customers

Google has had to ration access to Gemini to Meta and more customers

by

That computing power is one of the bottlenecks of the AI ​​industry is obvious. From this problem arises the insane investment in data centers and, consequently, the DRAM memory crisis. It is one thing if they are OpenAI or Anthropic those with capacity problemsthe serious thing is when the one who has them is Google. This is exactly what is happening and the main victim is Meta. Google turns off the tap. They tell it in Financial Times. Google has had to limit the use of Gemini due to the enormous demand from its clients, especially one in particular: Meta. Zuckerberg’s people had requested to buy more processing capacity from them, but Google could not satisfy it, so it had to reject the request. This has caused several projects within Meta to be delayed and the company to ask employees to begin relaxing the use of tokens. Why it is important. Google is not just any tech company, it is a hyperscaler. It has an infrastructure that allows it to offer cloud services to thousands of customers on a massive scale. That the shortage is affecting them to the point of limiting a large customer like Meta reveals that even spending hundreds of billions in chips, data centers and energy, is not being enough to meet the demand for AI. Meta dependency. Although also They are developing their own AI modelssources consulted by the Financial Times affirm that Gemini offered better performance than the Llama de Meta models. The company was using Gemini for moderation tasks such as fraud detection and sensitive content, as well as customer service, advertising support chatbots, and scheduling tasks. Zuckerberg’s company also is spending a fortune in AI infrastructure to become more independent, including building a data center as big as the island of Manhattan. However, they do not have a cloud business like Google has with Google Cloud, Amazon with AWS or Microsoft with Azure. The business is in the cloud. Doubts about the profitability of AI continue to hover over the environment, but in the meantime there is a business that has proven to be the real goose that lays the golden eggs: the cloud. While OpenAI loses money a lotGoogle, Microsoft and Amazon are the winners of the AI ​​boom. Google posted record revenue in the first quarter of the year, with Google Cloud bringing in a whopping $20 billion, up 63% from last year. Sundar Pichai already warned that the figure would have been much higher if it were not for the fact that they are limited by the calculation. In fact, this same month we learned the news that Google will pay $920 million a month to SpaceX to lend it its infrastructure. In other words: the data center party is not going to stop and, as a result, neither will the RAM crisis. Image | Xataka with Magnific In Xataka | Google is the big technology company that is doing the best thanks to AI: so it is going to spend another million

“The most beautifully designed thing most customers own is an Apple product”

by

I have a brand new 15″ MacBook Pro from 2027. It is the one with the TouchBar, the thin one and the one with the butterfly keyboard, but also one of the best examples of an Apple that has remained in the past: the Apple that prioritized design over functionality. Because my MacBook Pro gets incredibly hot, its butterfly keyboard has left it useless, and the fact that it came with just four USB-C ports in 2017 didn’t make any sense. The radical change of latest MacBook Pro shows that Apple realized that a professional laptop needs to have ports and it does not need to be thin than a Macbook Air. However, the arrival of John Ternus at the head of Apple announces winds of change, a change that will return design to where it should be in decision-making within the company and that responds to a single idea. Get Apple’s design team out of the basement. More or less The return to the Apple of design This year, Apple’s back to school will have an important change. Ternus will begin his “mandate” on September 1. Ternus comes from cacharreoof hardware, and will replace a businessman as a Tim Cook that has transformed the entire operations of the Californian company. Something logical that we can think is that, in a company as large as Apple, the CEO is not so important because decisions are made together and, although it is true that there are strategies with which it is difficult to turn a corner, the vision of the company is that of long mandates in which being able to maintain what worked from the pastbut seeing where they can develop new ideas and lines of business. In this sense, and as point Mark Gurman’s Bloomberg newsletter, Ternus has been closely supervising Apple’s hardware and software design team for a few months now. According to Gurman himself, he has been investing a considerable amount of time with the industrial design team, one that, in recent years, would not have seen its best period. Apple devices continue to give great importance to design, but after questionable decisions, that team took a backseat within the company. Yes with Jony Ive They came to dominate the conversation, weighing heavily on the appearance and functionality of the devices (that famous ‘form over function’ or “design over functionality”), the last decade they sank within the company’s balance. Jeff Williams, COO, took over after Ive’s departure in 2019but when Williams left at the end of last year, the team had even lost more relevance within the company. As an example, there was no senior design position within Cook’s leadership team. Now, according to Bloomberg, Ternus intends to revitalize the department and, in an internal meeting, told them that Apple will continue to focus “in design, since design is fundamental to what we do at Apple”. In fact, the company’s new boss went further, noting that “the most beautifully designed thing most customers own is an Apple product. We need to make sure that remains the case.” I started by talking about my MacBook because it is one of the most representative cases of those devices of design over functionality, but not the only one in Apple’s history. Famous are other devices like that iPod Shuffle to which you had to send messages by morse code with the cable controls because it didn’t have buttons or the Magic Mousewhich remains, to this day, the official mouse sold by the company. But that Ternus wants to return to that idea that design is vital for the company It does not necessarily imply returning to those devices. The current MacBook Pro or the mac studio and mac mini Full of ports are examples of beautiful, but functional devices. own MacBook Neo It was born under the direct supervision of Ternus and has only two USC-C (and one very slow), but this is due to a limitation due to the processor used. Simply put, I understand that Ternus wants to once again have people from the design department having a say in the new Apple, one that will face the launch of the new products in the short term. iPhone 18 Prothe iPhone 18 that it seems that they will go to 2027, the new Siria long-awaited renewal of the AirPodsthe rumored foldable iPhone or some glasses. In Xataka |

Big Tech offers you up to 15 GB of free cloud storage. O2 Cloud makes them look ridiculous and gives 10 TB to its customers

by

O2 customers are in luck. The operator communicated yesterday a fantastic change in your offer – so far O2 Cloud offered 1 TB of cloud storage included in that plan. Now that capacity is expanded dramatically, with customers now able to access 10TB of cloud storage. It is something amazing if we compare this offer with the space offered by default by Google, Microsoft or Apple, but there are some drawbacks. 10 TB “free”. Years ago, Movistar created Movistar Cloud as an option to create backup copies of your files, and that was striking from the first moment because it also the service’s storage space was theoretically unlimited. O2 Cloud joined that offer some time later, and did so initially with 1 TB of free space (included in the plan) which is now multiplied by ten. If you only have an O2 mobile, you also have 10 TB. Until now this offer was valid for fiber users (whether they also had mobile lines or not), but now O2 offers O2 Cloud with 10 TB of storage included to any user of its services: if you have an O2 mobile line, with or without fiber, you have 10 TB of O2 Cloud for free, included in the plan. Apps for Android and iOS. The service is intended to be a “Dropbox” or “iCloud” that constantly backs up your photos and videos to O2’s cloud storage space. Just install the android app or that of iOSconfigure it by registering for the service and that’s it: we will have those copies for free as we are O2 customers. In the image, the O2 Cloud interface from the web browser. We can view the photos directly there, and the operation is surprisingly fluid. Also on Windows or Mac desktop. It is also possible to use O2 Cloud to save images, videos or documents from a personal computer. I have tested it on my Mac, and it is possible to download the desktop client so that it works in the background: everything you put in the “O2 Cloud” folder will automatically be synchronized with the operator’s cloud storage space. Integrated image editor. This service seems especially designed to safeguard the photos on our mobile phone so that if we lose it or it is stolen, they will remain safe. But it is also a great service for viewing them (it runs very smoothly) and even editing them: the integrated editor offers some basic filters (Sepia, Gray, etc.) and also a few editing tools that give more added value to the solution. The integrated editor is limited, but it can get us out of a quick fix. Customize folders or albums. From there, it is possible to access and download content from our devices, and in O2 Cloud we can also create personalized folders or albums to organize photos and documents based on their theme, location, etc. O2 makes Big Tech look ridiculous. The O2 Cloud service is surprisingly generous, especially when compared to what big technology companies offer. Google offers 15 GB of free storage when you create an account, while Apple and Microsoft offer 5 GB. If you want more, you have to pay, and that’s where subscriptions to paid plans like Google One/Workspace come in, Apple iCloud+or Microsoft 365/Family. We have made a small comparative table, and it is clear that those 10 TB of O2 Cloud are a true gift for the operator’s customers. Ability Monthly price o2 cloud 10TB Included with Fiber/Mobile plan Apple iCloud+ 6TB 29.99 euros Google One 5TB 21.99 euros Microsoft 365 Family 6TB (Up to 6 users, 1 TB per user) 13 euros Dropbox 3TB 12 euros But Big Tech offers other things. It is important to note that it is understandable that big technology companies are so stingy with the free space they offer to users: with hundreds (or thousands) of millions of customers, offering more capacity would force them to grow extraordinarily in resources in their data centers. But in addition, payment services such as Google One, iCloud+ or Microsoft 365 are rather “multiservice” because mix storage with productivity tools, security and, in some cases, AI plans. But if you only had iCloud for photos… However, many users are forced to contract Apple iCloud+ or Google One to maintain that backup of your photos in the clouds of these companies and “everything just works.” The O2 Cloud proposal presents a fantastic alternative for these users, because they get the same thing without paying extra: the plan they have with O2 would already serve to enjoy this service. The integration of those services will always be superior to that of O2 Cloud, of course, but for that basic backup use, the alternative seems extraordinary. What happens if I leave O2?. There is no permanence in O2, but logically if we go to another operator, we will lose access to O2 Cloud. The company gives 30 days to download the files if you unsubscribe before deleting them, which of course gives the option to recover all that data and save it, for example, on an external hard drive and then move it to another cloud service if we wish: there are no (unfortunately) tools or services that allow this “migration” from one cloud to another. Common Terms of Use. O2 Cloud has some terms of use and of privacy which are already common in this type of services. In O2 they explain for example that: “To manage some of the functions necessary to provide the service, we have contracted trusted suppliers who may have access to personal data, who will act as data processors and who will be contractually obliged to comply with their legal obligations as data processor, to maintain the confidentiality and secrecy of the information.” They also clarify that “some of the functions necessary to provide the service are contracted to data processors located outside the European Economic Area”, although they guarantee “an adequate level of protection of personal data”. The personal data … Read more

US supermarkets want to use digital price tags. Great idea for them, terrible for customers.

by

Supermarket price tags want to live his particular revolution. The traditional ones, which normally show the price on a sheet of paper, cardboard or plastic, are in danger, because companies in the sector have a great idea: replace them with electronic ink digital screens that can be updated from a central server in a matter of seconds. It seems like a great idea, but consumers are clear that what it is is a nightmare for their pockets. The advancement of ESL/DSL labels. The technology that wants to replace traditional labels is the so-called Electronic Shelf Labels (ESL) or Digital Shelf Labels (DSL), which are nothing more than electronic ink screens that can be managed instantly from a central server. Walmart, the largest retail chain in the world, is leading this transition and aims implement them in 100% of its establishments in the US before the end of 2026. The argument. This company explains that the measure seeks to reduce operating costs, and that any modification will always require validation by a human agent. Amanda Bailey, who leads a team at a Walmart store in West Chester (Ohio, USA) estimated that the time spent changing prices on products in the store had been reduced by 75% thanks to DSL, and with that time they can serve customers better. Consumers, against. A recent survey from the consulting firm GBAO Strategies reveals that consumers do not share Walmart’s optimism. According to the participants’ data, 65% are convinced that supermarkets will use this technology to make shopping carts more expensive. Only 3% believe that it will serve to make it cheaper. The idea is not bad. ESL tags are ultra-low power devices that connect to the premises’ Wi-Fi or Bluetooth infrastructure. Theoretically, the idea is very reasonable, because in addition to reducing price management times, it eliminates cashier errors, reduces paper waste, and allows offers from the physical store to be instantly synchronized with those on the website. But be careful. However, these labels also open the door to disturbing scenarios, such as the application of dynamic pricing. Cold drinks can suddenly cost more if it’s very hot outside, or from price adjustments based on inventory. There is even talk of more sophisticated AI algorithms and already patented by Walmart capable of managing a customer profile in real time to adjust the price of the product based on what the data ensures that they are willing to pay. Surveillance pricing. The industry talks about personalized prices, but consumer associations have dubbed the phenomenon “surveillance pricing” )”surveillance prices”, in a literal translation). The concept is simple, forceful and disturbing: the supermarket monitors the user’s purchase history and their geolocation through the mobile app in addition to other parameters such as the level of aisle traffic to squeeze its profit margin. If there is an electronic tag, I’m leaving. The rejection of these labels is clear in the aforementioned survey: 68% of them fear that these “surveillance prices” will increase the cost of living. 58% indicated that they would avoid buying in stores that implement this type of digital price tags. 67% demand a law that completely prohibits this technology. The reaction is not strange: in April inflation rose to 3.8% in the US (annualized data) while salaries only rose 3.6%. It is the first time that salaries have failed to keep up with inflation, according to CBS News. In Spain the situation is paradoxical. In December 2025 the salaries agreed in the agreement they had grown 3.49% compared to the previous year, while the average inflation until that month was 2.7% (very moderate due to low electricity and fuel). That seems like good news, but 1) two out of every three workers They do not have a salary review clause and 2) the price of food has become more expensive by 37% in the last five years and things are getting worse. The ghost of Uber, Wendy’s and Ticketmaster. We already know this story, because in the past they have already arisen various controversies with dynamic prices. Image | E Ink In Xataka | If you want to anticipate how your shopping basket will rise, you just have to look at what is happening to toilet paper.

Speculation with Pokémon cards is such a serious problem that some stores already give knowledge tests to their customers

by

In 2024, global sales of ‘Pokémon’ collectible card game They reached 2.2 billion dollars, with a growth of 25% compared to the previous year. The Pokémon Company increased production up to 10.2 billion letters by 2025. During the pandemic, Logan Paul and other content creators began opening envelopes on videos that reached millions of views. Since then, the fever has not stopped growing, and stores are beginning to propose unusual tests to distinguish genuine buyers from resellers. This is a test. At the west branch of Ikebukuro, in Tokyo, the specialty store Bic Camera made a decision that would separate the buyers of ‘Pokémon’ trading cards from the scalpers: to buy packs of the latest expansion, Ninja Spinner, you must first beat a written questionnaire of 15 questions about the ‘Pokémon’ universe without a cell phone, without help and in Japanese. It’s just the beginning. The questionnaire is not the only requirement. Shoppers must have an active loyalty account in the chain, either via app or physical card, allowing staff to spot suspiciously frequent purchases. Additionally, the store applies a limit of one box per customer and removes the seal and outer packaging upon delivery: an opened product loses much of its value on the secondary market, where resellers need the seal intact to inflate prices. According to X user Ryo Saeba, the system is working: Several resellers failed the test and left without product, since due to the random nature of the questionnaire it cannot be prepared in advance. It is a problem that, however, does not have an easy solution even from The Pokémon Company: if more copies of the most in-demand cards are printed, speculation would be reduced, but competitive play would be affected, as would the feeling of exclusivity of finding a rare card in a pack. Why Ninja Spinner. The Ninja Spinner expansion is the Japanese version of the western Chaos Rising, scheduled for release on May 22, and which features Mega Greninja ex as the main card. The former Mega Greninja gold card was worth $593 in March and It is now quoted in thousands.. An envelope that costs around 5 euros in the store can be resold for 40 in a matter of hours. The bad yen. Additionally, there is an additional economic factor that makes the reseller problem more serious: the structural weakness of the yen, combined with the relatively affordable price of the boxes, has made Pokémon cards a common target of foreign buyers and international resellers. Japan-exclusive releases, which include illustrations and finishes not available in other markets, multiply the appeal. Sometimes new items last minutes on shelves before ending up on resale platforms. How they do it. Professional resellers have tactics to circumvent the control systems that stores establish to give preference to real buyers: they hire several people to wait in line simultaneously, use multiple payment cards and create fake accounts to access online reservations. In October 2025Japanese police arrested two Vietnamese citizens who had created thirty fictitious accounts using fraudulently obtained SIM cards to participate in purchase raffles and obtain dozens of boxes that summer. Other initiatives. Other Bic Camera branches have adopted measures such as requiring a driver’s license or Japanese tax identification document, which limits purchases to residents. Official Pokémon Center stores also maintain strict unit limits per customer to preserve prices close to the official one. Outside Japan there has also been a lukewarm response to the activity of the scalpersname as resellers are known in the sector: Walmart, for example, introduced a limit of five packs per purchase at the end of 2024 after a video with 12 million views on TikTok showed a scalper emptying a store’s entire display in one trip. Header | Pexels In Xataka | In 2016, millions of people went out to hunt Pokémon on the streets. In 2026 there will be autonomous robots guided by this

A Japanese store begs its customers to sell it their used equipment.

by

Building a computer today is more complicated and more expensive than it was just a few months ago. It is not just that some components are in short supply, but that the market balance has shifted and is directly affecting availability and prices. Memory is one of the best examples of that pressure, and what is happening in that market It’s starting to have knock-on effects.. What seemed like a problem limited to certain user profiles has been gaining scope and can no longer be understood as something isolated. The scene that explains everything. In Akihabara, one of the great electronics and computing centers in Tokyo, a store has decided to do something unusual: ask its own customers to sell it their used computers. Sofmap Gaming posted a message on his X account in which he openly acknowledged the situation: “Gaming PCs, even second-hand, are really out of stock right now.” Next, they launched a direct request: “Please, if you are going to buy a new one, sell us your gaming PC…”. The scene was completed with practically empty shelves and another revealing detail: the store itself assured that it is buying back quite expensively and that it buys practically any PC, whether gaming or not. Click to see the original message in X It is not an isolated case. We are facing the visible consequence of a tension that has been accumulating in the hardware market for some time. First it affected those who assembled their own equipment, with increasing difficulties in finding certain components or assuming their price. Then it began to be noticed in manufacturers and assemblerswho have had to adjust configurations and rely on previous stock to keep up. Now, that pressure has ended up being transferred to the point of sale, where it is no longer just about selling, but also about getting the product. What’s behind the shortage? To understand what we are seeing we have to look at a clear change in the industry’s priority. The explosion of AI has skyrocketed the demand for memory for chips and systems intended for that businessespecially in the data center environment, and that is altering how production is distributed. Part of the problem arises in the most advanced memory used for AI, but its impact ends up spreading to the rest of the market. From Micron they summarized it this way in statements to CNBC: “We have seen a very strong and significant increase in demand for memory, and it has far exceeded our ability to supply it.” Consequences. The pressure on memory ends up trickling down to the devices we buy, whether in the form of higher prices or less ambitious configurations. As we have said, it has already put in the computer industry, but it is also threatening the smartphone sector and the consoles. Without going any further, Sony recently announced an increase of 100 euros on the PlayStation 5. And everything seems to indicate thatCars are not going to escape this crisis either.. Old hardware that is revalued. In this context, what until recently we considered old hardware begins to have a different value. Not because its performance has changed, but because the market around it has. What we have seen in Akihabara is not an isolated anecdote, but a sign of the extent to which availability has become a real problem. When a store asks its customers to sell it their own equipment, what it is showing is that something does not fit into the usual supply chain. Images | Andrey Matveev In Xataka | The price of RAM has skyrocketed and the best example to see the debacle is a 100 euro PC: the Raspberry Pi

The alleged PcComponentes hack affects 16 million customers. It’s another nightmare for phishing attacks

by

In Hackmanac Cybersecurity alerts reporting alleged hacks and massive data thefts around the world are frequent. One of the last notices, posted yesterdayaffects a Spanish company on the rise: PcComponentes. If confirmed, the alleged data theft would have affected a huge number of users. 16 million affected. According to these data, a cyber attacker using the alias ‘daghetiaw’ claimed to have managed to infiltrate PcComponentes. By doing so, it has obtained the data of 16.3 million customers, specifically: DNI/NIF Orders and invoices Address Contact details (phone) Credit card metadata (type, expiration date) IP address A sample that seems to confirm the hack. The author of the cyberattack wanted to demonstrate that the database he managed to obtain is legitimate, and to do so he has published a free extract of 500,000 users. That is already a very bad sign and seems to confirm that this hack and massive data theft has indeed been successful. There were already problems a year ago. An This failure exposed a database with access credentials. And everything fits. In The Computer Chapuzas They have contacted 0xBogart and obtained more information about that incident. This user actually talks about the fact that a database from August 2023 was already stolen and that then “it had 11,951,125 users, it makes sense that in 2026 they will have 16 million.” This expert had access to PcComponentes’ servers for five years, and only lost it “when they abandoned their data center for Amazon Web Services,” he indicates in the El Chapuzas Informático text. Pc Componentes has not confirmed the hack. At the moment those responsible for Pc Componentes have neither confirmed nor denied the massive data theft. At Xataka we are trying to contact the company to clarify the details. Meanwhile, those responsible have 72 hours from when the hack was discovered to notify the Spanish Data Protection Agency (AEPD). Up next: phishing attacks. This new massive data theft represents a potential nightmare for PcComponentes customers. If the hack is confirmed, all that data could be used for much more convincing phishing attacks: the more information cyber attackers have about us, the more they can “convince” us with messages that appear to be authentic and that manage to confuse us. Or phishing. There is also the danger of identity theft: the stolen data allows the creation of a “user profile” with which a cybercriminal can impersonate one person to deceive another with social engineering techniques. If the database has been leaked there is little that PcComponentes clients can do because their information will already be exposed. It has not been clear if there are passwords included for access to the company website in the massive data theft, but our recommendation is to change that access password as soon as possible. In Xataka | The leak of 16 billion passwords would be the largest in history. If it weren’t for the fact that it’s a gigantic rehash

It took a hacker two and a half hours to steal thousands of personal data from Endesa customers. Endesa took a week to notify

by

Endesa Energy has confirmed a cyberattack on its trading platform that has exposed critical information of millions of customers. The breach includes identity documents, bank accounts and data from electricity and gas contracts, which places those affected at risk of fraud and identity theft. What exactly happened. A cybercriminal has managed to circumvent the security measures of Endesa’s commercial platform and access sensitive customer information related to their energy contracts. According to has recognized the company in communications sent to those affected, during the security breach contact information, ID and IBAN numbers from bank accounts would have been extracted. The company ensures that the access passwords have not been compromised. The magnitude of the incident. The hacker responsible, who identifies himself as “Spain,” posted on January 4 on BreachForums, a popular forum in the dark webdetails of the attack claiming to have obtained more than 1 TB of information corresponding to more than 20 million people, according to reported the Digital Shield medium. The cybercriminal assured this medium that he had gained access in less than two and a half hours, and has gone so far as to leak data samples from a thousand clients to demonstrate the authenticity of the stolen information. What type of data is at stake. The hacker claims to have obtained basic personal data (names, surnames, postal addresses and contact information), financial information (IBAN, billing data and account history), energy data (CUPS, active electricity and gas contracts, supply point information) and regulatory data. The risks for clients. Although Endesa considers it “unlikely” that the theft will result in “a high-risk impact on the rights and freedoms of users,” the company warns of several real dangers in its official statement. Cybercriminals could try to impersonate customers, post the data on digital forums, or use it for phishing and spam campaigns. Josep Albors, Director of Research and Awareness at ESET Spain, explains that “the risk does not end with the notification of the breach” and that the exposed information can be reused for months or years to launch targeted fraud. Endesa’s response. The energy company has taken almost a week to publicly acknowledge the incident since the leak became known. The company claims to have immediately activated security protocols, blocked compromised access and notified the competent authorities of the case. In addition, it has enabled telephone lines to resolve doubts: 800 760 366 for Endesa Energía customers and 800 760 250 for those of Energía XXI, its distributor in the regulated market. We have contacted the company to find out more information about it, so we will update the article in case of news. What should those affected do? The problem with this security breach is that the data is surely used for advertising campaigns. phishing and targeted spam. As explained by ESET, the first thing we should keep in mind as affected parties is to distrust any communication that appears to come from Endesa and that includes links, attachments or urgent requests, always contacting the company through official channels. This has not been the case, but it never hurts to frequently review bank accounts to detect unauthorized movements and change passwords, even if the company claims that they have not been compromised, activating security protocols whenever possible. two factor authentication. Free and useful websites like ‘Have I Been Pwned‘ allow us to check if the data has appeared in other known breaches by entering our email. The extortion attempt. According to account According to Escudo Digital, the hacker has tried to negotiate directly with Endesa through emails, although at the moment he has not set a specific ransom figure. The cybercriminal, who says he is not affiliated with any group of ransomware known, has received offers from third parties of up to $250,000 for half of the database, although he claims to have not sold anything yet. “I prefer to wait for Endesa to decide,” he told the media. A worrying trend. Just like they count From the media Expansión, this attack places Endesa on the growing list of large Ibex 35 companies that have suffered cyberattacks in recent months. Companies such as Iberdrola, Iberia, Repsol and Banco Santander have been victims of similar incidents that have compromised customer data. And they have not been the only ones, since cyberattacks and data leaks They are now much more common. In the case of Endesa it seems that we will have to wait for the company to offer more information on the matter. Cover image | Endesa In Xataka | OpenAI just assumed an uncomfortable truth about AI browsers: there is one type of attack that is impossible to block

Movistar customers will have it free for six months

by

Telefónica has closed an agreement with OpenAI to offer ChatGPT Plus free for half a year to all its Movistar customers in Spain. Activation is digital, without permanence and without apparent trap. Why is it important. This movement consolidates the trend of operators as mass distributors of premium AI, Telefónica itself did something similar in 2025 with Perplexity Pro. It is a paradigm shift in a sector that had been looking for years to differentiate itself beyond price and fiber speed. And it goes beyond the OTT aggregation function that we have been seeing for almost ten years. In detail. The promotion covers almost the entire customer base: contracts MyMovistarMovistar Fusion, mobile-only and fiber-only rates. The process is simple: unique code from the client area, registration in OpenAI and immediate access. After six months, automatic renewal at 23 euros per month if the user does not cancel. The agreement is limited exclusively to Movistar, it does not include O2 customers. The enigma. Will existing ChatGPT users be able to use this promotion without having to register a new account? The official press release It doesn’t clarify it. From Xataka We have made this query to Telefónica and we will update this section as soon as we have a response. Between the lines. Telefónica has not chosen OpenAI by chance. It is the brand with the greatest recognition in generative AI. The operator already signed with Perplexity a year ago. Now add ChatGPT. The pattern is evident: Telefónica aspires to become an aggregator of AI services, exactly as today packs Netflix, Disney+ or Prime Video. Main winner? OpenAI gains distribution in Spain without having to make a commercial effort. Telefónica gains differentiation and data on AI usage patterns. Users gain temporary access to tools that without this promotion would be off their radar or budget. Yes, but. The promotion ends and then comes the friction. How many users will have integrated ChatGPT Plus enough into their routine to justify 23 euros per month? How many will simply try out of curiosity and cancel before payment? The success of this bet is not measured in the headlines that Telefónica is getting today, it is measured in conversion rates six months later. Featured image | Telefónica, OpenAI In Xataka | Telefónica has been trying to leave Mexico for six years and has discovered a problem: no one wants to buy what is left of it

There are restaurants charging their customers 15 euros when they do not appear in a reservation. And it is a trend that is going more

by

“There are people who accept it and people who don’t. Let them make an effort so that we can make it to the end of the month,” comments Danitza Gabriela, Executive Chef of the Manifiesto 13 restaurant, with a laugh, in a video on the channel ‘The Xef in Kitchen‘. It refers to the charging of a fee if someone does not attend a reservation at your restaurant, But although it may seem drastic, it is not a problem that should be laughed at. It is a whole phenomenon baptized as ‘no show‘, and there are already restaurants that are taking measures. For example, charge 15 euros if you don’t show up. He no-show. Also known as ‘ghost reserve’, it is one of the nightmares of the restoration. The name is quite revealing: it is a reservation for a table that, without warning, does not show up at the agreed time. There the restaurant fills its gap, but there are times when it is not possible, leaving holes of hundreds of euros depending on the case. There are situations in which it is inevitable not to show up, even others of greater cause in which the last thing we think about is calling to say that we will not be able to go, but unfortunately it is becoming common in certain cities. Spread booking. Another Anglicism that is easy to understand. In large cities, there are diners who adopt the strategy of making reservations in several restaurants at the same time. This may seem like nonsense, but it makes “sense”: they secure all the options they like and then decide on the fly which one they prefer, not canceling, or not canceling early enough, on the discarded options. Freak. How often this occurs depends on the city. TheFork platform carried out a study on phantom reservations and, according to their analysis, between January and July of this year, there was not a single month in which no-shows accounted for more than 3.4% of the total. Then, it depends on the regions and, as we say, the city. Others studies They point out that, in large cities in the United Kingdom, Australia or New Zealand, the absence rate is around 15%. In the United States and Canada, 20%. 15 euros. According to that same study by The Fork, of the total number of diners who do not attend the reservation, only 38% do so due to last-minute unforeseen events that have prevented them from calling the restaurant. 7% say that they do not notify because they are embarrassed to call and 55% say that they get lost or forget that they had made the reservation. That is precisely what is leading restaurants to take action. We mentioned the words of Danitza, from the Manifiesto 13 restaurant, at the beginning of the article, and the amount they charge for not appearing is 15 euros. He explains it at minute 8:10 of this video: “Every day we call to reconfirm the reservation. We are applying a cancellation policy, only on weekends, because those are the days when we have the most occupancy. It is 15 euros, just so that people have that bit of respect.” Danitza continues by pointing out that “it’s very hard when you’re starting out. If you don’t have a lot of fuss and the table doesn’t come to you, you’ve already prepared… and it’s complicated. There are people who accept it and people who don’t.” At Gordon Ramsay’s, if you don’t cancel at least 48 hours in advance, it’s 150 pounds. Impact. Manifesto 13 is not the only restaurant that applies this. A couple of years ago, Amelia, a restaurant in San Sebastián with two Michelin stars, charged 510 euros for a service not provided to three diners who did not show up. It was a case that came to court after a complaint from one of the customers, and the result was the ruling in favor of the restaurant. Studies indicate that losses due to no-shows can suppose between 5% and 20%, depending on the type of business, and this is what has motivated locals to move tab. For example, with card number like warranty and deposits, as are done in other forms of entertainment and consumption. It has even come to pose the expulsion from the reservation system of clients who accumulate several. Images | Hitesh Dewasi In Xataka | The restaurant with the longest waiting list in the world is not a Michelin star: it is in Bristol and costs €40

Log In

Forgot password?

Forgot password?

Enter your account data and we will send you a link to reset your password.

Your password reset link appears to be invalid or expired.

Log in

Privacy Policy

Add to Collection

No Collections

Here you'll find all collections you've created before.