charge

Microsoft put the head of its AI department in charge of Xbox. Now it’s dismantling all of Xbox’s AI

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Asha Sharman is the new CEO of Xbox and has arrived with a mission: to blow up Xbox. At least, that is what he is proposing in the first three months of his mandate in which he took the reins of the company in one of the worst moments in its history, with a diffuse identity and with the responsibility of filling the shoes of a Phil Spencer who had been with the company for 40 years. The most curious thing is that Sharma came from presiding over CoreAI, one of Microsoft’s most important AI divisions, and is doing the opposite of what many of us expected. Dismantle AI from within. Distrust. The Xbox brand is not going through its best moment. Since the disastrous E3 in 2013 where the Xbox boss said that if someone didn’t want an always-connected console (Xbox One) they could stick with their old Xbox 360, things have gone downhill. That someone was a Don Mattrick who was replaced by Phil Spencer and with whom things began to change. Game Pass, studio purchases to feed the ecosystem and strategy changes such as launching games on PC and PlayStation. The accounts seemed to come out in services, but not in hardware or games. After all this time, Phil retired and a totally different profile arrived: that of Asha Sharman. The directive I wasn’t a gamer like Phil, he also had no gaming experience. He came from leading CoreAI, a Microsoft team focused on accelerating the development of AI software for internal and external customers to build and run AI applications and agents. Out with the AI. When it was announced that she would be in charge of replacing Phil, in the midst of the ‘Microslop’ meme, many of us feared the worst for the division. Even one of the fathers of Xbox He pointed out that Sharma was going to bury Xbox. However, through Twitter, the CEO has just launched a release quite interesting: “Xbox needs to move faster, deepen our connection to the community, and address friction for both players and developers.” It would seem like just another message, that typical ‘CEO language’ that so many managers use, but it has gone one step further by committing to something interesting: “Today we promoted leaders who helped build Xbox while bringing in new voices to help us move forward. This balance is important as we get the business back on track. As part of this change, we will begin removing features that do not align with our intentions and plans for the future. “We will begin scaling back Copilot on mobile devices and will stop development of Copilot on consoles.” CoreAI Avalanche. This implies a shift in the strategy of a Microsoft that, like others like Meta, they had become an AI company. They have pushed Copilot to its limits, putting it on capon even on televisions thanks to commercial agreements or by renaming its office suite so that, now, its most important services were Copilot and, therefore, artificial intelligence. These statements, therefore, represent an interesting change, as interesting as seeing who are those who now manage Xbox. Sharma talks about “new voices” and what contrasts with this plan to dismantle Copilot in some of the products is that many of them come from… CoreAI. As they point our colleagues from 3DJuegos, The Verge raises a list of four very important members of that AI division who, now, come to Xbox to work with Sharma when defining the future strategy and the new machine: Project Helix. Return to fan. It is not Sharma’s only turn in this short period at the helm of Xbox. From the “everything is an Xbox” campaign, tremendously controversial because if everything is an Xbox, nothing is, we move on to a “we are xbox“, a return to those origins in which an Xbox is an Xbox, and that’s it. Well, also the PC, which is receiving its ‘Xbox mode‘ to improve the video game experience. There is rumors that they are considering returning to exclusives (PC and Xbox) abandoning launches on platforms such as PlayStation 5 and They have lowered the price of Game Pass Ultimatethat it was shot a few months ago. Of course, although they lowered the price, they also left ‘Call of Duty’ out of the subscription, so that reduction is misleading. I want to believe. Now, you have to be careful with all this. Although they are already taking some actions (that “reduction” of Game Pass or stopping the development of Copilot on Xbox), the return to exclusives and the roots of Xbox are issues that remain to be seen. Until they start taking more forceful action, we won’t be able to assess how far Sharma has gone to do things differently. Furthermore, and it is not to look for spins on Sharma’s statements, the board has pointed out that they stop Copilot on consoles. And that word, “consoles,” is very important because we don’t know what Project Helix will be. Your new machine definitely cannot be classified as a console because the machine itself Microsoft is positioning it as a PCone in which the crisis of components will impact strongly both in availability and price and it remains to be seen if they miss that opportunity to bring AI to the living rooms. But well, it is evident that the new CEO has arrived at Xbox wanting to wage war and we can think “ok, but above it is someone with more power: Satya Nadella.” And yes, Nadella has been one of the great drivers of converting Microsoft into an AI company, but just yesterday the company’s CEO sent a powerful message: clean Windows of so much garbage to win back the fans. Only time will tell, but it is evident that Microsoft’s image is not going through its best moment. In Xataka | France wants to “become independent” from Windows and embrace Linux: Extremadura has a lesson to transmit

In November, Spain is supposed to force stores to charge an amount for each bottle and can sold. It is supposed

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Something ticks inside every yellow recycling bin and the noise perfectly reaches newsrooms across the country. Hence the articles, pieces and reports that They say that “starting in November the stores will charge” for each plastic bottle. The good news is that yes, the law says that. The bad news is that where the ticking does not reach is the power centers of Madrid capital. What’s happening? Indeed, the Waste Law of 2022 obliges Spain to have a Deposit, Return and Return System (SDDR) for plastic bottles, cans and beverage bricks operational as of November 22, 2026. And the reason is simple: the country had to recycle 70% of everything introduced into the market by 2023 and we did not achieve it. Faced with this possibility, the legislator was clear: the current system had to be abandoned and the packaging return system adopted (the one that charges a deposit for each container and returns it later). Portugal found itself in a similar situation and just introduced the European system. So? What is the problem? The truth is that we have no shortage of problems. To begin with, measuring how we really recycle. For years, stakeholders claimed that recycling rates were close to 80%; However, in 2024, the General Subdirectorate of Waste prepared a report relating to the calculation of the separate collection of SUP bottles for beverages that lowered that figure to 41.3% (well below the 70% required). The second problem is regulation. Following the Law, in May 2025, four organizations (Ecoembes, AECOC, Procircular and CorePET) They asked the Community of Madrid that authorized them as Collective Systems of Extended Producer Responsibility in charge of managing the SDDR. The Community is the competent one since the organizations have their headquarters there. And then? Then nothing. Madrid legally had six months to resolve the request; but it granted itself an extension of another six months that would end next month. However, the Ministry of the Environment has already explained that they have no intention of doing anything because of the “legal uncertainty (that it entails), since adequate and sufficient regulations have not been developed at the state level.” MITECO, for its part, responds that there is no insecurity and that they are not going to do anything more. Meanwhile, the clock keeps ticking. Nobody knows anything. While the CAM runs out of its extension, there are less than seven months left before we begin to break the Law and all scenarios are on the table: from a quick solution to a blockade that delayed everything two or three more years (most likely). What is out of the question is that there is no political will to implement this and nothing suggests that this will change. If you had to bet and taking into account that Spain is the country with the most cases of infractions for not transposing community regulationsit would be surprising if the SDDR started in November of this year. Image | James Lo In Xataka | Europe decided to regulate how garbage should be disposed of. We will pay it with a new mandatory rate in 2025

Volotea begins to charge extra due to the rise in oil prices on its flights. 97% of passengers have agreed to pay it

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More and more airlines are already taking measures to contain the energy chaos that has arisen as a result of the conflict in the Middle East. Although many of them have chosen to cancel a good number of flightsothers have chosen to make their tickets more expensive. One of them has been Volotea. And the Spanish airline has launched a price adjustment policy linked at the cost of fuel which can make the ticket already purchased more expensive up to a week before flying. Crisis in the Middle East. The blockade of the Strait of Hormuzthrough which it passes about 40% of oil consumed by European airlines, has skyrocketed the price of fuel and forced the sector to look for ways to avoid absorbing the blow on their own. Volotea has been the first Spanish airline to transfer this cost to the passenger explicitly and with its own mechanism. What exactly has he done. Since March 16, Volotea has applied what it calls the Fair Travel Promise: seven days before the departure of each flight, the airline consults the market price of fuel in public sources and, if it has increased compared to the time of the reservation, charges the passenger a supplement of up to 14 euros per person per trip. According to they count From 20 Minutes, most surcharges are between 7 and 10 euros. And the adjustment can also work the other way around: if the price of fuel drops, the company returns the difference. What options does the passenger have? The traveler who receives the surcharge notice has a period of 48 hours to decide what to do. You can pay the supplement and continue with your plans, request a full refund of the ticket, or take advantage of the time offered by the airline to modify or cancel the reservation for free up to four hours before takeoff. The company ensures that its customers are aware of this policy before booking, since they must accept it at the time of purchase. The numbers that Volotea manages. According to data from the airline itself, 97% of affected passengers have chosen to pay and keep their trip. The company interprets that percentage as a sign that the measure “is aligned with customer expectations,” in its own words. In addition, it has canceled a small percentage of flights due to higher fuel prices, although it assures that it affects less than 1% of its total schedule. Countermeasures. Not all airlines are acting the same. According to Expansioncompanies such as Air France-KLM, Qantas or Cathay Pacific already apply fuel supplements, while IAG (the group that owns Iberia and British Airways) or Ryanair do not do so at the moment. Groups such as Lufthansa or Ryanair itself have asked the European Union to study a joint purchasing model for kerosene, similar to the one that was launched with gas after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Why can it go further? If the Strait of Hormuz blockade is prolonged, pressure on fuel prices could intensify. The Airports Council International (ACI Europe) and Ryanair already have warned that the problem of cancellations in the industry could worsen if supply suffers. Spain has some margin thanks to its national refining capacity (almost 9.9 million tons of kerosene per year, according to share El Mundo), but it is not a structural solution. Volotea has moved in a different way, and now we wonder if more airlines will join this strategy. Cover image | Dylan Agbagni (Wikipedia) In Xataka | Airlines are becoming more imaginative to save costs: Lufthansa is going to clean economy class less

NASA has put a Spaniard in charge of the project for its future lunar base: Carlos García-Galán from Malaga

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Dressed in a jacket, light blue shirt and gold tie, Carlos García-Galán He did not occupy another chair at the NASA conference held in Washington. Escorted by the administrator Jared Isaacman and other top-level officials, the engineer from Malaga spoke before the press in the middle of the presentation of the agency’s new lunar turn. His presence at that time placed him at the forefront of a roadmap that redefines NASA’s priorities on the Moon. The context of that scene helps understand its relevance. Hours before,Isaacman had presented a roadmap that changes the focus of the agency. It is no longer just about returning to the Moon, but about establishing a sustained presence on its surface. The proposal involves deploying in three phases the initial elements of a permanent lunar base, with stable infrastructure and a logic that is more industrial than experimental. The man from Malaga who now pilots the Moon Base program This change of course also redefines the role of those who must execute it. In this context appears García-Galán, whose official position within NASA is “executive program” at the lunar base. This is a high-level management position, responsible for coordinate and guide program development, not an operational role on the ground. His role will be to lead the project from the agency structure, not to direct a facility on the lunar surface. García-Galán, remember, is not a newcomer, but an engineer who has developed his career within NASA and has been assuming responsibilities for years to get to this point. His presence in the announcement is linked to that trajectory, which now places him in one of the great bets of the US space agency at this stage. His career within NASA helps to understand why he has come this far. Before this appointment, García-Galán, according to LinkedInheld the position of “deputy manager” of the Gateway program, until now a relevant piece in the agency’s lunar architecture. With more than 27 years of experience In manned space flights, he has worked on the design, integration and operation of complex systems, participating in programs such as the International Space Station and the Orion spacecraft. His experience at Gateway also helps explain this appointment. In that program, García-Galán was involved in integration and management tasks within an environment with multiple partners and components. The new approach towards a lunar base requires precisely this ability to order diverse pieces, from missions to infrastructure, something that fits with the profile that has been developed within the agency in recent years. The program that he will now supervise is divided into several phases with a common objective: establishing a sustained presence on the lunar surface. NASA proposes a sequence of missions that will go deploying infrastructurefrom mobility and energy systems to communications networks and habitats. The idea is to advance progressively towards a base capable of sustaining longer-term human stays. Images | NASA (1, 2, 3) In Xataka | Elon Musk knows that TSMC is overwhelmed: Terafab is his idea to completely change the global chip industry

pay you more than what they charge

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Here where you see me, with my 52 years behind me, I am one of those who can tell—young people, don’t be scared—that I lived in a time when we children returned “the helmets.” My parents bought glass bottles (beer, wine, soda) for which they paid a “deposit” for those containers. When they consumed them, our parents sent us children to return them. You would go down to the neighborhood “bodega” – that’s what they called it in my house – and that man, I still remember his face, would take the bottles, place them in plastic boxes (clinc, clink) and give you a few pesetas for them that you would then give to your parents. They paid you to recycle. And that idea is coming back strongly now. Recycling what is a gerund. The problem of packaging recycling is not technological. The solutions have been around for decades. The problem is human behavior. Getting millions of people to change a shopping routine as ingrained as ours requires more than just an advertisement on TV that encourages us to recycle because it’s good for the environment. BonÀrea has been testing a solution to the problem for two years in Tarragona and Guissonaand data from their pilot project suggests that they may have found the key to solving the problem. The 50 cent margin trick. He ReturnA system It works in a really simple way: the customer pays 0.45 euros as a deposit when purchasing a meat tray, and receives 0.50 euros when returning it. Five cents difference in favor of the consumer. It’s a small detail, but not accidental, because you don’t get back exactly what you put in, but rather you get a reward for returning that container. There is a big psychological difference between “getting yours back” and “making money by returning it”, and the data confirms this: the return rate is 60% and more than 72,000 single-use trays have been returned in this pilot phase. Reusable trays. The objective is to completely change the economic equation. A single-use container has a production, transportation and waste management cost that must be amortized in a single use. A tray like those from BonÀrea and its RetornA program, which aims to be reused 50 times, distributes that cost over fifty cycles, which in theory (in theory, hopefully in practice) allows the final price of the product to be adjusted. It is the difference between the traditional “make, use, throw away” model and a more “circular” one in which the packaging has a residual value. A great idea, but not for everyone.. The problem with packaging return and recycling systems like this is logistical. Someone has to collect the containers, clean them with sanitary guarantees and then reintroduce them into the company’s operating cycle. BonÀrea can do it because it controls the entire chain, from production to sale, without intermediaries. You can apply traceability to each tray, guarantee its cleanliness and manage that recycling without depending on third parties. In a conventional distribution chain in which external suppliers intervene, things become significantly complicated if one wants to achieve the same efficiency. The debate over SDDR systems. In Spain we take time living with a problem in the Deposit, Return and Return Systems (SDDRwhich would be something like “incentivized recycling”) for beverage containers, for example. In countries like Germany or Nordic countries They have been applying these systems for decades with return rates greater than 90%. The beverage industry has been resisting the implementation of something like this for years because they would be the ones who would have to finance the system and bottlers have been investing in these “one-way” distribution chains for decades. The solution adopted in Spain has been to opt for recycling in containers as an alternative, but the results in terms of a real circular economy are significantly worse. The BonÀrea experiment shows that when there is a clear economic incentive and a controlled logistics chain, things work. RetornA is going to expand. The pilot project has gone so well that starting in the second quarter of 2026, RetornA will be extended to all 460 BonÀrea stores in Catalonia. The total investment will exceed 10 million euros, and has the support of the Waste Agency of Catalonia. The company is in fact expanding the products that use the system, starting with chicken fillet and gradually adding other references. The next step will be to extend it to the rest of its stores throughout Spain, where it has more than 600 establishments. But. There is a question that remains unanswered. What BonÀrea has demonstrated with its pilot is that the system works when the consumer has a direct economic incentive, the logistics platform is integrated and controlled by the company and that operating cycle is relatively short. What’s not clear is whether that 60% rate will be maintained when the system scales to 460 stores and millions of transactions, or whether it will eventually erode with day-to-day friction. We will see if those five cents manage to win the battle that recycling has been losing for decades. Image | Joana Costa | BonÀrea In Xataka | We have been recycling the garbage we produce for decades. Experts say it has been of no use.

In 2003, NASA suffered a serious accident that killed seven people. The person in charge: a PowerPoint

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On January 16, 2003, NASA’s STS-107 mission was underway. The space shuttle Columbia was launched with its seven crew members into low orbit to test the effects of microgravity on the human body. Those seven people never returned to Earth. The tragedy could have been avoided, but years later the analysis of everything that happened those days has left a terrible conclusion: a presentation of PowerPoint He killed those seven people. The launch, as said James Thomasseemed to be perfect. The crew began to carry out their task, and were expected to spend 16 days in space performing 80 experiments. Just one day after the mission began, NASA officials realized that something had not gone right. NASA has a protocol for reviewing the launch with external cameras. After 82 seconds, a piece of spray foam insulation (SOFI) fell off one of the ramps that attached the shuttle to its external fuel tank. As the crew rose at 28,968 kilometers per hour, the piece of foam collided with one of the tiles on the outer edge of the ship’s left wing. The insulating foam coming off was nothing new: it had happened on the four previous missions and was the reason the cameras were deployed to analyze the launch. The problem is that the blow had occurred in the layer that protected the ship during its re-entry to Earth. The slides of yore What did NASA do? Study the possibilities and conclude that there were three: First, the astronauts could have done a spacewalk to check the helmet. Second, NASA could have sent another shuttle to pick up the crew. Third, they could risk simply re-entry. Those responsible for the mission analyzed the situation with Boeing engineers and created a report in the form of a PowerPoint presentation with 28 slides. The conclusions revealed something important: it was assumed that the wing tiles could tolerate foam impacts, but that assumption had been made under very particular conditions. The pieces of foam in the tests were 600 times smaller than those that had hit the Columbia. To reflect those details, the engineers created this slide: At NASA they listened to the explanation, and the engineers believed they had conveyed the risks well. However, NASA believed that the engineers, even without being certain, suggested that there was no damage that would put the lives of the crew in danger. The option they chose was the third. Columbia would re-enter on February 1, 2003, at 9:16 AM (EST). At 9 that day, Dallas residents saw how the ferry had disintegrated into pieces. The entire crew died. The investigation into the tragedy revealed that NASA and engineers had had the right information, but had made a bad decision. Edward Tufte, a Yale professor, explained that the problem had been with that damn slide and the way it had been presented. The title already seemed to indicate that the risk was not particularly high, but the slide also had four cascading points with no detailed explanation of what they meant: interpretation was left to the reader’s discretion. It was not clear whether the first point (1) was the main one, or if the rest of the points had the same relevance. The different font sizes, strange hierarchy, and text density didn’t help. There were over 100 vague words and adjectives (“sufficient,” “meaningful”), making the slide too open to audience interpretation. The biggest problem is in the last two points, where it was indicated that what they had tested in the preliminary tests was very different from what had happened. NASA itself indicated in your report after the investigation that they had relied too much on PowerPoint. The expression ‘death by PowerPoint’ has been used for years to indicate how there are presentations that induce boredom or fatigue due to their information overload. A bad design and the overuse of points to order each data are common problems in this and other similar applications. Unfortunately, in this case that expression became tragically true. In Xataka | A new “solar system” has just been discovered. There’s just one problem: it shouldn’t exist. In Xataka | Boeing was trying to put the Starliner fiasco behind it: NASA has just classified the 2024 incident at its highest level

Sam Altman has had another great idea to finally charge the user all the money he needs: a receipt at the end of the month

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We are used to pay the electricity bill or water because they have become basic and totally universal goods. Well, Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, is clear that artificial intelligence will be exactly that: a commoditya basic and totally universal good. This implies, of course, that there will come a time when, just as we pay the electricity or water bill, we will pay the monthly AI bill. Paying for AI will be an everyday thing. Altman recently participated in an event in Washington DC and there raised an idea that has been around for a long time but is certainly gaining more and more strength: that AI will offer like electricity or water, on demand: as soon as you need it, it will be there for you. That, of course, will mean that just as we now pay for our electricity or water use, we will also pay for the AI ​​supply that we use. And we will do it at the end of the month with the traditional method: an invoice from our supplier. In Xataka The most powerful AI agent in the world has just arrived: the first thing it does is warn you that it is dangerous From consuming kW to consuming tokens. Thus, instead of paying fixed subscriptions as we usually do now when contracting ChatGPT Plus or Claude Pro, for example, what we will do is pay that monthly bill. The amount we will pay will be based on how many “tokens“(processing units) we have consumed to solve all types of tasks. We have power plants, we will have data centers. To Altman this speech fits like a glovebecause it justifies its AI data center megaprojects —and those of the rest of the industry—. If AI is to become that universal basic resource, we will have to have the infrastructure (the “AI power plants”) to sustain it. Without such infrastructure, Altman warns, the price of “intelligence” will skyrocket, turning it into an exclusive privilege for the richest or a resource rationed by governments. Compute Yottaflops. That race for infrastructure has already begun, and big technology companies are fueling it. The reason is simple: either they enter that maelstrom or they risk being left out if the AI ​​revolution actually becomes a reality. Lisa Su, CEO of AMD, explained in her opening talk at CES 2026 that the world will need more than “10 yottaflops” of computing – 10,000 times more than the existing AI capacity in 2022 – in the next five years to be able to meet the demand posed by this massive use of AI. Chips missing… and a lot of energy. The real obstacle to achieving such computing capacity not only lies in the chips – the memory crisis is a side effect of this – but also in energy. data centers they consume a lotwhich makes national electrical networks can finish not having sufficient capacity to supply said energy. OpenAI will not stop spending. Greg Brockman, president of OpenAI, explained in December that their projects, no matter how gigantic they may seem, will go further. Although the company has already committed to investing $1.4 trillion with its partners in data centers over the next eight years, OpenAI wants to “get ahead of the future, but I don’t think we can be, no matter how ambitious we want to dream of being right now.” That is to say, he believes that all his estimates and projects may end up being dwarfed by the true scale to which AI can reach. {“videoId”:”xa1wtpm”,”autoplay”:false,”title”:”Perplexity, Personal Computer”, “tag”:””, “duration”:”88″} Big Tech wants to bill you at the end of the month. Turn AI into a commodity For it to reach all homes would be an absolute triumph for the companies that are investing in it. The tech industry has not managed to direct its costs to the user other than in things like our internet connection or, at most, in our spending on streaming services —similar to current AI plans—. If it achieves that bill at the end of the month that hundreds (perhaps thousands) of millions of people would also pay, AI would become an extraordinary income machine. In Xataka | OpenClaw changed the rules of the AI ​​race. Technology companies already have their answer: copy it (function() { window._JS_MODULES = window._JS_MODULES || {}; var headElement = document.getElementsByTagName(‘head’)(0); if (_JS_MODULES.instagram) { var instagramScript = document.createElement(‘script’); instagramScript.src=”https://platform.instagram.com/en_US/embeds.js”; instagramScript.async = true; instagramScript.defer = true; headElement.appendChild(instagramScript); – The news Sam Altman has had another great idea to finally charge the user all the money he needs: a receipt at the end of the month was originally published in Xataka by Javier Pastor .

A company has filled a neighborhood with sidewalk outlets to charge electric cars. Their results are contradictory

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In 2022, a German company called Rheinmetall proposed a new charging solution: put outlets on the sidewalks. Trying to find solutions for those who wanted to jump to an electric or plug-in hybrid car but did not have a garage, the company proposed a system to charge on the same street, without having to go to an electric station. Three years later: we have the results. A pilot test. After receiving approval from the authorities, the company began a pilot in 2024 in central Cologne and Lindenthala residential neighborhood of the city characterized by its low and individual houses. Neighborhood where, by the way, you will find the status of the local soccer team. The idea is simple, you park on the sidewalk and on the ground, on the curb, you find a plug hidden in a cover. You scan a code printed on it and connect the car with your own charging cable for AC use. As if it were any other charging point, both ends are joined and when the payment is completed, it is passed through the use of a mobile application. The results. In general terms, the results have been good. According to the company, a total of 2,800 charging cycles were carried out in the pilot test in one year. On average, the cars recharged 18 kWh, which in the city means more than 100 kilometers of autonomy for an electric car and between 80 and 100 kilometers on the highway (depending on its efficiency). They point out that each day the plug has been used an average of twice a day and that its availability has been 99%, so there have hardly been any breakdowns. The figure is good if we compare it with the European and Spanish average. In our country, public outlets They are only used 1.5 times a day and, on average, each charger is only busy between 30 and 120 minutes a day in Europe. Customer opinion. The company has conducted a survey of users who have offered their point of view to the system. It included the score given by the drivers (five points maximum) and some notes, complaints or recommendations made by customers. In total, the system has obtained 4.38 points out of five. But, above all, they have received very positive evaluations among customers over 60 years old, who value the simplicity of the system. In addition, they highlight that the plugs have not been damaged by water and that vandalism or uncivil acts (such as not picking up pet excrement) have not been found to have been a problem when recharging. A curious solution is that the cover that hides the plug has been designed to open with a small push of the charging cable, allowing the customer to lift said cover without having to touch it with their hand. Good idea, with some cracks. They point out in forumelectriccars that one of the main problems with this type of charging points is the cost of the plug. Each one of them, which has refrigeration and air conditioning to improve charging, costs 5,000 euros, so it is a bad idea compared to a traditional home charger. Furthermore, if you want to get the most out of the system, it would be necessary to reserve space for these charging points on the street, so there is no difference with any other public charging point unless the street is filled with plugs. That is, as happens with public outlets that are not located at a gas station, the parking space is reduced to reserve spaces that are not always occupied. Other proposals. Public charging is one of the great challenges that the electric car represents. One of its advantages is to leave the house with a charged car or, at least, take advantage of its parking lot to fill its batteries since alternating current is slow and most of the time a car is stopped. The most obvious proposal is the electric stations, with a huge number of high-power plugs available. another is fill shopping and leisure centers with chargerssince a visit to fully recharge the battery can take days or weeks (depending on daily trips) without plugging in our car. With an average of 50 kilometers per day, a car that drives 500 kilometers of autonomy in the city has 10 days to go without plugging the car back in, just three days a month. But if we want to bring public charging to the city streets, Portugal, United Kingdom either Netherlands have been experimenting with public outlets on streetlights. The system is as simple as including sockets on the curbs but with the difference that the socket comes from a street lamp and does not require installation on the ground. The paradox of slow recharging. The problem with this type of recharge is that slow charging takes hours and hours with the car plugged in. If a socket charges our car at 7.4 kW of power, it will be necessary to spend about 10 hours to completely fill the battery of a 60 kWh vehicle, a small size that is on the border between those who want the car for an urban environment and those who want to dare to travel with him. Those refills They are interesting if the price is low But they require that, to get the most out of it, we have to leave the car parked there for an entire working day or an entire night. The system, therefore, is certainly inefficient in terms of servicing more than one car. To charge at this power, the data says that most electric car drivers charge at home. Outside of it, the customer usually chooses to recharge at higher powers. For example, a 50 kW plug can now fully charge a car in less than three hours, which is the time we spend watching a movie at the cinema. And on a trip, the most practical thing is usually to look for … Read more

sport has been disguised as therapy to charge you more money

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There was a time when gyms smelled of liniment and rusty iron. Success was measured in guttural screams and soaked T-shirts under the military motto of the no pain, no gain. That era is dead. If you walk into a fashion studio today, you will smell like incense and see pastel colors. The industry has understood that to capture the masses it had to stop selling exhaustion and start selling “connection.” As explained by trend magazinesWe have entered the era of strong Elegance. This new concept, far from being a brand, is defined as a natural evolution of training “better, not more.” The goal is no longer to destroy muscle, but to “connect with your body” through softness and technique. It is the birth of Cozy Fitness or gentle training. However, behind this facade of Zen calm, the economic projections are dizzying. It is estimated that the global market for Pilates and Yoga studios will reach 520.61 billion dollars by 2035driven by a population that values ​​mental health over gross physical appearance. Redefining effort The paradigm shift is not accidental; responds to a post-pandemic demand for mental health. According to a report by Les Mills99% of respondents say they feel “happier” after training, and 42% prioritize exercise specifically to improve their mental well-being. This has caused low-impact disciplines, such as Pilates, to be the most booked class for the second year in a row. But let’s not fool ourselves into thinking that “soft” means “easy.” Specialized media They warn that disciplines like sweep (a fusion of ballet, pilates and yoga) generate a real metabolic and mechanical overload. By working with isometry and bringing the muscle to fatigue without heavy weights, strength and postural improvement are achieved. This is where the narrative turns perverse. Under the promise of “liberation” and “self-care,” the industry has commodified the management of the self. An in-depth academic analysis on the philosophical dimensions of medical sciences suggests that modern fitness It is a byproduct of neoliberal ideology. We are instilled with the notion of the “entrepreneurial self”: health and aesthetics become an individual responsibility for success or failure. Wellbeing is sold as a commodity, and the individual is forced into constant “self-optimization.” If you are not healthy and radiant, it is because you are not managing your body “company” well. This pressure manifests itself in new obsessions such as Protein Chic. We have gone from eating out of necessity to consuming protein-enriched products (even popcorn or water) as a status symbol. The protein shake has become in a religious ritual, a tool to feel that we have “fulfilled” the mandate of physical productivity. Furthermore, sport has become a class filter. Fashion competitions like Hyroxwhich combine running and functional exercises, have become at an exhibition of lifestyle where you pay a high registration fee (about 70 euros) to show that you can afford to suffer in a way cool and gamified. The drivers of change: loneliness, identity and fashion To understand how we got to this point, you have to look at who is filling the rooms. Generation Z has turned the gym into its new bar, desperately seeking a tribe instead of cold machines. A report from 2025 reveals that 36% of young people regularly go to these centers, not only for the physical, but to combat loneliness and find community. Their priority is belonging, which explains the mass exodus toward group classes versus solitary training. The large chains have read this emotional need perfectly and have changed their business model: they no longer sell an hour of exercise, they sell identity. The success of brands like Brooklyn Fitboxing, which expects to invoice 50 million eurosis based on gamifying that community. In the same way, Pilates Club has skyrocketed his income 60% in Spain by focusing on “operational quality” and selling the feeling of belonging to a select and exclusive club. This aesthetic obsession has permeated everything, even technology, which has abandoned crude plastic to disguise itself as high jewelry or become invisible. “Technological minimalism” is the new norm: bracelets like the Xiaomi Smart Band 10 They are now launched with ceramic straps to be worn as fashion necklaces, while devices such as smart rings or heart rate sensors Whoop they bet on “silent monitoring”. It is the triumph of constant but discreet data: the obsession with measuring the body 24/7 without looking like a cyborg. Where are we going: From aesthetics to biology The immediate future of the industry delves into this sophistication. Trends for 2026 point to ‘Body Literacy’: according to elleusers no longer want generic recipes, but rather understand their own biology, hormones and stress response. We move from aggressive “bio-hacking” to personalized and clinical understanding. In Spain, the market is entering a consolidation phase. According to reports from consulting firms such as BDOlarge operators will stop opening centers indiscriminately to focus on increasing the average income per customer (upselling) and offer comprehensive family services. The gym wants to be the center of the social life of the entire family. However, there are cracks in this perfect pastel world. While the sector premium talks about connecting the soul, the segment low cost go on being a battle of prices and efficiency, reminding us that “spiritual well-being” remains, in large part, an affordable luxury. Even technology is showing signs of exhaustion. Technology analysts They point out which devices like him Apple Watch They seem to have reached their ceiling in sports. They have become excellent “entertainers” of well-being (Wellness), but they lack the technical depth of a real coach, remaining on the surface of motivation with synthetic voices that congratulate you for closing rings. As Ale Llosa, founder of one of these new success methods, summarizes, in Vogue: “Soft is fashionable, but without strength there is no resilience.” The question we have left, as we close the locker room locker, is whether this new era of fitness is really making us freer and stronger, or if it has simply built us a prettier, … Read more

Iberia is going to charge up to 140 euros extra for checking in irregular luggage. Now we just need to know what “irregular luggage” is.

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Since January 28, Iberia has already an additional charge applies for checking in irregularly shaped luggage. What do you mean by irregular luggage? It’s a good question. From Iberia they assure that everything that is soft bags, plastic packages, round or oval packages and any non-rigid packaging that could interfere with the airport’s automatic systems, are susceptible to a surcharge. But it is worth qualifying. Irregular luggage. The airline define Irregular baggage is any package whose shape, material or dimensions may create problems in airport baggage handling systems, as indicated in its official statement. This includes duffel bags, oversized soft backpacks, plastic-wrapped packages, or any object that is not the typical rectangular shape of a hard suitcase. The company assures that this type of luggage blocks automated conveyor belts and complicates stacking in aircraft holds. Just like share In La Voz de Galicia, airlines argue that the handling of non-regular packages represents one of their biggest logistical problems, since the automated systems are designed specifically for rectangular suitcases and these objects can get caught in the sensors or prevent the passage of the rest of the checked luggage. Route Domestic flights (except Canary Islands) Canary Islands / Europe / Africa America/Asia By route (origin-destination) €35/$45/£35 €60 / $75 / £55 €125 / $150 / £110 Connecting flights €40/$50/£35 €70 / $80 / £65 €140/$165/£125 How much does the new rate cost? The amount varies depending on the route and whether the flight includes connections. On domestic flights within the peninsula and the Balearic Islands, the charge is 35 euros each way. For destinations such as the Canary Islands, Europe or Africa, it amounts to 60 euros. On intercontinental routes to America or Asia, the rate reaches 125 euros. If the trip includes connections, these amounts rise to 40, 70 and 140 euros respectively. Iberia clarifies that this charge is added to the price of the luggage, although if the ticket already includes a checked bag, only the additional amount will be paid. Fees apply regardless of whether the passenger has already paid for checked baggage. How it works in practice. According to they count From Iberia, the airline staff will assess each case at the special baggage check-in counter and decide whether or not to accept the bag. Furthermore, it warns that in exceptional situations the luggage may not travel on the same flight as the passenger and may be transported in a special hold or on a later flight. The airline recommends using rectangular or proportioned rigid suitcases to avoid these extra charges and incidents. Differences with special luggage. This new rate is independent of the charges that Iberia already applied for special luggage such as musical instruments, sports equipment or bicycles, which have their own rates. Golf equipment, skis, fishing rods, skates or rackets cost between 30 and 40 euros if booked online, and between 60 and 66 euros if purchased at the airport. Bicycles cost between 65 and 72 euros on domestic flights, while surfboards range from 70 to 77 euros. Musical instruments are the most expensive, with rates ranging between 150 and 330 euros depending on the duration of the flight, and can only be arranged directly at the airports. Cover image | Miguel Angel Sanz In Xataka | Flying in “Business” class is the new trend among low-cost airlines. In all except one: Ryanair

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