Mobile Tech & Gadgets

Realme seeks to make the mobile phone the best street camera. And it has joined the street camera brand par excellence

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Shenzhen and Beijing have two things in common: they are endless and both have been the perfect setting for two mobile presentations that have photography in the spotlight. He Vivo X300 Pro hit first, betting on a very long zoom to capture every last detail of the highest roof. The Realme GT8 Pro arrived later with a contrary argument: “Take me out on the street and start taking photos.”. Realme’s new high-end has been an open secret for weeks and I’ve already had it in my hands for a few days. But with one condition: I can’t talk about the phone, only its main camera. The reason? They have not presented the mobilebut an agreement with a striking camera brand: RICOH. And below I’ll tell you my first impressions of the Realme GT8 Pro camera. Technical specifications of the Realme GT8 Pro? Maybe they are the strangest first impressions I have ever made because… I can’t tell you about the cell phone. In fact, any detail is extremely generic: screen that occupies the entire front, an imitation of the Dynamic Island of the iPhone that Realme has been implementing for some time in its models and a design with flat sides. Photo: Xataka There was a rule: you cannot remove the case, you cannot remove the sticker that covers the camera module. Because I can’t, I can’t even tell you what hardware it has because the characteristics in ‘Settings’ are falsified. What I can tell you is that it has a periscopic telephoto, a wide angle and a main camera. And I’m going to get into it now because it is the jewel in the crown (beyond a power and battery that, if they follow in the wake of the Realme GT7 Prowill be rubbing shoulders with the best mobile phones of 2025). Realme GT8 Pro: a mobile phone made for the street “The collaboration with RICOH to create the Realme GT8 Pro goes beyond a union of brands.” Also about specifications: RICOH has overseen all aspects of the camera’s hardware and software. In the presentation of the agreement (because the mobile phone has not yet been officially presented), the Chinese company made it clear that the differentiating point of the new terminal is the main camera. Photo: Xataka It has a wide angle, it has a telephoto, it will surely mount the latest from Qualcomm, but the protagonist is the result of a very close collaboration between the Chinese and Japanese brands. Megapixels? Why do you want to know that (it’s not official). Focal? 23mm. Opening? 1.8. Does that matter? Not the slightest. Let me explain. Entering the Realme GT8 Pro camera app is like doing so in any mobile camera app: a carousel of options that are overwhelming in some cases and processing that feels excessive in some aspects. However, the secret is if we slide our finger down on the shutter button: this way we access the RICOH GR mode very, very quickly. Photo: Xataka To give some context, RICOH is a company that makes very compact cameras, ideal for street photography. They have specialized in fast focus cameras, silent shooting and ‘stealth’ modes to go unnoticed in the urban jungle. Also by 28 mm or 40 mm fixed focal lengths, depending on the model. Entering that GR mode directly activates the 28mmbut it is not a real focal length: it is a small cutout of the sensor to go from the native 23 mm to that RICOH-type focal length. It is not the only one: we also have a 40 mm (which would be a 1.8x crop of the sensor) and if we tap on the 28 mm and 40 mm icons, two more distances are added. That is, in practice the main camera is: 23mm in normal mode 28mm in GR mode 35mm in GR mode 40mm in GR mode 50mm, or 2x, in GR mode I imagine at least the 50mm or 2x will also be available in the regular camera app, but it wasn’t available on my test unit. As soon as you enter GR mode, the shutter changes to mimic that of a RICOH and the 28mm and 40mm crops are activated. Photo: Xataka The use is very intuitive and there are other things that change a lot in this GR mode. To start, the colors. We have several filters typical RICOH tonal variations. As in its day with Apple ringtones, It’s not about filters. In fact, from Realme they commented that “People are tired of filters that make all photos look the same”. What they have done is work with RICOH to apply their color science to photo processing. Auto mode. The defendant wants everything to look “good” in the photo. Photo: Xataka GR mode. More (coughs and fixes his bow tie) cinematic. Photo: Xataka Thus, there are tones that vary slightly, opting for a more bluish tone in elements such as shadows, but in addition the processing does not enhance the shadows to the extreme nor does it apply aggressive HDR (in normal mode, yes). And we have five default color profiles that are based on the technical characteristics that RICOH has set. GR mode profiles. Photo: Xataka Within each “color recipe”, we can create our own, modifying parameters such as tone, contrast, exposure or black level to create a unique profile that adapts to what we like. And they stay stored, something that I loved. Apart from the color profiles and focal lengths, the GR mode allows you to save in the usual JPG, JPG+RAW and RAW, but something else: modify the focus point to leave it fixed. Within each profile, we can customize parameters. Photo: Xataka We have several options here and, basically, it is about making the mobile even faster in its point & shoot function. A practical example: if I am shooting at everything in front of me, be it close-ups or panoramic shots, I can leave the focus on auto so that the phone … Read more

an army of combat drones

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For decades, the Rust Belt was the map of industrial failure American: abandoned factories, cities bled by unemployment and entire generations that saw the American dream rust along the assembly lines. In those gray landscapes, where silence replaced the roar of metal, no one expected a second life. And yet, something unexpected is happening among the old hangars and empty ships: a new noise has filled the air again, but this time it is not coming from the engines. It comes from the echoes of Europe, and from the war that pound in Ukraine. The industrial rebirth. I was telling it on the weekend the new york times. In the heart of America’s former automobile empire, where shuttered factories and for-lease signs had become part of the landscape, a new industry is breathing life back into the factory towns of the Midwest and Northeast. Where engines and bodies were once assembled, today drones are builtautonomous systems and smart weapons. Companies as Swarm Defense Technologieswhich occupies a former plant in Auburn Hills, Michigan, produces thousands of drones a month for the Army and other agencies, reviving an industrial environment that seemed doomed to decline. What was once the symbol of manufacturing decline has been transformed into a laboratory of the military future. The new industrial map. The expansion is not limited to an isolated case. Startups like Andurilbacked by artificial intelligence, are investing billions in factories of drones and autonomous weapons in Ohio, Rhode Island and Mississippi, while Regent builds electric marine gliders for the Marines off the New England coast and UXV Technologiesof Danish origin, installs a plant in Pennsylvania. They have all been found in the old industrial centers a fertile ground: skilled labor, cheap land and state governments willing to offer incentives in exchange for employment. Politics and industry are intertwined: for the White House, promoting “made in USA” defense It is as much a question of national security as it is of electoral strategy. Swarm Defense Technologies factory in Mich The political calculation. President Trump has turned this military reindustrialization into a political flagimposing tariffs, restricting purchases from abroad and proclaiming the end of dependence on Chinese technologies. The Rust Belt states, once bastions of the displaced working class, are now theaters of a rebirth defense driven. Politicians such as Ohio Senator Jon Husted, son of a General Motors worker, celebrate the arrival of these factories as a historical reparation: after decades of closures, jobs and hope return. Investors as Christian Garrettfrom 137 Ventures, recognize that producing in these regions is not only profitable, but strategic: “the end customer is the Pentagon,” and each position created consolidates a political link between the industry and the State. The factory of the future. However, this rebirth does not represent a return to the industrial past. The new plants will not employ hundreds of thousands of workers, but rather specialized technicians and programmers of autonomous systems. Anduril, for example, builds in Ohio a modular installation of hundreds of thousands of square meters, capable of adapting its production to different war platforms and that will employ some four thousand people. Automation and artificial intelligence redefine the notion of a factory: less muscle and more codeless assembly and more calibration. But the symbolic and economic effect is enormous: cities like Warren, North Kingstown or Auburn Hills once again appear on the innovation maps, replacing steel and oil with silicon and sensors. Between tradition and the avant-garde. The new manufacturers are rediscovering the value of inherited trades. Regent chose Rhode Island for its naval legacy and its community of boatbuilders, Swarm, for the technical knowledge passed down through generations of automotive workers, and Atomic Industries, in Michigan, for a network of welders and assemblers that still exists. mechanical skill that the 21st century seemed to have displaced. This combination of artisanal experience and cutting-edge technology embodies a new type of industrial patriotism, in which defense becomes an economic engine and the reconstruction of factories, a symbol of technological sovereignty. The manufacturing spirit. The resurgence of the factory towns It is not just a story of drones and military contracts, but a cultural metamorphosis. For workers re-entering a plant that their parents helped liftassembling a drone is a way of reconciliation with history. The same infrastructure that once supported Detroit or Flint is now adapting to the challenges of a new era: national defense, automation and industrial independence. What was the decline of the American motor is becoming the dawn of its technological muscle, one that unites the nostalgia of assembly lines with the promise of a future controlled by algorithms and electric drives. Image | Swarm Defense Technologies In Xataka | Russia has set up the largest drone factory in the world using a well-kept secret: teenagers In Xataka | The paradox of Ukraine’s huge drone industry: an advantage against Russia, a problem for its pilots

It is an invaluable source for generative AI and at the same time it is what is killing it

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Wikipedia wants to be the last human bastion against AI-generated content. The Wikimedia Foundation removed AI-generated summaries after several cases of hallucinations and the complaint of their editors. It’s not Wikipedia’s only problem with AI, it’s also wreaking havoc on its traffic. What is happening. In a article published on the foundation’s blogproduct manager Marshall Miller details the current situation in Wikipedia traffic. The foundation estimates that there has been an 8% drop in human traffic between May and August 2025. They attribute this to the use of generative AI as a source of information, such as the chatbots themselves or initiatives such as the Google AI Overview that respond to the user without having to click on a link. Why is it important. It poses a risk to the continuity of Wikipedia because people are obtaining the information that its volunteers produce, but without going through the web and without adding visits. It is the same as What’s happening in the media with Google’s AI briefingsalthough the main difference is that the media lives off advertising and Wikipedia lives off donations from individuals. Miller sees it clearly: “With fewer visits to Wikipedia, fewer volunteers will be able to develop and enrich the content, and fewer individual donors will be able to support this work.” A crisis that comes from afar. Wikipedia losing traffic has been in the news for a long time. In 2020 they had a massive drop: They lost 3 billion organic traffic visits and the culprit was Google. The appearance of direct response modules that displayed information directly on the results page, causing many people to not click. Correction. In May of this year, Wikipedia detected an unusual increase in traffic from Brazil. At first they classified the traffic as human, but later they verified that they were bots designed to imitate human behavior. This led them to update their bot detection mechanism and, with the new updated data, they saw that there had been an 8% drop in human traffic. The irony. In the era of generative AI, sites like Wikipedia are an invaluable source of information. It is where the chatbots and Google’s own search draw from to give us those answers, but at the same time they are harming it and not only because of the drop in traffic, the bots and scrapers also have an impact on the operation and represent a noticeable load on the servers. Solutions. The Wikipedia Foundation proposes responsible use by users to seek original sources and highlight the importance of human-created content. It sounds almost like a plea and the truth is that the outlook does not look too good. In the case of AI Overview, the media have warned about the consequences and there are even groups that They have sued Google. There are clues that Google could be raising licensing agreements with large media groupsbut for the moment it has not materialized and its results with AI continue to work as the first day (they have even launched the AI mode). Image | Wikipedia In Xataka | A Wikipedia editor spent years pretending to be Russian Red. He was actually an Indian scammer

what it is and how to configure it

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Let’s explain to you what it is and how to configure a recovery contact from your Google account. This is an alternative system with which you will have more versatility when recovering your account in case you have forgotten the password you have in it. We are going to start by briefly explaining what exactly recovery contacts are and how they work. Then, we will tell you step by step how to configure it. We will do this on the web, but you will also be able to take the same steps in mobile applications. What are recovery contacts Horror. You have forgotten your Google account password, and now you can no longer access your photos, emails or YouTube videos. You can’t even use your account on an Android phone if you have it linked. Google is a gigantic ecosystem, so losing access to your account for whatever reason can be quite disruptive. A classic solution to this problem has always been to set up a recovery email. In this way, you can request that a link to recover your account be sent to this email that you have previously verified as yours. Recovery Contacts They are an alternative solution to regain access without having to use a secondary email, or if you have had problems accessing the one you configured previously. This system allows you designate trusted contacts to help you recover your account. You can add friends or family so that, if you cannot access your account, they can help you verify your identity and log back into it. About this system you must be clear about two things. This contact will have a method to access your account using recovery, so it is vital that it is someone you trust completely. It’s like giving him the keys to your house. It can help you enter when you forget, but also at any other time. Also, these are not reciprocal permissions, just because you designate a person as a recovery contact does not make you a recovery contact for them. You can revoke this permission at any time.in case something suspicious happens with this person. How to set up your recovery contact The first thing you have to do is enter a Google service, such as Gmail. In it, click on the icon with your profile image so that a menu of options appears, and within it click on Manage your Google accountan option that if you are doing it on your mobile could be called Google account. This will take you to a settings page for your Google account. Inside, Click on the section Security to access the options related to this field. There, under the options for how you sign in, press the button Recovery Contacts that will appear below. This will take you to a page where how this function works is explained. In it, press the button Add recovery contacts that will appear below. Now you will go to a screen where you will have to write the contact email that you want to add to the recovery contact list. When you do it and click on Continue, This person will receive a confirmation email with a process that you will have to complete. Once the contact is confirmed, you will have the keys to your Google account. You can add several recovery contacts, but I recommend keeping them as few as possible to maintain your privacy as much as possible. Remember that these contacts must have access to their Google accounts, and if they lost it they would have to tell you to delete them for your safety. In Xataka Basics | Applications linked to your Google account: what they are, how they work, why it is dangerous to have many and how to unlink them

55 times more than its employees

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It is logical that the main director of a large company listed on the Ibex 35 has a high salary. After all, the responsibility of managing the money and resources entrusted to you by your investors falls on your shoulders. However, there is some debate about How much should CEOs earn? of companies with respect to the average salary of their employees. A recent report of the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV) confirms that each year the salary gap that exists between bosses and their employees grows larger. Rising wage gap. He CNMV analysis maintains that in 2024 Ibex 35 executives earned 55 times more than the average salary of employees in their own companies. This value has grown from the 53 times recorded in the previous year’s report. This calculation, according to the same report, was “only” 18 times in those listed outside the Ibex 35 and the global average of all Spanish listed companies was 33 times the average salary of their employees. This figure is above the 31 times that was recorded in 2023, evidencing an upward evolution of the wage gap that shows no signs of stopping. Salaries in figures. The CNMV report indicates that, over the last 20 years, the average salary of Ibex 35 CEOs has multiplied by 2.7, going from 1.37 million euros in 2004 to 3.73 million in 2024, which represents a total increase of 172%. On the other hand, only in 2024, the average salary of executive directors increased by 7.6%, reaching an average of 1.9 million euros, a salary amount that was far exceeded by some of the main executives of the Ibex 35. According to what was published by Digital EconomyHéctor Grisi, CEO of Santander, would have received a salary of 8.3 million euros; Carlos Torres, president of BBVA, received a remuneration of 7.15 million, or Florentino Pérez, president of ACS, who pocketed 7.95 million euros in 2024. In contrast to them, we find cases very far from those figures, such as that of the president of Aena, Maurici Lucena, who earned 190,857 euros gross in the same period. The magnitude of the gap. At the same time managers’ salaries reached three-digit increases, the average salary in Spain only rose 49.48% during the same period. In the case of employees, the average gross salary went from 18,435.6 euros in 2004 to 27,558.7 current euros. This increase was even below the accumulated inflation in that period which, according to INE data, It stands at 56.3%. This means that the average salaries of the workers of these companies not only did not grow at the same rate than that of their bossesbut it meant a direct loss of their purchasing power. Salaries have not only grown for CEOs. The data reveal that the salary increase has not only been recorded among executive directors, but remuneration to the boards of directors has also increased, increasing by up to 5.3% in 2024 alone, with an average total per leadership of 4.3 million euros. The report underlines that even within this business elite there is also a wage gap marked by gender. In 2024, female Ibex 35 executive directors earned, on average, 30.4% more than their male counterparts, although, due to the low number of women at the highest management level, this data varies greatly depending on the company and its representativeness is limited. In Xataka | The highest paid Spanish manager in the world does not work in a large technology company: he sells “sugar water” Image | Flickr (World Travel & Tourism Council), Wikimedia Commons (Barcex), CNMV

This refurbished iPhone 14 Pro is an affordable way to get a top Apple phone

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For many, buying the latest iPhone model is synonymous with status and the need to have the latest in technology. If for you, on the other hand, you want an Apple mobile with premium features but without spending a fortune, in the reconditioned from PcComponentes you have this iPhone 14 Pro at a very good price. Specifically, it is available for 619 euros. At this price, you can buy it in colors black and purple (exclusive in this edition of the iPhone). If you want it in silver, you also have it reconditioned at PcComponentes for 639 euros. Apple iPhone 14 Pro (128GB) The price could vary. We earn commission from these links An iPhone with the surname Pro but now at a reduced price He iPhone 14 Pro It is a mobile phone with a 6.1-inch Super Retina XDR displaywith True Tone and HDR. It has a refresh rate of 120 Hz and 2,000 nits of brightness. Although one of its most innovative features is the Dynamic Island, since it was the first iPhone to incorporate it. It mounts the A16 Bionic chip and the model that PcComponentes has on offer has a capacity of 128GB storage. Its photographic system consists of a triple rear camera of 48+12+12 MP and the front one is 12 MP. You can update to the latest version of Apple’s operating system (iOS 26) and its battery supports fast charging at 20 W (wired) or 15 W (wireless). Comes with 5G, Bluetooth 5.3NFC and Face ID. Finally, it should be noted that it has IP68 certification. You may also be interested in these accessories for the iPhone 14 Pro TAURI Case for iPhone 14 Pro, MagSafe Compatible (No Yellowing) with Tempered Glass The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Apple AirPods 4, Wireless headphones 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 | Amparo Babiloni (Xataka) and Apple In Xataka | Best iPhones. Which one to buy in 2025 and recommended models based on budget, tastes and quality-price In Xataka | iPhone 14 Pro Vs iPhone 15 Pro. We explain which one to buy

The US is targeting Venezuela with the alibi of drug traffickers

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In recent months, the Caribbean has returned to sound like war. American B-52 bombers they have crossed the sky off the coast of Venezuela, helicopters Special operations forces have flown over the Gulf of Paria and a flotilla of Aegis destroyers patrols the waters where several vessels accused of transporting drugs have sunk. It happens that, under the guise of an intensification of the war on drug trafficking, Washington has woven a military device and intelligence that recalls the preludes to past interventions in the region. Yesterday is not today. Unlike 2019, when Trump openly proclaimed his desire to overthrow Nicolás Maduro, his second term has opted, at least until now, for a strategy more ambiguous and sophisticated: present the Venezuelan leader not as a political adversary, but as a narcoterrorist and, therefore, a legitimate objective within a global anti-narcotics operation. Lethal diplomacy. The change in focus is significant. In his first term, Trump tried to overthrow Maduro with sanctions, diplomatic isolation and the recognition of the opposition Juan Guaidó, without successyes indeed. This time, the discourse of regime change has dissolved into a campaign judicial and military focused on organized crime: rewards up to 50 million of dollars for the capture of the Venezuelan president, accusations of drug trafficking or lethal attacks against boats. Plus, and perhaps the “core” of it all: an authorization secret presidential finding (the so-called presidential finding) that allows the CIA to carry out covert operations and lethal actions within Venezuela. The measure, revealed by senior officials and confirmed by Trump himself, marks a qualitative leap: For the first time in decades, Washington formally enables its intelligence agency to intervene directly in a Latin American country, even without the cover of a declared conflict. The base reopened by the United States in Puerto Rico, the former Naval Station Roosevelt Roads The militarization of the Caribbean. The truth is that the device around Venezuela is already considerable magnitude. More than ten thousand American soldiers are concentrated in bases in Puerto Rico and on amphibious ships; The Navy maintains eight surface ships and one submarine in the region, and the Army has deployed helicopters assault fighters of the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, the famous “Night Stalkers”next to B-52 strategic bombers on deterrence flights near Caracas. Officially, these are maneuvers and training exercises, but the accumulation of forcesunited with the maritime attacks against vessels suspected of trafficking, has been interpreted by international observers as a clear warning. Each new air or naval mission reinforces the feeling that the United States is rehearsingif not a total invasion, then at least the ability to execute fast and selective operations against Venezuelan targets. Hybrid Warfare Laboratory. The current strategy combine components of military, psychological and political pressure. The public revelation of the CIA’s covert operations, an unprecedented fact in itself, seems aimed at generating fear and distrust within Maduro’s circle of power. Intelligence analysts describe this campaign as a hybrid war examplewhere open threats are intertwined with disinformation operations, sabotage and stimulation of internal fractures in the regime. According to Washington sourcesthe immediate objective would be to push the Venezuelan military commanders to withdraw their support for Maduro, reproducing the model of internal decomposition that preceded the overthrow of Manuel Noriega in Panama in 1989. However, Venezuela is a more complex scenario, with a cohesive security apparatus, the presence of Russian and Iranian advisors and paramilitary groups that act as territorial control networks. Ripe The pretext: drugs. Trump and his advisors have presented the entire offensive under the umbrella of the fight against drug trafficking. They have accused the regime of being a drug stateto use Aragua Train group as an operational arm and to flood the United States with drugs. The narrative seeks internal legitimacy and support from public opinion, but the facts contradict it: the majority of opioids and fentanyl that devastate American society come from Mexiconot from Venezuela. However, the discourse of the drug enemy serves the White House to avoid the debate on direct intervention and reconfigure military action as a simple extension of a global war against organized crime. The parallelism with the justification used in the case of Noriega It is very powerful. No negotiated exit. I was counting a few hours ago AP exclusively that, in the face of growing pressure, the Venezuelan government would have tried to offer a political solution: a plan that contemplated the progressive resignation of Maduro within a period of three years and the transfer of power to his vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, without subsequent re-election. The White House rejected the proposal immediately, arguing that he did not recognize the legitimacy of Maduro or his cabinet and that the country was a narco-state run by terrorists. The frustrated gesture illustrates, a priori, the point of no return: Washington is no longer seeking negotiation, but capitulation. Since then, Caracas has reacted with gestures of fear and defiance at the same time: irregular movements by Maduro, television broadcasts from undisclosed locations, deployments of anti-aircraft missiles and the use of civilians as a symbolic shield against a possible attack. The dilemma: invasion. The great unknown, therefore, seems clear: if Trump is willing to cross the threshold of a open military action. Its political base, with a strong isolationist component, is suspicious of any prolonged foreign war, but the narrative of the fight against narcoterrorism offers an entrance door for a limited operation: a precision attack or perhaps a raid aimed at a single objective: the Maduro himself. This type of action, presented as a measure of international justice More than an invasion, it could please both the nationalist electorate and the neoconservative sectors of his cabinet. However, such a move would entail an enormous risk: the possibility of a regional warthe breakdown of alliances and a large-scale humanitarian crisis. The shadow of history. The Latin American precedent it is unavoidable. From Guatemala in 1954 until Panama in 1989passing through Chile and Nicaraguacovert operations and coups endorsed by Washington left a … Read more

When the Titan submarine exploded there was nothing left to rescue. Except one very important thing: a memory card

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It has been more than two years since the Titan submarine tragedy and the story continues to make people talk. The last thing we know is that the recovery teams found the camera that was part of the submarine. The camera was damaged, but inside it housed a memory card from which they were able to extract image and video files, although none from the implosion. The discovery. Youtuber Scott Manley told it in your X account. In a series of posts, Manley has published several images of the camera’s recovery report detailing its characteristics and condition. It was a Rayfin Mk2 Benthic underwater cameracapable of submerging up to 6,000 meters deep thanks to its titanium body. Although the case appeared intact, the sapphire crystal lens was shattered. Upon disassembly, many of the components had light damage, but one of the boards included an SD card that was in good condition. The content of the card. Investigators and forensics managed to make a duplicate of the card and extract the contents. In total, they obtained nine images and twelve videos. However, the camera had been configured to save the captures on an external storage device, so it did not contain any images from the day of the fateful dive, but rather they were images taken at the Marine Institute in Newfoundland, which was where the missions to the Titanic departed. In the images they have shared you can see the facilities and some underwater images, but at shallow depths. Catastrophic implosion. The Titan left Newfoundland on June 16, 2023. An hour and 45 minutes had passed when communication was lost, but it was not until four days later that the coast guard found the first remains of the vehicle and confirmed what they suspected: it had imploded. They found remains of the vehicle, but no body of the five crew members could be found. It was avoidable. The Titanic is located at a depth of 3,800 meters, where the pressure is 380 atmospheres. There is vehicles capable of reaching this depth and even more, but the Titan had a long history of problems and his own Former director of operations called the tragedy avoidable. In fact, several members of the underwater exploration community, including James Cameron, They had written a letter to OceanGate where they expressed their concern and assured that they were “going down the path of catastrophe.” The company ceased its activity after the accident. Image | Scott Manley in X In Xataka | Seven questions (and seven answers) about what really happened to the Titanic submarine

Data centers do not want to depend on the conventional electrical grid. Solution: build your own plants

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AI data centers have sparked a new fever: the so-called “bring your own power.” The demand and consumption The pressure these plants impose is so enormous that they do not want to depend on external sources. The solution is theoretically simple, and we are already seeing how when a new data center is built, it is normal for some type of power plant to be built next to it. We are seeing it now. The data centers that OpenAI and Oracle are building in West Texas are accompanied by the creation of a natural gas-based power plant. Both xAI’s Colossus 1 and Colossus 2 in Memphis take advantage of gas turbines. And as they also indicate in The Wall Street Journalmore than a dozen Equinix data centers across the US are powered by stand-alone fuel cells. If the conventional electrical grid cannot be used, nothing happens: you create a power plant and that’s it. The US has an electrical problem. The technology giants would prefer to connect to the conventional grid, but bottlenecks in the supply chain, bureaucracy – permits, licenses – and the slowness in building the necessary transmission infrastructure prevent this. According to the ICV firmThe United States would need to add about 80 GW of new generation capacity per year to keep pace with AI, but right now less than 65 GW per year are being built. There is another direct consequence of this problem: the rise in the electricity bill. Data centers that look like cities. The needs and ambition of AI companies has made data centers become calculation and resource consumption monsters. One can only consume as much electricity as 10,000 stores in the Walmart electronics chain, WSJ estimates. Before 2020, data centers represented less than 2% of US energy consumption. By 2028 they are expected to represent up to 12%. A 1.5 GW data center, for example, would have consumption similar to that of the city of San Francisco, with about 800,000 inhabitants. China has a lot of advantage over the US in this. While the US deal with that lack of powerChina does not stop investing in new energy generation. According to data According to the National Energy Administration, the Asian country added 429 GW of new energy generation in 2024, while the US only added 50 GW. It is true that China has four times the population, but its centralized planning is helping to avoid problems that affect the US electrical grid. The white knight to the rescue. Faced with this shortage, natural gas has become the preferred resource for on-site energy generation. Although large turbines have long delivery times, smaller turbines or fuel cells that use natural gas are being used because of their rapid availability and installation. Renewables lose steam. Meanwhile, things are not promising for renewable energies (solar and wind, especially). There are about 214 GW of new generation theoretically in projectbut spending on such technologies could decline due to the potential loss of tax credits: the Trump administration criticizes that those clean energies do not provide a constant flow necessary for AI. The nuclear alternative. Faced with this apparent decline of nuclear energy, there is a growing interest in compact nuclear reactors (SMR), which allow us to provide the advantages of this type of center and a flexibility that can be very interesting for AI data centers. amazon, Google, Goal either Microsoft They are betting part of their future on nuclear powerbut that It doesn’t mean there aren’t challenges to overcome.. Image | Wolfgang Weiser In Xataka | World record in nuclear fusion: the German Wendelstein 7-X reactor has broken all records

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