conquer

six companies, hundreds of millions of dollars and 25 missions to conquer the South Pole

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NASA has already launched phase 1 of construction of your moon base. They have not yet taken a new batch of humans to the Moon, but it is important to prepare the ground, which is why this Tuesday they announced the first steps they are taking to do so. And, as it could not be otherwise, it all starts with million-dollar hires. 6 companies in total. At the moment, NASA has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in hiring six companies that will be in charge of developing the technologies necessary to launch the first phase of the lunar base. The companies in question are Blue Origin, Astrobotic, Intuitive Machines, Astrolab, Lunar Outpost and Firefly Aerospace. In general, in this first phase of construction of the lunar base it is expected to explore the south polar region, test various technologies and prepare surface operations. All of this will be carried out through 25 missions that will include 21 moon landings. Moon Base 1. To begin with, the first three missions are expected to launch this year. The first, Moon Base 1, will be carried out by Blue Origin. Jeff Bezos’ company will take its lander to the Moon Blue Moon Mark 1the “brother” of the Blue Moon Mark 2 that is preparing to become the human landing system for the Artemis missions. As payload will include the Stereoscopic Cameras for Lunar Plume-Surface Studies to study how thrusters interact with the lunar surface, and the Laser Retroreflective Array, which helps spacecraft in orbit determine a more precise location using reflected laser light. The mission will take place in autumn 2026 if all goes well. Since it will be the first to land in the Shackleton crater, where the base is to be built, it will also be in charge of checking the viability of lunar landings near the lunar base. Moon Base 2. The second mission, which will also travel to the Moon at the end of 2026, will be carried out by Astrobotic. It will send its Griffin lander to the Moon, loaded with 500 kg of instrumentation, including a rover to study the surface on which the base will be built and mature the mobility systems for future manned vehicles. Moon Base 3. The third mission to be sent in 2026 has been granted to Intuitive Machines. This company will take its Nova-C Trinity lunar module there, which will be in charge of studying lunar eddies and the behavior of materials under extreme conditions. Furthermore, this mission will not be 100% private, as it will include payloads from the European Space Agency and the Korean Institute of Astronomy and Space Sciences. Some of the models that NASA showed during the press conference Boogies to move around the Moon. So that future astronauts who travel to the lunar base can move around it, they want to take two manned lunar vehicles there. Said so that we can all understand each other, two boogie-type strollers, designed to move around the lunar surface, both with and without a crew. Its development has been entrusted to the companies Astrolab and Lunar Outpost, also as part of this first phase. Delimitation drones. The company Firefly Aerospace has been entrusted with taking the 4 Moonfall drones to the Moon, whose main mission will be to inspect the area in search of the best landing places for the astronauts. Although they will also have a much more peculiar mission. As explained At NASA’s press conference, its executive director of the lunar base program, Carlos García-Galan, these drones will also be stationed in the corners to delimit the perimeter of the lunar base. Next phases. This first phase will last until 2029. Then the next phase will begin, which will end in 2032. In this, the permanent infrastructure of the lunar base will begin to be built, including electrical installation. From then on, it will only be necessary to refine more and more details and little by little receive the astronauts of the Artemis missions of the future. Without a doubt, this is the beginning of a new era of space exploration. Image | POT In Xataka | We knew there was water on the Moon, but not why some craters were empty. Finally we have the answer

This is how Spain plans to conquer the ocean renewable industry

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The race for clean energy dominance in Europe has a new battlefield: the sea. And Spain has just put on the table a million-dollar declaration of intentions so as not to be left behind. As announced by the Institute for Energy Diversification and Saving (IDAE)the Government has allocated a provisional injection of 212 million euros from European NextGenEU funds to six state ports. The objective of all this is to adapt its logistical infrastructure for the imminent deployment of offshore wind. In this cast, there is a great winner who monopolizes the spotlight. The group formed by the Galician ports of A Coruña and Ferrol-San Cibrao has taken most of the pie of the PORT-EOLMAR programwith a proposed award that is close to 100 million euros (97.4 million for the joint project and an additional 2.5 million for Ferrol). A figure that supports the strategic nature of the region and that promises to transform its coast into the industrial epicenter of ocean renewables. The historical qualitative leap. Until now, Spain’s role was mainly limited to the manufacturing of different components and their storage. However, the objective of this new aid is make a historical qualitative leap: provide ports with the real capacity to build the immense platforms on which the wind turbines sit and, later, launch them into the sea as if they were frigates. Here the great geographical challenge of our coasts comes into play: unlike what happens in the North Sea – where the bottom is shallower and allows structures to be nailed (offshore fixed)—, the great depth of the Spanish and Galician coastline forces us to opt for floating technology. And floating wind requires colossal space. Carla Chawla Fidalgo, director of the Navantia Fene shipyard, sums it up perfectly in statements to The Opinion of A Coruña: “If we want to be able to assemble several units at the same time, we need enormous surfaces.” Since it is impossible to transport platforms the size of a football field by land, shipyards and ports with deep drafts become the “natural allies” and obligatory of this industry. The five titans. The rain of millions will result in an unprecedented physical transformation. At Punta Langosteira (the outer port of A Coruña), the aid will be used to condition some 100 hectares of surface in the southern area and create a new dock that may reach 450 meters in length. This joint candidacy obtained an almost perfect score, exceeding 90 points out of 100. But the bases of the IDAE They demanded an indispensable condition: Public money had to be backed by private industrial projects of comparable investment. And Galicia has responded. As it breaks down The Voice of Galiciathe port of A Coruña already has five firm projects, bank guarantees included, from true giants of the sector: Navantia: The main Galician naval engine is already a benchmark in building foundations (jackets) in Ferrol, but desperately needs land. Its landing in Langosteira is not a move, but a vital expansion to take on the assembly of large floating structures. WindWaves: The former Nervión Naval Offshore (belonging to the Amper Group) is Navantia’s strategic partner. The firm seeks to complement the facilities it already plans in Ferrol and As Somozas with this new space in the outer port. Acciona: The seventh world operator in wind energy, allied with giants such as Orsted and SSE Renewables, requested space to manufacture, assemble and maintain offshore wind installations. Esteyco: This engineering company already knows what it is like to operate in Langosteira, from where it moved 400-ton pieces for a prototype in the Canary Islands. Saitec: The Basque group promoting floating technology SATH is looking for land to manufacture and assemble its own platforms, with a view to expanding its prototypes before the end of the decade. Beyond the docks. The impact of this deployment transcends the simple civil works of a port. If we add public funds to the commitment of these five colossi, we are talking about a formidable financial muscle: the committed private investment is estimated at 180 million euros, which would raise the total impact of the Galician polo to around 280 million euros. At a professional level, the potential is undeniable. leaning in data from the metal employers’ association (Asime)the marine mill industry already generates about 5,000 direct and indirect jobs in Galicia. A figure that could skyrocket with the consolidation of this macroport. This entire movement is, furthermore, a geopolitical race against time. These investments are the necessary ammunition so that A Coruña and Ferrol can compete head to head with neighboring countries that are stepping on the accelerator, such as France, Italy or Portugal. In fact, times are pressing: the Port will close the adaptation project before August, and the aid stipulates a period of execution of the works of 48 months. The green horizon of Spain. The roadmap is drawn. How the IDAE documentation concludesSpain not only has high civil engineering capabilities and a powerful naval sector, but also optimal weather conditions. The ultimate objective is to take advantage of this competitive advantage to turn the country into a “European and global reference center” in the marine energy supply chain. But this massive industrialization does not want to turn its back on the environment. As a finishing touch to this ambitious plan, all this infrastructure is framed under the umbrella of the strategy ‘A Coruña Green Port’. An initiative that seeks to convert the Punta Langosteira dock into the first to achieve energy self-sufficiency from 100% renewable sources. Definitive proof that Spain is not content with manufacturing the wind giants of the future, but rather aspires for the port where they are born to be as green as the energy they will generate. Image | Unsplash Xataka | Japan has realized that it cannot depend on gas, so it is going to set up a mega wind farm on the coast of Tokyo

With the Find X9 Ultra, OPPO has an ambitious plan to conquer the heart of Spain. And its CEO has told us what it is

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From the offices of OPPO In Madrid, at the top of a building very close to Plaza de Castilla, you can see an old water tank from the Canal de Isabel II. It is a huge concrete structure inaugurated in the middle of the last century that today, no longer in use, functions as one of the visual “landmarks” of the square. It is very big, about 40 meters high, but it is very far away. I take one of the OPPO Find X9 Ultra that’s on the table, I open the camera, zoom in 10x and take a photo. The result is impressive. The camera returns an image full of details: the contours of the concrete, already worn, the advertising signage that floods its dome, the brutalist curves that the tower draws. All this from inside an office and interrupted by a large window. I look towards the back of the room, where there are some boxes of snacks and pastries ready for breakfast. There are tiny inscriptions on the side, so I repeat the process: I open the camera, zoom in 10x and take another photo. The sharpness is extraordinary. There is no pixelation or noticeable distortion or digital zoom artifacts in the drawing of the letters, nor a great chromatic distortion with respect to what my eyes see. “What we want to do with the Ultra is not just another incremental improvement, we want it to be an alternative to your professional camera,” he explains to me. Kevin ChoCEO of OPPO in Spain since last summer. “It would be like buying a camera with a built-in phone and not the other way around, right?” I ask him. “That is, camera firstmore than a phone with an interesting camera.” Looking at the wide range of tools on the table, it’s hard not to agree. The launch of the Find X9 Ultra in Spain marks a milestone for OPPO: for the first time, the company launches its top-of-the-range phone in Europe, something reserved until now for Chinese consumers. OPPO has not spared any details: the Ultra incorporates an ambitious 300 mm teleconverter equivalent in 35 mm and 13x format that is attached to the phone’s gigantic lenses to multiply the camera’s possibilities. Why has OPPO made such a determined bet for photographyWithout a doubt the most notable aspect of a Find X9 Ultra full of attractive features and specifications? “There is a very marked polarization in the market,” explains Cho. “Around 30% or 40% of buyers continue to opt for devices under 200 euros, or even second-hand, but what we are also seeing is an expansion of the premium segments. It is the same trend month after month: premium sales are growing.” (Xataka) Cho introduces a key word: “premiumization.” The market polarization of the mobile phone is neither new nor surprising for anyone who has paid attention to the dynamics of recent years. Many consumers tend to hold on to their devices for longer, as a result of the large investments they must make, which is why they demand more performance and quality from their products. This gap, also present in markets such as the car, has forced almost all brands to recalibrate their strategies. OPPO’s ambitious plan “We don’t want transactional volumes,” Cho continues, “you know, competing on price. We want to make sure we bring products that can create value for the consumer.” According to Cho, OPPO is facing its second wave of expansion in the European market: after a consolidation of the brand and sales in recent years, it is time to grow not so much through raw numbers as through loyalty in the segments. more exclusive of the market. And for that you need a product up to the task, hence the arrival of the Find X9 Ultra. A landing that, however, has required adaptations. Since his arrival in Spain, Cho has promoted a change in OPPO’s methodology, especially regarding the consumer: “We are doing studies to understand consumer preferences and to define our strategies.” Refers to focus group and surveys with more than 4,000 respondents, a very large sample that exceeds those that the brand was doing until then. Cho is clear that the only way to compete in the premium segment is by going to the user, or, in his words, “winning the heart and brain of the consumer.” (Xataka) The approach is ambitious, as are its objectives. When I ask him where he would like to see OPPO in five years in Spain, he answers without much hesitation: “As the number one brand.” The Find X9 Ultra is the first stone of a long road ahead, a way to “test the roof” of OPPO in Europe. His first steps have consisted of relearning and readapting the lessons of the chinese marketwhere OPPO is a brand with a lot of penetration and experience in the premium segments, for Spain and Europe. Before the launch on the old continent, OPPO has had to make some adjustments in terms of operating system and memory to adapt them to local needs and preferences. Given the constraints of such a competitive segment Like the premium one, OPPO has two other arguments to win over the consumer: its operating system, ColorOS, and the battery. Cho boasts leadership in the second area and widespread user satisfaction in the first: “In China, our operating system has consistently been our main selling point for the past three years.” In Spain, the Ultra works on Android, like the rest of the market, but Cho highlights the interoperability and customization of OPPO: “We have been working on inter-device and inter-ecosystem interoperability for some time, so that you can use the phone with a Windows computer or a Mac.” (Xataka) Camera, battery, operating system… The elephant in the room that needs to be addressed is AI. Is there the definitive angle for a mobile phone brand to be more attractive than its competition? Cho’s answer is not direct but clear: OPPO’s strength is … Read more

Carlos Li, CEO of TCL Europe, on the commitment to giant TVs to conquer the high-end

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TCL is in an enviable moment in the television market. In 2025 managed to sell 20% more TVs while other of its competitors such as Hisense fell. Even Samsung, world leader in sales, fell slightly and the separation with TCL, its most direct rival, is already barely 1% share. The striking thing about this growth of TCL is in which segment it has occurred: the high-end. Nobody dispatches more MiniLED TVs than them right now and giant screens (85 inches or more) take up more than 22% of the global market. ​ The coup de effect was the recent announcement of alliance with Sony. The agreement, which is expected to come into operation in April 2027 at the earliest, is the most eloquent sign of how far a company has come that, until not long ago, was seen as good value for money and that’s it. With all this context, we were able to chat with Carlos Li, CEO of TCL Europe, who explained to us the company’s next steps to continue growing in televisions, but also in other segments such as household appliances. TCL has conquered the market thanks to a very good quality-price ratio and now I suppose the challenge is the high-end segment. What is your strategy to convince the European consumer to invest three or four thousand euros in a TCL X955For example? “We are focused on technology and also on giant screens. We believe that bigger, especially if we want to motivate consumers to return to the living room to watch television more often as a family. It takes a good experience to watch games or movies and differentiate itself from other devices, such as phones or tablets. We simply offer bigger screens and better image and sound quality. For more premium products, we are working on improving the experience, both in audio and video, to create an immersive cinema or gaming environment. That’s it which motivates consumers to pay premium prices to get a better product for their daily use.” Do you see this being a trend across Europe or just in some countries? Is it also happening here in Spain? “Yes, it has been proven and has been very successful in many markets. First years ago in China, and now in the United States, Europe, emerging markets, Latin America and also in the Middle East. We see this trend because, thanks to better products and larger screens, people are buying more televisions than before, especially high-end products with higher prices. We think we are very competitive in that area.” The recent news about the manufacturing deal with Sony has generated a lot of buzz. Beyond the volume of business, do you feel that the fact that a brand as demanding as Sony trusts its subsidiary CSOT serves as a definitive validation of TCL’s engineering and all its experience in this field? “First of all, the possible cooperation between TCL and Sony is still in the phase of a memorandum of understanding (MOU). We are still in the process of migrating from the MOU to a contract, so there are many things under discussion. But the good thing is that both Sony and TCL see the synergy that we can create together due to our capabilities in the industry, especially in the supply chain, R&D, resources in terms of CSOT panels, and our continuous investment in new technological innovations. This creates the synergy. perfect between the two companies for a new joint venture. Everything is still in process, but I think it is good proof that both parties see good added value in the other for the business portfolio.” I know everything is under discussion right now and it may take time to talk things out, but is there a tentative date to operate together? “It is a long-term bet, we are at an early stage and the two companies really need to get involved in the new strategy. There will be contracts later, so we do not expect to have an immediate impact on the market in 2026. It is more of a medium-term impact, like five or ten years.” There is a lot of talk about mini RGB or RGB mini LED as the technology that will surpass OLED and even traditional mini LED. What is TCL’s vision regarding this technology? “We have been developing Mini RGB technology for years, although we did not announce it before. We believe that SQD is a better display technology with better quality in terms of brightness and contrast. In the end, RGB is a type of mini LED TV with red, green and blue, but it has a higher cost because instead of a single LED light, you need to have three. This technology is not new for us, we have been developing it for eight years, which is why we are also launching our RGB mini LED TV. However, along with that, we will strongly push our “SQD because it is a unique technology in the industry, very robust and linked to our CSOT panel technology. For the moment, we reserve the SQD technology exclusively for our TCL brand, which creates a much better image quality compared to a Mini RGB. So the Mini RGB will be just one of the products in our portfolio.” Will they prioritize SQD then? “We believe that SQD will be the main trend for the future. We think it is a better solution as a display technology, which can really surprise the end user while maintaining the original price, and that is why we propose this.” Appliances, glasses and other areas where TCL also wants its piece of cake Carlos Li during the inauguration of the new TCL office in Madrid Many people know TCL for their televisions, but they also have appliances and we are seeing a lot of movement from other manufacturers in this segment. What is TCL’s next move in Europe regarding home appliances? “In home appliances, and together with air conditioners, we are … Read more

In its efforts to once again conquer the Peninsula, the brown bear has just found its main ally against the ranchers: tourism

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In the late 80s and 90s, the brown bear was on the verge of total extinction in Spain. There were just a few dozen spread across remote areas of the Cantabrian Mountains and the Pyrenees. Today there are more than 400 And although we have been recovering the species for almost 40 years, the truth is that it has not stopped being controversial for a single moment in all that time. A controversy that, little by little, spreads throughout the country. An absence of 150 years. In the regions of La Cabrera, Sanabria or Carballeda and even in areas bordering Ourense, it had been more than a century and a half since anyone had seen a brown bear. However, a new study They have documented up to 85 tests that he has returned to the region. They are direct observations, verified footprints, damage to hives, phototraps and testimonies. It doesn’t matter, despite the size of these bugs, identifying them is difficult. The interesting thing is that, as another study pointed out, the bear has expanded to 17,000 km2. But… how did we do it? There are three key pieces to the system: great efforts were made to prevent poaching, their natural habitat was protected, and Slovenian bears were reintroduced to replenish populations. In the Pyrenees, in fact, the native line ended up disappearing (although, in 2025, it was recorded the first native bear cub born in the mountain range in more than 50 years). An even more important question: why are we doing it? That is, what purpose does a brown bear serve and why do we want to reintroduce it. Well, according to experts, the brown bear has several important functions in the maintenance of its ecosystems. To begin with, they are dispersers of seeds of fleshy fruits (something very beneficial for the forest mass), they control the populations of herbivores, they clean the forest of bodies as scavengers and it is a bioindicator of the quality of the ecosystem. The bear is at the top of the food chain: its presence improves ecosystems, manages them, maintains them. But, it creates problems… doesn’t it? That’s what the livestock industry says. According to data from the Aragonese Pyrenees, in 2024 there were 33 confirmed attacks (29 in Ansó and 4 in Hecho). The result was 44 dead sheep and 2 goats. The dispute is that, according to the ranchers, the compensation (22,431 euros in 2024) is insufficient. For them, not only deaths must be counted, but also stress abortions, disappearances and a drop in production. That is, what they defend is that part of the costs of the reintroduction of the bear are being paid by them. The issue, as its presence is consolidated, the interests of the ranchers are no longer the only ones. Little by little, the bone regions are attracting wildlife tourism which also generates money. A lot. In the Val d’Aran, there is even talk of overcrowding. In the end, the problem is always the same: Are we willing to pay the cost of living with the nature that we say we want to save? Whether we like it or not, the accidents on the farms in the Pyrenees and the massive replantings (up to 150,000 trees) in the Cantabrian Mountains are two sides of the same coin. It is not enough to throw it in the air and wait to see what happens. Image | Karl Paul Baldacchino In Xataka | Faced with the largest flood of wild bears in memory, Japan has taken a measure: emergency hunts

Apple completely changes the architecture of its chips with a textbook “divide and conquer”

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The week started with a flurry of news from Apple, something we already expected after Tim Cook’s words stating that it was going to be a “great week.” And in addition to the new iPhone 17e and iPad Airtoday it was the MacBook’s turn. In this article we wanted to focus on explaining what is special about the new M5 Pro and M5 Max processors, chips that land at the latest MacBook Pro. The company follows the same pattern as always. First comes the base chip, the M5, which we already saw in the 14-inch MacBook Prohe iPad Pro and Apple Vision Proalong with the new MacBook Air, and then, they take advantage of their most capable equipment to welcome the most powerful variants. But this year there is something different, and that is that the company uses a new manufacturing architecture internal that Apple had not used until now in its Mac chips. We will tell you all the details. Apple’s M4 Pro and M4 Max SoCs, in numbers m5 pro m5 max M5 m4 photolithography 3nm (3rd gen) 3nm (2nd generation) 3nm (2nd generation) 3nm architecture Fusion Fusion A single die A single die CPU cores Up to 18 18 Up to 10 Up to 10 Supercores 6 6 4 4 performance cores 12 12 6 6 GPU cores Up to 20 Up to 40 Up to 10 Up to 10 neural engine 16 16 16 16 maximum unified memory 64 128 32 32 bandwidth 307GB/s 614 GB/s 153GB/s 120GB/s ray tracing Yes (3rd gen.) Yes (3rd gen.) Yes (3rd gen.) Yeah neural accelerator on GPU Yes (per core) Yes (per core) Yes (per core) No connectivity Thunderbolt 5 Thunderbolt 5 Thunderbolt 4 Thunderbolt 4 / USB 4 codecs H.264, HEVC, ProRes, AV1 H.264, HEVC, ProRes, AV1 H.264, HEVC, ProRes, AV1 H.264, HEVC, ProRes, AV1 memory integrity enforcement Yeah Yeah No No The big news: the Fusion architecture Perhaps one of the most striking aspects of these new chips is the call ‘Fusion’ architecture. Apple has designed this SoC (system on a chip) by combining two other chips manufactured in TSMC’s third-generation 3-nanometer node. The signature promise that the chips communicate with each other through very high bandwidth and minimal latency. Why this approach? As chips grow in number of cores and memory needs, Putting everything on a single piece of silicon becomes increasingly complicated and expensive. The solution of dividing it into two interconnected chips allows its capabilities to be scaled without sacrificing efficiency. Each of these chips integrates CPU, GPU, neural engine, unified memory controller, Media Engine (which are the cores dedicated to processing multimedia codecs) and controllers. Thunderbolt 5. It is, in essence, the basis that makes it possible for the M5 Max to reach figures that we previously only saw in desktop chips. A new CPU from top to bottom Both the M5 Pro and M5 Max share the same CPU design: 18 cores organized into two very different types. On the one hand there are the so-called super cores: six high-performance cores which Apple also incorporated into the standard M5. The company assures which are “the world’s fastest CPU cores in single-thread performance”thanks to the fact that they handle greater bandwidth, and have a new cache hierarchy and better branch prediction. On the other hand, the chip incorporates 12 performance cores completely new, different from the efficiency cores we have seen in previous generations. They are optimized specifically for multi-threaded workloads that require sustained power without skyrocketing consumption. The combination of both groups of cores allows, according to Apple, a jump of up to 30% in performance for professional tasks regarding M4 Pro and M4 Maxand up to 2.5 times more multi-threaded performance compared to M1 Pro and M1 Max. It will be interesting to see this performance improvement in action when we test the devices in depth. What the M5 Pro promises Your GPU scales up to 20 cores next generation, each with an integrated neural accelerator. Memory bandwidth goes up to 307GB/sand the chip can manage up to 64 GB of unified memory. Apple promises up to 20% more graphics performance compared to the M4 Pro, and up to 35% improvement in applications that use ray tracing, thanks to its dedicated third-generation engine included in the chip. The shading engine is also updated, incorporating second-generation dynamic caching technology and hardware-accelerated mesh shading. What this technology basically does is simplify complex geometries into more manageable meshes for when it’s time to render. In terms of AI, Apple claims that the M5 Pro offers more than four times the GPU performance for artificial intelligence compared to the M4 Pro, and more than six times compared to the M1 Pro. M5 Max: the ceiling of Apple laptops The M5 Max shares the same 18-core CPU as the M5 Pro, but doubles the graphics and memory resources. Your GPU reaches 40 coresthe unified memory bandwidth reaches 614 GB/s (twice as much as the M5 Pro) and can hold up to 128 GB of unified memory. In graphic performance, Apple assures an improvement of up to 20% compared to the M4 Maxand up to 30% in ray tracing applications. For AI tasks, the chip promises more than four times the peak GPU performance compared to its direct predecessor and more than six times compared to the M1 Max. With these astronomical figures, Apple puts on the table a tremendously capable chip for all types of professionals, from 3D artists to app developers, AI, etc. And in the end, having such an amount of bandwidth on a laptop makes tasks with large volumes of data much easier to digest. We will see in practice how they perform. The rest of the package: Neural Engine, Thunderbolt 5 and security Beyond the CPU and GPU, both chips incorporate a 16-core Neural Engine renewed, which promises a higher bandwidth connection to memory, ideal for functions of Apple Intelligence and other local AI applications. In connectivity, the M5 Pro and … Read more

It is Samsung’s plan to conquer AI in mobile phones

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Samsung has just unveiled its new high-end: the new Galaxy S26 family is here and arrives with a conservative proposal but at two speeds where the Ultra model is the one that comes out the best. And it also brings more artificial intelligence than ever. Leaving aside the long list of functions that were already in Galaxy AIthose that have improved and new features such as ‘Now Nudge’ or Agentic AI, the big surprise It’s a confirmation: Perplexity lands as a full-fledged assistant alongside what already existed, Bixby from home and Gemini of Android. Full integration. Perplexity comes to compete head-to-head with the home assistant and Google assistant as long as it is integrated at the operating system level. What does this mean? That you can invoke it to use it in system apps such as Notes or Reminder, but also with some third-party applications. It is not a downloaded app: it operates on the device’s framework layer. And as such, you can invoke it via ‘Hey, Plex’ (without Aitana’s boyfriend appearing) or from the side button. This point is more than a simple detail: it is using the hardware as a distribution lever: whoever controls the hardware controls how the user accesses it. A reminder: Google paid a million to Apple to be the search engine on iOS. Context: Samsung’s pending issue. Few mobile manufacturers bet as much and as well on AI as the Korean firm. Samsung It is the brand that sells the most mobile phones within the Android ecosystem, but the assistant battle has been lost with Bixby. On the other hand, he has to integrate Gemini by contract. In short, Samsung cannot control its entire artificial intelligence layer sovereignly and that is a dangerous strategic dependency if you want to be the best. Samsung’s trump card: being a Swiss army knife. According to an internal Samsung investigationabout 80% of users already use two types of AI agents in their daily lives, so they have turned flexibility into a plus. Since Samsung knows that it cannot go to war with the best language model alone and win, it has opted to become a neutral hub, which allows it to attract advanced users who want to use the best of each house without friction. As declared Won-Joon Choi, President, COO and Head of R&D Office of Mobile eXperience Business at Samsung Electronics: “We are committed to building an integrated, open and inclusive AI ecosystem that offers users more choice, flexibility and control to perform complex tasks quickly and easily. Galaxy AI acts as an orchestrator, integrating different forms of AI into a single, natural and cohesive experience.” Why is it important. Because with this movement Samsung has changed the rules: it declares itself platformnot an assistant. It is a layer that coordinates several agents, leaving behind the “one assistant to rule them all” thing. The Korean firm thus differentiates itself from Apple’s vertical control and closed integration or Google’s tactic of prioritizing Gemini above all and even putting it in the soup. The movement is most intelligent: it thus neutralizes his weakness (Bixby) to transform it into a virtue. They deliberately decide to open up and let the user choose with whom and for what. Why Perplexity and not another. Here is an elephant in the room that should be remembered first of all: because the most mainstream AI, ChatGPT, She is already married to Apple. From here, it must be clear that Samsung has chosen the best possible strategic partner for its corporate interests at this time. And there are a few reasons: Because it offers a differentiated and complementary value proposition: it is a quality conversational chatbot that cites sources, without advertising and verifiable answers. Its presence is not a redundancy of Gemini, which can be used for productivity and the Google or Bixby ecosystem, for the device. A starting point in the most favorable negotiation: Perplexity is a startup that needs alliances for massive distribution against the power of Google and OpenAI, whose valuation exceeds half a billion dollars. This puts Samsung in a position to get better conditions. He already had a relationship with the startup, whose AI It is already present on the Korean brand’s TVswhich implies that they are not starting from scratch: their teams already know the respective APIs. Its anti-ad positioning. Samsung, which is betting heavily on privacy, has a strong argument here to offer a differential experience compared to Google. Reduce the Googledependency. With Perplexity, Samsung diversifies its partners without fanfare with Google in a move of corporate geopolitics. The Korean firm has a multi-million dollar deal of distribution with Google and with this twist, their position is more advantageous when negotiating or putting pressure on the Mountain View company: they have Perplexity in the bedroom as a third agent. In Xataka | Mobile AI promises, but I only see repeated tricks. The real ace up your sleeve is called “agent” and he is on the way Cover | Eva R. de Luis

Apple Creator Studio is not just a subscription. It’s Apple looking to conquer the little tiktoker who uses CapCut and Canva

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Just a few days ago, Apple announced the launch of a new service: Apple Creator Studio. Roughly speaking, The apple firm has updated its suite of creative tools to bring them to a more specific audience who, instead of a single payment per tool, may be more interested in an affordable subscription that allows access to all of them. Looking at it with perspective, and without losing sight of the fact that it is another recurring expense to add to the current account, perhaps it makes a lot of sense for a very particular profile: the small creator. What’s included in Apple Creator Studio. To give a quick summary, the subscription costs 12.99 euros per month (129 euros if you pay annually or 2.99 if you are a student) and allows access to the entire suite of Apple creativity apps. We are talking, of course, about Final Cut, Logic Pro, Pixelmator ProMotion, Compressor and MainStage. Additionally, some generative AI features and exclusive content are included in Freeform, Keynote, Pages and Numbers. Pixelmator Pro | Image: Apple Some quick accounts. Thinking only about the Mac versions, the cost of all the creativity apps would amount to 794.94 euros. One-time payment, yes, but close to 800 euros. Apple Creator Studio costs 12.99 euros. It would take 61 monthly payments, that is, five years, to reach the total amount of the single payment. And who is this for? Although for a professional user 800 euros may not be such a high figure, for the small creator looking to use professional tools on their Mac, 12.99 euros per month may sound more attractive than 800 euros in one fell swoop. Not to mention that the subscription includes access on all platforms, namely Mac, iPad and iPhone, whenever possible. And Apple is clear that this subscription is not for Pixar, but for the small creator who has and manages himself a TikTok account, a YouTube channel, an Instagram profile and a podcast. For those who, right now, pay for CapCut, Photoshop, Premiere or Canva. Apple wants to tempt you with a more affordable, all-inclusive subscription and integration. Pixelmator Pro | Image: Apple Why now? From Xataka we have had the opportunity to speak with Bryan O’Neil Hughes (Global Director of App Product Marketing at Apple) and John Danty (Senior Global App Product Marketing Manager at Apple). Brian explains to us that this service responds to the “change in the nature of creators.” According to the executive, creators “no longer do just one thing; they need to manage multiple creative workflows and we want to serve them with these evolved apps.” According to Brian, “today’s creators are multidisciplinary: a musician not only writes songs, he also produces, designs his art, edits videos and creates promotional material.” Final Cut Pro | Image: Apple That explains the two options.. However, one thing is worth asking. If Apple is betting so heavily on services, being an almost more important source of income than the iPhonewhy keep the single payment? Danty explains to us that they want to “preserve our relationship with the professional community. Those who already have versions of Final Cut or Logic Pro will continue to receive updates and features such as beat detection.” This makes sense from a practical point of view. The video editor that only edits video will not take advantage of an app like Logic Pro or Pixelmator Pro, in the same way that an illustrator will not take advantage of Logic Pro or MainStage. The single payment is, in that case, more attractive. But to the tiktoker, instagramer, youtuber or budding singer who does everything himself, having access to all the tools doesn’t sound bad. In Brian’s words, “There is an explosion of content, driven in large part by the iPhone. More video is being captured, edited and shared than ever before and our apps are there to participate in that user journey.” Chord ID in Logic Pro | Image: Apple The topic of AI. John Danty explains to us that Apple’s philosophy is to “amplify, not replace human dexterity.” Features like Montage Maker and Chord ID They automate tasks that previously required learning technical skills, but now AI has a role in that creative flow that, in some way, could prevent the user from learning on their own. Brian and John understand it differently. For example, Montage Maker allows you to put together a quick video with the best moments of all the b-roll. For Bryan, “it helps those who have a lot of material and want to move quickly, but the editing and final polishing still depends on the user.” chord ID uses AI to pull chords from any recording and turn it into a progression, so “it helps you understand what you’re playing, which becomes a learning tool,” according to Danty. A matter of preferences. Be that as it may, there are three undeniable realities in this new release. The first, that Apple is going to start charging for applied AI functions. The second, that Canva, CapCut and Adobe have come up with a new-rather-renewed rival. The third, which even though it has an attractive price, is one more subscription that is added to the ones we already have and to generalized satiety with this monetization. How it will gel and evolve is something we will see over time. Images | Apple In Xataka | The incredible stock market performance of Big Tech, in a graph: the magnificent seven are now the unleashed seven

Self-consumption is no longer a marginal option to conquer half of Spain

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The spring of 2025 marked a before and after in the psyche of the Spanish consumer. The so-called “Great Blackout”which left millions of homes without power on the Peninsula, transformed the perception of solar panels. What was previously seen mainly as a way to reduce the monthly bill, is today perceived as a guarantee of resilience and energy independence. in the face of market volatility. The consolidation data. According to the “Solar Report 2025: X-ray of self-consumption in Spain”, prepared by SotySolar in collaboration with the Spanish Photovoltaic Union (UNEF)the market has entered a phase of maturity after years of accelerated expansion. Spain closed the 2024 financial year with an accumulated installed capacity of 8,137 GW. These figures closely coincide with the records of the Ministry for the Ecological Transition (MITECO), which places the power at 8,255 GW. However, Red Eléctrica raises the total estimate current at 8.7 GW, integrating data from the Electrical Measurements System (SIMEL) and estimates from the System Operator (OS). The end of “refundable” subsidies. After the closure of the European Next Generation funds, the sector has stopped depending on direct aid to embrace more structural profitability. This change is reflected on the national map: Catalonia has become the benchmark for success, with an increase of 20.6% in the volume of interested parties thanks to agile management of its local incentives. Despite the accumulated strength, the beginning of 2025 presented a slight cooling: the residential sector suffered a drop of 14% in the first quarter compared to the average for 2024. Even so, self-consumption has maintained sustained growth since 2021 and demonstrates greater stability than the large plant market (utility scale). The profile of the new consumer. The user profile has evolved towards a more informed and demanding one. Although financial savings continue to be the main driving force for 65% of users, factors such as sustainability (12%) and energy independence (8%) have gained unprecedented weight. As José Donoso, CEO of UNEF, explains, self-consumption has gone from being a minority technology to an “everyday, reliable and essential appliance.” This maturity is reflected in the choice of the installer: the price continues to matter (45%), but trust based on recommendations (25%) and support in procedures and aid (20%) are now decisive factors. The new standard. The acquisition model has undergone a radical transformation. Financing has gone from being a barrier to a driving force: between 60% and 70% of households opt for flexible payment formulas, a figure that rises to 80% in projects that exceed €10,000 or include batteries. In fact, strategic partners like Pontio They project to exceed 10,000 funded installations in 2026. This financial boost facilitates the integration of aerothermal energy, which has established itself as the ideal companion to photovoltaics. 66% of solar system owners plan to install aerothermal in the next three years. However, as experts in Xataka warn80% of Spanish houses have technical deficiencies in their electrical installation, which requires a prior evaluation of the insulation to prevent the investment from becoming an expense that is difficult to amortize. Roadmap. To prevent progress from slowing down, UNEF has proposed in its presentation urgent measures that strengthen the structural profitability of the sector: Tax incentives: Apply a reduced VAT for both installations with and without batteries. Network expansion: Extend the distance of shared self-consumption from the current 2 km to 5 km. Administrative simplification: Extend the exemption from requesting access and connection permits to all facilities that inject less than 15kW into the grid. Review of tolls: Modify the distribution between the fixed and variable part (target 25% fixed and 75% variable) to encourage savings. For its part, Red Eléctrica has reinforced the “maximum observability” of the system, publishing detailed information on self-consumption on all its platforms from the end of 2025, including a new demand curve (“Total Scheduled”) that integrates the impact of this energy on the national grid, where it already represents close to 4% of demand. An irreversible path. Self-consumption in Spain has come of age. It is no longer a specific response to a price crisis, but a strategic decision. As José Carlos Díaz Lacaci, CEO of SotySolar, points out, the path towards electrification is now “irreversible.” The challenge for 2026 will be to modernize the real estate stock and consolidate an intelligent management model that guarantees that every ray of sunlight captured becomes energy freedom for the citizen. Image | Unsplash Xataka | Landing at an airport full of solar panels had become a drama. Until Malaga had an idea

Behind police surveillance technologies there is a very lucrative business. A business that Amazon wants to conquer

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Artificial intelligence technologies have broken in such a way that, today they can be given endless uses. According to A FORBES investigationAmazon would be deploying an aggressive commercial strategy to position themselves in the market of the Police surveillance technologya segment valued at 11,000 million dollars, according to the medium. The company would not only be offering its own artificial surveillance and intelligence tools, but also act as an intermediary for a complete ecosystem of companies that operate on their cloud infrastructure AWS. What is happening. Electronic Correos obtained by Forbes through requests from public records reveal That the Amazon police and school security team, led, according to the media, by a former Washington state police officer, is actively contacting police departments throughout the US west coast. According to the investigation, the company would be promoting from weapons detection technologies to IA to massive surveillance analysis software, through tools to write automatically police reports. A whole Surveillance Catalog. According to They report From the middle, among the technologies that Amazon has been offering, there are registration monitoring systems of FLOCK Safety, Zeroyes weapons detection software, applications for real -time surveillance centers of companies such as C3 AI, or Veritone technology capable of identifying and tracking individuals in recordings of security cameras and social networks. Leo Technologies tools also appear that monitor and transcribe calls from practically “real -time” prisoners for AI analysis. The method of sale. As They assure From Forbes, emails show a particularly insistent commercial style. In one of them, a Amazon manager writes to the department of the San Diego County Sheriff on Lucidus Tech (company now owned by Flock). “It is one of the most amazing tools that I have seen for the forces of the order (…) I think that your prison intelligence group would lose your head,” you could read in the investigation. In another message to King County Police Chiefs, in Washington, it promotes a meeting to “talk about strategy on how to introduce Zeroeyes in your schools.” The research shows how Amazon even offered help to request public grants to finance these technologies. The concerns. Activists advocating privacy, such as Jay Stanley, of ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union), express Your concern. “It is discouraging to see one of the largest and most powerful companies promoting authoritarian surveillance technology in this way,” he told Forbes. Amazon has had a long history of setbacks in terms of violating the privacy of users. From your employees listening and transcribing Echo device recordings to improve Alexa a The accusations towards Ring for not applying basic protections that enabled hackeos in their systems. Both cases recognized by the company itself. Amazon’s response. The company defend which is simply providing its public sector customers “tools to protect the rights of citizens and comply with applicable laws.” On subsidies, Amazon points out that it is not unusual to “educate” customers about the aid available for them. And now what. As assures The media, Amazon Web Services plans to attend the Conference of the International Police Chiefs Association in Denver in October, the most important police event of the year in the United States, where AI is the main theme. The lounge is a whole offer of surveillance technology, technology that is executed on Amazon servers. Cover image | Michał Jakubowski In Xataka | Amazon new do not compete against Google Home. Compete against indifference

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