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Apple has been setting up a health system parallel to public health for years. The question is whether public health will do something about it.

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I haven’t worn a watch of any kind on my wrist for years. Partly for convenience, partly for not having another device to distract myself with. The paradox is that I find it more and more advisable to wear or give a smartwatch, precisely because of the leap they have made in monitoring our health in recent years. The other day, Dr. Miguel Ángel Cobos Gil, a prestigious Spanish cardiologist, told us at a press event that “the Apple Watch provides more parameters than anyone admitted to a coronary unit.” It made me think: we already have very reliable medical technology in our pockets, on our wrists and even in our ears. And now what? A parallel system to saturated healthcare Healthcare in Spain has just concluded a few days of strike in which they demand improvements in a system with problems: saturated primary care, insufficient personnel, underfinancing or territorial fragmentation are just a few. Spain is not the only one like this. Countries like the United Kingdom, Canada, Italy or Portugal are struggling with similar situations, and if we look at Latin America or Asia the photo even it gets more complicated. Doctor Miguel Ángel Cobos Gil at an Apple Health event in Madrid. It is no coincidence that Apple has spent years setting up a whole parallel health system through its best-selling devices. You can now take a medically approved EKG with Apple Watch In a few minutes, the iPhone notifies you if you have risk of falling when analyzing how you walkand AirPods are increasingly looking more like a smart sonotone. Apple is the one that is taking the most solid and visible steps, but it is not the only one. Samsung integrates teleconsultations, a game to detect Alzheimer’sbooking diagnostic tests and ordering medications at Samsung Health —starting with Indiawhich is no coincidence—; Huawei gives you ten health parameters in a single gesture with its Watch 5; Google bets on a medical coach with AI on top of Fitbit and Pixel Watch data. Almost the entire tech sector is looking at the same place. Useful technology to help us with our health is already here. The problem is how to make all that data that our devices give us use for something in a collapsed public system. Your doctor doesn’t have time to look at the data on your watch And now we have been in this house for ten years: We have a lot of information about preventing diseases and devices that can help us do so. However, there is still no effective system to address it. Cobos Gil summed it up bluntly: “urgent care works.” When something really goes wrong, the system responds. The problem is before, in that period of time where an asymptomatic disease could be detected and treated with a change in habits or a simple medication, but where the family doctor cannot dedicate fifteen minutes to you if he does not see something serious or actionable. Hypertension doesn’t hurt. Atrial fibrillation does not warn. Apple Watch possible hypertension alert system And this is exactly where technology comes in—or should come in—. A smartwatch does not sleep, has no waiting list and does not need you to go see it: it passively monitors whenever you wear it, accumulates months of data and notifies you when it detects an anomaly. Cobos Gil mentioned something that illustrates the difference well: a conventional cardiac holter monitor must be taken for about 24 or 48 hours, and many times it does not capture anything because the arrhythmia does not appear in that time window. With three months of data from the Apple Watch, he says he’s gotten diagnostic information he otherwise wouldn’t have had, and has even “had to anticoagulate patients who were cleared by a Holter monitor.” This gap is especially relevant for the older population, especially if they live alone. Spain is aging fast and a silent heart attack, a fall, or an arrhythmia that is accelerating are situations in which the time between the event and medical attention is everything, and in which not having a family member or caregiver nearby—the child in another city, the grandchildren in another country—creates a very vulnerable situation for these people. These are situations that happen. In Applesfera we have just told the case of a lady who suffered a fall due to an epileptic attack in Torremolinos and his Apple Watch helped everything end in a scare. The striking thing about this is that hospitals already do this type of monitoring in extreme cases. When a modern pacemaker or defibrillator is implanted, the hospital monitors the patient remotely and can intervene if something goes wrong. A watch like the Watch takes that logic from the hospital to home: it allows a son in Madrid to see in real time if his mother’s heart in a town in Teruel is beating strangely, or to receive an alert if she has fallen and hasn’t gotten up. It is not medicine of the future. It is medicine of the present waiting for the system to learn to incorporate it. The limit that no one has set Tim Cook at WWDC 24 What Apple, Samsung, Huawei or Google have built so far is the beginning. Apple has been working for years on non-invasive blood glucose monitoring —without being punctured, through optical spectroscopy—and the most solid rumors suggest that could come to the Apple Watch in 2027 or 2028. Before that, I’m pretty sure we’ll see an AI-powered medical assistant built into the Health app — known internally as Mulberry Project— trained with your real clinical data. Tim Cook has been repeating for years that the Apple’s greatest contribution to humanity will be in healthcare. What it doesn’t say is exactly how far. Because the question that these devices do not answer is one that seems very important to me: Where do they set the limit for themselves, and who sets it for them from the outside? Early detection of … Read more

The blockade of ingredients to Nazi Germany led Coca Cola to throw away whey and apple pulp

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When you open a Fanta, you hardly think about World War II. However, this fruit-flavored drink was born in 1940 within Nazi Germany. It was a solution from Coca-Cola, owner of the brand, to the blockade of ingredients that the allies imposed on the country. Quite a commercial turn that would result in one of the company’s most popular drinks. To block. In September 1939, when Germany invaded Poland and the United Kingdom and France declared war on the Third Reich, the economic consequences spread far beyond the battle fronts. American multinationals that maintained industrial ties with German territory saw communication with their subsidiaries interrupted. The British naval blockade closed the ports; Trade with the United States, which had grown throughout the previous decade, stopped. The Coca-Cola situation. The company had been operating in Germany since 1929. Max Keith was a German manager who had assumed control of the subsidiary and built a giant infrastructure from scratch with bottling plants and distribution networks. He had even managed to produce on his own seven of the nine secret ingredients. But the concentrated syrup traveled to Germany from Atlanta, headquarters of Coca-Cola. When the embargo cut off that supply, the plants ground to a halt. The alternative was closure, but Keith did not give in. The remains. What he did was look for substitutes in what he had at hand, waste from other food industries. How did I count? expert Mark Pendergrast“what was left of what was left”: whey, a byproduct of cheese making; leftover apple pulp from cider presses; fruit peels; beet sugar, because cane sugar was a luxury… the resulting liquid was a brownish yellow, much less sweet than any modern soft drink, and its flavor changed from batch to batch depending on what ingredients were available. A name. Keith gathered his team to name the drink. He asked them to use their imagination, Fantasy. And from there the name came directly, with the advantage that it worked in almost any language without the need for translation or phonetic adaptation. It was an immediate success: in 1943 Coca-Cola sold approximately three million cases of Fanta in Germany. AND although the soft drink never had a direct connection with the NazisKeith did manage to integrate his advertising into the regime’s events, including the 1936 Berlin Olympics. In fact, he could have registered Fanta in his own name, but he did not do so. A success. Fanta was not drunk solely as a soft drink. Sugar rationing was so severe in wartime Germany that in many German homes it was used for sweeten soups and stews. Keith had obtained a partial exemption from sugar rationing in 1941, making it not only a soft drink, but also an accessible sweetener. It was not an isolated case. Fanta was not a rarity. The World War II food industry reformulated several products forced by embargoes and rationing. Nescafé, launched in 1938arose from the need to dispose of surplus Brazilian coffee at a time of commercial crisis: its soluble format allowed it to be distributed under difficult logistical conditions, and it became a standard supply for the American army. Margarine was a substitute for butter in times of Napoleonic shortages, and experienced a second massive expansion in Europe in the 1940s because butter was rationed. Post-war. When Coca-Cola relaunched Fanta in Naples in April 1955 with an orange formula made from local citrus, the name was the only thing connecting it to post-war Germany. The Italian company SNIBEG had developed the recipe on its own and Coca-Cola bought itgiving it the name of the one who already had the intellectual property. From there it grew: it arrived in the United States in 1958 and expanded globally throughout the 1960s and 1970s. Conflictive spot. However, the drink’s German past loomed large over the brand in 2015, when Coca-Cola launched a special edition in Germany for Fanta’s 75th anniversary. It was a reissue of the original recipe, with 30% whey and apple extract, distributed in glass bottles that evoked the design of the 1940s. He video campaign was especially inappropriatesince he only talked about ingenuity in times of scarcity and ignored the reason for that ingenuity: war embargoes against Nazi Germany. He concluded by inviting viewers to recover “the feeling of the good old days.” The video was removed after frontal rejection by the public and press. It was inevitable then to remember brands like Volkswagenwhose name directly alludes to the Nazi regime’s automotive program and whose plants used forced labor during the war; or like Hugo Bosswhich made military uniforms for the SS and Wehrmacht; or as the German subsidiary of IBM, Dehomagwhich provided the regime with punch card technology that allowed entire populations to be censused, classified, and tracked with a speed that manual methods made impossible. Origins that are sometimes murky due to the context, but that leave a few questions in the air about the inhumane role of any industry. Which includes the sparks of life. Header | Wikipedia

How to know if the music you listen to on Spotify or Apple Music is from a real artist or made by artificial intelligence

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Let’s give you some clues about how to detect if the music you are listening to Is it by a real artist or is it made by artificial intelligence. We are going to focus on that music that is on streaming platforms like Spotify or Apple Music. The way to detect it is not by looking for things in the music itself, but looking at the artist who created the song. Music made by artificial intelligence does not stop flood streaming servicesand they are having enough trouble stopping it. Many times it is easy to detect, it is music without soul, but one way or another, they are there taking clicks and listens, and the money that should go to real musicians. Therefore, we are going to give you a list of things you should pay attention to to detect if what you hear is from a real musician or not. It is not that if one of these points is met it is music made by AI, but that the more of these red flags it raises, the more it will be pointed in that direction. Listen carefully to the music If you are going to check if an artist is real or if they are songs made by AI, it is possibly because you are noticing something strange in the music. Here, you will be able to notice it especially depending on the musical genre you listen to. This is because elements such as excessively clean voices or lack of natural breathing can be the first indication, although in some commercial genres you will also find this due to excess production. Ultimately, the music will sound artificial, soulless. The phrases in the case of singing will sound mechanical and without any emotion, and the lyrics will also be quite bad. Pay attention to how the instruments sound musicals, because if they sound too compact, like a mush where you can’t distinguish each one of them and their clean sound, it could also be due to AI… or again, due to bad production. Biography and photo of the artist If music has left you suspicious, play then Click on the artist’s name to enter their profile within the streaming platform. The first thing that may make you suspicious is that there is no photo of the artist or the bandand instead there is some landscape or generic image. The fact that the photo of the band is not a photo of the musicians or the soloist is something that should make us suspicious. In the case of a photo of people appearing, you can check if it is made by AI, if it looks unnatural or if there is an excess of processing of the image, but normally AI artists do not usually risk this. It is also worth checking the biography of the artist or band. Look out for some suspicious signs, like the fact that it doesn’t include names of the members, where they are from, or those biographical data that usually give you a little more context about the artists. Instead, “musicians” made by AI will give ambiguous descriptions, and there will be times when in a fit of honesty they will directly say that it is music made by artificial intelligence. Discography and volume of releases The next step would be to look at your albums. If you see that their first releases have been around for many years, this would indicate that they are a normal band, because the AI ​​that generates music has only been able to resemble real music for a couple of years or three. If the releases they have are all new, it could also be because they are a new artist. Then look at the volume of the pitches. Human musicians, those of flesh and blood, can take from one to five or six years to release each new record. If you see that the artist has 2 or 5 full albums released in two monthsthen this should set off all the alarms. It’s AI. And by this we mean albums, not singles or individual songs. you should also pay attention to how the music sounds. If all the songs seem too samey you should also be suspicious, and if the track titles are too generic and simple too. Real artists are not a donut factorythey are not going to release an album every two weeks or every two months, because this requires a process of composition, recording, mastering, and creation of physical formats. Nobody is going to release 40 songs to you in a year if they don’t cheat. Find information about the artist and his concerts If your suspicions are still there, then comes the next level, that of looking for information about these artists on other pages. The first thing could be search for photos or videos of live concerts on YouTube, Facebook or Instagram. Also look for news on music websites. You can also search for concert dates, if they appear at festivals, if they are mentioned on networks. Come on, there must be proof that they are artists that someone has seen or known, because the normal thing is that the objective of musicians is to play live, not simply record albums. You can also search for his name on specialized platforms. Discogs is the largest database of albums and music releases on the Internet, it is a good place to start, in addition to Wikipedia or All Music. Also look for specialized media, such as Metal Archives for rock and heavy metal, and those for other musical genres. In the end, If it seems as if the artist does not exist because there are no photos or any reference outside of streaming platforms… possibly because they don’t exist. There will be artists who use AI In short, if everything we have told you above points in one direction, you will have already located a fake musician who is really an AI algorithm. … Read more

All Big Tech are betting the money they have and the money they don’t have on the future of AI. All but one: Apple

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650 billion dollars. There it is nothing. That is the total amount that Google, Amazon, Meta and Microsoft are going to invest in data centers for AI. That amount of money is astonishing and is similar to the current GDP of countries like Argentina or Israel. But the curious thing is not only that: there is a Big Tech that is totally ignoring this fever to spend on AI as if there were no tomorrow. Apple against the current. The company led by Tim Cook is the only one of the group of large technology companies whose capex (planned capital expenditure) was reduced last quarter. Based on FactSet data compiled by SherwoodApple’s forecasts for that quarter were not to spend more, but attention, spend (quite a bit) less. The numbers don’t lie. According to the data provided by these companies, Amazon expects that in 2026 its capex reaches up to 200,000 million dollars. Google wants to go from 175,000 to 185,000 million. Meta estimates that the expense will be between 115,000 and the 135,000 million. And although Microsoft did not give a specific figure, it surely exceeds the $114 billion estimated by Wall Street. And Apple? Apple will not spend more, but 19% according to its latest estimates: about $12.7 billion. Amazon: +42% YoY (vs. previous year) Microsoft: +89% YoY Google: +95% YoY Goal: +48% YoY Apple: -19% YoY Cupertino goes from AI. While its competitors spent record sums last quarter (which ended December 31) on the purchase of material and properties linked to the AI ​​sector and data centers, Apple continues not to invest in this sector. It is something that makes it clear that the company seems to have definitively decided that this is not its war. Siri+Gemini is the best test. Confirmation of that “surrender” is in the recent announcement that Gemini will be the AI ​​on which the new version of Siri will be based. Apple’s new AI assistant is expected to hit the market this spring with at least some initial features, but the fact that it does so depends entirely on Google’s AI model makes it clear that Apple here prefers to delegate rather than invest to have its own foundational model. AI will be a commodity. Instead of participating in this costly war of language models, Apple is clear that AI is going to end up being a commodity, something that is going to become a basic standard technology like the PC, mobile phone or laptop is now. Model prices plummet as the capacity of those models grows, and benchmarks make it clear that no model is better than another for long. Apple as a gateway to AI. As usual, what Apple will do is take advantage of the fact that has the “gateway to AI. With 2.4 billion devices worldwide, it controls the most valuable distribution channel on the planet. It has the luxury of not making “the engine,” but rather acting as an avenue to bring AI to the masses. Here agreements like the one it has completed with Google are just the beginning. It doesn’t matter being late. It is something that is in the company’s DNA. He also did not want to fight the search engine battle, but it did not matter: he reached an agreement with Google, which has paid him billions of dollars for years to be able to put its search engine as the default engine on iPhones, iPads and Macs. Apple prefers that others pave the way and absorb the costs of early learning. Then she usually arrives with superior integration and a refined experience (iPod, iPhone) or directly with deals like the one she completed in the search engine space. AI will be invisible and ubiquitous. Apple’s goal doesn’t seem to be to offer its own chatbot on the web, but to make AI invisible and ubiquitous. It doesn’t matter which model runs behind it, but simply that this AI works transparently for the user. And it does so, of course, seamlessly integrated into Apple services and applications. Privacy by flag. And of course, with that vaunted commitment to privacy that Apple always boasts of. Its Private Cloud Compute is the best proof of this. By not relying on advertising (hello Google, hello OpenAI), it is able to offer advanced features without collecting massive data from users. But there is risk. Still, the strategy has a critical risk: if AI models become a commodity and end up creating technological monopolies, Apple could be permanently at the mercy of its suppliers. If these competitive advantages end up being consolidated in the model layer – the one controlled by OpenAI, Anthropic and Google – and not in the integration layer – which is Apple’s – the dependence on third parties will be a dangerous strategic weakness. Room for maneuver. Apple has annual benefits close to 100 billion dollars, which gives it an enviable financial position to wait for this “hype” cycle to cool down. It is clear that there is an AI bubble and that bubble will probably end up exploding and leaving many victims. If it does, one of those that will undoubtedly have room to maneuver to survive will be Apple. Image | Xataka with Freepik In Xataka | China does not have a spending problem with AI. What it has is a huge income gap compared to its main rival

Apple begins the reconquest of China thanks to the strong point of the iPhone 17 Pro: it is orange

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Color psychology is a tremendously studied field. Something as simple as a color can trigger feelings subconsciouslybeing the use of green color in the scenes of the villains of classic Disney one of the best examples. It also depends on our languagebut I feel such a powerful weapon, it is evident that it is used consciously in the marketing and colors of the products. And there is nothing that exemplifies it better than China’s fever for the iPhone 17 Pro. For one in particular: the orange iPhone. In short. China is a market with immense potential for companies that want to exploit it. They are simple numbersand Apple has just witnessed what happens when they hit the key. How do they count in Financial TimesIn Apple’s recent financial presentation, Tim Cook welcomed the rebound in iPhone sales in China during the fourth quarter of 2025. The last and first sections of each year are the strong points of an Apple that usually launches its new devices between September and November of each year, but in the last quarter of 2025 they have experienced something unusual: income of 26,000 million dollars, marking a growth of 38% year-on-year in China and accounting for a fifth of the company’s total income. Taking into account the continuity in terms of specifications and fierce competition with Xiaomi, Alive and one Huawei that has returned on its ownit’s… curious. But it seems that the person responsible is none other than one color. cosmic orange. It is the model we analyzed, clearly the most striking of Apple’s colors for the latest batch of iPhone and the one that is causing a stir in China. Orange is a color that distills energy, happiness and vitality. It is a warm color, and in China it also has a meaning positive related to the vitality of the crops, but also with spirituality and with the association of “orange” and “success” due to the similarity in Mandarin. And it seems like a joke, but it’s not. As we said, the colors of a device are not chosen at random, and this one has also landed on the right foot in the Asian giant. Nabila Popal, research director of the analyst group IDCnotes in the FT that “it sounds simple, but iPhone sales respond to obvious external changes in the design, which include the introduction of a garish orange color.” Viral. But it is no longer that Chinese consumers are buying the orange iPhone because it symbolizes that vitality, but because it symbolizes status. The shade of Apple’s ‘Cosmic Orange’ is very, very similar to the classic Hermès Orange, a luxury brand with which Apple itself has collaborated on some occasions (for Apple Watch straps, for example). It is something that has made the orange iPhone Pro transcend: from being a premium range phone to a luxury accessory. And of course, it is only in the most expensive model, the Pro, which increases that even more. perception to have a luxury accessory. “Choosing orange means that everyone knows that you are using the latest iPhone. It is a statement of identity,” said an influencer in one of the -many- unboxings of the orange iPhone that are seen on Chinese networks. Beyond color. Aside from the fact that color has had an impact on the sale of iPhones in China during the last period, the interesting thing is that Apple has managed to turn the tables. It has presented its strongest quarter since the first of 2022, the year in which it stood out and which has been followed by three periods of dcadence compared to national competition. Huawei, in particular, was very strong after recovering from the US veto and starting to launch high-end mobile phones again, this time with home-made chips. Apple should not be too amused about calling the orange iPhone “the Hermès iPhone,” but seeing how viral it is, it’s not like this mix of identities should be a headache in Cupertino. Now the question is whether they will start launching other devices and models in orange to try their luck in China… or if they will withdraw it, leaving the color as an exclusive to the iPhone 17. It wouldn’t be the first time. Image | Xataka In Xataka | For Apple, the price of its iPhones was sacred. Until it began to fall into the void in China

It is ideal as a first Apple phone

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It is not easy to choose iPhone. It is true that many users prefer the most modern model (that is, the iPhone 17 and his older brothers), but this may not be the one for you. The reason is very simple: you want an Apple phone, but without spending so much in return. An alternative in that scenario is to look at previous generations and that is where this comes in. iPhone 15: you have it available for 599 euros on MediaMarkt (also on amazonwhich has equalized). Apple iPhone 15 (128GB) – Black The price could vary. We earn commission from these links An alternative to the iPhone 16e if you are looking for an affordable Apple mobile He iPhone 16e It came with that mission of being the ‘most affordable iPhone’ and is ideal as a first iPhone or as a mobile with iOS without spending a fortune. This one right now has a price quite similar to the iPhone 15 that we bring you (it costs 579 euros in MediaMarkt), so both will be great for you if you have a budget limit of 600 euros and you are looking for a durable phone. How does the iPhone 15 beat the iPhone 16e? The biggest difference is in the camera. It’s not that the latter’s is bad (in fact, it isn’t), but that’s precisely the problem: it only has one. The other, despite being from a previous generation, It has a main sensor and a wide angle cameraso we will have greater versatility when taking photographs. In addition to the above, the iPhone 15 is compatible with MagSafe, which opens up a huge range of options when purchasing accessories. Its A16 Bionic processor continues to offer the Enough power for everyday life in apps like WhatsApp, but it has the drawback that this model is not compatible with Apple Intelligence, something that is available on the iPhone 16e. ⚡ IN SUMMARY: iPhone 15 offer today ✅ THE BEST Gateway to Apple: It’s a great option if you’re looking for your first iPhone or if you want something with iOS without having to aim for the most current (and expensive) models. It will last you a good many years: the phone will have updates until 2030so it is an iPhone with a cord for a while. ❌ THE WORST Not supported by Apple Intelligence: This iPhone cannot take advantage of Apple’s artificial intelligence functions. These arrived starting with the iPhone 16. Oh, the 60 Hz…: Having 60 Hz on the screen in 2026 can be a handicap for many users, especially when there are already 120 Hz screens on the base iPhone 17 or on cheap Android phones. 💡 BUY IT IF… You are looking for an iPhone for a teenager or an older person. Also if you want an Apple phone and don’t want to spend what current models cost. ⛔ DON’T BUY IT IF… Having 128 GB of storage is a problem for you or you want to have a phone with Apple Intelligence. You may also be interested Apple iPhone 16 128 GB: 5G Smartphone with Camera Control, A18 Chip and a boost in autonomy. Compatible with AirPods; Black The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Apple AirPods 4, Wireless Headphones, Bluetooth, with Custom Spatial Audio, Water and Sweat Resistant, USB-C Charging Case, H2 Chip and up to 24 Hours of autonomy 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 | Ivan LinaresApple In Xataka | The best mobile phones, we have tested them and here are their analyzes In Xataka | The best quality-price mobiles. Their analyzes and videos are here

Samsung and Apple brought ultra-thin mobile phones to the market with little battery life. China’s response: hold my tank

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Samsung was the first, and Apple followed a few months later. The introduction of increasingly thinner mobile phones on the market did not meet any specific need, beyond reducing weight and thickness. Betting on this format, at least with the proposals of Western manufacturers, brought with it sacrifices both in camera and autonomy. In China they are clear that There is no need to sacrifice one thing or the other.. The Honor Magic8 Pro Air. Recently, Honor presented the Magic 8 Pro Air in China. The surname already tells us where the shots are going. It is a mobile phone of only 6.1mm It has the best MediaTek processor It has a 5,500mAh battery It has a triple camera system (wide angle, wide angle and telephoto). It turns out that it was possible. There are a few millimeters of difference between the Honor Magic8 Pro Air and its direct rivals, the iPhone Air and Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge. But the numbers speak for themselves. Honor magic8 Pro air iphone air samsung galaxy s25 edge dimensions 150.5 x 71.9 156.2×74.7x 158.2 x 75.6 thickness 6.1mm 5.6mm 5.8mm battery 5,500mAh Si/C 3.149mah Li-Ion 3,900mAh Li-ion camera system 50MP, 1/1.3″, OIS 64 MP, /1.2″, OIS 50MP 48 MP 1/1.56″ OIS shift sensor 200 MP, 1/1.3″, OIS 12MP,1/2.55″ The Honor device is 0.3mm thicker than an S25 edge and 0.5mm thicker than the iPhone Air. To give you context, there is a guitar pick difference and a 75% higher energy density in the case of the Chinese mobile. An outrage. Furthermore, China has shown that it is not necessary to give up a single camera to opt for this format. And when we talk about flagships, this point is key. The 10K club. Beyond demonstrating that in ultra-thin mobile phones, silicon-carbon technologies allow energy densities that were impossible until a few years ago, the “10K club” is adding more and more participants. Chinese phones with normal thickness or even less than usual with 10,000mAh batteries. The last one to join the club was Realme P4 Powerthe first mobile phone in the world with a 10,001mAh battery. These are figures that double the usual standard in the rest of the ranges. The answer? There is neither nor is it expected in the short term. China has been ahead in the race to deploy silicon-carbon batteries, one that is not so easy to get into. Such high density batteries require: Greater regulations at the transport level, especially in the European Union. Much higher prices, as Xiaomi advanced. A durability risk not yet proven. Moving towards silicon entails important changes that traditional manufacturers, accustomed to a conservative and slow strategy, are not yet willing to take on. Image | Honor In Xataka | The 80/20 rule seemed like the holy grail for cell phone batteries. It’s not as infallible as it seems.

Sanderson finally signs the Cosmere adaptations after years of fighting, and Apple gives him more control than George RR Martin has

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Brandon Sanderson has closed an unprecedented agreement with Apple TV to adapt the literary universe of Cosmere. The platform will develop films based on the ‘Mistborn’ saga and a series of ‘The Storm File’, the author’s two main franchises. The pact gives Sanderson a level of creative control higher than even that enjoyed by JK Rowling or George RR Martin with their respective adaptations: he will be the architect of the universe, he will produce, he will be consulted and he will have the power of approval over creative decisions. Several attempts. The announcement comes after years of deals that did not come together. In 2016, DMG Entertainment acquired the rights to the Cosmere for $270 million for three films, but the project never moved forward. own Sanderson recognized in December 2024, in your annual updatebeing “back at square one” after the collapse of negotiations for a film adaptation of ‘Mistborn’ that had reached very advanced stages of development. The project had taken five years of work, had a finished script and linked actors whose identities he could not reveal. Sanderson later detailed on Reddit that the plan contemplated a hybrid model: a first big-budget film followed by a television season covering the period between books one and two of the original trilogy. A second film would adapt the second book, followed by another transitional season. The main actors would have signed contracts for both film and television. An unusual success. The new agreement with Apple represents the culmination of the publishing phenomenon led by Sanderson: his books have sold more than 50 million copies worldwide, a figure that includes both his solo works and his contributions to ‘The Wheel of Time’ by Robert Jordan, which he completed after his death in 2007. In 2022 he established the record for Most successful literary Kickstarter in history by raising 41.7 million to self-publish four secret novels written during the pandemic. But what is the Cosmere? The Cosmere is a shared universe that interconnects multiple fantasy sagas through a common cosmology and interlocking systems of magic. The model resembles Isaac Asimov’s approach with his universe of robots and foundations, although Sanderson planned the connections from the beginning to avoid the need to reconcile items later. The Cosmere encompasses different planets with distinct civilizations, histories and magical systems but based on a shared mythology: the being Adonalsium, whose power fragmented into sixteen shards distributed throughout the cosmos. The agreement. Apple closed the deal after a competitive process in which Sanderson met with most of the top studio executives in Hollywood. In this way, the company is left with a fictional universe that has similarities with another franchise it also owns, ‘Foundation’ (and, in part, with ‘Silo’), which allows it to compete in the field of fantasy and science fiction adaptations with Amazon (The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, The Wheel of Time), HBO (Game of Thrones) and Netflix (The Witcher). It is not the first time that Apple has reached agreements with prestigious creators, such as Alfonso Cuarón (‘Disclaimer’) or Martin Scorsese (‘The Moon Killers’), but none had been given as much creative control as Sanderson. The challenges of the Cosmere. The technical and narrative complexity of the Cosmere poses notable obstacles. For example, magic systems: Allomancy in ‘Mistborn’ allows users to “burn” ingested metals to obtain supernatural abilities differentiated according to each metal. Sanderson expressed on Reddit his concern about a possible oversimplification that denaturalizes these systems, designed with coherent internal rules that structure entire plots. The length of the works is another problem: the books often easily exceed a thousand pages. For example, the five Stormlight Archive books add up to nearly two and a half million words, and Sanderson plans ten volumes in total. The expectation. The announcement made by the author on Reddit generated thousands of comments analyzing the implications of the level of creative control guaranteed to the author. The closest precedent to this model could be Peter Jackson with ‘The Lord of the Rings’, although in that case the author of the original work was absent. Meanwhile, Sanderson asks for patience: film development requires years of prior work, usually between two and three, before reaching the production phase. What is clear is that although Sanderson’s presence provides guarantees and Apple is potentially a great option for adaptation, the process is not going to be easy. In Xataka | Brandon Sanderson eviscerates the Cosmere, his narrative technique, which includes an Excel sheet, and the moment that made him a writer

I have tried Apple Creator Studio and it is clear to me that Adobe has a problem. The key: its price

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Prove Apple Creator Studio It is relatively simple because, in one way or another, the subscription includes applications already known in the creative world. Apple has been smart and has come up with a package that allows access to Final Cut Pro, Pixelmator Pro and Logic Pro. That’s for starters. And finally, more tools like Motion, Compressor, MainStage, and even AI tools in your office suite. In any case, the real value of the subscription is provided, at least for me, by Final Cut Pro and Pixelmator Pro. Although my time as a TikToker is now a thing of the past, I still use photo and video editors for my things and my daily life and, after having been playing around with the apps included in Apple Creator Studio, I can only conclude that Adobe has a problem. One that costs 12.99 euros and that expands throughout the Apple ecosystem. This is not about YoTO. As much as one of the interesting additions to Apple Creator Studio is AI, the truth is that the utilities based on it, which are useful in some cases, take a backseat in practice. The key to the subscription is the price and the comparison with its direct rivals. And for example, a button: monthly price apple creator studio (Includes Final Cut, Pixelmator Pro and Logic Pro, among other apps) 12.99 euros Creative Cloud Pro (includes entire adobe suite) 118.96 euros Adobe photography (includes photoshop and lightroom) 24.19 euros adobe photoshop 26.43 euros adobe premiere 26.43 euros adobe audition 26.43 euros capcut pro 29.99 euros canvas pro 12 euros The separate purchase of all the apps included in Apple Creator Studio would amount to around 800 euros, but it is possible to access them for 12.99 euros per month. Not one of the rival subscriptions, not a single one, is capable of matching what Apple offers in price, features and simplicity. Pixelmator Pro | Image: Xataka In few contexts something else comes to light. The Adobe subscription that includes all its tools costs 119 euros per month. Almost ten times what Apple’s costs. The problem is that this subscription contains apps that not everyone will take advantage of. Anyone who wants to access Photoshop and Premiere has no choice but to go through either Creative Cloud Pro (119 euros per month) or combine photography and video plans whose cost would amount to more than 50 euros. The question is whether the 119 euros per month subscription offers the user 119 euros in value, because probably not. Anyone who wants to edit photos and videos probably has no interest in Audition, InDesign, or Fresco, so by choosing Adobe you will be paying more for tools you don’t use. Apple goes simple. Because Apple knows that this is not about great creators with teams behind them, but from aspiring/small influencerscreators who cook it and eat it. If you already have an iPad (undisputed king of the tablet world) or a Mac (historical favorite in the world of creativity), the integration, familiarity and communication between apps achieved by Apple is unrivaled, and neither is the price. Some of the Apple Creator Studio apps | Image: Xataka The apple firm has not warmed up by offering very niche products, quite the opposite. You have taken the four key tools that you know work, some AI tools for office automation, you have put them in the blender and served them to the user. Will there be cases in which Adobe is more worth it? Possibly at the studio or company level (or if you have a Windows PC, of ​​course), but at the user level and in the Adobe environment, CapCut and Canva in particular are against a rock and a hard place. AI Utilities. At the office automation level, I consider that a lot and at a very extreme level you have to use Pages, Number and Slides for Apple Creator Studio to be worth it to you. Beyond certain utilities such as rescaling a photo, accessing premium templates and generating images (with OpenAI models in the background, by the way), office automation remains more or less the same. It is not the strong point, of course, and if you use these apps for university work you can survive without the subscription without any problem. Here you can see the search by transcript. When searching for “iPhone Air”, Final Cut Pro returns only the parts where that word is mentioned | Image: Xataka Little lifesavers. Where AI does play, or can play, an interesting role is in editing. Apple’s approach is not so much to have the app edit for you, but to assist in the process. There are a couple of features that have caught my attention and I find particularly useful. They are not even half of those included and that puts another reality on the table to which we will return shortly. Search by transcript: If you have followed a script and you are clear about the phrase you are looking for, you can reach the exact moment by simply entering that phrase in the search engine. For a TikTok maybe not, but for a half-hour YouTube video, an interview or a podcast I find it super useful. beat detection: One of the first things they teach you when you edit video is to change shots to the rhythm of the music so that there is coherence and dynamism. Until now, the best guide was the peaks in the audio track. At each peak, plane change. Final Cut Pro is now able to flag those changes to make docking faster and more intuitive. I like it. Montage Creator: I don’t edit on iPad because the day they distributed patience I fell asleep, but having the ability to make quick montages by importing several video clips and an audio track seems quite useful to me, especially for typical reels or TikTok which are just resourceful shots happening to the rhythm of the music. For typical b-roll … Read more

Is the AirTag 2 worth buying? Key differences from the first generation of Apple

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Now that Apple has launched the new AirTag 2it is good to ask yourself if it is really worth buying it or staying in the first generation. Therefore, in this article we are going to review the key differences between AirTag and AirTag 2. AirTag 2 design and precision AirTag (left) and AirTag 2 (right). Broadly speaking, the design of the AirTag 2 is the same as the first generation AirTag, although there is a small difference that allows us to differentiate them when purchasing them: the silkscreen on the AirTag is in lower casewhile on the AirTag 2 it is capitalized. But if there is a significant change between both generations, it is related to the search, especially in precision. Specifically, the new generation offers a elderly precisionwhich means that it can be found from a greater distance (50% more). Additionally, Apple Watch support is added. There is also a increase in sound volume that we can reproduce to locate it quickly. Two very similar prices Although initially the first generation AirTag was launched at an official price of 35 euros, over time it has risen to reach 39 euros. However, some supplier stores tend to keep it on sale for long periods of time, as is the case with Amazon, which right now has it as 30.99 euros (one unit) or by 89.99 euros (four units). The price could vary. We earn commission from these links On the other hand, the AirTag 2 is not too far from what we currently see in the first generation, since it has officially been launched at a price of 35 euros (one unit) or 119 euros (four units), something that is attractive if we want to have the improvements of the AirTag 2 for a price similar to that of the AirTag, at least if we buy a single unit. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Is it worth it? To assess whether it is really worth buying the AirTag 2, we can open three fronts. The first is if it is our first Apple locatorand in this case we may be interested in betting on the new, with the improvements that this entails, for a price very similar to that of the first generation. The second front is If we already have an AirTag. In this case, the differences really are not so great as to justify making the jump to the new generation, especially if the locator works perfectly. Finally, it may also be the case that you want buy the pack of four AirTag or AirTag 2. The new generation is also available in this pack at an official price of 119 eurosso if you want to have several Apple locators, it is worth opting for the previous generation pack, since its price is currently 89.99 euros. You may also be interested in these other locators SATECHI FindAll Key Finder with Apple Find My, Wireless Charging, Forgotten Alert with Powerful Sound, GPS Keychain Key Locator for iPhone 17 16 15 Series, iPad, Mac and More – Black The price could vary. We earn commission from these links SATECHI FindAll Air Tag Card GPS for Wallets with Apple Find My, Forgotten Alert, Powerful Sound, Wireless Charging, Lightweight GPS Card, Wallet Locator for iPhone, iPad, Mac – Black 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 | Anna MartiApple In Xataka | The best Airtag for Android. Which one to buy? Tips and recommendations In Xataka | Apple AirTag, Tile, Samsung SmartTag and more: Bluetooth locator buying guide with recommendations and differences

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