Mobile Tech & Gadgets

that of private detectives investigating them

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In recent years, work absenteeism has ceased to be just an indicator in statistical reports and has become a serious labor problem because of the dimensions it has reached. In turn, this increase in the number of workers who, for justified reasons or not, they do not go to their workplace has caused a collateral effect: massive hiring of private detectives to investigate possible fraud in medical leave. According to industry sourcesSince the pandemic, the number of assignments from companies and medical societies has grown exponentially to account for almost 80% of the investigative work of private detectives. Work absenteeism and its meaning. Work absenteeism occurs when an employee does not show up for work Whether this absence is justified or not. However, this concept is increasingly being used as a synonym for absenteeism due to temporary disability (medical leave), something that is not correct because there is an important nuance. Medical leave is a justified absence due to temporary disability by medical prescription from a Social Security doctor, while not showing up at work without justified cause is a decision made by the employee unilaterally. The difference between one reason and another is obvious. The figures are worrying. According to data from the ReportAbsenteeism from work in the second quarter of 2025′ prepared by Randstad, warn that total absenteeism in Spain has caused the loss of 7% of agreed working hours. However, if that figure is broken down between justified and unjustified, we find that the absences due to temporary disability (medical leave) account for 5.5% of those hours. Therefore, the unjustified ones affect 1.5% of the agreed hours. Taking into account that according to the EPA the number of employed people amounted to 22.27 million contributors, the data from the Randstad study indicate that, on average, 1,558,809 people did not go to their workplace daily, of which, 1,224,778 people did not go to work be on medical leave and, therefore, for a justified medical reason. Total work absenteeism and absenteeism due to temporary disability. Source: Randstad How long does a medical leave last in Spain? It is true that it is a doctor who grants medical leave to a patient. However, the doctor It does not decide how long that leave lasts.. This calculation is estimated from a Social Security database in which factors such as the patient’s profession, age or pathology are taken into account. According to data from ‘Absenteeism Barometer for the first half of 2025′prepared by Mutua Navarra, the average number of sick days in 2025 is 31.07 days. Leaves of less than 15 days accounted for almost 73% of the total number of registered absences (representing 8.9% of the total days not worked) while those leaving for 12 months accounted for 1.85% (32.5% of the total days not worked). That is, the vast majority of absences for medical reasons They are 15 days or less. As they point out the authors According to the Mutua Navarra report, “the problem of absenteeism is not so much due to the number of people who do not go to work, but rather to the excessive duration of sick leave”, something that the worker cannot control since it is a Social Security doctor who determines whether medical recovery has occurred. Detective boom. Given the increase in times and cases of sick leave, companies have taken measures to avoid fraud, and since 2021, the hiring of private detectives to investigate their workers has skyrocketed. Jordi Briñoldirector of Brininvest Detectivesconfirms that “currently we can perfectly well be talking about the fact that, in a standard detective office, these requests represent 80% of the requests.” As highlighted from Sentinel Private Detectivescompanies and mutual societies resort to their services when they already have well-founded signs of fraud, some of which originate from “rumors, information, suspicions” from colleagues or by the anomalous extension of medical leave. “It may also be due to the attitude that the employee has maintained prior to that sick leave situation, in which he almost expressed his intentions due to internal friction,” his spokesperson told us, “many times it is almost to confirm the obvious thing that they already have, rather than the fact of investigating it, it is to obtain proof, because the company cannot proceed with a dismissal for the simple fact that a worker is on sick leave.” According to these detective offices, these previous indications already determine that a high number of cases that are investigated end up being proven to be fraud. The cost of these services for a complete investigation ranges between 1,500 and 4,000 euros depending on the case, which means that companies only investigate those cases in which it is evident that fraud is occurring in sick leave. Criticism from the unions. The proliferation of private detectives has not gone unnoticed by unions, which denounce a tendency to criminalize sick employees. Kings Solaz, national secretary of UGT of Catalonia, points out that “we are concerned that sick workers will be criminalized when what companies should do is reinforce prevention and medical care.” According to the union representative, mutual societies and companies dedicate more and more budget to private surveillance than to diagnostic tests to speed up reinstatements, “the real problem is the increase in waiting lists in public health, and that lengthens the times of diagnosis and treatment and therefore medical leaves are lengthened”, distributing responsibilities to both Social Security and medical mutual societies. Solaz criticized the mutual companies that invest part of the public resources assigned to them from the Security to hire detectives, “both workers and companies pay a part of our salaries to have that mutual company for when we have a work accident or an occupational disease. The mutual companies spend it on detectives, but then They don’t hire professionals necessary to do the tests and give you the care you need to return to work. Transparency with fraud. Although it is true that detective offices recognize that the vast majority of the cases they investigate … Read more

something has pushed him, and we think we know what

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He third interstellar object What we have discovered in the solar system continues to make people talk. As 3I/ATLAS moves away from the Sun and becomes visible again through telescopes, every move it makes sparks a tsunami of speculation. And there are still weeks of new observations. The data that is causing people to talk. The news that has unleashed the most eccentric theories is that the comet experienced a slight, but statistically significant, “non-gravitational acceleration.” Something, besides the gravitational pull of the Sun and the planets, has pushed to 3I/ATLAS. It happened last October 29. Data from the ALMA observatory, analyzed by a NASA JPL engineer, reveal that the object deviated “four arcseconds in right ascension” from the trajectory it should have followed if it were influenced only by the Sun’s gravity. The most likely explanation. The news gave free rein to those who try to see a “technological signature” in everything the interstellar object does. However, the most likely explanation is not that 3I/ATLAS be an alien ship: There is a purely natural alternative that astronomers know well. The deflection of the object, equivalent to ten times the radius of the Earth in a month, fits with a natural acceleration that occurs in very active comets as they pass by the Sun: the sublimated ice acted as a propellant. Ice rockets. The physics is simple: as the comet approaches the Sun, solar radiation heats its core. The ice on its surface (whether water, carbon monoxide or carbon dioxide) do not melt, but go directly from solid to gas, a process known as sublimation. This gas escapes violently into space through cracks or active zones on the surface, forming jets. By Newton’s third law (action-reaction), these gas jets act like small rocket engines, pushing the comet’s nucleus in the opposite direction and altering its orbit. That’s why it shines so much. Another of the newly observed anomalies in 3I/ATLAS is that it became extremely bright earlier than expected, and in an intensely blue hue. According to a study prepublished on arvix.orgthe change fits with a brightness dominated by gas emission, which would demonstrate that 3I/ATLAS is an extraordinarily active comet, which turned on its sublimation engines as it approached the Sun and began to degas material at a frenetic pace. Avi Loeb is not convinced. The controversial Harvard University cosmologist did his own calculations to determine how much mass 3I/ATLAS would have had to lose to produce that specific acceleration and discovered that, at least, it would have had to lose one-sixth of its total mass. Given that the mass of 3I/ATLAS is estimated to be at least 33 billion tons, the comet should have lost 5.5 billion tons of gas and dust ejected into space in a matter of weeks, which should lead us to observe an extremely bright cloud of gas and dust around it in the coming weeks. The key moment. 3I/ATLAS will pass the closest point in its orbit to Earth on December 19. From a distance of 269 million kilometers, the International Asteroid Warning Network and the Hubble and James Webb space telescopes will be observing it in detail. They will have the last word. If they see a colossal gas cloud, we’ll close the case: 3I/ATLAS is a natural cometalthough one of the strangest and most active we have ever seen. If they don’t see anything, the mystery of interstellar visitors will only intensify. Image | NASA / SOFIA / Lynette Cook In Xataka | It went from a supposed alien ship to definitely a comet. Now 3I/ATLAS surprises again with another possibility

Elon Musk boasted of having created an “apocalypse-proof” car. Now the Tesla Cybertruck’s headlights are falling out

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Who doesn’t know a C15, prays to any Tesla Cybertruck with this title we headed this article in July 2024. We did it because on social networks it was already common to find comparisons between a Tesla Cybertruck which began selling just half a year before for a price close to $100,000 (sometimes much higher) with the car of “a Spanish farmer flying with three bags of fertilizer and a pregnant sheep in the trunk”, as this X user described. It was no wonder. Since it was first announcedElon Musk did not stop boasting that Tesla’s future electric car was nothing short of indestructible. A story that began crack when, live, the car glass itself could not resist the launch of a steel ball that, in theory, should not have caused any scratches. Now, less than two years after the car went on sale we know that the crack has been getting bigger and bigger. Because Tesla has recalled its Cybertruck for review. This time there have been 6,200 units. It is the tenth time in less than 24 months. Now, the headlights are going out. Indestructible, when it does not self-destruct Elon Musk boasted during the Tesla Cybertruck launch event about having a car “apocalypse proof”. He was talking, we assume, about real apocalypses, not metaphorical ones like the one they are experiencing Tesla sales in Europe. Beyond the jokes, what the owner of the company wanted to show is that he had something like a “armored street car”. In Xataka We already explained why a car that does not deform is a bad idea. If the car does not absorb the impact, it is the passenger who suffers the impact against himself. We are talking, of course, about cars that are on the street, working with all the guarantees. The problem for Tesla is that it keeps call cars for inspection. In the first year he had to do five calls for review. Today it has already been 10 and there are two full months of 2025 ahead, they collect in Electrek. While it is true that some of the problems have been solved with simple software updates, on other occasions they have had to go to the workshop because they were losing pieces in progress. The problem, everything indicates, is the same as on this occasion. The Tesla Cybertruck has some unusual headlights falling out, according to the American media. That is why the NHTSA has had to activate a recall so that 6,197 Tesla cars return to facilities. And Tesla sells headlights that can be installed on the roof of the vehicle as an accessory in its after-sales network, expanding the car’s off-road characteristics. The problem is that those headlights fall out. The glue simply cannot withstand their weight and in some circumstances it ends up expiring. This It hasn’t been the first time that Tesla has problems with the glue used, which has led to calls for review because, among other elements, the decorative molding of the A pillar, the one located on the side of the windshield, fell off. Beyond the possible fun of having an indestructible car that pieces are falling off while movingTesla is experiencing an ordeal with the electric off-roader. The company had the opportunity to make it a flagship, aspirational model and always sell it at a very high price but without aspirations of turning it into a mass product. like Mercedes does with its G-Class. However, it opted for the opposite and now finds itself unable to put the promised versions on the market at affordable prices. But, above all, it does not seem to be selling the expected numbers. And the company says it has a production line ready capable of produce 125,000 units each year. Musk even boasted that they expected sell more than 250,000 units annually. Electrek They point out that less than 65,000 units have been sold since November 2023. Photo | Josip Ivankovic In Xataka | In an attempt to improve sales of the Cybertruck, Elon Musk has found an unexpected buyer: himself

the “mountain splash” that follows them

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The proverb says that misfortunes never come alone. In Ourense they are proving it in the worst of ways. In summer there were towns there that had to do with forest fires that devoured hectares, burning trees, destroying farms and even (in some cases) destroying houses. Now those same localities are with the ‘hangover’ of the fire: tons of ashes and charred remains that rain washes downhill, forming a dark sludge that threatens (or is already affecting) rivers and water supplies. There are those who even talk about “mountain chapapote”in reference to another unfortunate episode that Galicia had to experience, years ago, on behalf of the Prestige. What has happened? That the residents of the province of Ourense who suffered this summer forest fires They have encountered a new problem, one inherited from those fires and that (they regret) no institution has known how to tackle in time: the ash. During the last months, spare in rainswere not a big problem, but things have changed with the storms and downpours. What was once ashes, branches and charred trunks is now a threat. The most curious (or tragic) thing is that if forest fires are not a novelty in Galicia, neither are they the problems generated by its ashes and sediments. Why’s that? Because the rains wash away this charred ‘heritage’, creating sludge and a threat to the rivers and springs from which the towns are supplied. I described it graphically a few days ago the mayor of O Barco de Valdeorras, Aurentino Alonso, when talking about the situation of the Sil River: “Pure chocolate is going down.” Last week when spoke with Europa Pressthe core of his town was weathering the situation because it draws on a water source that was not affected by the fire. That doesn’t mean he’s calm. Neither him nor the rest of the neighbors. If at any time that water supply fails, they will have to pump from the Sil, a river that, Alonso recalls, has been affected upstream by the fires. “We would have a huge problem if the recruitment fails.” In other parts of the region the situation is even worse. Last week the councilor of O Barco assured that there are already several centers there that suffer “problems” because they are not connected to the urban network and are supplied directly from the streams. Are there more affected? Yes. In Vilamartín de Valdeorras They report a similar problem. Its mayor, Enrique Barreiro, explains that after the rains of recent weeks there are areas of the municipality that have been left without water for two, three and even four hours. When the supply returns, it also does so in conditions that complicate its domestic use. Basically, the same concern: how the drags affect the supply or even the risk of them causing collapses. “We are afraid of what could happen to the river beds, which will not be prepared to withstand the amount of water that will come down the ravines,” warns the mayor. The situation is also followed with expectation from other points, such as neighboring A Gudiña and other towns that have already made a move. And how do they respond? The first councilor of Chandrexa de Queixa explains, for example, that springs have been corrected and “straw fences” set up so that, in the event that the rains wash away remains of forest fires, they do not reach the springs. It is not so much that there are problems with the water as a matter of caution. “We have to prevent it before it happens, it can happen.” For the same reason, the City Council has decided to store 2,000 two-liter bottles of water and in O Barco de Valdeorras they have offered residents fountains and drawers with taps, in addition to mobilizing vans with jugs. In A Gudiña they also clarify that they are constantly controlling the supply, with “morning and afternoon” analysis to ensure that if at any time the water presents “some turbidity” it can be transferred from the springs to pumping from wells. The effect of the trails of ashes and mud carried by the rains, the “chapapote de monte”, as the Platform for a Galician Mountain with a Future called it, is worrying. a report recent posted by The Country. In it he says, for example, that there are villages that have seen how their water supply has not been drinkable for days. Or that in A Rúa bottles are being distributed and a pavilion has been set up so that affected families can shower. Why has it not been planned? That’s the key. The councilors not only explain what they are doing to address the situation. Some they regret also that the Xunta de Galicia and the Miño-Sil Hydrographic Confederation are doing a small part of “what they should” and they miss greater and better coordination between administrations to deal with issues such as supply or collapses. Both the regional and state governments defend that they have not sat idly by, mobilizing brigades and distributing straw to avoid drag. In the background, however, there is an intersection of competencies. As relates The Countrythe Xunta alleges that the protection of rivers depends on the central government. However, the Miño-Sil Hydrographic Confederation responds that it cannot act in the surrounding mountains. The reason: they would step on a competition that is in the hands of the Xunta. The organization remembers that there are other responsibilities, related to the supply, which depend on local administrations or the Xunta. Is that a problem? It has certainly given rise to a political brawl, as made it clear Yesterday the Galician leader, Alfonso Rueda, accused the organizations that depend on Madrid of being “especially slow” when it comes to “reacting” to “prevent damage.” “We will help and act, but each one has to fulfill their obligations and the Xunta is doing it,” Rueda insists. Meanwhile, environmentalists warn of the risk posed by trawling in areas burned by the fire: … Read more

The secret of Chinese AI companies to compete without Nvidia chips: electricity subsidized by Beijing

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Everywhere we look, there is artificial intelligence. Everyone talks about it, but what is its fuel? It’s not the data or the chips: it’s the electricity. While in the West technology companies are looking for how to power their data centers —increasingly energy hungry—, China has decided to take a different step. Beijing has designed an energy subsidy for its technology sector with a clear objective: to make the energy that powers the digital brains of its next generation of chips cheaper. Energy subsidy. Since September, the Chinese Government banned large national technology companies —including Alibaba, ByteDance and Tencent—acquire artificial intelligence chips from the American Nvidia, in an attempt to strengthen local production. However, the consequence was immediate: national processors consume more electricity. According to The Chosun Dailygenerating the same number of tokens with Chinese chips requires 30% to 50% more energy than with Nvidia’s H20, which sent electricity bills skyrocketing and led companies to complain to regulators. To make up for that gap, local governments introduced grants that cover up to a full year of operating costs, according to the Hong Kong media on.cc. In those provinces, industrial electricity was already 30% cheaper than in the developed coastal areas of the east, but with the new incentives the price could fall to 0.4 yuan per kilowatt-hour, a record figure for the Chinese technology industry. ¿How does the energy plan work? The scheme is relatively simple, but strategic. Local governments offer electricity discounts of up to half to data centers that use chips produced within the country. Operators that use foreign processors – such as those from Nvidia or AMD – are excluded from the program. In addition, the energy provinces receive direct support from the State to finance the discounts, with the aim of reducing dependence on technological imports and compensating for the increased consumption of local chips. According to the Financial TimesChinese data centers that rely on domestic semiconductors are, for now, less energy efficient, but the subsidy seeks to bring their costs in line with those of more advanced foreign chips. These regions—Guizhou, Gansu, and Inner Mongolia—have become hotbeds for data center clusters, thanks to their abundance of hydropower and coal. There, companies like Alibaba or Tencent are building new facilities to house their generative AI models, taking advantage of lower energy costs and tax incentives. This policy combines three strategic priorities: making energy cheaper, promoting domestic chips and reinforcing technological sovereignty. In a context of United States restrictions, each subsidized kilowatt is also a political statement. An industrial policy with a geopolitical charge. Behind the energy plan is a long-range political commitment. The Chinese Government intends for its technology companies to progressively replace imported chips with domestic processors, even if this implies higher costs in the short term. The electricity subsidy acts as a temporary bridge for national giants to adopt local chips without losing competitiveness. This measure is included in a broader national strategy of technological self-sufficiency. As the Financial Times explains in its series The State of AIChina is using its “society-wide mobilization capacity” to accelerate the development of artificial intelligence. The country already leads the number of patents and scientific publications in AI, and although the United States maintains an advantage in chips and talent, the gap narrows every year. Analyst Dan Wang, quoted by the same media, points out: “China has achieved a unique balance between engineering capacity, state control and massive industrial deployment, allowing it to advance faster than other countries in the practical application of AI.” Meanwhile, in the West… China’s decision contrasts with the energy challenges of the United States. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella warned that the real bottleneck of AI It is no longer the chips, but the energy. In fact, he explained that many companies accumulate chips that they cannot connect due to lack of power supply. Both Microsoft and Google are already studying building modular nuclear reactors to power their future data centers, a sign of the enormous energy consumption that artificial intelligence requires. While Silicon Valley seeks electricity, China subsidizes it. This asymmetry reflects two different models: one guided by state intervention and the other by market competition. Both pursue the same goal—sustaining the artificial intelligence revolution—but with opposite philosophies. A future plugged into the State. The Chinese subsidy not only alleviates costs: it redefines the relationship between the State and the private sector in the age of AI. As analyst Arnaud Bertrand observed, US restrictions pushed China towards a different model: more efficient, more open and more collective. “By operating under hardware limitations, Chinese companies have learned to optimize resources and share open models like Qwen or DeepSeek,” wrote Bertrand on the social network That strategy, based on efficiency and diffusion, could give China a long-term advantage in global adoption, since any company in the world can download and adapt its models. The country that controls the plug. China isn’t just making the chips that power its artificial intelligence. It is also building the electrical grid that makes them possible. In a world where data is the new oil, Beijing has decided to subsidize the fuel of the digital brain. While the West debates how to connect its supercomputers, China plugs them in at a reduced price. And in this race, whoever controls the plug could end up controlling the future. Image | FreePik and FreePik Xataka | The world of AI has a problem: there is no energy for so many chips

8 kilometers of ice have been lost in two months and researchers only agree on one thing: it is something to worry about

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Predict their future the antarctic glaciers It is undoubtedly a great challenge for science, but the most important thing above all is to know How will it affect global sea level?. The worst of all is that the latest news we have at our disposal is not at all positive, since the Hektoria glacier It has retreated 8 km in just two months, which is an unprecedented speed in the modern era. Where we start from. Normally, the retreat of glaciers It is measured in hundreds of meters per year. It is one of the clearest metrics we have to be able to ‘measure’ global warming, and that is why now what a team from the University of Colorado Boulder has just recorded on the Hektoria glacier, on the eastern peninsula of Antarctica, plays in a completely different league. The measurement. In just two months during 2023, the Hektoria lost almost half of its mass. In total, 8 kilometers of ice disappeared. A speed of collapse that has never been seen in modern history and that, according to the authors of the study, is more typical of the end of the last ice age. Something that doesn’t add up in this case. Hektoria is relatively small by Antarctic standards (about 300 km², less than the city of Malaga), but its collapse was so sudden that it left researchers stunned. A coincidence. Ironically, the research team wasn’t even studying Hektoria. They were analyzing satellite and remote sensing data for another project when Ochwat realized that the glacier had essentially disappeared from the images. The measurements. This is where technology comes into play. The team had to combine data from multiple satellites to understand what had happened and, above all, how quickly he did it. “If we only had one image every three months, we couldn’t say that the glacier lost two and a half kilometers in two days,” explains Ochwat. In this case, by combining images from different satellites you can fill in the time gaps and confirm with evidence in hand how quickly the ice has been melting. But the key was not only in the images. They also used seismic instruments that have the ability to detect a series of “glacial earthquakes” that occurred exactly during the period of rapid melting. And these earthquakes are not measured for the sake of it, but to confirm something crucial: the glacier was anchored to the bedrock (and not floating) just before breaking. This is fundamental both for science and for the entire planet, since ice that is floating (such as an ice shelf) does not raise sea level when it melts, any more than an ice cube does in a glass of water. But ice that rests on land (or anchored to a seabed) and falls into the sea does contribute to the global rise in sea level by increasing its volume. Your Achilles heel. The collapse was not due to simple superficial melting. The cause was topographic, since many Antarctic glaciers rest on deep canyons or underwater mountains. The Hektoria, however, had the misfortune of resting on an “ice plain”: an area of ​​bedrock that was exceptionally flat and below sea level. This flat topography caused a gigantic section of the glacier to begin floating all at once, rather than gradually. The moment the glacier lost its anchorage to the ground (its “line of support”), it was exposed to the forces of the ocean, and therefore everything began to advance very quickly. The process was brutal, since it all began with the warmest ocean water that seeped underneath and began to open cracks from the bottom of the glacier upwards. At the same time, the glacier already had cracks on the surface. Eventually, the lower and upper cracks met and the glacier literally disintegrated. A warning for future glaciers. The Hektoria case is a first-rate warning. Scientists know that there are numerous glaciers in Antarctica that also rest on these types of ice plains. Until now, it was thought that their collapses would be centuries-long processes. Hektoria shows that they can be months, which should set us off due to the implications it would have on sea level. And while the collapse of a small glacier like Hektoria won’t dramatically change global sea level, it alone does demonstrate that a rapid collapse mechanism, until now theoretical or believed to be typical of past geological eras, is perfectly possible today. If this same mechanism is activated in much larger glaciers, sea level rise could accelerate very considerably and much sooner than expected. Images | Cassie Matias In Xataka | When glaciers melt, bodies appear: archaeologists are recovering them in a time trial

House renovations used to be to make them more habitable. Now they can also be converted into Lego sets

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At the beginning of October we count that the lack of space in modern homes or the impossibility of collecting quantities of LEGO due to how much they occupy had led to the creation of a business especially aimed at those who do not want to give up building new sets, but do not need to keep them. Brick Borrow rent LEGO sets…which are then returned. It happens that more and more people are directly renovating their house to make room for it. to these jewels. Domestic brick utopias. I was telling it on the weekend the wall street journal. In recent years, the rise of adult collecting Lego has transformed entire domestic spaces into carefully designed and detailed miniature worlds, urban landscapes, beaches with bathers and functional amusement parks. Of all, the case by Christie Northin Salt Lake City, is especially representative: he has torn down walls, renovated his basement and spent more than $100,000 in building and displaying his Lego city, which he accesses through a fingerprint scanner and which he is considering monitoring with cameras to observe when he travels. The origin. The woman started as a hobby to combat boredom during the pandemic, but became your emotional refugea task where methodical construction and imagination combine into something he describes as “feeding the soul.” In his brick world you can see a mix of technical dedication, nostalgia and the search for a personal space in the face of everyday routines. Adult collecting. The truth is that Lego has been able to cultivate, especially since 2020, a growing base adult amateurmany of whom could not afford the most ambitious sets during their childhood, but today they have income and a sentimental motivation to rebuild what they before it was inaccessible. The problem is not only economic, but also spatial: the largest sets can occupy entire tables or even entire rooms, forcing coexistence decisions, as in the case by Steve Isomwhich has assembled more than 275 sets and has given its dining room, office and shelves to spaceships suspended from the ceiling and monumental models like a titanic shelf or an Eiffel Tower almost meter and a half. His wife tolerates the hobby, but imposes clear limits: The bedroom is left out of the invasion of bricks. This negotiation silent It is repeated in many homes, where the passion for building clashes with shared aesthetics, functionality and the simple space available. Architecture, interior design and adaptation. The transformation of the home into a gallery of Lego pieces has even given rise to a specific demand in interior architecture. He architect Jeff Pelletierhimself a fan, claims to have designed more than twenty houses with rooms dedicated to Lego, mostly for adults. His advice includes Avoid rooms with direct light to avoid discoloring the pieces and use closed display cases to reduce dust. In other cases, it suggests integrate small Lego pieces as discreet decorative accents on shelves, walls or artistic compositions that imitate famous works. These solutions seek balance passion and aestheticspreserving the visual identity of the home without eliminating the collector’s creative space. Even in the real estate market, agents like Niko Cejic they claim that houses with Lego rooms can be more attractive, providing character and differentiation compared to the neutral standardization of so many contemporary interiors. The home as an emotional refuge. Beyond the hobby, these Lego rooms reflect an emotional need profound in a context of increasingly fast-paced lives, demanding jobs and changing family structures. Evan Rubinfor example, finds in his Lego room an oasis of manual repetition and visual calm, a selective return to a childhood reinterpreted. Many homeowners describe these constructions as a way to regain creativity in the face of monotonous routines, and also as a way to build an identity within the home. They told in the Journal that the replacement of more traditional life projects (such as raising children in increasingly smaller and late-term homes) is intertwined with this phenomenon: pets, plants and Lego appear where cribs once appeared. The house is no longer just a place to live, but a stage in which to reconstruct an intimate version of oneself. Tiny “real” worlds. Ultimately, the lego roomshidden in basements, domestic extensions or carefully reserved rooms, aim to be one (another) cultural manifestation of a contemporary desire for belonging, refuge and creative control. If you will, they also represent a silent, patient and manual response to digital speed, constant productivity and the pressure of adulthood. The worlds built with bricks They do not replace the outside world, of course, but they offer continuity between the child who played and the adult who seeks his own space in the midst of obligations, schedules and demands. Ultimately, in those miniature cities There is a simple and universal statement: although life pushes us to grow, there will always be parts of us that need to continue building. Image | Brickset, PXHere In Xataka | The secret to continuing to accumulate LEGO sets is not to keep them. This rental service helps you with that. In Xataka | One thousand euros for the Star Wars Death Star: the most expensive Lego set to date does not make all fans happy

live translation arrives in Spain

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When Apple introduced its new features Apple Intelligencemany of them came with an asterisk for the European Union. The strict continental regulation left some of the most striking characteristics in the air. One of the most anticipated is the “Live Translation”, the ability of the AirPods Pro to translate conversations in real time. After months of waiting, the function has overcome all obstacles and its deployment finally begins in Spain. Landing. Apple has begun to roll out one of the most anticipated features of iOS 26 in our country: live translation for AirPods. This feature, introduced in September along with the new AirPods Pro 3is now launched after an initial block that kept it inactive throughout the EU. This is how it works. The system allows a fluid conversation between two people who speak different languages. Thanks to noise cancellation, the headset minimizes the original voice of your interlocutor and overlays the translation in your language almost instantly. If the other person doesn’t have a compatible headset, you can use your iPhone horizontally, which will display a transcription of your voice already translated into their language. Function on-device. One of the keys to this new Apple Intelligence feature and requirement is that the processing is done locally on the device: which is why an iPhone 15 Pro or later models is needed, and with iOS 26. This implies that we will have to download the corresponding language packs to allow offline translation. It is not exclusive. Although it was launched as one of the great assets of the new AirPods Pro 3, the live translation It is not exclusive to them. Apple has confirmed – and it can be seen on its support website – that the function is compatible with all models that equip the H2 chip and active noise cancellation. So which ones are compatible? Basically these: How to try it right now. There is an asterisk to use the new function: it does not, at the moment, reach the stable versions of iOS 26. The feature debuts today in the first developer beta of iOS 26.2 (whose stable version is not expected until December), so you have to install it to have access. If you are not a developer, you will be able to access it soon through the public beta (normally a week later). The process It is very simple, although it involves certain risks when installing non-final software. That is why we recommend before make a backup of your iPhone. Then, you just need to sign up for the Apple developer program: with this, go to “Settings” > “General” > “Software Update” > “Beta Updates”. How to activate the function. Once the iOS version is updated, activating the feature requires two more steps. First, download the languages: connect your AirPods, go to “Settings”, click on the menu of your AirPods (right under your Apple ID) and look for the “Translation” section to select and download the packages you need. Second, simply open Apple’s native “Translate” app and tap the “Live” tab. Steps to install a beta version of iOS on the iPhone. Captures by Guille Lomener for Applesfera The reason for the delay. The reason why the feature (and the Spanish language) has taken months to arrive is not technical, but regulatory. Apple specified in its launch that it was blocked in the EU, citing “bureaucratic issues” and the wait for approval from European regulators. This, far from being an isolated case, is a carbon copy of what we already experienced with the eventful deployment of Apple Intelligence itself. History repeats itself: Apple presents its new functions and runs into European legislation, having to delay its arrival. Intelligence was announced in 2024, but his arrival in Spain and in Spanish It wasn’t officially completed until late March 2025 with iOS 18.4. What’s more, as of today, Siri’s advanced features are still delayed and They are not expected until 2026. Images | Apple In Xataka | AirPods Pro 3 vs AirPods Pro 2. Which Apple Bluetooth headphones to choose based on your tastes and needs

Jeff Bezos’ grandfather had the key to finding a job in the age of AI: being an inventor

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With saturated selection processes (or directly broken) and the AI conditioning skills that companies demand, there is a skill that Jeff Bezos considers irreplaceable: the ability to invent. The millionaire value this skill above traditional knowledge or experience. Bezos considers that inventiveness is vital to maintaining creativity and innovation in modern companies, ensuring that he himself has applied it to bring Amazon and Blue Origin to their current situation. Lessons from his grandfather. In an interview During the Italian Tech Week 2025 conference that took place in Turin, the millionaire commented that his grandfather was capable of solving any problem on his Texas ranch by himself, without depending on outside help. “He bought a bulldozer for about $5,000 because it was completely broken. We spent a whole summer fixing it. To remove the transmission, we had to build our own crane. And that’s why he had an incredible ability to adapt. He believed he could solve any problem. And I watched him,” Bezos said during his interview. “He did veterinary work with the cattle. He made the needles himself. He took a small piece of wire and heated it with a blowtorch, flattened it, sharpened it and made a small hole in it. Some cows even survived,” he commented sarcastically. That ability to adapt and create practical solutions taught him the value of inventiveness in facing difficulties, a lesson that Bezos has also applied in his life and in the management of Amazon. The “inventor” of Amazon. Bezos himself defines himself as an inventor, stating that “it is his fundamental nature. Put me in front of a white board and I can generate a hundred ideas in half an hour.” The founder of Amazon looks for those creative skills in his team members. In an interview In 2012 at the Utah Technology Council, Bezos indicated that “when I interview candidates, I ask them to give me an example of something they have invented.” Obviously the millionaire was not referring to a patent, but to a process, an idea or a solution to a problem that existed and for which he imagined a solution. “You have to select people who like to invent, think innovatively,” said the millionaire. Innovation as an antidote to fear. One of the six fears that have defined Jeff Bezos’ career is the fear of garages. Not in the literal sense of the place but of the symbolic sense of innovation that they have acquired: HP was born in a garage, just like Apple. “Two kids in a garage scare me more than the competitors I already know,” assured Bezos in an interview. The inventive capacity is a lever towards innovation and experimentation, which has been one of the pillars of the business culture that has taken Amazon to where it is today. “Someone who comes to Amazon and doesn’t like pioneering, doesn’t like exploring, doesn’t like going down dead ends that often turn out to be dead ends, will leave soon,” Bezos said in his interview. In his job interviews, Bezos asks: “How can we do A and B? What invention do we need to bring the two together?” That is, value those candidates who do not see the options in black and white, but rather look for new ways to combine and improve processes to innovate. AI has accelerated everything. More and more CEOs and senior officials at large technology companies agree that they are the skills and attitudes, and not the knowledgewhich will make candidates stand out in the age of AI. The current CEO of Amazon, Andy Jassy, ​​pointed out that knowledge can be acquired over time, but what companies need in this era of constant innovation are people who know how to adapt to any circumstance and learn from it. “The biggest difference between the people I started with in the early stages of my career and what they are doing now has to do with how good they were at learning.” According to Jassy, ​​the attitude and talent to innovate It has to come standard. In Xataka | Jeff Bezos has the world’s laziest metaphor for AI: “someone invented the plow and we all got rich” In Xataka | If your chair limps during a job interview, it’s no coincidence: they’re evaluating more than just your resume. Image | Flickr (iafastro)

When Facebook launched its own Tinder we didn’t think it could succeed. we were wrong

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It was 2018 when Facebook announced Facebook Datingalthough it was not until 2020 when arrived in Spain. At that time, dating apps like Tinder had experienced a boom caused by the pandemic, but Facebook had been losing users for some time and the idea had already been established that it was a place for older people. Meta recently shared usage data for its dating service and they shut us up. 21.5 million. It is the number of daily active Facebook Dating users in the 52 countries in which the app is available. They count in NYTimeswhich surpasses Hinge in users, a very popular dating app especially in the United States that has 15 million users. It is the first time that Facebook has shared usage data for its dating service since its launch. Popular among young people. A Pew Center study published by TechCrunchconfirmed the exodus of young Facebook users, which went from 71% in 2014 to only 32%. The most surprising thing about Facebook Dating is that it is having success among the youngest people. According to data from Sensor Tower As of last year, Facebook Dating has at least 1.77 million users between the ages of 18 and 29 in the United States, which represented a growth of 24%. Free. Other apps such as Tinder, Bumble or Hinge have adopted subscription models through which users can enjoy advantages such as knowing who liked you before anyone else. This is free on Facebook Dating and is your main asset against your competitors. Tinder is the app that had the most paying users, but for years has been losing subscribers. They don’t need it. That Facebook does not charge us for using its dating service can be interpreted as a generous gesture, but the reality is that Meta’s income is astronomical. In the last quarter they entered 51,240 million, many of them thanks to the advertising they serve in their apps. Image | Gemini/Goal In Xataka | Meta does not have the most advanced AI of all, but it does have something much more important: a business plan

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