costs

It costs 20% more to manufacture than its competitors and it has too many workers

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There are companies that announce their crises with a solemn statement. Volkswagen has chosen a different path: an internal interview with its CEO posted on its intranet, which ends being filtered to the German newspaper Der Spiegel. This is how half of Europe has learned that the largest car manufacturer on the continent still cannot find a way out of a crisis that threatens the dismissal of up to 100,000 employees and with the closure of factories. Oliver Blume, CEO of Volkswagen, published an interview aimed at offering some more information to the workforce while the board of directors decides the strategic plan that will define the future of the company. According to his words, the result is a plan that can change Volkswagen forever. A message for yours. Blume had been avoiding going into details for weeks about the extent of the cuts that Volkswagen was considering applying to stay afloat, while several workers protested outside its plants. In his interview published on the company’s internal network, Blume acknowledged that the costs of administration and support of the main business continue 20% above of what their rivals manage. This percentage conditions Volkswagen’s line of action: reduce the size of the company and, according to Blume, this involves laying off workers. The million dollar question is how many will have to be fired. “A theoretical derivation without a change in labor costs would give an adjustment of 50,000 jobs worldwide,” said its CEO in the leaked interview. To these would be added the 50,000 already agreed with the unions for Germany until 2030. The round sum is the 100,000 jobs that already resonate in the hallways of the entire company. The factories in the pillory. Blume also broke his silence on the future of the four German plants that They have been in the air for months. “The truth is also that, as of today, we still cannot confirm a competitive occupation for the Emden, Hannover, Zwickau and Neckarsulm plants,” lamented the company’s CEO. The reason is that Volkswagen has an oversized structure. The group’s European plants have the capacity to assemble 500,000 more cars than the market is asking for right now. This forces Volkswagen not only to reduce its production capacity to save costs, but also to cut its car catalog to make the assembly lines more efficient and, thereby, also reduce the number of factories. That plan could also affect Volkswagen’s factories in Martorell and Navarra, although the greatest impact of the cut is expected in its infrastructure in Germany. Volkswagen’s military path. As an alternative to closure, Blume talks about changing the use of the factories, and dedicating them to weapons manufacturing. Something similar to what it already happens in Osnabrück, where Volkswagen is negotiating with the Israeli company Rafael to manufacture anti-missile systems. However, geopolitical interests have blocked these negotiations. Qatar is a major shareholder of Volkswagen with two seats on its board of directors, and does not welcome the company manufacturing weapons that can destabilize the delicate balance of the Middle East. The weight of the “people”. On the other hand, the company is not a typical car manufacturer. The government of Lower Saxony has a very important weight on its board of directors, which makes it difficult for initiatives that are especially harmful to workers to prosper. Which guarantees that the sacrifices will not fall only on the side of the squad. In fact, the State of Lower Saxony nay of the dismissal of a sixth of its staff by twelve votes to seven. Lower Saxony controls 20% of the capital and usually rows alongside unions to protect employment in its territory. “The German automobile industry is the core area of ​​our German economy,” declared Christiane Benner president of the IG Metall union. An opportunity for China. Before the sales drums, some analysts They have set their sights on China due to the possibility of a brand signing an agreement with Volkswagen to take advantage of the company’s infrastructure to manufacture in Europe. The economist Moritz Schularick, president of the Kiel Institute of World Economywent a little further and predicted that the German auto giant “will likely be acquired by a Chinese manufacturer like BYD.” Given the institutional presence in Volkswagen’s shareholding, it is difficult for a total sale to occur. In any case, none of these options have been confirmed by Volkswagen’s management leadership and remain in the speculative realm. In Xataka | Volkswagen led an army of sheep to graze under 31,000 solar panels. It turns out that the way of producing energy began to change Image | Volkswagen

The emir of Qatar’s superyacht needed some repairs. Just giving it a coat of paint already costs 13 million euros

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The most luxurious yacht in the Persian Gulf has just returned to the water after missing for months. Nobody knew much about where it had been during all that time or what they did to it, even the manufacturer of the Emir of Qatar’s superyacht. he published it on his Instagram profile. It is only known that it left a German shipyard and that, when it reappeared off Gibraltar, it looked like new. As and how I collected Luxury Launchesbehind that “like new” there is a bill that few ordinary owners could assume: more than 35 million dollars. And we’re talking about giving it little more than a lick of paint. Once again, millionaires show us why only they can afford have these superyachts. A tune-up for a 500 million yacht. He Al Lusail belongs to the sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thaniemir of Qatar, and is one of the largest private yachts on the planet. It is 123 meters long and has capacity for 36 guests served by a crew of 56 people, as collected Yacht Bible. The emir ordered it to the manufacturer Lürssen in 2017, so after almost a decade sailing, it was time to give it a coat of paint. That’s why the yacht mysteriously disappeared from the marinas of the Spanish coast by which he used to be seen before summer. now we know that, during the last seven months, the Al Lusail has been at the Lürssen shipyard in Bremen undergoing maintenance, and returned in time for the summer season. What it really costs to take care of an 8,489-ton ship. According to Lürssen in your publicationthe work included technical reviews, hull inspection, propeller and rudder maintenance, and HVAC system upgrades. Nothing very flashy, but essential on a ship that weighs nearly 8,500 tons. The shipyard did not give exact figures, although according to estimates Luxury Launchesthe price of the full service could rise to about $35 million. Of that amount, a good part goes just in paint. Repainting a yacht of this size requires first removing all hardware, steel railings and window seals. According to they explain responsible for specialized shipyards Boat Internationalpreparation (sanding, treating corrosion, leaving the surface perfect) represents 70% of the work. The paint job, itself, is the easy part. 13 million euros in painting. On a medium-sized boat, the job of repainting the hull would cost, at most, a few hundred thousand euros. But he Al Lusail It is not an average ship, it is the height of a six-seven-story building. Its six decks, enormous glass facades and the curvature of its hull complicate the work and that shoots the final price above 15 million dollars (about 13 million euros), just to leave the exterior impeccable. To that figure must be added the rest of the maintenance work, engine and electrical system checks, renewal of fabrics and furniture in the cabins, etc. In summary, the Al Lusailhas complied with the rule that says that the maintenance of a yacht involves an average of 10% of its price of purchase. Taking into account that its price is estimated at around 500 million dollars, the Emir of Qatar even found this revision cheap. An owner for whom this is pocket change. Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, current emir of Qatar, is a descendant of one of the most influential dynasties of the Arab world and presides over one of the sovereign funds largest in the world that manages assets for about 475,000 million dollars. The emir himself donated one of the Boeing 747s that used as private jetsto serve as Temporary Air Force One in the United States. The truth is that now, with the hull shining and the engines ready, the Al Lusail is ready for another summer in the Mediterranean. And its owner probably won’t even have noticed the damage he left in the box. In Xataka | A single millionaire spent the equivalent of 10,000 tourists on his luxury vacation in Mallorca: the Emir of Qatar Image | Wikimedia Commons (Khamenei.ir), YatchCharterFleet

“When things move fast, people make mistakes and it costs them money”

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Next to the Fiorano track, the small circuit inside the Maranello factory on which Ferrari tests its F1 cars every winter, the noise is deafening. “When things move too fast, people make mistakes,” he explains. Bogdan Botezaturesearch director of bitdefenderone of the largest cybersecurity companies in the world. Botezatu could refer to the sports cars that, right at that moment, are spinning around the circuit without stopping. But he’s actually talking about something else. Last month, Bitdefender released its first Cybersecurity Grand Prix Fan Threat Indexan elaborate study of the risks and threats that spectators of sports around the world, including F1, face every weekend. The purpose of the investigation is simple: to show the multiple tools that hackers have around them to violate the privacy of viewers and, in the most extreme cases, raid their bank account. “Frauds are evolving. Last year, cybercrime had a turnover of around 9 billion (trillion in English) of dollars globally. Of those 9 billion, only 1 billion came from the scamming“explains Botezatu. His index aims to monitor how scams evolve. In the middle of the Soccer World Cupwith millions of viewers glued to their mobile phone screens every day, the phenomenon is more current than ever. Bitdefender, however, focuses on another area: motorsports. For years, the company has collaborated closely with Ferrari, whom it sponsors and offers cybersecurity solutions for its F1 team. This is no small matter: Ferrari, like all other F1 teams, jealously protects its technical findings. Industrial espionage has always been the order of the day in a competitive environment. With Bitdefender, Ferrari aims to limit damage in today’s highly digitalized environment. “If you look at what happens to large companies, they are constantly being attacked by ransomwareintellectual property theft, infiltrations… But they are protected, they have their own cybersecurity teams, they can protect their perimeters, they can service their infrastructure, they have agreements with companies like Bitdefender. They are protected,” Botezatu points out. We are not, he implicitly suggests. “Things at home are fundamentally different,” he continues, “spectators watching F1 or other motor sports don’t have these safety nets, they aren’t even aware of the risks of cybercrime.” When we sit in front of the television to watch an F1 race or a soccer match, we focus on sport. The only problem is that on the other side of the screen there is a army of scammers and hackers trying to take advantage of the show. To take it out at our expense. The range of tools available to scam us is wide. From merchandise from smuggling (fake t-shirts, accessories, jackets, caps; in the case of football teams, t-shirts) to fraud in the purchase of tickets (often with juicy and pompous “last minute” offers), passing through the ecosystems of streaming. Much of Bitdefender’s talk emphasizes this last aspect. How it works The order of the factors is almost always the same: before a big event, such as an F1 GP or a football tournament, there is an uptick in fraud due to illegal tickets, in addition to a growth in fake advertisements. merchandising. During the celebration of the event, the numbers increase exponentially. streaming malicious, in most cases disappearing at the end of the show. After the race or the game, the scam in the form of highlights or surveys that give rise to abuse. “In the case of motorsports, its ecosystems are dominated by speed. You have to sell or buy tickets quickly, you have to find a service streamingyou have to find legitimate stores merchandising. If there are mistakes, they cost money,” Botezatu reasons. “And there is also an emotional investment during the weekends,” he adds, pointing to the impetuous, nervous and effusive aspect of the sports fan. It’s not just about watching an F1 race or a soccer match: you want be part of itso decision making is sometimes conditioned. Bogdan Botezatu. One of the advantages of protecting users during sporting events is that the behavior of cybercriminals is predictable. The scammers They know that the activity is concentrated during the weekends on Telegram or Discord channels and on streaming unofficial. There are suspicious VPNs, aggressive ads, fake subscriptions and a long list of mechanisms to capture our attention and surprise us. Its operation, in the case of streamingis always the same: First there is amplification on social media: Telegram channels, Facebook groups, Discord servers and Reddit discussions. Then direct monetization is sought: unlock payments, force interactions with ads, redirect users, push notifications push. He streaming of the race is secondary. And finally, the infrastructure is disposable: domains that appear and disappear just before and after the race often use the “cc” domain. Another problem identified by Bitdefender is the services of streaming of Android. We talk about applications like Playfy TV and Cricfy TV. According to them, they require installing APKs and are risky. At the same time, all this It is related to the “streaming boxes” offered by Chinese companies, specifically BADBOX 2.0. They put malware on Android, phones, tablets and much more. Its impact is very high, they seek compromise devices before even reaching the consumer. Using this technology we open our devices to the enemy, according to Botezatu, who specifically focuses on this mechanism. He streaming sports is fundamentally based on Discord servers, Telegram channels and communication systems. backup They work by invitation. The references of streaming They are deleted after the races, the servers are migrated and there is a very high link rotation that makes it impossible to chase them or protect against them effectively. For all this, the Bitdefender expert insists, it is very important to be aware of the risks involved. His summary is very simple: if you have to install something, a bad sign. Given the location of the talk, in the heart of a racing circuit, and the orientation of Bitdefender, sponsor of an F1 team, it is natural to suspect that his efforts are aimed at motor sports fans. and your Fan Thread Indexin … Read more

which one is legal, which one costs you 6,000 euros and why the DGT can fine you

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The radars They are, without a doubt, one of the great fears of drivers on the road. The DGT uses them to control the maximum speed at which cars move, which gives rise to numerous more or less true information around them. For years it has been rumored that there are many empty boxes in Spain, something that ended up confirm the director of the DGT himself, but there is also doubt about some possible Traffic tricks, such as the so-called cascade radars either anti-braking which, however, the DGT does repeatedly deny. What is certain is that Traffic monitors the speed with fixed kinemometerswith their Pegasus helicopters and with mobile radarssome of which are practically invisible. This has led some drivers to use various means to remain alert. Some of them, as we are going to see, are prohibited and entail serious sanctions but in other cases, Traffic does allow them or, at least, there is no sanction as such that can be applied to them. Warning, detector and inhibitor: their differences and possible fines To be aware of all the radars that we can find on a route, we can visit the DGT website itself but, without a doubt, the easiest thing is to keep news of them while we are driving. For these cases, do not confuse the following terms, since a significant fine will depend on it, as stated in the Traffic Law. radar warning They are the devices or mobile phone applications that alert us that we have a radar in front of us. In this case, the navigator notifies us because it is registered in its database that there is a fixed radar at a specific point or because, if necessary, we receive a notification published by another driver. That is to say, the device or application does not detect At no time does the presence of the radar only alert us to its location because the DGT notifies it or another driver has indicated it. Is it allowed?: Yes Fine?: No radar detector Here it goes one step further. The device can use its own databases but its true task is to find the radars that we find in our path. It is used because, through waves, it is capable of detect the presence of a radar of speed and, therefore, is used to “discover” mobile radars. We are not talking about a device or an application that stores information about speed cameras and then alerts the driver. It is a device that actively searches for radars and, therefore, they are prohibited. Is it allowed?: No, its mere presence is cause for sanction Fine? Yes, 500 euros and three driving license points radar jammer The most intrusive device in the operation of a radar. In this case, the device not only alerts of the presence of a radar. Besides, disables operation of this and, therefore, disables the possible sanctions that may be imposed if we exceed the maximum speed limits. That is to say, it not only acts by warning the driver, it also “protects” the vehicle from radar activity and, therefore, prevents it from being penalized. Therefore, it is prohibited. Is it allowed?: No, its mere presence is cause for sanction Fine? Yes, 6,000 euros and six points on your driving license A clarifying note Although here we have talked about warning devices, detectors and inhibitors, the news that has been accumulating in the last two years will stop us for a moment. Technically, as we have said, using an application that warns us of the presence of a radar is not grounds for sanctions, but the DGT understands that if we warn of a radar or a police checkpoint we will be committing a crime. In May 2024, The Civil Guard arrested a man that warned of speed cameras and traffic controls through WhatsApp groups that had up to 15,000 users in real time. It is what was called “the Galician method”. This information was used to avoid being caught committing any irregularity. The problem is that, technically, neither the Traffic Law nor the Traffic Regulations indicate this activity as illegal. Therefore, what was done was to point out that the accused was committing a crime against the safety of the agents, based on article 36.23 of the Citizen Security Law which prohibits the following: The unauthorized use of images or personal or professional data of authorities or members of the Security Forces and Corps that may endanger the personal or family safety of the agents, the protected facilities or jeopardize the success of an operation, with respect to the fundamental right to information. That is, the DGT wanted to make it clear that notifying police controls may be punishable. However, two years later it has still not managed to reformulate the text of the current regulations that punish warnings through applications such as Waze or Google Maps. something that has been talked about for a long time. With all this in mind, it is important to know that radar warning devices are not prohibited in any case but also that the DGT has used the Citizen Security Law to try to stop the publication of the activities of Civil Guard agents, both breathalyzer controls and mobile radars. With no news in this regard, at the moment we are still in a diffuse area between what is or is not allowed regarding the radar warning on social networks and applications connected to our mobile phone. Image | Isaac Mehegan In Xataka | Pamplona is going to launch four radars with AI: they detect if you are wearing a seat belt, if you are on your cell phone or if you make illegal turns A version of this article was published in March 2024

Freezing eggs costs up to 5,000 euros. These scientists propose rejuvenating oocytes so they do not have to freeze them

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Today, many women they postpone motherhood until well past 30. The search for advancement in one’s professional career, work-life balance problems or economic instability tend to be the main causes why the average age of motherhood in Spanish women is now over 32 years old. In reality, in many cases, everything starts from economic instability. It is the reason why many women wait until they are successful in their careers to have children and also the reason why they cannot financially afford to pay people to help them take care of their babies without having to exploit grandparents. In short, having a child is expensive, so it takes many years to save enough. Unfortunately, the longer motherhood is postponed, the more difficult it is to achieve pregnancy and the greater the risk that the baby will be born with certain chromosomal syndromes. Oocyte freezing is often offered as a solution, but this is also expensive. If there is no money to have children, there may not be any to freeze oocytes when they are still young enough. Therefore, the proposal by a team of scientists from the Czech Republic, Germany and the United Kingdom to rejuvenate oocytes with the help of a single protein seems most promising. A protein to rejuvenate them all. One of the main reasons why fertility problems occur as age increases is the appearance of errors in meiosis. The authors of this researchwhich was presented last January at the British Fertility Conference in Edinburgh, they realized that there is a protein called Shugoshin 1, which has the ability to prevent precisely those errors in meiosis. By microinjecting this protein into oocytes donated to a fertility clinic, the effects on meiosis decreased, going from 53% in untreated oocytes to 25% in treated oocytes. For this reason, these scientists are already seeking the necessary permits to carry out clinical trials with patients who are going to undergo an in vitro fertilization (IVF) process. Clarification here: Although colloquially we always talk about eggs, the egg is the final maturation phase of the oocyte, which normally ends if there is fertilization. Therefore, what is donated or extracted for an assisted reproduction cycle is an oocyte. What happens in meiosis. Meiosis is a cellular process by which one cell divides into four others, with half as many chromosomes as the original. It is very important in sexual reproduction, since eggs and sperm are obtained which, when they fuse, add their chromosome ends and give rise to a zygote with the original number of chromosomes that human cells have. That is, if humans normally have 46 chromosomes, the egg produces 23 and the sperm produces the other 23. The two parts of meiosis. This process has two parts, each composed of several phases. Broadly speaking, after an initial crossing over phase to give rise to genetic variability, the pairs of chromosomes are placed in an orderly manner in the center of the cell. Afterwards, each member of the pair moves to one pole of the cell, so that it divides into two equal ones. Each of these cells will have one member of each pair of chromosomes. Those chromosomes that have separated still have two chromatids, with the characteristic X shape with which they are usually represented. Thus they reach the second part of meiosis in which the process is repeated again. All the X-shaped chromosomes go to the center of the cell. Then, a chromatid from each chromosome goes to each pole of the cell, which divides as before. Each of those chromatids will be a chromosome in the new cell. Thus, in the end, there will be four cells with half as many chromosomes as the initial one, although only one thrives to finally become an egg. The problems of age. There are several problems by which age can affect meiosis. However, it has been seen that the Shugoshin 1 protein has an essential role, since it acts as a kind of glue, preventing chromosomes and chromatids from separating prematurely or in an inappropriate way. That is why they wanted to test the experiment that has given these scientists such good results. A limitation. Success rates in IVF They usually begin an increasingly rapid decline after the age of 35. For this reason, these scientists wanted to make a distinction in their study between oocytes from children and adults of that age. Although the average was what we have already mentioned (change from 53% to 25% defects), with oocytes from over 35 years of age it only went from 65% to 44%. It’s not that statistically significant. However, there were only 9 oocytes in that age group, so it was not a sufficient number to draw conclusive results. Be that as it may, with the total it is clear that this protein can be very beneficial. It shouldn’t be frozen. Oocyte freezing It’s a strategy which is used to keep these cells in a more youthful state. If a 25-year-old woman freezes her oocytes, but decides to have children at 30, she can use those oocytes, which will have more or less maintained the qualities of the 25-year-old, and undergo an assisted reproduction process in which it will be easier to achieve pregnancy. The problem is that, at least in Spain, the price of freezing oocytes It can range between 2,000 and 5,000 euros. If a woman is not financially ready to have children at 25 or 30, she may not be ready to pay that sum of money either. In search of the clinical trial. Microinjection into oocytes already exists among assisted reproduction techniques. It is carried out through ICSI, a tool that consists of microinjecting the sperm directly into the oocyte. It is very useful in case there are few sperm and/or they are not very mobile. That makes clinics ready to microinject the Shugoshin 1 protein into oocytes. Even so, logically, the viability of this process must be tested. That is why the authors of the … Read more

The biggest problem for Spanish olive trees is neither costs nor climate change: it is ‘ghost oil’

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Something smells bad in the olive oil market. We knew it for a long timebut it is now with the collapse of prices at source (almost 46%) that everyone has become nervous. The figures do not add up and the bill will not be paid by the large olive oil groups, but by the small producers. For this reason, on June 15, a COAG representative stood in front of the microphones and reported that 81% of olive oil Tunisian was entering Spain undercover. But how do you put 65,500 tons of oil under the radar? It has not been easy to determine, the truth is. But if the organization is right, the oil ship has more than one leak compromising its future. But it doesn’t have it. Always according to the COAGa good part of that oil comes from Portugal. But the ‘Portuguese way’ does not add up: with the data from the 2024-2025 campaign, Portugal produces between 160,000 and 195,000 tons of its own and imported only 3,406 of Tunisian oil. Those 3,406 tons cannot explain the 131,877 that it re-exports to Spain. Some part yes, but not all of it. And then? The problem seems different. It looks like ours, in fact. Because what COAG does seem to be right about is that a good part of the oil that entered the country did so under a special regime: that of active development. It is a formula of the Customs Code of the European Union that allows the importation of non-EU merchandise without tariffs or VAT as long as it is transformed and exported again. What the producers point out is that a good part of the oil that arrives in Spain to be “perfected” ends up being sold in the country without appearing in the statistics (marked, in fact, as community). The consumer does not notice it substantially in the price, but it is noticeable at the source. And a lot. But there is more. A few years ago, honey became a problem. Nobody really knew what they were eating in Europe. The key to this was to mix it up. Above all, because with completely insufficient regulation, it was enough to put “mix” so that there was nothing more to ask. This was attempted to be resolved with Directive (EU) 2024/1438 (the “Breakfast Guidelines“) which has not come into force in Spain until June 14, 2026. Among many other things, Brussels demands that the package states where what is inside comes from. Easy, clean, effective and… …non-existent for oil. The big problem, as almost always, is traceability. Not that we have problems, but that there is almost no real interest in doing it. As we have said many times, the Spanish agricultural market is a giant with feet of clay and now is the time to think if we want it to be something else. In Xataka | Something strange is happening with the price of olive oil and farmers have just denounced it: there are up to 2.8 billion at stake

SSD prices are already so absurd that a 2TB drive for the PS5 costs more than the PS5 itself

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The PS5 currently costs 649.90 euros in large stores in Spain. The digital version without Blu-ray drive, 599.90 euros. Both have an 825 GB SSD unit that for some users may fall short, but “fortunately”—the quotes are important At this time—it is possible to expand that section with an internal SSD drive. And therein lies the problem: these units They are today a luxury. This is demonstrated by the launch of the new SanDisk Optimus GX Pro 850Poffering capacities ranging from 1 to 8 TB and offering transfer speeds of up to 7,300 MB/s. All promising until you see the prices, because, attention: The 2 TB version costs 795.99 euros. That is 22.5% more than the console itself costs, but things are even worse if we talk about the 4 and 8 TB models: 1 TB: 397.99 euros 2 TB: 795.99 euros (22.5% more than the price of a PS5). 4 TB: 1,566.99 euros (You could buy two PS5s and you would have more than 250 euros left over) 8 TB: 3,088.99 euros (You could buy almost five PS5 or three PS5 Pro and have money left over) If the prices of RAM and SSD units already seemed crazy to us, these SanDisk units are an ode to the absurd. The saddest thing is to discover that they are not even close to the best SSD drives out there. That drive is twice as fast as the SanDIsk one, but its 1 TB version costs 799.99 euros. How crazy. We have models like the MP700 Pro XT from Corsair, which thanks to their support for the PCIe 5.0 standard achieve speeds up to 14,900 MB/smore than double those of SanDisk. And of course, they are also much more expensive: the 1 TB version costs 799.99 euros nowadays. Price evolution of an SSD unit very similar in performance to what SanDisk proposes for the PS5. If you want to get even more depressed, you can check the prices of units of this type a year ago. The SanDisk Optimus GX Pro 850P is virtually identical to the WD Black SN850X, and the 8TB variant went on sale in 2025 and was available for 600 euros: five times less. In fact, right now it is 1,200 euros on Amazon with limited availability. But that’s the world we’re in currently: the DRAM memory crisis and NAND chips have taken us to an “unsustainable” situation which is making us today buy memory modules or an SSD unit for our PC, laptop or even for our PS5 much more expensive than it was a year ago. And the worst thing is that all the experts say that things will get worse. Bad business. In Xataka | What is happening with the Raspberry Pi 5 is amazing but very real: they were born cheap, they are becoming luxury

“China sets the pace in technology, costs and development times. We have to learn from them”

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Company with problems, company that looks to China. Not so much to sell more cars in a very complicated market (that too), much more to see how to learn from them and get greater performance from their products. Survive by achieving wider profit margins by producing cheaper and faster. For Nissan, China holds the key. “We have to learn” “China shows us the future of the industry in terms of technology, cost competitiveness and development times. We have to learn from China and export its technical knowledge” This is what Iván Espinosa, CEO of Nissan, has expressed in statements Nikkei Asia. In an interview with the Japanese media, Espinosa has made it clear that Nissan needs to copy China if it wants to survive. The Japanese automaker is going through a very bad economic time and to get out of the hole it wants to look at its neighbor. https://www.xataka.com/movilidad/nissan-leaf-opiniones-primera-toma-contacto-fotos What’s wrong with Nissan? Nissan is going through one of the worst financial and reputational moments in its history. At the end of 2024, the company accepted that it had entered a stalemate from which it would be difficult to get out. Sales were declining, the US market (with its tariffs on Japanese cars) It got complicated, at home they didn’t get back on their feet and in China they were missing. Solution: lay off 9,000 employees. Those days, after a few days of rumors (and everything indicates that with the Japanese Government putting pressure), Nissan and Honda announced an agreement to unite their paths. The idea, it seemed, was that the second company would take over Nissan and take it under its umbrella. That idea was dissolved just a few months later.. We now know that Honda gave, for the first time in its history, losses in 2025 and that its strategy has focused on canceling its electrical projects. In March of last year, the Mexican Iván Espinosa took control of Nissan and has focused its future proposal on a new launch plan and the objective of recovering part of its prestige. Last year, the company continued to lose sales worldwide but the 13% drop in Japan is especially worrying. Reduce times. For Espinosa, one of Nissan’s big problems is in the development and production times of its models. Right now, he explains, the development of a car from when it is drawn on paper and given the go-ahead until it reaches the street is 55 months. Espinosa wants to reduce this to about 30 months. According to their calculations, these long developments prevent them from getting the economic performance they need from their cars and that is why they have proposed that the next Nissan Skyline, the return of a legendary model of the company, has set a deadline for its development of 26 months, they point out in Nikkei Asia. China has demonstrated an ability to develop, modify and produce in record time. Renault has also gone to China to learn how they work there and they presume that The Renault Twingo was developed in 20 months. From Chery they already made it clear that its high capacity to develop and produce in record time is key when it comes to prevailing over Western competitors. More and more notices. These statements by Espinosa demonstrate that traditional firms are doing everything possible to quickly adapt to China’s way of working. Some consultants have already pointed out Japanese brands that their obsession with perfection hinders them when it comes to producing faster and cheaper, which has been taken advantage of by Tesla and Chinese companies. Toyota also sent a similar message a few weeks ago. The company has detected that it is losing money because products with aesthetic defects are sometimes discarded even though these parts are fully functional and are never seen by vehicle customers. This weighs on their production costs but also on the time it takes to produce the car. More cars, more prestige. Account Nikkei Asia that Espinosa’s project involves launching new cars on the market that update the company’s range of products but, above all, it will be based on the search for its own identity with a clear intention of recovering the lost prestige. In fact, in recent weeks it has been rumored that Nissan could bring the latest Z to Europe (now only sold in Japan and the United States so as not to penalize the company’s emissions count) with the aim of attracting the public to the dealership and positioning it as a halo product. On the horizon is also the new Skyline and a future GT-R that has gone through all possible phases when it comes to defining it and moving it forward, from project it as an electric sports car to launch it again with a combustion engine. “We will provide more details in the future,” Espinosa said on this topic. The CEO of Nissan has even referred to the fact that “some of my predecessors only talked about finances all the time”, in a clear message that not everything can be done to save costs if you want to maintain the attractive image of the product. A move that diluted Nissan’s imagethat Stellantis ballast and an idea that Akio Toyoda, CEO of Toyota, has also rejected. Photo | nissan In Xataka | “We will not survive”: Toyota wants to add the turbo to match the pace of the Chinese brands

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

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

Carrefour is selling off a 55-inch QLED TV this weekend, ideal for small living rooms. Thus, it costs less than 250 euros

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He is approaching soccer world cup and it is one of those perfect occasions to renew the television, especially if we want to make the leap to larger diagonals compared to what we have been using. In this sense, 55 inches are a good gateway to large TVs but, still, relatively contained. Mainly, if we compare with the models larger than 65 inches that are increasingly common. And for a key reason: in those 55 inches we find very good prices. Daewoo 55DM75QV + coupon 51.89 euros The price could vary. We earn commission from these links This Daewoo Discount for a limited time at Carrefour is a good example of this: from its RRP of 399 euros it drops to 299 euros. But taking advantage of the campaign Save VAT Available in the store until June 8, we also get a coupon for 51.89 euros to redeem for other purchases, between June 11 and 24. If we take both discounts into account, we get a final price of something less than 250 euros which seem very good for brand new television. With an all-terrain Ultra HD QLED panel at 60 Hz: ideal for movies, sports, series and video games If we have a relatively small living room where televisions of 65 inches or more have no place, but we come from 50 inches or less and we want to take that little step towards larger diagonals, The 55 of this Daewoo are very balanced. A perfect television to enjoy the Soccer World Cup which is about to drop, in addition to all kinds of content through Prime Video, HBO, YouTube, Netflix, Movistar Plus or SkyShowtime, among other platforms. The latter also has a discount promotion active for a limited time very interesting. Also It is a good television to play if we settle for its 60 Hz. Although current consoles such as Xbox Series X either PS5 Pro They reach 120 FPS in some compatible games and we would not be able to take full advantage of it, the truth is that if we are not playing competitive titles, those 60 Hz are very enjoyable. For the rest, we are looking at a television with a great quality-price ratio with its current discount, with a 4K QLED panel Although it does not reach the contrast level of an OLED, it is more than acceptable for normal daily use in 2026. Even more so, due to the difference in cost between those OLEDs and QLEDs, which is considerable. All this, with the option of financing the amount without interest in up to 12 months, a very differential addition for many buyers. ⚡ IN SUMMARY: offer 55DM75QV ✅ THE BEST Its price, which is already good enough with the discount, but which improves even more with the VAT coupon that we get Your panel, balanced and all-terrain that fulfills in a multitude of scenarios: series and movies, sports and even video games ❌ THE WORST Far from the image quality of high-end TVs with OLED panels and refresh rates of 120 Hz or more One diagonal (55 inches) which can become short in a short time, once we get used to it 💡 BUY IT IF… You were just looking for a new cheap TV to watch the World Cup or any other content ⛔ DO NOT BUY IT IF… you have room for greater diagonals. In that case, going for 65 inches or more is a safe bet for the future. Some televisions of other sizes (and great prices) that may interest you The price could vary. We earn commission from these links The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Some of the links in this article are affiliated and may provide a benefit to Xataka. In case of non-availability, offers may vary. Images | Purchase addiction, Daewoo In Xataka | Best sound bars in quality price. Which one to buy and seven recommended models from 140 euros In Xataka | Best televisions in quality price. Which one to buy and seven recommended 4K smart TVs

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