Mobile Tech & Gadgets

how they differ and why they don’t let you sleep

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It is often said that any time in the past was better. Normally this phrase is the fruit of our tendency to idealize what has already happened. However, with The heat and hot nights are beginning to be an indisputable reality.. If we think of our past summer nights, we remember the tropical nights, in which the temperature does not drop below 20ºCas something specific. In the case of Spain, at least, they were isolated nights in which sleeping was a challenge. Now, however, they have not only become a norm that makes us live hugging the fanbut we have unlocked two other types of nights: equatorial and infernal. The name of the latter gives what it promises. Because of global warmingour nights have become hell; which, unfortunately for us, has only just begun. This affects our rest and, as a consequence, our performance during the day and our long-term health. It is no small feat, so it is worth looking for methods to sleep despite the high nighttime temperatures. Of course, before seeing what those methods may be, it is important to start at the beginning and learn what each type of night consists of. The night thermometer: difference between tropical, equatorial and infernal night As we have seen, when we talk about hot nights, there are three different types. Tropical night: It is what we were more or less used to, although not with the frequency of today. It occurs when temperatures do not drop below 20ºC throughout the night. Equatorial (or torrid) night: In this case, the mercury does not drop below 25ºC. It may not seem like much, but 5ºC is very noticeable. Normally these high night temperatures are reached by heating the sea water, heat island effect in cities or hot, dry winds. hellish night: The name delivers what it promises. Temperatures do not drop below 30ºC between dusk and dawn, so rest is much more complicated and the effects of heat even more dangerous than during the day in some cases. Why is it physically impossible to sleep in these temperatures? Our dream is governed by circadian cycles. These are 24-hour cycles with which many of our physiological functions are regulated. In the case of sleep, we sleep once a day, usually during the night. Therefore, when our brain detects that it has gotten dark, it begins to release melatonin, the hormone that helps us fall asleep. On the other hand, as daylight sets in, the release of this hormone is inhibited. But melatonin doesn’t tell us to close our eyes and put our brains in rest mode until the next day. This sleep stimulation takes place on many levels. For example, in order for us to sleep, our body temperature must drop a little. It is something that occurs naturally, thanks precisely to that release of melatonin. But of course, if the ambient temperature is very high, it is too complicated to maintain that ideal temperature for rest. This is why we have such a hard time sleeping on hot nights. The entire process is affected, although the most susceptible is REM sleepessential for a good rest. What happens to your body when you try to sleep at more than 25ºC? We have seen that the brain detects when it is day and night, but how does it do it? There are actually several factors. The most intuitive is the entry of light through the retina. If there is light, it is interpreted as daytime and when it decreases it is associated with night. This is the reason why having rooms that are too lit at night, especially with blue light, makes it difficult for us to fall asleep. However, light is not the only indicator of day and night. The brain is also guided by temperatureswhich normally rise during the day and descend at night. It is not usual for the temperature to be above 25ºC at night. That’s why, circadian rhythms get out of whack and cannot fall asleep properly. If melatonin were released in adequate quantities, it would lower the temperature even further, but when it is very hot not enough is released, so everything becomes a vicious circle. In addition, the hypothalamus, which is our first center for regulating body temperature, continues to work at full capacity. It must continue working so that our body does not get too hot, so remains overactivated and we cannot rest. As you see, everything leads to the same thing. With the high night temperatures we cannot rest. The ideal temperature to fall asleep according to science With everything we have seen above, it is clear that there is an ideal temperature to fall asleep. If it is too high, circadian cycles become unbalanced, while excessive cold does not help us sleep either. That’s why, the sleep foundations recommendation is maintain the temperature of the rooms in which we sleep between 15.6ºC and 20ºC. The open window on hot nights does not help, since even tropical nights, the least severe, rise above that range. The map of sleepless nights in Spain: the most affected areas The areas most affected by hot nights are mainly the Mediterranean regions, the Guadalquivir basin, the community of Madrid and Extremadura. Also are becoming increasingly common in the Canary Islandswhere an increase in hellish nights is even beginning to be detected. The Mediterranean and the Guadalquivir Valley: the “hot spots” of summer In the Mediterranean highlights the case of the hellish nights in the province of Almeríawhere in June 2026 there have been four consecutive nights with temperatures above 30ºC. In the Guadalquivir Valley and regions close to its basin they are not far behind. Although there they are standing out more due to the maximum temperatures than the minimum ones, so far this summer tropical nights have already been recorded in places like Écija, belonging to the province of Seville. In any case, its particular hell occurs during the day, with maximum temperatures well above 40ºC. … Read more

“Are Slimbooks a good investment?”

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GNU/Linux continues to be a very popular family of operating systems, especially for those who prioritize privacy and freedom of choice, without impositions from large companies. And Spain has a great manufacturer of computers with pre-installed Linux called Slimbook. One of our readers asked us about this brand, taking advantage of The Officeone of the advantages of Xataka Xtraour subscription to access exclusive newsletters, raffles, promotions and other exclusive advantages. In this case, what we offer is a direct line with us to resolve questions like this. The xatakero asked If Slimbooks are a good investment. He explains to us that he is a GNU/Linux user, but that he sometimes has problems with some systems, so he was looking for a device that was natively compatible. The question “I have been following them for the last two years, and although I am not in Europe I love their content. Excuse my Spanish, but I write mostly in English. I have a question about Slimbook systems. I don’t see any reviews on Xataka, and I would like to know if they are a good investment. I use Linux daily and sometimes I have problems with some systems, so I would like a device that is already compatible.” The answer Buying a computer is always a decision that requires taking many things into account. And when you want it to use a specific operating system, then you are interested in knowing if it is fully compatible. Our colleague Javier Pastor, specialist in AI, productivity and operating systems, responded to this question. The answer was the following: “Hello! First of all, thank you very much for encouraging you to write to us and don’t worry about your Spanish, it is perfectly understood and it is an honor that you follow us from afar. Regarding your Slimbook question, you are right about Linux support among the current large manufacturers. Although there are some that over time have ended up offering it as an option, they do not focus on it. This means that there are opportunities for manufacturers like this one, which precisely focuses on that section and comes out with really interesting equipment that is very designed to work with all types of Linux distributions without problems. Although we have not analyzed any of their teams recently, we keep track of them and they certainly continue to have important advantages precisely in that scenario. In fact, its greatest virtue is being designed and optimized for Linux, so you don’t have to worry about fighting with Wi-Fi or trackpad drivers. They even have apps specially designed for better management of equipment options, such as Slimbook Battery (currently in version 4, and with the code on GitHub), which shows that they are very attentive to these types of details. They have also improved in materials and components—aluminum chassis, very high-resolution screens and great refresh rates, “giant” MacBook-type trackpads—and we certainly believe that they are a fantastic option for Linux lovers. The price/performance ratio is very acceptable. It is true that you can end up installing Linux on many other computers, but here the peace of mind that everything is fine function from the first power on is maximum, and that always helps in making the decision. Greetings!” Do you have more questions like this? The subscribers of Xataka Xtra You can send us your questions and our team will respond personally. And if you are already a subscriber, remember this advantage and that you can ask us whenever you want.

Today in streaming, one of the most epic box office failures of recent decades receives a portrait worthy of its legend

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Mike Figgis sent an email congratulating Francis Ford Coppola for resuming, forty years after imagining it, a project called ‘Megalopolis‘, a film financing and collection apocalyptic He added a postscript half jokingly: if he felt like it, he could document the filming. Coppola accepted, and thus ‘MegaDoc‘, that Filmin premieres today. Figgis had full access to the filming, without a script or preconditions. Figgis and Coppola had known each other since the nineties, when the Briton directed Nicolas Cage, the director’s nephew, in ‘Leaving Las Vegas’. In November 2022, when filming began, ‘Megalopolis’ was the biggest unknown in American independent cinema: a science fiction fable set in a New York inspired by Catiline’s conspiracy against republican Rome, financed entirely by Coppola with more than 120 million dollars from the sale of part of his wine business There is a very interesting detail in the nature of ‘MegaDoc’. Eleanor Coppola, the director’s wife for more than sixty years, died on April 12, 2024, just a month before the premiere of ‘Megalopolis’. It was she who in 1991 directed ‘Corazones en tinieblas’, the documentary about the filming of ‘Apocalypse Now’ that became the making of in its own genre within documentaries. ‘MegaDoc’ inherits that family tradition of documenting the creative process from withinalthough this time it is a filmmaker from outside the clan who holds the camera. In ‘MegaDoc’ we will see Shia LaBeouf’s confrontations with Coppola, who even told him that he was the most difficult actor he had ever worked with. Aubrey Plaza turned Figgis almost into another character in the film, ordering her without leaving her role as the Wow Platinum presenter to follow him as if it were her personal camera. Adam Driver, the protagonist, asked not to be filmed during filming and only gave an interview at the end. The result is a documentary as eventful and as peculiar in its destiny as the film it portrays. In Xataka | Today on Netflix, the exciting third installment of one of the most viewed sagas in the history of the platform

In its final stretch of having a Formula 1 circuit, Madrid has encountered a problem: sheep

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January 2024, Madrid confirms that it will have a Formula 1 circuit after years of chasing him. Without a permanent circuit that can host the event, the FIA ​​and Madrid political leaders welcome the proposal that the streets of a PAU north of Madrid and the IFEMA facilities They lay the foundations of the show. It is a movement, that of using a city as an attraction but not passing through any of its emblematic places, that the organization of Formula 1 has been practicing for some time. A sport that has been filled with semi-urban and insubstantial circuits, very far from the concept of Monaco. The problem is that the only thing that keeps Monaco on the calendar is tradition and glamour. The streets of the principality have become too small for cars much larger than decades ago and the spectacle on the track already seems to be the least of it. The solution has been to bring these circuits to spaces such as outskirts of Miami or Madrid. The problem is that people live there. Yes, there are people who are not always willing to have their streets transformed into a circuit, taking up assembly and disassembly work for weeks and having to suffer the noise of cars passing at 300 km/h a few meters from their portals. “They are selling my health to make money”said one of those affected by the Stop F1 Madrid platform. And the neighborhoods have their own dynamics and spaces that were there long before Formula 1 arrived there. For example: the sheep. Year and a half of notices Although it may not seem like it, the roads, paths and roads of Spain are the result of a planning designed centuries ago but live for the daily use of them. Sometimes, like roads, they have been used to structure our country. In other cases, although invisible to the untrained eye, they live for a handful of the most unexpected users. Every year, at the end of October, Thousands of sheep continue to pass through Madrid’s Gran Vía. Although it may have some folklore for those less familiar with the countryside, it is still part of the path for those who practice migration. Because yes, no matter how few they may be, there are those who keep transhumance alive. One of those historical paths that contemplate the passage of animals is the Vereda de los Leñeros, one of the livestock routes that pass through Madrid. These steps, points out the Community of Madrid itselfdefine the spaces intended primarily for the transit of livestock and which in the case of trails have a width of 20 meters. When the modification that IFEMA had to make to host the event was put on the table, environmentalists and neighbors confirmed that they were diverting the livestock route but, according to Antonio Giraldo, Spokesperson for Urban Planning, Environment and Mobility of the PSOE in the Madrid City Council, it was falling into illegality. “Either they ventilate a livestock trail (illegal) or reduce the surface of municipal green areas (illegal). But you cannot do both at the same time,” Giraldo then pointed out because according to their calculations, there was no space in the neighborhood to divert the livestock route without falling into one of these two assumptions. It has been a year and a half since the controversy began. The first voices that warned of the problem came in February 2025. In July 2026, weeks before the cars compete in the north of Madrid, those responsible for the region have presented the modification with a publication in the Official Gazette of the Community of Madrid: raise the livestock route to save the Formula 1 circuit in style. They explain in The Country that the Vereda de Leñeros has existed since the 19th century and that its original route passes through IFEMA, which has been trying to move it to the margins of the complex for years. However, it has not been until now coinciding with Formula 1 that the modification project has been presented. For the opposition, it represents a clear example that private interests are altering “land with very high protection that could derail the project.” Since then, the tug of war between the opposition and the Madrid City Council has been constant. Also the criticism from neighbors who have found in this supposed illegality the possibility of preventing the event from going ahead. However, everything seems decided for the livestock route to be modified. The City Council’s plan involves dusting off a preliminary project that proposed building an eco-bridge to save the M-11 and join the Vereda de los Leñeros with that of Valdecarros, which were separated when this road was built. That is, the plan goes through carry animals over a 12-lane stretch. A decision that the opposition, neighborhood groups and environmentalists continue to criticize. From the Madrid Ecologist Platform they point out that: “The livestock trails are public domain assets owned by the Community of Madrid, they cannot overlap with another public domain such as a green area (referring to the park through which the new path is intended to pass)”, in words collected by elDiario.es. The environmental group explains that the sections should be transferred by IFEMA since they were the ones that completely closed the passage of the road with their facilities and are the promoters of the event and that it cannot be the Madrid City Council that gives up land in a green area to give way to said modification. And from Liberum Natura they already announce that they will argue against the project (Justice already admitted another allegation of his in May) because they consider that if it is given free rein it could be used by other municipalities in the future so that the livestock trails are raised above green areas and thus they can continue gaining ground for private businesses such as building apartments… or a Formula 1 circuit. Photo | Madring and Sam Carter In … Read more

Workers will have the right to a minimum weekly rest of one and a half days uninterrupted

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Elite athletes have deeply internalized that rest time is so important for get good performance like the training itself. However, companies they don’t seem to have it so clear. The Workers’ Statute clearly establishes what limits and conditions the employees’ weekly rest period must meet and how much time workers must rest between one work day and the next. It may seem like a topic that needs no clarification, but the devil is in the details. The minimum weekly rest. He article 37.1 The Workers’ Statute includes the regulations that work breaks must comply with. To begin with, every worker has the right to “a minimum weekly rest period, cumulative for periods of up to fourteen days, of a day and a half uninterrupted.” The law establishes that “as a general rule, it will include the afternoon of Saturday or, where appropriate, the morning of Monday and the entire day of Sunday.” This is 36 hours of uninterrupted rest. Which prevents this break from being broken up into individual moments, without any real block of disconnection being completed. That is to say, if, for example, you work until 2 p.m. on Saturday and return on Monday at 8 a.m., the fair minimum established by law would be met. However, the vast majority of companies give the entire weekend to their workers, who work from Monday to Friday. In this case, this “as a general rule” acts more as a recommendation than as an imposition since, due to the nature of their activity, some sectors are conditioned to work during weekends and this condition is recognized in the Royal Decree 1561/1995. There are those who work so that others rest. The problem comes in sectors such as hospitality or commerce, in which the atypical thing is to work only from Monday to Friday and rest on the weekend, because their peak work begins when others rest. In that case, the sectoral agreements establish that weekly breaks can be assigned during the week, as long as the minimum of 36 consecutive hours of rest included in the Workers’ Statute is met. The accumulated rest. Article 37.1 of the Workers’ Statute also specifies that the company does not have to give that day and a half each exact week, but can organize it in blocks, as long as they do not exceed 14 days. This is what is called accumulated rest. For example, an employee could chain 10 days of uninterrupted work including Saturdays and Sundays, and rest the next three at once. In this way, the mandate of taking 36 hours of weekly rest would be complied with (72 hours being the cumulative amount of two weeks) and the 14 days of separation between both breaks would not have been exceeded. Rest between days. On the other hand, the article 34.3 of the Workers’ Statute establishes that, between the end of one work day and the beginning of the next, a minimum of 12 hours must elapse. rest. If, for example, your day ends at 10 p.m., you will not be able to return to your job until at least 10 a.m. the next day. The Supreme Court said that breaks should not be mixed. Although legislators try to write laws with little room for interpretation, sometimes there are loopholes that lead to abuses. Many companies added those 12 hours of mandatory rest between days to the 36 hours per week as if they were the same block. The Supreme Court ruled in its ruling 274/2026 the case of a worker from Castilla-La Mancha with rotating shifts He denounced just that. Their agreement recognized both breaks, but in practice they overlapped. The conclusion of the High Court was that both breaks are independent and must be respected separately, as had already been established by the EU Court in a 2023 Hungarian ruling. Minors and breaks within the work day. For those under 18 years of age, in addition to complying with all the legal requirements included in the article 6 of the Statutethe regulations increase rest times to a minimum of 2 days in a row, instead of one and a half. Furthermore, their effective daily working hours cannot exceed 8 hours, including training if they have it. There are also rules for breaks within the day. Any worker who works for more than 6 hours in a row has the right to 15 minutes of rest, a time that many companies take advantage of to establish “snack time”“. For those under 18 years of age, this break increases to 30 minutes when the continuous day exceeds four and a half hours. In Xataka | How many vacations do I have by law: this is how the days of rest are calculated Image | Flickr (Chris Arnold), Unsplash (Eduardo Alexandre)

Spain promised them happiness with its airports increasingly full of tourists. Until someone calculated how it affects rents

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Of the 96.8 million of foreign tourists that Spain received last year, 80.5 million, something more than 83%they arrived through airports. The plane is not only the main entry route for foreign visitors (well above, for example, the road or ports), it also shows a clear growth trend and has led several terminals to arise its expansion to gain capacity and (simply) do not collapse due to the tourist boom. Against this backdrop, someone has asked themselves a question:What impact does it have? that avalanche of ‘air’ visitors in the Spanish real estate market? Tourists and real estate agencies? That tourism influences the residential market, encouraging the flight from housing to vacation rentals and raising prices is not no news. There are studies that have already thoroughly calibrated the phenomenon. What is curious is what the New Economics Foundation (NEF) has done in a report commissioned by Transport & Environment (T&E), an organization to which it belongs Ecologists in Action: Its technicians have examined how the increase in ‘air tourism’ is influencing housing rentals and, above all, whether we can expect a price increase in the short term. And what have they found out? That there is a direct connection. One, by the way, not at all favorable for the tenants. After analyzing “the effects of air tourism” on the real estate markets of the 12 main economies in Europe and calculating the evolution of prices in the medium term, for the period 2019-2031, NEF technicians have reached a worrying conclusion: the increase in visitors arriving in Europe through airports will affect the pockets of tenants. “We show a transfer of wealth whereby landlords benefit at the expense of tenants, as annual rents in some of Europe’s largest tourist economies are projected to rise by more than €150 a year over the next five years,” points out NEFand warns: “These increases, which represent national average increases, will be concentrated in the main tourist destinations and will mainly affect low-income households.” Can it go further? Yes. That is the general photo. The report commissioned by T&E provides other data that is just as or even more curious. For example, if we focus on the largest European economies dependent on tourism, the impact between now and 2031 will be greater: in Greece the annual increase in rental prices will amount to €163, in Portugal to €193, in Spain to €217 and in Ireland (the worst stop) to €251. In the specific case of Spain, NEF estimates that we will face an “extra increase of 1.6%” annually over the next five years, between 2026 and 2031. If we talk about rents, the average increase is 217 euros. In the case of the average price of housing, the study speaks of 3,500 euros. “Taken together, this would mean an aggregate annual increase in the rental burden of 648 million euros for landlords located in Spain. In the same period, the increase in tourist arrivals by air is projected at 11.8%,” explains. There is another key: these figures show national averages, so the phenomenon may worsen in the most touristy regions. More climbs on the islands? The T&E figures give food for thought. After recalling that there are certain parts of Europe where “local reactions” against tourism are taking place, such as the Balearic Islands, the Canary Islands, Crete and Madeira, T&E points out that these areas are also the most exposed to the arrival of air travelers. There, in the tourist centers, the report warns“tourism can reduce the supply of residential housing by shifting it towards tourist rentals, directing new promotions to visitors or non-resident buyers and making it difficult for local households to move or access a first home.” “We cannot separate the protests against tourism that occur in the streets from the increase in flights above our heads. Trying to manage tourist overcrowding while expanding the airports of Dublin, Barcelona or Lisbon is a losing battle,” claims Bosco Serrano, from T&E Spain. For reference, in the Balearic Islands there are 9.2 arrivals of foreign tourists per resident, the eighth highest value of the European regions. In the Canary Islands they are 4.9 and in Catalonia 2.0. The average for the EU as a whole is just 0.9. What are the causes? For T&E the key is in the “uncontrolled growth of tourism”, driven by the increase in supply, investment in new infrastructure and (in general) the rebound in airport traffic. It’s no surprise. In 2025 Aena registered a record data of passengers. It is important to take into account in any case that the flow of visitors that move the airports may “exacerbate” the crisis of rent (something to be expected if we take into account that many tourists from northern Europe with greater purchasing power fly to Spain), but the reality is that there are other factors that influence the evolution of housing prices. And not all of them depend on tourism. What else comes into play? The imbalance between supply and demand, the fact that new housing is built at much less speed from which new homes are created, the increase in price of materials, the concentration of demand in certain points or the attractiveness that apartments have gained as an investment asset also explain the increase in rents. None of these factors depend on tourism. In fact, there are those who already appreciate signs of a “prick” in vacation rentals, with a loss of interest on the part of investors. Does it only affect housing? No. The report analyzes the impact of tourism in other areas, such as labor or business investment. Regarding the first point, T&E warns that the arrival of more visitors on board airplanes does not always lead to better salaries for workers in the sector. “Tourism employment does not necessarily equate to an improvement in well-being. In 2023, hospitality represented 10% of all hours worked in Spain, but only 5% of the national gross added value,” warns the organization. That tourist rentals rise can … Read more

speakers with AI and military resistance for less than 60 euros

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LG’s legendary xboom audio family is renewed in Spain with a very particular proposal. The Korean company has announced the launch of the LG xboom Mini and LG xboom Rocktwo portable speakers of very small size that are born from a direct collaboration in design and calibration with the artist will.i.am. But beyond the signature of the musical star, these devices stand out for integrating advanced Artificial Intelligence functions and extreme durability designed to withstand any adventure. LG xboom Mini by will.i.am | Bluetooth speaker The price could vary. We earn commission from these links LG Xboom Rock Portable Bluetooth Speaker By Will.i.am Black The price could vary. We earn commission from these links LG xboom Mini: cubic sound with a hole for your GoPro The smallest of the new couple is the LG xboom Mini, a cubic format speaker Designed under the premise of offering powerful performance in a minimalist body. Available in black or warm gray with the approval of the artist himself, its shape allows it to be placed both upright and lying down without affecting the clarity of the audio. Despite its small size, this small cube hides very interesting high features, such as an autonomy of up to 10 hours. It also has IP67 certification against water and dust and, natively, incorporates a hole compatible with GoPro mounts and USB Audio connectivity to guarantee maximum sound fidelity. Finally, its function can be highlighted Party Linkwhich allows several speakers to be linked simultaneously to sound in unison. LG xboom rock: the all-rounder with military certification For those looking for a much more demanding travel companion, LG has presented the xboom Rock. This model raises the power to 6 W to offer a much clearer and more impressive sound in open spaces. Its great selling point is its extreme robustness. The device has passed seven military standards testswhich ensures its operation in harsh environments where other portable speakers would end up broken. It has a robust adjustable cord (Magic String) to strap securely to your backpack or mountain bike, and adds a configurable smart button that gives one-touch direct access to platforms like Apple Music or LG Radio+. Like its little brother, its battery reaches 10 hours of use. AI reaches the equalizer and the songs The software section is where LG and will.i.am have wanted to make a difference compared to the competition. Both models have AI Sounda system that analyzes in real time what is playing to automatically adjust the equalizer and highlight vocals, rhythm or melody accordingly. They also incorporate Sound Field Enhancedesigned to maintain audio consistency in noisy outdoors. The most striking curiosity is its integration with FYI.RAiDiOwill.i.am’s music AI platform. Through it, users can interact through two-way conversations with ten virtual characters and DJs, who will generate completely personalized musical selections in real time based on each user’s tastes. Availability and prices of the new LG xboom The two new members of the xboom family They can now be purchased in Spain at very competitive prices for the portable audio segment: He LG xboom Mini comes on the market with a recommended retail price of 49 euros, but now costs 39 euros. LG xboom Mini by will.i.am | Bluetooth speaker The price could vary. We earn commission from these links He LG xboom Rockwith its ultra-resistant design and greater power, is available for 78.99 euros, although you can get it now for 59 euros. LG Xboom Rock Portable Bluetooth Speaker By Will.i.am Black The price could vary. We earn commission from these links You may also be interested LOEWE We. Hear Pro Black, Bluetooth Speaker, collaboration with Kylian Mbappé The price could vary. We earn commission from these links JBL GO 5 Ultra-Portable Bluetooth Speaker with Big JBL Pro Sound 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 | LG In Xataka | Best sound bars in quality price (2026). Which one to buy and seven recommended models from 99 euros In Xataka | Best wireless over-ear headphones. Which one to buy and five recommended models

In less than 24 hours Warner Bros. and Amazon have bought rights to two creepypasta terrors

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On July 1, Warner Bros. Pictures won a bid among five studios for the rights to Siren Head, a viral siren-headed creature (the firefighter’s alarm, not the mythological creature) created by Canadian designer Trevor Henderson. A day later, Amazon MGM Studios, United Artists and Amblin Entertainment have closed a similar agreement for ‘The Mandela Catalogue’, a YouTube analogue horror series created by Alex Kister, after a bid between eleven studios. Neither film has a finished script or shooting date. But there is something in the environment that has led them to the purchase. Siren head. Zach Cregger, director of ‘Weapons’, will write the script for ‘Siren Head’ with Brian Duffieldwho will also direct it; Henderson, the character’s creator, is not involved in the production. The agreement required theatrical release as a condition for bidding, which has left out the large streaming platforms. streaming. Sony, Universal, Paramount and 20th Century Studios competed for the package before Warner took it for a seven-figure sum for the rights alone (that is, regardless of the cost of the film). But what is it? Siren Head is a humanoid being about twelve meters tall with two metallic sirens instead of heads, capable of imitating voices and sounds to attract its victims. Henderson published it for the first time in 2018 on Tumblr and Twitter. Its design refers directly to Slender Manthe creature that founded the genre creepypasta more than a decade before. The subsequent coverage of YouTubers such as PewDiePie or Markiplier in 2020 multiplied its reach. Unlike usual in this type of horrors creepypasta (very young and amateur creators), Henderson has already worked with major studios: he designed, for example, the nine monsters of ‘Tarot’, the 2024 Sony film produced by Scott Glassgold, one of the producers who is now repeating in ‘Siren Head’. Which makes it even more curious that Henderson is not going to participate creatively in the adaptation of his creature. Mandela Catalog. ‘The Mandela Catalogue’ follows a different pattern. Alex Kister, who created the series in 2021 at the age of seventeen, will direct the adaptation and will co-write the script with Tyler Clifton. Clearly the same scheme is being followed that worked so well with ‘Backrooms‘: the original creator is in control of the film, without intermediaries to reinterpret the material. ‘The Mandela Catalogue’ is a piece of analog horror, a subgenre that imitates television broadcasts and VHS tapes from the turn of the last century, popularized by the series ‘Local 58′ in 2015. Kister uploaded the first episode in June 2021 and the plot takes place in the fictional Mandela County, invaded by doubles called “alternates” who push their victims to suicide and manipulate television, radio and GPS; Its origin is attributed to a corrupted version of the archangel Gabriel. Creepypastas in cinema: origins. ‘Backrooms’, directed by Kane Parsons from his own YouTube series, premiered on May 29, and grossed $81.4 million in its opening weekend in the United States from a budget of about $10 million. A round business. One month later, world collection It exceeded 330 million. ‘Obsession’, also horror, not inspired by a creepypasta But it has also been directed by a YouTube creator, Curry Barker, and has earned 374 million worldwide. Both figures have convinced studios that horror born on YouTube and Reddit can replace traditional franchises to attract an audience under 25 years of age who increasingly goes less and less to watch superheroes or youth sagas. That public It had been the most difficult to recover for years for theaters, and ‘Backrooms’ and ‘Obsession’ are the first cases in which Hollywood feels that it has found a new vein. According to that same article, at least one representation agency has its employees combing subreddits for adaptable stories. An agency veteran acknowledged that they had already located “a handful” of threads with film potential. Qunflattering records. The last time Hollywood undertook such a maneuver—extrapolating the surface characteristics of a sleeper hit and churning out related movies like there was no tomorrow—it went so well. We are talking, of course, about ‘Barbie’: Amazon and Mattel They tried to apply the formula of toy origin, ironic tone and search for various sectors of the public to ‘Masters of the Universe‘. As we know, things did not work: the audience that filled the theaters was 68% male (as expected) and the collections fell by 70% in its second weekend. Mattel Films has been active for eight years and has only produced these two films. Although in many cases, in the cinema, the first to arrive is the one that takes the lead and the culture of exploitation is firmly established even among the culture of the big production companies, it is usually not a good idea to throw bunches of bills at projects that were not born organically, but in executive offices. The good part of all this? A couple of new and good looking horror movies. If they don’t work we will have time to cry. Again. In Xataka | The most promising horror movie of the summer comes not from Hollywood but from YouTube. And that’s not the most intriguing thing.

Exact time left for Earth in the habitable zone before ocean collapse

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For as long as humanity has been aware, it has wondered when and how the end of the world will come. Far from apocalyptic prophecies, science has a much more calculated, cold and inevitable response, since it is clear that the Earth has an expiration date, or at least its capacity to host life as we know it does. It has been calculated. A classic study published in the magazine Astrobiology In 2013 by researcher Andrew Rushby, he calculated the “habitability window” that our planet has left. The magic number, popularized from these physical and climate models, is around at 1.8 billion yearswhich is the average value that we find in the range between 1,750 and 3,250 million years. The problem is that this date is not entirely real, since within 1.8 billion years there will be no type of life on our planet, but for human beings and complex life the expiration date is much earlier. The culprit. To understand how scientists arrived at the figure of 1.8 billion years, we must look at the Sun. And, like any star of its type, our Sun is subject to a process of stellar evolution that means that, as it consumes its nuclear fuelits core contracts and heats up, causing the outer layers to expand and, therefore, its luminosity does not stop growing. Here Rushby’s team did not make a simple random prediction, but rather their methodology consisted of combining models of this evolution of solar brightness with parameters of the greenhouse effect and the energy balance of the Earth. What they were looking for was to calculate the exact moment at which the Earth will leave the so-called “habitable zone.” A little further. The habitable zone is that orbital strip around a star where temperatures allow the existence of liquid water on the surface of a rocky planet. But as the Sun becomes brighter and hotter, that fringe moves toward the edges of the solar system, while the planet does not move from its orbit. And that is a problem. All this means that when the Earth crosses the inner limit of this zone, the increase in solar radiation will trigger a runaway greenhouse effect, similar to what Venus suffers today. The effects of this will be the evaporation of the oceans, which will contribute to the greenhouse effect, trapping heat even more and accelerating the process until the Earth loses its liquid water irreversibly. And with it life. Different types of life. It is crucial to differentiate what “habitable” means in astrobiological terms versus what we consider “habitable” in our daily lives. A very important fact is that the Earth is approximately 4.545 billion years old, and life in its simplest forms emerged surprisingly early about 3.7-4.3 billion years ago. With all this we mean that the end of life will be staggered, starting with affecting complex life like us, which are extremely fragile to thermal variations. This makes the authors emphasize that the conditions for animal and human life will be greatly lost before reaching those 1.8 billion years. The last to die. The Apocalypse of 1.8 billion years refers to the last breath of the planet. In that final scenario, when the oceans are evaporating, only the most resistant extremophile microorganisms will be able to survive in isolated niches such as pockets of groundwater at very high temperatures before facing total extinction. Looking to the future. At this point, one might wonder what point it is to calculate exactly when the oceans will dry up eons from now if humanity today has more pressing problems. And the answer lies in the search for other planets, since by perfectly understanding how the “window of life” evolves in our solar system, astronomers have tools to apply to exoplanets that we are discovering thousands of light years away. In this way, knowing how long a planet’s habitability lasts depending on its host star helps us know where to look. We may find a planet in the “habitable zone” of its star, but if calculations reveal that it has only been there for a few million years, it is likely that complex life has not had time to evolve yet. Images | Javier Miranda In Xataka | Ryan MacDonald, astronomer, on the future of the Earth: “The death of the star is not the end, but the beginning of a new chapter”

Anthropic has condemned him to “I would rather not do it”

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The anonymous narrator of our story hires a clerk named Bartleby for his law firm. The employee starts working in an enviable way, but after three days, something happens. The narrator asks him to compare a document and Bartleby answers with a immortal phrase: “I preferred not to do it”. That famous quote is part of the story ‘Bartleby, the clerk’ that the American writer Herman Melville (author of ‘Moby Dick’) published at the end of 1853. The story was barely successful at the time, but over the years it gained more and more impact. That phrase became a kind of hymn to apathy, inaction and laziness, and these days we have been surprised to find a new Bartleby. one called Fables 5. Anthropic’s AI model was launched on June 9 as the most powerful, expensive and exclusive in historyand although its performance in benchmarks was spectacular, we barely had time to taste it: the US government decided that it was too good to be publicly available to non-US citizens. Then Anthropic decided to cut off access globallyand for three weeks Fable 5 was in limbo. This week Fables 5 has become available again, but from the beginning Anthropic warned that I did it with a few asterisks. The AI ​​model, they explained, brings new security filters to avoid misuse. In the original launch, the company already indicated that if the model detected problems in the conversation, it would not be Fable 5 that would answer. Instead, they said, “Queries on some topics will instead receive a response from our second most advanced model, Claude Opus 4.8.” With the “redeployment“Those filters would be even more severe. What we didn’t know was how much. Fable 5 prefers not to do things Multiple comments on networks like X or Reddit reveal that Fable 5’s performance has been absolutely artificially layered or, in industry jargon, “nerfed”. The model seems to behave worse, but the real problem is that it is a model that constantly resorts to Bartleby’s “I’d rather not”. Instead of doing what the user asks, it automatically makes the jump to Claude Opus 4.8, a model that is certainly capable, but is not what users would want because they intend to take advantage of the theoretical power of Fable 5. The worst thing is that Fable 5 resorts to that “I’d rather not” philosophy with practically everything. Dylan Patel, creator of the famous consulting firm SemiAnalysis, did the test with the traditional “how many R’s are there in ‘raspberry’” and Fable 5 warned him that the model could not answer that question. The performance of the model also seems to have been greatly affected by this redeployment, and independent tests They showed how in the BridgeBench benchmark the score of the original Fable 5 and the current Fable 5 was very different. That specific test It was too specific. as some analysts commented, and the problem is not so much that performance drops (it doesn’t do it too much, or even improve) like the one in Fable 5 just refuse to answerwhich also does very difficult Evaluate your current performance. Added to this factor is the fact that Fable 5 will be a particularly exclusive model: it can be used with Anthropic’s free and paid subscriptions until next July 7, but then this model will disappear from said plans and it will only be possible to use it with credits. That is, paying per use, which for intensive uses can be very, very expensive. We are therefore facing a particularly delicate moment: if companies like Anthropic begin to artificially limit the capabilities of their most powerful models or “route” them to inferior models at the first change… What is the point of developing these models? Commercially, the idea doesn’t make sense either: if business users are going to find that the model goes to “I’d rather not do that” and goes on to respond with an older and worse version, they won’t be particularly happy about paying for the “expensive” model. Anthropic is in a compromised situation, and what is happening with Fable 5 may end up marking a turning point in the way end users and professionals work with AI models. In Xataka | The future of geopolitics is played in AI models: Claude Fable 5’s veto indicates that Europe is offside

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