future

The alliance with Google and Gemini makes it clear what tactic Apple has chosen for its future: the parasite strategy

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Let’s do a little memory. It was the summer of the year 102 BC. C. and Consul Gaius Mariusde facto ruler of Rome, was facing the invasion of the Germanic tribes of the Teutons and the Ambrones, who three years earlier had annihilated several legions of the Republic in the battle of Arausio. Marius, camped and with abundant provisions, saw how the Teutons did not stop provoking him and his soldiers. The Germanic tribes, superior in number, mocked them and tried to force an immediate battle, but Marius flatly refused. He punished soldiers who responded to provocations, let his troops despair, and endured humiliation by simply following and observing the enemy. He made his troops go up to the palisades in turns and observe the Teutons, their weapons, their movements, their shouts. Forced them to get used to them and to make them go from something scary to something familiar. But all Mario was doing was choosing the battle that was really worth fighting. The Teutons tried to cross the Alps and Marius and his legions followed them until Aquae Sextiae. There, in an advantageous position and highly motivated—among other things, by thirst—the Romans ended up annihilating the Ambroni first, and then the Teutons. Mario didn’t care that they laughed at him, that they provoked him and that his own soldiers distrusted him. He achieved a historic victory that prevented a potential invasion by those and other Germanic tribes. And he did it with a simple tactic: choose the battles to fight. Which is, at least on the surface, what Apple seems to be doing. The parasite strategy For years Apple has boasted of controlling every element of its ecosystem, both hardware and software. And if there was something that he didn’t control, he worked to do it, as we are seeing with the iPhone or the Mac, increasingly less dependent on third-party chips and technologies. However, the alliance with Google and Gemini breaks that trend and represents a disturbing implicit recognition: in the generative AI race, Apple is not only not in the lead, but it seems to have decided to stop running. At least it doesn’t do it like its rivals do. While Google, Microsoft, Meta, xAI or Amazon do not stop investing billions in chips, new AI models and above all new data centers, Apple has not wanted to enter into those battles. He didn’t care about the provocations or that the industry and the media distrusted (we distrusted) that strategy. Apple has gone about its business, and has barely launched new features in an absolutely explosive segment. Its Apple Intelligence platform is comparatively much lower than those of rivalsyour Private Cloud Compute It’s an interesting idea but at the moment without a clear impact and Siri delay last year was the definitive sign that Apple I had missed the AI ​​train. And it is better not to talk about economic investment: its competitors are betting everything on AI while Apple’s capex remains almost symbolic compared to that of others. That has made many of us doubt the future of an Apple that seems to “move on from AI.” But be careful, because Tim Cook may just be adopting that same Mario tactic of choosing which battles to fight. They may not believe it makes sense to spend those billions of dollars developing a foundational model right now, and they may not believe in the need to create their own data centers either. In fact, Apple has been applying the parasite strategy: in those segments in which he did not dominate or was not strong, he delegated: Cloud infrastructure: Apple has never been strong in the cloud and has delegated to other platforms to which it has paid large sums of money for years. Searches: We have the clearest example of this strategy in internet searches. The multi-million dollar alliance with Google has been offering both companies a perfect solution in this area for years That agreement with Google in the search segment now has its sequel with the historic agreement to use Gemini as a fundamental pillar of the reinvention of Siri. Apple’s voice assistant will make use of Google’s AI models and will thus become a critical component of the functioning of its ecosystem. It is an alliance with extraordinary implications and that once again confirms that parasite strategy in which the ultimate goal is clear: achieve benefits without taking risks. Apple as a wrapper for AI In fact, here Apple is once again taking advantage of its leading role in the mobility market—especially in the US—once again. While other companies like Google and OpenAI spend fortunes on servers and energy, Apple it is limited to being the elegant packaging. They provide the screen, the local processor and the user’s trust. Google puts the brain that runs in the cloud. It is (theoretically) a win-win. But it is also the recognition of a pragmatic defeat. Giving in to that reality—we don’t have a foundational AI model, we don’t have cloud infrastructure, we don’t have data centers—is also a tactic that can end up winning the game. AI aims to become a commodityin something that will be accessible to everything and everyone and that loses its differentiating characteristics in the eyes of the consumer. It will be something generic, interchangeable and basic, and what may matter then is not the AI, but how it is distributed and provided. And Apple is changing from being a company that invents all its tools to becoming a company that is the largest distributor of services in the world. They certify it the more than 2.35 billion active devices with their different operating systems around the world, which can clearly become – if they are not already – the gateway to AI for millions of people. This parasite strategy allows Apple to turn that theoretical defeat into a potential victory. Apple is the mandatory tollnot only for billions of users, but for companies like Google, which seems to have … Read more

The SPARC fusion reactor is the “microchip” of the future for AI

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The “30 years to merger” joke is officially dead in Massachusetts. With the installation of the first high-temperature superconducting magnet in the SPARC reactor, the era of experimentation has given way to the era of manufacturing. With a calendar marking 2027 as the year of the ‘First Plasma’, humanity is just months away from proving that the Sun can be bottled commercially. The rebirth in the desert. The epicenter of this change is the alliance between Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS), chip giant Nvidia and industrial powerhouse Siemens at CES 2026 in Las Vegas. As detailed by the agenciesthe three companies have joined forces to create a “digital twin” of SPARC, the demonstration reactor CFS is building outside Boston. This announcement is not just a declaration of intent. As Seeking Alpha reportsCFS has already installed the first of 18 high-temperature superconducting magnets that form the heart of SPARC. According to CFS CEO Bob Mumgaard, in statements to Fortune: “These magnets are powerful enough to lift an aircraft carrier out of the water.” The paradox of AI. As Siemens CEO Roland Busch warned, on the CES stageAI factories and data centers require constant gigawatts of electricity to operate, but AI is, in turn, the tool that will provide that energy. Check a plasma at 100 million degrees Celsius It is an engineering challenge that the human mind cannot solve alone. As Latitude Media explainsthe collaboration with Nvidia makes it possible to compress “years of manual experimentation into just weeks of virtual optimization.” The Digital “Brain” of Fusion. The key to CFS achieving what no one has been able to do in decades lies in an unprecedented digital infrastructure. The company isn’t just welding steel; He is building the reactor twice: once in the real world and once in the virtual one. To do this, it uses the Siemens Xcelerator ecosystem in industrial design and Nvidia’s Omniverse platform to give life to an exact replica of the SPARC reactor. This system works as a sophisticated flight simulator. Bob Mumgaard, CEO of CFS, details what they use an aerial analogy to explain this technological hierarchy; While the digital twin developed with Nvidia acts as the “virtual plane”, Google’s DeepMind artificial intelligence functions as the “co-pilot” that helps navigate the plasma turbulence. This strategy allows you to say “goodbye to guesswork.” As Del Costy states, Siemens executive, “the data doesn’t lie.” The real value of this collaboration is the ability to run thousands of virtual scenarios before moving a single magnet in the physical plant. This technology is what allows engineers to observe in real time what happens inside the magnetic “doughnut” (the tokamak) without having to open the machinery, eliminating the uncertainty that has held back the industry for half a century. The political board. So far, the merger is one of the few issues that enjoys bipartisan support in the United States. However, a new player has shaken the board: Trump Media & Technology Group. According to World Nuclear NewsPresident Donald Trump’s company has merged with TAE Technologies in a $6 billion deal. The goal is to create the first publicly traded fusion energy player to ensure America’s “energy and AI supremacy.” Although CFS and TAE use different technologies – CFS relies on the tokamak and superconducting magnets, while TAE uses particle accelerators and hydrogen and boron fuel – the competition to be the first to inject electricity into the grid is total. CFS also looks askance to Helion, the startup backed by Sam Altman (OpenAI), which you already have a contract to supply power to Microsoft. The horizon. The roadmap presented by CFS, supported by capital from Bill Gates and Mitsubishiseems for the first time tangible: Late 2026: End of SPARC construction in Massachusetts. It will be the time when the “virtual airplane” designed by Nvidia and Siemens fully materializes in the physical world. 2027: The moment of the “First Plasma”. SPARC must turn on its magnetic heart to produce its first plasma and scientifically demonstrate “Q greater than 1”: generating more energy than it consumes. Early 2030s: ARC debuts in Virginia. A 400 megawatt commercial plant capable of supplying 300,000 homes with clean energy literally extracted from hydrogen particles present in water. The end of the “30 years” joke For decades, the scientific community joked that fusion was always 30 years away. But with the backing of Nvidia and Google, the merger has ceased to be a laboratory project and has become a manufacturing industry. “Lego” is complicated, but with instructions from AI and capital from tech giants, the Sun is closer than ever to being bottled up on Earth. Image | CFS Xataka | Russia wants to be the one who turns on the light on the Moon: its plan involves an operational nuclear reactor before 2036

The future of beaches is more complicated than it seems

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Storm Francis caused hundreds of problems in Andalusia. But if we have to choose just one (if only because of its iconic character), it would have a first and last name: Matalascañas. And the town in Almont suffered even a preventive eviction due to the risk of collapsing a building next to its promenade. However, no one expected what the storm left behind. More than four and a half kilometers of destruction. Specifically, 4.6 kilometers of walking completely destroyed and the collapse of entire stretches of beach; damage to at least three beach bars and many problems in the city’s treatment plant. The first estimates they talk about three million euros only for urgent interventions, although no one expects that the complete recovery of all the razed infrastructure will take less than ten. This is not the first time something like this has happened in Huelva, why is this important? Indeed, at this time last year we were talking about how it had disappeared El Portil beach in Punta Umbría. Huelva is one of the most sensitive points to coastal problems and its beaches are becoming areas in danger of extinction. What has happened in Matalascañas is not important because it is new, nor even because it is unusually large. It is important because Francis has hit one of the iconic places of Spanish tourism. It is, black on white, the confirmation that the problem is real and the solutions are difficult (and expensive). Stop the world. Because the truth is that it is something that we want to stop a process that has always been there. Nearby, at the mouth of the Piedras River, is the ‘arrow of the Rompido’ a spit of sand that extends on the left bank of the river and that grows up to 80 meters a year. That is to say, the people of Huelva have very close examples that beaches are almost ‘living beings’. As experts remember, the profile of the beaches “it constantly changes in response to changes in transverse sediment transport produced by marine dynamics, especially waves.” This “has never changed in all of history”, what has changed is that in recent decades it has begun to matter to us. Because? Well, because the emergence of mass tourism starting in the 1960s turned beaches into a very valuable resource and filled them with investments, infrastructure and capital. When the beaches began to change, we applied brute force: as we have explained on more than one occasion“the construction of breakwaters, the annual filling of beaches and the construction of coastal infrastructure to ‘secure’ the line have been the daily routine of our relationship with the beaches.” The problem is that we have more and more investments in them, the problems become more critical and, for this reason, it is more expensive to insure them. A race to nowhere (that we are not going to stop running). These days, experts they have spoken of losses of more than two meters per year and pointing to the role of the Juan Carlos I Jetty (13 km) in the alteration of currents and sedimentation dynamics. Furthermore, the evacuations show that the current infrastructure cannot “hold” and that the changes that Matalascañas needs are much deeper than what a “reconstruction” would entail. And yet, the neighbors’ demands are logical and, possibly, will be attended to by the administration (even more so in an election year in Andalusia). However, the question remains (and will continue) on the table: Will we be able to withdraw from the eroded front line in an orderly and fair manner? Will we be able to industrially reconvert that tourism into something that maintains jobs, families and population? Will we be able to understand that behind Matalascañas hides an entire country with an enormous problem? Image | Luis Daniel Carbia Head In Xataka | Twenty years after the Prestige, Galicia faces another environmental disaster on its beaches: pellets

We will have to wait to test the future with the Meta Ray-Ban Display outside the US: they are being victims of their own success

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The Meta Ray-Ban Display are not perfect glasses nor do they pretend to be, but it’s hard not to feel that there is something different here. The idea of ​​having a color screen integrated into the lens, with speakers, microphones, cameras and even artificial intelligence, continues to sound more like a prototype than an everyday product. And yet, it is happening. Faced with other attempts to “kill” the smartphone that fell by the wayside, such as the AI Pinthese glasses aim for something more subtle. Screen on the lens, bracelet on the wrist. Beyond the concept, the Meta Ray-Ban Display is based on an unusual combination. The information appears on a small color screen located outside the axis of vision, designed for brief and non-continuous consultations. The control is not done by touching the glasses, but through the Meta Neural Banda bracelet that interprets muscle signals in the wrist area to execute minimal gestures. Meta presents this system as a more natural way to interact, reducing the need for buttons, touch surfaces or visible commands. Overwhelmed demand, expansion on pause. As explained this Tuesday by the companythe volume of interest has far exceeded the available inventory, to the point of generating waiting lists that extend well into 2026. Given this scenario, Meta has chosen to freeze the international deployment that it had planned in the short term and focus all its efforts on fulfilling orders already placed in the United States, while reviewing its availability strategy. This stoppage directly affects the plans communicated months ago. The company had indicated that the Ray-Ban Display would arrive in early 2026 in markets such as the United Kingdom, France, Italy and Canada, a first wave outside the United States that is now on hold. Meta does not speak of cancellation or set new dates, a prudent position that confirms the immediate stop, but does not clarify how long it will be extended. {“videoId”:”x9qouiu”,”autoplay”:false,”title”:”Ray-Ban Meta (Gen 2)”, “tag”:”Meta”, “duration”:”134″} Does the queue get longer here too? Although Spain was not in that first group of countries, the slowdown has obvious consequences for this side of the map. In launches of this type, expansion usually proceeds in waves, starting with the United States and continuing, in some cases, through key markets. In this case, Meta never confirmed plans for Spain, neither for this first generation nor for possible subsequent ones. The only thing that can be stated is that, if at some point these glasses end up reaching this market, the international delay makes it reasonable to think of an even longer wait. In Xataka Meta is so serious about smart glasses that its catalog is already a mess: this is how the new models differentiate themselves News for the Meta Ray-Ban Display. The stoppage in expansion has not prevented Meta from continuing to show progress. During CES, the company presented new functions designed to expand the uses of glasses, as a teleprompter mode to read prepared texts or possibility of writing messages by drawing letters with your finger on any surface, which are then transcribed into digital format. They are improvements that reinforce the idea of ​​a product in continuous evolution, even when its availability remains limited by supply and inventory. Images | Goal In Xataka | Two weeks with the Oakley Meta. Technically impressive, but in no man’s land (function() { window._JS_MODULES = window._JS_MODULES || {}; var headElement = document.getElementsByTagName(‘head’)(0); if (_JS_MODULES.instagram) { var instagramScript = document.createElement(‘script’); instagramScript.src=”https://platform.instagram.com/en_US/embeds.js”; instagramScript.async = true; instagramScript.defer = true; headElement.appendChild(instagramScript); – The news We will have to wait to test the future with the Meta Ray-Ban Display outside the US: they are being victims of their own success was originally published in Xataka by Javier Marquez .

The computers of the future have found an unexpected ally to store information: fungi

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Bioelectronics has been studying for some time the possibility of taking advantage of living organisms in order to produce electrical activity and, in some way, take advantage of it to make our machines work. Although at first glance it could be a topic worthy of the Matrix script, the truth is that there is a whole fascinating world in that of the memristors based on organic elements. Some researchers have found the key to demonstrate how the mycelium of mushrooms such as shiitake can function as a memristor, an electrical component with the ability to ‘remember’ past states. This discovery could be the key to a new generation of sustainable and biodegradable electronic devices. What is a memristor and why does it matter? A memristor is an electronic component that combines the functions of memory and resistance, capable of “remembering” previous electrical states. They are currently manufactured with materials such as titanium dioxide between two metal electrodes, but their production requires scarce minerals and polluting and high-cost industrial processes. Hence the importance of looking for more sustainable alternatives through organic materials. How mycelium works as memory. John LaRocco’s team at Ohio State University grew shiitake mushrooms in Petri dishes until complete development. They then dehydrated them in the sun, turning them into rigid disc-shaped structures that can be rehydrated when necessary. By connecting electrodes to these samples and applying different voltages, discovered that the mycelium presents conductive structures similar to conventional ‘memristors’. According to LaRocco, “if we could develop a microchip that mimicked real neural activity, we could dramatically reduce the amount of energy consumed when the machine is not in use.” The results of the experiment. After two months of testing, the shiitake-based memristor demonstrated the ability to change electrical state up to 5,850 times per second with an accuracy close to 90%. When they applied a specific sine wave, the characteristic figure-eight curve of an ideal memristor appeared, confirming that the mycelium indeed remembers electrical flow. Although performance eventually decreased at higher frequencies, connecting multiple samples improved stability, something the researchers compared to the network effect of neural connections in the brain. Vadvantages over traditional semiconductors. The main attraction of these biological memristors is its sustainability. Mushrooms are developed from organic biomass, they are biodegradable and their environmental impact is minimal. Furthermore, growing them is economical and their production can be easily scalable, from small laboratory experiments to industrial manufacturing. Additionally, fungi have exceptional radiation resistance, which could also make them especially valuable for aerospace applications. Potential applications and pending challenges. The flexibility and scalability of these components opens up possibilities in fields from extreme environment computing and space exploration to autonomous systems and wearable devices. However, significant obstacles remain. And just as they count from Wired, current samples are too large and need to be miniaturized to compete with existing microchips. Furthermore, the electrical properties of mycelium vary between samples even grown in the same medium, which makes its stable industrial manufacture difficult. Next steps in the investigation. The team plans to develop techniques to grow mycelium and give it an ideal shape using 3D printing and methods for incorporating electrical contacts during cultivation. They are also exploring the optimal way to preserve it long-term, combining techniques such as freeze-drying and special coatings. “Society is increasingly aware of the need to protect our environment and preserve it for future generations, and that could be one of the driving factors for new biocompatible ideas like these,” pointed out Qudsia Tahmina, co-author of the study. Beyond mushrooms. This is not the only organic material that has demonstrated ‘memristive’ properties. Researchers from other universities They have experimented with honey and human bloodexploring their possibilities as biodegradable electronic components. Honey, for example, can change resistance in just 500 nanoseconds and is completely biodegradable. In the case of blood, scientists in India discovered in 2011 that it could function as a memristor by applying different voltages, keeping the resistance stable for at least 30 minutes. Cover image | Yuval Zukerman In Xataka | In the midst of the RAM memory crisis, Samsung takes a leap with its HBM4 memory. It does not imply good news for the pocket

I have been to the Xiaomi Store in Beijing. It is a glimpse of the future that awaits us in Spain

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Seven years ago we visited one of the Xiaomi stores in China. It was the My Home in Shanghaiand we found a space full of devices, without much glamor from the outside and full of ‘gadgets’ that we did not yet have in Spain. Things have changed a lot in these years. The Xiaomi store is now surgical, from the outside we see the company’s cars and the space is an ode to good taste. The most interesting thing is not that: it is that almost everything we see is going to reach Spain. Store/experience. In one of the shopping centers on Dongdan Avenue in Beijing, you will find one of the several Xiaomi Stores in the Chinese capital. If you have ever been in a Apple Storethe concept is the same: a neat space, employees who don’t harass you if you don’t ask for assistance, and a sea of ​​devices to fiddle with. Image | Xataka Image | Xataka For a technology lover, having the Xiaomi 17 Exposed there and within my reach, it was a joy. You can try any of the models, but you also have tablets, computers and even speakers. One of the employees told me I could connect my cell phone to see how they sounded. Image | Xataka They also have technology that we have not seen around here yet, such as Xiaomi AI Glasses that they go for the Meta models and that in person they are very discreet. Image | Xataka Home. But despite all the junk, what impressed me most was the catalog of home devices. Televisions, vacuum cleaners and even air conditioning we have already seen them herebut in China the catalog expands greatly. In a time when some They insist that we not cook at homethe range of gadgets The kitchen that Xiaomi has is unfathomable. Image | Xataka Again, we have many of them in the Spanish store, but for every rice cooker sold here, they have three other models there. And the same with devices such as the food processor, warming jugs of all kinds, mixers, thermoses, faucets, water (and air, many) purifiers… Image | Xataka It is a legion of devices for the home. And, sharing the same space, curiously there are two that will soon disembark in our country. If a few lines ago I was talking about air-conditioning that opened the gap, now I mention both the washing machine and the refrigerator. Image | Xataka a few months ago confirmed their arrival in the west with a single objective: that our entire home remains within its ecosystem. Pride. Because entering that store makes you realize that, while my house must be controlled with four or five different applications for different devices, in China you need… one. That of Xiaomi Home, in this case. But Huawei is working towards something similar, a sign that the ecosystem is what the Asian giant’s companies are taking most seriously. Image | Xataka And, within this strategy, is the pride of the store. In plural, better: cars. A couple of Xiaomi SU7 Ultra and two or three others Xiaomi YU7. The same thing: you can touch them, ride wherever you want, ask and an expert will appear to tell you the benefits. It’s a dealership experience. Image | Xataka Image | Xataka Image | Xataka Lifestyle. And if all the devices are within the same ecosystem (something that He has even fallen in love with the CEO of Ford), to round out the experience is the ‘Xiaomi Life’ wall. Here you already have “toys”, such as mugs with the colors of the cars, bags, amazing replicas of the cars, caps, t-shirts and a lot of other accessories for the vehicle. Image | Xataka It’s… another bummer, but if seven years ago we couldn’t even dream of the arrival of a quarter of what we saw in Shanghai, today we can say that, sooner or later, everything I saw will be here over the next few months. Xiaomi already has its first official store in Spaina first step for them to disembark cars that already have a launch segment. And once the most ambitious product in the company’s history is here, nothing prevents everything else from also appearing in the store. PS Sony. But hey, although I found the Xiaomi store amazing, I have to say that other stores in the shopping center (one of the shopping centers on the avenue) were just as impressive or more impressive. Sony’s thing is also impressive. Image | Xataka Huawei also had a car parked in its store, for example, and Sony has another megastore with movie theaters to take a look at its most cutting-edge TVs and speakers… and even miniatures so that customers can try out the benefits of their cameras. I can only say one thing: I left that street overwhelmed. And thinking that I should have bought the Xiaomi 17 Ultra because it was at a VERY good price. What I did want to buy is the Pixar-style lamp shown a while ago: the PIPI Lamp. After asking about her, no one knew how to answer me until another girl appeared who – sadly – cleared my doubts: it was an experiment and there is no evidence that it can even be ordered from stores. Images | Xataka In Xataka | I have asked for water from the first humanoid robot working in Beijing. It’s a weird vending machine.

An underwater drone from Ukraine has changed the future of wars

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A little more than 24 hours ago an event occurred that was unprecedented in the history of war conflicts. It happens that there was only evidence from a video and statements of some involvedbut something else was missing that could certify that, indeed, an underwater drone had been able to disrupt a fortified port. Now there are no longer any doubts: the satellites have revealed what happened. Silent attack. The pfirst satellite images of the Ukrainian attack against a Russian submarine in Novorossiysk have confirmed that kyiv managed to introduce an unmanned underwater drone into one of the best protected ports in the Black Sea and detonate it a few meters from an Improved Kilo class diesel-electric submarine. According to the Ukrainian Security Serviceit would be the first known attack against a Russian ship using an unmanned underwater vehicle and, potentially, the first successful use of this type of system as an anti-ship weapon in a real conflict. Although the exact extent of the damage remains impossible to determine with certainty, the simple fact of having reached the objective is already a major operational and psychological milestone. What we know. Images obtained by commercial satellites confirm that the drone, named by Ukraine as Sub Sea Baby and until now unknown, detonated next to the stern of the submarine while it was moored to the dock. Part of the port infrastructure was clearly destroyed, consistent with the videos recorded from land and released by the SBU, where the explosion and damage to the dock can be seen. The submarine, a Project 636.3 Varshavyankaremains in the same position as before the attack, while two other units that were nearby have been displaced, suggesting an immediate security reaction. However, there are no unequivocal signs of sinking, no visible emergency operations, or fuel spills, which suggests that, if there was damage, it could be below the waterline or be of a limited nature, something impossible to confirm with aerial images alone. Satellite image after the attack, with a general view of the target submarine, inside the port, and another submarine moored outside. There are also other boats moored nearby Official denials. As expected, the Russian Ministry of Defense has denied any damage to the submarine or personnel, and has released a video which supposedly shows the ship intact, although without offering a clear view of the stern and with large areas censored. Still, even that material suggests concrete rubble on the dock, coinciding with the recorded explosion. The Black Sea Fleet has also rejected any operational impact, and Russian naval channels they have replicated that speechalthough without providing conclusive evidence. At this point, uncertainty is part of the information battlefield itself: Russia avoids recognizing vulnerabilities, while Ukraine emphasizes the audacity of the attack more than its physical effects. The same area seen before the attack, in an image from December 11, 2025. The gap in the defenses. Beyond the specific damage, the truly disruptive element of the attack is that the underwater drone managed to get through the defensive barriers of the port of Novorossiysk, designed to stop incursions Ukrainians. Those defenses had been deployed primarily in response to the surface drones that kyiv has used with notable success in the Black Sea, forcing Russia to adapt its port protection. The use of a UUV introduces a new dimension to the Russian defensive problem and confirms a key dynamic of the conflict: each countermeasure generates a different technological response, in a constant race of adaptation. Ukrainian ecosystem. He Sub Sea Baby It doesn’t come out of nowhere. Before this attack, Ukraine had already presented other underwater drones such as the Marichka, designed for kamikaze attacks against ships and maritime infrastructure, or the Toloka, of which fewer details are known. It is not clear whether there is a direct relationship between these systems, but the pattern is evident: kyiv is cbuilding a portfolio of unmanned submarine capabilities, aware that Russian underwater dominance was one of the few areas where Moscow still maintained clear superiority. The submarine as a target. The attack further confirms that the Black Sea Fleet remains a priority objective for Ukraine, especially its submarines Project 636 classcapable of throwing Kalibr cruise missiles regularly used against Ukrainian cities and infrastructure. Sustained pressure from kyiv had already forced Russia to withdraw a large part of its fleet from Crimea to Novorossiysk, and it is not the first time that these submarines have been attacked: in September 2023the Rostov-on-Don turned out seriously damaged in Sevastopol during a combined attack with missiles and surface drones. At the beginning of the large-scale invasion, Russia had six submarines of this type: each lost or neutralized one has considerable strategic weight. A message for Russia. Even if the submarine was not critically damaged, the attack has sent an unequivocal message: No Russian port is completely safe and naval warfare has entered a new phase, where underwater unmanned systems move from experiment to actual operational use. Other military powers, from United States to Chinacarefully observe a precedent that validates years of doctrinal development on UUVs as attack, reconnaissance and mining platforms. In that sense, the Novorossiysk episode reinforces a already recurring idea in the conflict: the war in Ukraine is not only fought over territories, but functions as a brutal laboratory for the military technologies of the future, where each innovation is tested in real conditions and its lessons are studied in all the military capitals of the planet. Image | VANTOR In Xataka | Drums of peace sound in Ukraine. And that should be a good thing for Europe… unless Finland is right In Xataka | If the video published by Ukraine is real, it has just blown up the naval war: an underwater drone has made history

Europe had chosen the electric car as the only solution for the future. Germany is about to knock him down

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There is no official confirmation. It should arrive on December 10, but there is already a first warning that it is possible that the communication will be delayed until January 2026. “For good reasons,” the political leaders assure us. The same people in charge who already advance the guidelines that the review of the 2035 objectives will follow: allowing cars with combustion engines to remain alive. A preview. This is what Apostolos Tzitzikostas, European Commissioner for Transport, gave to the German newspaper Handelsblatt. Like almost everything in this life, neither the time nor the place chosen is coincidental. In this interview, the European official points out that in the European Commission “we are open to all technologies”, which already suggests that this ban on selling combustion engines in 2035 is close to falling. In the absence of knowing all the specific and official details, what it does say is that “the role of zero-emission fuels (known as efuels) and with low emissions and advanced biofuels.” And this is where some doubts arise. Why does an electric car have less autonomy than advertised? No emissions? What the European Union has to resolve is to what extent it is willing to open its hand. The efuels or synthetic fuels They have been sold as an alternative solution because, it is assumed, they do not generate CO2 emissions. When the car burns said fuel it does generate these emissions but they are neutral because the same or greater amount of CO2 is trapped in their production. The European Union has already opened the door to this possibility changing the wording of the ban. We went from talking about banning combustion engines that produced emissions to combustion engines that were not carbon neutral. The difference is subtle but key because with the burning of any fuel (including hydrogen) polluting emissions beyond CO2 are produced, such as NOx or the dangerous ones fine particles which, in both cases, are harmful to humans. “Low emissions”. Now the European Commissioner also speaks of “low-emission fuels.” It remains to be known what these low emissions are and in what quantities they will be allowed. And the alternative that was put on the table was to allow the sale of combustion engines as long as they were associated with highly electrified options. This would lead, for example, to extended range electric. Cars with long electric ranges but that, in essence, are plug-in hybrids because they have a gasoline tank for emergency use. One of the latest proposals is that the car itself, through software, cape the power when a specific number of kilometers has been traveled without recharging the vehicle. Another technically viable possibility is to geofence the cities. That is, using the vehicle’s navigator, the car always moves in completely electric mode when passing through a city or especially sensitive areas of it (hospitals, schools…). This alternative has been contemplated by some plug-in hybrids for years, like BMW’s. And why all this? Because, according to Tzitzikostas, Europe is risking part of its industrial and economic future. “We want to maintain our objectives, but we must take into account all the latest geopolitical events. We must try not to jeopardize our competitiveness and, at the same time, help European industry maintain its technological advantage,” he points out in the interview. In reaching this conclusion it seems that German pressures have had their effect. “Chancellor Merz’s letter has been very well received,” he told the German media. And Germany has been pushing for some time to go back in the face of the “all electric” that seemed decided for Europe. The German industry is facing one of the worst crises in its history and it is estimated that, in just the last two years, about 55,000 jobs have been lost. When will it be official? The idea is that in December we should already know what will happen to this ban in 2035. In recent days the idea had gained strength that it would be December 10 when the European Commission would confirm all these details but the person in charge of transport has already announced that it is possible that this communication will be delayed until January 2026. Photo | Sophie Jonas and Angelo Abear In Xataka | The Government presents the Auto Plus Plan to forget MOVES III: direct aid for the purchase of electric cars with doubts to clear up

One of the most relevant actors in ‘Back to the Future’ fell so badly that we never got to see his face: it was a mask

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For decades, millions of viewers remembered George McFly as one of the most beloved characters from ‘Back to the Future’with his nervous gestures, his strange shyness and that peculiar way of inhabiting the screen. But what almost no one imagined is that, when the saga returned to the cinema, what we saw was no longer exactly him. Or, at least, not in the way we all thought. An impossible artist. Crispin Glover He burst into popular culture playing George McFly with a performance that made the character one of the most recognizable souls. from ‘Back to the Future’. His performance, at once clumsy, intense and physically expressive, became an essential counterpoint to Marty’s dynamism and Doc Brown’s eccentricity. However, behind that iconic role, Glover was already a unique artistobsessed by the limits of narrative, by art as an act of critical thinking and by the need to escape from the corporate machinery that, in his opinion, turned cinema into an instrument of ideological complacency. The fame that the film brought him did not bring him closer to Hollywood: it pushed him away from hertowards a life of his own projects, marginal filmographies, performative tours and experimental books that he himself read on stage in front of his followers. That mix of massive success and countercultural sensitivity would end up leading, a few years later, to one of the legal conflicts most influential in the history of commercial cinema. The ideological disagreement. Glover never hid his discomfort with the final message of the first film. It bothered him that the climax was an economic reward: a family becoming a symbol of the triumphant middle class, a new car as an emblem of happiness and a moral that, according to himhe unequivocally associated money with life success. He was barely twenty years old, but he was already openly questioning an element that he considered propaganda. For him, the real prize should have been emotional reconciliation between the parents, not wealth. That conversation with director Robert Zemeckis, who according to Glover It led to notable anger from the director, marking a point of friction that would later be amplified when negotiations for the sequel began. Silent war. The actor felt that he had done a decisive job in the first delivery and expected treatment equivalent to that of his colleagues. The studio, on the other hand, perceived his comments as an artistic and personal challenge. The financial offers reflected this rupture: figures much lower than the rest of the cast and, according to Glover, a deliberate feeling of punishment, especially seeing that the script from ‘Back to the Future II’ It included scenes in which George McFly appeared hanging upside down, a physically uncomfortable position that he interpreted as a hostile gesture. By then, the aesthetic tension had already been transformed into a contractual and human tension. Plot Twist: The mask. When negotiations failed, Universal did not opt ​​for the usual solution of replacing the actor and continuing as normal. No, he did something much more aggressive: used a mold Glover’s facial created for the first film and placed on a different actor, Jeffrey Weissmanadding prosthetics, makeup, hairpieces and a meticulous imitation of her voice and gestures. It was, in practice, putting an interpreter to play Crispin Glover playing George McFly. Weissman, initially informed that it would be a simple photographic double, discovered during filming that they were asking him to replicate a foreign personality, not a character. It was even called “Crispin” on the set, and even heard jokes from Steven Spielberg about a supposed “million” that Glover would have demanded. One more thing. Many scenes relegated him to the background, carefully out of focus, or showed him face down to make recognition difficult. The rest was composed by mixing Glover’s real shots with Weissman’s new shots to create the illusion of continuity. For the public it worked: millions of viewers thought that Glover had participated in the sequel. For Glover, that was an outrage: his identity, his interpretive essence, had been used without consent to support a multimillion-dollar production. George Mcfly (with Weissman inside) A historic litigation. In 1990 Glover filed a lawsuit that, without looking for it, became one of the first early warnings about the risks of digital recreation, impersonation through visual effects and image rights in the era of technological manipulation. He argued that Universal had used his face, his voice and his acting style without permission, hiding behind the idea that they were only prolonging the existence of the George McFly character. His lawyer, Doug Kari, built a strategy that sought to demonstrate that it was not about perpetuating the character, but about appropriating Glover’s artistic identity. He wanted to depose Spielberg, Zemeckis, Gale and Michael J. Fox, in addition to accessing the studio’s accounting books. What happened? That the case did not go to trial: the judge encouraged both parties to reach an agreement, one that was finally closed by about $760,000. Consequences. But the psychological, industrial and legal impact was enormous. The SAG-AFTRA union was forced to review your rules. Hollywood began to debate to what extent a performance belongs to an actor and whether a studio can, without consent, reconstruct it for new installments. Years later, every time there was talk of digitally resurrecting a deceased performer, Glover’s name reappeared as a warning. In a way, his case anticipated current debates about deepfakes, avatars generated by AI and digital replicas hyperrealistic. Personal consequences. The process left no one unscathed. Glover managed clear your name and establish a red line in the industry, but the experience marked him deeply. He refused to attend conventions or photo sessions related to the saga because, according to himthat would be supporting a lie: that he had participated in those sequels and that Weissman’s artificial interpretation belonged to him. He also suffered for years from the emotional burden of fans attributing to his work gestures or moments that he never interpreted, even receiving criticism for what he did. … Read more

Opera Neon promises to be the future of the browser. It is an ambitious vision yet to mature

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I’ve been using it for a week Opera Neon and I don’t know if I’m testing the future of web browsing or participating in a psychological experiment on how much friction a human tolerates before returning to their usual browser. Probably both. Neon comes standard with everything that any veteran Opera user takes for granted: side messaging integrations, music apps in streamingthe multimedia panel… It is the reminder that, despite all the agentic experimentation, there is still an Opera underneath: practical, comfortable and designed for those who live glued to several platforms at the same time. The promise is seductive: a browser that not only answers questions, but act for you. Who browses, compares, reserves, creates. Who understands what you want to do and does it while you focus on more important things. Opera calls this “agentic AI“, and technically it is correct: Neon can take control of the browser, open tabs, fill out forms, compare products. It is AI with hands, it is Opera’s proposal for the same field as Perplexity with Comet or OpenAI with ChatGPT Atlas. The problem is that those hands are sometimes clumsy, unpredictable and dangerously overconfident. Opera Neon maintains all the classic features of Opera, such as the side panels to display messaging mini-applications or streaming music on an upper layer. In the image, Apple Music. Image: Xataka. Three brains in one body To understand Neon you have to accept that It is not an AI browser. It is a browser with three AIs living together. Chat, Do and Make. Each one with its function, its purpose, its personality. And here begins the first big problem: knowing which one to use at all times is a guessing exercise. Chat is the most familiar. A conversational chatbot that answers questions, summarizes pages, translates texts. Typical. It works well when you’re not making things up, which is about 70% of the time. I asked him to count the comments on several articles and he responded with 400 words explaining that there were none. when there were four. Do is where magic and terror live. You ask him to book a CrossFit class, find the cheapest flight to Lisbon, compare prices on headphones, unsubscribe from some newsletters. And sometimes it does. Open tabs, browse websites, fill out fields. Watching him work is hypnotic. It’s also slow, erratic, and occasionally catastrophic. In a test I asked her to add flowers to a store cart. Instead of somehow inferring my zip code or asking me about it, he directly introduced 28001: madridcentrismo to the song. While I, helpless, did click on the correct options that I was completely unaware of. There is no way to correct it while working. You can only watch, like someone who sees their autonomous car getting dangerously close to the cliff. A zip code just because, 350 km from my house. Image: Xataka. Neon spent an absurd amount of time wandering around the web, adding the bouquet to the cart, getting stuck on the shipping zip code, not feeling like anything productive was happening. Image: Xataka. Another example with Do: Image: Xataka. What he did was open Google Shopping, enter the term and not be able to click ‘Search’, apparently due to some subtle change in the website’s code. I gave it myself and Neon continued. It took a long time just to choose the order by price from lowest to highest. Finally he wrote the answer: Image: Xataka. Happy ending, although it is difficult to think of use scenarios where the use really compensates for the time and supervision it requires. If someone doesn’t know about Google Shopping, this is a good use case. If someone knows Google Shopping, they only have to do two clicks. Another example: reading some recipes Straight to the PalateI asked him to add all the ingredients necessary to make them to the Mercadona cart. Let’s go to trouble. Image: Xataka. Image: Xataka. This was one of those scenarios where there was no way I was going to complete the mission. Image: Xataka. Make is the most ambitious. Generate code, build web applications, create videos. I asked him for a memory game with Spanish vocabulary and he did it in minutes. Rough, but functional. It’s like having a mini-developer living in your browser, working in a virtual environment that disappears when you close the tab. A brilliant idea. A little polished perhaps, but brilliant. Image: Xataka. There are also the cardsa kind of templates prompts that function as mental shortcuts. You can combine them – “summarize + compare”, “decisions + follow-up” – or create your own so you don’t start from scratch every time you talk to the AI. It’s a simple but powerful idea: it makes user learning part of the system. Similar to what you propose Day with his Skills. It’s a good idea. What is not being said about Opera Neon Here comes the part that interests me the most, the one I read between the lines after a week living with this thing. Opera Neon is not really a product. It is a testing ground with product pricing. It is a public beta disguised as a premium service. And that wouldn’t be so much of a problem if it didn’t cost $20 a month. Let me be clear: I’ve seen enough technology launches to recognize when a company is testing concepts in the open field. And Neon is that. The bugs They are not occasional, they are structural, like the hallucinations. The Do agent disconnects if your computer goes to sleep. Chat responses are verbose. The Cards interface—those shortcuts prompts reusable—is full of examples with no real useful content. Cards examples interface. Image: Xataka. But there’s something more interesting going on here. Opera is making a counterintuitive bet at the worst possible time. We are in 2025: Google gives away Gemini in Chrome. Perplexity has Comet. The Browser Company (Arc’s company) has Day. Microsoft puts Copilot everywhere. And OpenAI recently launched ChatGPT Atlas. … Read more

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