of relying on satellites that have difficulty seeing through clouds or measuring depth accurately, this technology transferred to underwater gliders and autonomous buoys are capable of measuring temperature and salinity in real time. All this while a storm is passing over them, causing the phenomenon that has now been studied. In this way, this technology has given us the ability to monitor the ocean “from within” during events that are impossible to study on ships. We care (a lot). This discovery can be compared to that of a coin with two sides. On the one hand, we already have confirmation that the Southern Ocean is a very powerful ally in the fight against climate change. But on the other hand, we have a very disturbing question: what will happen if storm patterns change due to climate change itself? If the storms move or lose intensity in this area, we could lose this “sponge” of heat that is slowing climate change. The consequences would be quite clear: a large increase in the temperature of the atmosphere that would be felt throughout the planet. Images | jean wimmerlin Chris LeBoutillier In Xataka | We have known for 25 years that we were going to exceed 1.5 degrees of temperature increase and we have not cared

the architects determined to make Spanish cities beautiful again

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The location, the region, almost not even the type of city matters. Whether you are in Madrid, Barcelona, ​​Vigo or Jerez de la Frontera, the most likely thing is that if you take a walk through the streets of the center you will find the same image: asymmetrical facadesirregular, full of holes and patches. They have not been designed like this nor are they the work of any eccentric architect. This apparent aesthetic incoherence is the result of decades of arbitrary enclosures by apartment owners. The logic is simple: you have a terrace that doesn’t quite convince you, so you choose to fence it. The problem is that you do it on your own, without agreeing with the rest of the neighbors, and in the end the facades end up becoming an architectural pastiche. And with them (in addition) the set of cities. The phenomenon is frequent enough that there are people commenting on it on networks and specialized forums in urban planning: ‘Tetris-style’ enclosures are rampant in Spanish cities. The images may change from one location to another, but a walk through any urban area usually comes to find facades altered without rhyme or reason. Here is an untouched terrace. There is another one closed with aluminum carpentry and translucent glass. Two floors below, another that has opted for wood and an awning. Much more than facades Do they pose a problem? They are certainly cause for debate. First, because of its regulatory framework. Is it legal for each owner to do what they want with their terrace, without taking into account the rest of the community? What steps should you take if you want to do it correctly? Second, because beyond the block in question, the amalgams of enclosures influence something much more important: the urban landscapearchitectural coherence and visual hygiene, values ​​that are usually very careful in sensitive areassuch as historic centers and protected buildingsbut which are often neglected in the rest of the city. One of the voices that has commented the most on the phenomenon of indiscriminate closures is the X account @MadridProyecta, which has warned about “‘Zero zones’ of lack of control” either flagrant cases in which they have completely distorted the original appearance of the properties. This phenomenon leads them to warn of the “vertical shanty town”a problem that does not occur homogeneously throughout the Spanish geography (it is less frequent on the Cantabrian coast, for example), but it does condition the urban reality of the country’s cities. “It has a serious impact on the urban landscape of Spain,” they acknowledge from Madrid Proyecta before remembering that in other latitudes of Spain it is less common to encounter indiscriminate closures. The reason? In addition to the regulatory framework of each country and cultural differences, there is another fundamental factor that comes into play, recalls María José Peñalver, treasurer of the Superior Council of the Colleges of Architects of Spain (CSCAE): the antiquity of the building stock and its maintenance. Click on the image to go to the tweet. In 2023 the National Federation of Real Estate Associations analyzed the country’s constructions and estimated that the average age of the used housing stock in Spain around 43.5 years oldwhich among other issues explains why two of the problems that were most frequently pointed out are the scarcity of outdoor space and the poor insulation thermal. Both issues are closely related to enclosures, which They are usually carried out precisely to gain square meters or improve the comfort and soundproofing of homes. That a good part of the homes in Spain are over 40 years old It is a relevant fact because they were built before the regulations on thermal conditions were applied. According to the INE, nearly 40% of the buildings that were used for housing in 2011 had been built between the 60s and 80s. It is not a problem exclusive to Spain (85% of the blocks of the EU were built before 2000 and many of them have low energy performance), but it is a relevant fact when analyzing the phenomenon of enclosures in cities. Another key aspect is the regulatory framework. A quick search on the Internet turns up a good number of guides and articles that try to clarify whether or not it is legal to close a terrace and what requirements must be met to do so, which gives an idea of ​​the high interest that the topic arouses. The simplest answer is: depends. It depends on the peculiarities of each case, what you want to do and, above all, what the community has decided before. The explanation must be sought in the law of laws regarding coexistence in buildings: the Horizontal Property Law (LPH), which in its seventh article sends a notice to sailors: “The owner of each apartment or premises may modify the architectural elements (…) when it does not undermine or alter the safety of the building, its structure, configuration or external state“. Closing a terrace can directly affect the exterior of the property and alter the façade. Furthermore, as remember Idealistalthough the terraces are for private enjoyment, many of their parts, such as the roof or coatings, are part of the common elements. In the article 10.3 and 17.4 of the LPH, in fact, it is recalled that one of the actions that must have authorization are closures, subject to the approval of three-fifths of the community. “The LPH considers that closing a balcony represents an alteration of the façade, being a common element that conditions the overall image of the building. To make a change of such magnitude it is necessary to obtain the consent of the community, so it is not a strictly personal decision,” comment the architect and urban planner Albert Nogueras in elDiario, where he recalls the need to also keep municipal ordinances in mind (which may vary from one city council to another), and the statutes approved by the community itself. The guides Regarding closures, they remind us of … Read more

Spotify killed the record and the industry pivoted to concerts. Netflix killed cinema and the industry was left with a “space crisis”

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Never in history have we seen so many movies: the streaming It allows us to see several a week but, nevertheless, the movie theaters are empty. Literally emptier than ever in decades. We consume audiovisual content en masse, but not where we historically enjoyed it. Meanwhile, concerts have become the leisure alternative par excellence. Why do we pay hundreds of euros to go to a stadium with 50,000 other people, but not fifteen to see a blockbuster on the big screen? The answer lies in how we value physical space in the experience economy. Some figures. Let’s look at some box office figures: the summer of 2025, traditionally the most lucrative season in the industry, has been the most disastrous since 1981 adjusted for inflation. There is no dream of returning to pre-COVID figures: in October 2025 in the US, only 445 million dollars were raised, less than half of last October before the pandemicwhich exceeded one billion. The average viewer attended only 2.31 times to theaters in 2024, a drop of 33% compared to the 3.5 annual visits in 2019. In Spain, theThe 2025 data is equally dark: The total box office falls by 14% (almost 30 million less), and Spanish cinema itself declines by 2.5-3%. The author of this last study, Pau Brunet, expressly says that “the Hollywood fantasy is crumbling.” And the erosion is constant: Spain had more than 105 million viewers in 2019, which represents a loss of a third of its volume in five years: we are now at 71 million. Windows that don’t perform. The problem is so multifactorial that it is ridiculous to focus only on the drop in the box office to explain it. For example, we have the collapse of display windows: The pre-pandemic standard was 90-120 days in theaters, three or four weeks later in digital sales and then home formats and streaming. After the pandemic, these windows were reduced by more than 60%, and although they now vary depending on the studio, Universal and Warner leave a 45-day window for their most sought-after productions (it can be reduced to 17 days), with the exception of Disney, which operates them for 60 days. In any case, the rest of the windows have been shortened or disappeared, and it is common to watch a movie in streaming just a month and a half after its release in theaters. It is one of the main reasons why people have left the theaters: even blockbusters like ‘Wicked’ can be seen streaming just 40 days after their release in theaters. Even China. A few years ago, China was the market that seemed destined to save Hollywood accountsbut experienced its own collapse in 2024: the box office fell 23% to 42.5 billion yen ($5.8 billion), returning to figures from a decade ago. Attendance fell by more than 200 million viewers compared to ten years ago. One of the main reasons is the degradation of the theatrical experience: cinemas without air conditioning and without customer service staff beyond the bar, a characteristic that has been spreading to theaters around the world for years. The crisis has been going on for a long time. In reality, this fall does not have its roots in the streaming not even in the pandemic. The attendance of the American public had been falling since the sixtiesgoing from one visit per person every two or three months to just twice a year before the pandemic. The real price of admission (adjusted for inflation) has remained stable since the 1980s, but consumers have decided that they no longer want to go to theaters. The problem, as this Bain & Company study states The thing is that, for decades, the industry has placed all the emphasis of its production on pure content, but the films have ended up arriving home in a few weeks. Meanwhile, music has come to understand something fundamental: the value is not in the recorded content, but in the unique, unrepeatable event. The triumph of music. He Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour It closed in December 2024 after 149 concerts in 51 cities, ggenerating gross revenues of 2,077 million dollars. That is, more than the annual film box office receipts of entire countries (compare with the pyrrhic 71 million box office receipts in Spain in 2024). AND We’re not just talking about the concerts.: The average expense per attendee ranged between $1,300 and $1,500, including transportation, accommodation, merchandising and dinners. More than fans, they are tourists generating systemic economic impact. “Swiftonomics“has ceased to be a metaphor and has become a real analytical category in government economic reports. Beyond Taylor. Swift is not an anomaly. The global live music market generated $28.1 billion in 2023 and projections place it at $79.7 billion by 2030. That growth is equivalent to tripling the size of the market in seven years, while cinema struggles to recover the levels of a decade ago. What does live music have that cinema has lost? The term “funflation“: Consumers prioritize spending on memorable experiences even during periods of high inflation Festivals have capitalized on this logic: They sell identity, belonging and experiences that are impossible to replicate at home. Just the opposite of cinema: a film is exactly identical all over the world and once seen, the incentive to repeat it in theaters is minimal, especially knowing that it will be in streaming in 45 days. Reinvention is required. The cinema crisis is not a death sentence, but it is a demand for reinvention. Because the physical space of entertainment is not dying, it is being reformulated. The path that the music industry has followed by completely pivoting its business model with the disappearance of physical formats is the one that cinema has to follow. At the moment, theaters have not gotten the premium experiences right (sophisticated restoration, more comfortable rooms, improvements in image and sound quality), but that is because they still do not differentiate themselves enough from the domestic experience. Cinema needs its own Taylor … Read more

Their companies know how to sell them better than anyone else.

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Six G1 humanoid robots from Unitree They appeared last week performing perfectly synchronized somersaults on a concert stage, acting as dancers for pop singer Wang Leehom. They were dressed in shiny silver tops and black leather pants, and completed a choreography that included arm movements, kicks and spins before winning over the audience with their acrobatics. The video has ended up going completely viral on social networks, so much so that even Elon Musk he rated it of “impressive” in Humanoid robots created to go viral. Chinese companies specializing in robotics have been turning each demonstration of their humanoid robots into a viral phenomenon for months. Last August they were the first robot Olympics in Beijingwhere the Unitree H1 model broke speed records by completing 1,500 meters in 6 minutes and 34 seconds, reaching 4.78 m/s and surpassing the Boston Dynamics Atlas. Previously, H1 humanoids also appeared on the Spring Festival Gala, China’s most-watched TV show. Now we see them hogging the stage (We we also know about thatreferring to the last Xataka Awards gala). They know how to sell themselves. The most common thing is to see this type of robots in technical conferences or corporate videos, but in recent years they have also starred in electrifying videos showing their capabilities and, in the process, gaining millions of views. Chinese firms have chosen to turn robotics into mass entertainment, perhaps a strategy to bring them closer to the public and so that they are not strangers when it is time to buy them in the future. The performance At Wang Leehom’s concert it was part of his “Best Place Tour” before 18,000 spectators, a perfect showcase to demonstrate the capacity of these robots and their versatility in all types of scenarios. Figures. Beijing has made humanoid robotics a national priority. Your five-year plan for the industry set in 2021 an annual growth of more than 20%, supported by a state fund of 140 billion dollars for technology startups. This year they aimed to produce more than 10,000 humanoid robots. China also leads in patents: according to Morgan Stanley, submitted 7,705 applications related to humanoid robots in the last five years, compared to 1,561 in the United States and 1,102 in Japan. Cities such as Shanghai, Shenzhen and Beijing are where investment and development is concentrated. Unitree as national flag bearer. The company behind the robots at the Chengdu concert has established itself as a benchmark in the sector in China. Launched in 2024, the G1 measures 1.27 meters, weighs 35 kilos and has between 23 and 43 joints, and can reach a speed of 2 m/s. In August won the gold medal in the 100 meter hurdles at the first World Humanoid Robot Games by completing the race in 33.71 seconds. Its R1 model was recognized by Time magazine as one of the best inventions of 2025. From spectacle to real application there is a distance. “I don’t think anyone has found an application for humanoids that requires several thousand robots per installation,” pointed out in September Melonee Wise, former product manager at Agility Robotics, to IEEE. Technical problems persist: limited energy autonomy, industrial reliability still far from the required 99.99% and practically non-existent commercial applications. Although the predictions from Bank of America Global Research that mentioned that about 18,000 units would be sold in 2025 or that the market will reach $5 trillion by 2050, there are hardly any real commercial deployments beyond highly controlled pilot tests. The power of marketing. Wang Leehom’s website boasted that “the show marked a rare example of robotic dancers in concert, fusing advanced technology with powerful live music.” Many fans praised the performance as one of the most creative moments of the tour, and there was no shortage of comments like those of this userwhich highlighted that “China’s robots are at another level.” And now what. China is investing massively in creating a market that does not yet exist, trusting that artificial intelligence will solve the problems of autonomy, reliability and practical usefulness. And it applies a strategy that has served it well in other sectors: that of finding practical, large-scale applications that justify the investment and having a presence in the market before it even exists. We’ll see where we go. Cover image | CNC GROUP In Xataka | I have asked for water from the first humanoid robot working in Beijing. It’s a weird vending machine.

The great plan of Chinese brands to open hundreds of dealerships in Spain: a movement against the current

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Search, compare and if you find something better, buy it It was the 80s and Colón’s detergents had snuck their famous slogan into every house in Spain. 40 years later, a BYD worker explained to me how they sought to break down prejudices in Spain: “We are letting people take the car home. We don’t want to do the typical 20-minute test with the salesperson inside the car. We tell the customer not to be afraid, to take the car and bring it to us the next day” BYD barely had a handful of points of sale in Spain those days in 2023. Shortly before we had attended the official presentation of the brand. The Chinese company arrived with three electric cars (two of them with a clear premium focus) and I saw it clearly: the brand had to attract the customer to the dealership. Let him sit in the car, touch it and feel it. It was the only way to dynamit prejudices. We are just over a month away from the end of 2025. At the end of October, BYD has sold 22,357 exclusively plug-in units in Spain according to data from Anfac. They easily double Fiat. They surpass Mazda and Volvo. They left Tesla behind a long time ago. They have Opel or Cupra on the near horizon. They begin to approach Ford. At the same time, BYD will close 100 dealerships this year (96 are already active throughout Spain) and they plan to open another thirty next year. At the same time, Chery has placed 31,493 cars in our country at the end of November between Ebro, Omoda and Jaecoo. And we are facing the first full year in which they have sold cars in our country. The sum of all of them also easily exceeds one hundred points of sale. MG adds 38,989 units between January and October 2025. With 11 points of sale available throughout Spain. The irruption is such that 10% of the cars purchased in Spain they are Chinese. It was a figure that was difficult to imagine just a few years ago. A figure that has been achieved by taking the customer to the dealership. And dynamiting their prejudices. The importance of being on the street There are many factors that explain the brutal growth of Chinese brands in our country. We can talk about its low prices, about offering a gateway to a technology (electric or plug-in hybrid) that has made the product more expensive or the extensive equipment offered in each car. But in addition to the price, which overrides all the previous arguments, we find an expansive effort by all these brands to be on the street, at the customer’s feet, with the dealers. “We had been waiting for its arrival for a long time. Already 15 years ago, in the brand’s first foray, we had one of its models, now I don’t remember exactly the name. In terms of volume, manufacturing capacity and development, it is a really excellent product. We think it is above the rest of the Chinese brands that are arriving in our country.” The speaker is José María Blitz, Project Director at the dealership that BYD has on Concha Espina Street in Madrid (next to the Santiago Bernabéu) and which belongs to Astara Retaila distributor with a presence in 19 countries and that sells you a Bentley or a Rolls-Royce as well as a BYD. This time it is the Chinese brand he is referring to. He tells us that the public has welcomed the company with open arms and that since they opened their first dealership, this one next to the Madrid stadium, interest has only increased. “The client It has already surpassed that of ‘unknown brand’. There could have been one at the beginning, three or four years ago, but I think it is practically expired. What’s more, the customer’s perception of the brand is excellent,” he explains. Added to that, “the European product was very expensive and the equipment was very fair. Chinese brands offer a quality product at a competitive price with a much higher level of equipment. We can easily be 20% or 25% below competing brands with higher equipment levels,” says Blitz. BYD is just one of the Chinese brands that sell in our country. Together with MG and the Chery Group (Omoda, Jaecoo and Ebro) they form a kind of quintet representative of the 28 Chinese brands that already sell in our country, according to Faconauto. The dealer association of our country says it has about 600 points of sale right now, between dealers and official services. Of course, they point out to us that “it is convenient to contextualize this figure: the majority of points of sale in Spain continue to correspond to consolidated manufacturers – European, Japanese, Korean or American – whose presence is structural and has developed over decades. Right now, Faconauto has 28 Chinese companies selling cars through 600 dealerships spread throughout the country. What happened to find us with this explosion? Blitz is clear, the product, he assures, is part of the success. But also who these brands have partnered with. “Their strategy has been to close agreements with large groups of dealers, people who are really professional,” they say from this dealership owned by Astara. The same is the opinion of Faconauto, who point out that “they have decided to enter our market with a ‘traditional’ model, taking advantage of the establishment of business dealers. And the key is the word ‘businessmen’, who choose where to invest their money. It is evident that many dealer groups have seen a good opportunity in investing in the distribution of Chinese brands.” This commitment generates trust in the customer, which has allowed them to grow “to the level of any other European brand,” for Blitz. The key: a disruptive product and good after-sales service. “They are very agile and they want their employees to be agile too. There is a sense of … Read more

Nothing has done with CMF what OnePlus and Xiaomi did not know: divide before betraying each other

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Carl Pei released Nothing in 2022 with the classic manual of technological ‘covering’: A distinctive design. An aggressive price. An anti-narrativeestablishment. But some time later he did something that no brand in his position had attempted: he cloned himself before he grew up. ‘CMF by Nothing‘is not just any sub-brand. It’s an insurance policy against the cycle that killed OnePlus’ mystique and tamed Xiaomi. Let’s go in parts. The pattern is known: A brand emerges promising “more for less” and building a tribe with early adopters that they feel part of something exclusive. The forums are burning, unboxings They go viral, people practically tattoo the logo. But commercial success eventually requires betraying that promise: you raise prices, chase better margins, and normalize. We have seen the same process in two brands dominating that space in two stages: OnePlus went from “flagship killer” in 2014 to sell mobiles indistinguishable from Oppo around 2018. Xiaomi went from being the Robin Hood of telephony in 2017 to having 1,200 euro models in 2021. In 2025 it’s already going for 1,500. It’s not that they are hypocrites, it’s that that position cultural requires smallness. As soon as you grow big enough to matter, you’re no longer credible as an alternative. Xiaomi tried it with POCO and Redmi, but without all the conviction. POCO was born in 2018 with the F1 as flagship killer perfect, direct heir to the original Xiaomi mystique, and this year it has given a brutal terminal like the F8. But instead of keeping the brand as a permanent outlet for purists, they let it languish with erratic launches, confusing positioning and some constant cannibalization with Redmi. And Redmi, although successful in volume, never had its own narrative beyond ‘Xiaomi, but cheaper’. They were functional subbrands, but not cultural. And CMF is the opposite: it has a recognizable design from fifteen meters, and most importantly, explicit permission not to last. Xiaomi wanted POCO to grow and mature. Nothing knows that CMF must burn bright and short, and when it goes out, they will light another match. CMF breaks this logic because it externalizes the growth hacking to a separate entity. Nothing can chase premium (and is doing so, Their prices rise discreetly every year) without contaminating the narrative indie. Meanwhile, CMF inherits the role of “brand of the enthusiast who knows”: singular design, brutal prices, no pretense of long-term sustainability. It is disposable by design, but consciously so. When CMF burns or has to raise prices, Nothing can launch another sub-brand and repeat the trick. They have turned the inevitable betrayal into a rotation maneuver. The interesting thing is that this can work precisely because Nothing does not pretend. OnePlus promised not to change and it changed. Xiaomi built an incredible base of Mi Fans and then the phenomenon faded away. Nothing from the beginning structures its growth as a fork: If you want to continue being early adopterhere you have CMF. If you want to join us in the premium life, here is Nothing. There is no betrayal because there was never a promise of immutability. It is a brand that understands that maturing means disappointing, so it institutionalizes disappointment in its brand architecture. Possibly the genius is not in CMF, but in having understood that the “enthusiast’s position”, the brand that “those in the know buy”, is not a long-term sustainable brand identity, but rather a industrializable growth phase. Just like adolescence: you can go through it just once, or you can design a system where there is always someone in your business family as a teenager while you mature and start coming home whenever you want, earn your own money and stop hiding your tobacco. OnePlus and Xiaomi played Peter Pan and that stage is over. Nothing has built a nursery. In Xataka | Nothing Phone (3a) Lite, analysis: it seems like black magic that a mobile like this costs less than 250 euros Featured image | Shawn Rain

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