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The latest MacBook Air drops in price, the perfect eReader for reading on the subway is on sale, sales on consoles and more. Hunting Bargains

April 24, 2026 by usatoday24

There is little left to close the month of April and so far we have been seeing very good offers on all types of devices, especially on Nintendo Switch 2 and some Apple phones and computers. Do you want to know what the best deals are right now? These are the ones we have been finding throughout the week and that are still available. MacBook Air M5 by 1,099 eurosthe latest Air laptop launched by Apple with a good storage configuration. nintendo switch 2 by 469 eurosa pack that includes ‘Pokémon Pokopia’ and a keychain. Kobo Clara BW by 129 eurosthe ideal e-book reader for reading away from home due to its quality and size. Poco X8 Pro 5G by 263.97 eurosan economical mobile phone with a very large battery. Atari 7800+ by 66.90 eurosa retro console that is compatible with the original cartridges. Nintendo Switch 2 + Pokémon Pokopia + keychain The price could vary. We earn commission from these links MacBook Air M5 If this week there is a notable offer in the Apple brand, it is the one from the MacBook Air M5 because its price has dropped to 1,099 euros. This is the configuration of 512GB storagecomes with the M5 chip to ensure good power and excellent performance and is perfect if you want it to study or even work, whether at home or away thanks to its 13.6-inch diagonal, its thickness or its weight of 1.23 kg. MacBook Air M5 (512GB) – 13.6 inches The price could vary. We earn commission from these links nintendo switch 2 MediaMarkt has launched what is one of the best promotions of the nintendo switch 2. By 469 euroswhich is what the console costs by itself, you get it as a gift ‘Pokémon Pokopia‘ (physical edition, game key card) along with a keychain of… yes, ‘Mario Kart World’. It is the same keychain from the previous pack that included said video game. The offer will be available until April 28 unless units are sold out before. Nintendo Switch 2 + Pokémon Pokopia + keychain The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Kobo Clara BW Several stores, including MediaMarkt, have lowered the price of Kobo Clara BW until the 129 euros. It is one of the eReaders with the best quality-price ratio on the market and is ideal if what you are looking for is to read at home and away from home. Because? Comes with a screen E Ink Letter 1300 six inches, so it maintains the good quality of this type of screen and a compact format so that it is comfortable to carry. Its performance is very good and it is waterproof, so you can use it next to a pool in summer. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Poco X8 Pro 5G Do you want to renew your mobile? Well, be careful because AliExpress has 263.97 euros he Poco X8 Pro 5G. He is the younger brother of his generation who stands out among other things for his great 6,500 mAh battery with 100W fast charging, so it will give you a good autonomy of approximately two days. It also comes with the Dimensity 8500 Ultra processor and HyperOS operating system. Poco X8 Pro 5G (256 GB) – European version The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Atari 7800+ The Atari 7800+ It is a particularly interesting retro console because it is compatible with original cartridges. Its price right now is 66.90 euros and, although it is true that the design has been maintained quite faithfully, it includes certain improvements to have a better experience, such as an HDMI port and options to choose between several resolutions. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Some of the links in this article are affiliated and may provide a benefit to Xataka. In case of non-availability, offers may vary. Image | Apple, Nintendo, Rakuten Kobo, Xiaomi, Atari In Xataka | The best mobile phones (2026), we have tested them and here are their analyzes In Xataka | Best electronic book readers (e-readers) in quality price. Which one to buy based on use and five recommended models

the perfect storm that is leaving teenage girls bald

April 21, 2026 by usatoday24

It’s time to banish the old myth that baldness is a problem exclusive to older men. Nowadays, the waiting rooms of dermatological consultations are filled with a very different profile: young women who see their hair losing density at an alarming rate. The data is conclusive: one in four young women, between 18 and 25 years old, suffers from hair loss problems. In the incessant search for an aesthetic ideal driven by social networks—which requires quick thinness and effortlessly combined with absolute neatness on the face—teenage girls are paying a very high price. TikTok’s viral fads, far from being harmless, are taking a direct toll on your own hair health. What is happening in the heads of Generation Z? We are facing a “perfect storm” that has collided head-on with the youngest. On the one hand, the massive viralization of ultra polished hairstyles and, on the other, the dispensing drugs such as Ozempic. The visual and psychological impact is devastating for them. Some young women report situations of real anguish to the magazine Womanconfessing that during times of exams or great stress “giant hairballs” fall out when combing their hair. This is not just an aesthetic problem: it generates deep anxiety, insecurity and reduces the self-esteem of adolescents who are already under enormous social scrutiny. From a medical point of view, the phenomenon is raising alarm bells. Although gastrointestinal problems have historically been the most documented side effect of GLP-1 receptor agonist drugs (such as the famous Ozempic), alopecia has recently emerged as a major safety warning sign, accumulating more than 1,000 spontaneous reports in the United States FDA pharmacovigilance system. Faced with the desperation of seeing their hair fall out, many girls begin a true medical pilgrimage. As explained The Newspaperit is common for patients to end up stumbling through hair clinics that promise “miracle products”, spending large amounts of money on ineffective treatments or with erroneous diagnoses before reaching a real dermatologist. The root of the problem. To understand why this happens, we must analyze the two major trends that converge in this phenomenon: The danger of the ‘Clean Look’ (Traction Alopecia): This fashionable hairstyle, which consists of wearing the hair extremely tight, gelled and tied back, is not only a beautiful aesthetic choice; hides a serious mechanical risk. On many occasions, young women use it like a kind of “dry shampoo” camouflaged to extend the days without washing your hair. This continued tension literally tears off the follicle and restricts blood circulation, resulting in a lack of oxygenation. seriously disrupts the normal hair cycle. The Ozempic cocktail and extreme diets (Telogen Effluvium): It is important to clarify that the drug itself is not a direct toxin that kills hair. What happens is that drastic weight loss and appetite suppression generate a state of emergency or “survival” in the organism. By drastically reducing calorie and protein consumption, the body is forced to prioritize vital organs, abandoning functions that it considers “non-essential”, such as hair growth. The sociological background of all this is deep and worrying. The journalist and writer Noemí López Trujillo, in an interview for The Countryreflects on the current “Ozempic culture” and that “aesthetic of kneading bread while looking out the window” that the clean look. We are facing a paralyzing and contradictory aesthetic pressure: women are required to be thin (even resorting to medicalizing weight loss) and always present a neat and strictly controlled appearance. All of this responds to an attempt to achieve an aspirational version that we see on the networks, but which in real life is very expensive. What do medical experts say? The dermatological and pharmaceutical community is unanimous in its warnings. Regarding the risks of the fashionable hairstyle, the specialized pharmacist Helena Rodero, in statements to the magazine InStylecategorically warns that the damage caused to the follicle by these stretched hairstyles (traction alopecia) can become irreversible, unlike other hair loss. Along these lines, Dr. Gloria Garnacho, dermatologist at GEDET, explains in EFEsalud that chronic tension ends up inflaming the follicle until it is destroyed, causing “scarring alopecia.” In addition, warn that the practice of not washing your hair for days to maintain your hairstyle accumulates grease and dirt that irritates the microbiota of the scalp. Regarding rapid weight loss, Dr. Irene Marín, head of Dermatology, point in The Newspaper that restrictive diets associated with these drugs generate significant deficiencies of iron, zinc or vitamin D, which directly triggers diffuse hair loss. For his part, plastic surgeon Dr. Jesse E. Smith corroborates that hormonal fluctuations (especially changes in insulin levels) and the tremendous psychological stress of such rapid weight loss completely interrupt the natural hair growth cycle. The clinical literature maintains that Telogen Effluvium and Androgenetic Alopecia are, in fact, the most frequent subtypes of hair loss in patients under treatment with GLP-1. The light at the end of the tunnel. Hair loss caused by the use of GLP-1 drugs and restrictive diets usually appears between 3 and 6 months after weight loss, but in the vast majority of cases it usually resolves and regrowth (within 3 to 9 months) once the weight stabilizes and the nutrient levels in the body improve. To prevent major illnesses, specialists recommend making urgent changes to your lifestyle: In the hair routine: Experts insist on the need to alternate the use of the clean look With days of wearing your hair down, use fabric elastics that do not break the fiber and, under no circumstances, sleep with that tight hairstyle. In diet: It is vitally important to increase protein intake (which is essential for producing keratin) and supplement iron if there are deficiencies, an extremely common situation in young women due to losses during menstruation. As for treatments, the advice is clear: you should be wary of “miracle shampoos”, since these cosmetic products only act on the appearance of the hair fiber, but do not reach the root, which is where the problem truly lies. The real solutions are to consult a medical specialist … Read more

Sleeping in on the weekend seems like the perfect solution to your tiredness. Your body has a very different opinion

April 8, 2026 by usatoday24

Sleep eight hours a day religiously is for many a goal that they almost never manage to achieve, since the alarms sound too early and the days lengthen, accumulating a dream debt which we tried to settle on Saturday morning. But here the question is obligatory: are we achieving anything by sleeping 10 hours on Saturday? The answer. Here science has wanted to investigate the debate about whether doing this recovery sleep technique on weekends is useful or is a temporary patch. And the truth is that there are endless different options that mean we don’t have a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’. Cardiovascular shield. At first glance, science seems to agree with people who decide that the weekend is for sleeping, since several studies suggest that it is quite positive for our health. One of these analyzed more than 90,000 people and concluded that the group that accumulated more compensatory sleep on the weekend had a lower risk of developing heart disease. And more specifically, these people had up to 20% less risk of suffering from coronary heart disease. On the other hand, another study used data from the NHANES surveys carried out in 2018 and noticed an association between recovering hours of sleep and a lower prevalence of cardiovascular diseases, which is something that stands out especially in patients who slept less than 6 hours during the week. There is small print. In science there are contrary points, since researchers, when they affirm measurement methods and look beyond self-completed questionnaires, reality is more complex. Here is a study with 70,000 people who used accelerometers to objectively measure sleep threw cold water on previous evidence by pointing out that compensatory weekend sleep is not associated with lower mortality or fewer cardiovascular events. More alterations. Apart from all this, different scientific reviews point out that the evidence is heterogeneous, pointing out that sleeping more on the weekend does not always manage to correct problems such as insulin sensitivity, which is altered after previous days of sleep restriction. And it is known right now that biologically, lack of sleep triggers complex processes such as insulin resistancethe activity of the sympathetic nervous system and systemic inflammation. And all this cannot be fixed in a silly weekend of sleeping a few more hours, since a much longer sleep regulation would be needed to once again have an optimized biological system. Beyond the heart. Although we usually focus on the engine of our body, the reality is that there are effects much further than that. In the case of mental health, science suggests that weekend recovery carries a lower risk of depression. But other articles on health-related quality of life suggest that the “optimal” duration of recovery sleep is not the same for everyone, and can vary greatly depending on the sex and chronotype of each individual. The verdict. Right now science tells us that there is an association, but not a proven coincidence. In this way, trying to pay off your sleep debt on the weekend is undoubtedly better than continuing to sleep little seven days a week, but it is not a metabolic time machine. What you have to keep in mind is that the final effect will depend on how much deficit you carry during the week and how many hours you try to achieve, but in the end the medical advice that we should stick with is that the objective is to have consistency in daily rest so that it is as optimal as possible. Images | Slaapwijsheid.nl In Xataka | We have accepted that “deep sleep” is the standard for sleep quality: science points in another direction

60 years ago, NASA took a look at the Sahara from space and found a very strange “perfect eye”

April 5, 2026 by usatoday24

Although we tend to think that the unknown is in space and we focus our exploration on what is outside the Earth, our planet continues to surprise us: from the 50,000 volcanoes hidden in the seabed to shapes and constructions that seem too curious to have appeared out of nowhere… especially when we see them from space. It is the case of Great Dam of Zimbabwe (which by the way, is not a dam). We are not leaving the African continent because there is another scar of land with a shape so precise that it is disconcerting. It can’t be seen from the ground, but as you gain height it can be seen better. However, it is from space where it is best appreciated, as NASA has already photographed. There it is simply shocking: it is the inexplicable eye of the Sahara. It is a kind of giant eye that looks at the sky engraved in the rock of the Sahara, it is actually called Richat structure. As says French astronaut Thomas Pesquetalmost all astronauts have taken a photo of it from space simply because it can’t be missed. The Britannica Encyclopedia assures that World War II pilots used it as a reference point. Tap to go to the post After all, they are almost 50 kilometers in diameter. To get an idea, if we moved it to Madrid, it would cover the entire city and reach surrounding municipalities. However, it is in Mauritania, at the western end of the Sahara. More specifically, it sits on the Adrar plateau, on the northwestern edge of the Taoudenni basin, about 500 meters above sea level and in an inhospitable area. As a curiosity, the closest town is Ouadane, it is about 17 kilometers from the edge of the structure and it is not just any city: it was founded in 1147 by the Idalwa el Hadj Berber tribe and its old part has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1996. The first time we “discovered” it (that is to say, because it was already there) was in the 1930s and 1940s and the person who studied it in depth at that time was the French geographer Jacques Richard-Molard. Later, astronauts James McDivitt and Ed White, aboard the Gemini IV mission, were the first to photograph it from space in 1965. However, the image that illustrates the cover was taken on July 10, 2020 by an astronaut aboard the International Space Station, during the Expedition 63 mission, with a Nikon D5 camera with a 50 millimeter lens. Richat’s structure from the inside. Clemens Schmillen What is the Richard Structure and how was it formed? From that orbital height the image shows something that would be impossible to capture from the ground: a series of perfect concentric rings, like the waves left by a stone when it falls into water, but petrified in the desert. The tones of that figure range from ocher to bluish gray, from almost pristine white to rusty red. Each color is a different rock and belongs to a different era. Surrounding the structure, a sea of dunes: on the right, longitudinal dunes that stretch in long parallel tongues and on the left, transverse dunes, wider and more arched. The set is truly strange to have formed naturally. POT Because it is not a lake that has dried up over time. It is neither a volcano nor the crater of a meteorite (the hypothesis which was most popular initially). It’s something much slower but just as violent: is the result of millions of years of geological forces working silently beneath the planet’s surface. And although the group as such was formed about 100 million years ago, those rocks are up to 2.5 billion years old. Or in other words, the Eye of the Sahara was forged in the Cretaceous, but the rocks belong to the time when there were no animals, only bacteria and algae. The Richat Structure is a deeply eroded geological anticline dome that was formed by a subsurface igneous intrusion, which deformed the overlying sedimentary rock layers, exposing concentric rings with the oldest rocks in the center. In a simplified way, a bubble of rock that never burst: the magma from inside the Earth pushed up the layers of rock above it and cooled without reaching the surface. The passage of time eroded that bubble as if it were an onion, exposing the rings of each layer. The hardest rocks resisted and formed the relief, the soft ones disappeared. Hence the circles. The most recent studies They confirm that there was also hot water circulating inside the structure, which accelerated and modeled the final shape. In Xataka | A 2.5 billion-year-old geological wonder: Zimbabwe’s Great Dam seen by NASA from space In Xataka | This is the impressive interactive map to see the Earth in 4K live from space and monitor satellites Cover | POT

We had a perfect plan to decarbonize the electrical grid. The brutal consumption of data centers has dynamited it

April 4, 2026 by usatoday24

The daily headlines multi-million dollar investments announced in new language models and cutting-edge chips. Venture capital investors have pumped more than half a billion dollars into AI startups over the last five years. But, as a revealing analysis warns of TechCrunchthe smart money has begun to change sides: today, the best investment in Artificial Intelligence is no longer software. The reality on the ground has become extremely arid. Putting up walls and stacking servers in a giant data center has become the easy part of the equation. The real wall the tech sector is crashing into is finding the electrons needed to power it. According to a report by the analysis firm Sightline Climateup to 50% of data center projects announced for 2026 could face delays. Of the 190 gigawatts (GW) of capacity the company tracks globally, just 5 GW are under actual construction today. The bottleneck is no longer the microchips. It is access to the electrical network. The tyranny of 24/7. Consumption has run amok at a pace that 20th century infrastructure cannot process. A Goldman Sachs analysis projects that AI will shoot energy consumption of data centers by 175% by 2030. The figures all point in the same direction: the Open Energy Outlook predicts that electricity demand combined data centers and crypto mining will grow by 350% this decade. As a result, the pristine image of the technological cloud is evaporating. Google’s emissions have increased by 48% in the last five years, and Microsoft’s by 31% since 2020. The reason? What is known in the industry as the “tyranny of 24/7”. The algorithms do not sleep and require a continuous and steady power supply; They cannot be turned off simply because the wind stops blowing or the sun sets. Given the lack of mass storage systems globally, the fuel that is covering this urgent gap is not green. It is natural gas, which has returned from retirement as the great structural support of the sector. A global collapse with two faces. The pressure has already broken the market balances. In the PJM region—which supplies 13 eastern US states and has the highest density of data centers in the world—capacity prices went from $30 to $270 in a single auction at the end of last year. As John Ketchum, CEO of NextEra Energy, noted, we are facing a “golden era of energy demand”, but with an insurmountable physical limit: “the new electrons cannot reach the network quickly enough.” This electrical asphyxiation is redrawing the global map, and Europe is the best example. Historically, the European market was dominated by the “FLAP-D” markets (Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam, Paris and Dublin). But the network of these cities is no longer going strong. According to data from Greenpeacedata centers accounted for almost 80% of electricity consumption in Dublin, forcing Ireland to impose a moratorium. The market share of these traditional capitals will fall sharply by 2035causing a mass exodus to the Nordic countries (with unburdened networks and cold climates) and to southern Europe, such as Spain, Greece and Italy, in search of green megawatts. The hardware and network problem. When we scratch beneath the surface of this collapse, we discover that the physical problem splits into two large gaps. First, the machine to generate the energy is missing. Since intermittent renewables are not enough, companies turn to gas. However, gas turbines have become a rare commodity. Three years ago, Siemens Energy executives considered this market “dead”; Today, the factories are so overwhelmed that the delivery times for these turbines can extend up to seven years. Second, the “plumbing” is missing. Once the electricity is generated, the task of taming it within the building falls to the transformers. It is an iron and copper block technology that has barely changed in 140 years. As explained TechCrunchAs servers demand more power, traditional electrical equipment will take up twice as much space as the servers themselves. It is mathematically unsustainable. ‘Smart Money’ changes sides. Against this backdrop, venture capital is pivoting. Big tech companies (Amazon, Google, Oracle) are starting to behave like energy giants, devising alternatives to minimize their dependence on an outdated public grid through hybrid or generation approaches. on site. The solutions are divided into several fronts: The nuclear resurgence: Google has signed a pioneering agreement with Kairos Power to develop seven small modular reactors (SMR) by 2030, and Amazon tried (although regulators temporarily blocked it) connecting a data center directly to the Susquehanna nuclear power plant. Super batteries: Google is collaborating in Minnesota with the company Xcel Energy and the startup Form Energy to install batteries capable of discharging energy for 100 hours, thus stabilizing the peaks of renewables. Hardware innovation: Dozens of startups (such as Amperesand or DG Matrix) backed by investment funds are developing silicon-based “solid state” transformers, seeking to finally retire old iron and copper to save vital space in facilities. Regulatory surgery: In southern Europe, organizations such as the CNMC in Spain are applying “flexible access permits”, forcing centers to accept cuts in emergencies so as not to collapse the entire country. The paradox: AI as savior of the electrical system. However, the story has a fascinating twist. The same technology that today threatens to burn the cables of half the world could be the one that ends up saving the electrical system. According to the consultant’s estimates Deloittethe application of artificial intelligence to optimize industrial systems and electrical networks will save more than 3,700 TWh globally by 2030. That is, AI will save almost four times the energy consumed by all the data centers on the planet combined. A report of Ember over Southeast Asia (ASEAN) support thiscalculating that integrating AI into the management of its networks will save more than 67 billion dollars and avoid the emission of almost 400 million tons of CO2. But to get to that future of efficiency, you first have to turn on the machines today. And what is at stake is the world economic map. Hosting these centers is … Read more

Jensen Huang believes we have reached the “coming of the AI wolf.” It is perfect for feeding a Tamagotchi

March 24, 2026 by usatoday24

Artificial intelligence has become a football league. There are divisions in which titles are pursued such as having the most powerful AIthe fastest, the most capable at a specific task either the most versatilebut the goal is to become champion of the Champions League, and that is the AGI. Although from the United States they do not stop talk about artificial general intelligence As something that is about to fall, it is a theory that suggests that, at some point, an AI will be achieved that will surpass humans in all areas of knowledge. For the NVIDIA CEO, that moment has already arrived. At the moment it’s… smoke. The AGI has already arrived. It has been in the podcast by Lex Fridman in which Jensen Huangboss of the company that is supporting the AI industry, has pointed out that general artificial intelligence is already here. Fridman posed a question: Could an AI system establish, grow, and operate a $1 billion-plus technology company within five to twenty years?” Huang rephrased the question, stating that current AI systems are already capable of creating a viral web service that briefly generates $1 billion in revenue. That remains to be seen, but it is not the only one that Huang threw into the air. When Fridman asked if AGI is five, ten, fifteen or twenty years away, Huang responded with a resounding “I think it’s now. I think we’ve achieved AGI.” Well no. Friedman said that was going to raise some eyebrows, and it took Huang less time than ChatGPT to agree with you if you tell him something isn’t right to qualify his words. Much of the conversation focused on OpenClaw platform, the open source agentic AI framework that has become the pearl of the industry and where everyone wants to have something to say. In the article of The Verge point out the example of the Tamagotchi and how Huang points out that people can use their AI agents to do all kinds of things like digital influencers or apps to feed a Tamagotchi for you. That would become an “instant success” that can generate billions of dollars, but the possibility that, right now, 100,000 of those agents will build a company like NVIDIA “is zero percent,” he noted. What is AGI? That is, current AI and agents can create “fleeting and viral hits”, but… that is not the question. That is, one thing is agentic AI, which is something that all the major companies in the sector are already pushing and, basically, it is like a shortcut program for AI to do things for us. And a very different one is the AGI. The artificial general intelligence that Huang says we have already achieved is something very different. While the agents drink from the same AI that is nothing more than a language model that is dedicated to putting together words that more or less make sense, but that are calculated by algorithms, percentages and probabilities As long as two words go together, AGI is a “real” artificial intelligence, one that thinks like a human. It is something that, as far as we know, is only in the theoretical framework because its technical complexity is overwhelming. The big difference between an AI and agents and AGI is that, if the first two have language as their core and operate from it, AGI is the human brain whose core is thought. Or so they aspire to create. Is Huang an AI? After seeing some of their recent statements and this interview, the question that arises is why there are certain profiles that are choosing to “reason” exactly the way an AI reasons. These tools They are designed to prove us right.so as not to confront us and so that we spend more time using that AI and not another. That’s why ChatGPT or Gemini are so accommodating in their responses when we try to find a way around them. But, as Mashable points out, giving that more convenient answer is also becoming a trend among “real” intelligences. The wolf is coming. Huang himself already pointed out in 2024 that AGI would be software capable of imitating standard human intelligence, but his examples do not seem to match the idea of what AGI is. The industry seems hell-bent on reaching AGI through language models, but as some point out, It’s a dead end. Yann LeCun is considered one of the godfathers of modern AI. Until recently, he was also the head of AI at Meta and stated that the path to AGI is not language modelsbut the world models. They are models that will learn from the environment, will be able to imagine scenarios and operate like humans. That has nothing to do with current models that would not be possible without plundering the Internet and human-created culture. It is not at all clear what it will be the spark that will allow that general artificial intelligence will be reached, but the American AI Big Tech never tires of saying that AGI is already here. Now it is, really good. Huang just stated it to qualify his words in the following sentence, Sam Altman of OpenAI It has been creating expectation for a long time about the AGI when they are not yet able to do a ChatGPT that doesn’t hallucinate, Zuckerberg has assembled a super team to achieve itAnthropic’s Darío Amodei believes that is at the doors and Elon Musk says that Grok 5 could achieve it. At the moment, a lot of promises, and something that creates an app to power a Tamagotchi doesn’t sound like that great revolution in technology either. Images | NVIDIA In Xataka | Customers demand that a human solve their problem. The surprising thing is that if humans serve them they think they are an AI

Jensen Huang believes he has found the perfect new bonus for software engineers. Not Stocks: AI Tokens

March 23, 2026 by usatoday24

The CEO of Nvidia has been converting the AI tokens at the center of all their public conversations. Jensen Huang’s latest idea links these tokens to the efficiency of engineers and how the best engineers in the world are recruited: in addition to a generous salary, offer them an amount equivalent to half their annual salary in AI tokens as part of the hiring package. Huang verbalized his proposal during the inaugural speech of the GTC 2026 conferenceNVIDIA’s largest annual event for developers. In a later interview, the Nvidia CEO detailed that engineers would earn “a few hundred thousand dollars a year as a base salary,” and the intention would be to give them “probably half of that, also, in tokens, so they can multiply your productivity times ten”. What Huang proposes already has a name: Tokenmaxxing. In one podcast appearance ‘All-InHuang said he would be on “high alert” if an engineer earning $500,000 didn’t spend at least $250,000 a year on tokens. “If that person said (that he has used tokens worth) $5,000, I would go completely crazy,” Huang stated. When asked if NVIDIA planned to spend $2 billion on tokens for its engineering team, as proposed, Huang responded: “We’re trying.” As and how they counted in The New York Timesthat has generated a phenomenon called “Tokenmaxxing“, with which engineers brag about the number of tokens they consume to try to improve the perception of their productivity: the more tokens you consume, the more productive you are. Tokens as bonuses are a trend in Silicon Valley. The CEO of NVIDIA is not the only one who thinks this way, and the use of tokens as an extra work benefit it’s soaking among investors in the sector. Tomasz Tunguz of Theory Ventures stated to Business Insider that “companies are incorporating AI inference as a fourth component of engineer compensation: salary, bonus, stock and tokens.” The interest of whoever sells the chips. The NVIDIA CEO encouraging everyone to spend more on tokens is not disinterested advice. Gergely Orosz, analyst at software engineeringhe pointed it out bluntly in a publication from AND he added an analogy that sums it up accurately: “It’s almost as if the CEO of Apple said, ‘If someone who makes $500,000 a year doesn’t spend at least $50,000 a year on in-app purchases on iOS, I’d be deeply alarmed.’ And yes, you would be, because that would reduce the revenue you generate.” Huang is the head of the company that manufactures the chips for AI on which most of the world’s artificial intelligence runs. Huang himself made it clear to his investors: “Without computing, there is no way to generate tokens. Without tokens, there is no way to grow revenue,” he declared, describing his data centers as “token factories” whose demand will only grow as AI agents proliferate. Do not confuse value with price. However, Huang has incurred a bias when arguing his idea: confusing value with price. Orosz formulated it clearly in a message in X : “The advice that engineers should use tools that make them more productive IS correct… except that the cost of tools should NOT be what we focus on. Some of the most useful tools are very cheap. Of course, vendors will focus on selling the most expensive and most profitable tools.” Productivity is not measured in tokens spent, but in results achieved. The right question for companies should not be whether their employees use more AI, but whether increased use of AI is rewarded. with greater productivity. In Xataka | Customers demand that a human solve their problem. The surprising thing is that if humans serve them they think they are an AI Image | NVIDIA, Unsplash (Arif Riyanto)

In 2014 Amazon failed miserably with its Fire Phone. AI has given him the perfect excuse to go back to his old ways

March 23, 2026 by usatoday24

In 2014 Jeff Bezos was still the absolute boss of Amazon. And it occurred to him that Amazon should have its own smartphone, so the company ended up launching the fire phone. That device boasted a 3D screen that overheated the battery and a catalog without the apps that everyone used, but it also it was very expensive for the time ($649). It was canceled 14 months later and became one of the most notorious failures of the recent history of technology. Now Amazon wants to try again with a project codenamed Transformer. Same idea, different time. In reality, the underlying concept has not changed much since 2014. Here Amazon’s goal is to have its own device that has Alexa as an integral part of the experience, but that is also a gateway for purchases on Amazon, connects with Prime Video or its food delivery services. Or what is the same: it is the perfect mobile for those who make their lives revolve around the Amazon ecosystem. And be careful, because what failed in the past may have a chance now. AI as an argument. The Transformer project wants to integrate AI functions to ensure that with it we do what theoretically will end up arriving sooner or later: that we simply ask for what we need so that the phone takes care of everything. Alexa would be a central component of that experience here, and the advantage that Amazon has is that it has the infrastructure and ecosystem that should allow doing something like this. AI agents begin to demonstrate their potential —we are seeing it with OpenClaw—and if Amazon can make that shopping experience easier, you may have a winning idea here. A team with tables. The project is led by J. Allard from an internal unit called ZeroOne in which the objective is to create “revolutionary” devices. Allard was one of the fathers of the original Xbox at Microsoft and also of the Zune, the music player that tried to compete with the iPod and failed. But above him is Panos Panay, who headed the Surface division at Microsoft before joining Amazon. They are certainly two veterans with a lot of experience in the hardware field and know first-hand what it is like to compete with the market leaders from disadvantaged positions. Now they have a unique opportunity to shine, but the challenge is colossal. The ‘dumbphone’ as a back door. One of the most curious twists of the project is that Amazon is not only exploring a conventional smartphone, but also a “dumbphone.” That is, a simple and minimalist mobile with limited functions inspired by the Light Phone and its interface “dumbed down“. The argument is striking: here it is not about trying to unseat the iPhone as the main device, and instead Amazon could position it as “a second phone.” Mobile phones with limited functions represented 15% of global mobile sales in 2025 according to Counterpoint Researchand although it is a small market, Amazon may have an interesting entry point there. But. The context, however, complicates everything. Amazon comes to this project at a particularly difficult time for mobile hardware. The number of smartphones distributed (“sold”) will probably fall more than ever in 2026, and in fact the preliminary descent of that figure is 13% due especially to the RAM crisis. AI hardware is the holy grail. To this we must add the fact that for now no AI hardware device has succeeded, and those who have tried have been an absolute failure. The Humane AI Pin and the Rabbit R1 have been painful lessons for an industry that now certainly wants to try again—let them tell it to OpenAI and its alliance with Jony Ive—. The project is underway, but it is not ruled out that Amazon ends up canceling it if the strategy changes or the numbers do not add up. A golden opportunity. But what is certain is that Amazon has indisputable advantages in getting it right. For example, a service ecosystem with hundreds of millions of active users who already shop, watch content, and use Alexa, even if it’s just to set timers. The multi-million dollar investment in Anthropic and a relationship increasingly narrower with OpenAI they can also be key in this project. The question, of course, is whether an AI phone can really convince us to switch phones. And Amazon wants to have the answer to that question. In Xataka | NVIDIA is doing better than ever. And there is also more competition ready to eat it than ever.

the wearable AI recorder that’s not for everyone, but it’s perfect for some

March 13, 2026 by usatoday24

When I tried the Plaud Note ProI came to a conclusion that I did not expect: I was one of the very few gadgets of AI that justified being a device and not simply an application. The question I ask myself now, weeks after having the NotePin S on me, is whether its spiritual successor can say the same. The answer is not so clean. The NotePin S arrives as the wearable version of that same proposal. Same brain, different packaging. Instead of a card that lives glued to the iPhone by MagSafe, here you go a small 17 gram oval that you can pin to your lapel, hang around your neck, wear on your wrist or pin with a magnetic pin. Plaud presented it at this year’s CES with the promise that capturing what you say would never require taking out your phone again. When you first hold it in your hand, the thought is almost identical to the one I had with the Note Pro: how well finished this is. Solid materials, premium feel, that type of product that does not boast of being expensive but suggests it. The finish of the Plaud NotePin S. Image: Xataka. The box is also unusually neat for a startup: magnetic clip, pin, necklace cord, bracelet and charging base included from the beginning, something that with the original NotePin required a separate purchase. All this comes with the Plaud NotePin S box. Image: Xataka. Image: Xataka. The most relevant change compared to the previous model is small and huge at the same time: they have replaced the pressing gesture with a physical button. The original NotePin had a problem for some users, who were encountering recordings that had never started because the touch gesture had not responded well. The S solves this with a long press to record, a press to stop, and a short press during recording to mark a highlight (one of its best features). Simple. Works. I’ve spent a few weeks wearing it in different formats: The clip on the lapel is the most natural in face-to-face meetings. It is the image that crowns this article. The magnetic pin, the most elegant. The cord-necklace, the most comfortable for everyday use outside of formal contexts. The bracelet, on the other hand, is the option that convinces me the least: the material feels below the level of the rest of the kit, and in a world where almost everyone already wears a watch, adding another element on the wrist is not very practical. With the cord to hang it around your neck. Image: Xataka. With the bracelet adapter to wear it on the wrist, with a form factor similar to that of typical activity bracelets. Image: Xataka. Here in a slightly more inclined view… Image: Xataka. …and here on the side so that the thickness can be distinguished. Image: Xataka. What does work consistently is recording. The microphone picks up well up to about three meters, which is enough for most meetings. The transcription, processed in the app using models from OpenAI, Google or Anthropic of your choice, is accurate in Spanish without the type of errors that would cause you to lose confidence in the system. Automatic summaries, especially when you have marked highlights During the conversation, they are the most useful final product: what previously required rereading the entire transcript now appears organized and immediately actionable. There is a novelty in the ecosystem that deserves special attention: along with the hardware, Plaud has launched a desktop application for Mac and PC that records Zoom, Google Meet or Teams meetings in the background without adding any bot to the call. It is an important distinction because similar alternatives appear as visible participants in the meeting, which makes many interlocutors uncomfortable. Example of a recording made with the Plaud NotePin S seen in the Plaud interface. In the screenshot you can see the summary, much more extensive and structured than we could expect. More than a summary, it is a complete and detailed outline. Image: Xataka. A sample of some of the templates with which we can tell Plaud “how” to generate a transcription and the subsequent treatise. Very useful. Image: Xataka. And another example of a summary, in this case we can see how he makes the quotes in the language of the recording, English; but it offers us the entire summary in our native language, Spanish. Image: Xataka. The Plaud app does not appear anywhere, it records natively and is free for those who already have the hardware. For those of us who use the physical device and also usually have meetings by video call, the integration of both sources in the same hub It’s really comfortable. What is uncomfortable is the question that appears here. With the Note Pro, the hardware justification was clear: it freed you from your phone, it had four high-quality MEMS microphones, and the 30-hour battery let you record everything without worrying. The NotePin S has only a fraction of that claimed battery, and its three-meter effective capture radius puts a real limit on it in large rooms. Although in a high school classroom, where I recorded the image above, it responded perfectly. In everyday contexts, both are sufficient. In the most demanding contexts where the Note Pro especially shined, the NotePin S falters in comparison. What the NotePin S offers that the Note Pro can’t is that you can wear it, not just carry it around. And there is the basic question that must be answered before buying it: do I really need to wear my recorder, or is it enough for me to have it in my pocket or on the table? By separating its magnetic coupling, the charging connector is revealed. Image: Xataka. And so it is attached to the USB-C charging accessory. Image: Xataka. Here, separated from the clip that allows it to be put on the lapel. Image: Xataka. For a journalist doing interviews on the move, the … Read more

the wearable AI recorder that’s not for everyone, but it’s perfect for some

March 13, 2026 by usatoday24

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