Android

Fortnite returns to the Android store

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‘Fortnite’ has had to wait a few months, but it is now available for Android users (at the moment in the United States, and in other countries, irregularly, if the game is installed with the Epic Games app) as a download from the Store. A true triumph for Epic that comes in handy to inaugurate season 7 of the game. What has happened? ‘Fortnite’ has returned to the Android Store American after Google has complied with the court order that forced it to open its ecosystem to competition. The return of popular battle royale by Epic Games culminates a legal battle against Google’s monopoly that has spanned more than four years and ended with a historic defeat for the technology giant. As confirmed by Epic Gamesinitial availability is limited to the United States while negotiations continue to obtain judicial approval of the final agreement that would allow its expansion to the rest of the world. It is the direct result compliance with a court order, which found Google guilty of illegal monopolistic practices. The verdict. On December 11, 2023, a jury in California unanimously ruled in favor of Epic Games on all eleven charges brought against Google. The decision established that the company had operated an illegal monopoly both in the distribution of Android applications and in the payment system within the apps. The judge imposed an injunction requiring the Play Store to distribute alternative app stores. During the trial, Epic exposed what Google internally called “Project Hug,” an initiative in which Google spent hundreds of millions of dollars in secret settlements with more than twenty core developers. According to became documentedbeneficiaries included Activision Blizzard, Nintendo, Riot Games, Square Enix, Tencent and Ubisoft, among others. Google offered to Epic a deal valued at $208 million to keep Fortnite on the Play Store, an offer that Epic rejected, unleashing what Google saw as a “risk of contagion.” Opposite verdicts. The curious thing is that Epic Games lost decisively against Apple in a practically identical case. a judge dismissed nine of the ten lawsuits Epic antitrust case against the iOS App Store in 2021. The fundamental difference was who decided each case. While Apple opted for a trial before a judge, Epic demanded jury to confront Google. Apple managed at the time to defend its “walled garden” model by arguing that full control over iOS guaranteed security and privacy. Epic’s own CEO, Tim Sweeney, admitted during trial to use iPhone personally for these reasons. Android, on the other hand, presents itself as an open platform that allows multiple stores, which made its restrictive practices more difficult to justify. The case against Apple, however, is still ongoing, and includes perjury allegations against Apple. The agreement. Epic and Google have presented a proposed agreement that, if approved, would end five years of legal confrontation. The agreement drastically reduces commissions that Google can charge: between 9% and 20% depending on the type of transaction and the date of installation of the app, figures well below the historical 30% that motivated the original conflict. The agreement maintains the restrictions of the original court order, permanently prohibiting Google from paying manufacturers, operators or developers for exclusivity agreements that favor the Play Store. The agreement between both companies would go beyond the application of the judicial decision: it would be global and would remain in force until June 2032, making it one of the most important antitrust pacts ever assumed by a platform. Significantly, the judge questioned that two “mortal enemies” who fought “ruthlessly” for years suddenly reached an agreement, suggesting that Google may be trying to water down remedies after losing all its appeals, and has scheduled an additional hearing for December or January to clarify whether the agreement genuinely addresses the Google Play monopoly. In Xataka | How ‘Fortnite’ is creating its particular “Fortniteverse” thanks to LEGO, with which it is reformulating its foundations

We already know who to thank for Google making AirDrop also work with Android phones: the European Union

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A few days ago Google gave a surprise and announced that it had managed to make its system Quick Share was compatible with AirDrop. Suddenly it was possible to wirelessly transfer data and content from a Pixel 10 to an iPhone or iPad and vice versa. What Google did not do is tell how it did it, but in reality the credit was not its own, but rather the European Union’s. what has happened. Google has updated the feature Quick Share of Android to support AiDrop. That makes it possible to share files directly over an end-to-end Wi-Fi connection. Any Apple device with AirDrop enabled will appear in the list of nearby devices when you try to share content with Quick Share, and the same will happen in reverse in the AirDrop menu. It is the Android-iOS interoperability (and we will see if also with macOS) that we have all dreamed of for a long time, and that is now finally a reality. First the Pixel 10, then the others. At the moment only the Google Pixel 10 They support this option, but it is more than likely that it will reach the entire range of Android devices. Google confirmed in The Verge that Apple had not been involved in this development in any way, but in reality it was. The thing is that his role was not voluntary. How AirDrop works. This feature makes use of Bluetooth to allow devices to detect each other, and then an end-to-end Wi-Fi connection takes care of the data transmission. The crucial detail is that Apple developed a proprietary protocol called Apple Wireless Direct Link (AWDL) to facilitate that connection between devices. And since it was proprietary, no one else could use it and AirDrop was a fantastic option that was only available for devices in this ecosystem. Very Apple everything. This is where the EU comes in.. At the beginning of the year the European Union decided that Apple had to adopt interoperable wireless standards and was to do so starting with iOS 26. No one paid much attention to the impact the announcement would have on AirDrop, but cloud services company Ditto took care of glimpse the future and explained how “the EU has killed AWDL.” Which is effectively what happened: Apple was forced to abandon its proprietary protocol in favor of interoperable alternatives. Hello Wi-Fi Aware. The new regulations forced Apple to add support for the Wi-Fi Alliance’s Wi-Fi Aware standard and replace AWDL. The curious thing is that Wi-Fi Aware was developed with the support of Apple, but here the operable implementation was the one that was forced to be used on devices from the Cupertino firm. This reminds us of USB-C. This reminds us of what happened previously with the Lightning port, which was essentially a proprietary version of the USB-C standard. When the EU forced to use this connector on mobile phones and other devices Apple had to ditch the Lightning port. That has made charging adapters interoperable, and the same is now true for AirDrop. A promising future. Wi-Fi Aware has been added to both iOS 26 and iPadOS 26 (but it does not seem to be integrated into macOS 26), and therefore mobile phones from the iPhone 12 will be compatible with this option. For its part, Android has been supporting this standard since Android 8.0, which makes the vast majority of devices candidates to take advantage of this interoperability with Apple devices. What’s not clear is whether it will be possible to use QuickShare with AirDrop directly on Macs, but there are alternatives in that case: myself I have NearDrop installed on my Mac mini M4 and I can share files from my Pixel 8 Pro without problems with Apple equipment. In Xataka | Notifications with ads from some of the apps we use the most are hijacking our phones. And there’s not much to do

After years of searching, I have finally found the perfect Weather app for Android. And he just received superpowers

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If the question is how many weather apps do we have available on Android, the answer is “yes”. This is great because we have a lot to choose from, the problem is precisely that: there are so many that finding the one that is perfect for me seemed like a utopia. I finally found it and To my surprise, it’s from Google. Its problem, and because of how long it took me to discover it, is that it is a bit hidden. The weather app that Google doesn’t want you to use I’m not talking about the classic Google weather app that comes pre-installed on many Androids, but about the other Google weather app, one that It is only on the Google Pixel and what I discovered thanks to my colleagues from Xataka Android. The app is called ‘Pixel Weather’ or, in Spanish, ‘Pixel Weather’. It premiered with the Pixel 9 in 2024 and remains exclusive to Google mobile phones. That means that if you try to install it from the Play Storeit will tell you that “none of your devices are compatible.” But don’t despair, you can have it on any Android thanks to the installation via APK. However, remember that there are risks and download it only on reference portals like APKMirror. An exquisite and very functional design Pixel Weather has the design you would expect from a Pixel-only app. I really like the Material You interface because it is very clean and clear; Even in apps with many features like this one, it makes all the elements look super clear and conveys a feeling of simplicity. The interface is beautiful On the home screen we have the very large temperature and below it the different blocks with information such as the hourly forecast or the forecast up to 10 days. Below we have more information, all with a design reminiscent of a panel of widgets of different sizes. The good thing about Pixel Weather and why it has conquered me is because It is completely customizable. Do you prefer to have higher wind speeds? No problem, just hold down on the block you want to move and drag it to the new position. The only thing you won’t be able to move is the hourly forecast, which always remains fixed at the top, but everything else can be moved freely. We can move all the blocks as if we were arranging the home screen icons. Sliding down we have more widgets with different designs, such as the UV index one that is shaped like a sun or the humidity percentage widget that simulates being full of water. I also like it because at first glance it seems like a very simple app, but in reality it has much more information; By clicking on each of these widgets we obtain the hourly forecast about the specific data we are consulting, such as wind speed or relative humidity. The two widgets available talking about widgetsthe app offers us two to add to the home screen. The smallest one only has the temperature and an icon of the weather status, while the large one gives us the hourly forecast and more details such as the thermal sensation. I especially like the small widget for its oval design. Now with the best Google model That the app is very beautiful and functional is very good, but if the data it offers is not accurate, it is not of much use. This is not the case with Pixel Weather, in the time I have been using it it has been correct in its rain forecasts with quite a bit of accuracy regarding the time, but it has also been a few days ago. Google DeepMind announced that they have integrated WeatherNext 2his AI weather prediction model more advanced. According to DeepMind, WeatherNext 2 generates forecasts up to eight times faster than the previous model and its accuracy is better in 99.9% of variables. The innovation is that it uses an FGN or ‘functional generative network’ that injects noise into the model to achieve forecasts that are physically realistic. They have also integrated it into Google search, Gemini and will soon be in Maps. Images | Amparo Babiloni, Xataka In Xataka | The most beautiful, exciting and hopeful thing about November has come out of England and it is a weather forecast

Google has managed to integrate Apple’s AirDrop into Android. Without the help or permission of Apple

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Google has announced that Quick Shareyour file transfer system on Android, now also works with Apple’s AirDrop. The users of a Pixel 10 They can send and receive files directly from iPhone, iPad and Mac without intermediaries or servers. Support is two-way and works when the Apple device activates “Everyone for 10 minutes” mode in AirDrop. The Pixel detects the iPhone as an available destination, the user accepts the transfer and the connection is established directly. Ta-da. The turn. Apple has not participated in the development. Google has confirmed that it has implemented this feature on its ownwithout your collaboration. “We have achieved it with our own implementation,” they said from Google. This contrasts with other recent interoperability advances between both platforms—messaging RCS or the unknown tracker alerts— where there was coordination. Between the lines. Google appears to have reverse engineered AWDL technology (Apple Wireless Direct Link) that underpins AirDrop. Although it is proprietary, it relies on open standards such as Bluetooth and Wi-Fi Direct, which makes it technically possible to implement unauthorized support. The company has developed the feature using Rust, a programming language considered more secure against vulnerabilities. It also hired NetSPI, an independent security firm, to validate the implementation. His assessment: the system is “notably more robust” than other solutions in the sector. The threat. Apple may end up blocking this functionality and in fact it is a very likely scenario given the history. In 2023 closed Beeper accessan app that allowed iMessage to be used on Android through reverse engineering. But the context has changed. Google is much bigger than Beeper. In addition, Apple now has greater regulatory pressure than then around anti-competitive practices, both in Europe and the United States. Yes, but. The current implementation only works in “Everyone for 10 minutes” mode. AirDropless convenient than the “Contacts Only” mode. Google has expressed its willingness to collaborate with Apple to enable that mode. The feature starts exclusively on the Pixel 10, although Google has promised to expand it to more Android devices. At stake. This move attacks one of the elements of Apple’s walled garden that most frustrates cross-platform users. If Google manages to maintain this operational compatibility, it erodes another barrier to change. If Apple takes it down, it reinforces the narrative of monopolistic practices just as regulators take a closer look. In the coming weeks we will surely hear about this case again. In Xataka | Privacy was Apple’s ace in the hole in the age of AI. Google just took it away Featured image | Google

How to send files from your Android to an iPhone using Quick Share with AirDrop

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Let’s explain to you how to send files and other elements from your Android mobile to an iPhone wearing Quick Sharethat now has started to be compatible with AirDroid. At the moment this is a function that Initially it is exclusive to Google Pixel 10 phonesalthough Google is already working on bringing it to other Android devices as well. Quick Share is Android’s feature for sharing files between Android or Windows devices, and AirDrop is Apple’s alternative for sharing items between your devices. Until now these were two separate standards, but Google has started to merge them. It’s two-way compatibility, so you can send things from Android to iOS, but also from iOS to Android. As we have told you, this innovation has first reached the Pixel 10, the flagship of Google phones, but the idea is to also bring it to other Android phones. Send files from Android to iPhone To send files to an iPhone using Quick Share, you will currently need to have a Pixel 10, and that it is updated to its latest version. Google has released the function with an update for Google Play System. This update will arrive progressively to all users, so if you don’t have it yet, you should have it soon. Once you have the function activated, what you have to do is enter the Android quick settings and choose the Quick Share function, then choosing the file you want to share. You will also have the Quick Share option in the share menu of your Android. Once you are on the screen to share elements with Quick Share, a list of nearby devices to send the file to will appear below, and in it Now nearby iPhones will appear. Then, choose the iPhone and its owner will receive your file as if it were from another iPhone through AirDroid. One thing you should keep in mind is that, to receive files from Quick Share, iPhones must have a setting activated. Specifically, you will have to go to the settings and configure AirDrop to receive files from “Everyone for 10 minutes.” Therefore, you can’t just send the file, the iPhone owner must know that you are going to send it to them and change this. In Xataka Basics | Share files between devices: mega-guide with all the methods to do it between mobile phones and computers Windows, Mac, Android, iPhone and Linux

How to use your old hard drive on Android TV or Chromecast to give it new life

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If you have an old hard drive at home, there are several ways you can use it. For example, you can use it on your Android TV devicewhether it is an HDD or an SSD. You will always need some type of adapter to connect it via USB, but when you do, the possibilities are many. In this article we are going to summarize the things you are going to need, and everything you need to take into account for this, to convert an HDD or SSD to an external hard drive that you can connect and add photos or videos to your Android TV, be able to play them on the TV, device connected to it or Chromecast, and much more. Know your hard drive, buy an enclosure If what you have is an old external hard drive, everything will be easy, and at most you will need to buy a cable that connects it via USB type C, or that converts USB-A to USB-C to adapt it to an Android TV if it does not have a large USB connector. But If it is a computer hard driveone of those wireless ones where you have the disk and that’s it, then you are going to need to buy a kind of case that has the necessary internal components and programs to be able to connect it to a device like Android TV. Come on, to turn it into a portable drive. But before looking for a case, you should know a couple of things. First you have to know if it is a HDD or SSDa large mechanical disc in the first case or one of the finest in the second. You also need to check if the connection is IDE as in the older ones, or SATA. You also have to know the size of your hard drive, which can normally be 2.5 or 3.5 inches depending on whether it is an SSD or HDD. These are data that you need to check on your own, since you will need all of them to later get the external adapter casing that suits you. Once you have everything clear, for non-external hard drives you only have to buy the case with the features you need. They are very cheapand depending on what you need, they can cost you from 8 to 20 euros depending on how you want them to be, although it is advisable to buy them in stores with free returns in case you make a mistake about something. Once you buy the one you want, you will only have to connect the hard drive into the caseand then connect this to your Android TV or your Chromecast. These are our recommendations: BENFEI 2.5″ Hard Drive Enclosure, USB C/A to Sata for 2.5 Inch USB 3.0 to SATA SSD (Optimized for SSD, Compatible with UASP SATA III) The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Hard Drive Enclosure – 2.5 Inch IDE Parallel Port Mobile Hard Drive Enclosure High Speed ​​Hard Drive Enclosure Screwless External Storage The price could vary. We earn commission from these links AISENS USB 3.1 GEN1 EXTERNAL 3.5 BOX FOR SATA III HARD DRIVES BLACK ASE-3530B The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Tooq TQE-3520B – Enclosure for 3.5″ HDD Hard Drives, (IDE, SATA I/II/III, USB 2.0), Aluminum with plastic support, LED indicator, Black, 350 g. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Format your hard drive When you connect your hard drive directly to your Android TV or Chromecast, the first thing you see is a message asking you to format it to be able to use it. This is something that is important to do, and if the device does not allow you to do it you will have to go by hand by connecting it to the PC and doing it there. When formatting it, it is advisable to choose the formats FAT32, NTFS or exFATwhich are the most popular. exFAT may not be compatible with some televisions, so if you want to watch large files such as movies it is best to opt for NTFS. What can you do with this hard drive Now you just need to start taking advantage of this disk to use it. To start, you can use it to store series, movies or music. You can save files directly to disk, and then access them from the native Android TV player or any player application you install. You can also do the same with photographs. Some set-top boxes or Android TV devices allow you record programs or broadcasts directly. In these cases, one of these hard drives will considerably increase the space you have available to do so. On Android TV you can also find the option to format this hard drive as internal storage. It is not an option always available, but when you have it, its storage will become like the internal one to install more applications or games inside, although these will go more slowly. Some apps will also allow you use the disk as a drive for downloads. This can happen to you in download managers or emulators, and in these cases you can take advantage of this disk. In fact, if you are going to use emulators it will be useful to save the ROMs to disk. In Xataka Basics | The computer does not recognize an external hard drive: what to do and how to solve it

what can you do to solve it on Android

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The Google application is one of the ones that consume the most battery on Android. Therefore, we are going to give you some tips to avoid consuming so muchsince being an application of the system itself, you cannot simply uninstall it and use another one. Yes, Android has its own internal system to manage applications in the background and prevent them from consuming too much, although sometimes it misses some, and Google’s is one of them. That’s why these tips They are important when you want to optimize consumption and make the battery last longer. This does not mean that consumption is always excessive.but there may be specific moments when the app loses control. In these cases where suddenly this app seems to “block” in a certain way, it starts swallowing like crazy. The advice is both for this and when it is something recurring. Check for updates When an application has a bug, it is normal for developers to try to release an update to fix it. Therefore, if you did not have consumption problems until now but suddenly you do, try checking for updates in case it is a problem that they have started to detect after a previous update and solve it soon. Unfortunately, Android is such a giant ecosystem with so many mobile models that the problem may not be widespread, but rather affects only your mobile model or a few. In these cases the solutions may take a little longer to arrive. in the form of an update. Restart the mobile The trick of turning off and on again is still a good way for all the internal processes of your mobile to stop and start from scratch. Thus, if the problem with the Google app is due to something specific, it is normal that restarting your phone will solve this. In fact, the advantage of this is that if the excessive consumption problem is from another app, it is also possible that it will be solved by restarting. But the negative part is that restarting the mobile also represents a peak in consumption because all the processes start again, so be clear. Force stop or clear cache If you don’t want to restart your mobile, you can also restart only the application from scratch without touching the rest of the things. You can do this by forcing the app to stop and then open it again if you want from scratch or simply stop using it. You can also clear the cache so that the app looks like it was just installed. To do this, you have to enter the Android settings, and click on the section Applications. Inside here, click on Google, and inside its configuration screen enter the section Storage and cache. Here you will have buttons to clear all storage data or cache. In Xataka Basics | How to delete your data and user accounts from your Android apps from Google Play with its new section

LineageOS 23 brings Android 16 to a wave of abandoned mobile phones, with more difficulties than ever. Google put a wall in the way

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There is a feeling of betrayal that runs through the most veteran Android community. The reason is Google’s strategy, which has been closing a system that was born completely free: the development of AOSP (the source code of Android) now it’s more privateand the publication of the source code suffer delays that didn’t happen before. While many feel that “the soul of Android has disappeared”the community responds. And the biggest banner of that Open Source resistance has just been updated. In the image, Murena’s /e/ OS alternative ROM, which is based on the popular LineageOS Lifesaver for an abandoned mobile. The life cycle of an Android smartphone is usually not as long as the competition, although that is changing in recent times. From this premise, alternatives emerged such as LineageOS, which is actually the spiritual heir to the mythical CyanogenMod. For many users, it is the only way to have the latest version of Google’s OS and extend the useful life of their devices. LineageOS 23 expands. The LineageOS team has announced a new batch of devices that receive official support for LineageOS 23, its version based on Android 16. This update not only brings the news of Android 16, but also self-developed improvements. For example, “Catapult” and “Aperture 2.0”. The first is a new launcher for Android TV with a clear objective: replace the Google TV interface with a clean, fast and ad-free one. Instead, Aperture is the ROM’s camera app that has now been rewritten from the ground up with support for Ultra HDR and RAW capture. Google has changed the rules. The LineageOS team has confirmed on their official blog that this has been a complicated launch. As we have been saying, the more closed development of AOSP and the fact that Google no longer publishes the Pixel code with total transparency, has caused Google phones to no longer be as easy to support compared to those of any other manufacturer. Despite the difference with respect to the extinct Nexus, the Pixels have been the reference for Open Source development. That’s over too. Consequences. The change in strategy has materialized in delays to the Android 16 code: Google released Android 16 QPR1 for the Pixel (first quarterly update) but never published the source code on AOSP. For this reason, LineageOS has been forced to launch its version 23.0 based on the initial version of Android 16. In practice, ROM users do not currently receive news as notable as the Material 3 Expressive redesign. There are also uncertainty regarding security. Google has changed the way it releases system security patches. They are no longer monthly and complete; most corrections are now quarterly. For its part, the team behind LineageOS warns that this means that its ROM security patch levels could inevitably be delayed. The basis of Android “resistance” without Google. Despite all these difficulties, LineageOS continues to be one of the pillars of the “degoogleized” community. Not only is it an alternative view for the end user, but its AOSP code serves as the basis for privacy projects like the popular GrapheneOS either the European /e/ OS. Keeping LineageOS alive is keeping alive the possibility of an Android without Google in an increasingly controlled ecosystem. New devices. The latest batch of devices that join the official support of LineageOS 23 focuses, curiously, on the Google family and flagships from OnePlus and Xiaomi. Some of them are the Pixel 6, 7, 8 and 9 series, the OnePlus 13 or the Redmi Note 9 Pro 5G. They add to the long list of those that debuted when LineageOS 23 was released a few weeks ago. Cover image | Composition with LineageOS images and generated by Nano Banana In Xataka | Google believes it has the key to compete with Windows, Linux and macOS in laptops. That key is called Android

Discounts on Xiaomi and Apple mobile phones, an Android projector on sale and more in the last Hunting Bargains in October

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We return with a new Hunting Bargains loaded with offers on various types of products. Although this week we have seen many sales on mobile phones, many other devices have also received good discounts to end the month, and as a good preview of what is to come on the next Black Friday. In this article we are going to review what they are five of the best deals we’ve seen this week. Wanbo Mozart 1 Pro by 349 eurosan Android projector that comes with a powerful speaker system. Xiaomi 15T by 489 eurosa good price for one of the latest phones launched by Xiaomi. Samsung U8075F by 279 eurosa very reasonable price for this 43-inch TV. Honor 400 Pro by 494.10 euros with coupon, a great price for this mobile phone that comes with headphones and charger. iPhone Air by 1,129 eurosone of the best prices that Apple’s mobile phone has had to date. Wanbo Mozart 1 Pro PcComponentes is celebrating its Halloween campaign and has lowered the price of numerous devices. Among them, we have the Wanbo Mozart 1 Pro by 349 eurosa home projector with an elegant design whose most interesting point is that it comes with an operating system Androidwhich allows you to download apps from streaming platforms. It can be configured to have a projection of 55 to 120 inches, offers Full HD resolution and has a powerful speaker system that offers 16W audio power. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Xiaomi 15T That Xiaomi lowers the price of its mobile phones when launching them on the market is already common, and fortunately weeks later they can be found even cheaper in supplier stores. Powerplanet, for example, has the Xiaomi 15T by 489 euros in its 256 GB configuration. It is a good mobile phone whose screen offers a 1.5K resolution and compatibility with Dolby Vision. Besides, Their cameras are signed by Leica. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Samsung U8075F If you are looking for a good television and you don’t want to spend a lot of money, be careful because Amazon has the smart TV Samsung U8075F for only 279 euros. It is a television from its entry range that comes in this case with a 43-inch screen. It is compatible with HDR10+incorporates the Filmmaker mode to watch movies and series and works with both Alexa and Google Assistant. Samsung U8075F (43 inches) The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Honor 400 Pro Honor usually has very good offers in its official store; Most of the time, there are discounts, coupons and even packs – even a combo of all of this. It is the case of Honor 400 Pro which right now is found 494.10 euros and comes with Honor Headphones Pro headphones and a 100W Honor SuperCharge charger. He Honor 400 Pro It is a mid-range mobile that comes with 512 GB internal storageit has 100W fast charging and wireless charging and its main sensor is 200 MP. To access this offer, you must select the coupon that appears in the payment panel. If it does not appear, you can write directly by adding “ADTO10“. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links iPhone Air Although we have not yet found offers on the iPhone 17 – at least in the main supplier stores -, we cannot say the same for the iPhone Air. Apple’s mobile phone has received its second (and best) discount at Powerplanet, whose price has fallen to 1,129 euros. He iPhone Air It is the thinnest mobile phone that Apple has launched to date (0.56 cm), but that is not the only thing that stands out. Incorporates the A19 Pro chip (the same one that has the iPhone 17 Pro Max), comes with 256 GB of internal storage and has a good battery that offers, according to Apple, a autonomy of up to 27 hours video playback. 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 | Wanbo, Xiaomi, Samsung, Honor, Apple In Xataka | The best mobile phones (2025), we have tested them and here are their analyzes In Xataka | Best televisions in quality price. Which one to buy and seven recommended 4K smart TVs

achieve the same thing that Google achieved with Android

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In two years, Alibaba has gone from e-commerce giant in regulatory crisis a global powerhouse in open source AI. Its family of Qwen models has accumulated 400 million downloads and 140,000 derived models arising from it, figures that surpass any Western competitor, except one: Llama, from Meta. Why is it important. Eddie Wu, CEO of Alibaba, has openly said that Qwen aspires to be “the Android of the AI ​​era.” It’s not marketing: the company has released 357 models in less than two years, a pace that neither OpenAI nor Google maintain nor want to maintain in their public version. The strategy copies Google’s manual with Android: giving away the operating system to dominate the infrastructure that supports it. Only this time the dominant player doesn’t come from Silicon Valley. The context: Alibaba poured more than $800 million into the country’s top four AI startups —Moonshot, Baichuan, Zhipu, MiniMax— before realizing its own technology could lead the market. Now those investments have stopped because the bet is on home. The road has been brutal. Between 2020 and 2022, Alibaba lost half of its stock market value due to the Chinese government’s regulatory offensive. DAMO Academy, its research arm, fired 30% of his staff. Some key scientists such as Yang Hongxiacreator of M6; either Zhou Changtechnical leader of Qwen, left for other companies such as ByteDance. The brain drain left a crater. Even so, Alibaba has managed to get back on its feet. The unexpected turn. In January 2025, DeepSeek launched R1an open source reasoning model that rivaled the o1 by OpenAI then. It had rapid and global adoption, and Alibaba seemed to lose steam. Joe Tsai, president of Alibaba, admitted the hit: “We said, ‘How is it possible that they got ahead of us?’” The response was drastic. On the first day of the Chinese New Year—a sacred holiday in China—the AI ​​team canceled his vacation and launched Qwen 2.5 Maxsurpassing DeepSeek V3. The war was not over. In figures. Alibaba has promised to invest 380 billion yuan ($53 billion) over three years in AI and cloud infrastructure. It’s more than it spent in the entire previous decade. In the second quarter of 2025, AI-related revenue grew by triple digits for the seventh consecutive quarter. Alibaba Cloud increased sales 26% year-on-year. The stock is up more than 90% so far this year. a rocket. The strategy. Free models generate demand for GPUs and training. That demand is monetized on Alibaba Cloud. It is the Microsoft-OpenAI model for Azurebut here Alibaba is an investor and beneficiary. Unlike Amazon (without competitive open source models), Google (closed models) or Meta (without its own cloud), Alibaba unites open model, cloud and developer ecosystem. And it’s already the fourth world in cloud behind the Amazon-Microsoft-Google trident. Of course, Alibaba opted for the wrong architecture while OpenAI scaled with GPT. When ChatGPT took off in December 2022, it had to admit the mistake. In August 2023 he opened the Qwen code just as Llama 2 crashed in Chinese. He filled that space immediately. In February 2025, Apple chose Alibaba as a partner for Apple Intelligence in China. Beastly validation of the then most valuable company in the world. Months later, Wu detailed the roadmap: expand the context, from 1 million to 100 million tokensand scale from one billion to ten billion parameters. Quantifiable bets with assigned budget. ByteDance is the only rival that keeps the pulse. Missing. The western market. Qwen dominates Asia but has not penetrated Europe or America like Llama has (and it is not like it has swept mobile phones like Android). Besides… The big question. Can a Chinese company that has endured regulatory purges and talent drains become the global standard for open source AI? What remains to be seen is whether the West agrees to rely on an AI operating system designed in Hangzhou. In Xataka | ‘World models’ aim to be the next great revolution in AI: this is what robotics needs to look like movies Featured image | Xataka

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