Mobile Tech & Gadgets

Europe has been committed to digitizing our identity and the first piece of the puzzle is provided by Spain: the driving license

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Europe wants gather all your documentation on your mobile. IDs, medical history, academic titles, bank card. A single digital wallet for any management in each of the member countries. From Brussels they want to standardize the use of their digital application for everyone and the first document that will officially cross borders will be the driver’s license. Something that in Spain, precisely, It doesn’t catch us by surprise. The European Union approved in May 2024 the eIDAS 2.0 regulationthe rule that obliges all member states to make a digital identity wallet available to their citizens before the end of 2026. The legal framework establishes that each country must have at least one digital wallet solution available before the end of that year. The long-term goal is that by 2030, around 80% of European citizens are expected to use the digital identity wallet. But what exactly is this wallet? Called EUDI Wallet, andIn practice, it is an application that we will have to install on the phone and where the citizen can store and share their credentials: from the DNI to the passport, driving license, medical prescriptions or university degrees. The idea is that we can do it in any EU country and without the need to create additional accounts or depend on private platforms. driving license, the first piece Of all the documents that will fit in this European wallet, driving license is the first to move. In the end, it is a document that tens of millions of people use every day, which is already digitized in several countries and which has an immediate practical application, beyond being able to identify ourselves. Several countries have announced that they will launch their version of the EUDI Wallet with limited functionalities, including digital driving license for use in face-to-face controls. The idea is to expand the system in layers: start with what already works, and build on that. From Biometric Update they point out that wallet interoperability between different countries is the most complex technical challenge, as it requires constant standardization and cross-testing between national systems. Surprisingly, Spain takes the lead While a good part of Europe is still studying how to articulate its solution, Spain is already underway myDGTthe app of the General Directorate of Traffic that has been operational since 2020. Spain was the first EU country to launch a digital card, and today the application serves six million users with 14 different procedures without having to go to any traffic headquarters. The miDGT digital driving license has full legal validity before any authority within the national territory. If you already use it, you will have noticed that the card incorporates a dynamic QR code that changes every few minutes to avoid impersonations and allows you to check in real time that the data is updated. The main limitation is that the miDGT digital permit It is only valid in Spain. If you travel abroad, it is still mandatory to carry a physical card, because other countries have not yet officially recognized this digital format. And that is precisely what the EUDI Wallet comes to solve. In addition to miDGT, Spain’s digital ecosystem goes further. Here we also have the app My Citizen Folderwhich helps us centralize a multitude of procedures with the public administration in a single point. And on the other hand, relatively recently we also have the app MIDNIwhich is simply a digital version of our identity document so that we can show it directly from our mobile phone. Germany accelerates from behind Each member state finds itself at a very different starting point. In the case of Germany, its government approved a legislative reform in November 2025 that lays the foundations for the digital driving license, and the Bundestag ratified the bill just last month. For the country, the goal is to have the national digital card available before the end of 2026. Thus, in Germany drivers can now carry their vehicle’s registration certificate in digital format. They do this through the i-Kfz app, developed by the German Federal Printing Office and the Federal Traffic Agency. The driving license itself is integrated into that same application. It will start as a volunteer One of the most relevant aspects of the EUDI Wallet design is that its use is voluntary. In principle no one is obliged to have it. But history repeats itself, and seeing what we have already experienced with the great digital transitions (online banking, contactless payments, making an appointment online…), it is possibly the first step so that something that begins as something optional ends up being the norm and whoever does not use it in the coming decades has the risk of being at a disadvantage for certain procedures. In Mexico they have a similar messalthough there they are going through a bigger problem that involves several fronts. On the other hand, it should be noted that the system also incorporates quite complete security and privacy measures. An example: if someone needs to prove that they are of legal age to buy alcohol, the wallet could confirm only that information without revealing name, address or any other personal information, something that in computing is known as Zero-Knowledge (an architecture to verify one piece of information without revealing other more sensitive ones). Bad business for a minor who wants to buy alcohol, but a return to ‘excuse me sir, could you buy me beer?’ The regulation establishes that citizens will have full control over what data they share with third parties, and that wallets will have to publish their code under an open source license to ensure transparency and independent audits. The outlook is green in several countries With the December 2026 deadline upon us, the reality is that not all countries will arrive at the same time or with the same level of functionality. Netherlands, for example, already has pointed out that will probably not meet the deadline, and several member states are starting from digital identity infrastructures that are still … Read more

George RR Martin never had full creative control over ‘Game of Thrones’. Other authors have learned their lesson

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“This is no longer my story” is probably the worst phrase a writer can say, and it is supposed that came not long ago from the mouth of George R.R. Martinmore or less coinciding with the avalanche of audiovisual adaptations of its ‘Game of Thrones’ universe. There is the eternal question of whether the author himself is the best director or showrunner in the screen adaptation of his work, and it will depend a lot on what “author” and what “work”. What is clear is that the shining stars of the publishing market do not want to make the “Martin mistake”: seeing how your world is transformed by others without control or your own voice. Feeling that the story you saw being born no longer belongs to you must be one of the worst experiences for a creator. And given the continuous boom in news of adaptations that have been working deadline at a frenetic pace, names like Brandon Sanderson or Sarah J. Maas are clear that they are not interested in following the path of the eternal debtor of ‘Winds of Winter’. The Martin case As long as you are interested in content, interviews and news about the adaptations of ‘Game of Thrones’, it is easy to come across statements by George RR Martin about his discontentand even something more painful, assuming distance with its own adaptations. At the beginning of the ‘Game of Thrones’ project, his involvement was greater and his role was much more decisive. Although the showrunners main ones were always Benioff and Weissand creative control fell to them, Martin participated as executive producer, occasional screenwriter and advisor. However, starting in season five his role was diluted, and with it his closeness to the direction of the series. Benioff and Weiss, despite having some clues about the outcome, it is true that they had a difficult task to say the least: finish a story that not even its creator had already finished at that time. It is not surprising that given the path that the controversial closureMartin got off the wagon and acknowledged in numerous interviews that his ending was not going to have anything to do with that of the series. Arrive when you arrive. It came out so-so. With this experience, let’s call it bittersweet, one would expect Martin to be more cautious with future adaptations… But not. In ‘The House of the Dragon’ he appears again as co-creator and executive producer and, once again, at first everything seemed to flow normally in the first season. At least until again different points of view with the showrunner of the series, Ryan Condal, once again create creative tensions. The friction already exists, to the point that HBO asked Martin to take a step back from the project. Months later the author would return to production. “George and Ryan had a disagreement about the direction season three should take. At that point, it became clear that the process and communication with them had broken down and we needed to start from scratch. So, naturally, there was a period where we all took a step back for a while until we could find a new way to move forward.” HBO insider And now we have ‘The Knight of the Seven Kingdoms’again with George RR Martin as producer and with active involvement. Everything seems to be going well with this new adaptation, but the first season has just finished and experience teaches us that problems begin to appear after the second, so we still don’t know what direction it may take. Others will not make concessions Even so, one cannot put all the responsibility on him or treat this fact as an isolated case. Without focusing on other disciplines where rights and authorship are also a minefield, in the publishing world the relationship between authors and adaptation rights is always they have been complicated. Just look what happened to Tolkien’s work; a real legal tangle with rights fragmented for decades, limitations of creative control of Tolkien and heirs, while different companies managed books, merchandising or characters. What ultimately resonates is that even having the rights doesn’t guarantee real creative control either. The impact that certain decisions or a controversial ending can generate directly affect your work, fandomto your reputation and, why not say it, also to your ego. Therefore, the emphasis that a few months ago is not so crazy Taylor Swift having recovered the rights to all his music; We’re not just talking about the albums, but about the visuals, creative direction, music videos… and in literature it’s a bit the same, it’s fighting to have control over everything that your creation entails. It’s normal that Sanderson doesn’t want to get his fingers caught. When an author signs with a studio to adapt their work, a sale of rights occurs to transfer the production of the series or film, temporarily or permanently. Here comes an important point: these rights can be exploitative (including books, possible spin-offs, merchandisingvideo games) or they can be separate rights where the production company or studio does not have full ownership. Now, taking into account the stumbles of other writers with this type of agreement, the essential thing for this new generation, even if the transfer of rights occurs, is to negotiate creative control clauses. This is where Sanderson He led the way a few months ago. After years of trying that did not bear fruit, the author of Cosmere is now taking advantage of his editorial power and his legion of followers to take the reins of the adaptation of his work on Apple TV. He will be the architect of the universe; He will be in charge of writing, producing, advising and will also have decision-making power. That is a level of involvement that not even JK Rowling or Martin enjoy. “I flew to Hollywood and pitched my projects to all the major streaming platforms and studios. Basically, everyone tried to bid on ‘Mistborn’ and ‘The Stormlight’. In the end, … Read more

my tapes sound better than they did in the 80s

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If you are interested inphysical formats out of commercial circulation (I was going to give examples, but I just realized – in the first of the many psychological blows around my age that I am going to receive with this article – that any physical format is outdated by definition), you will often run into the same problem. The problem is not so much finding material to enjoy, but rather keeping the technology that allows us to enjoy it ready and in good condition. Said in terms we all know: the problem is both software and hardware. The classic example is retro video games. Not only do you have to track down, obtain and keep the NES cartridges in good condition, but you also have to keep the NES ready. In the case of the consoles of the eighties, which we all know will survive in perfect working order the seemingly imminent collapse of civilization, there are no major problems, but try keeping an Xbox 360 or PS3 ready. Bigger words. Well, so with everything. If you are interested in audiovisuals, the problem is not so much finding VHS tapes of that elusive Michael Dudikoff masterpiece that you need to complete the ‘American Ninja’ saga. The problem is rather to make sure that the VHS player and, above all, the very fragile tube TVs continue to allow you to watch those movies that are neither nor expected to be on Prime Video. The same with audio: finding tapes of Calatrava Brothers jokes is relatively easy, finding where to play them is another song (or scream). And I confess it. I think I have bought more cassette players in general in recent years and boomboxes in particular (the name generally given to portable audio players that include AM/FM radio and cassettes, often with double decks, with CDs in the latest models, popularized in the 1970s and 1980s) than when tapes were the dominant format. The reason is logical: you are buying second-hand devices, which already have their corresponding trot and that they are on the verge of collapse, when they are not already collapsing directly. An invention like Medion’s, therefore, is especially attractive to me: good sound quality, extras that could not be dreamed of in the eighties (miniSD and USB inputs, Dab+, now we will see everything), extremely affordable price for what it offers. Let’s quickly review what this interesting thing offers and then I’ll give you my impressions as target absolute of this type of inventions. A good hulk Let’s start with the obvious. He boombox Medion is voluminous: 670 mm wide by 271 mm high and 171 mm deepyou have it in the image above with a double deck from the time, which is not one of the largest, but not a dead fly either. The reason for the size of this monster is the speakers, with a larger diameter than usual, an upper area with a pair of small extra speakers, plus the bass and treble controls, the frequency tuner and the volume, crowned by a small LCD screen and the radio dial. They could be smaller, but they also serve an aesthetic function, because frankly, who wants a volume dial that you can’t grab with your full hands. At the top, the device has a really useful folding handle, in addition to the irreplaceable folding antenna to receive the radio. With its 6.1 kilos of weight we are not facing a boombox especially portable or manageable, but frankly, although it has space for four Type D batteries (lucky to give them another type of use unless you are also a flashlight collector), it is not a device to take out for a walk. Even so, without having to move it from your house, it is interesting that it is comfortable to move it from one room to another thanks to its handle. Our impression is that you will end up finding a dedicated space for it, due to its volume and its relatively poor handling. It is not a problem at all, but if you have a corner reserved for CDs and cassettes, clear out the micro TV with built-in DVD or the Trivial and Pictionary boxes. What can you do Basically, we are faced with a boombox which includes a radio and a cassette and CD player (single, but who wants a double deck today). In all cases the operation is impeccable, although we will see how having the CD vertically feels in the medium term. The best: the possibility of injecting good bass with the dedicated dial or with the extra boost of the X-bass, with a dedicated button, thus avoiding the dreaded “can sound”. The speakers have enough quality to be heard well (and loudly) even if we are not placed in front of the device, but we must be prepared to touch lows and highs with everything we play, especially if we alternate CDs and cassettes. If you ask me, that’s part of the fun. We have forced the machine with recorded cassettes, many listenings (and loans) in tow and his good thirty years of ageand the result is as good as it can be in artifacts like this, to the point of surprising in many cases. I haven’t listened to some of these cassettes with this quality since the days when I used a huge music system, with some great stereo speakers of the time. After all, listening to a CD with good sound quality is still within our reach; you can do it on a computer with a good set of speakers and a disk drive. A recorded cassette with decades of work behind it is more difficult to listen to with quality that does it justice. Once again, I would like to highlight the wonderful job that very powerful basses do in giving body and presence to music that, often, I have not kept on the best medium (cassettes recorded and re-recorded dozens of times of… erm… First … Read more

For decades, the “Galicia” octopus has been the greatest guarantee of quality. The United Kingdom wants to take it away

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The Galician octopus may be the most famous, but for some time now, talking about the most precious cephalopod in the country’s gastronomy requires looking beyond the Rías Baixas. In fact, it forces us to take a leap of hundreds of kilometers and look at the other side of the English Channel, on the southern coast of the United Kingdom. There the English fishermen have encountered a curious octopus invasion which at first they viewed with suspicion (they have been dedicated to capturing other species for generations), but each time it awakens greater interest in London. The question is how can it affect that to Galicia, a land that has turned octopus into a ‘religion’ (in addition to a big business) and that in recent years has encountered the opposite panorama: a fall in the capture of cephalopods. What has happened? That the octopus map is changing. And although we still don’t know for sure how deep (and stable) that transformation will be, it has been clear enough to generate expectation in Galicia, a land closely linked to the cephalopod from a cultural and economic point of view. To understand it, we have to go back to 2025, when fishermen who fish on the southern coasts of the United Kingdom encountered an unexpected picture: in the pots that have been installed for generations to hunt crabs and lobsters, they began to appear empty shells…a clue to the presence of octopuses. Click on the image to go to the tweet. Why is it so strange? Because the ports in the north of the peninsula are used to large unloadings of octopus, but things change when we talk about Newlyn or Brixham, in England. There the boats that go out to fish hope to collect sole, turbot, crabs or lobsters. A few months ago, however, the fishermen encountered an unexpected (and apparently inexplicable) invasion of Octopus vulgariscephalopods that usually live in the Mediterranean or other areas of the Atlantic, such as the Galician coast. It was not a one-off boom. Nor something anecdotal. The phenomenon was so surprising that it even caught the attention of Stephen Castle, a reporter for The New York Timeswho in September traveled to Brixham to talk to sailors and operators. In a chronicle about what he saw there, he talks about fishermen ecstatic to see how their turnover skyrocketed thanks to new catches, auctions of tons of merchandise and veterans of the sector recognizing that it was the first time they had captured the species in their waters in more than 40 years. This is good news, right? Depends. Castle chatted with fishermen who rub their hands when they see the tentacles wriggling in their nets, but also with others who frustratedly tell how octopuses boycott the pots with which they capture shellfish. They are not the only ones who are not enthusiastic about the new plague. “I recently visited the fishing industry in Plummouth and was informed that there was an unusual abundance of octopuses in the south west. The Ministry of Environment and Food understands that the proliferation is affecting shellfish pot fishing and causing concern in the fishing sector in the area,” warned in May last year the Labor MP Daniel Zeichner. And why not take advantage of it? That is the question that the British authorities seem to have asked themselves, who have decided that the cephalopod invasion may be something more: an opportunity. At the beginning of the year Vigo Lighthouse revealed who in London want to promote a formal, regulated and industrial fishery of the octopus vulgaris. In short: make a virtue of necessity and equip yourself with a strategy to gain a foothold in a market that moves billions of euros. Proof that the United Kingdom they are very serious with the octopus is that the Marine Biological Association (MBA) and the Marine Management Organization (MMO), two departments linked to the Government, “are considering how best to collaborate with the EU to learn from existing octopus fisheries.” a few days ago The Voice of Galicia even reported that the country is already looking at the markets of the rest of Europe and Morocco. It makes sense if we take into account that the change on the English coast, with an octopus boom that in turn reduces the population of other traditional species, already affected to the Christmas campaign. Do they have that many octopuses? Yes. In September, after speaking with the manager of a market, Castle talked about the sale of up to 48 tons of octopus in a single day. Official MMO data shows that last year a total of about 1,900 tons of octopus, especially in Brixham and Dartmouth. It is an exceptional fact. First, because it exponentially multiplies the discrete cephalopod capture data recorded so far. Second, because it surpasses the 1,200 t handled in the markets of Galicia. There is sources which indicate that total sales in the UK markets would be much higher. Data from the Xunta on the sale (blue) and price (yellow) of octopus in the markets of Galicia. Is it something new? Yes. And no. It is not the first time that English fishermen have found octopuses wrapped in their nets and pots. Vigo Lighthouse remember that in Devon and Cornwall sailors already encountered similar situations in the late 19th and mid-20th centuries, when the regional press came to speak of “a perfect plague” of “disgusting beasts” that “almost ruined” the sector. On this occasion there are signs that suggest that it will not be something temporary. Experts such as Seteve Simpson, from the University of Bristol, slide that climate change is “a likely factor” in explaining the increase in octopuses in southern England. “Our waters are warming, so our little island of Britain is becoming increasingly favorable for octopus populations,” he theorizes. There are clues that suggest he is not wrong. In Plymouth there are fishermen who recognize that they not only encounter adult specimens when fishing. They also see … Read more

In the Middle Ages there was a very expensive culinary trend that today would make your food inedible: they bathed it in spices

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For tastes, colors. But if you were the guest of a landowner from the Middle Ages, a wealthy count or baron who wanted to impress his diners with a sumptuous banquet of fish, meat, wine and sweets, it would be best if your tastes leaned towards hyper-spicy food. After all, it was not unreasonable that on the table you would find a tray of pheasant swimming in a sauce made with 17 different spicesso many that its flavor would hardly please today’s palates. Maybe that expectation seems unappetizing to you, but for medieval diners it made perfect sense. Better with spices. Medieval diners liked spices. A lot. So much so that their banquets were an authentic display of dressings of ginger, cinnamon, black pepper, nutmeg or saffron, among a long and well seasoned etc. As an example, Michael Delahoydefrom Washington State University, explains that a meat sauce could contain about 17 different spices. In another recent example The Country spoke of recipes up to 15 and plenty of sugar. Everything on the same plate. Combined. Forming a mixture of flavors that would make the foods that gave luster to the great banquets of medieval nobles hardly edible for 21st century diners. And that (culinary ironies) has never been as easy to find spices as it is today: it comes with entering any supermarket to find full shelves. A gastronomic window. If we know what and how medieval nobles ate, it is thanks to the work of historians and works such as ‘The Book of Sent Soví’a manuscript that stands out for several reasons: it is the oldest recipe book of its type in the Iberian Peninsula and for a few days it has been starring an exhibition about medieval food in Valencia. The work contains 72 recipes and dates back to the 15th century, although experts are convinced that the work is based on a previous original, now lost, that was written in 1324. The work is interesting not only because of its recipes. It is also because it tells us about what the diners of the Late Middle Ages were like, perhaps somewhat different from us in tastes, but not in terms of attitude. In addition to appreciating the good taste of the dishes, they liked to show off, using gastronomy as a status symbol. They appreciated kitchens with large stoves, the carvers who cut and distributed the meat among the diners, spices and sugar. Cooking and marketing (medieval). “We all have to eat, every day, but in the Middle Ages they did not have the ways of distinguishing themselves that we have. They turned food into a liturgy, a ritual in which they demonstrated their wealth and that was seen even outside because they gave leftovers to the poorest classes. It was a way of demonstrating status,” comment to The Country Juan Vicente García Marsilla, professor of Medieval History and curator of the exhibition. The 15th century recipe book preserved in Valencia has much of that pomp and prestige that was sought among kitchens and pantries. In its prologue it slips that the original work was prepared some time ago by commission from an English kingbut the recipes speak of another reality: an author probably Valencian or Catalan accustomed to the gastronomic tradition of the Mediterranean. “Marketing hype of the time”, summarizes García. By attributing the work to a foreign and ancient chef, the recipe book sought to imbue itself with exoticism and prestige. Why so many spices? Partly because of the above. Status. Today we may find them in any Mercadona, but spices or sugar centuries ago They were luxuries that were not within reach of all the tables. “Spices were a sign of luxury and opulence. They denoted prestige,” comments Delahoydewho reflects on the peculiar value of medieval cookbooks: probably not all cooks knew how to read and the recipe books were not used in the kitchen either, but rather were kept in private collections. Therefore… Were they useful for those responsible for provisions? Were they a sign of status? A way to learn about the exotic ingredients in each dish, garnishes that might otherwise go unnoticed by diners? In search of flavors… and names. Analida Braeger slips some interesting reflections in Medievalist.neta platform founded in 2008 and specialized in medieval history. In a comprehensive article On the subject, he points out that the medieval palate became accustomed to foods heavily seasoned with spices, a symbol of power increased in part by its exotic origin and the imports from the East. In the extensive list included cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, ginger, pepper, saffron, mace, cardamom or galangal. insatiable demand. “Europe’s insatiable demand for spices in the late Middle Ages is a notable example of a drastic historical shift brought about by consumer preferences,” pointed out in 2012 Paul Freedman in an article published in ‘The Oxford Handbook of Food History’. The result is recipes like chicken with sugar which we can read in the 15th century manuscript preserved in Valencia. Furthermore, spices were not only used in cooking, they also had medical applications. There is who assures that despite their limited availability and high cost, a very high percentage of the recipes in cookbooks from the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries include spices and that at least some works cite up to 40 different types. In any case, it must be clear that the cuisine of the aristocracy and that widespread among the popular classes are not the same. Among the latter it was not strange that cold food for a matter of costs. Revisiting old topics. As happens often With everything related to the Middle Ages, the use of spices is overshadowed by clichés and prejudices that are not always accurate. Delahoyde remembers the “common myth” that cooks of the time relied heavily on seasonings to mask the taste of spoiled meat. After all, there were no refrigerators or freezers to keep meat fresh, right? Why not season it well? It is not likely that … Read more

is renovating its bullet train with 5G-enabled windows and noise-cancelling cabins

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High-speed rail is going through a phase of maturity where the differential is no longer so much speed, but rather productivity and comfort. In short: it wants to become a fully fledged alternative to flying in the business segment. While Spain is consolidated as the second country in the world in high-speed network and leader in technological interoperability, Japan (which was a pioneer with the Shinkansen in 1964) wants to regain its hegemony with deep digitalization. JR Central, the rail operator of the Tokaido Shinkansen, has announced which will equip the next premium suites of its famous bullet trains with windows with integrated 5G antennas and active ambient noise cancellation without the need for headphones. The news. The improvements are not cosmetic, but a serious commitment to transform the premium car into a work or rest environment comparable to a private office. 5G antennas on the glass. The technology is provided by AGCa Japanese company that weaves conductive microfibers into the glass to form an antenna that is connected to the on-board Wi-Fi router. While conventional systems bounce the 5G signal inside the train before reaching the router, antennas integrated into the glass keep direct line of sight with outside base stations. That is, a more stable Wi-Fi with a stronger signal. Integrated ANC. The system is called Personalized Sound Zone (PSZ) and has been developed by NTT. Its operation is like that of headphones with active cancellation: it detects the waveform of the ambient sound and from there, projects its inversion to cancel it. The main difference is that you don’t need to cover your ear: it uses a combination of microphones, speakers and spatially optimized low-latency processing. Why is it important. JR Central’s bullet train reaches speeds of up to 285 km/h, meaning it passes mobile network base stations so quickly that it often needs to reconnect to another radio. This phenomenon is known as handover and degrades the quality of the connection: it is the Achilles heel of connectivity in high-speed trains around the world. Yes, those internet outages also happen on the AVE. Finding a solution in windows is technically elegant and scalable. From the point of view of the premium segment, the robust connectivity and acoustic isolation without headphones places it in direct competition with the business class flight on routes within the country. Of course, in the absence of the price. For now, JR Central has only confirmed which will be more expensive than tickets for first-class Shinkansen Green Car seats, which already cost 40% more than a standard unreserved ticket. An example: standard ticket from Tokyo station to Kyoto (2 hours and 15 minutes) costs 13,320 yen and 18,840 yen for the Green Car, that is, 71 and 100 euros respectively. Context. The Tokaido Shinkansen is the busiest high-speed line in the world. Private compartments disappeared from the line in 2003 with the withdrawal of the Series 100 double-decker trains, which included private cabins. This new initiative means the return to the format in style two decades later. Regarding glass antenna technology, the collaboration between AGC, NTT Docomo and Ericsson has been going on since 2018. In fact, in 2019 this conglomerate of companies reached the world’s first 5G communication using an integrated fused silica glass antenna to transmit and receive 28 GHz signals, with average download speeds of 1.3 Gbps and maximum download speeds of 3.8 Gbps in a range of 100 meters. What JR Central is now announcing is the first commercial application in high-speed trains. And in Spain? In connectivity, there is a technological and approach gap. The AVE has Wi-Fi since December 2016 thanks to a system of outdoor 4G-LTE antennas combined with satellite, routers, servers and access points. That is, like what JR Central has just overcome: capturing the signal from outside and redistributing it inside. AGC’s solution for the Shinkansen eliminates this weak point by maintaining direct line of sight with the base stations, something especially critical at high speed. Of course, while PlayRenfe is universal for all travelers, the Shinkansen Wi-Fi will be in the luxury suites. Yes, but. The deployment is very limited: in the initial phase only a couple of suites will be installed in six trains, so coverage is residual against the park of operational units total and JR Central has not made public a roadmap for the expansion of these technologies. On the other hand, NTT’s noise cancellation technology applied to a train poses its own structural challenges, ranging from noise variations at 285 km/h to pressure changes in tunnels. It will be necessary to check the real effectiveness of the system under these conditions. In Xataka | There was a day when Japan was the leading high-speed country. It has been surpassed by China, a victim of its own country In Xataka | In 2015, Japan showed the world a train capable of reaching 600 km/h. Ten years later we still don’t know anything about him Cover | Fikri Rasyid

The best offers on consoles and technology from El Corte Inglés, today April 18

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El Corte Inglés has launched very good discounts this week in April, and some have fallen directly on several consoles. The offers will be available throughout the weekendso if you are looking for your next adventure in video games or a good television, be careful with these discounts. nintendo switch 2 by 499.90 eurosa pack assembled by the store that includes the Pokémon Pokopia video game. Philips Ambilight 55OLED820/12 by 849.15 eurosan OLED television with the brand’s Ambilight technology. PlayStation 5 by 569 eurosa pack that includes two video games. LG OLED C5 by 999 eurosour recommendation if you are looking for the television with the best quality-price ratio. Samsung HW-Q990F by 749 eurosa perfect sound bar for setting up a home theater. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links nintendo switch 2 From time to time El Corte Inglés launches the odd pack in the nintendo switch 2and this time it has one of the most interesting ones we have seen so far. By 499.90 eurosyou can take the console along with ‘Pokémon Pokopia‘, a very particular video game within the saga that puts us in the “skins” of Ditto to meet a large assortment of Pokémon while we build with a style similar to ‘Minecraft’ or ‘Dragon Quest Builders’. Nintendo Switch 2 + Pokémon Pokopia The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Philips Ambilight 55OLED820/12 On the other hand, if what you are looking for is a good television to play the console or to watch movies and series, El Corte Inglés has the Philips Ambilight 55OLED820/12 by 849.15 eurosa good price for an OLED model with a 55-inch screen. In addition, it comes with the brand’s Ambilight technology, is compatible with Dolby Atmos, Dolby Vision and HDR10+, its operating system is Google TV and it works with both Google Assistant and Alexa. Philips Ambilight 55OLED820/12 The price could vary. We earn commission from these links PlayStation 5 In addition to the Nintendo Switch 2, El Corte Inglés has put together a pack of the PlayStation 5 in its Slim version with disc reader that includes two video games: ‘Dragon Ball Sparking Zero’ and ‘Astro Bot’. All this for 569 euros. It is ideal if you don’t have the console yet and want to buy it before the price goes upbut it is also to start enjoying playing the moment you receive it at home. PlayStation 5 + Dragon Ball Sparking Zero + Astro Bot The price could vary. We earn commission from these links LG OLED C5 If you want an alternative to the Philips television, we are clear: the LG OLED C5 It is our recommendation if you are looking the TV with the best quality-price ratio. Right now it costs 999 euros in El Corte Inglés, although Amazon has it as 959 euros. The LG OLED C5 It is a smart TV that incorporates a 55-inch OLED panel. Its refresh rate reaches 144 Hz, it is compatible with both Dolby Vision as with Dolby Atmos and incorporates speakers that offer a power of 40W. Additionally, it has some features gaming such as several HDMI 2.1 ports and compactness with G-Sync and FreeSync. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Samsung HW-Q990F If what you are looking for is good audio equipment to set up a home theater, the sound bar Samsung HW-Q990F has dropped in El Corte Inglés to 749 euros. This is a model that includes the bar itself, a wireless subwoofer and two rear speakers. Offers an integrated sound system to 11.1.14 channelsit supports wireless Dolby Atmos and has WiFi, Bluetooth and HDMI connectivity. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Some of the links in this article are affiliated and may provide a benefit to Xataka. In case of non-availability, offers may vary. Image | El Corte Inglés and Compradicción (header), Nintendo, Philips, PlayStation, LG, Samsung In Xataka | Best televisions in quality price. Which one to buy and seven recommended 4K smart TVs In Xataka | Best sound bars in quality price (2026). Which one to buy and seven recommended models from 99 euros

Someone has put everything they need in a survival flash drive.

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The massive arrival of the Internet and connected devices have implemented a half-truth in our daily lives: that there will always be connectivity. And it doesn’t have to be. I discovered it the hard way on April 28, 2025, the day of the blackout: Without cash, something as common as eating out and paying with a card became an impossible mission and involuntary fasting. With information, more of the same: the usual Wikipedia or Google Maps are of little use without the Internet (in fact, download the original is always a good idea). Someone has wondered what would be left on your computer when the Internet goes down and to address that uncomfortable but legitimate question, they have launched a “survival kit” that fits on a USB flash drive. You insert it into your PC, it boots directly from there and it comes with everything. Yes, also an AI assistant. The project. shelters is an open source project created by Spanish Spanish dev Javier Prieto. What it essentially offers is a lightweight variant of Ubuntu preconfigured with a selection of tools designed to work completely offline. The heart of the project is an installation script: you prepare a USB with the base system, you connect it to the Internet once to run that script and you no longer need the Internet. Why is it important. The refugiOS proposal solves a real problem that is often overlooked: the vulnerability of depending on the Internet and its infrastructure. In the event of a serious emergency, such as my blackout, but also natural disasters or conflicts, what the servers offer will be inaccessible. And it will be the time when you need them most. Having that data physically stored without the need for external and foreign infrastructure can make a difference. Emergencies aside, the project evidently also satisfies from a privacy point of view. Everything you consult in refugiOS stays on your machine. There are no servers that record your activity, conversations or routes or share them with the AI. In a context where data and its analysis are increasingly the order of the day, having tools that work without filtering data to the outside provide value beyond being useful in the event of a possible apocalypse. And it offers one more extra: total portability. What does shelter bring?. The available content is grouped into five blocks: Offline library and encyclopedias: Wikipedia, WikiMed and WikiHow thanks to Kiwix. Maps and GPS navigation with offline search and routes using Organic Maps. Artificial intelligence. An AI assistant run locally available in three power levels depending on the RAM of your computer: from the basic Phi-4-mini for any PC with 4 GB of RAM to Qwen3-14B that requires 16GB to Qwen3-8B, which requires 8GB. Encrypted file vault (LUKS standard) to protect sensitive files. General tools like LibreOffice, VLC or Syncthing. There are three AI models depending on the hardware of your computer. GitHub Context. There are a few digital resilience projects, including Kiwix, which has been distributing Wikipedia offline to areas without internet for years; but what refugiOS is about combining several of these options into an all-in-one, ready-to-use system, which is also accessible to someone who doesn’t have too much technical knowledge. And it also comes at the best time. On the one hand, because there has been a real boom in small and efficient language models (something that a couple of years ago was unthinkable) and on the other, because of the current situation: conflicts, the flooding of AI to each and every one of the Internet sectors or the shift of the American technological monopoly of the West towards a more invasive policy. refugiOS takes advantage of that technological window and opportunity to add a layer of comprehensive utility. In detail. The project has deliberately conservative design decisions in that it ensures that the system boots and runs smoothly on basic and/or veteran computers (with 4GB of RAM), being easy to maintain and distribute. In fact, the documentation explains how to copy it to pass it on to your people. Of course, its status is still quite incipient: it is functional, but with room for improvement in the interface, documentation and language coverage. However, its roadmap is ambitious, with thousands of public domain books through Project Gutenberg or support for shortwave radio receivers. In Xataka | Batteries, radio, power bank: the six basic technologies that we recommend for your own “survival kit” in the event of a blackout In Xataka | Someone has passed 12,000 laws and reforms to source code and now searching the BOE is no longer an ordeal Cover | Immo Wegmann and Marcel Eberle

The map of Spain where you can see how healthy the tap water in your town is

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Water management in the Spanish state has several fronts: from the purely hydrological to the increasingly frequent shortage scenarios to the quality of this. Yes, the water that reaches the tap has passed through a water treatment plant and is therefore suitable for consumption, but there is a pollutant to keep an eye on: nitrates. The filtration of nutrients from the industrial agricultural activity so widespread in Spain brings about the degradation of ecosystems and also jeopardizes the security of public supply by saturating the self-cleaning capacity of aquifers and exceeding, in many cases, the treatment capacity of local water treatment plants. Although checking the quality of the water that reaches your tap is a resource accessible to citizens through platforms such as the National Consumer Water Information System (SINAC), the reality is that sometimes databases are too technical and dense, so someone has thought of converting the information from the Ministry of Health into an interactive map that is understandable to everyone. Is “the water of your town“and is a public consultation tool so that anyone who wants to know the quality of tap water of your municipality regarding nitrates, you can do so without needing technical knowledge through an interactive map that is easy to interpret. The map in question has been developed by DATADISTA based on official data from SINAC, which depends on the Ministry of Health and collects the analytical results of all drinking water supply networks in Spain. It is important to highlight that the last reading dates from April 2026 and does not contain real-time measurements, but rather the frequency varies depending on the supply area. Thus, while those networks that distribute more than 10 cubic meters per day have to report, those that are smaller the report is voluntary. Hence, some small rural towns appear without data. To make it easier, it comes with a direct search engine. Datadista The map shows the Spanish state with an OpenStreetMap map and points distributed throughout the territory on a color scale that goes from red for those who do not comply with the regulations to green for those who comply, passing through intermediate tones for risk or surveillance situations. In addition to being able to zoom and move the map or the Canary Islands having its own button to center the image on its archipelago, in the upper area are the layers that we can activate to view information such as the Nitrate Vulnerable Zones declared by the autonomous communities or the chemical state of the underground aquifers. In the lower left corner, the legend that explains the limits. If you prefer not to search on the map, at the top of the website there is a search box that speeds up everything and a brief summary of those critical areas. How good (or not) is the water in your town? Municipalities that fail to comply, critical points and control points. Datadista At first glance, a clear correlation is obtained: the most affected areas are concentrated in areas of intensive irrigated agriculture, especially in the interior of the peninsula. If you also activate the aquifer layer, transparent white and in the bottle: there is one direct relationship between agricultural intensity and water pollution underground with which the population is supplied. The categories in which the municipalities are classified are four: It fails to comply when any network registers 50 mg/L or more of nitrates, which is the parametric value set by European regulations and the Royal Decree 3/2023. Critical point: nitrates consistently exceed 30 mg/L. It is 60% of the legal limit and obliges the operator to develop a Water Health Plan with corrective measures. Control point, for those municipalities where high episodes have been detected but on a punctual and non-sustained basis. Complies, for municipalities that do not present a relevant risk due to nitrates. Be careful because there are 201 municipalities and almost 91,000 people supplied within that “non-compliant” range and 885 municipalities and more than a million people who drink tap water in critical areas. It is important to consider that the final state of a municipality is always determined by the worst state of all its supply networks. The nitrate problem. Nitrates reach the water due to the excess of nitrogen fertilizers and livestock manure, which, applied to the field (whether directly or not), are oxidized by bacterial action, transforming into nitrate, a very soluble anion that the soil does not retain and that easily infiltrates into the aquifers and rivers from which the population is supplied. The 50 mg/L limit was set by the WHO between the decades of the 50s and 60s to prevent acquired methemoglobinemia (blue baby syndrome) in infants due to high levels of nitrates in well water, the use of uncontrolled groundwater for infant formulas is not recommended. But science has shown that the problem is more serious than that legal limit. Without going any further, a Danish study from 2018 showed that there is a greater risk of colorectal cancer from just 3.87 mg/L, the MCC-Spain project found links to aggressive prostate tumors even below that current limit. In fact, in 2025 an international group of science professionals recommended lower this safety threshold to 6 mg/L, a figure that is very far from what comes out of the taps of numerous municipalities in the state. In Xataka | Much more than tourism, cars and oil: the entire industry that Spain exports to the world, gathered in one graph In Xataka | Someone has created a simulator where you can see if sea level rise is going to reach your house or not. Cover | Infowater

In 1953, North Korea and South Korea spoke the same language. In 2026, they begin to be two different

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The abrupt political changes, the traumatic measures imposed by force of military mandate on a people, can have unexpected effects visible in the short term and leave wounds that do not heal until long after the end of the discord. We saw it very clearly in the two “Germanies” that the Cold War left us and we see it clearly today in another country: Korea. Traveling to the present, and although we know the mark that the battle between the capitalist and communist blocs is leaving on the Korean population, there is a dimension of cultural inequality that may have gone more unnoticed: idiomatic. As a recent study showed, and after just over seven decades of separation, Korean is no longer the same between the north and the south. 45% of the population surveyed He had problems understanding the dialogues of Koreans from the opposite area, and in 1% of the cases the North Koreans did not understand at all what the South Koreans were telling them. In conclusion, and as linguists dedicated to this company have stated, at least a third of everyday vocabulary is no longer the same, especially that referring to professional and business topics. This is how their vocabularies have varied The main difference between both territories is that in North Korea the language has remained purer, with slight grammatical incursions from Chinese and Russian, while South Korean has embraced many neologisms from English without hesitation. While over time in South Korea companies have created various terms to say “paper”adapting to new and different formats and materials, in the north the original term is maintained exclusively, which they must use for all variants. In the south, and to speak of football terminology, penalty goals are scored with a “penalty kick”expressed literally in English, while in the north the Koreans triumph by making an “11 meter punishment.” Southerners, when they want to have a juice, ask for a “juice”, while northerners talk about “sweet fruit water”. to wish you “good luck” to someone, those from the south have adopted an English-speaking expression in colloquial speech, “hi-team”something that those from the north do not understand at all. North Koreans “have a headache,” while those in the south, who in recent decades have discovered the concept of stress, talk much more about the pain of “suturese”stress in the corrupt slang konglish. The new lexicons also show the ideological transformation between the two nations, between their political systems and their social structures. Since the separation, the word “dongmu”which meant friend, fell out of use in the north in favor of the Soviet term товарищ, “comrade.” “Sun-mul”, a term that means “the action of introducing your friend”, is now prohibited from being used among the general population, and its privileged use was reserved for Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong il. The problematic oral life of deserters These changes have already had recognizable consequences and it is logical that it becomes a more pressing problem every day. During the 2018 Olympic Games, for example, the two countries decided to launch a reconciliation message to the world by allowing its women’s hockey teams to compete in the same group head to head. As the athletes from the south commented later, there was quite a few communication problems that harmed their final strategy: apparently, the coach, from South Korea, used technical words in English, something that is most common in sports disciplines anywhere in the world, but the players from the north were not able to follow her lessons because of this vocabulary that, for them, was indecipherable. Something more serious than the lack of coordination for a sporting event is what many of them have had to experience. the 28,000 deserters who traveled from north to south in recent years. Their language unintentionally betrays them in their new country of residence. In the best of cases the locals They laugh at their outdated dialect. That they do not know how to adapt to the jargon of a post-war and globalized reality. At worst, they can have many problems getting into schools or getting jobs and live a second life as sacrificed as the one they tried to leave behind. Language preservation: a national trauma Because, in addition, Korean has great emotional and identity relevance for the 75 million citizens that both fronts have together. After the dramatic occupation of the peninsula by Japanese forces between 1910 and 1945, the locals were subjected to Japanese linguistic norms as a strategy to control the population and eradicate their culture. They imposed themselves “scientific” speeches that they defended their language was little more than a dialect descended from Japanese (a controversial claim for any linguist with a neutral vision), and that therefore it was not worth preserving a perverted use of a language superior in its purity. T After the Pacific War, teaching in Korean was strictly prohibited, its vocabulary was extinguished, people who spoke it daily were reprimanded, and intellectuals who tried to preserve its legacy were executed. With the end of the Second World War, the two resulting nations partly had to re-empower their language. There are attempts to reunify the language Both governments have been working bidirectionally for several years on a unified glossary project. It is known as the Gyeoremal-kunsajeon, or the Dictionary for People’s Understanding of Korean, and is the plan under which future generations will be educated. These 70 years of linguistic change They have gone much further than the transformation of some terms. There is even conversational structures that have been modified. It would be a change as abrupt as uniting people of a language with those who use one of its dialects. It is not just the fact that neither of the two States want to give in, it is that any modification of the linguistic structures that are not careful could cement syntactic inconsistencies or phonetics in the future. The company’s objectives, furthermore, are achieved at irregular rates, since relations between both nations have cooled … Read more

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