Mobile Tech & Gadgets

Volkswagen has no choice but to look for beans in China

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Volkswagen just announced an investment of more than 200 million dollars to develop its own advanced chips in China. According to the firm, it will have a processing power of between 500 and 700 TOPS (operations per second), and will be specifically designed to power semi-autonomous driving systems in vehicles that the brand manufactures for the Chinese market. Technological claudication. What Volkswagen presents as part of its strategy “In China, for China” It is, in fact, an implicit recognition of its inability to compete on its own in the field of artificial intelligence and automotive software. The German manufacturer has lost ground dramatically in the largest car market in the world: its sales fell from more than 4 million units in 2018 to 2.75 million in 2024, and in 2023 it lost its throne as the best-selling brand in China at the hands of BYD. Chinese technology as life jacket. The development of the chip will be carried out via Carizona joint venture between Cariad (Volkswagen’s software division) and Horizon Robotics, a Chinese firm specializing in integrated circuits with artificial intelligence. According to declared Frank Han, CEO of Cariad China, the chip will be manufactured with 3-4 nanometer technology and will have a power comparable to Nvidia’s Thor processor, which reaches 700 TOPS. By 2030, 80% of Volkswagen Group vehicles sold in China will be developed with the Chinese electronic architecture (CEA). Delivery of the chip is planned within three to five years. Production separation. Volkswagen is, de facto, dividing its production. In China, customers They demand cars full of technologywith advanced assisted driving systems and permanent connectivity. Local manufacturers such as BYD and Xiaomi have taken the lead in this regard, forcing the Western giants to adapt their strategy or die trying. Besides, chinese regulations They expressly prohibit driving data collected in the country from leaving its borders, making it inevitable that the manufacturer will choose to produce its vehicles in a radically different way than it does in the West. TOhook up with someone who can do what you don’t know. Volkswagen adapting its production to China goes beyond semiconductors. According to mention CNBC, the German brand will be the first customer to use Xpeng’s new semi-autonomous driving system, which the Chinese company presented as superior to Tesla’s Full Self-Driving. Volkswagen has also expanded its collaboration with Xpeng to jointly develop electronic architectures for more models in China. Survival in a fierce market. Volkswagen, like the rest of the manufacturers, is at a point where geopolitical tensions between China and the United States are disrupting semiconductor supply chains. According to account Bloomberg, manufacturers such as Volkswagen, BMW and Honda have recently faced a supply crisis after Beijing will block Nexperia exports in retaliation for the control that the Dutch Government exercised over the Chinese-owned company. Developing your own chips in China is, in part, a strategy to reduce dependence on external suppliers, something essential to survive in a context of growing global technological fragmentation. Two companies in one. Volkswagen now faces the challenge of managing two parallel technological ecosystems: one for China and another for the rest of the world. This also comes with a cost, with more investment, separate teams and the risk of losing synergies. But the alternative is worse. As declared Ralf Brandstätter, president and CEO of VW China, “we are accelerating and deepening the implementation of our ‘In China, for China’ strategy, going beyond localized production to master the core technologies that will shape the mobility of tomorrow.” Volkswagen has understood that it can no longer export its technological model to China, but rather import Chinese technology to survive there. Cover image | Volkswagen In Xataka | 55 years ago, an engineer locked himself in his basement to create a motorcycle with a dog nickname: it was the rebirth of Moto Guzzi

Apple has a plan to fix Siri. One that aims to make Google even richer, according to Bloomberg

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Apple Intelligence was introduced in 2024 with great promises. The main one, a Siri completely renewedmuch more capable and versatile. As it turned out, what they showed was a fictitious demo and the new Siri was delayed until 2026. Apple has lost the AI ​​raceat least in the first round, but they already have a plan to recover. One that involves delivering 1 billion a year to Google, all while they continue developing their own model. The agreement. Account Mark Gurman at Bloomberg that Apple is about to close a deal with Google worth $1 billion a year. This will allow them to use Gemini’s AI model to power their Siri assistant, especially in the planning and summary functions, which are what allow the assistant to execute more complex tasks. Apple has been evaluating other competitors such as OpenAI and Anthropic, but has finally settled on Google’s Gemini. The new Siri is expected to arrive in spring of next yearalthough nothing is confirmed. Conditions. The agreement does not involve integrating Gemini as an assistant in iPhones, but rather it will be integrated into Siri and will also do so from Apple’s private servers. This will separate user data from Google’s infrastructure. Furthermore, Gurman says that they are not going to publicize the agreement as they did when Google became Safari’s default search engine; in this case it will be a “behind the scenes” agreement. Temporary solution. Apple does not plan to use Google’s model forever as they are developing their own language model in parallel. We don’t know much about what it will be like, just that it will have 1 billion parameters and they hope to have it ready next year. Apple sources believe that it will have a level of quality similar to that of the Gemini, but for now there is nothing to prove it. Taking into account Apple’s AI stumbles We would not be surprised if the promise of its own model ends up being diluted. Additionally, the company has lost at least three key AI executives because Zuckerberg signed them for his superintelligence team. China. The agreement has a problem and that is that Google services are banned in China, so the new Siri would arrive with modifications to comply with this restriction. It is said that heThe Chinese version could have its own models and a local filter developed by Alibaba. China is a key market for Apple and the latest results do not leave them in a good place. That the new Siri arrives “captured” in China could have more negative consequences. Images | Wikipedia In Xataka | Apple has lost the throne it held for a decade. And the Chinese brands no longer even let it be second

Spain kneels before ‘The one that is coming’ with a channel that broadcasts the series all day almost non-stop

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Spain loves ‘The one that is coming‘. We can turn our noses up all we want, but the success of a series that is about to premiere its 16th season, tirelessly satirizing the behavior of the average Spaniard, should not go unnoticed by anyone even remotely interested in the curious evolutions of popular culture. This tweet from @casasola_89 corroborates it: Fiction Factory has practically become a monographic channel for the series. With more than stable audiences. The monographic channel. Fiction Factory broadcast 3,735 hours of ‘The one that is coming’ in 2021 alone, a figure that is equivalent to more than 700 chapters. The trend has gone further and has ended up transforming Mediaset’s thematic channel into a practically monothematic platform, although it is accompanied by films that have already made the corresponding rounds on Telecinco, Cuatro and other DTT channels of the house, as well as some other successful series in the mornings, such as ‘Aida’. But how much do they emit? Any day of the week (regardless of whether it is Tuesday or Sunday), ‘La que se cerca’ starts its broadcasts late in the morning, around one o’clock. From that hour until well into the prime timewhere a movie is broadcast around eleven at night, we have episodes non-stop. And after the cinema it resumes: between specific betting programs and horoscopes, which barely take a total of half an hour off the grill, the entire early morning once again belongs to the residents of Montepinar, until the telesales at six thirty in the morning. Spain is doing well. This strategy was initially a resounding success: in September 2011, the series’ specials reached quotas of between 7-11% of screen share, allowing FDF beat your all-time record with a 4.5% monthly average, its maximum to date, in August 2014. Laura Caballero, co-creator of the fiction, recognized this symbiosis years ago: “It has been very good to re-air the series. Those who did not want to see it have seen it almost out of obligation. This has given it its own series identity and so that it does not seem like a copy”, referring to the change from ‘No one lives here’ to ‘The one that is coming’. Neighborhood saturation. This triumph could not last forever: the omnipresence on the FDF grid of ‘La que se cerca’ generated a paradoxical effect. The increase in broadcast hours, going from 2,909 in 2019 to 3,735 in 2021, led to a drop in audience: from 3.1% and 322,000 viewers in 2019 to 2.5% and 243,000 viewers in 2021, as El Español pointed out. This erosion contributed to FDF losing the annual leadership among thematic channels in 2021 in favor of Nova, after a decade as the most watched channel on DTT, averaging a 2.4% audience share. However, in 2024 FDF has recovered ground with 2.6%, surpassing Energy (2.4%) and leading again among DTT themes. And since 2018 (which is said soon: seven years), its audiences are stable. The one that comes 24/7. Why then does this continue to broadcast ‘The one that is coming’, why doesn’t FDF try other options to recover that 4.5% of share that he had. Very simple: the rebroadcasts of ‘The one that is coming’ never cease to interest the least, the new seasons on Prime Video (where it’s going great) and Telecinco provide FDF with occasional audience boosts and the transformation of “Canal para las Ficciones de Mediaset” into “Canal La que se cerca” is an identity seal that suits the platform. Make no mistake: this series will outlive us all. In Xataka | Streaming was going to change everything. In Spain, people are using it to watch ‘Aída’ and ‘La que se cerca’

2,000 euros fine for the minor’s parents

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The Spanish Data Protection Agency (AEPD) has imposed the first sanction in Spain for the creation and dissemination of false images generated with artificial intelligence. The parents of a minor have been fined 2,000 euros, reduced to 1,200 for prompt payment, after a case that has set a precedent in the protection of minors’ data in Europe. What has happened. A minor used the ClothOff app to create a fake image of a naked high school classmate. The AI ​​tool takes the victim’s face and superimposes it on an unclothed body, taking into account physical characteristics such as complexion or skin tone. The image was later spread through social networks and messaging groups. The origin of the case. Although the public resolution does not identify the parties involved, the AEPD has confirmed that it is one of the cases that occurred in AlmendralejoBadajoz, in September 2023. Then, it came to light that at least 20 minors had been victims of similar schemes that circulated on the municipality’s cell phones. The images even reached portals such as OnlyFans and pornographic pages, according to the resolution. Why it is important. This is the first time that a data protection authority in the European Union sanctions by spreading a deepfake. The AEPD opened the file ex officio on September 20, 2023, just two days after the case became public, and was able to learn the identity of those responsible thanks to the collaboration with the Prosecutor’s Office. The regulator has acted on the basis that a person’s image is personal data that has reinforced protection when it comes to minors. The debate on the sanction. The amount of the fine has generated some debate. Jorge García Herrero, lawyer and data protection officer, account to El País that “very few risks related to AI cause as much social alarm as the creation of non-consensual sexual deepfakes of minors” and questions whether the sanction is ‘not very exemplary’. On the other hand, the jurist Borja Adsuara, account to the media that this is “a crime against privacy, which goes through criminal proceedings,” and wonders what sense it makes to impose an administrative fine when the case has already been judicially sentenced. The parallel path. This administrative procedure of the AEPD is independent of the criminal process that has already been initiated against those responsible, who were between 12 and 14 years old at the time of the events. In the judicial process, a year of supervised release was imposed on 15 minors for manipulating images of classmates. According to Miriam Al Adib, mother of one of the victims, “there was an exemplary sentence according to which the children are on probation for a year and have to take a training course.” And now what. It is expected that the AEPD will publish more similar fines related to the events in Almendralejo in the coming months, given that there were at least two dozen victims. The resolution exempts the creators of ClothOff from liability, an application designed specifically to generate images of naked women without their consent and which is currently closed. Its creators face a judicial process in the United States. Al Adib warns that these cases represent “a pandemic of tremendous violence” that requires coordinated political strategies and effective protection protocols for victims. Cover image | Swello In Xataka | We already have the first controversy of this Christmas: Coca-Cola has once again made an advertisement using AI

the change was 29,000 euros

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Brandon Halstead, a young kitchen assistant at the British pub and restaurant chain Wetherspoon’s, used his employee discount card on a family meal for seven people. The discount was 20% so was saved about 19.17 pounds in the account (about 22 euros at the exchange rate). Without knowing it, the employee had begun his worst work nightmare. Misuse of the discount card. As and how he collected the british newspaper MirrorBrandon Halstead used his employee discount code on a meal with seven people, including himself, during a day off at one of Wetherspoon’s locations. Unknowingly, I was violating the internal policy that limits the discount to groups of four people or less. A detail that Brandon himself admitted he was unaware of when the company began an internal investigation. Although the employee acknowledged his ignorance of the rule and showed his regret, the company accused him of “dishonesty and abuse” of the discount program, and subjected him to a disciplinary hearing. for serious misconduct. This improper use, although not in bad faith, led to a strict disciplinary sanction from the restaurant chain. Undue access put the finishing touch. During the investigation into the use of the discounts, it was discovered that Brandon’s mother had access to the Wetherspoon’s app to organize work schedules and public transport trips for her son, who has a diagnosis of autism. The company interpreted this access as a violation of its data security policy, which further aggravated the sanctions, to the point of affecting Brandon’s salary, in addition to generating what the DailyMail described as “significant stress and anxiety.” Faced with this situation, Brandon put pressure on the employee, aggravated by his autism condition, the young man requested medical leave for mental health reasons derived from the labor conflict. Given the company’s refusal to meet with them to find a solution that would put an end to that tense environmentBrandon’s mother filed a lawsuit arguing that the company failed to make “reasonable accommodations” to address Brandon’s disability. Justice is clear: there was no bad faith. A local employment tribunal rejected the disability harassment claim, but considered disproportionate the application of a “strict zero tolerance policy” to a person with autism “who was unaware of the rule and did not act in bad faith in applying it.” Labor Judge Murdoch noted that “in Brandon’s case there was no dishonesty test. Brandon immediately admitted to violating the discount policy rules because he was unaware of them. A typical characteristic of autism is a strong desire to comply with the rules. “A person without autism could have known the rules of the discount policy and fraudulently violated them, or could have lied when asked whether he had violated them,” Judge Murdoch stressed. Adaptation of your job. Regarding access to schedule data by the mother, the judge criticizes the company for not having minimally adapted the position to Brandon’s needs. “We consider that the application of this standard procedure places Brandon at a substantial disadvantage compared to a person without autism. Therefore, the court ruled that Wetherspoon’s should compensate Brandon £25,412, equivalent to approximately €28,900, for failing to make the necessary adjustments to avoid the situation of stress and anxiety to your employee. For its part, the company refused to offer comments to the Mirrorclaiming that “The individual remains employed by Wetherspoon and we do not comment on employment matters involving current employees. It should be noted that the employees’ harassment complaint was unsuccessful.” In Xataka | 55,245 euros for eating a sandwich and a beer: Mercadona must compensate an employee for unfair dismissal Image | Unsplash (Cova Software)

what they are and how to access them to know which artists you have listened to the most each week

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Let’s tell you what are Spotify listening statisticsan internal feature that the streaming application has launched for its subscribers. Just as there are external pages and services to be able to see your Spotify statistics With all the songs you’ve been listening to month after month, now the service has released its own. We will start by explaining to you what exactly these statistics are and what data will you be able to see in them. Then, we will explain how you can access them, so you can see yours. What are Spotify listening statistics Spotify listening statistics are a page within the Spotify mobile application, where you will be able to see What artists have you listened to the most? every week. Thus, whenever you want you can see the most popular artists of the moment, those to whom you have spent the most hours. These are quite limited statistics.. At the moment you will only be able to see those for each week, but not the statistics for each month or each year. Additionally, each week you will only be able to see the five artists you have listened to the mostas well as changes in the ranking, but you will not be able to know the total number of listens or minutes of each artist. If you settle for some basic statistics that you will be able to share With views for Instagram stories and other social networks, you will have more than enough. But if you are looking for something more advanced, then you will have to go to services like stats.fm either last.fm. In addition to the artists you’ve listened to the most each week, the listening statistics will also give you some other notable data, such as if you are one of the first to listen to a very popular album that just came out, or when you’ve had a considerable streak of days listening to a specific artist. It will also tell you if in specific weeks you have had a considerable number of hours of listening. How to access statistics What you have to do is make sure you have the Spotify app updated to its latest version. When you do, click on your profile photo to open the options and messages menu, and in it click on the option Listening statistics. Once you do, you will go to the page where a list of all the weeks is shown with the most listened to artists in each one, and some other notable information. Now, you can click on each week to see the full list, or click on the share button to get an image in the form of a story for social networks. In Xataka Basics | Create your own Spotify: 14 audio servers to host your music collection and listen to it wherever you want

features, price and technical sheet

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“We had to make a car under 20,000 euros in less than two years. We went into command mode” With these words Paula Fabregat, Director of Design Projects at Renault for segments A and B, summarizes the madness that has been the launch of the Renault Twingo. It is the last major assignment for Luca de Meo, who was CEO of Renault until last July when he unexpectedly left to make the leap into the luxury market with the Kering group. Since its arrival, the brand has experienced a true revolution, focusing on relaunches of the company’s legendary models reinterpreted as electric cars within the famous plan. Renaulution. The underlying idea in this Twingo looks very similar to the launches we have already seen: urban car like the Renault 5 and the Renault 4created with great care to stay attached to the past and, at the same time, propose an alternative that conquers by design to convince the undecided. The point is that the underlying idea was the same, the way of executing it has been very different. And, despite everything, the result at first glance (before getting into the car) is up to par. Technical data sheet of the Renault Twingo Renault Twingo BODY TYPE. Five-seater B-SUV MEASUREMENTS AND WEIGHT. 3.79 meters long, 1.72 meters wide, 1.49 meters high and 2.43 meters wheelbase. From 1,200 kg weight (no further details are specified) TRUNK. 360 liters MAXIMUM POWER. 60 kW (82 hp) WLTP CONSUMPTION. To be confirmed. ENVIRONMENTAL DISTINCTIVE. Zero emissions DRIVING AIDS (ADAS). The minimum requirements required by the European Union confirmed. Front and rear emergency braking and lane keeping. Up to 24 ADAS driving aids as an option. OTHERS. Open R Link built on Android Automotive, compatible with Android Auto and Apple CarPlay. Seven-inch screen for the instrument panel and 10-inch screen for the center. ELECTRIC HYBRID. No. Plug-in HYBRID. No. electric Yes. 60 kW (82 HP) versions with 27.5 kWh battery. Only available with 6.3 kW charging as standard Charging of 11 kW in AC and 50 kW in direct current as an option. price and release Price to be confirmed. Start of marketing: early 2026. Why does an electric car have less autonomy than advertised? Same spirit in modern times We enter a ship. A pristine Renault Twingo awaits us. With all its nineties aroma. With that jovial spirit and good roller that comes from its colorful upholstery, its simple shapes and its dashboards “with three things counted”. That urban man with the soul of a minivan that seemed to shout to the world that it doesn’t matter what you throw at it, that it is there for you to do with whatever you want. Their seats became beds. Today that Renault Twingo has to play something else. It’s still that purely urban car but it has to be content, no matter what, with being purely urban. Because the Renault Twingo is now an electric car with a 27.8 kWh battery capacity. It is a matter of pure regulations. Europe has decided that we must jump to the electric car. Segment A cars with combustion engines, crowded as they have to be with driving aid systems, They are very complicated to amortize. And they make things more difficult for the rest of the company in terms of their emissions average. Partially electrifying them is not a good idea either, with complex systems that make the product more expensive. Renault decided that if the future was electric it had two paths. The first was to fight for pure price, to make the cheapest car possible. It is ruled out with a Dacia that has the Spring and Chinese brands entering with force. The second way was to target nostalgia, to those who really have money to remember their past times in the Renault 5, 4 and now Twingo. But if they wanted to differentiate themselves, they had to create a product that someone would truly want to buy. And to make it attractive, the French company has given all the love and care possible to these cars… trying to contain the price. This is how the Renault Twingo was born, which in the absence of definitive prices will have an option based on less than 20,000 euros before aid. The proposal is simple: collect that spirit of modularity and practicality to have an urban car with minivan aspirations. The problem, and not a minor one, is that now the Twingo is tied to the city with that battery that approves 260 kilometers according to the WLTP cycle, which will surely go above this figure in the city but that outside of it limits us to routes that will be between 150 and, at most, 200 kilometers. To find the key, Renault has not hesitated to go to the place where cheap, electric cars and those designed in record time triumph. The Renault Twingo is the first major product born from the design and research center that the company has opened in Shanghai. Designed in China, made in Europe. Because the car will be manufactured on Slovenian soil. Specifically in the Novo Mesto plant but with a network of Chinese suppliers around it that guarantee to contain costs. The batteries, in fact, are LFP signed by CATL. Thus, they lack tariffs but claim to be able to bring Chinese knowledge to Europe. And since that context is not the same as that of 1992, when the Twingo was launched on the streets for the first time. To make a car like this attractive, Renault once again puts all the meat on the grill. It has done so by readapting the Renault Captur platform, miniaturizing it and installing the front axle of the Renault 5. This should give the Renault Twingo greater packaging, a greater sensation of a large car. On the outside, the design exercise is extraordinary. Perfect I would say. The play with the headlights, which are lightened by showing sheet metal between the LED arch … Read more

send an army in front of Russia with its most advanced tanks

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Since 1945, Germany has lived cautiously everything related to the use of force beyond its borders. Even when he participated in international missions in the Balkans, Afghanistan or Mali, he always did so in a rotating, temporary format and under strict frameworks, avoiding establishing a permanent presence. The memory of the Second World Warthe initial demilitarization and the subsequent political reconstruction left a doctrine where stable deployment abroad was, more than a red line, a taboo. And then came the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The German deployment. Germany’s decision to establish its first brigade permanently deployed abroad since 1945 marks a historic turn in its defense policy and European military architecture. The creation of the 45th Armored Brigade in Lithuania, with 4,800 soldiers and civilian support personnel, responds to an increasingly clear reading of the Russian threat and the recognition that the defense of NATO’s eastern flank is, in reality, the defense of Alemani herselfto. The Chancellery in Berlin not only assumes this presence as a symbolic gesture, but as a structural pillar of a new military era, in which Europe must assume greater responsibilities strategic, reduce absolute dependence on the American umbrella and rebuild capabilities what were deliberately dismantled after the end of the Cold War. The brigade is, therefore, both a message to Moscow as an internal message: Germany is abandoning its former military prudence to occupy the role that its economic weight demands, and that its partners (and adversaries) take for granted. Kamikazes, software and more. He German rearmament It is not limited to heavy armor or territorial presence: it extends to the domain of war through saturation and accelerated adaptation, where kamikaze drones have become one of the most decisive tools of contemporary combats. The plan for acquire 12,000 drones suicide bombers, with contracts of around 300 million euros for each manufacturer, reveals a clear doctrinal change: the armed forces should no longer accumulate equipment in static arsenals, but rather maintain them in permanent update cycles, with the bulk of the arsenal under the custody of the industry itself to be modified almost in real time. The war in the background. The reference is direct: in Ukraine, innovation cycles are measured in weeksnot years. Every change in software or payload redefines the tactical value of the dronewhile traditional systems become obsolete due to the frenetic pace of electronic countermeasures. This massive purchase points to a military on the edge facing Russia that understands that the battlefield of the immediate future will be hybrid, digitalized and deeply dependent on agility to adapt to an enemy that learns as quickly as it attacks. Leopard 2A8. The deployment of the 45th Armored Brigade cannot be conceived without it Leopard 2A8the most advanced version of the German battle tank, updated based on the lessons learned from the systematic destruction of armored vehicles in Ukraine. Far from abandoning tanks, Germany has concluded that They are still essential for combined operations, but only if they adapt to an environment where the priority threat is no longer anti-tank missiles guided from hills, but cheap drones capable of descending on vulnerable domes. A tank to anticipate. Hence the integration of Trophy system active protection, early warning sensors, modular armor and electronic packages prepared to counter swarms or loitering munitions. The brigade is thus deployed not as a symbol of the European industrial past, but as a platform that attempts anticipate war to come: coordinated mobility, continuous real-time intelligence support, layered anti-drone defense, and a distributed weapons network that prevents excessive concentration of risk. The presence of the Leopard 2A8 is less a reaffirmation of the tank as an icon and more a doctrinal statement: the ground battle is still valid, but only if it is handled with precision, integration and constant adaptation. Rearm to last. On the whole, these movements They express a conclusion that is already beginning to be accepted unambiguously among European capitals: the peace of the last thirty years was a historical exception, not the norm. The Russian invasion of Ukraine has forced Europe to rebuild military industryreactivate strategic reserves, reinforce borders and recover the idea of an integrated defensesustained and modernized. Germany, which for decades was considered the “weak link” in European defense, is reconfiguring itself as the core potential continental rearmament operation. The 45th Armored Brigade in Lithuania, the 12,000 kamikaze drones and the Leopard 2A8 are not isolated pieces, but pieces of a same transition: preparation for a scenario where deterrence no longer depends solely on political will, but on technological capacity, speed of adaptation and territorial firmness. If you also want, the sign to Moscow is direct: the baltic border It is not a negotiable void, but a very clear line on which the greatest economic power in Europe now stands, permanently. And this time, with armored vehicles, drones, reactivated industry and a strategic mandate that looks decades forward. Image | nara, Boevaya mashina, 7th Army Training Command In Xataka | The most pacifist city in Germany lived off its legendary train factory. Now they will make it from a gigantic tank factory In Xataka | The “rearmament” of Europe has begun at a Volkswagen factory in Germany: instead of cars they will produce tanks

Christmas has revived the specter of redflation and rising prices. And Suchard’s nougat is the bloodiest example

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There is still a month and a half until Christmas begins (unless you live in Vigo), but that has not prevented the shelves of supermarkets in half the country from starting to fill with boxes of Polvorones, panettonesalmonds, marzipan and (of course) nougat tablets. With them, however, something else has arrived: the shadow of the reduflationa phenomenon about which OCU and FACUA they have been for years warning and which basically consists of covering up price increases. You go home believing that you have paid the same (or a little more) than last year when in reality, if you do the math, the kg/€ ratio is much higher. It is not a new practice or exclusive to Christmas, but is already giving something to talk about on account of one of the classics of the national holidays: Suchard’s nougat. What has happened? that the platform Fitstore.es has done an interesting experiment that is generating intense debate. Basically, he has dedicated himself to analyzing the evolution of Suchard chocolate nougat bars between 2020 and 2025, which allowed him to detect two apparently opposing trends: we are paying much more money in exchange for much less product. To be more precise, FITstore ensures that the tablet has gone from costing €2.99 in 2020 to the current €4.99almost 70% more. On some websites, such as Alcampocan be found for less, but that (€4.99) is the sale price in chains like Carrefour, Day either Eroski. The striking thing is that tablets do not weigh the same today as they did five years ago, when they were cheaper. In fact they have decreased. Click on the image to go to the tweet. How have they decreased? According to the FITstore studioIn 2023, Suchard chocolate nougat bars went from weighing 260 grams to 230 g, 11.5% less. If you go to a supermarket (we have done the test in Vigo) that is probably the format you are going to find: 230 g tablets. It is not a phenomenon that only the online sales platform has detected. Last year already warned of this ‘bailing’ the Facua association, which explained that although the price of Suchard nougat had not increased (€3.99) the €/kg ratio had gone from 15.35 to 17.35. That is, (sneakily) the product became 13% more expensive. In some stores the tablet was even more expensive. In DAP They explained last year how Suchard nougat, which in 2023 cost €3.67 in Alcampo, had gone to €3.98. And this despite the fact that the product weighed 30 g less. Is it an isolated case? No. Or it wasn’t, at least a year ago, when Facua published an extensive report in which he cited more cases of reduflation between Christmas sweets. Specifically, it spoke of about a dozen articles that applied “significant price increases” taking advantage of a change in design. For example, Dulce Noel black crunchy nougat went from costing €1.85 in Dia stores in October 2023 to €1.99 a year later. An increase of 7.6% that actually hid an increase in prices of 43.4%. The reason? In addition to becoming 14 cents more expensive, the tablet had been reduced by 50 g, going from 200 to 150 g. More or less similar cases, with increases per kilo of up to 52%, could be found in other items from Nestlé, Lindt or the Dia white label. What is the reason for the increase? The million dollar question. The rise in prices of chocolates and nougat can be explained in part by manufacturing costs: in the last year they have become more expensive the energyrents and ingredients such as rice, flour and the eggs. However, if there is a product that has seen its price skyrocket with a key impact on the candy industry, it is chocolate, mired in an international crisis which has directly influenced its price. The CPI gives a good account of this. According to the last data published by the INE (corresponding to September), chocolate has skyrocketed by almost 16% during the last year. Cocoa has increased by 8.5%. These are high percentages, but they also show a relaxation compared to those recorded just a few months ago, when the year-on-year increase in chocolate exceeded 20%. The question remains to what extent cocoa fluctuations are now influencing nougat. What do they say from the sector? At Xataka we have contacted Mondelez International to ask them about the changes in Suchard nougats and, more specifically, about their apparent reduflation. The multinational does not go into details, but remembers that it operates “in an increasingly complex and unstable environment” that forces it to make “adjustments” so as not to “compromise the taste and quality” of the product. “As food manufacturers, we continue to face high costs throughout our supply chain, especially in key ingredients such as cocoa. This makes manufacturing our products significantly more expensive than in the past,” explains the company, which claims to do “everything possible to assume the extra costs.” “However, in such a complex environment, we sometimes have to make carefully considered adjustments to our Suchard range.” The goal, they say, is “to continue offering consumers the chocolate nougat they love, without compromising the great flavor or quality they expect.” “For this reason, and despite the context, we have not altered our recipe, again in order to protect the quality and taste of this iconic Christmas product.” Images | Vitaly Gariev (Unsplash) and Xataka In Xataka | I have made homemade nougat and it is delicious. The problem is the price

none exceeds 350 euros and they have a 24-month warranty

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When it comes to buying a new device, we don’t always look for the best or the latest. Many times the determining factor is the price, one that is especially relevant in periods like this where we are so close to the Black Friday. Now, if we seek to save as much as possible on our purchases, there is something that we cannot lose sight of: refurbished devices. and there Back Market It has a huge selection. Among its entire catalog, we can find devices from brands like Apple at great prices. They are a very interesting option if we want to try a reconditioned one for the first time and we are not looking to spend too much, all taking into account that vWe also have a 24-month warranty. Of all the available options, we leave you three as an example: Apple Watch Series 9 by 295 eurosa device that still holds its own and offers a great experience. Samsung Galaxy Tab A8 by 114 eurosa very economical tablet ideal for studying or working. Apple iPad Air 5 by 301 eurosanother tablet option that offers a lot for its price. Apple Watch Series 9 The thing about Apple is that it is difficult to find its cheaper devices, even if they have been available for a year. The reconditioned ones fit in very well there., both on iPhones as in tablets and watches. If you are looking for one of the latter, you have the one available right now. Watch Series 9 by 295 euros in Back Market, a great price if we take into account that this device arrived in stores around 480 euros. This is a very interesting model that stands out for offering an LTPO OLED display with up to 2,000 nits of maximum brightnessideal for outdoors. It is powerful and its performance is very good, being also an ideal option to be able to control our health and our training on a daily basis. Its autonomy also reaches up to 36 hours in low consumption mode. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Samsung Galaxy Tab A8 If we are looking for a refurbished device to try and we want to spend little in return, this Galaxy Tab A8 It can fit us perfectly. It is true that it already has a few years behind it, but despite this it is still a very good option if we want something cheap to watch multimedia content or to study. We have it available for 114 eurosall without forgetting its 24-month warranty. What does this Galaxy Tab A8 offer? It is a device that has a 10.5-inch screen with WUXGA resolution (1,920 x 1,200 pixels), an average size to be able to watch a movie or as a work (or study) tool. Its battery, in addition, is 7,040 mAh, uMore than enough size for a whole day. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Apple iPad Air 5 We close this selection of reconditioned devices with another from Apple, this time with a iPad Air 5. It is a device that combines great performance with a design that, in hand, it is super convenient to use. It arrived in stores for over 650 euros, but if we buy it reconditioned in Back Market, its price has little to do with it: it costs 301 euros. Of this, we can highlight its 10.9-inch screen with a resolution of 2,360 x 1,640 pixels, ideal for watching movies and playing games. At the power level it is plenty thanks to its M1 chipwhich is accompanied by 8 GB of RAM. As we have said above, it is a very easy to use device that we can take with us everywhere. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Some of the links in this article are affiliated and may provide a benefit to Xataka. In case of non-availability, offers may vary. Images | Xataka, Apple, Samsung In Xataka | Best tablets in quality price. Which one to buy based on use and recommended models In Xataka | The best smartwatches: their analyzes and videos are here

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