quality

its new contest for the AVE will prioritize quality over money

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Last month, Renfe gave the green light to the purchase of those 30 new AVE trains (expandable to 40) with which it hopes to renew its fleet in Spain. The railway operator has launched them into competition and it is expected that in September we will know which companies will be in charge of producing these new trains. What is clear is that Renfe does not want to repeat the chaos suffered with Talgo, and has already admitted that it will seek to prioritize quality over price. About the Avril trains. This new tender has a starting point that has given the operator quite a headache. We talk about The Talgo Avrilthe series 106 trains that today cover, among other routes, the Galicia-Madrid high-speed line. Renfe ordered 30 units in two batches between 2015 and 2016 and the result ended up being a deadline disaster. The trains arrived more than two years late, costing Talgo a penalty of 116 million euros. And when they finally went into service, the first few months left a rosary of incidents on different lines. Renfe does not want to repeat this chaos, so it intends to be more cautious in the specifications. How the new contest works. The operator has structured the scoring of the offers so that the technical proposal worth 70% of the final gradecompared to 30% that corresponds to the price. Within this technical section, almost 60% of the total is evaluated with objective criteria, but there is 10.2% reserved for value judgments, that is, a more qualitative assessment. Normally in public contracts, the price usually has much more weight. Here, Renfe is betting on paying a little more if that guarantees a better train. Interested manufacturers must submit their offers by June 9, and the opening is scheduled for September 9. The trains requested by Renfe. The specifications require that the new convoys travel at 350 kilometers per hour, that they carry the European ERTMS/ETCS and the Spanish ASFA signaling systems, and that they have at least 450 seats. The first five trains must arrive within 40 months from the signing of the contract, and the entire fleet within 78 months, at a rate of one new train every 45 days. The contract also includes the supply of spare parts and maintenance, bringing the total value of the agreement to 4,145 million euros, according to they count from CincoDías. Who has more chances to win. Two manufacturers start as favorites: Siemens, with its Velaro Novo, and Hitachi, with the ETR-100. But there are more candidates. And just as account The medium, Talgo, despite the Avril precedent, is analyzing the specifications to see if it can present an improved version of that same model. Alstom could also opt with its Avelia AGV, the same train that operates in Italy. The elephant in the room: Chinese trains. The Minister of Transport, Óscar Puente, announced the contest at the end of March in the Congress of Deputies. Puente has been sending messages about the possibility of buying Chinese trains to reduce costs, an idea that has generated controversy in the sector. For now, the specifications point in the opposite direction, since both the technical requirements, the deadlines and the weight given to quality over price would make it very difficult for a Chinese manufacturer, with no presence or history on the Spanish railway network, to compete. At least in this particular tender. Why the secrecy? Renfe has shielded the documents with a confidentiality clause. Whoever wants to see them has to request them directly from the company, sign a commitment signed by a manager, and receive them in hand. The reason that the operator has officially given is the liberalization of the high-speed market and the presence of competitors such as Iryo and Ouigo, to whom Renfe does not want to give clues about its commercial strategy. Renfe has also warned of possible legal, civil or criminal actions against anyone who leaks the content. What’s coming now? If the schedule is met, Renfe could know in September who it will buy its next AVE from. With 124 of the 160 high-speed trains circulating in Spain, the fleet needs to be renewed, since some models have been in operation for many years and their withdrawal is urgent. Cover image | Renfe In Xataka | Two floors, 200 meters long and one objective: to modernize the most used and chaotic Cercanías line in Spain

For decades, the “Galicia” octopus has been the greatest guarantee of quality. The United Kingdom wants to take it away

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The Galician octopus may be the most famous, but for some time now, talking about the most precious cephalopod in the country’s gastronomy requires looking beyond the Rías Baixas. In fact, it forces us to take a leap of hundreds of kilometers and look at the other side of the English Channel, on the southern coast of the United Kingdom. There the English fishermen have encountered a curious octopus invasion which at first they viewed with suspicion (they have been dedicated to capturing other species for generations), but each time it awakens greater interest in London. The question is how can it affect that to Galicia, a land that has turned octopus into a ‘religion’ (in addition to a big business) and that in recent years has encountered the opposite panorama: a fall in the capture of cephalopods. What has happened? That the octopus map is changing. And although we still don’t know for sure how deep (and stable) that transformation will be, it has been clear enough to generate expectation in Galicia, a land closely linked to the cephalopod from a cultural and economic point of view. To understand it, we have to go back to 2025, when fishermen who fish on the southern coasts of the United Kingdom encountered an unexpected picture: in the pots that have been installed for generations to hunt crabs and lobsters, they began to appear empty shells…a clue to the presence of octopuses. Click on the image to go to the tweet. Why is it so strange? Because the ports in the north of the peninsula are used to large unloadings of octopus, but things change when we talk about Newlyn or Brixham, in England. There the boats that go out to fish hope to collect sole, turbot, crabs or lobsters. A few months ago, however, the fishermen encountered an unexpected (and apparently inexplicable) invasion of Octopus vulgariscephalopods that usually live in the Mediterranean or other areas of the Atlantic, such as the Galician coast. It was not a one-off boom. Nor something anecdotal. The phenomenon was so surprising that it even caught the attention of Stephen Castle, a reporter for The New York Timeswho in September traveled to Brixham to talk to sailors and operators. In a chronicle about what he saw there, he talks about fishermen ecstatic to see how their turnover skyrocketed thanks to new catches, auctions of tons of merchandise and veterans of the sector recognizing that it was the first time they had captured the species in their waters in more than 40 years. This is good news, right? Depends. Castle chatted with fishermen who rub their hands when they see the tentacles wriggling in their nets, but also with others who frustratedly tell how octopuses boycott the pots with which they capture shellfish. They are not the only ones who are not enthusiastic about the new plague. “I recently visited the fishing industry in Plummouth and was informed that there was an unusual abundance of octopuses in the south west. The Ministry of Environment and Food understands that the proliferation is affecting shellfish pot fishing and causing concern in the fishing sector in the area,” warned in May last year the Labor MP Daniel Zeichner. And why not take advantage of it? That is the question that the British authorities seem to have asked themselves, who have decided that the cephalopod invasion may be something more: an opportunity. At the beginning of the year Vigo Lighthouse revealed who in London want to promote a formal, regulated and industrial fishery of the octopus vulgaris. In short: make a virtue of necessity and equip yourself with a strategy to gain a foothold in a market that moves billions of euros. Proof that the United Kingdom they are very serious with the octopus is that the Marine Biological Association (MBA) and the Marine Management Organization (MMO), two departments linked to the Government, “are considering how best to collaborate with the EU to learn from existing octopus fisheries.” a few days ago The Voice of Galicia even reported that the country is already looking at the markets of the rest of Europe and Morocco. It makes sense if we take into account that the change on the English coast, with an octopus boom that in turn reduces the population of other traditional species, already affected to the Christmas campaign. Do they have that many octopuses? Yes. In September, after speaking with the manager of a market, Castle talked about the sale of up to 48 tons of octopus in a single day. Official MMO data shows that last year a total of about 1,900 tons of octopus, especially in Brixham and Dartmouth. It is an exceptional fact. First, because it exponentially multiplies the discrete cephalopod capture data recorded so far. Second, because it surpasses the 1,200 t handled in the markets of Galicia. There is sources which indicate that total sales in the UK markets would be much higher. Data from the Xunta on the sale (blue) and price (yellow) of octopus in the markets of Galicia. Is it something new? Yes. And no. It is not the first time that English fishermen have found octopuses wrapped in their nets and pots. Vigo Lighthouse remember that in Devon and Cornwall sailors already encountered similar situations in the late 19th and mid-20th centuries, when the regional press came to speak of “a perfect plague” of “disgusting beasts” that “almost ruined” the sector. On this occasion there are signs that suggest that it will not be something temporary. Experts such as Seteve Simpson, from the University of Bristol, slide that climate change is “a likely factor” in explaining the increase in octopuses in southern England. “Our waters are warming, so our little island of Britain is becoming increasingly favorable for octopus populations,” he theorizes. There are clues that suggest he is not wrong. In Plymouth there are fishermen who recognize that they not only encounter adult specimens when fishing. They also see … Read more

now it wants to sweep iOS and Android in quality

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Huawei’s effort to create a completely new operating system, with its own code and compatible with multiple devices, has been titanic. Since the US Administration will block access to Googlethe company was clear about the solution: to be completely independent from the rest of the world. 2026 aims to be a big year for HarmonyOS, a system that according to Richard Yu will have applications at the iOS and Android level starting next April. The point is that, although comparisons are inevitable, Huawei plays in its own league. The breakup. A few years ago, when Huawei had to create an emergency plan to continue operating, it developed HarmonyOS with Android as a base. In other words, the ROM was still EMUI (Huawei’s customization layer), but without Google services. But, from the beginning, Huawei was clear that it would end up creating an interoperable operating system, designed not only for mobile phones, but for cars, wearables and computers. The peak. Not too long ago, Huawei completed its plan. HarmonyOS became a solution based on 100% own codewithout a trace of a single line of Android. The plan has worked, and China is embracing a domestic product that promises to compete directly with iOS and Android. In recent statements, Richard Yu has stated that the quality of the native HarmonyOS apps will equal those of iOS and Android in quality, expecting to reach 100 million updated devices before the end of the year. What exactly is the promise? Achieve parity in terms of raw performance and security, with the aim of eventually surpassing the user experience of the two most used systems in the world. Competing in another league. Having shed the pressure to sell outside China, Huawei can compete in a different league. One in which the fragmentation problems that Android has been suffering for years do not exist (in fact 90% of Huawei devices of recent years are already updated), and with an ecosystem that makes much more sense in its native country. HarmonyOS is no longer an emergency exit in the face of a veto, it is a show of technological muscle in the Chinese software industry. Far beyond Android. HarmonyOS Next is owned by Huawei, but HarmonyOS is an open source system operated by OpenAtom. The company has played its cards so that its operating system is not just a commercial solution, but a huge ecosystem “independent” of Huawei and integrated within other companies. The key? Huawei, at least in China, It’s at the point I wanted– It’s not just a rival to Android and iOS, it’s much more. It is proof of its technological independence in terms of software, a blow to giants like Google (which have been trying to dominate other sectors for years, such as software in vehicles with solutions like Android Automotive). Image | Xataka In Xataka | Huawei Pura 80 Ultra, analysis: the dethroned king returns to recover his crown with a telephoto lens

assault in sound quality and for being the most comfortable headphones

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Now that Samsung has finally announced the new generation of its headphones, what better way to explore what they offer than to compare them with models from other brands. Are they better than Apple’s? To do this, in this article we are going to put the Samsung Galaxy Buds4 with AirPods Pro 3. The differences between the Samsung Galaxy Buds4 and the AirPods Pro 3 The design, which one do you prefer? It is evident that one of the most important points when using headphones is the design. The Samsung Galaxy Buds4 they have a open, padless design while the AirPods Pro 3 They come with a set of five pads. And this may interest you a lot when buying headphones or others. Each person is different and headphones may be good for one person, but not for you. The good thing about AirPods is that with the pads you can customize the headphones so they fit better in your ears. Samsung does not allow this as it has an open design and no pads, so in the worst case you could feel some discomfort if they are too big for you or they simply fall off when walking, running or exercising. Best for lossless audio The AirPods Pro 3 may be the perfect headphones for an Apple user, but not everything is pretty: the headphones support the AAC codec (256 kbps), so if you use platforms that offer ‘Lossless’ sound quality you will not be able to have the best possible experience. Things change with the Samsung Galaxy Buds4 that support the codec SSC-UHQ (24-bit / 96 kHz). In this case you can take advantage of the ‘Lossless’ quality offered by many platforms such as Tidal or Spotify. If you are looking for the best possible sound quality, these are the ones that may interest you the most. Samsung wins in autonomy, but with nuances Both the Samsung Galaxy Buds4 and the AirPods Pro 3 offer good autonomy, up to 30 hours for the former and up to 24 hours for the latter. But if we remove the charging case from each one, things change. If you have active noise cancellation on, the Samsung headphones will last you just under five hours, while with the Apple headphones almost you will be able to last almost an entire day of eight hours of work. This is not to say that Samsung headphones are worse. Simply you have to take into account when you are going to use them: If it is for training or listening to music for a few hours, Samsung headphones may suit you well. If you listen to music for many hours to work, Apple headphones win here. What happens if my headphones get wet? Although it is always better to avoid water to ensure proper functionality of the headphones, both the Galaxy Buds4 and the AirPods Pro 3 are water resistant, although not in the same way. Resistances are usually measured by the degree of IP certificationand in this case the headphones come with: IP54 certification on the Samsung Galaxy Buds4: protection against water jets. IP57 certification on AirPods Pro 3: protection against complete immersion in water at a depth of 1 meter for 30 minutes. In any case, both headphones are durable enough to function properly when used while exercising or in the rain. In the event that, for example, they fall into a puddle of water or into the bathtub, the AirPods Pro 3 are protected for these situations. A little extra that can change your choice Although it is something that we can find in other devices such as smartwatches, it is worth mentioning that the AirPods Pro 3 have a sensor that we do not see in Samsung headphones: the heart rate sensor. It is not a simple addition that we are going to avoid because we already have a watch, since there is a good reason why Apple has decided to introduce it in headphones. Beyond the reliability provided by sensors in devices such as smartwatches, it is medically more reliable for a device to take vital signs from the ear than from the wrist. If you exercise and are looking for greater control over the measurements, this AirPods sensor may interest you. In summary: which Bluetooth headphones to choose according to your tastes and needs Why choose the Samsung Galaxy Buds4 The Samsung Galaxy Buds4 arrive in style, offering a very competitive price. Where they stand out the most is in: Your SSC-UHQ codec. If you are going to use them to listen to music on platforms that offer ‘Lossless’ quality, these are the ones we recommend. If you listen to music sporadically. The headphones alone have less autonomy than Apple’s, but with the charging case they get a higher figure. If you use them for sessions of no more than four and a half hours, these are the ones that may interest you. If you want the cheapest. It is inevitable to compare prices on these headphones, so if you want to spend as little as possible, the difference of 70 euros is quite attractive. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Why choose AirPods Pro 3 The AirPods Pro 3 were launched a few months ago and continue to be one of the best purchase options in their price range. Where they stand out the most is in: The design. That it includes five pads is something very interesting if you don’t know very well how they are going to fit in your ears. With them, you can adapt the headphones so that they do not move, something especially interesting when walking, running or exercising. Your autonomy. The autonomy of the headphones (without charging case) reaches eight hours, so if you listen to music while you work, these are the ones that may interest you the most. Better water resistance. It’s not every day that we drop our headphones into a puddle or pool, … Read more

For centuries price has been a sign of quality. Generative AI is breaking that rule in dozens of sectors

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For centuries, price has served as a cognitive shortcut. If something costs a lot it is because, for one reason or another, it must be worth a lot. An Armani suit, Bang & Olufsen headphonesa McKinsey report. The number has always served to convey certain information to us before seeing the product. It was compressed reputation. With the arrival of generative AI, that is ending in many sectors. Today a logo can cost 15 euros or 15,000. And be the same logo. A market analysis can come from a consulting firm with offices on three continents or from a guy in pajamas who knows how to wear Deep Research. The report may be indistinguishable. In fact sometimes the second one will be betterbecause the guy in pajamas understands the sector and the consultant assigned the junior who was free. AI is breaking the link between production cost and final result. Something very similar to what Antonio Ortiz, AI popularizer and former final boss of this house, in “Artificial Intelligence and unlinking effort and result“. If anyone can generate in minutes what previously required teams, weeks, and invoices with many zeros, price no longer communicates much about quality. It’s starting to be noise. and this will force a signal migration. From ‘how much’ to ‘who’, to ‘how’ or ‘why’. The questions that will matter are going to be “who signed this?”, “what process followed?”, “what human decisions were behind it?” That is, the process will become the product. It is already beginning to be seen with design studios that They obsessively document any iterationor consultancies that not only sell you the deliverable but also also access to the reasoning of their partners. More and more we are digital artisans who charge for showing how we work and not only for what we deliver. AI has made production almost free, so we are being flooded with digital content of all kinds, so scarcity shifts to criteria. Knowing what to ask for, what to discard, what makes sense and what doesn’t. to good taste. AI can do almost anything, and what it can’t, it will learn next year. Deciding well what to do and what not to do is still expensive. There, for the moment and luckily, there is no shortcut. Featured image | Xataka In Xataka | The AI ​​of 2026 brings an uncomfortable truth: the most useful will be the one that watches us the most

14 steps to ensure higher quality and better sources

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We are going to give you 14 Tips to Improve Gemini Responsesso that the artificial intelligence Google is more precise. These are tips related to improving the prompts. Geminiand even the way you interact with this AI. Because simply asking a generic question is not the same as giving the proper context or a better structure to your questions. Therefore, we will tell you these things that should be taken into account to refine as much as possible and ensure that the response is closer and better to what you have in mind, whether it is a text or an image. Don’t talk to him like he’s Google AI chats are trained to understand natural language. This means that it is not necessary that you write only using keywords as you do with Google or other search engines, but that you have to write in a more organic and natural way. Come on, when you make a request to Gemini you have to talk to him like you would as a personexplaining well what you want. Yes, if you write to him “best camera phones 2026” he will understand what you mean, but there may be room for errors and misinterpretations that there would not be if you write what you want naturally. Specify well what you want to say The first tip to improve Gemini answers is specify as much as you can the details of the answer you want to get. Your question must be clear and precise, and take into account context and purpose of what you want to achieve. To give you an example, it’s one thing to ask them to write you an email to request something. However, if you specify details such as whether it is in English or the tone that you want to use, as long as it is professional, the result it gives you will be more precise. Details, details, details Sorry, I’m going to insist on the previous point. But it is vital don’t spare details when making requests. Don’t leave anything out, because each of the details you provide will help the AI ​​have a little more context when composing its response. When creating images, every detail you provide will make the results more personal, and the same thing happens with texts: All the details you can give will enrich the answer. You can say who the text is addressed to, the purpose, or how long you want the answer. Also tell him formats such as summarized or by points, what part of an event or topic you want him to explain to you, what event, anything that comes to mind. Go composing prompt by prompt It is obvious that you are not going to come up with all the details you want the first time. Therefore, when an answer is not what you expect, you can ask again using the same prompt but adding things to it. And so, little by little you will compose a much more specific request. Imagine that you ask him to explain an event to you, but the answer is too vague. So, you can ask him to tell you from a specific point of view, then you can add the tone, and little by little improve it. Besides, You don’t need to write the entire prompt either.. If you say something like “make it more formal,” he’ll know you mean the answer he just gave you. Ask me to use the structure you need When you ask Gemini to compose a text, you may have a purpose or a structure in mind, and that the result that the AI ​​gives you is totally different. That is why it is important that you mention that purpose or structure in the prompt. For example, if you want to ask Gemini for a comparison, it is not the same as him making you a short text or making you a list of points for or against. That’s why it’s important to specify it. You can also ask that it be an academic document, that it has a specific format, that it uses bullets, whatever you need. Adapt the explanations to you If you ask Gemini to explain something you have no idea about, it’s possible that if the answer is somewhat technical you don’t understand it too much eitheror that seems a little complicated to you. In these cases, you will be able to adapt it by having it explained to you in a simpler way. A classic when asking for more elaborate definitions is to add something like “explain it to me like a 10-year-old child.” You can also adapt it to other ages, or even to specific school years. When you do, Gemini will change terminology and examples to make them much simpler, basic and understandable. Specify the fonts you want to use When it comes to answering you, Gemini combines a knowledge base with which it has been trained and information it pulls from the Internet. And when composing a response it will use these sources to generate it. However, you can also specify where you want me to get the information from in case you want me to use a specific source of knowledge. For example, asking “what is climate change” is not the same as asking “Explain to me what climate change is based on academic research and peer-reviewed studies.” With this you are asking him not to get the information from anywhere, but only from a specific type of more reliable source, and when giving you the explanation he will include quotes mentioning where he got it from. Mention specific institutions or media In addition to generic font types, you can also ask to use specific sources. This can be institutions or organizations, as well as specific websites or media. You can even ask for specific authors or studies. Because asking them to tell you what the weather will be like tomorrow is not the same as asking … Read more

Ten years ago Beijing was an unbreathable city. Today its air quality is better than that of Madrid for a reason

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On December 8, 2015, schools were closed in Beijing. Construction stopped. Only a handful of cars could circulate on the streets. The atmosphere was unbreathable. We don’t say it, the city leaders said it at that time. As stated BBCit was the first time that the red alert due to contamination. In China, an action protocol with four levels had been launched to deal with this type of episode. That day marked a before and after. Just over a decade later, Beijing is one of the Chinese cities with the best air quality. The country still has a serious problem with pollution but the data show that the country’s capital has left those days of constant fog behind. And it has done so, in large part, by a huge investment in cleaning up transportation. Better air quality than Madrid That December 8, Beijing registered 291 micrograms per cubic meter of PM2.5ultrafine particles especially harmful to health. They are polluting emissions that can come from different sources but in whose production diesel engines intervene decisively. That’s why DGT environmental labeling that It is used in Spanish ZBEs discriminates (by age) between diesel vehicles and gasoline vehicles. Is 291 micrograms a lot? To get an idea, the WHO recommended At that time, it did not exceed 25 micrograms per cubic meter. Obviously, this pollution rate occurred on a specific day under specific circumstances, but the annual levels were so high that in 2013 they signed 89.5, as stated in Motorpassion. Last year, according to published data By the Beijing Municipal Ecology and Environment Bureau, the city signed 27 micrograms per cubic meter of PM 2.5. A fact that improves the air breathed in Madrid, “which did not exceed 31 micrograms of PM 2.5” on average, in the words of the Madrid officials. The decline is absolutely spectacular and is marked by profound changes in mobility, lowering the 30 microgram barrier for the first time in its history per cubic meter on the annual average. In addition, 311 days of 2025 were classified within the parameters that point to the best air quality. For this, Beijing launched a campaign against pollution which became especially relevant a little over a decade ago, although it already took its first steps with the 2008 Beijing Olympic Days. It was not until 2013 when the city took serious measures. More than a million coal-fired boilers in the city were replaced with boilers that run on gas or electricity. The city added more than 600,000 new energy vehicles (electric or plug-in hybrids that generally operate in completely electric mode). But, above all, 1.9 million cars that were considered too old and polluting were taken off the road. Low emission zones had a key effect in achieving this. Then, the 6NI mechanical (which was equivalent to our Euro 6) to let vehicles pass or not. Automobiles that, in addition, had to stay at home alternately (discriminating by license plate) when high pollution episodes were activated. The evolution of Beijing has been so spectacular in the last 10 years that it is common to see it as an example for those most polluted cities, like New Delhi, in India. Photo | zhang kaiyv and Quique Olivar In Xataka | Tire pollution is as serious as engine pollution. This company says it has found the solution

Apple TV once again prioritizes quality over everything else

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AppleTV has done it again. It is a platform that we could consider minority, which refuses to follow the currents that unify the rest…and gives us one of the best series we can see right now. Vince Gillighan’s seal of quality, a plot that will be familiar to science fiction regulars and a tremendous humanist message that reflects on the here and now. It’s ‘Pluribus’ and these are some of the keys to its success. How it started. After closing the ‘Breaking Bad’ universe with the end of ‘Better Call Saul’ in 2022, Vince Gilligan presented an original project to Sony Pictures Television completely unrelated to Walter White. A bidding war between platforms then broke out in which Apple TV+ won, offering what Gilligan valued most: “trust and time.” Trust translated into figures: each episode of ‘Pluribus’ has a $15 million budgetquintupling what ‘Breaking Bad’ cost. What is it about? “The most miserable person on Earth must save the world from happiness,” reads the official synopsis from Apple TV+. Carol Sturka, author of romanticasydiscovers he is one of just 13 people immune to the “Union”: an extraterrestrial virus that merges human minds into a perpetually optimistic collective consciousness. The film’s title inverts the American motto “E pluribus unum” (out of many, one) to question what happens when individualism dies out. Gilligan, a self-declared “science fiction nerd my entire life,” wanted to “touch every trope of the sci-fi world“. For example, Carol baptizes the hive as “Pod People”, a direct tribute to ‘The invasion of the ultrabodies‘, which Gillighan obviously cites along with ‘The Twilight Zone’ as a fundamental inspiration. There are also something from the Borg of ‘Star Trek‘ when designing the hive mind, but in general the entire series breathes an air of classic sci-fi, like a Richard Matheson story, absolutely delicious. Everyone loves ‘Pluribus’. The series has been unanimously acclaimed on aggregators such as Rotten Tomatoes (99%) or Metacritic (86). Her it has been said which is “an exceptional and distinctive vehicle for its star” (incidentally, Gilligan conceived the project as a vehicle for Rhea Seehorn, who agreed to come on board before reading a single draft of the script). BBC crowned her as “one of the most intelligent and entertaining series of 2025“and Variety as a”captivating piece of television“. Is it that good? It’s all a matter of opinion, but… yeah. Now his proposal, of original science fiction with a super-production budget in an audiovisual era kneeling before the franchises It is worthy of admiration. But also, the balance between satire, forceful drama and exquisite staging is just what we can expect from the creator of ‘Breaking Bad’, with that narrative that unfolds very little by little, without artificial secrets or cheap twists, but keeping the viewer absolutely fascinated with what happens. There will be those who may object to its overtly symbolic approach, but the satire works perfectly (in the first instance, towards the AI artifacts; secondly, to the post-internet human species that we have left, where our only objective is to express an eternal complacency towards strangers). There is infinite space in its approach to show us characters that move in an infinite scale of gray, as in fact it has already done in just three chapters, and that force us to ask ourselves in each episode the million-dollar question: what would I do? Apple TV, the great winner of all this. ‘Pluribus’ represents one of its most ambitious bets to date for the platform (not bad for someone who has built a mastodon like ‘Foundation’). The platform invests between 4,500 and 5,000 million dollars annually in contentpursuing a radically different strategy than Netflix or Disney+: prestige over massive volume. Apple TV controls only 8-9% of the business streaming in the US after Netflix, Prime Video, HBO Max and Disney+. But its objective is different. Apple TV+ has become the prestige area of ​​the streamingthat corner in which HBO once sat comfortably. Now there are more viewers than in the days of ‘The Sopranos’ and Apple TV loses about a billion dollars a year, but can afford it. The figures are overwhelming: 271 original titles compared to 13,000 from Prime Video, but yes, 271 titles of unquestionable technical and artistic quality. Apple TV, and ‘Pluribus’ is the best proof, it does not seek to conquer the numbers, but the conversation. In Xataka | The 21 best science fiction series

Gemini 3 promises more quality and precision than ever in its responses. The question is whether we will really notice the difference

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Google has announced the launch of Gemini 3its new artificial intelligence model. in the company They claim it is their most advanced reasoning model because it is “designed to understand depth and nuance.” Gemini 3 will also be available as standard as part of AI Mode in the renewed Google search engine (in this case and for the moment, only in the US). It is the first time that Google offers the benefits of its AI model from day one in the search engine, but it also reaches the Gemini app and the developers who work with AI Studio and Vertex AI. Behind him success of Gemini 2.5 Pro and Flashthe new version arrives in 30 new languages, including Catalan, Basque and Galicianand as we say you can start testing today in the United States… or outside of there via a VPN. Gemini 3 promises. At least in the tests Google highlights how the model’s behavior has been outstanding in various synthetic tests. Thus, Gemini 3 leads the LMArena classification with 1,501 points—the first to overcome the 1,500-point barrier. According to Google, the Gemini 3’s test results put it ahead of all its competitors in virtually all scenarios. In fact, he manages to reason “at the level of a PhD” according to the tests of Humanity’s Last Exam (exceeds 37.5% of the test without tools) and GPQA Diamond (91.9%). It also makes spectacular progress in mathematics, as demonstrated by the 23.4% on the MathArena Apex test: GPT 5.1 scores 1.0% and Claude Sonnet 4.5 1.6% on the same test, for example. The model also wants to be more direct: his answers are more “concise (…) and he prefers to offer valuable information instead of resorting to clichés and flattery. Tells you what you need to hear, not just what you want to hear“. Gemini 3’s ‘Deep Think’ mode goes even further in tests: in Humanity’s Last Exam it achieves 41.0%, but it also in the demanding ARC-AGI 2 It achieves 45.1% (with code execution), which also demonstrates progress in abstract reasoning and visual understanding. Gemini 3 explains the world to you in a simple way The model has a context window of up to one million tokens, which allows it to be used, for example, to analyze huge repositories of code or text and then work on that data. Its multimodal support allows you to analyze all types of information. For example, Gemini 3 can decipher and translate handwritten recipes in different languages ​​to create a family cookbook that you can share. Or analyze your pickleball games (we assume the same thing happens in other sports) and identify areas where you can improve and generate a training plan. Or scrutinize the data from a research paper and from it generate code for an interactive guide that helps us better understand those studies. In fact, integration with Google Search is an especially important part of Gemini 3, which being “embedded” in AI Mode It has the capacity to generate interactive visual elements (widgets, calculators, simulations) in real time. At Google they want the search to be more interactive than ever, and that will mean that sometimes the answers will not be just text, but rather a small interactive webapp that allows us to better understand the answer. Programming (and agents) to power The other crucial element of the model is its capacity in the area of ​​programming. Its results in tests of this type are once again outstanding, and for example it tops the WebDev Arena leaderboard with a score of 1,487 ELO. The model now behaves much more powerfully in the visual part. It also scores 54.2% on Terminal-Bench 2.0, which evaluates a model’s ability to use tools and operate a computer through a terminal. Additionally, it far outperforms 2.5 Pro in SWE-bench Verified (76.2%), a benchmark test that measures the effectiveness of scheduling agents. These Gemini 3 programming capabilities are intended to be used in a new agent development platform called Google Antigravity. The developer experience is using a “conventional” AI integrated development environment (IDE), but your agents can have access to the editor, terminal, and browser. That means these agents can autonomously plan and execute complex software tasks and validate their own code, making it easier for human developers to review and audit that code than ever before. The real challenge of the most recent models On paper Gemini 3 is postulated as a model that can really make a difference compared to its competitors. The test results and Gemini’s own trajectory make us think that the behavior of this model will indeed be remarkable. However The question is whether we will really notice the difference. In recent months we have seen how other AI companies have launched new models, but the impact for a large majority of users has been discreet: the previous models already performed really well, and although the new ones undoubtedly provide improvements, for many consultations these improvements allow us to perceive that jump in performance. Here we see two ways for Google to effectively demonstrate the capabilities of these models. The first opportunity for Gemini 3 will likely be in the area of ​​programming, and it will be these professionals who will likely be able to get the most out of those additional capabilities. But for the rest of the users, it will be that new AI Mode and the Gemini app that will have to make us notice those features. We are intrigued by this ability to respond with small interactive elements —graphics, widgets—, and perhaps with them we will really discover this new capacity of this chatbot. In Xataka | Let’s say goodbye to Google Assistant a decade later. Google has begun to delete its code to leave only one option: Gemini

India has bombed clouds to improve its terrible air quality. They have wasted 400,000 dollars

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The sky of New Delhi is a painting. While half the world is focused on reduce your emissions and improve air quality (something that ultra-polluted giants like China are successfully implementing), the other half continues with inefficient decarbonization policies. India is one of themand the arrival of winter does not help. To combat its poor air quality, the country has “sown its clouds” about New Delhi. And there are voices that suggest that they have spent a fortune and it has not been worth anything. Crisis. The situation of the large cities of India, with the focus on a capital that has more than 28 million inhabitants in its metropolitan area and a density of almost 6,000 inhabitants per km², is really complicated. Vehicle emissions account for 40% of emissions in the city, but there are other sources such as construction dust, inorganic aerosols or industrial activities themselves that contribute a lot. ‘dirt’ in the city air. The quality is not good at any time of the year, but in the post-monsoon season, between October and November, the situation becomes critical. It is when a large amount of rice stubble and other waste is burned, which, together with the rest of the sources of particles since the arrival of cold air traps the pollutants near the ground, causes the amount of particles to skyrocket. And it’s not a joke: esteem that between 2009 and 2019 there were nearly four million deaths in India linked to poor air quality. Figures. To measure this “dirt” in the air, we turn to PM2.5. It is a measure of the amount of fine particles that are suspended in the air, specifically those that have a diameter equal to or less than 2.5 micrometers. They are so small that they can penetrate deep into the lungs, reaching the blood system and posing a serious health risk. That said, PM2.5 levels in Delhi are between 140 and 170 µg/m³, almost 12 times higher than the safe levels set by the WHO, of 15 µg/m³. Petter Ljungman, a researcher at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, analyzed the role of these particles and determined that “each increase of 10 micrograms per cubic meter in the concentration of PM2.5 leads to an 8.6% increase in mortality.” Bombing the clouds. In the face of a crisis like this, two things can be done: become aware and rethink the country’s strategy or resort to desperate measures. As we read in Reutersit seems that the Government has opted for the latter. On October 28, the Delhi government in collaboration with the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur carried out the first tests of cloud seeding. This is India’s first attempt at this technique and it is not about “creating clouds”, but rather making the existing ones release water. Using a series of catalysts launched from aircraft, water droplets contained in a cloud can be made to coalesce into larger, heavier droplets. In this way, and due to their own weight, they fall to the ground in the form of rain. It is not something new because, although it may seem like something out of science fiction, we have been “sowing” clouds for half a century. Negative… results. The problem is that each time we have had more and more evidence that it is something that is of little use. If clouds are good candidates, yes, showers are generated, but the big problem is that it is a very expensive practice for the results obtained and that is the reason why more and more countries have abandoned his projects related to this “creation” of rain. In the case of the Indian experiment, the cost was about $400,000 to put into operation the planes that dispersed sodium chloride and silver iodide over several districts north of the capital. Each of the flights cost about $70,000 and the person who said that it was not of much use was not an external entity or someone critical of the Government: it was the director of IIT Kanpur himself. Manindra Agarwal admitted that the results were “not as desired” because the humidity levels in the clouds were extremely low. It was a crucial error because it is estimated that the minimum for condensing these cloud droplets is 50% and the chosen ones had levels between 15 and 20%. Despite this, Agarwal commented that a reduction of between 6% and 18% was observed in certain particle measurement parameters, but they were at very localized and short-lived moments. deaf ears. And of course, faced with the investment of such a fortune without results, it did not take long for the voices to say “I told you so” to rain down. Climate activists said it, but also two other official bodies: the Indian Meteorological Department and the Air Quality Management Commission. The two organizations indicated That the technique requires specific clouds that are absent during Delhi’s cold, dry winter. Recommendations. In the end, what this action demonstrates is that, in desperate situations, desperate measures only work as a source of funds. The solutions must be considered more in the medium and short term and this is something in which China has served as an example. In the case of India, what is being proposed is control over stubble burning during this autumn season, better waste management and stricter industrial regulations. On the other hand, the country has taken giant steps in recent years in terms of transport electrification is concerned, but progress must also be made in improving urban forestry that “traps” pollution and in the use of large-scale renewable energy. Until they do that, the almost 30 million inhabitants of New Delhi will breathe air equivalent what they would inhale if they smoked seven cigarettes a day. Images | Naomi E Tesla, Submitmpsd In Xataka | The Atacama salt flat is the key on which the electric car industry pivots. And it’s starting to dry

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