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subsidies, taxes and public transport

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Were you thinking of getting gas this week? Everything indicates that it is best that you do it as soon as possible. Since last February 28, when the United States attacked Iran, the pieces began to move. Hormuz was put at risk, oil and gas rose and service stations were already beginning to charge more money for a liter of gasoline. Since then, an idea has been floating around: can the Government do something about the rise in gasoline? The facts. Only a few hours had passed since first American bombing when the most cautious began to fill the tanks of their cars. Of course, the fear of a general increase in gasoline was already floating in the air. Just a handful of days later, has been confirmed. And although the average price of gasoline has not yet reached 1.60 euros/liter, a good number of gas stations already show much higher prices. Especially in the big cities and in the big corridorswhere replacement is more common, prices have risen more strongly. A solution? At the moment, the Government has not made major statements about what measures may be applied if the price of fuel becomes too expensive. The Minister of Economy, Carlos Body, for the moment he has limited himself to saying who are considering applying “a shield for our citizens and companies.” The statements do not say much and it has not been clear if it is about trying to lower the price of fuel for final consumers, if only lowering the price for transporters or, if necessary, applying other types of alternative measures such as lowering the price of public transport. As was already done in 2022. Help with the purchase. The most obvious measure that the State can apply if necessary is a purchase subsidy. In fact, gas stations, aware that this could make them advance the money as happened four years ago, They have been warning the Government that they would be against. However, its activation in 2022 left some doubts: Aid to public transport. In parallel with aid for the purchase of fuel, the Government tried to promote the use of public transport with very substantial price reductions. The use of this means of transportation skyrocketed. Renfe even spoke of an increase in travelers of between 25 and 40% and 1.5 million requests for new free passes. Measures that, due to their application, also had their shadows: And measures that have been extended over time. One of the problems that the Government has is that aid for public transport has been extended over the years. More or less reluctantly, some autonomous communities have maintained the reductions in the price of season tickets. Aid that was also extended to bus services. By 2026, the Government announced a single pass for all of Spain. For 60 euros (30 if you are under 26 years old) you can use the entire medium-distance network, Cercanías, Rodalies and buses (in which the State provides the service). That is to say, there is little room to propose something much cheaper without putting the viability of the service at risk. Taxes? It is another possibility but it seems very complicated for this to be applied. On a liter of gasoline, there are two types of taxes that the Government can reduce to lower the price of a liter of fuel: the Special Tax on Hydrocarbons and VAT. Right now, each liter of fuel is taxed by a general and regional section (which is linear) in the Special Tax on Hydrocarbons, remaining as follows: Unleaded gasoline 98: 0.504 euros/liter. Unleaded gasoline 95: 0.473 euros/liter Diesel: 0.379 euros/liter. To the price, after applying the tax and the cost at which the company wants to sell, 21% VAT is applied. The problem is that these types of measures are considered ineffective for public coffers (lower collection) and The European Union has been demanding from Spain for some time that raises the price of diesel. A measure that would involve eliminating the current bonus that this fuel has in the tax outlined above and that has been repeatedly ignored from our country. Photo | engin arkyut In Xataka | There is a hidden war to sell us the cheapest possible gasoline. One that Ballenoil and Plenergy already dominate

Apple has been setting up a health system parallel to public health for years. The question is whether public health will do something about it.

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I haven’t worn a watch of any kind on my wrist for years. Partly for convenience, partly for not having another device to distract myself with. The paradox is that I find it more and more advisable to wear or give a smartwatch, precisely because of the leap they have made in monitoring our health in recent years. The other day, Dr. Miguel Ángel Cobos Gil, a prestigious Spanish cardiologist, told us at a press event that “the Apple Watch provides more parameters than anyone admitted to a coronary unit.” It made me think: we already have very reliable medical technology in our pockets, on our wrists and even in our ears. And now what? A parallel system to saturated healthcare Healthcare in Spain has just concluded a few days of strike in which they demand improvements in a system with problems: saturated primary care, insufficient personnel, underfinancing or territorial fragmentation are just a few. Spain is not the only one like this. Countries like the United Kingdom, Canada, Italy or Portugal are struggling with similar situations, and if we look at Latin America or Asia the photo even it gets more complicated. Doctor Miguel Ángel Cobos Gil at an Apple Health event in Madrid. It is no coincidence that Apple has spent years setting up a whole parallel health system through its best-selling devices. You can now take a medically approved EKG with Apple Watch In a few minutes, the iPhone notifies you if you have risk of falling when analyzing how you walkand AirPods are increasingly looking more like a smart sonotone. Apple is the one that is taking the most solid and visible steps, but it is not the only one. Samsung integrates teleconsultations, a game to detect Alzheimer’sbooking diagnostic tests and ordering medications at Samsung Health —starting with Indiawhich is no coincidence—; Huawei gives you ten health parameters in a single gesture with its Watch 5; Google bets on a medical coach with AI on top of Fitbit and Pixel Watch data. Almost the entire tech sector is looking at the same place. Useful technology to help us with our health is already here. The problem is how to make all that data that our devices give us use for something in a collapsed public system. Your doctor doesn’t have time to look at the data on your watch And now we have been in this house for ten years: We have a lot of information about preventing diseases and devices that can help us do so. However, there is still no effective system to address it. Cobos Gil summed it up bluntly: “urgent care works.” When something really goes wrong, the system responds. The problem is before, in that period of time where an asymptomatic disease could be detected and treated with a change in habits or a simple medication, but where the family doctor cannot dedicate fifteen minutes to you if he does not see something serious or actionable. Hypertension doesn’t hurt. Atrial fibrillation does not warn. Apple Watch possible hypertension alert system And this is exactly where technology comes in—or should come in—. A smartwatch does not sleep, has no waiting list and does not need you to go see it: it passively monitors whenever you wear it, accumulates months of data and notifies you when it detects an anomaly. Cobos Gil mentioned something that illustrates the difference well: a conventional cardiac holter monitor must be taken for about 24 or 48 hours, and many times it does not capture anything because the arrhythmia does not appear in that time window. With three months of data from the Apple Watch, he says he’s gotten diagnostic information he otherwise wouldn’t have had, and has even “had to anticoagulate patients who were cleared by a Holter monitor.” This gap is especially relevant for the older population, especially if they live alone. Spain is aging fast and a silent heart attack, a fall, or an arrhythmia that is accelerating are situations in which the time between the event and medical attention is everything, and in which not having a family member or caregiver nearby—the child in another city, the grandchildren in another country—creates a very vulnerable situation for these people. These are situations that happen. In Applesfera we have just told the case of a lady who suffered a fall due to an epileptic attack in Torremolinos and his Apple Watch helped everything end in a scare. The striking thing about this is that hospitals already do this type of monitoring in extreme cases. When a modern pacemaker or defibrillator is implanted, the hospital monitors the patient remotely and can intervene if something goes wrong. A watch like the Watch takes that logic from the hospital to home: it allows a son in Madrid to see in real time if his mother’s heart in a town in Teruel is beating strangely, or to receive an alert if she has fallen and hasn’t gotten up. It is not medicine of the future. It is medicine of the present waiting for the system to learn to incorporate it. The limit that no one has set Tim Cook at WWDC 24 What Apple, Samsung, Huawei or Google have built so far is the beginning. Apple has been working for years on non-invasive blood glucose monitoring —without being punctured, through optical spectroscopy—and the most solid rumors suggest that could come to the Apple Watch in 2027 or 2028. Before that, I’m pretty sure we’ll see an AI-powered medical assistant built into the Health app — known internally as Mulberry Project— trained with your real clinical data. Tim Cook has been repeating for years that the Apple’s greatest contribution to humanity will be in healthcare. What it doesn’t say is exactly how far. Because the question that these devices do not answer is one that seems very important to me: Where do they set the limit for themselves, and who sets it for them from the outside? Early detection of … Read more

Many people believe that politics “doesn’t work.” For some the solution is to elect public officials by lottery

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Beyond the fact that it can solve your life with a few million euros, the lottery – in lower case, as a general concept – offers some interesting characteristics. One of them, and not the least, is that, in its own way, it is incorruptible. If applied well, there is no human way to circumvent it. Chance plays its role and smiles at some or others in a totally random way, regardless of whether they have spent a fortune on your organization. Another is that, precisely for that reason, it is totally democratic. In the bass drum there is no ball with a greater chance of coming out than another. With such a cover letter, the question we could ask ourselves is: Would a democracy work based on draws, on randomness? Would it work a “lotocracy”? Neither the question nor the term are new. Not at all. What’s more, the Athenians – pioneers par excellence in democratic governments – considered something similar a couple of centuries before our era, when they used lots to elect some public positions. The same mechanism continued to work in certain cases and with conditions throughout history. A formula with history… and supporters We find it in cities of what is now Italy during the Middle Ages and also in the Renaissance; but it declined in the 17th century, with the representative systems. From a formula similar to the one we continue to use today to choose the presidents of the neighborhood communities, we moved to another that, at least on paper, aspires to choose the best for public positions. In a 21st century with the system riddled by corruption and clientelist networks, there are, however, those who advocate recovering the philosophy of “lotocracy.” In the academic sphere we find respected voices, such as that of the philosopher Alex Guerrero, the political scientist Helene Landemore or the historian David Van Reybrouck that invite, at least, to dwell on its virtues. Beyond the tribunes and atriums of the universities there are also movements, such as Sortition Foundationwho advocate a formula that wants to place the citizen in the center of political decision making. “By selecting representative groups of ordinary people by lottery and bringing them together in citizens’ assemblies we can break the stranglehold of career politicians on decisions and circumvent powerful vested interests,” Sortition advocatewith headquarters in the United Kingdom, Austria and the United States, before putting the finger on one of the great problems of modern democracies: the “disillusionment” and “distrust” that the political class arouses. You don’t have to go to the English-speaking world to find it. In Spain, the CIS places corruption, fraud and the behavior of public officials among the main concerns of citizens, even ahead of education or housing. 19th-century painting by Philipp Foltz depicting the Athenian politician Pericles before the Assembly. According to the Sortition registry, there are a good handful of initiatives verified by the OECD throughout the world that, in the style of open assembliesshare or have shared their philosophy of empowering neighbors. In Spain, several are identified, such as the participatory platform Madrid decideswhich was created with the aim of presenting proposals, achieving participatory accounts and voting in citizen consultations; G1000also located in the capital; either Besaya Citizen Jurywhich proposes ways to use European funds in the Besaya basin. Beyond the isolated initiatives that seek to reinforce the political weight of citizens, can a system recover, the lotocracythat –as collected by Leandro Omar El Eter— was conceived as “a form of government that promotes access to public office through lottery”? Pablo Simonpolitical scientist and editor of Politikonremembers that the formula of democracy by lottery has little new, but points out the advantages that could be brought by “exploring” a hybrid model, which combines its strengths with those of the current system, as in the irish constitutional conventionformed in 2012 to discuss proposals for amendments to the nation’s charter and which included, among other members, randomly selected people. There, in Ireland, the citizens’ assembly served, for example, to address complex problems, such as the legalization of abortion. The United Kingdom also verified its usefulness, with a forum of 108 people which, after weeks of debate, prepared a report with a battery of proposals to fight climate change. “I find it interesting to explore this system in combination. For example, the experience of the irish constitutional convention. In those cases the draw was hybridized with the representatives. If we created more forums or spaces with citizen raffles and they were allowed a part of the management, it wouldn’t seem bad to me. Just as we have participatory budgets or the ILPsthat a part of the budget could be managed by a committee chosen by citizens at random, but with technical support. I think we should explore these types of things because it would help people feel more connected to the institutions,” reflects Simón. The key, there is plenty, would be to find “a good design”: “Knowing how it would be done, with whom and what powers or powers would be given to that body chosen by lot. Always looking for combinations that allow correction, returning to a model in which this mechanism of direct citizen participation has a greater perception of accountability, of closeness.” Weaknesses and strengths The system in its purest form, of course, has its strengths and weaknesses. Among the first, the political scientist insists on its fully democratic character. “There is no electoral rule more radically democratic than the lottery and this is because basically it is assuming that everyone is competent to perform the functions of government,” he explains. What does it mean for that to be so? From the outset, it greatly complicates one of the great evils of the current system: clientelism, the networks of supporters that end up forming around those who hold political power. How to do it when someone who holds a position does so by chance and without guarantees that they will retain it? “It is a … Read more

Catalonia wanted to create the mother of networks for its public headquarters with Huawei equipment. He thought better of it

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The Catalan Court of Public Sector Contracts has partially upheld the appeal presented by Telefónica and Cellnex against the award of the XCAT network contract to sirt and Huawei. The project to interconnect the strategic infrastructures of the Catalan territory will not be able to rely on hardware from China. Why? Catalonia has a fiber optic backbone network, a backbone that supports the Catalan administration. Hospitals, educational centers, public data centers… An infrastructure that has been around for years seeking independence with Spain and that, through the XCAT project, it was preparing its biggest technological leap in decades thanks to the local company Sirt Connecta and Huawei’s network technologies. The offer. Providing it with a budget of 127 million, the Generalitat was finalizing a plan to connect more than 5,400 institutional headquarters. All with its own infrastructure so as not to depend on national giants such as Telefónica, Vodafone or MásOrange. Sirt’s offer with Huawei was the best valued by the CTTIthe computer lung that supports digital services in Catalonia, but Telefónica and Cellnex filed an appeal before the Catalan Court. not so fast. Despite offering a cheaper proposal, Telefónica-Cellnex saw the balance tip towards the Sirt-Huawei proposal. They thus presented an appeal in which they challenged the award of the contract, criticized the technical assessment and indicated their doubts about the technical solvency and real capacity of Sirt to execute said contract. The Catalan Court of Public Sector Contracts has partially upheld the appeal presented by Telefónica and Cellnex, thus suspending the award. There is more. The European Commission’s proposal for a new cybersecurity law, presented on January 20, makes the awarding of the contract even more difficult. Europe wants to expressly prohibit (although the law will not come into force for at least a year) the use of Chinese technology in fixed network infrastructure. In other words, Catalonia cannot use Huawei equipment. If the court’s decision is appealed and the Sirt-Huawei solution is implemented, in just a year and a half all Huawei equipment should be replaced with others of Western origin. The silent dismantling. In recent years, the three large Spanish operators have expelled Huawei from their network cores. Telefónica now works with Nokia and Ericsson Orange with Ericsson Vodafone with Nokia The next step is what the Sirt-Telefónica conflict leaves us with: small local operators will also have to banish Chinese equipment from their hardware core to comply with upcoming European regulations. In Xataka | Huawei MatePad 11.5 S 2026, analysis: the secret of its success is visible and it is called PaperMatte

Databricks is worth 134 billion without ever having gone public thanks to AI. And it’s not an AI company

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Databricks has closed a financing round of more than 7 billion dollars (5,000 million in capital and 2,000 million in debt) that values ​​the company at 134 billion dollars. It’s a dizzying figure for a company that the vast majority of people have never heard of. The San Francisco firm is not, technically, an AI company either. Its business is enterprise-scale data management and analysis. What Databricks does is provide the invisible infrastructure that allows other companies to store, process and extract value from enormous amounts of information. Without that, training AI models would be impossible. Why is it important. Databricks is the cover of the boom of AI. OpenAI, NVIDIA or Google grab the headlines, but it’s companies like this that build the plumbing that makes everything else possible. Its valuation is 134,000 million. Without ever having gone public. That places it even above established technology giants. It is at the level of Qualcomm or Sony. Beats Xiaomi or Adobe. And it does so with a less business model sexy but more profitable: B2B infrastructure than it leaves gross margins greater than 80%. In figures. The Databricks numbers They explain a growth that justifies the enthusiasm of its investors. Annualized revenues exceeding $5.4 billion in the fourth quarter, with 65% year-over-year growth. More than 800 clients that generate more than a million dollars annually. Positive free cash flow over the last year. Its AI product line has surpassed $1.4 billion in revenue with a net retention rate of over 140%. Between the lines. The participation of JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Microsoft and sovereign funds like Qatar’s in the latest round says a lot: these large investors are betting on the infrastructure, not the final application. The implicit message is something we’ve been hearing since the first few months after the ChatGPT moment: in the AI ​​race, those who sell picks and shovels can earn more than those who pan for gold. Databricks provides the platform where companies store their proprietary data and train their custom modelssomething that the public APIs of OpenAI or Anthropic cannot offer. Yes, but. Its CEO, Ali Ghodsi, has said that “now is not a good time to go public,” even though his company meets all the financial requirements to do so. The strategy is to accumulate enough cash enough to withstand any market correction like the one in 2022. And seen the vertigo it produces any headlines on capex figuresit makes sense to make a cushion for what may happen. The context. Databricks represents an important change in how the technology sector is structured. For years, traditional SaaS companies dominated the B2B landscape. Now, AI infrastructure and data platforms are achieving similar or higher valuations. The company is also expanding beyond its traditional business with products such as Lakebase, a database designed specifically for AI agents. Or with Geniea conversational assistant that allows employees to query business data using natural language. If Databricks achieves a strong IPO in an environment where technology valuations are more closely monitored than ever, it would demonstrate that markets are willing to pay very large premiums for AI infrastructure, not just flashy models. And that would change the rules of the game for dozens of similar companies operating in the shadows. In Xataka | Spain, on the verge of adding another AI unicorn: Multiverse negotiates a round to exceed 1.5 billion euros Featured image | Databricks and Xataka with Mockuuups Studio

This is how the public demonstrations will be

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For years, the Full Self-Driving of Tesla has been a promise that advanced at different speeds depending on the country and the regulatory framework. In Europe, that future has always seemed a little more distant, but now it is beginning to take shape with concrete decisions. Tesla is not yet talking about a complete deployment, but it is talking about something tangible: allowing the public to see the system in action in Spain, while the company maintains its forecast of launching the function in Europe in early 2026. Countdown to try FSD in Spain. What Tesla has put on the table is a public and limited experience, designed to show the system as it works today. Starting January 26, customers in Spain will be able to see Full Self-Driving (Supervised) in action through tests organized in selected brand stores. The company has confirmed that these demonstrations will take place in Madrid, Barcelona, ​​Valencia, Seville and Malaga, and that the sessions can now be booked through its website. It should be noted that this is not a general activation of the system, but rather an opportunity to observe it under controlled conditions. Why now. The announcement of the demonstrations does not come in isolation, but at a time when the regulatory framework is beginning to show signs of progress. In Spain, the General Directorate of Traffic authorized at the end of 2025 tests on public roads with 19 vehicles equipped with FSD, a phase aimed at collecting data and adapting the system to European traffic. Added to this previous work is the continental context, with demonstrations already carried out in countries such as France, Italy or Germany. Another promise from Elon Musk. From Davos, Elon Musk said today that the company expects to obtain approvals for the supervised FSD in Europe “next month.” And here the Netherlands comes into play: the Dutch authority RDW expected to rule on the software in February, and Tesla has defended that this approval could facilitate recognition in other EU countries before formal approval at European level. Advanced assistance, not autonomous driving. Despite its commercial name, Full Self-Driving (Supervised) does not turn the car into a vehicle that drives itself. In the documentation that Tesla distributes about the systemthe company insists that it requires active driver supervision and does not make the vehicle autonomous. In other words, the system can take over driving tasks, but it does not replace the driver, and legal responsibility during its use is not delegated to the car. What FSD can do. In its current state, Full Self-Driving (Supervised) acts as an advanced assistant capable of performing multiple driving maneuvers on its own. According to Tesla, the system can follow routes to a destination, navigate urban streets, highways and residential roads, manage intersections and roundabouts, and automatically control steering, acceleration and braking. The company also mentions lane changes, turns and highway entrances and exits, in addition to functions related to parking, always with the driver attentive and prepared to intervene at any time. Tesla highlights safety. In its communication, Tesla accompanies these demonstrations with usage figures and safety claims. On the one hand, it maintains that Tesla owners have traveled more than 11 billion kilometers around the world with Full Self-Driving (Supervised) activated. On the other hand, it ensures that, when activated and used with active driver supervision, the system “reduces the risk of serious collisions up to seven times”, a statement that the company itself presents with notes and conditions of comparison. The last pending challenge. In any case, the main condition for a broader deployment in Europe remains the same: regulatory approval, which Tesla recognizes as a prerequisite. That is why these in-store tests fit better as a controlled demonstration and a thermometer of what is to come than as a definitive arrival. Images | tesla In Xataka | Madrid has bought so many electric cars that the DGT has ended one of its great incentives

Public transport faces 2026 with extended aid and the approved Single Pass: there is still one step ahead

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Public transport enters 2026 with two decisions already made and an important nuance still pending to be resolved. The Council of Ministers has approved the extension of current aid throughout next year and has given the green light to the Single Passa new flat rate that will begin operating in January and that seeks to simplify access to state-run trains and buses. The announcement consolidates a policy that the Government has been implementing since 2018, but also leaves the final procedure pending. The key date is January 1, but not for the arrival of a new system, but for the continuity of the current one. From that day on, the bonuses remain in force. The Single Pass, which does introduce a different model, will have a later start and will not be available until the second half of January. The entire plan has planned financing of more than 1,371 million euros by 2026. Extension with changes. Although the aid is extended, the scheme does not remain intact. The main novelty for 2026 is in the way of financing them in regional and local transport: the Ministry of Transport will cover the 20% general bonus for the rest of the subscriptions without conditioning that contribution on the competent administrations adding another 20%. {“videoId”:”x8d81cm”,”autoplay”:false,”title”:”Free Renfe passes”, “tag”:””, “duration”:”30″} In practice, users will find in 2026 a scheme very similar to the current one, with nuances depending on the territory and the operator. State-owned buses will maintain free child tickets and the main subsidized passes, including reinforced discounts for young people. Renfe: continuity and new incentives. Bonuses on Renfe services will continue to be one of the central pieces of the system in 2026. Commuter passes with reduced rates, free children’s tickets and discounts on Media Distancia and Avant are maintained, in line with what has been applied until now, while new features are introduced for recurring travelers. The Ministry emphasizes that these measures have had a notable impact on the use of the railway: more than 14 million tickets sold since their implementation and an estimated saving of around 1.5 billion euros for travelers. Pass Via enters the scene. Renfe will introduce some changes in 2026 aimed at recurring travelers. The main novelty is the new quarterly “Pase Vía” subscription for Avant services, which will apply progressive discounts (from 45% to 72%) depending on the number of trips made and will allow you to pay for each ticket without an initial outlay. Added to this is the Cronos Cercanías system, which will offer a 40% discount from the fifth trip when access is made by paying with the bank card directly at the turnstiles. The new Single Pass. The new state flat rate adds to the mosaic of existing aid with a different logic. The Single Pass will allow unlimited travel for 30 days on Renfe Cercanías, Rodalies and Media Distancia and on state-owned interregional buses for 60 euros, or 30 euros in the case of those under 26 years of age. It will be available from the second half of January and will require prior user registration. In Xataka The single public transport ticket promises to change the mobility of our country for 60 euros. We have many doubts Although the measures have already been approved by the Council of Ministers, the institutional path is not completely closed. The extension of the aid is articulated through a royal decree-law, a figure that allows its immediate entry into force but that requires subsequent validation by Congress within the constitutional period. On this occasion, the text is processed independently and is not included in a broader decree, a decision that would facilitate its parliamentary validation. Images | RENFE | Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility In Xataka | There will be no insurance or registration for electric scooters on January 2, 2026: the DGT has confirmed it (function() { window._JS_MODULES = window._JS_MODULES || {}; var headElement = document.getElementsByTagName(‘head’)(0); if (_JS_MODULES.instagram) { var instagramScript = document.createElement(‘script’); instagramScript.src=”https://platform.instagram.com/en_US/embeds.js”; instagramScript.async = true; instagramScript.defer = true; headElement.appendChild(instagramScript); – The news Public transport faces 2026 with extended aid and the approved Single Pass: there is still one step ahead was originally published in Xataka by Javier Marquez .

The 48fps format makes ‘Avatar 3’ hyperrealistic. It’s just what turns back part of the public

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The new installment of ‘Avatar‘ is distanced, in technical terms, from practically all the other films with which it shares the billboard: Cameron’s thoroughness when it comes to capturing his vision in images has led him to generate, for example, 45 different versions of the film adapted to the conditions of each possible type of theater. This has also led him to declare that the best format to see this third installment it is at 48fps. But not all cinemas are prepared nor does it necessarily have to be a dish to the taste of all viewers. What are 48 frames per second. James Cameron wants us to see 40% of ‘Avatar: Fire and Ash’ at 48 frames per second, double the film standardconvinced that this system offers the most natural visual experience to capture the world of Pandora. However, all previous attempts to impose HFR (High Frame Rate) have failed, since ‘The Hobbit‘ until ‘Gemini‘ by Ang Lee. The reason: to the untrained eye, the image is too sharptoo similar to home video. The question that remains is: why does Cameron opt for a technology that systematically causes visual rejection in viewers? Why Cameron likes it. James Cameron maintains a personal position on HFR: he refuses to classify it as a cinematographic format, but rather defines it as a creative tool at the service of narrative, comparable to any other technical resource. Approximately 40% of ‘Avatar: Fire and Ash’ has been shot at 48 frames per second, concentrating mainly on the underwater sequences and flight scenes where, according to the filmmaker, the increase in visual clarity enhances the feeling of spatial presence. How it works. Cameron’s technical strategy is articulated through the Variable Frame Rate (VFR), which dynamically switches between 24fps and 48fps according to the expressive needs of each scene. As Cameron explainshe framerate high is counterproductive in moments of dialogue or everyday interaction, where it generates an unwanted hyperrealism that emotionally distances the viewer from the fiction. Therefore, scenes with characters talking or walking remain in the traditional standard. The technical process is completed with TrueCutMotiona technology that allows you to adjust the level of motion blur and image smoothness scene by scene. This granular control is intended to avoid the dreaded “soap opera effect” that worked so poorly in ‘The Hobbit’. Cameron conceives of the HFR fundamentally as a technical improvement for 3Dnot as an autonomous aesthetic revolution. In Spain what is closest to Cameron’s proposal is lto Cinity technologyof Chinese origin, which only screens the Odeon network in five theaters and which combines 4K, 3D and HFR. Why does it look like that? The reason we see 48fps with that extreme smoothing effect is because cinema has operated at 24 frames per second since sound demanded standardization of projection speed a hundred years ago. Each frame captures the image for approximately 1/48 of a second, generating a motion blur that the human brain interprets as natural or rather, as “cinematic.” He HFR duplicates that information: 48 images per second with half speed motion blurwhich equals more sharpness in fast movements. The technical advantages apply above all to 3D projections, as Cameron assures: framerate High resolution prevents the image from blurring when panning, and reduces eye-straining flicker in 3D projections. It also helps maintain clarity in low-light scenes, where traditional 24fps results in blurry images. It’s your fault. What we must keep in mind is that the problem that we associate with 48fps It’s psychological, not technical.. Viewers have been trained for a century to associate 24fps with cinematic narrative and framerates superiors with television broadcasts. When the image is too sharp, the brain immediately detects the artifices of the staging. Digital effects, makeup, sets, everything is camouflaged with 24fps images, because we enter more easily into the lie of cinema. The HFR, however, is too clear, too revealing. Previous failures. The first major commercial commitment to HFR came in December 2012 with ‘The Hobbit’. Peter Jackson filmed his entire Tolkien trilogy at 48fps using RED Epic cameras, but the critical and public reaction was devastating because the image was too sharp, almost like that of a reality show. Technically there were no objections to the result, but at the same time it proposed an aesthetic opposite to what was expected from a fantasy story. The HFR versions were never released in domestic format, which makes them curious pieces of lost media in the digital age. Ang Lee went further with the semi-unknown ‘Billy Lynn’ and with ‘Geminis’, which raised the fps to 120. The first could only be projected in those conditions in six theaters around the world and the second, a few more but not many: fourteen in the United States. Both failed commercially, since the HDR versions were released covertly fearing a failure like ‘The Hobbit’. Once again the hyperstylized and fantastical aesthetic came face to face with the dizzying hyperrealism of 120fps. The exhibitors, in addition, they had to acquire HFR licenses for $500 for equipment that they would almost never use. In Xataka | It is possible that ‘Avatar 3’ will sweep and raise millions of dollars. And it is perfectly possible that you lose money despite it

It just went public and its value has skyrocketed by 688%

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A few days ago we said that the Chinese company Moore Threads Had an Amazing Stock Market Debut. Today history repeats itself with Meta X, a GPU manufacturer and another of the companies that wants to hold the title of “the Chinese NVIDIA.” If Moore Threads already surprised by shooting up 500% in the stock market, MetaX has just said “hold my cap.” MetaX goes public. We have talked about the company in the past and today they are in the news because, as we said, they have gone public following in the footsteps of Moore Threads. The market response has seen its share price skyrocket from 104.66 yuan to a whopping 824.50 yuan, an increase of 688% that has raised its valuation to 280 billion yuan, almost $40 billion. According to South China Morning Postis the third most successful Star Market debut so far this year. Why is it important. The market reaction to companies such as MetaX or previously Moore Threads highlights the interest in creating domestic alternatives to NVIDIA chips. Furthermore, it happens at the moment when The US has given permission for NVIDIA to sell its H200 chips. Although there are companies that prefer American chipsthe appetite for creating competitive alternatives is fierce. MetaX. It was founded just five years ago by three former AMD employees, including Chen Weiliang, the company’s current CEO. Its main product is GPUs intended for training and executing AI models. Just like NVIDIA, MetaX operates under the ‘fable’ modelthat is, they do not have factories and what they do is design the GPUs from their headquarters in Shanghai, so that they are manufactured in third-party plants such as TSMC’s in Taiwan. Compatibility. Its first GPU intended for AI training, the C500, was launched in 2023 and stood out for its compatibility with CUDA, NVIDIA’s programming platform. This allows them to run existing software without having to rewrite the codeis the same path that Moore Threads took with its own GPUs. The new model, the C600, is about to enter mass production and the C700 is already in the development phase. They also have the N line, which are more basic chips for inference and video processing. Power. They count in Nikkei Asia that MetaX has recognized that its technology is still behind what NVIDIA offers, but by how much? The C500 GPU offers 15 TFLOPS of power, which is about 75% of the power of the NVIDIA A100. In the case of the N100, it offers approximately 50% power of the NVIDIA A30. It is far behind the American giant, but that has not stopped investors. A big ‘but’. Not everything is so pretty. MetaX is in the same situation as many AI companies: it is not yet generating revenue. So far this year they have invoiced 1,230 million yuan, a figure that is five times that of 2024, but with losses of 345 million. Moore Threads is in a similar situation and despite its big IPO, it warned investors that its chips have not yet generated revenue, which caused the share price to drop 20%. In the end it seems that the high expectations about the AI ​​boom are not just an American thing. Image | MetaX In Xataka | Moore Threads is the real NVIDIA of China. So much so that the US considers it a threat

Elon Musk has been refusing to take SpaceX public for 20 years. His new obsession has changed his mind

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If there is something that Elon Musk has been repeating since before Starship was called Starship, it is that SpaceX would not go public until the gigantic Martian rocket was flying regularly. The excuse was that Wall Street likes short-term profitability plans more than multi-generational plans to colonize Mars. But the script has changed: SpaceX is preparing its jump onto the stock market, and not to pay for the trip to the red planet. He does this because he needs a lot of capital for “something more” than Starship and Starlink. The largest IPO in the United States. As revealed BloombergSpaceX plans to launch a Public Offering in late 2026 or early 2027. The company is seeking a valuation of $1.5 trillion (trillion, on an American scale) and more than $30 billion in cash, dizzying figures that would be the largest IPO in the history of the United States, close to the global record set by Saudi Aramco in 2019. Musk has been leaving breadcrumbs in X for days about this change in strategy. When the first rumors leaked about a financing round that valued the company at 800,000 million, the tycoon denied itclarifying that “the valuation increases are based on the progress of Starship, Starlink… and one more thing, which is possibly the most significant by far.” What is that thing that makes another round of investment insufficient? Orbital computing. What is clear from Musk’s latest tweets is that SpaceX wants to raise a lot of cash with its IPO for more than just Starship and Starlink: to develop space data centers. The logic, that Musk himself considers validis the same one that other companies like Google are following, but with the advantage of being the largest rocket launcher in the world. On Earth, AI data centers have two major bottlenecks: power and cooling. In space, satellites can receive sunlight 24 hours a day without atmospheric interference and with the possibility of dissipating heat on the dark side of the satellite, eliminating complex water systems and air conditioning of the Earth. Beyond Starlink. SpaceX already has a constellation of 9,000 satellites in orbit, many of them interconnected by laser links. The plan would be to take advantage of all the knowledge and technology that the company has to create a new constellation of localized AI: in Musk’s words, the cheapest way to generate AI bitstreams in less than three years. Their roadmap is hard science fiction: scale up to adding 100 GW of capacity per year using high-bandwidth lasers connected to the Starlink constellation itselfwhich is already highly profitable. And from there we move on to factories on the Moon and the use of electromagnetic rails to launch these AI satellites without the need for rockets. The umpteenth gold rush. Figures like Sam Altman, Eric Schmidt either Jeff Bezos They are already moving to have their piece of the pie in the orbital data center business. Google created the Suncatcher project and Nvidia collaborates with Starcloudwhile smaller startups like Aetherflux have announced projects like “Galactic Brain” planned for 2027. The difference is that SpaceX has the launch experience and is building the largest rocket in the world, with the peculiarity that it aspires to be completely reusable. It’s just the beginning. If 1.5 trillion is already a historic valuation, a recent report by ARK Invest projects that by 2030, SpaceX’s enterprise value could be around $2.5 trillion in a base case scenario, driven almost entirely by recurring revenue from Starlink and declining launch costs thanks to Starship reusability. Going public in 2026 would not just be a financial operation: it would give SpaceX the capital it needs to become the backbone of AI computing infrastructure, turning an internet service like Starlink into something that Musk himself considers “much more significant.” Images | SpaceX In Xataka | Building data centers in space was the new hot business. Elon Musk just broke it with a tweet

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