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Apple has only found one option to make a cheap laptop: make it a mobile

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The new MacBook Neo It costs 699 euros because it has the iPhone 16 Pro chip inside. Not the M4 from a couple of years ago, neither the M3 nor the M2. The A18 Pro: the same processor as many people have in their pocket. Apple has solved the price problem by doing something that until recently would have been unthinkable in its own mental architecture: reuse a mobile chip in a laptop. They put it in an aluminum case with a keyboard and hinge, gave it a new name, and sold it as if it were a different category. It is not. It is something more similar to an iPhone without a touch screen, with a trackpad and keyboard, and with macOS on top. For years, Apple has maintained (implicitly but consistently) that the Mac and iPhone were worlds apart, with different chips, for different uses. ARM architecture unified the foundation six years ago, but the M family and the A family followed separate paths: one for the desktop, the laptop and the tablet; another for mobile. That separation has sustained an entire product hierarchy. The Neo just killed it. Apple is admitting that the mobile chip is sufficient for most customers’ laptops. It is a recognition that has more implications than the price. If the iPhone chip is good enough for a Mac, what exactly the hell were we paying for before? The answer is… Apple’s margin. And the name. And the feeling that a Mac was something qualitatively different from a mobile phone with a keyboard. Now that feeling has a reference price: 600 euros difference between the cheapest MacBook and the most expensive iPhone. And the Neo’s USB-C ports don’t support Thunderbolt because the A18 Pro It doesn’t support it, so that’s not a product decision, it’s an original limitation that Apple has accepted as sufficient. The Neo isn’t exactly a strategic bet either. It’s more like an admission.. Apple had spent years without anything really competitive below 1,000 euros and it knew it, which is why sold the M1 in the United States for $700 as an emergency maneuver. On this side of the Atlantic, the empire of reconditioned and second-hand goods was taking away too many sales. The iPad with keyboard did almost the same thing as the entry-level MacBook Air and cost less, with the disadvantage of iPadOS but with greater versatility due to the touch screen and the option of using it undocked. The only way down was to cross the internal borders that Apple itself had built between its chip families. And there is what the Neo leaves in the air, more interesting than any specification: if the mobile chip is already sufficient for the work laptop of the majority, the convergence between both categories is not a future hypothesis. This is what Apple just put in its window for 699 mutts. In Xataka | Apple made a splash with its cheapest iPhone. And the iPhone 17e is coming to repeat the play Featured image | Apple

I have used my Android mobile as a PC thanks to desktop mode. It is a fantastic option

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Ricardo Aguilar, a colleague at Xataka, knows a lot about mobile phones, so from time to time he throws some insult at me about my already somewhat mature Pixel 8 Pro. Today, however, the insult is mine. Because? Well, because as he himself warned the team, Android ‘desktop mode’ is finally available. This optionthat I’ve been waiting for years (he knows it well) it also arrives in a limited way, because only some devices can enjoy it. Specifically, the recent Pixels. And my Pixel 8 Pro is one of them. In the past I have tested this feature on other devices: I did it of course on Samsungs, which has been offering it through DeX for yearsand also on some other mobile such as Motorola and some Huawei models, which they also boasted of said characteristic. Google had been around for a while raising this possibilityand last year an Android beta appeared that offered this capability. Now that option is finally officially available, although as we say, for now only on Google Pixels starting with Pixel 8. Enviable start-up To activate this option you must first activate the developer options in the Android settings, and then enable option for desktop features which we can find almost at the end of those options for developers. Once this is done, the system asks for a restart, after which everything is ready to use desktop mode. To do this, I connected a 15-inch external monitor to my Pixel through a USB-C to Micro HDMI cable (I tried a USB-C to USB-C cable, but the cable I used had a small problem). By detecting that we connect the mobile phone to a screen, The Pixel gives us the option of using the mobile phone as a “Computer” (the desktop mode itself) or of projecting it as it has been possible to do for years. I chose the first option​​ and I finally found that desktop mode that basically makes Android becomes a hybrid operating system which works practically the same as Windows, Linux or macOS do on a PC or laptop. Thus, we have a desktop in which there is a lower bar with the application launcher and a series of “pinned” apps, and at the top a system bar that allows, for example, access to notifications and quick settings on our mobile. From there the experience is very similar to using a PC. We can open applications and, of course, resize and move windows to place them however we like on the desktop. I normally use two competing advantages of the browser to work on the topics I prepare for Engadget, and that is exactly the configuration I have used to write this text: with two Chrome windows I have worked practically the same as I usually do on my Mac mini M4. A small change of mentality Obviously in that desktop mode it is necessary connect a mouse and keyboard to the Pixelwhich I have connected via Bluetooth. The detection and operation of these devices was carried out without problems, and once on the desktop everything works, I insist, as one would expect. You can quickly launch apps from the taskbar launcher and pin certain apps to that taskbar. It is also possible to show all open applications with that old access at the bottom right with a square-shaped icon. There is a strange feeling here because logically what you are using are the applications on your mobile phone natively. Thus, it is not necessary to open WhatsApp in a browser tab because you already have the native app ready and running in the background, and the same goes for the rest of the options, such as the Twitter app (X) or YouTube: they are not tabs, but full-fledged apps. It is a slight but curious change of mentality, of course. And there is also the other reality: some apps that we usually use on the desktop are not as clear as those on Windows or macOS. There is a clear example in the file explorer: Android has its own (Files) and I, for example, usually use Amaze for these tasks, but Google has never conceived Android as an operating system in which the user messes with files and folders. We can do it, yes, but it is not the strong point of this platform, as neither is it, for example, working with the command console. Here again that possibility exists, but you have to “play around” a little more to be able to install a terminal and use it in a similar way as we would do in Linux, macOS or in Windows CMD/Powershell. I have not tried much more demanding applications at the moment, but this opens the door to using some more advanced and ambitious applications in desktop mode: here it occurs to me that an image or video editor could be a striking candidate to take advantage of this desktop mode. There is also striking scope here for entertainment with games that we can play with a mouse and keyboard as we would on a PC, even though they are games for Android. The possibilities are most striking. Your PC can certainly be your mobile These tests have made me realize that this definitely opens up those possibilities that we have been talking about for years. A laptop normally solves the mobility issue, but if you need to have “your PC” anywhereyou don’t even need that anymore: if you have a monitor, keyboard and mouse somewhere else, this Android desktop mode allows you to use your device almost like a PC. I just did it while writing this article, and the truth is, the experience has been surprisingly good. Not perfect, mind you– The on-screen keyboard appears from time to time as if the system does not detect that you have a physical one connected, for example, and window management is not as intuitive as one might wish. But still the overall result is fantastic in my … Read more

In this city in Ukraine, going outside is not an option because of the drones. So they have found a solution: live underground

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For decades war was thought of as a recognizable front line, with more or less secure soldiers, trenches and rearguards. The massive emergence of drones has dynamited that scheme: the sky has become a permanent hunting ground, the distinction between combatant and civilian has been blurred and entire cities now live under the constant threat of cheap and lethal machines that can attack at any moment. In Ukraine they have forced everyday life to hide underground to continue existing. Kherson and the threat behind the windows. The key Ukrainian city has become the most extreme example of how drones have transformed war and civil lifeto the point that going outside has become the closest thing to a “death sport”, with Russian quadcopters operating from the other bank of the Dnieper that they hunt random people in what the Ukrainians themselves describe as a “human safari.” In a city of wide avenues and tsarist architecture, today the sky is the true enemy, responsible for hundreds of deaths and thousands of injuries in a single year, in what the United Nations and human rights organizations describe as war crimes and the world’s most intensive use of drones against a civilian population. Live underground. Faced with the impossibility of completely protecting the surface, life in Kherson has declined literally underground. There is no rhetoric, since they literally live underground with hospitals, maternity wards, public offices, theaters and cultural spaces moved to basements and former Soviet shelters, while playgrounds have been replaced. through underground game rooms and all schools in the city operate only online. This forced displacement has created a strange and oppressive routine in which day-to-day life passes between corridors, bunkers and improvised roomsbecause any exposure to the open sky can end in seconds with a guided explosion from a remote camera. It is the real version of any scenario that science fiction cinema or literature ever staged. Improvised defenses. Faced with this omnipresent threat, the authorities have deployed a combination of solutions that illustrate the extent to which the city lives in an almost post-apocalyptic future, with kilometers of anti-drone networks covering entire streets, mesh tunnels over the main access roads, electronic interference walls next to the river and hundreds of concrete capsules spread along the sidewalks to offer immediate shelter. Even so, those responsible themselves admit that nothing is completely effectivebecause drones evolve, dodge defenses, throw grenades or mines and turn any daily journey into a desperate race in which you cannot run faster than the machine you are chasing from the air. Live, not just survive. In this extreme context, the effort is not limited to keeping the population alive, but rather to preserving a minimum feeling of normalityespecially for the little ones, children, who grow up under constant stress and fear of going outside. In fact, there is a whole network of psychologists, educators and volunteers who organize dance, art or biology classes in basements, install sandboxes so that the little ones can touch the ground and even create spaces where choosing, playing and learning is a form of emotional resistance in the face of a war that invades everything. The idea is clear in Kherson: it is not enough to hide, you have to keep livingeven under layers of cement. The laboratory of a disturbing future. If you like, Kherson is not just a devastated city, but an advance which many fear will become the norm in many other conflicts of the future, one where cheap and precise drones democratize the ability to attack civilians with an ease that was unthinkable just a few years ago. Thus, after a Russian occupation, a liberation celebrated and an immediate return of horror from a distance, the city has been trapped a kilometer from the front, with a population reduced to a fraction of the original that, despite everything, refuses to leave. Underground, between networks, shelters and constant alarms, Kherson survives like a brutal warning of how the war of the future can empty the streets and push human life to simply hide to exist. Image | Ministry of Defense of Ukraine In Xataka | A drone takes aim and blows up a Russian penguin in front. It is the result of an increasingly absurd war In Xataka | Three Russians surrender on camera: what was previously a “normal” scene in the war in Ukraine is science fiction

Self-consumption is no longer a marginal option to conquer half of Spain

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The spring of 2025 marked a before and after in the psyche of the Spanish consumer. The so-called “Great Blackout”which left millions of homes without power on the Peninsula, transformed the perception of solar panels. What was previously seen mainly as a way to reduce the monthly bill, is today perceived as a guarantee of resilience and energy independence. in the face of market volatility. The consolidation data. According to the “Solar Report 2025: X-ray of self-consumption in Spain”, prepared by SotySolar in collaboration with the Spanish Photovoltaic Union (UNEF)the market has entered a phase of maturity after years of accelerated expansion. Spain closed the 2024 financial year with an accumulated installed capacity of 8,137 GW. These figures closely coincide with the records of the Ministry for the Ecological Transition (MITECO), which places the power at 8,255 GW. However, Red Eléctrica raises the total estimate current at 8.7 GW, integrating data from the Electrical Measurements System (SIMEL) and estimates from the System Operator (OS). The end of “refundable” subsidies. After the closure of the European Next Generation funds, the sector has stopped depending on direct aid to embrace more structural profitability. This change is reflected on the national map: Catalonia has become the benchmark for success, with an increase of 20.6% in the volume of interested parties thanks to agile management of its local incentives. Despite the accumulated strength, the beginning of 2025 presented a slight cooling: the residential sector suffered a drop of 14% in the first quarter compared to the average for 2024. Even so, self-consumption has maintained sustained growth since 2021 and demonstrates greater stability than the large plant market (utility scale). The profile of the new consumer. The user profile has evolved towards a more informed and demanding one. Although financial savings continue to be the main driving force for 65% of users, factors such as sustainability (12%) and energy independence (8%) have gained unprecedented weight. As José Donoso, CEO of UNEF, explains, self-consumption has gone from being a minority technology to an “everyday, reliable and essential appliance.” This maturity is reflected in the choice of the installer: the price continues to matter (45%), but trust based on recommendations (25%) and support in procedures and aid (20%) are now decisive factors. The new standard. The acquisition model has undergone a radical transformation. Financing has gone from being a barrier to a driving force: between 60% and 70% of households opt for flexible payment formulas, a figure that rises to 80% in projects that exceed €10,000 or include batteries. In fact, strategic partners like Pontio They project to exceed 10,000 funded installations in 2026. This financial boost facilitates the integration of aerothermal energy, which has established itself as the ideal companion to photovoltaics. 66% of solar system owners plan to install aerothermal in the next three years. However, as experts in Xataka warn80% of Spanish houses have technical deficiencies in their electrical installation, which requires a prior evaluation of the insulation to prevent the investment from becoming an expense that is difficult to amortize. Roadmap. To prevent progress from slowing down, UNEF has proposed in its presentation urgent measures that strengthen the structural profitability of the sector: Tax incentives: Apply a reduced VAT for both installations with and without batteries. Network expansion: Extend the distance of shared self-consumption from the current 2 km to 5 km. Administrative simplification: Extend the exemption from requesting access and connection permits to all facilities that inject less than 15kW into the grid. Review of tolls: Modify the distribution between the fixed and variable part (target 25% fixed and 75% variable) to encourage savings. For its part, Red Eléctrica has reinforced the “maximum observability” of the system, publishing detailed information on self-consumption on all its platforms from the end of 2025, including a new demand curve (“Total Scheduled”) that integrates the impact of this energy on the national grid, where it already represents close to 4% of demand. An irreversible path. Self-consumption in Spain has come of age. It is no longer a specific response to a price crisis, but a strategic decision. As José Carlos Díaz Lacaci, CEO of SotySolar, points out, the path towards electrification is now “irreversible.” The challenge for 2026 will be to modernize the real estate stock and consolidate an intelligent management model that guarantees that every ray of sunlight captured becomes energy freedom for the citizen. Image | Unsplash Xataka | Landing at an airport full of solar panels had become a drama. Until Malaga had an idea

replanting them in the bush is not an option

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Once the holidays are over, it’s time to take down the tinsel, dismantle the Nativity scene, put away the garlands, lights, hanging Santa Clauses and other Christmas decorations and ask yourself the same question as every year: Where the hell to store all those decorations? And above all, what do we do with the tree, that fir tree that is more than a meter high that we bought in a nursery back in December and that has spent weeks presiding over our living room loaded with balls and flashing LEDs? In Madrid they have decided to go ahead to that question by making something clear: Christmas trees should not be thrown into any container and of course they cannot be abandoned on the street. It’s not even right take them to the mountains to plant them there, as nice as that sounds. There is another solution. What has happened? That (with permission from Vigo) Christmas is over. And that means that thousands and thousands of Spanish homes are dedicating themselves to the laborious task of dismantling their nativity scenes, taking down tinsel, putting lights, snowman figurines and hanging Santa Clauses in boxes and, above all, dismantling their trees. Those who have opted for artificial fir trees (or they have rented them) will have no problem, but things change in homes with natural trees. What do we do with the tree? The big question. At the end of the day, a tree should not be treated as just another piece of urban waste. This same week the Madrid City Council remembered it with a clear message: “Its abandonment on public roads or its deposit in unauthorized containers has a negative impact on both the environment and the proper management of waste.” Even Ecoembes recognize that the issue raises doubts and encourages transplanting as long as the trees are real, alive, and “possible.” If not, remember that they must be taken to a clean point, just like synthetic ones. Should we replant it then? Not so fast. To prevent people from giving a second life to their trees in the mountains, on Wednesday (just after Kings) the Community of Madrid issued a statement in which he remembers that, no matter how bucolic it may seem, this solution is a bad idea and is prohibited. The reason is simple. As remember the regional government, the usual thing is that at Christmas the houses are decorated with fir trees of the variety Abies albanative to the north of the peninsula. If we dedicate ourselves to replanting them without criteria in other regions, with other ecosystems, we run the risk of ending up damaging the local flora. Is it prohibited? The Community’s warning is very clear. In his note he recalls “the prohibition of replanting Christmas fir trees in natural areas of the region” and cites the Forest Lawamong other state regulations. “As they are species foreign to the environment, they can cause imbalances in ecosystems, be a source of pests or diseases and increase the risk of forest fires.” Instead of looking for a clearing in the mountains to plant our Christmas tree, the regional body encourages us to contact the town councils and use their collection services. The goal: that our fir tree be relocated to an urban park or garden, where it will grow safely without “putting biodiversity at risk.” Click on the image to go to the tweet. What to do in Madrid? In reality, Madrid residents have it very easy. On the same day that the Community warned of the prohibition of planting fir trees in the mountains of the region, the City Council of the capital announced his campaign Christmas tree collection. During the remainder of January, families who want to get rid of their fir tree will be able to deposit it at two points: one is in the El Retiro Stove Nurserythe other in the Country House Nursery. Whoever wants to use the service will find them open every day, morning and afternoon. Are there conditions? Yes. The campaign is not designed for any type of tree. The idea is for Madrid residents to deliver their fir trees alive, with a cohesive and moist root ball. In fact, the technicians will not collect dry specimens, with loose branches or those in which the root ball is so broken or without roots that it is impossible to recover it. In case there was any doubt, the Consistory clarifies that the collection points are for natural trees, not plastic. “This initiative aims to promote responsible habits among citizens, especially during periods of high consumption such as the Christmas holidays, as well as reinforce the culture of recycling and respect for the environment once the celebrations are over,” duck the organism. Is it something new? No. Last year the City Council already launched a similar campaign during which it collected 597 fir trees after the holidays. Of them, 168 were saved, 28.1%. The idea is that those lucky specimens, which arrive in a condition good enough for gardeners to care for, end up being replanted in green spaces. When choosing a location, the technicians take into account that they are not native species so as not to damage the environment. Trees in poor condition suffer a different fate. The City Council staff takes them to the Mijas Calientes Plant Waste Transformation Plant to subject them to a composting process and create an organic fertilizer that is later used in the parks, gardens and other green areas of the capital. The idea, the City Council clarifies, is to “close the cycle of use of plant waste.” In the last campaign (2024-2025) that was the fate of 429 fir trees. Typically, 25 to 30% of the collected fir trees are recovered. Images | Madrid City Council and Frames For Your Heart (Unsplash) In Xataka | In Spain, homes have changed so much that at Christmas they no longer think about gifts for family members. They buy them for dogs

The EU needs to rearm quickly and cheaply. And your best option right now is through AI

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Both GPS and ARPANET, the germ of what would later be Internetwere born within the United States Department of Defense. From radar, which was developed during the 1930s and perfected during World War II, advances later emerged such as the air traffic control system or the microwave. There was a time when military technology was a source of inventions for the civilian sphere. With AI, technical advances begin to occur in the opposite direction: from the civil to the military. They are companies that we all know – Google, OpenAI or Anthropic – that are developing the most sophisticated models in the world and defense organizations are waiting. For the European Union, this trend coincides with an acute crisis in the field of defense. The war in Ukraine has undermined the foundations of political life in Brussels, while presenting Russia as a growing threat. Added to this is the Trump Administration’s willingness to stop security aid to European countries. A breeding ground that has driven the need to rearm. In March, the European Commission announced the ReArm Europe initiative o Readiness 2030. The objective is to significantly increase the EU’s defense capabilities. This is a plan that wants to mobilize nearly 800,000 million eurosincluding 150,000 million in loans for military investments. State governments are expected to push for the modernization of their armies, but the mobilization of private capital is also sought. The increase in security spending is also reflected in the Multiannual Financial Framework (2028-2034)presented in summer. This budget, which defines at a financial level the EU’s priorities for the coming years, provides for an allocation of 131,000 million euros to support investment in the areas of defense, security and space. Without knowing how the distribution is, the funds are five times higher than those of the previous period (2021-2027). (Pablo Bejarano) These efforts of the EU to recover the lost ground in defense could benefit from the technological race that is currently being experienced. Above all, advances in AI, called to reconvert armies and forms of deterrence that countries exhibit today. In one of the round tables at the Web Summit, held in Lisbon last November and which acts as a meeting point for startups from around the world, several experts addressed this topic. Under the title ‘From code to combat: Why AI defense tech is exploiting‘, participants discussed the rise of AI in defense. “What is changing the technological landscape is the speed of innovation,” commented Josh Araujo, CEO of the startup Forterra, in reference to the accelerated pace of technological evolution. “And in Europe, what happens with defense budgets is that it is no longer interesting to buy old things. You can take a system, man it with humans and put armor on it, so we are talking about refined and expensive systems that take decades to design. Or you can deploy autonomous systems low cost that put humans out of danger and allow more firepower and more deterrence capacity to be projected at a much lower cost.” The boost of startups and private capital Forterra is an American company dedicated to developing autonomous ground systems for the field of defense and industrial logistics. Araujo is used to dealing with both military and civilian actors and highlights the importance of deterrence: “The point is that for Europe and our allies, it costs aggressors much more to carry out an aggressive action. The key here is to deploy as much capacity as quickly as possible at the lowest possible cost.” To make this deployment at low cost, AI will be key. a report of the think tank RAND recommends estimates that advances in autonomy and robotics will allow this type of technology be used en masse. “AI represents a great opportunity. If we realize what we generate today on the battlefield, with swarms of drones, autonomous ground vehicles and different mission systems, we see that there are enormous amounts of data,” says Araujo. “Traditionally you had to have a lot of people staring at their computer screens to analyze and absorb the information. But AI offers us the possibility of taking this information, giving it meaning and putting it in context so that a human can make decisions based on that information,” he adds. Forterra’s CEO adds that this change has occurred over the last three or four years. (IDF Spokesperson’s Unit/Commons) One of the most direct use cases of AI has to do with improving the surveillance capacity of the terrain, through the analysis of mass images. But the technology has also been used in the search and identification of targets or to guide drones towards the target without the intervention of an operator. Likewise, in Ukraine has been rehearsed vehicle deployment terrestrial autonomouswhile the launch of swarms of drones that act on missions in a controlled manner is proposed. All are formulas for increasing war capabilities at low cost, compared to the means that have been used to date. There is still a lot to refine, yes. In an informal conversation, a director of a company in the defense sector in Spain admitted that generative AI is still in the exploration phase and that for now it does not have clear uses in the military field. This does not prevent a flood of technology startups from directing their efforts towards the defense sector. James Cross, co-head of private investment at the firm Franklin Templetonwas the other participant in the Web Summit round table and painted a context full of economic incentives: “I have been investing in defense since the late 90s, but things have changed a lot in the last ten years. Before, no venture capital firm would have invested in a defense-oriented company and today, apart from AI, defense is probably the hottest sector.” Cross seasoned this vision with two notes: governments now they have gotten involvedsomething that has not happened for a long time, and more and more money is going to startups instead of traditional arms contractors. In the first half … Read more

A British MP did not have permission to build a house in the countryside so he was left with only one option: dig it up

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Housing is one of the main problemsnot only because of the scarcity that makes its price skyrocketsbut because, even if you already have a plot on which to build the house of your dreams, urban planning and environmental legislation will not always allow you to build it. That is precisely what happened to British MP Bob Marshall-Andrews in the late 90s, when he wanted to build a house with sea views in Wales, but faced a huge dilemma. Environmental regulations did not allow him to erect any buildings since it was a natural space. There was only one way out so that your home was legal: dig it out. A house in a hole with sea views As and how did he count Wales Onlinelawyer and Labor Party MP Bob Marshall-Andrews and his wife Gill wanted to escape the bustle of the city and enjoy the leisurely pace of the waves crashing into St. Bride’s Bay on the Pembrokeshire cliffs in the far west of Wales. For years, he and his family had been spending vacations in an old military barracks. on Druidston Cliffuntil the structure began to deteriorate and the need to build something new became apparent. That’s where his problems began. The land of the MP and his wife Gill is located about 150 meters from the sea, in the heart of the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park, a protected area since 1949 that covers more than 300 kilometers of coastline with cliffs, open beaches, sheltered bays, marshes and dunes. In this environment, the authorities have been traditionally very strict: the neighbors considered practically impossible to obtain permission even for small glazed extensions in existing houses. To comply with the regulations and still stay in that place, the only way was to literally hide the new house underground, excavating the land and taking advantage of the natural ridge of the cliff as part of the construction. The idea came from his son Tom, who thought it would be a good idea to integrate the house into the landscape by excavating it between two hills. The result was Malatora semi-buried house, almost invisible from afar, which today has become one of the most striking examples of architecture integrated into the landscape of the Welsh coast. So much so that it even has your own reference on Wikipedia. A crazy idea that ended in genius The British parliamentarian left the commission to the architects Jan Kaplicky and Amanda Levetefounders of the Future Systems studio, had a central premise: to obtain legalized housing that would not give arguments to those responsible for the park. to deny license. To avoid any feeling of privilege towards a parliamentarian, the project was planned from the beginning as a construction that would not compete with the landscape, but would hide in it and reduce its visible impact to a minimum, just as Tom, the son of the owners, had proposed. Thus, the architects chose build downexcavating the hill instead of raising a traditional construction, so that the house will be buried under a cover of earth and grass that continues the shape of the hill. This strategy is reminiscent of ancient techniques from northern Scandinavia, where layers of earth and grass were accumulated to form thick walls with good thermal inertia and great camouflage capacity in the terrain. The designers were inspired by the wing section of an airplane for its visible part. The façade facing the sea is resolved with a large glass plane and portholes, while the upper part and sides are buried and covered with grass and vegetation, so that from the park path the house is perceived as a simple mound covered with grass. This extreme integration with the landscape It was decisive for the local authorities to give their approval, since the construction does not break the undulating line of meadows and bushes nor does it introduce visible plot limits, fences or gardens separated from the rest of the park. Furthermore, technically, no construction had been “raised”. Inside, the curved floor plan is organized around a central fireplace, inspired by the great medieval halls. A large semicircular sofa and prefabricated walls that separate the rooms of the house without touching the ceiling, reinforcing the feeling of continuous space. Respect for the environment was taken to the extreme even during its construction, as many of the internal elements, including the bathrooms, were manufactured in workshops and brought in small pieces to the plot. A decision designed to reduce heavy truck traffic to a minimum on a narrow road adapted to the orography of the cliff. The house soon became popular in the area and, given its peculiar design, the locals have baptized it as “the Teletubbies house” due to its resemblance to the half-buried house from the children’s series, a nickname that its owner receives with humor. In Xataka | Of all the places there were to build a $400,000 house, this millionaire chose the most unusual: in a tree Image | Geograph.org (Cered, Deborah Tilley, Simon Mortimer, Michael Graham, Dave Challender)

Let’s say goodbye to Google Assistant a decade later. Google has begun to delete its code to leave only one option: Gemini

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It’s not official but as if it were: the end of Google Assistant or the classic Google Assistant, is scheduled. An analysis of the latest version of the Google app for Android carried out by Android Authority has revealed his almost definitive goodbye. The Mountain View company is eliminating the code that, for the moment, allows us to choose between Gemini and the old assistant. It is the chronicle of a death foretold that ends an era within the company. Where before we saw the Assistant icon and dialog window, we now have the Gemini one. Image by Iván Linares for Xataka Android failed promise. Launched in May 2016, the Google Assistant was going to be a revolution. On paper, it promised full voice control of your cell phone, car and home. In practice, like many users have experiencedits use ended up being “despairing” although the “Okay, Google” It became popular in smartphones and speakers. Your inability to understand the context or natural language and the rise of AI models, has finished burying it. The future belongs to Gemini. With the rise of generative AI, Google has bet everything on Gemini, but it has had a rather confusing rollout. For months, the American company maintained a curious mess with several duplicate names, apps and services… Bard, Assistant with Bard, Project Astra… In practice, two assistants live on the same mobile phone. In February 2024, its “transmutation” began: that was when Google launched the dedicated Gemini app (Bard was left behind) on Android, which when installed was offered as a replacement for Assistant. As we tested in its day, the new AI took over of the invocation with the famous “Hey Google” command. A more mature replacement. The problem with the Gemini assistant is that, at first, it was quite green. It was a powerful chatbot, but a not so useful assistant: it could not execute the basic tasks that the previous one could do, such as routines or orders for home automation. However, Google has spent the last year making Gemini absorb the features of its predecessor. The turning point came at the end of last year, when Gemini Live – the conversational voice mode – finally landed in Spain and in Spanish. Already approaching 2025, Gemini learned a basic function that it was missing: making calls and sending messages without having to unlock the mobile. The last big feature inherited from Assistant, the «Scheduled actions»arrived in June of this year. Google’s plan. At the same time that Gemini was learning the old Assistant tricks, Google has been dismantling the latter, removing useful functions. The objective is more than clear: Gemini is the future and will be everywhere. Now you can act like the “all-seeing” assistant thanks to Project Astra (integrated in Live mode), it is coming to Google Home speakers and its landing on Android Auto is imminent. The last step remains. And that is eliminating the escape route: Google has already consolidated the transition. Gemini is the default assistant on new mobile phones and can be installed on old ones without major impediments. The analysis of the APK of the specialized Android media only confirms that the last step is very simple: eliminate the option to go back. The king is dead, long live the king. Cover image | Composition with Google images and generated with Nano Banana by Pepu Ricca In Xataka | How to create Gemini Gems to have your personalized version of artificial intelligence

Spain wants to bet on rent with an option to buy in the face of the housing crisis. First you must solve your black hole

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The Government has decided to expand its arsenal to alleviate the serious housing crisis that Spain is going through, a crisis marked by the decoupling between housing supply and demand, the rise in prices and a market so inaccessible that more and more young people find that the only way to have a home is to wait for their parents donate it. A few weeks ago, during a speech in Congress, Pedro Sánchez advanced that the Executive wants recover aid for rent with option to buy. The measure is part of a broader plan with more legs, but in recent weeks it has generated as much expectation as skepticism. The reason: although there are still unknowns to clear up, everything indicates that the scope of the new aid will be limited. What will the help consist of? What the Government plans is to offer aid up to 30,000 euros for rent with option to buy homes with permanent protection. The initiative is designed for young people from up to 35 years and its objective is that that amount ended up being discounted of the final price of the property, in case the tenant decides to buy it. “The aid will be used to pay the rent, which will allow the young person to save to own their home,” they need from the ministry. When focusing on VPO, the focus is on properties that must conform to a series of requirements, such as respecting a pre-established price and certain guidelines when changing hands. “This means that if in the future you want to sell that home, you will have to do so at an appraised price and to a person who meets the same requirements as the previous owner,” explains the Government. “In this way we protect the homes paid for with state resources.” Click on the image to go to the tweet. Do we know anything else? Yes. There are still details to be outlined, but we know that the measure is included in the State Housing Plan (PEV) for the period 2026-2030where it is combined with other proposals that aspire to “consolidate a public system of access to housing” and revolve around five major goals: creating more and better supply, reducing the rate of financial effort, focusing on stressed markets and lowering the age at which young people become independent. As? To achieve that ultimate goal the PEV contemplates offer rental aid for the purchase of housing in municipalities of emptied Spain (La Moncloa speaks of 10,800 euros for localities “at demographic risk”), youth guarantees and “aid for renting with the option to buy housing with permanent protection of up to 30,000 euros.” Sanchez too has spoken of non-payment of rent insurance for young people. Support for VPO on a rent-to-own basis is not exactly new. It was already contemplated in the state housing plans 2005-2008 and 2009-2012. How has the idea been received? Sánchez launched his announcement to mid octoberduring the interparliamentary meeting of the Socialist Group, but a quick Google search shows that in recent weeks it has generated some skepticism. Not so much because of the fear that it will end up causing an increase in rents (something that the leader of Sumar, Yolanda Díaz, reproached her for) but because of the doubts that exist about the real impact that the aid will have. The reason: in reality in Spain very few VPOs are built for rent with an option to buy. His mark is testimonial. Are there so few? The official data published by Raquel Sánchez’s department speak for themselves. If we talk about protected housing for rent with the option to buy with “definitive qualification” (that is, already completed), the state registry shows only 2,300 over the last decade. There are not many and they are concentrated in just seven autonomous communities. What’s more, there is not a single one between August of last year and June, a period of 11 months during which no home eligible to benefit from the aid announced by the Government was completed. If what we are talking about is “provisional ratings” (still under construction) the balance sheet is not buoyant either (less than 70 in the last 15 months). The data includes both VPOs from state and regional plans. What do the experts say? Not everyone agrees. For Javier Burón, manager of Nasuvinsa, the key lies not so much in what has been built so far but in what is done for the future. That is, the effectiveness of the measure in stimulating supply. “There is an attempt to restart the machine for building protected housing, although focused on rentals, so it makes no sense to look at the past,” he explains in an interview with The Country. In fact 40% of resources of the PEV focus precisely on increasing the supply of protected housing on a permanent basis. For Carolina Roca, president of the Association of Real Estate Developers of Madrid (Asprima), the reading is somewhat different. “The aid announced in the PEV has, once again, a conceptual error: we have a problem of supply of subsidized housing and not demand. The PEV should be aimed at increasing the construction of subsidized housing, so aid should go to supply rather than demand. What sense does it make to provide aid of 30,000 euros for a figure for which only 65 homes are built per year?” Roca asks in statements to the Idealista portal. Images | Ronni Kurtz (Unsplash) In Xataka | The Basque Country wants more homes but does not have much land. Solution: build 2,000 apartments on top of other houses

One thing is to knock down drones, and another very different and dangerous Russian airplanes. The second option is winning too many followers

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The repeated incursions Russian aerials in NATO territory They have triggered a diplomatic and military escalation that places the Atlantic Alliance against one of its greatest dilemmas since the beginning of the war in Ukraine. First They were dronesand then several MIG-31 fighters next to an IL-20M recognition plane in the Baltic without flight plan. The perception, increasingly widespread in Europe, is very dangerous: the Kremlin seeks to test The allied disposition to respond firmly. The internal debate. They remembered In politician that incidents have caused urgent consultations Under article 4 of the North Atlantic Treaty, a rarely invoked mechanism that reflects the seriousness of the situation. Estonios, Poles and Czechs have claimed Hard responsesincluding the possibility of demolishing Russian aircraft in future violations. The Czech President Peta Pavel, former NATO Military High Command, affirmed that Moscow must face “military consequences.” In Tallin, Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna insisted in which to defend the sky of Estonia is equivalent to defending that of the entire alliance. Instead, figures such as German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni They alert the risk To fall into the “climbing trap” lying by Putin, aware that a demolition could be interpreted as Casus Belli. Parallel messages. The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, adopted An unusually overwhelming tone When declaring That “every centimeter of the territory” must be protected and that, after clear warnings, the option of folding an intruder plane “is on the table.” His words resonated With Trump’sthat in the UN General Assembly he affirmed that the “yes” allies should shoot against Russian airplanes if they enter their airspace. The support of the US President was held in Warsaw, where Minister Radosław Sikorski He replied with a laconic “Roger That”. The coincidence of speeches between Brussels and Washington (although von der Leyen has no direct military authority) transmits to Moscow that there is an emerging consensus in favor of harden the rules of the game. A 12 -minute pulse. The most symbolic case was the starring By three mig-31 Russians intercepted by two Italian F-35 in Estonia. During more than ten minutesRussian fighters remained within NATO airspace, an unprecedented duration. The Italians performed the standard interception maneuvers and, surprisingly, the Russian pilots responded With a friendly gesturegreeting from the cabin. Although the meeting concluded without shots, in Tallin and in Brussels a immediate debate: Why didn’t it acted with the same forcefulness as Türkiye in 2015When did a Russian plane tear down in just 17 seconds after a border rape? The difference illustrates the current caution of NATO, trapped between the need to show determination and the fear of an incident that disappoints an uncontrollable escalation. Hybrid ambiguity. The Russian authorities They have denied Deliberate violations and attribute incidents to errors, but at the same time suggest that they respond to Ukrainian attacks in Crimea, which is equivalent to accusing NATO of direct complicity. European diplomats who met with Kremlin say that the Russian delegation He took exhaustive noteswhich reinforces the impression that Moscow uses these incursions as calculated pressure tools. Experts like the Lithuanian president Gypsyėda They point that Russia “is testing our preparation and our solidarity.” In this sense, aerial incursions are part of a hybrid repertoire that includes espionage, cyber attacks, disinformation campaigns and symbolic maneuvers in the Baltic borders, such as balloons and buoys displaced in border rivers. The strategic dilemma. NATO has reinforced surveillance with the operation Eastern Sentry and maintains Eurofighter, F-16 and F-35 fighters deployed in the region, but still lacks clear and homogeneous confrontation rules. The ultimate decision to shoot falls to governments nationals that provide airplanes, which generates a mosaic of interpretations and possible “caveats” that could leave countries as Estonia in vulnerable situation. Meanwhile, Tallin has decided to increase its military expenditure to an average 5.4% of GDP Annual until 2029, a record figure in the alliance, although without acquiring its own fighters, which maintains the dependence of the ally air coverage. On the edge of the red line. In short, the Crossing speeches reflects a paradox: while Voices increase In favor of demolition as immediate response to airspace violations, other leaders remember that Putin could be looking for that incident to legitimize a victimization and victimization narrative Sow divisions internal in NATO. If you want, the situation recalls that the defense of the European sky is no longer a mere exercise of routine interceptions, but A critical front of the ongoing hybrid war. At stake, in addition, there is not only the security of Estonia or Poland, but the credibility of the alliance as guarantor that every centimeter of its territory, in the words of Von der Leyen itself, will continue being inviolable. Image | Fedor Leukhin, Andrey Korchag In Xataka | The war in Ukraine has fired the delays and canceled flights. And Europe has the solution: a drone wall In Xataka | Italy, Germany, Sweden and Finland have done something that seemed unthinkable: throw their fighters in search of Russian airplanes

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