“We will not flood our ecosystem with soulless AI garbage.” We already know what Asha Sharma wants to do as CEO of Microsoft Gaming

Friday night has been busy in the gaming world with a movement that, more than a change of cards, represents a paradigm shift in Microsoft’s video game division: the end of the Spencer era and the resignation of Sarah Bond as president of Xbox. Phil Spencer has left the company after almost 40 years, 12 of which he has been leading the gaming area. The new CEO of Microsoft Gaming is Asha Sharma. Who is Asha Sharma. The 36-year-old Indian-American’s CV includes Instacart, where she was director of operations for three years, until she left the firm for Microsoft in 2024. She previously served as vice president of product and engineering at Meta, leading, among other things, the company’s messaging apps. And more than a decade ago he worked in the marketing area of ​​Microsoft. Another leadership profile. Spencer’s leadership was almost evangelical: his era was characterized by rebuilding the brand after the discreet launch of the Xbox One in 2013expansion through acquisitions such as that of Activision Blizzard for 69,000 million dollars and its total commitment to Game Pass. However, Xbox has still not won the console war and its studios have been chaining cancellations and closures in recent times. Sharma’s career is meteoric, but she lacks a track record within the video game industry: she is neither a designer nor a dev, she is an operations and technology executive who comes from leading enterprise AI teams at Microsoft. The new Sharma aims more at operational efficiency, AI and platform ubiquity. Asha Sharma’s roadmap with Xbox. Sharma has already published its first statement where it establishes three axes: Great video games. His message is reassuring for fans: there will be iconic franchises, a commitment to creativity and innovation, and complete trust in Matt Booty. The return of Xbox. You want to put the console back in. center, something that with Spencer had been blurred. Of course, without giving up PC, mobile phones and cloud gaming. The future of gaming and AI. Sharma promises not to flood his ecosystem with artless garbage: “Games are and always will be art, created by humans and with the most innovative technology we offer.” Surprising from someone who comes precisely from there. In summary it would be: AI yes, but with a head. Unknowns and challenges. Its first message is promising but vague and leaves many key questions in an area where finding balance is complicated. If Microsoft, which is the largest player in the sector by capitalization, puts someone without gaming DNA on the front line, it sends a signal of where the business is going that points to platforms, subscriptions, generative AI, platforms… the question is whether that is compatible with making great games. On the other hand, Sharma mentions that games are “art made by humans” but also that AI will “evolve and influence.” We will have to see what the conciliation is like. In addition, neither she nor Booty have clarified What will happen to the studies that Microsoft has closed. Finally, the Xbox Everywhere model invites you to play on any device and makes more sense than ever, so there is no doubt to wonder about the future of consoles as devices. In Xataka | Video games have grown a lot this year. But the money goes to China, Roblox and the owners of mobile platforms In Xataka | Windows was the kingdom of gaming for decades: Microsoft knows that something has gone wrong, and promises these changes Cover | Microsoft

Amazon kept losing money on its Echo devices. He has found a way to stop the bleeding: flood us with ads

Amazon has been losing a fortune with their Amazon Echo devices. Connected speakers and displays are in millions of homes, but they have never been profitable. The company’s hope was that they would become a vehicle to sell more products on its e-commerce platform, but that goal was never met. Now Amazon has found a way to get a lot out of them: to put advertising in them for good. Lots of advertising. Why is it important. Amazon has just launched on the market your new Echo Show and Eco Dot. Prices have risen in all cases, but they also arrive with Alexa+ —although not in Spain at the moment—, the AI ​​assistant that the company has been working on for several months. These products are supposed to offer important advantages in the user experience, but at the moment what is happening is that these devices are displaying advertisements frequently. Wasted. Between 2017 and 2021 Amazon lost more than $25 billion with its Amazon Echo. The idea seemed good: they could sell them at a loss if they later amortized them by converting them into products to sell us things. Instead, users ended up taking advantage of them for little more than setting timers and musicand that has ended up being a huge problem for Amazon. Ads everywhere. There are several users of Amazon’s connected screens—the Echo Show—who are seeing surprise ads appear on these screens. a user Reddit account how the alarm clock feature on your Echo Show 5 became an annoying ad. Other user checked that in addition to one advertisement, songs that he had not specified were playing, while another he complained about how his Echo Show kept advertising the Amazon Plus service. Ads now appear more frequently on Prime Video. Source: Xataka. Flooded with advertising. These screens don’t stop showing ads, match other users, but in addition none of those users accepted that their devices could be used to display advertising, and there is no switch or configuration parameter that stops this behavior. Even people who are paying $20 for Alexa+, Amazon’s new AI assistant, are complaining from all that advertising avalanche. Also on Prime Video. Personally, I don’t have an Echo Show, but I have noticed that when enjoying series and movies on Prime Video, advertisements are broadcast with greater frequency and duration. I am not he only (not much less). Amazon allows customize preferences regarding advertising, but those who have done it affirm that this does not hardly reduce the frequency with which advertisements appear. What Amazon says. An Amazon spokesperson stated the following: at Ars Technica: “Advertising is a small part of the experience and helps customers discover new content and products they may be interested in. If customers don’t like a suggestion, they can swipe to the next card on the screen or directly provide feedback by tapping the info icon or tapping the screen.” If you move away, I announce to the song. The Amazon Ads website details the ad formats, and the text explains that “The ad viewing experience dynamically adapts based on the customer’s proximity to the device.” Once it is detected that the user is more than 1.2 meters away from their device, “the ads are displayed in full screen alternating with other content, such as the weather, recipes, sports and news.” This seems to be getting worse. The latest comments seen on Reddit or on X (formerly Twitter) seem to make it clear that Amazon is increasing the amount of advertising it displays on its devices and services. The question, of course, is how far they will go… and how that will impact both sales of their devices and subscriptions to their platforms. In Xataka | Amazon missed the AI ​​train, but it wants to catch it back. The new Alexa with AI will arrive this month to try it

While giving us mobiles with better cameras, more power and a flood of AI, I just want them not to die in summer

In recent years we have seen huge advances in smartphones cameras, in His brilliant screenshis fast charge, Your powerand what they manage to do thanks to the progress that artificial intelligence has brought to the sector (now, not when it began to promote itself eight years ago). And yet, in a summer as hot as we are happening, what I miss most is being able to take advantage of all those functions. Because as temperatures are taking place since May in Andalusia, the reality is that I can’t. The problem. When the heat arrives, the girls fall in love and Solar panels have a fatal. It is also the worst enemy of modern smartphone, whose current functioning completely modifies. With high ambient temperature, smartphone begin to suffer thermal strangulation or Thermal Throttling. It is a technique that reduces the performance of the device so that it does not continue to warm up. What do we notice? In which everything is slow, getting to cause Lagand slowdown accused even in high -end mobiles that do not suffer with normal ambient temperatures even when we demand a lot. It is also common for smartphones to begin to deactivate functions that require greater consumption and therefore heating, such as high rates of soda (90 Hz, 120 Hz 0 more), fast charge or high brightness on the screens. The latter is especially unfortunate, because it is on sunny summer days (when we have more hours of sunshine) when we need the record shine peaks that manufacturers promote with each recent launch. The situation on extreme heat days. The last great heat of these weeks has been the perfect example of how smartphones suffer. In an encounter with friends in the field where there were smartphones of several major brands, the smartphones became unusable in the hottest hours. Fully attenuated and impossible screens to see the sun, abysmal performance, extremely hot bodies and worrying warnings of two types: impossibility of continuing to load to protect the battery, and complete smartphones blockages with a temperature warning as The one Apple details on its website. The first caused that we had to wait until sunset to load the smartphones (with the consequent complete download of several of them for hours) every day. The second, even losing calls: c on the very hot mobile, a relative called me, and the call was abruptly cut by showing a notice like the next. The situation is also improvable with more moderate temperatures. A heat wave in Andalusia is an exceptional situation and that is not lived in countless territories. However, in May, I was at an outdoor wedding about 25 degrees of temperature and decided to take photos and videos with an iPhone 16 Pro and a Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra. The iPhone responded with Throttling, strongly attenuating the screen and slowing down any interaction with the interface. The Ultra Galaxy S25 responded something better, without being slow but also presenting little shine in its panel. The situation was paradoxical: I was using two of the smartphone with the best camera in the market, but I could barely record and take pictures, for the slowness with which they worked and because I almost did not see what I was shooting. Not because of the reflexes of the sun, but because of the little maximum shine of the screens once the terminals felt some heat. Another similar situation, changing camera for GPS, is what is lived in cars in summer: the mobile attenuates its screen and there are cases in which it costs to see the navigation interface, especially if at the same time we are carrying the terminal. And it is not trivial, we load them using the GPS because the consumption shoots and on a long trip the battery does not endure. Keys to protect them from heat. The solutions we have as users are, unfortunately, limited. But There are things we can do. For example, minimize its use in the sun. In summer, as we pointed out, it will be difficult, but there will be multiple situations in which we can place ourselves in the shade. Or what is easier: always leave the mobile in the shade, instead of at very hot points from a place in the sun, on the beach or in the car. They are not few occasions in which I have remembered acquaintances that his mobile would be burning because they had forgotten the sun. We can reduce camera use, especially when necessary. Sometimes, doing tourism, we tend to leave the screen on with the camera in use, preparing for a shot that sometimes does not arrive. It is in those situations when the terminal turns off until we have a shot to shoot can save a lot of heat. House and car tricks. My maximum advice is to use the terminal as GPS subject with a support for air conditioning ventilation grilles, so that it will be cool. It will load at normal speed and work as a browser without major problem. It is a advice that applies even if we use something like Carplay or Android Auto, as the vehicle will continue to resort to the terminal GPS, with the consequent heating. At home, two other tips that I have put into practice: use Cooling with integrated fan or even Cold accumulators covered with a trap that also greatly reduces the temperature of the smartphone when they come into contact with them. Thus they are trying to mitigate the problem. Manufacturers lead a lifetime fighting heat. The problem is that, at the same time, they are integrating components that, although they are more efficient than in previous generations, also have higher final consumption, especially when we think that more and more cameras, more bright screens and chips capable of Move AAA games (although The best is pulling streaming). He Xiaomi 15 Ultrafor example, he convinced us for how his cooling system with Steam camera three -dimensional manages to tame the Snapdragon … Read more

France and Morocco have allied to flood Europe with green ammonia. And compete directly with Spain

In December 2022, in full energy crisis and with the intention of stop depending on gas and oil from Russia, Spain, Portugal and France joined To define the H2Med green hydrogen corridor. The idea was to start producing green hydrogen for electricity generation, something that Spain can contribute thanks to its reserves and Great surplus of renewable. In April 2024, Europe approved the two axes planned in Spainbut a few months later, France reached a parallel agreement with Morocco. This is the Chbika project, and is as ambitious as controversial. Chbika. Europa presumes being a Power in renewablessomething that has been revealed in recent months, but also wants import a huge amount of energy directly from Africa. According to Europe, it is “essential to meet the objectives of the European green pact And to reinforce energy security ”, and within these agreements is the signed between France and Morocco. In October 2024, taking advantage of the visit of the French president Emmanuel Macron to Morocco, and with the presence of King Mohammed VI, an ambitious plan for the industrial production of green hydrogen and ammonia was signed. Goals. This project is driven For a European consortium formed by TE H2, a Joint-Venture of the French groups Total Energies and Eren, but also with the Danes Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners and AP Moller Capital. Their goals are: Build wind and solar infrastructure on land with 1 GW capacity. Green hydrogen production using the electrolysis technique thanks to Desalinated seawater. Use hydrogen to get 200,000 tons of annual green ammonia, mainly for the European market. Green ammonia. Apart from green hydrogen, which is used to generate electricity, the Green ammonia It is a compound formed by nitrogen and hydrogen that is achieved by electrolysis that uses renewable energies. The traditional process to achieve ammonia implies natural gas, so the use of renewables in the process makes it a process without CO₂ emissions. The main use of ammonia is as agricultural fertilizer, but it can also be used as a hydrogen bearer. It has a high energy density and is easier to transport than hydrogen (not needing cooling as extreme as H2), which makes it an energy vector to export hydrogen at long distances. In search of treasure. This agreement seeks not only to strengthen cooperation between Europe and Africa in energy matters, but also consolidates the position of Morocco as a key supplier of clean energy to the European Union. And it is aligned with the Repowereu program that intends to import 10 million tons of green hydrogen before 2030. Although the pact was signed in autumn last year, a few weeks ago the confirmation of land rights in which the plant will be built and advances in technical and legal agreements that settle the bases of the operations that will come below were made. Controversy. Now, the Chbika project is not exempt from controversy. On the one hand, it has been indicated as a Moroccan maneuver to strengthen its position in green hydrogen within Europe, competing directly against Spain. On the other hand, part of the territory destined for the project, in the Guelmim-Oed Noun region, is considered by agencies such as the UN as border or superimposed with areas of the Western Saharaoccupied by Morocco. Activist organizations They denounce that many of these energy projects in Morocco are building On occupied Saharawi territoriesand what is it about *Greenwashing operations* Through clean energy while they continue to oppress the Saharawi people. Spanish plans. Meanwhile … What does Spain do? Well, some of its companies, such as acting or cepsa, They have also signed with Morocco. The objective of the African country is that renewables represent 52% of their installed capacity for 2030 and green hydrogen is a means to achieve it. And, for this, a Moroccan government committee selected five consortiums to develop six green hydrogen projects with the intention of producing ammonia, steel and industrial fuel. Problem? Apart from the competition with Spanish projects, they will be developed in the aforementioned Guelmim-Oed Noun, as well as in Dakhla-Rio de Oro and LaAyoune-Sakia el Hamra, also occupied territories, which can increase diplomatic tensions With Spain and the Sahara. Image | Topsoe Xataka | The price of gas has already reached 2022 levels. Now the European industry depends on one thing: that the cold does not return

Gemini’s conquest began in Android mobiles. Now you will flood your TV, your watch or even your car

Google wants to win the AI ​​battle, and has a fundamental advantage over almost all its competitors: it has a perfect ecosystem to do so. Gemini deployment He started on the Android -based smartphones, but now he will go further. Thus, the firm has announced that Gemini’s characteristics will soon reach various types of product based on one of the many Android variants. It is one more proof of how the traditional Google assistant leaves its chatbot from AI. The smart watches based on Wear OS They are a good example of this. It will be possible to speak with the assistant directly on those devices to establish alarms and reminders, for example. And thanks to Gemini’s interconnection with Google applications, any user can ask data about a fact of those services – “what was the name of the restaurant that Miguel spoke to me recently in Gmail?” – To obtain the answer synthesized on the clock screen. The option will be for example available at the Pixel Watch and In the Samsung Galaxy Watch. Gemini too It will disembark in Android Auto. The commands that was already possible to take advantage of the Google assistant will go further with that ability to understand Gemini’s natural language. That, they say on Google, will prevent us from concentrating on the way of saying things and Let’s keep attentive to the road. This interaction in the form of natural conversation with Gemini in the car will also allow access to striking options. For example, ask you to look for electroberas on our route that are also near a park in case we want to take a walk. That connection with Google services will also make it possible that if we receive a message or an email on the Gemini mobile, it translates it, translates it and offers us to respond easily and with the voice. Or make a summary of the news (but perhaps without sports) or a document that we have to review before a meeting towards which we head. If we have a TV TVGemini will also reach said product segment. With the chatbot we can, for example, ask the AI ​​for action films suitable for children to obtain recommendations directly through voice conversation. But also TV can become a large mobile screen to find answers to our questions. As with the computer or mobile, we can talk and ask Gemini about any issue, and here there will be a special focus on offering results in YouTube videos. Finally Google talked about how Gemini will also arrive at Android XRthe operating system they are developing in collaboration with Samsung for connected glasses. Here the interaction is especially interesting because it will offer a striking way to obtain information, answers and content directly through the voice. In the example shown by Google, Gemini will be able to plan a vacation surrounding us with videos, maps and tips on local culture, in addition to offering us an itinerary of the trip. We are thus facing a gradual but total deployment of Gemini, which by the way also It will reach headphones of manufacturers such as Sony and Samsung, who has already announced it in the case of Your Galaxy Buds. There are no concrete dates for that display, but Google’s ambition here is clear: that we can talk to all our devices naturally when we need it. In Xataka | Mark Zuckerberg believes that in 2030 we will not get the smartphone so much out of the pocket: we will do almost everything from the glasses

The images of AI already flood the Internet. Google and see 2 will serve to start filling it with videos generated by AI

The Images that mimic the Ghibli style They are very good, but be careful, because we can soon make small animation shorts that imitate that or any other style. The models of the generative video are closer more than ever to the general public by Google, which now offers its spectacular model I see 2 as part of the subscription to Gemini Advanced. Hello, Gemini Advanced. When it appeared on the scene I see 2 could only be used through the VERTEX AI and Videofx platforms, but the scope of both proposals was limited and was intended for a more expert audience. Now this model reaches Gemini Advanced, which allows you to transform our text prompts into dynamic videos. Interestingly, the option that now comes to Gemini Advanced It is available for weeks on the Spanish Freepik platformwhich was the first to offer that generation of ia videos using this same model. Eight seconds of artificial creativity. The model, created by DEEPMIND, is available as one more of the options of the GEMINI models drop -down menu. If we use it, we can generate an eight -second video clip with 720p resolution, MP4 format and 16: 9 appearance ratio. In Google they point out that there is a monthly limit for the number of videos that each Gemini Advanced user can create, but do not indicate which, only that we will receive a warning when we approach that limit. A text prompt is enough. To create videos with Gemini we will only have to describe the scene – as always, the details will help create it with greater loyalty – and Gemini will be responsible for materializing that idea and turning it into a video generated by AI. To conquer the Internet. In Google they also wanted to convert these videos into content that can be shared easy and quickly. Thus, it is enough to choose any of the videos that we have generated and then select the option “Share” and be able to upload it to platforms such as Tiktok or YouTube Shorts. Flood of videos from AI in view. We could already live how the phenomenon of the Image ghiblation He won the Internet, and AI models have shown that this type of uses are those that attract the general public at least temporarily. The images generated by AI are already everywhere and are flooding the Internet, but now we face that with the video generated by AI. That Google bets on this type of content and invites you to share it without tapujos is a declaration of forceful intent. The video generated by AI remains for those who pay. The AI ​​models to generate images have long offered their options to users even in free services —Chatgpt and Gemini do it – although with limitations. With the video at the moment that does not happen, and so much Sora as Runway Or now I see 2 are oriented to users who pay for this intensive use of resources to generate these videos. Already available, Spain included. The new option for generating videos in Gemini through View 2 begins to gradually deploy from today for Gemini Advanced subscribers worldwide, including Spain. We can write our Prompts in Spanish as well, which makes Gemini more and more versatile to be able to generate both text and images and video (for Gemini Advanced subscribers, we insist). Water brand in each frame. To avoid bad uses of this tool, Gemini can refuse to create some videos that are contrary to Google’s use policies. In addition, all the videos generated with I see 2 include a digital water mark embedded in each frame Thanks to Synthid technology. Whisk, the other option. I see 2 too will be available through whiskan experimental platform of AI that is not available in Spain. With it the advantage is that not only prompts of text are accepted, but also starting images that then serve as base frames for the rest of the animation. Thus, choosing a Studio Ghibli style frame makes us obtain an eight -second miniClip that also mimics that style, as Google shows in its promotional videos. The Whisk Animate function based on VI 2 is available from today for the subscribers of the Google One Premium Plan in various countries of the world, although for the moment not in Spain. Image | Google In Xataka | The Spanish Startup Freepik is already one of the most important ‘success’ in the history of Spain after being bought by the EQT fund

An AI system will process a data flood

Madrid and other parts of Spain are being filled with cameras with artificial intelligence (AI). The City Council of the aforementioned city has been expanding its ambitious video surveillance system, focusing on points of great influx of public roads. But the expansion of these technologies does not stop there. In parallel, Renfe is developing an intelligent security system, where algorithms play a key role. Cameras in more than 400 vicinity stations. The rail transport company The installation has ended of an intelligent video surveillance system in 415 seasons of vicinity throughout Spain. The same has several pieces, among which IP cameras, CCTV recorders, video analytics servers and, as we said, algorithms of AI that give life to what they have called “spaces of high predictive security.” How does the new Renfe smart video surveillance system work? Traditional video surveillance systems depend on human supervision: it is the operators who must identify situations that require intervention. However, technology is reliefing this load when analyzing images in real time and sending automatic alerts to security centers when necessary. In the case of Renfe, the cameras are connected to the analytical servers of each station, in charge of detecting maximum afor and agglomerations. In addition, they allow identifying those who try to sneak into the accesses, falls in platforms or roads, fires and acts vandalism such as graffiti or damage to the furniture. The alerts arrive directly to the 24 -hour Safety Center of Renfe, promising to speed up the response to incidents. The rail operator recognizes that her security system had been obsolete. Although it had thousands of cameras spread over hundreds of stations, they lacked the technology necessary to integrate into the new monitoring system. To solve this limitation, the RS3 project (Renfe Smart Security Station) was launched, whose first phase has just concluded and whose second phase will begin in March. A millionaire investment. The project has a budget of more than 32 million euros and aims to modernize 597 stations distributed among the 12 Cercanías and Rodalies nuclei. The first phase, already completed, has been an investment of 25.8 million euros, while the second, which will cover the renewal of the systems in 182 additional stations, will have a budget of 6.5 million euros. Financing comes from the NextGeration funds of the European Union. What about the data collected? Every time there is talk of data collection, the doubt about the impact on user privacy arises. This makes sense if we take into account that European legislation is very strict in this regard. Renfe’s new video analytics system manages a large amount of data, but the company says it has taken measures to comply with the existing regulations. The system collects video images anonymously. Does not capture or record audio. Nor is biometric data. Processing is performed automatically with AI. The data collected are eliminated after “milliseconds.” In the case of the standard video surveillance system, the images are preserved last a maximum period of one month. The company’s privacy policy for your video analytics system states that users can exercise their rights, including the right to oblivion, opposition, suppression or limitation of data processing, sending an email to rights.viajeros@renfe.es. In addition, it offers A detailed map with the stations that already have the new security system. Images | Renfe (1, 2, 3) In Xataka | Facial recognition has been expensive for an Alicante company: a fine of 220,000 euros for signing with biometry

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