roof

China bets on liquid air to stabilize its largest solar sea on the roof of the world

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In the vastness of Qinghai province, where the Tibetan plateau merges with the Gobi desert, dust and rock they have given up their domain to a mega-project of 610 square kilometers. This “sea of ​​silicon”—the size of the city of Madrid—is home to seven million photovoltaic panels that have transformed the ecosystem: the shade of the plates retains humidity and allows thousands of “photovoltaic sheep” graze today where before there was only sand. However, this massive deployment encountered a physical barrier. As researcher Wang Junjie explainssolar and wind energy are “random and intermittent”; When the sun sets in the Gobi, the power grid shakes. To stabilize this giant, China has gone beyond conventional lithium, betting on liquid air storage. White giants in the desert. On the outskirts of the city of Golmud, a row of white tanks stands sentinel against the horizon. It is the world’s largest liquid air energy storage (LAES) project, dubbed by Chinese media as the “Super Air Power Bank.” According to the Xinhua agencythis facility of the state-owned company China Green Development Investment Group (CGDG) has entered its final commissioning phase. It is not just any battery: its capacity is 60,000 kilowatts (60 MW) and it can release up to 600,000 kWh per cycle, a discharge capable of sustaining the daily consumption of tens of thousands of homes. Physics against lithium. Why has China opted for this technology instead of its popular lithium ion batteries? The answer lies in scale and geography. While lithium is ideal for mobile devices or cars, on an industrial scale it faces cost and degradation problems. Air has an advantage that is difficult to match: it is there and it costs nothing. AND, as CleanTechnica remindswhen it becomes liquid air its density skyrockets, up to 750 times more than that of normal air, which allows energy to be stored in large quantities without dams or geographical conditions. The alchemy of cold: From gas to liquid at -194°C. The operation of the system is a feat of cryogenic engineering. As detailed by Xinhuathe process is divided into three critical phases: Load (Compression): During the day, surplus solar from a nearby 250 MW plant powers giant compressors. The air is purified and cooled to -194 degrees Celsius (-317°F). At that extreme temperature, the air becomes liquid. Heat recovery: The heat generated during compression is stored in high-pressure spherical tanks to be reused. Discharge (Expansion): When electrical demand rises or the sun disappears, the liquid air heats up. When vaporized, its volume expands explosively (750 times), driving a turbine that generates electricity again for the grid. This cycle, according to researcher Wang Junjieachieves over 95% cold storage efficiency and 55% “round trip” efficiency, harnessing what would otherwise be waste heat and eliminating the need for rare materials. A global laboratory on the “roof of the world.” China is not the only nation in this race. The United Kingdom waits to complete a similar plant in Manchester by 2026, and South Korea too has made progress in this technology. However, the Chinese scale is, again, incomparable. However, the success of these projects in Qinghai is due to centralized planning which combines three sources: solar, wind and hydroelectric. At 3,000 meters above sea level, the cold, pure air improves the efficiency of the panels, and the electricity generated is already 40% cheaper than that of coal. This energy not only illuminates homes; It powers the data centers that power China’s Artificial Intelligence, using the plateau’s frigid air to cool the servers. From the factory to the engine of the world. As Professor Ningrong Liu reflectsChina no longer wants to be just the “factory of the world”, but the “engine” of that factory, exporting its engineering and its green network model. Golmud’s project It is the symbol of a paradox: the country that emits the most CO2 is also the one that builds the fastest carbon exit. In the silence of the Gobi, between cryogenic tanks and sheep herders, China is demonstrating that the air we breathe can literally be the fuel that sustains the 21st century. Image | freepik and Bureau of Land Management Xataka | On the roof of the world, China is building the largest solar park on the planet

While everything is going through the roof, a product is cheaper than ever in Spain: cocaine

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Those who are dedicated to probing the coca market have encountered a curious phenomenon: while the CPI rises and the prices of products such as the coffee either cocoacocaine undertakes the reverse path. Its cost seems to be in free fall. If a few years ago there was talk of more than 30,000 euros per kilogram of white powder, today there are sources that place it at barely 13,000a collapse that also coincides with an apparent increase of traffic and a high consumption. A difficult equation to solve. What do the figures say? It is not easy to talk about cocaine trafficking and the price. There is data and people dedicated to studying it, but for obvious reasons much of the information available is based on estimates. I shared the last one a few days ago The Catalan Newspaper in an extensive report in which he assures that right now a kilo of cocaine on the black market is around 13,000 euros. The same newspaper recalls that not so long ago a kilo brick was around 20,000 euros, but if you use the newspaper archive you will find information which show that a mere decade ago it was priced at between 27,000 and 29,000 euros in the Rías Baixas or even above 30,000 in Madrid and Valencia. What’s more, just a few months ago The Voice of Galicia assured that the official reference with which the Ministry of the Interior worked when calculating the value of the seized drugs set the value of a kilo at just over 30,500 euros. Is it something new? No. And that’s the curious thing. The media has been reporting on the drop in the price of coca for more than a year, sometimes with slight swings. Now does it The Newspaperbut a year ago I did it the Galician press and in 2023 it had the same message ABCwhich already at that time included the words of Fernando Iglesias, head of the Customs Surveillance Service in Galicia: “Its price has plummeted and that leads to a brutal offer.” “Cocaine prices have been devalued by almost half compared to just a few years ago, and that is a very clear indicator of the current abundance of this drug,” agreed the head of the Galician Foundation against Drug Trafficking. According to the data what he was driving at the time ABCthe kilo of Colombian coca that 20 years ago was paid for 30,000 euros had gone to price 17,000. Prices, however, always refer to a kilo. Curiously, this accelerated cheapening of drugs does not seem to have transferred to the street. Where the gram still costs the same than before: it remains around the 50 and 60 eurosdespite the fact that those who handle large quantities of drugs do so at a much lower cost. Are there more trends? Yes. Again they are based on estimates and indications, but they are just as interesting. The first tells us about the type of drug that is consumed. Not only has a kilo of coca become cheaper, it also seems to be purer. That at least is what emerges from the data from Energy Control, an agency dedicated to analyzing samples delivered by anonymous buyers. Their studies show that, on average, the samples that arrive have a purity that exceeds 70%. Other studies They have also noted an increase in purity. What about consumption? If there is a clear (and relevant) trend, it is the one that tells us about demand, which can be analyzed based on two key clues: studies on consumption and seizures of caches. In the first case (demand), the European Drug Report 2025 stands out, which reveals that Spain is the country with a highest percentage of population that has taken coca at some point in their life. The figure here reaches 13.3%, well above France and Denmark (9.4%). Do we have more clues? Yes. The European study, presented in June, slid that there are indications that consumption is increasing in the EU and even advised administrations to prepare for a rebound in demand for treatments. The percentage of people who admit to having tried the white powder also has been increasing over the last few years. The latest EADES survey (2024) indicates that 13% of individuals from 15 to 64 years old admit having used cocaine at some time, which marks the maximum in the historical series. In 2022 that indicator marked 11.7% and if we go to the early years of the 2000s the data was even lower. The Man Project Observatory also has noted its increase among users seeking to detoxify: in a matter of a decade it has gone from being the main addiction of 27% of users to extending its shadow to reach approximately 41%. What about seizures? They are another thermometer. At the end of the day, whether more or fewer caches are ‘hunted’ depends on the authorities’ aim, but also on the intensity of traffic. The Newspaper remember that the police only manage to seize a relatively low percentage of all the drugs that arrive at the ports. In the absence of more updated data, the 2024 Annual Drug Statistics published in July by the Intelligence Center against Terrorism and Organized Crime (CITCO) shows that last year Interior recorded an increase in cocaine seizures of 5.2%, which places them at approximately 123 tons. “There is more cocaine than ever”recognize police sources to The Newspaper about the situation that exists in cities like Barcelona. The same medium specifies that in 2023 and 2024 Customs Surveillance located just over 60 million tons of coca hidden in containers arriving by sea from South America. The reason for these data? One possibility is a change in routes that reduces the volume traveled through Holland and Belgium and places Spain as a gateway to Europe. What about the prices? If demand does not seem to be suffering… Why are prices falling, at least in the channels where kilos are moved (another … Read more

The bride and groom have always aspired to share their lives under the same roof. Until the Til and Latin Couples arrived

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The schedule was very clear: a certain age one was looking for a relationship, lived a more or less long courtship and then (with a ‘yes I want’ through) The couple was going to live together. Today it is no longer about the bride and groom to cohabit before getting married (Many never do), but there are directly couples who do not even consider sharing. They do it starting from such a curious as challenging question for the fee: Do you have the love to bring yes or yes to coexistence? Is it true that ‘Casado, Casa wants’? What happened? Than couples They are changing. It is no novelty. Times change and with them society does, Demographybirth, labor opportunities, vital projects, the way of relating and concepts until not so much immovable as marriage or home. The INE is a good reflection of that transformation. Throughout the last years he has registered the increase of de facto couples and Unipersonal homesthe growing weight of those who They do not live With their ‘loves’ or The descent In the number of links, a phenomenon that arrives accompanied by a delay In weddings. Today the Spaniards married on average with 39.6 years. And the Spanish with 36.9. Three letters: Til. The term may not sound you, but reflects the reality of many Spanish relations (and other countries). Til are the acronym for Together in Life (“Together in life”), a label that serves to identify those couples that establish a mutual bond and commitment, form a common vital project, make future plans … but do not sleep under the same roof. The first is millimetrically adjusted to the traditional couple pattern. The second, no. Til couples break the fee in a fundamental aspect: coexistence. “The classic coexistence models are redefining and what a few decades ago could be seen as an exception, now socially accepted,” Explain Ana Domínguez, couples therapist, Welife. “Now they call it Til, but it is true that in consultation we see couples who, for different reasons, do not live together but maintain an affective bond and a deep level of commitment.” What characterizes them? The details may vary depending on the source that is consulted, but usually the TIL couples are characterized by two key features: the first is that their members do not share a roof; The second, that this lack of coexistence is not the result of a weaker level of commitment than those who wake up, eat and do their routine in the same house. In fact, often, the lack of prolonged coexistence is not even the result of a decision or a vital plan, but rather a ‘quo’ status established by couples to adapt to certain conditions or needs. And of course that lack of coexistence does not mean that the couple makes decisions for the team in team. “These types of couples do not choose non -coexistence as a permanent form, but assume it as a transitory or inevitable situation, maintaining a strong emotional connection, mutual support and joint planning of the future,” insists The expert. There is link and there is commitment, but there is a common roof. Different yes, simple no. Domínguez acknowledges that, as well as coexistence entails their challenges for couples, til relations face their own challenges, such as “the lack of shared daily life.” “Coexistence allows routines, small gestures and day to day, strengthens the connection. By not living together, those spontaneous moments are lost,” The therapist reflects. In fact, to compensate him encouraged to create rituals that can be kept at a distance. Of course, not everything is challenges. “When they are together, these couples spend quality time and are dedicated to enjoying each other without the disagreements of coexistence undergoing the relationship,” They point to The world From the Center for Psychology Mess Sana, which warns: “When this model of coexistence is not a free choice or born of fear and reserves, the relationship does not last long.” Another key term: Lat. To understand the phenomenon well we must become familiar with another concept: lat, acronym for Living Apart Together, “Living separate, but together.” The difference Between the til and lat relationships it is subtle and not all The definitions They draw it equally, but it is still important and above all it helps us to understand how relationships are being diversified. Both realities share a common feature, the lack of coexistence, but they differ in the vital approach of its members. There is who says That in Latin couples the commitment is more flexible, but its main characteristic is that the two parties live with an autonomy to which they do not consider renouncing. Without that, of course, suppose the couple having to break. Coexistence is simply not sought, even if there is nothing external that prevents it. “We look forward to it”. As an example is always understood that a definition is good to take an eye to the report What a few weeks ago dedicated The Sydney Morning Herald To Latin Couples, relations formed by people who have decided that a romance does not have to derive yes or yes in coexistence. Among others, its author chatted with Judy Wolff and Alex Ruschanov, who have been without cohabitation for about three decades, except in the occasions in which they have had to take care of each other by convalescences. “Every time we meet is like an event. It’s something we expect with illusion and something beautiful.” Both are around 70 years. She is a retired library. He a former merchant who shortly before knowing her, about 30 years ago, has just divorced and lived with two children who still went to school. “I remember telling Alex: ‘Look, you’re dating with me, not with my children.’ I wanted that to be apart,” He tells him. She had also shared a roof with an ex -partner for more than a decade, an experience that came out without wanting to repeat. Love = coexistence? That is … Read more

Five roof fans easy to install with which you will save what is worth an air conditioning

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Although we have already attended the first heat wave a few weeks ago, this is what awaits us in the coming months. If you are not a little hands and do not want to buy an air conditioning, the ceiling fans They are an excellent option to be fresh at home. These are some of the best models that we would like to recommend for your home. Philips Bliss by 149 euros: With 28 W LED light and reverse turn. Melleware Brizy! Bright by 99.99 euros: With DC motor and 8 -hour timer. Cecotec Energysilence Aero 4280 invisible by 89.90 euros: With 40 W engine and six speeds. Create Wind Clear by 68.95 euros: With avant -garde and timer design. Inspire Rafaga by 89.95 euros: With RGB lighting and six speeds. Philips Bliss This is One of the best -selling roof fans Each season and it was one of the first of this type that went on sale. In Amazon, you can now take this reduced philips bliss, since it has gone from costing 199.99 euros to 149 euros. Philip Bliss, in addition to a fan, has a LED Light Blanca of 28 W with three color temperatures. Their blades are retractable and have Inverse turn function. In addition, it comes with command to control it more comfortably. Philips Bliss roof fan with LED 28W light * Some price may have changed from the last review Melleware Brizy! Bright If you like more traditional fan models, without retractable blades, this of the Melleware firm is a good option. Its usual price is 219.99 euros but, now, during the campaign Network of Mediamarkt You can take it by 99.99 euros. Works with DC motor With 30 w of power, which allows you to save on the light bill. Like the Philips model, it has winter function and is perfect to cool rooms up to 20 square meters. It offers six operating speeds and integrates a timer up to eight hours. Melleware – ceiling fan with remote control Brizy Bright | 45 w * Some price may have changed from the last review Cecotec Energysilence Aero 4280 invisible Cecotec It is one of those firms that offer a wide catalog of home devices at very economical prices. Known are their portable air conditionersbut it also has easy -to -install ceiling fans like this model, which can be bought on PCComponentes by 89.90 euros. This Cecotec Energysilence Aero 4280 invisible has a 40 W engine and a white LED light with three intensities (warm, neutral and cold). It offers six operating speeds and has winter function. Cecotec Energysilence Aero 4280 invisible * Some price may have changed from the last review Create Wind Clear Another brand that offers home -home devices is CREATE. Of its cahatus fans, the Create Wind Clear It is one of those that we want to recommend. On the official website of the brand, it is available for alone 68.95 euros. It is a roof fan with retractable blades and a avant -garde design. It is available in several colors, so that you choose the one that goes the most with the decoration of your home. It has winter and summer function and comes with a white LED light with three intensities. In addition, it integrates a 1 to 4 hours timer. CREATE / Wind Clear M / Ceiling Fan with Light * Some price may have changed from the last review Inspire Rafaga The last of the roof fans that we want to recommend is something different in design and you can buy it in Leroy Merlin. This is inspiring Rafaga, which is currently available, by 89.95 euros. Inspire Ráfaga comes with a shovel and grid and offers six operating speeds. It works with DC engine and offers white lighting and multicolored RGB. It comes with remote control and also has the winter function. Finally, it can be highlighted that it is very silent. Ceiling fan with quiet blades dc inspires Rafaga * Some price may have changed from the last review Some of the links of this article are affiliated and can report a benefit to Xataka. In case of non -availability, offers may vary. Images | CREATE, MELLERWARE, INSPARE, CECOTEC AND PHILIPS In Xataka | The quietest ceiling fan: which one to buy? Tips and recommendations In Xataka | Connected fan purchase guide: Recommendations to choose an “intelligent” model with WiFi and six models from 50 euros

The new great models of generative the AI ​​do not stop delaying. It is a dangerous indication that we have touched the roof

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We expected to have GPT-5 available at the beginning of the year, but OpenAi gave us GPT-4.5. The generative AI model, which theoretically represented a remarkable leap with respect to its predecessors, ended up disappointing and the company announced that it will eliminate it from its API in July. It was too expensive and simply did not compensate. That was already a bad sign of AI advance, but there is more. And GPT-5, what? It was expected that GPT-5 will arrive in the middle of the year. Sam Altman has been creating Hypebut in December we knew that the arrival of that model was being problematic. The jump in benefits I wasn’t being expected And the cost of developing it is huge. What did they do in Openai? Delay it and launch in its place GPT-4.5 That, as we have seen, it was one of the great disappointments in the history of Openai. Bad signal one signal. Behemoth is delayed. As indicated In The Wall Street JournalGoal will delay the launch and deployment of its most ambitious model to date, call 4 Behemoth. This “monster” with 288,000 million active parameters (two billion in total) is the third member of the newly presented family calls 4. However, according to WSJ “Company engineers are having difficulties in significantly improving” their capabilities. It should have arrived in April, but now it is estimated that it will arrive in autumn, or even later. Frustration. Sources close to the company indicate that managers are frustrated with the performance of the team that is developing calls 4 Behemoth. “Significant management changes” are already contemplated that would raise internal movements (and who knows if layoffs) as a result of these bad results. And not that the available flame models 4 are having a good receptionlet it be said. Bad signal number two. Unbalanced. In WSJ also highlight how the first flame version was created by its fundamental research team, formed by academics and researchers. Since then 11 of the 14 researchers have left the company. Anthropic does not advance either. We also expected a “round” leap in Claude, the Chabot of the generative of Anthropic, but in February the company presented Claude 3.7. It is true that this model Yes offered striking benefitsbut at the moment its Opus version, the most ambitious, still does not appear, and nothing is known about Claude 4.0. Bad signal number three. Jumps not, at most jumps. What we are seeing in recent months are not significant leaps in the capacity of the models, but striking improvements only in some sections or effective characteristics. It happened with Gemini 2.5 Pro, especially powerful in programming and that has allowed Google to win integersbut also with Openai and the famous images that imitate Studio Ghibli Oa Grok 3, who has become more famous for his lack of censorship that for its accuracy or quality (which is not bad). Deceleration. All this triggers the debate on a potential “deceleration” of AI: the climb no longer seems to work so well, and that of using more GPUS and more data to train models is not offering the expected return. Jaime Sevilla, CEO of Cophai, I did believe That the rhythm of improvement was being expected, but these delays of course make the future progress of generative the AI ​​again. The agents and the AI ​​that “reason” are hope. The models with “reasoning” capacity Yes, they have allowed us to propose striking improvements in some areas, and companies have launched to present this type of variants and deep research modes For specialized uses. The other great hope of 2025 are the agents of AI capable of completing task sequences autonomously to solve a problem, even connecting to other services or data sources. At the moment we already have outstanding examples in the schedule of programmingbut practical applications for end users are limited. Image | Goal In Xataka | There are too many AI models. That raises a true death sentence for Anthropic and Claude

Spain has made weddings a huge millionaire business that does not touch a roof

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In Spain Give the “yes I want” It is more than a demonstration of love and commitment. Weddings are also a great huge business that moves every year thousands of millions of euros, he uses thousands of professionals and a considerable part of the savings of couples is carried. And to show a button: according to The last report of weddings.net, the average cost of the links held last year in Spain amounted to 24,618 euros, 17% more That only two years ago. And so Not counting with the 5,200 of the honeymoon. Question of love (and euros). Weddings in Spain are tradition. And business. One that moves thousands of millions of euros. That is no novelty. What is curious is that its cost has grown in recent years to Recover the land lost in the worst of the financial crisis. Let’s see. If we take a look at the historical series, we verify that in 2005 the “invoice” of the links stood in Spain above the 25,000 eurosfigure that was reduced during the worst years of the recession until it was below 13,000 in 2013. The trend in recent times has been different. According to statista, in 2019 organize a wedding in Spain cost on average $ 23,400about 20,800 euros to change. The data coincides with the one that managed by the same dates the wedes.net portal, which placed the total invoice in 20,808 euros. According to the same platform, in 2022 that invoice had already grown until lightly exceeding the 21,000 euros And now its most recent report estimates it in 24,618. An ascending curve. Although it may be shocking, weddings are not exactly the same in all of Spain. Weddings.net He manages studies that show for example that on average the number of guests to a link in Murcia or Castilla-La Mancha far exceeds that of the weddings of the Balearic Islands, Catalonia or the Canary Islands. If we take into account that, the different price between regions and the varieties of criteria when preparing the studies (what is taken into account when estimating the total cost of a ceremony) is understood that The calculation It is not simple. His latest report leaves a clear idea: marrying comes out more and more expensive. Of 21,056 euros on average per link three years ago 23,750 in 2023 and 24,618 in 2024. The figure that has been calculated thanks to interviews with 6,700 couples They gave themselves the “yes I want” last year. The authors of the study also ensure that they have taken into account people from all over the country and covered a diverse sample in terms of ages, ethnic groups, rent, age and sexual orientation. Is it a lot of money? There is an interesting way to answer that question: compare the average cost of weddings held in the country with what (at least) a Spanish worker enters on average for a year. Exercise shows revealing conclusions, such as if we add the average bill of a link (24,618 euros) and the honeymoon (5,178) The total invoice (29,800) is equivalent to a good part of what the Spaniards perceive over a year, at least via salarieswithout counting extra sources such as income. According to the INE, in 2022 the “average annual gain per worker” was in Spain in 26,948 euros while the medium salary marked 22,383 and the modal (the most frequent) was around 14,586. The most recent data show that in 2024 the Middle salary (before taxes) It was from 1,987 euros a month. One year of work. During 2022 the average wedding price was 21,056 euros, amount to which the honeymoon’s invoice was added: 3,000 on average For those who traveled through Spain and 6,000 for those who decided to leave the country. If we take into account that data, the result is that a wedding with a standard trip abroad added practically the same than an average annual salary. Reviewing the invoices. That weddings reach these high figures is greatly explained by the cost of banquets, which take a considerable pinched pinched. If in 2022 a link It cost average 21,056 eurosabout 10,600 corresponded to that chapter. The second expense, quite a distance, was the wedding dress and the accessories, which were around 2,150. To that amount It is added The price of the pedida ring and the honeymoon. Last year the average budget for the newly married trip was 5,178. Maybe it seems a lot, but According to Bodas.net 89% of couples ended up making their bags stop vacation or at least one getaway (NINIMOON). But … how do you pay? The report is interesting because it also answers that question. And the conclusion is that a good part of the invoices are financed with what the guests contribute. “48% of couples pay the wedding obtaining money as a wedding gift, while 39% use their savings account,” Precise. This distribution of expenses makes Spain a large extent one of the nations that most invest in links. In 2019 statista elaborated A ranking With a dozen countries and Spain occupied second place, ahead of France or Portugal. It only exceeded it, where couples were spent on average $ 29,200. Images | Leonardo Miranda (UNSPLASH) and Victoria Priessnitz (UNSPLASH) In Xataka | In her crazy woman, Spanish weddings have found a way to be even more lavish: tattoo bar

I have changed the Apple calendar for Notion Calendar. Now my data and my time live under the same roof

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Notion introduced its calendar application, Notion Calendar, at the beginning of 2024. I was interested, and much, but limit to Google calendars left me out: most of my events occur in ICloud calendars. Ten days ago they finally announced the integration with ICloud, and there I was, as a user of Notion For years to see how this proposal was and if it is worth making the leap from Apple’s native application. They are not the functions, but the unification My first impression was surprisingly positive. The application is fast, very fast. In me MacBook Pro M1 Proalmost four years ago, the speed with which it opens and the fluidity when navigating between days, weeks or months is impressive. It contrasts remarkably with Apple’s calendar that, without being slow, does not have this feeling of lightness and agility. The monthly view interface throughout its glory. Image: Xataka. The interface is minimalist without feeling empty. It maintains that characteristic air of notion with its soft and white gray tones, but retains its own personality. Visually it is much more pleasant than other calendars such as Google Calendarwhich prioritizes functionality over aesthetics. If you are one di noi And you are looking to optimize every second in front of the screen, the Calendar Notion keyboard shortcuts are a gift. “S” to share availability. “C” to create an event. “T” to go to the current day. “W” to activate the weekly view. “M” for the monthly. It is an approach that is clearly designed for users who prefer not to take off the hands of the keyboard. As Things A function that has conquered me is Availability management. Before, when someone wanted to meet with me, I had to manually send my free holes or use tools such as Calendly That, for some reason, they always made me feel a little impostor. With Notion Calendar, I select the available time blocks, generate a link to the moment and voila. One of those little friction of the day to day that disappear. The availability function. The white holes (not gray with stripes) are the ones that we establish as available. With sharing the link that appears to the right we can facilitate another person our gaps available for a meeting. As an integrated calendly already demands. Image: Xataka. The management of time areas is also remarkable. For those of us who work with people in different parts of the world or when we are organizing a trip, we can see our calendar with multiple schedules at the same time is canonical. And here, Notion does it much more intuitively than Apple’s calendar. Nevertheless, where notion calendar takes muscle is in its integration with notion, in its way of unifying information and time. It is an independent calendar for those who do not use notion, but that integration is the key to this proposal: generate ecosystem, not independent islands. The strategy behind the calendar What we are seeing with Notion Calendar is not just a new calendar application. It is one more piece on a board where Notion is building a complete productivity ecosystem. First was the main application for notes and databases, now the calendar, and not long ago also arrived with Notion mailat the moment on the waiting list. What was previously a product, Notion, now begins to be the center of an ecosystem that continues to grow. Image: Notion, Xataka. Instead of putting everything in a single application that could be overwhelming, Notion is creating independent but totally interconnected applications. It is an intelligent strategy that allows them to compete in each category without sacrificing the user experience. True magic occurs when you link notion databases with dated fields to the calendar. Suddenly, all these elements appear directly on my calendar with my normal events. For example, I have a database with all scripts in notion of the podcastand each one has its publication date. Now I can see those dates directly on my calendar, mixed with my meetings and personal events. The database with the infinite loop scripts that I prepare every day. By including a publication date they have everything you need to appear, if I want, in Notion Calendar. Image: Xataka. This unified vision is not only practical, it is a paradigm shift. It allows to see the events and tasks in a temporary context that previously required several tools. And not only that: you can attach notion pages directly to calendar events. For a meeting I can link the agenda, previous notes or related documents, everything without leaving notion. Towards a more mature experience The iOS version is also very well achieved. Unlike many applications that simply reduce their desktop version, Notion schedule for iOS (It is also For Android) is really adapted to mobile experience. You can choose if you want to see 1, 2 or 3 days when opening the app, something much more flexible than the native calendar. Again: more than the intention of launching a calendar is intuited here. A strategy is intuited that fuses information management with time management. When I saw the initial announcement of Notion Calendar, my first reaction was a mixture of interest and skepticism. Do we really need another calendar application? The answer is in the objective: Notion is not simply building a calendaris building that bridge between information management and time management. It is as if Notion were saying: “You already have all your information organized with us, why not also your time?” And it makes sense. If you spend much of your day in Notion, having your integrated calendar right there makes everything more consistent. Is it worth who does not use Notion? Surprisingly, I think so. Even without taking advantage of integrations, it is a solid calendar application, well designed and with functions that exceed the Apple or Google calendar in several aspects. For me, in fact, he has already replaced Apple’s. And the most interesting thing is to see how Notion is evolving from … Read more

Operate with Bitcoin in banks like the BBVA is great except for one thing: the ball will always be on your roof

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The BBVA has just become the first large traditional bank in Allow your customers to operate with cryptocurrencies. I announced this week after receiving the so -called Mica license (Markets in Crypto Assets), the European regulation that It was approved in April 2023. This is apparently good news for the entity, customers and the world of cryptodivisas, but be careful. Buy Bitcoins as if they were actions. BBVA customers can now access the sale of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin or eth (Ethereum) directly from the same app that they already use to operate with their money and financial products. Everything is unified under the same interface, and the bank ensures custody of cryptographic keys to avoid any type of problem in that regard. But there are other potential problems. And very important. In Xataka Cryptocurrencies: What are they, how others work and also in addition to Bitcoin You stew it, you eat it. The BBVA makes clear In its official statement that “the bank will not carry out any advice work and can only be accessed to the service at the initiative of the client.” That is: customers may not receive advice on whether it is a good time to buy or sell or what budget to dedicate to it, for example. Throwing balls out. It is the client who will have all the responsibility on these operations, and here the bank simply throws balls out. The CEO of CaixaBank, Gonzalo Cortázar, also pointed the same as saying that “the Bitcoin It has volatility That we all know and other cryptocurrencies, too. It is difficult to advise on the fundamentals of Bitcoin. I would not know how to do it and our teams, at this time, either. “The entity at the moment does not offer the option to operate with cryptocurrencies, but does not rule out doing it in the future if their customers demand it. Mifid is not mica. As they point out In five daysthere is a board of the European Union called Mifid II which tries to protect investors in risk assets. To achieve this, use a simple and direct method: each client who wants to invest must fill in a questionnaire identifying their knowledge, their previous experience and its objectives with the investment. That allows from that data the entity can advise on these risk assets. Mica does not have that requirement for cryptocurrencies. But there will be notices. Even so, experts cited in five days highlight that theoretically many banks are working on including some type of knowledge evaluation. Thus, theoretically customers will see notices that will allow them Identify the risks of operating with cryptodivisas. BBVA has not confirmed whether they will adopt these processes. Mica 2 in view. Gloria Hernández Aller, co -founder partner of FinalEg360, commented in that news how the United Kingdom the regulator requires this type of entities that they do make a convenience test to customers before being able to invest in cryptoactive. In fact, it points to that if a Mica 2 appears, “include a convenience test even for the sale of crypts.” {“videoid”: “x801VDM”, “Autoplay”: fals, “title”: “bitcoin, blockchain and cryptocurrencies everything you wanted to know and never asked”, “tag”: “cryptocurrencies”, “duration”: “2797”} Caution, Bitcoin Buyer Friend in Banks. From Xataka, our recommendation is to take special precautions when investing in the cryptodivsis market: the volatility of these digital assets remains enormous, and the risk is clearly higher than with investments in traditional markets. Hopefully entities such as BBVA clearly warn of these risks in these processes. In revolut or bit2me you have to pass a small test. These two entities have long allowed cryptocurrency to operate, but as they point out in five days, both force the user for processes that help these users understand the risks. In Revolut the user must select among various options and answer some questions. According to the answers, some users can see access to more complex products restricted. In bit2me Customers must undergo an suitability test before they can start operating. Image | BBVA In Xataka | Cryptocurrencies were supposed to “become” independent “from the power of states. The US has just killed him (Function () {Window._js_modules = Window._js_modules || {}; var headelement = document.getelegsbytagname (‘head’) (0); if (_js_modules.instagram) {var instagramscript = Document.Createlement (‘script’); }}) (); – The news Operate with Bitcoin in banks like the BBVA is great except for one thing: the ball will always be on your roof It was originally posted in Xataka by Javier Pastor .

The owner of a Tesla Model and has filled his roof of solar panels to load “up to 100 km”. It is not a good idea

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He Solar car It’s like gold for the electric car. There, all wishes will be fulfilled: we will load our cars free of charge. End of the bonds of electric and oil forever. But we are so far from getting something like the gold appears in our lives. Different companies have proposed to experiment with the solar car and even sell their own models. Toyota, with the PRIusit filled the roof of it so that its plates would help the electrical components of the car. Mercedes, in his EQXX visionhe has played with the same idea. And, despite everything, from Sttutgart to Silverstone, a trip in which they toured more than 1,200 kilometersthey barely managed to extend the autonomy of the vehicle in less than 50 kilometers. But the Marketing From a solar car is very far. In the PRIus He contributed little. The Mercedes is a prototype designed to look for the limits of efficiency, both in aerodynamics and in chemistry of its batteries and consumption of its engines, so it is not too representative either. The 3.57 kWh recovered by the solar panels yielded much more in a vehicle of these characteristics than in a street car. Sono Zion, one of the most advanced projects, He ended up canceling. Those responsible for Lightyear, who said they were able to travel for free 70 kilometers daily with their solar car, have also ended by Lower the blind. In fact, since the vehicle was announced in 2019, its managers did not stop lowering expectations and, with them, the number of kilometers per year that the car could travel thanks to its solar panels. But all this has been no impediment to the owner of a Tesla Model and that ensures in Reddit having made your electric SUV a much more efficient vehicle thanks to some solar panels distributed along the ceiling. Figures that, of course, you have to take with tweezers. Putting it in quarantine As he has counted in a thread of Redditthis owner of a tesla model and ensures that he has designed a system of Foldable solar panels that allow you to load every day between 30 and 100 kilometers a day. In the presentation of his project, the user explains that the panels are folding and installed on the roof baca. He assures that in this first version, the panels stand out about 27 centimeters from the ceiling of the vehicle but that, in a new version in which he is working, he will reduce the height to about 15 centimeters, improve the flush and create a carbon fiber support To lighten the set. In total, the Tesla Model and can carry in the future, always according to the user, 4,000 W packaged On the roof, which once deployed can recover part of solar energy, transform it into electricity and recharge the car while it is parked. But many doubts arise here. First, he assures that He is working So that the solar energy is transformed into electric and goes directly to the car battery so, we understand, for now the energy is stored in a battery that subsequently recharges the vehicle. The other great doubt that arises is about the true efficiency of the whole. In 2019Toyota created a prototype of the PRIus that filled the entire roof, the rear window and the hood of the solar panel car. A surface that generated 860 W. With them, Toyota said he could travel some 45 extra kilometersbut they were based on the Japanese homologation cycle, much more lax than Europeans. In the case of Tesla Model and, the weight of the panels touches the maximum of 75 kg that in the United States can move on the ceiling, so it will irremediably affect consumption. First of all, those 75 kg of weight, which is more or less like going with one more person in the car. And, much more critical, for the impact on automobile aerodynamics, which would be very damaged. The creator says that he has not calculated the latter but believes that consumption worsens at 10%. All this has led some Work reviewers To affirm that the car can barely travel a little more than 40 kilometers under real circulation conditions. That without entering into the impact that the solar panels have on the dynamics of the vehicle and the march comfort, because it must be difficult to ignore the generated noise. In Xataka | The accounts (impossible) to get an autonomous solar car that is recharged only with sunlight In Xataka | This electric SUV moves only with solar energy. And just arrived at the Sahara after traveling 1,000 kilometers Photo | Somid3 *An earlier version of this article was published in January 2024

Netflix is ​​going like a rocket but stops communicating its figures. The reason is simple: everything has a roof

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Netflix has announced its financial results for the last quarter of 2024, and they leave us with two closely related news. First, in 2025 new price increase is coming in countries around the world such as the United States or Portugal. Second, the number of subscribers has increased dramaticallymuch more than expected in the company’s own projections, leaving the global total at 302 million customers. The numbers. More specifically: in the United States the price for the standard plan with ads goes from $6.99 per month to $7.99, and from $15.49 per month to $17.99 in the standard plan. These are just some examples justified by the 19 million new subscribers that came to the platform in the fourth quarter of 2024. 9.8 million new subscribers were expected, so the results have far exceeded expectations, generating profits of 10.2 billion of dollars. A little more. As Netflix explains, “as we continue to invest in programming and offer more value to our partners, we will occasionally ask them to pay a little more so we can reinvest and continue improving Netflix.” That is, they are going to raise prices whenever they can, having become de facto in one of the most expensive options on the streaming scene (and if we compare it with specific competitors like Prime Video, Netflix is ​​a much more expensive option). However, he also knows that these increases have a limit. Communication is over. Possibly, Netflix already knew this in 2024. It was then, in April, when he announced that the fourth quarter of 2024, for which we have just received the data, would be the last in which Netflix would talk about the number of subscribers. From now on, apart from the audience and viewing figures that it will continue to communicate a couple of times a year, it will provide other types of data (profits, growth, budget), and will only report key subscriber figures when they are crossed. That is to say, very publicizable round numbers: possibly we will not hear about the subject again until they cross the threshold of 400 or 500 million subscribers. The ceiling is hit. What does this decision mean? Possibly, Netflix has calculated that it cannot grow much more (hence the surprise that the platform itself recognized at an increase in subscribers greater than calculated). They will stop communicating those numbers so as not to give the impression that their growth is being hindered, especially since Netflix’s growth points in other directions. The main one is the economic one: Netflix can increase its profits, and hence the price increase, as well as the recent measures that we have seen in recent months: ending shared accounts, tiers with ads… the Netflix bubble is far from exploding, but it has to diversify. Video games and more. At this time he is developing strategies such as his still timid, but increasingly clear intention to enter the video game industrywhich show that Netflix has no choice but to see its growth slow down in its original business, but that does not prevent it from becoming a diverse and multi-tentacled monster. It has also already announced that it will slightly increase its budget for creating programs (from 17,000 to 18,000 million dollars), in something that also has a declaration of intent: it is not going to slow down in its race to become one of the main audiovisual producers. . Who can deny that he is achieving it? Thanks to ‘Emilia Pérez’ she will surely become one of the most nominated producers for this year’s Oscars. Header | Netflix In Xataka | Netflix is ​​experiencing its best moment thanks to two strategies that it always promised to combat: advertising and live events

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