buying

“Is buying an M5 MacBook Air with more RAM worth the effort?”

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When buying a new computer, RAM is one of the most important features you should look at. But of course, buying a computer model with more RAM also means spending a little more, and we don’t always know if it is worth it for the use we want to give it. 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 it is worth the effort to buy a MaxBook Air M5 with more RAM. He explains to us that he is studying a master’s degree in AI, and would like to be able to make the most of this technology, although always at the user level. And that’s why he’s worried about RAM, not because it’s going wrong with the 16GB base model, but because he wants to have a future-proof Air. The question “I would like some advice. I’m going to buy the new MacBook Air M5 and I’m wondering if 24 GB of RAM is worth the effort. I’m currently pursuing a master’s degree in AI and I would like to get into this, but always at the user level. I also have a 16 GB MacMini M4 and it runs smoothly. But I think about how it can get old with this AI thing, and 24GB sounds pretty good.” The answer Unlike Windows, which is an operating system that must work on all types of computers from all types of manufacturers, macOS is designed only for those manufactured by Apple. This makes it more optimized, and the RAM and hardware needs in general are different. Pedro Aznar, director of Applesfera and Apple specialist, responded to this question. The answer was the following: “Hello! I would recommend you go up to that 24 GB of RAM. The reason is that, although you mention that you will only use it at the user level, the AI ​​is going to advance a lot at the local level, and it is almost certain that you will need that extra memory to load LLMs on your Mac. Therefore, it is a good idea to anticipate that future and buy the MacBook Air M5 with that amount now. By the way, the MacBook Air M5 is a great choice for AI, as the per-core AI accelerators are much better than the previous generation for those tasks. Enjoy it!” 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.

I have compared the prices and I will tell you if it is worth buying them or not

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Several hundred euros or even more than 1,000 euros: that is what a smartphone can cost us today. Obviously, a model launched this same year It will still have a high price. For this reason, if what you prioritize above all things is your pocket, Opting for a model from last year or the previous year is a good idea. Depending on the manufacturer, it will take more or less work to find one of these devices in stores. But, And what happens with refurbished cell phones? Do you really save a lot by buying one of these phones? We have taken a look at the main stores where we can find reconditioned very popular mobile phones and we will tell you what the result has been. Spoiler: You can save a pretty penny, but only if you look closely. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links The results of the different stores, at a glance As you can see from the table, the price of refurbished phones is almost always lower than that of new devices. Now, the price will depend on several different factors, such as the condition of the device or the seller. Also from the moment in which we search, since their prices fluctuate frequently. The cheapest reconditioned can also be the best quality What we would expect to see in the comparison: A device with more signs of wear or use is cheaper. This is almost always the case, but that’s the key: not always. The table leaves us surprises: if we look at the Galaxy S25 from Samsung, we can see how in ‘very good’ condition it is cheaper than ‘premium’. However, this is not the general trend and we can find mobile phones in the best of conditions at a lower price than ‘pre-owned’ or only ‘functional’. What conclusion do we draw? If we are determined to buy a refurbished device, the best thing we can do is look at various stores. Although they do not vary much, there are cases where we can easily save a good amount. Furthermore, it is possible to find a phone in ‘excellent’ condition in store A cheaper than one that is simply ‘pre-owned’ in store B. Learning from this comparison For the table above we have compared, in several stores, several different refurbished mobile phones. We have focused on some of the best-selling brands such as Apple, Samsung or Xiaomi, always looking at phones that are from high-end or mid-range of past generations. From the specific figures we can extract some clear points: Reconditioned products represent savings (almost) always: It will depend on the device in question, but there can be a very big price difference. Especially on mobile phones with high prices. The condition of the reconditioned is a differentiating factor, but it does not always guarantee the best price. The differences between stores can be big. By comparing reconditioned ones from different stores, we can easily save more than 50 or 100 euros. On mid-range phones, the savings are not that big. It will depend on the mobile phone, but the savings will almost always be greater on more expensive phones. You must also take into account the state of the battery to know if it compensates or not, although we will talk about that below. The condition of the battery can be decisive When we talk or think about refurbished phones, we usually focus a lot on its physical appearance, in case it has scratches or bumps. That is important (it should be more), although we do not have to lose sight of the health of the battery. In this case, it will depend on the store in question: Back Market: minimum 85%. PcComponents: minimum 80%. MediaMarkt Outlet: here we do not find specific information about each device, so we would have to contact the store to find out. It should be noted here that in some stores, such as Back Market, you can request a completely new battery paying a little more. In practice, a capacity of 80% is not too much. It will depend on how we use the phone, but it is obvious that we are going to have to charge the phone more often. Besides, the battery capacity will decrease as they happen charging cycles. And of course, if we add a new battery to the equation, we will be losing part of the savings along the way. My advice? It will depend a lot on the type of user you are.. If you use your phone intensively or intend for it to last for many years, then it is worth considering the option of a new battery. By adding up the cost of the phone and the battery, you can easily see if a refurbished phone is worth it or a new one is better. Now, if you don’t use your phone too much, then a battery that has 80 or 85% health is enough. It is worth checking the store’s warranty and return policy Although you always have the option of searching for second-hand phones in apps like Wallapop, a store with reconditioned phones has the advantage of greater protection and guarantee. As with battery health, it depends on each store: Back Market: It has a 24-month warranty and a 30-day free trial period on all its devices. PcComponents: The warranty depends on the condition of the device. It goes from three years for those that are ‘like new’ to a single year for those that are ‘functional’. The return period is 30 days. MediaMarkt Outlet: The mobile phones have a legal guarantee and there are also 30 days to return it. What to look for when buying refurbished products? With all this information in hand, I am going to summarize the most important things when looking at a refurbished mobile phone in five different points: The offer, the more clear information it has, the betterr– Make sure specific details such as battery … Read more

In the midst of a heat wave, Europe has started buying air conditioners in droves. And China can’t cope

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I don’t know anyone who likes air conditioning, especially for sleeping. However, when the heat hits, it is impossible to spend the days indoors. if we don’t have the device on. The problem is that I am speaking from the position of a Spaniard who lives in La Mancha, where air conditioners practically come with houses. Further north or in the rest of Europe, directly, the air conditioning with 20% penetration in houses, it is a mythological animal. It was, rather. With the current heat wavecountries like France, Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom have started buying air conditioning units like crazy only to find themselves with a problem: China is the main supplier and the manufacturers cannot cope. And I’m not going to say that air conditioners now are geopolitics, but a little… yes. Let’s see it. It’s hot and there is no solution. Two weeks ago I was at Vivatech, in Paris, and this past weekend in London and Liverpool. At 29º, the Apple Watch showed me that in Paris They were on orange alert by heat. 29º in my land is a slightly hot spring day (unfortunately). In the United Kingdom, however, things changed and it wasn’t just incredibly hot: when you entered an establishment it was even worse. Not only do they not have air conditioners because they have not needed them, but have built so that the houses retain heat. A taxi driver told me that the best time of day is when he is working because his house is a sauna, and it makes perfect sense. Spain and France are two of the most affected countriesbut northern Italy, Belgium, Poland, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Germany and the aforementioned United Kingdom are also suffering the consequences. And the problem is no longer that it is hot, but that mortality due to heat has skyrocketed in recent weeks. The solution? The north of Spain and European countries have started buying air conditioning units like crazy, but there is a problem. Exhausted. The middle SCMP He has a representative in Paris and tells how, a few days ago, he approached several businesses to try to get an air conditioner. The answer that he found in several of them, and that some friends reported to him, is that everything was sold. The scene is like something out of an apocalyptic movie, with stores with shelves full of everything except the air conditioning section, which is empty. He started looking at online stores, such as a German website designed so that people can find specific models of these devices and, after searching 1,176 stores, the model he wanted was only in one of them. In these countries where air conditioning is not normal, people go out to cool off in fountains and rivers, and even French President Emmanuel Macron has addressed the population pointing out that it is impossible for them to adapt “to a peak that has no equivalent anywhere in Europe today and that has never had an equivalent in our history.” Perhaps he has become a little heated with that statement, but it reflects that the situation is becoming unsustainable. And you would think that the solution is to start importing more, right? The problem is that it is not that simple. Bottleneck in production. China, as with other everyday devices, is the main manufacturer of air conditioners. Brands such as Haier, Gree, Hisense or Midea are some of those that lead the market, even creating models adapted to European regulations in certain countries (such as the Midea PortaSplit for windows, which makes little noise and has a very low refrigerant charge, ideal for Germany). There are others like Xiaomi (whose model we analyzed last year and a year later I confirm that it is still going great), Dreo with its fans or Dreame that are starting to bring their models to Europe because they have seen that they definitely have a pull. Only in May, esteem that China exported air conditioners worth $3.33 million to France, $2.82 million to Germany and a whopping $7.69 million to the Netherlands. It implies an increase of 186.2%, 69.6% and 139.1% respectively compared to the previous year. This percentage in France is explained if we take into account that, according to French data, only between 18% and 26% of homes had air conditioning until then. Also in logistics. Another problem is that these brands mentioned do not manufacture only for themselves, but for other manufacturers that sell OEM equipment, which implies that the factories are full. It is estimated that China accounts for 40% of global air conditioning exports and, to meet that demand, some manufacturers have begun to work day and night to satisfy European demand. “China cannot ship air conditioners fast enough to meet European demand” They are prioritizing more portable models and split for Europe because they have seen a huge market, but they cannot multiply production indefinitely without incurring overcapacity the rest of the year. Giants like Cainiao, AliExpress or Joybuy they are meeting with a brutal bottleneck because, although they have had units in advance trying to tackle this summer’s situation, they have simply… flown out of European warehouses. And in the installation. Faced with this situation, and seeing that heat waves are increasingly common, Europe estimated in 2024 that expected 70 million AC devices to be installed by 2030. This would mean covering 35% of European homes, but if all these factors were not already a salad of problems full of ingredients, two more are added. The first, the regulation of each city. In Spain we are used to seeing the typical indoor split unit with a compressor hanging from the façade, but there are important heritage restrictions in historic centers that allow drilling into walls or altering the aesthetics of buildings. In neighborhood communities you must ask for permission, there are fines for installation on facades without authorization (in Italy, for example) and the price of electricity doesn’t help … Read more

Meta moves to the other side of the AI ​​counter. You are going from buying computing to selling it

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Meta is designing a cloud computing business to sell excess capacity in its AI data centers to third parties, it has been reported. advanced Bloomberg. The company values ​​two ways: Offer access to models hosted on your infrastructure. Or rent computing power directly, in the style of neoclouds. The panoramic. Zuckerberg has been hinting at this move for some time. At the May shareholders meeting he said that competing in cloud was “definitely on the table” and that there were companies asking him “almost every week” if they could buy computing from him. Now that balloon probe is a business plan. The service would include access to Muse SparkMeta’s own model that still does not have a release date for external developers. Renting raw GPU power is also being studied, the business model of CoreWeave and Nebius. Why is it important. Meta has built, between 2023 and 2026, one of the largest computing infrastructures in the world almost alone, without external partners or clients to make it profitable. 98% of its income still comes from advertising. Turning those data centers into a product that is sold, and not just an assumed cost, is the first public sign that Meta needs another source of income to justify the outlay. In figures: Goal has risen to 145,000 million dollars its infrastructure spending forecast for 2026, 10 billion more than expected in January. Your actions They have risen more than 9% After hearing the news, their best session in more than five months, although they have had a subsequent correction. Meta’s gross margin is 82%, and the operating margin is 41%. The business of cloud Google, on the other hand, operates with a margin of 18%, compared to 42% for its advertising division. CoreWeave is down 10.8% and Nebius 12.4% on the stock market, due to the fear of losing Meta as a client and gaining it as a competitor. Between the lines. The clearest parallel is with SpaceX. Musk’s company, owner of xAI, has begun renting capacity in its data centers to Google and Anthropic for more than $2 billion per month between the two companies. Both companies share a pattern: they have trained LLMs own without getting the market to adopt them en masse, and now they monetize what is left over instead of what they produce. The contrast. Google is the mirror in which Meta looks, and it is not a pretty mirror. He launched his business cloud in 2008, made it public in 2011 and It did not give benefits until 2023. Fifteen years for the calculation to give money. Meta would have to build from scratch a sales and technical support team that it does not have today, something very different from selling advertising space in an automated way as it has been doing. Yes, but. It is not something that should be interpreted solely as a sign of weakness. If you are going to build capacity anyway, it is rational not to leave it idle but to turn it into an asset. Zuckerberg himself framed it this way in May, when he explained that domestic demand had so far absorbed all available capacity. Not anymore. And now what. The question that remains on the table is which side Meta wants to be on: the one that competes to build the best model, or the one that sells infrastructure to those who can achieve it. A few months ago, Google cut off access to Gemini due to lack of capacity and forced Meta to ration its consumption. tokens among its own employees. Selling computing today also means stopping depending on others to sell to it. In Xataka | Sharing your ChatGPT or Claude password is not like sharing your Netflix password: there are people learning it the hard way Featured image | Xataka

Buying cheap RAM seemed like a matter of waiting. Lenovo just dismantled that hope

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Buying memory seemed, until not so long ago, a question of patience. If prices rose, many users and companies could wait a while before expanding a computer, renewing storage or closing a large server purchase. The idea was simple: endure the blow, watch the market and hope that the pressure would go down. But that hope begins to collide with a different reality, because memory no longer only powers our computers: it also supports a growing part of the infrastructure that drives AI. The latest news comes to us from ISC 2026in Hamburg, one of those events where the debate on servers and infrastructure allows us to see where the market is moving rather than in domestic consumption. According to ComputerBaseLenovo showed there a slide titled “Five-step survival guide for RAMageddon” and accompanied the idea with a phrase that summarizes the change in tone well: “It will never be like last yearThe aforementioned media clarifies that this “never” should not be read completely literally, but the warning is still relevant: trusting in a quick return to the levels of 2024 and the beginning of 2025 may be too optimistic. ComputerBase may not be a well-known outlet outside of Germany, but its coverage of ISC 2026 has been replicated by specialized publications like Tom’s Hardware and TweakTown. In the latter’s information, Martin Hiegl, a Lenovo executive linked to Enterprise AI & HPC, is identified as the author of the statements. Before the event, Hiegl announced on LinkedIn that he would participate again in the “Vendor Showdown” session with the theme “RAMageddon”. The problem is not just that the RAM is expensive In its presentation, Lenovo is not just talking about a temporary tension, but about a change in the economics of DRAM and NAND. The company maintains that even when new relevant manufacturing capacity begins to be noticed, something that it places from 2028, a good part of that additional production could be absorbed by AI infrastructure. In other words: more memory being manufactured does not necessarily mean that we will return to the low prices of 2024 and early 2025. The industry is also moving in that direction. Tom’s Hardware points to SK hynix’s plans to triple its memory production capacity by 2034 as a background signal: if manufacturers were expecting a quick return to minimal margins and oversupply, they would hardly accelerate investments of that magnitude. Lenovo’s reading is that the incentive has changed. With sustained demand for AI and increased pressure on DRAM, NAND and HBM, expanding factories may ease the market, but not automatically rebuild the cheap scenario that many buyers remember. Now, the Chinese manufacturer is not alone in this diagnosis. As we pointed out days agoMicron recently told its investors that it expects limited supply until at least 2027, with a gradual improvement starting in 2028. SK hynix has also warned that shortages could last until around 2030 whether the AI ​​infrastructure continues to absorb wafer capacity. These are forecasts that should be read with caution, because they come from companies that benefit from high prices, but they also show that the sector is planning as if the pressure is not going to disappear anytime soon. The consumer also remains within the chain. It is no secret that “RAMageddon”, as Lenovo called it, is reaching PCs, mobile phones, consoles and SSDs, precisely the products where we usually notice first if an increase in components reaches the final price. There are the Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5 and 5 Pro and more expensive Nintendo Switch 2. Also mobile phones that come at higher prices and computers like Macs being harder to reach. Does that mean we should take Lenovo’s scenario for granted? Not necessarily. No one can predict with certainty how the market will evolve.. His analysis carries weight because it comes from one of the largest computer manufacturers in the world, but even in a sector like this, forecasts can fall short… or not be met. The most reasonable reading is another: if Lenovo is right, memory is no longer that component that we could postpone almost by inertia until we find a better offer. In a market where AI competes for DRAM, NAND and HBM, waiting is still an option, but no longer a guarantee. Images | Xataka with Nano Banana In Xataka | Memory experts see no relief: “Potential price increases are higher than expected due to shortages”

We think that the body asks us to “eat lightly” in summer. In reality, we are buying tickets to malnutrition

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When summer arrives, important routine changes also come to our daily lives, beyond ‘hiding’ from the scorching sun that we are having these days. And something that has surely happened to many people is that heavy digestion becomes unbearable and the body cries out for fresh foods like a salad. The problem is that this can also pose a very important nutritional problem by giving up essential nutrients due to having a much lighter diet. The heat takes away our hunger. It is not a subjective idea that, when we are at forty degrees, we do not feel like stuffing ourselves with food, since it is pure biology. Here scientific evidence shows us that heat reduces appetite and, consequently, the amount of calories we eat (with some exceptions in people who do not have this problem). Here is a study published in 2021 in the British Journal of Nutrition put to the test this premise in healthy men, seeing that acute exposure to an environmental temperature of 30 ºC drastically reduced food intake during lunch in those exposed to 20 ºC ambient. In addition, the overall perception of appetite before sitting down at the table plummeted. In Spain. In our country, the data also supports this summer problem, as pointed out in a study published in 2005 that revealed that we eat significantly less in summer than in winter. And in the cold months, the average intakes of calories and almost all nutrients were much higher in both sexes. The most worrying thing about this last study was the conclusion on the coverage of dietary recommendations, since During the summer, a greater percentage of the population was unable to meet their minimum calorie needs or most micronutrients. And this is a serious problem. The salad trap. The statement that “you eat light in summer” is not inherently bad, but it does not justify poor nutrition. According to the WHO healthy eating parameters, the risk of malnutrition appears when our diet does not cover our physiological needs for an extended period, and summer lasts long enough to wreak havoc on our diet. Experts here point out that, when we lose our appetite, we usually replace full meals with salads with little variety or simply fruit. That is why if we go from eating three full meals to surviving on a couple of light dishes, we run the risk of have some nutritional deficiency. Our shortcomings. Among the nutrients we lack is, above all, quality protein and also iron. Added to this are the dangerous summer “fad diets”, which restrict food to fruits or juices. And beyond how healthy it sounds, these practices not only cause rapid deficiencies, but, if maintained over time, they can trigger adverse metabolic effects. Hydration a priori it is essential throughout the summer because we do not stop sweating and that means a greater loss of water and minerals. However, replacing meals with drinks (especially if they are sugary or excessively juiced) is a textbook error. Something to keep in mind is that hydration should come from water and seasonal foods rich in it, but not at the cost of emptying our diet of solid nutrients. This is something essential to take into account in people who are more vulnerable to color or nutritional losses, such as children, the elderly and the chronically ill, where dehydration and loss of appetite overlap very easily. A varied diet. If the body asks to eat less food to avoid heavy digestion and increased internal heat, logically it will have to compensate with a greater nutritional density of the little that is ingested. This involves eating cold legumes in the form of a salad, oily fish such as tuna or sardines, boiled eggs as a source of protein and nuts to have a lot of energy. Images | atlascompany In Xataka |We have searched for the formula for the definitive pre-workout breakfast. The answer from science is much simpler

I was thinking about buying a Steam Machine, but its price has put me off. This PC seems like a better option to me

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Yes, we already know the official prices of the Steam Machine. I really liked the concept of a tiny PC that I could have in the living room connected to the television, ideal for enjoying my gigantic Steam library (hello, digital Diogenes), but the price is much higher than expected. To contextualize it a little, its price is higher than that of PlayStation 5 Pro despite his last rise and its performance is quite far from the Sony console. So, to be honest, I wouldn’t buy the new Steam device, even though I really like the idea and I love how well it works, for example, Steam Deck. For a little less, there are computers like this PC Neo that can offer similar performance and, although it loses the concept of a compact PC along the way, has many other strong points. It is available, by the way, for 999 euros. NEO Gaming PC Ryzen 5 5500 RTX 5060 Ti SSD 1TB 32GB The price could vary. We earn commission from these links An alternative to the Steam Machine if you are looking for a conventional PC We must start from the basis that they are two very different PCs (despite having a very similar price), but knowing that this Neobyte equipment can be a very good alternative if what you are looking for is to have a conventional PC to place in your setup with two monitors as is my case. First of all, let’s look at the prices of the Steam Machine in its different configurations to fully understand what the outlook looks like: The processor used by this computer is an AMD Ryzen 5 5500. It has 6 cores and 12 threads like the one used by the Steam Machine, although what matters here is the architecture. In that sense, the Steam team’s CPU uses Zen 4 architecture and the Neobyte Zen 3 team, so the Steam Machine clearly takes the point there. The same does not happen on the graphics card. As explained Digital Foundrythe graphical performance offered by the new Steam Machine is between an RX 6600 and an RX 7600 from AMD. Both GPUs are one step below PNY’s RTX 5060 Ti which uses the PC Neo that we are using in the comparison. Graphics card that, in addition, It is compatible with DLSS 4.5a technology that can help us have much better performance when playing. And how are they doing by memory? The Steam Machine uses 16GB of DDR5 RAM in a single module, while the PC Neo comes with 32GB DDR4 memory. In addition, the most basic version of the Steam Machine (which costs 1,039 euros) has 512 GB of storage, while the other gaming PC has 1TB. Finally, there is the issue of SteamOS, which is the basis on which the Steam Machine and Steam Deck are based. This operating system is comfortable to use and great for playing, offering the user an experience very similar to that of a console. Windows is not at that level, but we can use the Big Picture mode of the Steam app itself to achieve a result that, although not the same, provides a similar solution. So which option is better? There is no easy, universal answer for everyone. Personally, I think this Neo PC from Neobyte is a better option. It will offer performance very similar to the Steam Machine, although with the advantage that we can change your graphics card or processor (or basically any component) in the future. ⚡ IN SUMMARY: neoybyte neo pc ✅ THE BEST Good GPU + RAM combination: Despite being DDR4, this PC comes with 32 GB of RAM and an RTX 5060 Ti. It is a combo to play for several years with DLSS 4.5. Updatable for the future: It is a conventional gaming PC, which means that we can update it whenever we want. ❌ THE WORST Bottom processor: Its CPU uses an old architecture, so it is somewhat limited. This is something that we will especially notice playing at low resolutions. It does not have that compact living room component: It is a gaming PC with the good and the bad, so you may not want to place it in the living room as it is bulky. 💡 BUY IT IF… You are looking for a computer to play with for several years with the possibility of being able to update it to improve its performance. ⛔ DON’T BUY IT IF… What you’re looking for is a “living room PC” to play on TV with your entire Steam library. You may also be interested PcCom Lite AMD Ryzen 5 5500 / 16GB / 1TB SSD / RTX 5060 V2 / Windows 11 Home The price could vary. We earn commission from these links COOLPC Black I – Ryzen 5 5500 / GeForce RTX 5060 8GB / 16GB DDR4 / SSD 500GB / W11 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 | Steam, Artiom VallatNeobyte In Xataka | Best gaming laptops in quality price. Which one to buy based on use and six recommended models In Xataka | DDR4 or DDR5? What RAM to choose so as not to pay even more than necessary in the middle of the price crisis

The retail SSD market has all but disappeared. And it is not because users have stopped buying them

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Buying an SSD seemed, until not so long ago, one of those fairly simple decisions in the PC world: choose capacity, look at speeds, compare prices and little else. But the market behind this daily gesture has changed significantly. What we have seen in recent months is not a disappearance of the need for storage, but a much deeper strain on the supply chain. SSDs are still necessary, but an increasing share of drives that could previously end up in the channel retail seems to be finding other destinations before reaching the retail window. what’s happening. The clearest signal was put on the table by Nelson Duann, vice president of Silicon Motion, one of the major manufacturers of SSD controllers. In an interview with Tom’s Hardware during Computex 2026the executive summarized his reading of the market like this: “The retail SSD market has practically disappeared.” He was not talking about a specific drop or a minor adjustment, but rather about what happened during the first half of 2026, a period in which retail sales of SSDs fell significantly. The chain has moved. The key point is who is buying those units now. Duann explained that the controllers sold by silicon motion to module assemblers, that is, companies that integrate memory, controllers and other components to sell complete SSDs, largely end up in units destined for PC manufacturers. It’s not a minor detail: according to that reading, manufacturers like Acer, Asus, Dell or HP can’t get enough NAND or SSD supply directly from the big memory manufacturers, so they are turning to a channel that previously looked much more towards the end user. The pressure of AI. The background appears clearly in TrendForce data. According to the consulting firm, cloud service providers increased demand for enterprise SSDs in the first quarter of 2026 due to the need to build infrastructure for AI servers, with high-speed data transmission and enormous storage capacities. Added to that was another factor: the structural shortage of traditional hard drives pushed a significant portion of orders toward QLC enterprise SSDs. There are figures. TrendForce says the combined revenue of the world’s five largest NAND Flash vendors grew 83.7% quarter-on-quarter in the first quarter of 2026 to exceed $38.9 billion. The increase came in a scenario of strong demand and limited supply, with average sales prices above expectations. The distribution also shows the scale of the phenomenon: Samsung closed the quarter with 13.51 billion dollars, SK hynix Group reached about 7.53 billion and Kioxia reached 5.96 billion. The indirect winnerss. The hit to the retail storefront does not mean that the entire chain is losing at the same rate. Duann added that, in the past, most of these companies were focused on selling to the end user, but since the end of last year and through 2026 that dynamic has changed. Demand from PC manufacturers has strengthened and those suppliers are directing a significant portion of their production directly to them. For companies like Silicon Motion, which sell SSD controllers to these assemblers, the market continues to move, although it does so through another door. What the buyer notices. This industrial readjustment ends up reaching the user in a fairly direct way. As we have seen, the prices of consumer SSDs have increased significantly in recent quarters due to the priority that memory manufacturers are giving to the AI ​​sector. That is to say, the pressure does not stay in the data centers, it also filters down to the shop window and the computer that we end up buying. everything remains the same. TrendForce indicates that large NAND Flash suppliers will add virtually no new capacity during the year and that, due to AI-related demand, supply shortages will remain. Production will also continue to be heavily focused on server storage applications, with high-capacity QLC enterprise SSDs gaining penetration. In this context, the retail market is conditioned by an industrial priority that does not aim to change immediately. In summary. The retail SSD market has weakened not because the user no longer needs fast storage, but because the industry has changed its order of priorities. Available NAND is being disputed between data centers, large buyers in the PC industry and companies trying to respond to increasingly server-oriented demand. What once came more naturally to the showcase is now more likely to end up integrated into a new team or AI infrastructure. The SSD is still there, but the usual buyer is no longer first in line. Images | Western Digital + Photoshop In Xataka | SSD prices are so crazy that a 2TB drive for the PS5 costs more than the PS5 itself

Today at Lidl this ice making machine that will save you from buying bags in supermarkets or gas stations this summer

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Although there are still a few days until summer officially begins, it is already hot almost everywhere. Whether we are alone at home or when a visitor comes, having ice cubes in the freezer becomes almost essential to have cool drinks. But this one ends and the molds that we all have in the freezer are not always enough (plus they take a long time to do their job). We have an alternative to avoid this with the ice cube machine that Lidl has: it is from the Silvercrest brand and costs 62.99 euros. Ice cube machine 105W The price could vary. We earn commission from these links If you are not convinced or you simply do not arrive on time, we leave you below two alternatives that you can buy on Amazon: Cecotec Ice Maker Machine by 89.80 eurosan alternative with more power and self-wash function. Songmics Cube Machine by 79.99 eurosthe best-selling machine of this type on Amazon right now. A machine to produce cubes in less than 10 minutes These appliances are a great ally in summer. They allow us to have different shapes of ice cubes without having to resort to the refrigerator freezer. This Silvercrest machine is capable of making 9 large ice cubes in less than 9 minutes, although we can choose to make 9 smaller ice cubes, thus reducing the time to 7 minutes. This is ideal for making batches and keeping them in bags in case we go to the beach, for example. Furthermore, this machine has its own built-in tank, so it does not need a water intake. In fact, since it is quite compact, you can take it to the patio or terrace if you have a plug on hand. It comes with a shovel to handle the ice comfortably and its control panel is quite intuitive, so it is not difficult to handle at all. ⚡ IN BRIEF: silvercrest ice cube offer ✅ THE BEST It is very fast making ice: Being able to have ice cubes in less than 10 minutes is great and saves you having to buy bags at the supermarket. You can move it to the garden or patio: Being compact and only needing a plug, you can move it around your house depending on what you need. ❌ THE WORST The basket is not a freezer: The basket where the ice that is generated is stored is not designed to store the cubes for hours. You have to take them out so they don’t melt. 💡 BUY IT IF… You usually consume a lot of ice in the summer and you want to avoid having to buy bags at the supermarket or gas station. ⛔ DON’T BUY IT IF… You don’t want another appliance for your kitchen or you have enough with the freezer at home. You may also be interested KeeGone Stainless Steel Ice Cube Machine with LED Display Cleaning Function 2 Liter Water Tank Includes Shovel and Basket 2 Sizes for Kitchen The price could vary. We earn commission from these links HOMCOM Ice Machine, Self-Cleaning Ice Cube Machine, 12kg/24H, 9 Cubes Ready in 7 Minutes, 2 Ice Sizes, 1.5L Tank, for Home, Kitchen, Office, Bar, Blue 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 | Lidl In Xataka | American refrigerator or 70 cm Combi? Be careful with making mistakes when buying liters that you may not be able to use In Xataka | Which home theater projector to buy, which is better?

The Raspberry Pi 5 are so expensive that buying two with 16 GB of RAM costs the same as a MacBook Neo

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If today you decide to buy a Raspberry Pi 5 with 16 GB of RAM, we have bad news: its price in the Adafruit store is 350 dollars. In Spanish stores like Raspipc.es the price with VAT is 313.03 euros. It is an absolutely absurd price for a miniPC with these characteristics, but the memory crisis has made us live in a world of crazy prices and absolutely strange situations. For example, what we propose here: For the price of two Raspberry Pi 5 with 16 GB of RAM you can buy a MacBook Neo. Or almost. In Spain, the price of the MacBook Neo is 699 euros. In the US it is $599 without taxes, so that comparison certainly holds true there, because although it depends on the state in which you buy it, the final price is around $650. Less than two of those Adafruit Raspberry Pi 5s cost. What is happening is amazing but very real: Raspberry Pi 5 are really striking miniPCs that anyone can use even as a desktop PC and offer surprising possibilities. But in the comparison with the MacBook Neo (or even with 700 euro Windows laptops) they lose by a landslide. And in the MacBook Neo we have a much more “rounded” laptop as a product for the vast majority of users. Not only because it has a laptop with an enviable construction with its screen, keyboard and trackpad. It is true that the unified memory is 8 GB (the RPi 5 with 8 GB costs $200), but we are looking at a much more capable computer in terms of performance. Source: GeekBench. In GeekBench 6 the 16 GB RPi 5 gets 899 points in single-core and 2,144 points in multi-core. The Apple A18 Pro from the MacBook Neo gets 3,566 points in single-core and 8,646 in multi-core: It is four times more powerful in this synthetic benchmark. It’s all a reality check. What happened to the $25 computer promise? Just two months ago Eben Upton, creator of the Raspberry Pi, announced the launch of a new Raspberry Pi 4 with 3 GB of RAM. Under other circumstances this launch would have been strange, especially considering that the Raspberry Pi 5 is available for almost two years and the original Raspberry Pi 4 were launched, attention, in 2019. Pre-pandemic. That announcement, however, made a lot of sense because the memory crisis has caused the prices of all types of devices to increase extraordinary. Upton himself revealed that the price of the LPDDR4 RAM memory modules used in the Raspberry Pi 4 and 5 had multiplied by seven. Hence the launch of an “affordable” version that at the time had a price tag of $83.75. The rest of the Raspberry Pi models, however, were impacted by the memory crisis and the creator of these devices announced significant price increases for all of them. Everything has meant that the company has had to betray its original objective more than ever. That $25 computer that was going to conquer the world soon made it clear that it was going to do so, but with many sacrifices: its original performance was poor, and you actually had to spend more money to use it with a monitor, mouse and keyboard (in addition to the SD/microSD, the necessary cables and the power adapter). Over time we saw how the Raspberry Pi became a much more rounded and capable product both in its original version and in others such as the fantastic RPi 400/500. But in doing so inevitably the price also increased: in November 2022 we complained about the lack of stock and that its price It was no longer 35 euros like the original, but triple. The firm, however, has always tried to maintain that spirit with which it was born, and in August 2024 it launched its Raspberry Pi 5 with 2 GB for $50. Today this model can be found at about 70 euros in Spanish stores, but of course, those 2 GB are not enough for that price. The memory crisis has harmed the entire market, but it has hit especially hard with these small miniPCs. The Raspberry Pi cannot compete in price/performance with more complete devices, but They continue and will continue to be a fantastic alternative in educational environments and, of course, in the industrial field in which the RPi in its Compute Module format have managed to become in all a reference. In Xataka | Raspberry Pi has risen like a rocket in the stock market for a simple reason: to use AI you don’t need a machine

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