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The best wireless HDMI to send an image to another room with quality and without pulling a cable

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Sometimes we want to see the content on our mobile phone or computer on a larger screen, but it is not always easy. Smart TVs usually have everything you need to do it wirelessly, but older ones don’t. The good news is that there are wireless HDMI solutions that can be very useful, and our recommendation is the Vovipo WTR21 for everything it offers. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links He Vovipo WTR21 It is a wireless HDMI connector that is especially interesting to us because it is usually affordable and offers 4K resolution, so it is also designed to be used on more current televisions or monitors. It is also worth noting something quite practical, and that is that this model incorporates a screen that allows us to know the status of the connection and the strength of the signal. The highlights MODEL PERFECT FOR YOU THE BEST WORST PRICE FROM Vovipo WTR21 If you want to transmit the signal from a laptop to the TV without cables. It offers 4K resolution and has a screen with connection status indicators and signal strength. Does not come with cable adapters. €59.99 Lemorele R1010 If you are looking to connect two screens at the same time, such as a TV and a projector. Includes one transmitter and two receivers, as well as cable adapters. It only offers Full HD resolution. €129.99 Pousild If you want a simple, cheap model and you are close to a Full HD television. It is a basic model and moderately priced. It only offers Full HD resolution and does not have a screen or adapters included. €49.99 J-Tech Digital WEX200V3 If you need to connect several devices that are at a great distance. It offers a fairly large distance, even with obstacles and walls in the way. Its resolution is Full HD and the price is quite high €224.32 Vention TZ-ADP If you want a fairly complete model, with more range and the possibility of connecting several screens or receivers. It has an LED display, has thermal control and offers options with several receivers, up to a maximum of four. It only offers Full HD resolution. €139.99 Lemorele P400 If you want to send an image from a mobile phone, tablet or laptop with USB-C to a TV or projector. It is very versatile. You need the USB-C port on the device to have video output. €65.99 Why they stand out Of all the wireless HDMI kits, we choose the Vovipo WTR21 for everything it offers at a reasonable price. Next, we will review the main characteristics of these devices so that you are clear about what criteria to follow when choosing one model or another. The maximum range. The first thing we must be clear about is the distance at which we are going to have each of the wireless HDMI kits, since not all of them offer the same maximum range. In addition, it is important to know both the maximum distance and whether they are capable of transmitting the signal through physical obstacles such as walls, since some models require direct vision between both connectors for them to work correctly. The resolution and refresh rate supported. Generally, the wireless HDMI kits that we will find in stores will offer Full HD or 4K resolution. Depending on the use we want to give it, it is advisable to choose one or the other. For example, if your idea is to work or use some programs from the couch, a Full HD resolution will be enough. On the other hand, if you want to play multimedia content, the resolution should be 4K (as long as the television is compatible). The same goes for the refresh rate. If you are going to watch movies and series or use some applications, a rate of 60 Hz will be enough. But if you are looking for a much smoother experience because you are going to play video games, it is recommended that the rate reach 120 Hz. The latency. Latency is the time it takes for the image to be played from a device where we have the main HDMI connector installed until it reaches the screen where we have the second connector. And since we are talking about wireless devices, it is practically inevitable that we will encounter some latency. If you are going to watch a movie, latency will not have as big an impact on having a good experience. On the other hand, if you are going to play video games, especially if they are competitive, it is advisable that the wireless HDMI connector have a very low latency. The frequency band. The frequency band is the channel through which data will be sent between both HDMI connectors. Normally we will find 5 GHz and 60 GHz frequencies, and each of them has its advantages and disadvantages: 5 GHz: is the most common, offers good speed and is capable of passing through physical objects such as walls. 60 GHz: In models that work at 60 GHz, the speed is usually higher, but they require direct vision between transmitter and receiver, so they normally do not pass through walls. Connectivity. Some wireless HDMI kits come with a single HDMI port to function, while others are more complete and offer the possibility of connecting them to devices through other ports, USB-C being the most common. It is important to be clear about what devices we are going to use. If it is a laptop, it is possible that (almost) any model will work for you. On the other hand, if you are going to connect a mobile phone, you will need it to have a USB-C port or an adapter. Transmitters and receivers. These types of devices generally come with a transmitter and a receiver, although several may come. In any case, it must be taken into account that: Transmitters capture the signal from the source device and send it to the … Read more

It is no longer enough to count fingers to know if an image is made with AI. Now you have to learn technical drawing

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Detecting images generated by artificial intelligence has become a game of cat and mouse. And the worst thing is that it is going to get worse. For a time, we all began to focus on the hands and in the number of fingers that the AI ​​represented in the images of people through the diffusion mechanisms of the models. A few years ago it was obvious to see when an image was created by AI. Now, with image models and video increasingly precise, the task is much more complex. The good news is that there are still ways to detect if an image has been generated by AI, although seeing the pace at which the models advance, this may soon change again. Detecting them is less intuitive than before, but just pay attention to geometry, shadows and perspective. Basically, technical drawing. Who is behind this idea. Hany Farid, a specialist at the University of California at Berkeley and one of the world’s leading experts in image forensics, has spent more than two decades dedicated to determining whether a photo or video has been manipulated. Santiago Lyon, former director of photography for the Associated Press who now works in digital security at Adobe, describes Farid in a Science report as “a kind of dean of digital forensics”, precisely because he has been at it for so long. Farid helped found this discipline more than 20 years ago, and says that AI is the biggest challenge he has faced. Farid exemplifies his method with this image. If we draw a line towards the horizon between the tiles and the skirting boards, we see that the lines do not converge at a single point, which tells us that the image is generated by AI It’s hard to know what’s true and what’s not.. We are losing the ability to trust what we see. The combination of generative AI, capable of creating images almost indistinguishable from reality, and a warm regulation on social networks It makes the hoaxes amplify, making it increasingly difficult to know if what we are seeing is real or not. And in many cases, we don’t even care. Farid speaks directly of a “global war for truth”, with consequences for people, institutions and democracies. In a TED talk He said that he believes that the percentage of fake images on the Internet is close to 50%. It is no longer useful to focus on pixels. One of the first techniques Farid developed was based on the “noise” left by real cameras. An authentic photo is born from light hitting an electronic sensor; An AI image, on the other hand, emerges from a statistical process that converts random noise into an image consistent with the text requested. This very different origin left traces detectable at the pixel level. The problem is that generators have learned to imitate even those imperfections, sensor noise and lens artifacts. As explains Science report, many of Farid’s pioneering methods based on statistical relationships between pixels “no longer work well, if at all,” because AI images are created from scratch rather than edited over a previous photo. technical drawing. AI, says Farid, “doesn’t know physics, doesn’t know geometry, and does all kinds of atrocities.” And that’s where technical drawing comes in. According to Farid, these are the three fronts that we must examine: Vanishing points. In the real world, parallel lines (train tracks, floor tiles, the sides of a wall) converge toward a single point as they move further apart. It is a principle that artists have known for centuries, but that AI ignores because it does not understand three-dimensional space. If those lines don’t meet at a single point, the scene is physically impossible. Shades. The Sun is so far away that its rays reach the Earth practically parallel. That means that the lines connecting each object to the shadow it casts should also intersect at a point consistent with the position of the light. In many AI-generated images, those lines don’t even come close to crossing. Highlights. The same principle applies to mirrors, as lines connecting one point on an object to its reflection should converge at a vanishing point. When they don’t, the image is given away. The same thing happens in this image. If we draw a line that passes through both the vertices of each cube and the vertices of its projected shadow, we see that they do not converge at a single point either. Track accumulation. No technique is infallible on its own, and Farid insist in that the method consists of accumulating clues, as in an investigation. In his TED talk he exemplified this with an image made with AI of several soldiers looking forward. In it he detected the suspicious pattern in the noise, the absence of a coherent vanishing point on the walls and shadows that did not intersect. Three anomalies that gave clues that the image was not real. The underlying reason why this approach stands up better over time is that AI companies are not looking to fool forensic experts like Farid, but rather the average user, since we are at a much lower bar. As he himself says“the visual system forgives all kinds of nonsense in photos because it doesn’t care.” In this image, if we draw a line from a point in the figure to the same point reflected in the mirror, we see that the lines do not converge at a single point either. Doubts and limits. Not everyone in the field shares the same optimism. Some researchers reaffirm that each detection technique has a very short “useful life”, sometimes a few months, because AI improves very quickly. In fact, the famous mistakes on six-fingered hands disappeared in a flash. Farid, however, is skeptical that AI will ever master complex real-world physics, like an explosion, because simulating it is devilishly difficult and companies have little incentive to go that far. Still, he acknowledges that receives a dozen emails every day from journalists … Read more

A photographer endured temperatures of -28º and 4,000 m altitude in the Alps to capture an almost impossible image

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“There are experiences that you plan for months and yet they arrive without you being prepared.” The phrase is from Angel Fuxa photographer specializing in astrophotography and night landscape portraits, and although it may sound a bit transcendental in your mouth it has a special meaning. A few weeks ago Fux ascended to a summit of 4,200 meters above sea level and, in the middle of hellish conditions which included temperatures of -28ºC, strong gusts of wind and icy ledges where a wrong step could be fatal, obtained one of the most impressive images of the year. Even has attracted attention from NASA. Photographing the darkness. Angel Fux (Paris, 1998) is not just a talented photographer. Over time he has specialized in a fascinating branch: astrophotography and portraits of night mountain landscapes. That obsession has taken her to the Alps, Andes, Pyrenees or the Dolomites, among other regions. “My search for dark skies has intensified over the years in a way that I did not understand until recently,” recognize on his blog. Some time ago Fux was fascinated by the darkness in the Peruvian Andes and in 2025 she ascended to Gornergrat (Pennine Alps) to enjoy a similar experience with your camera at 3,000 meters above sea level. From each expedition he returned to his studio with hypnotic photographs that fueled his ambition, so a few months ago he asked himself a question: Why not go further and observe the night sky from almost 4,200 m above sea level? Dent d´Hérensa summit located just behind the Matterhorn, between Italy and Switzerland? Double arch captured in 2025 in Gornergrat. Image: Angel Fux A very precise objective. His idea was not only to ascend the Dent d’Hérens and aim his objective at the night sky. Fux wanted to capture a unique and ephemeral spectacle: the moment in which, with the help of a prepared camera, an astrophotographer can capture the double arc of the Milky Way. “Once a year, in the northern hemisphere, something simply extraordinary happens in the night sky. For a few days each March it is possible to see both arms of the Milky Way above the horizon on the same night, not at the same time, but along the same Earth’s rotation.” “The winter arc, a quieter, less dense band of stars, rises during the first half of the night. Then, as the Earth rotates, the summer arc rises from the other direction, bringing with it the galactic core, that unmistakable, dense river of light. Together, they form what is known as the double arc of the Milky Way.” It is not an unexplored phenomenon. Other photographers have captured it in awesome images and Fux herself portrayed the double arch in 2025 from the Gornergrat, at 3,100 m. Photographers with ice axes. The challenge that Fux set for himself this year raised the bar for several reasons. To begin with, the area in which I wanted to work. It was proposed to ascend 1,000 meters more than in 2025, until the Dent d’Hérensto achieve a unique result. The reason? “Photographers don’t go there, especially in winter and even less at night. The equipment necessary for astrophotography and that required for mountaineering are simply incompatible in most cases,” relates. For his expedition he needed the help of a professional mountain guide, Richard Lehner, who participated in the project with his son, Arnaud. Squaring the circle. Another complication is that, although the natural spectacle that Fux was looking for is repeated every year, it is not always photographable. For the cameras to capture it properly, they must be other extra conditions: the right phase of the moon, a correct location for the angle of the arcs, a 360-degree clear horizon and as low a level of light pollution as possible. Even if the photographer takes care of all these factors in detail and looks for the most suitable location, there is a risk that the weather will not be good. If so, the job is in danger because, as Fux remembersthe “optimal period” to take the image is very limited: it lasts just five days, so there are years in which the spectacle simply “disappears.” Months of preparation. In your blog Fux explains in detail what the preparation process was like, but comes with knowing two pieces of information. Although the photo was taken in March, he contacted his guide half a year in advance, in September. During those six months Fux dedicated himself to planning logistics, preparing the equipment and studying how to approach the work. However, it is one thing to have a plan drawn up and quite another to have it fulfilled. Throughout the process, the Frenchwoman faced several setbacks that did not prevent her from heading to Dent d’Hérens in March with Richard and Arnaud. The three knew that there was a risk that their stay at the summit would be complicated, so they had to be well equipped. Biggest fear: frostbite. “My sleeping bag is designed to withstand temperatures down to -30ºC, with a survival threshold that extends to -50 or -60ºC. My boots are three-layer mountaineering boots, with attachable crampons. My clothing consisted of several layers, both to maintain passive heat and allow active movement,” clarify. “We also had a system of ropes and harnesses prepared, since once at the top, I had to be tied at all times when leaving the tent. The ledges that surrounded the area made any movement without a rope very dangerous.” And the technical part? fux usa a special team which includes, among other pieces, a Nikon Z6 II camera adapted for astrophotography, a Nikon NIKKOR Z 20mm f/1.8 lens and a Benro Polaris star tracker. Despite this material and his experience in the mountains, Fux had to deal with some unforeseen events that threatened to ruin the project. For example, the nights spent acclimatizing to the altitude practiced with the camera to make sure, among other things, that you could handle it with gloves. “During one … Read more

The Italian far-right was looking for a way to clean up its image. He found the formula in ‘The Lord of the Rings’

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In November 2023, Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni opened an exhibition on JRR Tolkien at the National Gallery of Modern Art in Rome, organized by her Ministry of Culture. Nothing unusual, except that Meloni has been understanding ‘the lord of the rings‘ as a “sacred text.” This is how the legendary British fantasy trilogy ended up becoming a political catechism for the Italian extreme right. We started badly. The first Italian edition of ‘The Lord of the Rings’ was published in 1970, with a prologue signed by the philosopher Elémire Zolla, who interpreted the work as an allegory of “pure” communities threatened by foreign invaders. For the youth of Italian Social Movement (the MSI, a party founded in 1946 by veterans of Mussolini’s fascism) that reading was an enlightenment. As he noted in his 1975 review of the book far-right youth leader Marco Tarchi, the work was perfect for the young right precisely because it did not carry the weight of fascist history. Relocation sought. The MSI had been trying for years to reframe its identity in a country where the left dominated culturally, with the old fascism logically stigmatized. They needed something new to renew the symbols. He imagined universe by Tolkien gave them the opportunity to articulate a political identity around values ​​of virtue and anti-modernity, values ​​that Julius Evola, the ultra-nationalist mystical philosopher who advocated a racial hierarchy of pagan and aristocratic lineage, had already been preaching for decades. Fascist Woodstock. In 1977, leaders of MSI (and, above all, its youth faction) organized what would be known as Hobbit Camps. The first was held for two days in southern Italy and brought together young people from all over the country. On the surface, the event had the look of a folk music festival: stages with performances, tents, booths with books and T-shirts. Of course, a dozen muscular boys maintained order, and they were distinguished by wearing bracelets with a Celtic cross. Calling them Hobbit Camp, they wanted to attendees will identify with these small beings: conservative, rooted in tradition, reticent to change and foreigners… The group did not hide its affiliation: flags with Celtic crosses flew in perfect harmony with the Tolkienian aesthetic, the band Compagnia dell’Anello (that is, “Fellowship of the Ring”) played songs about the good old European identity. His anthem, in fact, was ‘Il domani appartiene a noi’ (“Tomorrow belongs to us”), whose title was a deliberate replica of the shocking song of the Hitler Youth in ‘Cabaret‘, titled ‘Tomorrow belongs to me’. A women’s magazine called ‘Éowyn’ was also launched, in honor of the princess of Rohan. These camps They stopped being celebrated in 1981when they had fulfilled their function as spaces of recruitment and indoctrination, hidden under a layer of celebration of popular culture. Meloni the cosplayer. Meloni was four years old in 1981. But a decade later he attended the revival of these camps: Hobbit 93, held in Rome, where he sang with the band Compagnia dell’Anello. He had come to Tolkien at age 11 and joined the MSI youth team shortly after. As a youth activist, Meloni and his group of militants gave themselves Tolkienian nicknames, visited high schools in disguise to catch the kids, and met at the “blowing of Boromir’s horn” to hold thematic talks on political recruitment. In her autobiography ‘Io sono Giorgia‘, published in 2021, Meloni described Sam as his favorite hobbit: neither strong, nor fast, nor majestic, an ordinary hobbit but without whose help Frodo would never have completed his mission. A metaphor for the transformative power of ordinary people. sacred text. The admiration has not diminished over the years. Meloni has said that he considers ‘The Lord of the Rings’ not a fantasy, but a sacred text. In an interview with ‘The New York Times’ in 2022 he declared that “Tolkien can explain better than we can what conservatives believe.” On the night of the general election he won, his sister Arianna posted a celebratory letter on Facebook full of Tolkien references. And at the final campaign rally, the actor Pino Insegno, the Italian voice of Aragorn, introduced her to the public by reproducing the character’s speech in front of the Gates of Mordor. It is not the only fantastic reference that Meloni handles: the political festival that the leader founded, which attracts figures like Elon Musk or Viktor Orbán and which has been defined as the largest event of the European conservative current, is called Atrejuin honor of the hero of ‘The Neverending Story’. Tolkien Expo. In November 2023, Meloni inaugurated the exhibition ‘Tolkien: man, teacher, author’ in Rome, organized by his Ministry of Culture to commemorate the fifty years since the writer’s death. Criticism was abundant: several analysts pointed out the conflict of interest of a government with post-fascist roots dedicating public resources to praising the book that had served as a catechism for its predecessors. Some nuances. Not all analysts see Tolkien’s importance in the foundations of the new Italian extreme right as so central, even though Meloni does show herself to be a strong devotee of the text. The political scientist Piero Ignazi pointed outfor example, that the Hobbit Camps were organized by a minority faction of the MSI, and that the focus on hobbits and elves is part of Meloni’s personal communication strategy: the image of a woman less aggressive than other far-right leaders, with accessible cultural references. But is Tolkien a fascist? As for whether The Lord of the Rings is right-wing, just remember that Tolkien wrote the trilogy during the rise of Nazism and fascism and refused to publish ‘The Hobbit’ in German when They asked him to prove Aryan descent. Possibly he would have been repelled by the idea of ​​hobbits being read as opposed to change and devoted to preserving traditions. Even so, his work continues to serve as a basis for dubious movements: as he analyzed Arc Magazine In 2025, sectors of the technological right of Silicon Valley, aligned with the MAGA wing, … Read more

the brutal ESA image that summarizes the geological violence of Mars in a single photo

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The noticeable changes in the mars landscape They are very slow. It is estimated that they may take up to millions of years to occur, as it is considered a fairly static planet in that regard. However, scientists from the European Space Agency (ESA) have detected a change that occurred much more quickly. So much so that humans of the same generation have been conscious. From Viking to Mars Express. The High Resolution Stereoscopic Camera (HRSC) The Mars Express has taken some images that have caught the attention of the ESA scientists in charge of analyzing them. In them you can see a large area covered in ashes. These ashes already appeared in other photos taken by NASA’s Viking orbiters in 1976. However, there were much fewer of them then. It is surprising how much they have proliferated in just 50 years. volcanic origin. The origin of these ashes is quite clear. The volcanic material is known to be rich in ‘mafic’ minerals, which form at high temperatures. Olivine and pyroxene are two good examples. These minerals have a dark appearance, very similar to the ashes that appear in the photos. Therefore, it must have a volcanic origin. In addition, Mars is characterized by having great volcanic activity and by hosting the largest volcano in the Solar System: Olympic Mons. All clues lead to the volcanic origin. The wind spread or uncovered them. What is not so clear is how so many ashes have appeared in such a short time. ESA researchers believe it must be because of the wind. It may be that the Martian winds moved them, spreading them over a wider space, or that they uncovered them. Perhaps they were already there, but the wind moved the ocher dust characteristic of the surface of Mars that would be covering them. Comparison of Viking (left) and Mars Express (right) images A crater among the ashes. Something curious about the photo is that in it you can see many signs of the changes that the Martian surface has experienced over time. On the one hand, we see the aforementioned ashes. And, on the other, the 15 kilometer wide crater that appears in the photo between them. This is surrounded by a striking ring of apparently lighter material, known as an ‘ejector blanket’. It is a structure that is formed from the material thrown by the impact that formed the crater itself. In the photo you can also see some wavy lines inside the crater that mark where the icy material known to be under Mars has been spreading. Changes and more changes. This photograph, which in turn is located in an impact basin called Utopia Planitia, is the living image of how the Martian surface has been modified by impacts, volcanoes and ice that tries to escape between the cracks. Now, at least, we know that not all of these changes are as slow as we thought. Some occur in the blink of a spatial eye. Images | THAT In Xataka | In 2011, a collector bought a meteorite in Morocco. It has turned out to be direct evidence of thermal water on Mars

In 1987 he had a problem displaying images on his Mac, so he created an app. Today it is the most used image editor in history

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Maybe with Nano Banana There are people who have banished Photoshop, but the image editor is the tool that has accompanied photography professionals for decades, almost on par with their camera. In fact, it achieved something only within the reach of very few technological products: becoming a verb and even enter the dictionary. We Photoshop an image and Google it on the internet. Like many other milestones, Photoshop was born by chance: It was the result of a screen that did not know how to show grays. In figures. In these almost 40 years of Photoshop’s life, the editor has been accumulating astronomical data of its progress. Its launch price in 1990 was $895. No joke, it would be equivalent to $2,100 today. It has never been a home software but a professional one. Adobe closed last year with record turnover of 23.77 billion dollars. In 2024 billing was of 21,510 million dollars, of which subscriptions represented 20,521 million dollars. In 2013 Adobe played all its cards on the subscription. Time has proven him right: in twelve years it went from 4,000 million annual billing to almost 24 billion in 2025. How it all started. It’s 1987 and Thomas Knoll was pursuing a doctorate at the University of Michigan in computer vision. Then he had a problem: his Mac Plus had a monochrome screen unable to display grayscale images, only pure black and white. So he wrote a few lines of code to fix it. He called it Display. His little program did the trick, but that was it: he had no intention of commercializing it. The one who did have a nose for the business was his brother John, who at that time worked at Industrial Light & Magic (George Lucas’ company in charge of making Star Wars special effects): convinced him to develop the entire program. Brothers and partners, they sold the license to Adobe Systems Incorporated in 1988. From layers to AI. Photoshop 1.0 would see the light of day in February 1990 as an editor that required only 2MB of RAM and an 8 MHz processor to run, the minimum specifications for a Mac. To put it in context: today Photoshop recommends 16GB of RAM, 8,000 times more. It included tools as iconic to its users as the lasso or the magic wand. But if there was a technical leap that made the difference, those were the very useful capes: they arrived in 1994 with Photoshop 3.0. Before layers, the editor was destructive: each change overwrote the original image. Almost 20 years later, another functional milestone would arrive: the arrival of AI with Generative Fillthat is, being able to add or delete objects with a prompt. Despite the controversy over authorship and the future of retouchingits numbers were incontestable: in April of last year it had already generated more than 22,000 million images since its launch, according to Adobe. The risky move to the subscription model. Before the tricky decision to include AI in its suite, Adobe made another risky move: in 2013 and when we had still succumbed in subscriptionocracyannounced that it would stop selling its Photoshop on a license forever and start renting it. At that time almost 50,000 customers signed a petition against of this decision and its shares fell 12%. Once again, time and pocketbooks seem to have proven them right: they have multiplied their income by six. In Xataka | 16 years ago a student from Barcelona was looking for an easy way to edit PDFs. The website he created is one of the most viewed on the internet In Xataka | 30 years ago he created a player for the university: today his app has more than 6 billion downloads and is still free and without ads Cover | University of Michigan

the international image of UAE

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“It’s not the Dubai we know.” The phrase is from Satya Jaganathan, a woman from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) who on Sunday told the BBC how their routine has been turned upside down by something difficult to see in one of the richest and most stable nations in the Middle East: missiles. Over the weekend, in response to the US-Israeli attack that killed its supreme leader, Tehran responded with a wave of missiles that partly targeted your neighbors of the Gulf, targeting Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait or the UAE, where Jaganathan was caught. The Iranian drones and missiles have not left a large number of victims in the UAE, but they have dealt a severe blow to something equally important for the country: the image of stability that it projects globally, a fundamental value that has helped it become the destination of thousands of expats and a logistical reference. As Satya says, the Dubai of this Sunday “is not the Dubai we know.” What has happened? That the Middle East faces what is probably its most tense outlook in recent years. On Saturday, Israel and the United States launched a powerful attack against Iran that ended the life of the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khameneiin addition to the Iranian Minister of Defense and the commander of the Revolutionary Guard, according to Reuters. Tehran’s reaction was devastating. Unlike other Iranian attacks, such as the one in 2024 or the ‘Twelve Day War’when the offensive of the Islamic Republic seemed to seek a “planned de-escalation”on this occasion the Iranian forces have responded with force. And in the process they have pointed out where it hurts the most in countries like the UAE or Saudi Arabia. What has he done? Tehran has responded to the Israeli and American attacks with severity, launching missiles and drones that (now) do not seem to seek de-escalation. For now, it has managed to escalate the conflict and directly involve other countries in the Middle East. In addition to directing missiles toward Israel, the Islamic Republic has dealt blows against the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Jordan and Iraq. It’s not a coincidence. To a greater or lesser extent, these seven nations facilitate Washington’s operations in the region. The port of Jebel Ali, for example, regularly welcomes American ships, Bahrain is home to the Fifth Fleet of the US Navy and the US also takes advantage of Doha. “All occupied territories and US criminal bases in the region have been hit by powerful Iranian missile strikes. This operation will continue relentlessly until the enemy is decisively defeated,” claims the Revolutionary Guard. Their purpose is clear: to pressure their neighbors to limit Washington’s reach. In case there were any doubts, the Iranian Foreign Minister, Abbas Araghchi, remembered to the countries of the region that have the “responsibility to prevent the improper use of their facilities and territories.” How have the attacks been? Beyond the Iranian rhetoric, it does not appear that the attacks have had serious consequences either in terms of casualties or destruction of infrastructure. Jordan claims to have shot down a pair of ballistic missiles and, although “objects and debris” fell at several points, they only caused material damage. In Kuwait a drone attacked the airfield and in Saudi Arabia the Government insist in which it has repelled “cowardly attacks” against Riyadh and the Eastern Province. Of course that does not mean that Iran has not left destruction and victims. Are figures handled? Yes. In total The New York Times details that Iranian attacks have caused at least four deaths and more than a hundred injured in the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman. Perhaps the country that has received the most attention is the UAE, which received a wave of more than 540 drones165 ballistic missiles and another two cruise missiles, according to their authorities. Emirati air defense systems have intercepted most of the projectiles, but that did not prevent the blow from being felt in one of the most influential and thriving kingdoms in the region. In Dubai, the financial heart of the Middle East, images have been seen of luxurious hotels affected by fire, towers with windows burst by explosions and havoc at the airport. That’s all? No. Beyond the toll of injuries, deaths and damaged infrastructure, Iran has pursued another objective: to hit the international image of its neighbors, limiting their projection of reliable destinations. The worst part has probably been borne by the Emirates, where they live hundreds of thousands of expats. The nation has also become an important tourist hub, both for its attraction itself and for its strategic position, which makes it a stopover point for many Western tourists who fly to Asia or Oceania. In practice, that translates into two things: a constant flow of millions of travelers from the rest of the world and thousands and millions of dollars. A whole way to diversify the economy beyond oil, an objective that neighboring Saudi Arabia has also been pursuing for years. due to megaprojects. Is it that serious? Beyond its skyscrapers, luxury, landscapes, standard of living and great infrastructure, hooks that serve to attract expats and tourists, the UAE above all plays the card of its stability. The same one that Iran now wants to score against. “You don’t expect to hear missiles flying in Dubai,” recognize to TNYW Elizabeth Rayment, who was surprised by the attack in Palm Islands. The weekend attacks caused a fire for example at the Fairmont The Palm hotel in Dubai, a luxurious five-star establishment. Other accommodation damaged by the remains of an Iranian drone was the Burj Al Arab. What is the objective? For Middle East expert Andrew Thomas, there is little doubt about Iran’s purpose. “This is a deliberate strategy, designed to impose early and substantial costs on its neighbors and the overall stability of the region,” he explains in an article of The Conversation. “The strategy is to weaken the region and … Read more

We can no longer trust any image on the internet

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In 2012, Hurricane Sandy devastated the Caribbean Sea and reached the coast of New York. There he left floods, power outages and spectacular photos. Of all of them there was one especially amazing which went viral, but there was a problem: it was false. She wasn’t the only one that slipped into networks. That image was just one more example of what we have seen before and after: great phenomena and events end up generating floods of content, some of which are not real. There are many reasons why people take advantage of these moments to spread false images, but at least before achieving credible images and videos was expensive. Only advanced users of applications like Photoshop or Final Cut/Premiere could achieve convincing results, but AI, as we know, has changed all that. We have been warning about this problem for some time: distinguishing between what is real and what is generated by AI it’s getting harder. and these days we have had the last great example of this trend. Anatomy of a deepfake The Kamchatka Peninsula, in the far east of Russia, has experienced a historic snow storm. The worst in decades, according to records, with snow levels exceeding two meters in various areas, according to Xinhua. Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, the administrative, industrial, and scientific center of Kamchatka Krai, has especially suffered these consequences, and residents of the region have spread images on networks of the one that already has been baptized like the “snow apocalypse.” Those images spread in news media and social networks and that they were real—often more “mundane” and much less spectacular— contrast with others that theoretically also showed the state of various points in the region but that are actually generated with AI. That video, for example, was shared a few days ago by Linus Ekenstam, an influencer who often shares news and reflections on AI. He republished that video and claimed that it was real, but soon several users indicated that the video was actually created by AI. Ekenstam argued that the theoretical AI error that it pointed out in the user was not such, and that where he lives there are poles near the streetlights. He therefore tried to defend that for him the video was real, but others suggested that it was not. The definitive test: a user linked to the theoretical original videowhich apparently originated in a TikTok account dedicated precisely to disseminating AI-generated content that seems real. The crucial thing about that fake video is that it is spectacular, but not overly spectacular. It is, to a certain extent, believable, and when the image and the camera movement itself is so convincing, it is difficult to think that “maybe it is generated by AI.” With this snow storm experienced in Kamchatka, unusual images have been shared on networks, much more typical of a dystopian Hollywood movie than a real natural phenomenon. A priori the images may even seem coherent, but a more detailed – and above all, more critical – examination makes it easier for us to realize that perhaps these images are not as real as they seem. In fact, the most striking images shared on social networks and that accumulate thousands of retweets and likes on X, for example, contrast with those published in traditional media, which tend to be as we said much less flashy and much more mundane. Spanish media such as OndaZero or OKDiario have published some images and videos generated by AI on their digital media or on their social media accounts without realizing that these videos actually had their origin in the aforementioned TikTok account which has managed to spread like wildfire. Debates about the possibility that certain images could be real have been frequent for example on Redditwhere users shared for example an amazing catch which when analyzed in detail seemed generated by AI. The avalanche of “citizen journalism”, which can be well-intentioned and very important at times, contrasts here with the role of the media, which has an enormous responsibility in acting as trusted sources of information. Even they (and we) can fall into the trap, and here once again The best thing is to start distrusting what we see on our screens, because it may be false content. The videos that appeared in some media such as SkyNews or in The Vanguard they combine with others that (at least, a priori) seem real, but that at this point also require rigorous examination. Our brain betrays us and technology knows it There are several well-studied psychological phenomena and cognitive biases that explain why we believed in fake news in the past and now the same thing happens to us again with deepfakes. It doesn’t matter if we know (or at least rationally suspect) that these images and videos are false: technology and especially AI precisely exploit these biases. Among them the following stand out: Confirmation bias: we believe what fits with what we already believe. Our brain does not seek truth as much as internal coherence, so if a piece of news reinforces our ideology, we lower the level of potential criticism, but if it contradicts it, we analyze it with a magnifying glass or directly discard it. The problem here is that AI can generate tailor-made content adjusted to each narrative. Illusory truth effect: here it happens that “if I have seen it many times, it will be true.” Repetition increases the feeling of truthfulness, not actual truthfulness, and it is something that, for example, social networks, machines for repeating hoaxes, make the most of. Again, AI facilitates the mass production of the same lie with minimal variations. We believe what we see: This is what some call perceptual realism. We trust too much in the visual, and hence the famous saying “a picture is worth a thousand words.” Images are processed much faster than text, and critical thinking comes after the emotional reaction, as you well argued Daniel Kanheman in his famous ‘Think fast, think slow’. Cognitive load: related … Read more

How to create an image of yourself and a Pixar character with your face using artificial intelligence, with Gemini or ChatGPT

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We are going to explain how to create an image in which you appear holding a 3D character of yours miniature using artificial intelligencelooking like Pixar characters. We are going to use a prompt created for use with Geminialthough it will also work in ChatGPT without problems. It is a fairly simple composition, in which you only need to add a photo of yourself and write the prompt, which is quite long and complex. But the result is quite curious, although you may need several tries to get it completely to your liking. An image of you with a 3D cartoon What you have to do is open a new chat with Gemini, which is the AI ​​with which you will have the best results. Once you have it, upload a photo of yourself in which your face looks goodand then add the following text as a request or prompt: “Use the uploaded photo as the ONLY facial and identity reference. The main subject must look exactly like the person in the uploaded image, preserving identical facial structure, proportions, skin tone, hairstyle, eye shape, nose, lips, jawline and overall identity. Do not embellish, alter or replace facial features. Create a cinematic, ultra-detailed scene of your subject smiling naturally. The subject delicately holds a tiny, cartoon-style miniature version of the same person by the hair between his fingers, like a playful puppet suspended in the air. The miniature character is a Pixar/Disney-style 3D version of the same person, with cute, exaggerated proportions, big, expressive eyes, mouth open with joy, arms raised, and a lively, playful stance. The miniature must clearly resemble the same person and be wearing a matching outfit. The main subject looks at the little character with surprise, delight and affection, creating a whimsical and touching interaction. Lighting is warm professional studio lighting with soft rim light, shallow depth of field, and soft golden bokeh background. The real person’s skin texture is photorealistic, while the miniature character has clean Pixar-style materials, smooth shading, and polished 3D surfaces. Cinematic color grading, high contrast, sharp focus, premium portrait composition, 50mm lens look, f/1.8 aperture, ultra-realism mixed with stylized animation, 4:5 aspect ratio, 8K quality, cinematic finish. Anime, 2D illustration, comic style, flat shading, low poly, plastic skin, wax face, face swap, different identity, facial morphing, beauty filters, excessive smoothing, blur, low resolution, grain, noise, distortion, deformed face, incorrect facial proportions, extra fingers, missing fingers, duplicate hands, floating objects, bad anatomy, inconsistent lighting, harsh shadows, neon colors, cold blue tones, washed out colors, excessive saturation, watermark, text, logo, severed head, face out of frame.” Yes, it is a very long text, but each of the sentences that make it up help with the effect. When you send it, you will receive a composition that shows an image of you holding a Pixar character with your face in your fingers. You will also be able to do it with ChatGPTwhich occasionally releases good results. However, the faces are sometimes somewhat deformed, and for now Gemini seems to do better almost always. In Xataka Basics | How to create a character in ChatGPT and Gemini to use it in all the images you make with artificial intelligence

How to create a Christmas sugar cookie image with your pet’s photo in a couple of clicks with ChatGPT

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We are going to explain to you step by step how to create a Christmas sugar cookie image with your pet’s photo wearing ChatGPT Imagesthe section to create images from photographs of ChatGPT. This tool will allow you to do the editing with artificial intelligence without having to write a prompt certain. Therefore, the best thing about all this is that these images are very easy to makeand you only need a couple of clicks to get them. Furthermore, since when the photo is generated you will also be shown the prompt generated by ChatGPT itself, you can copy and paste it into another AI or make any modifications you want. Make sugar cookies from your pets The first thing you have to do is enter the ChatGPT website or application on your device. Here in the side menu Click on the section Images that will appear just below the search options. Once you enter the section Imagesnow you have to look in the row where it says Test a style on an image. Here, search and click on the option sugar cookie that appears with the drawing of a dog biscuit. This will open a window where you have to choose the photo of your pet that you want to use as a reference. For this, you can use one of the recent ones that you have used in this section, or manually choose another one that you want to use. And that’s it. Just by doing this, ChatGPT will create the sugar cookie image with the photo of the pet that you have uploaded. If you are not satisfied, you can try again or copy and paste the prompt with another photo. You can also edit and modify the prompt so that the result is different. In Xataka Basics | How to create a character in ChatGPT and Gemini to use it in all the images you make with artificial intelligence

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