sell

try to sell it for 30 million

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Nikola Tesla has been one of the greatest inventors in all of historya figure who forever changed the world of science and technology. He promoted alternating current, he also promoted X-rays, methods to harness and distribute light with fluorescent bulbs, and he was even investigating methods of wireless energy transmission. Half myth, half reality, another of the inventions he boasted about was the so-called “Death Ray“, a science fiction weapon to carry out attacks hundreds of kilometers away. Rivers of ink have flowed about this supposed invention, but what is not so well known is that he was negotiating with Great Britain to sell it to them for 30 million dollars. The United States also showed great interest in this invention, which Tesla claimed was successfully developed to end all wars as we knew them. We know this thanks to some documents declassified a few years agowhich also includes Tesla’s attempt to sell it to Great Britain. Shooting down planes 400 kilometers away During the 1920s several inventors claimed to have invented a “death ray” capable of destroying aircraft at great distances, but none of them were able to demonstrate its operation. In the early 1930s Tesla also claimed to have invented it under the name “Teleforce”and he claimed this achievement for the rest of his life. In fact, already in the 1910s he had talked about a weapon capable of end wars as they were known, and to make gunpowder obsolete. During the following years he began to unravel vaguely specific details of this invention, which were collected and idealized by the press of the time until an entire myth was created around it. Tesla allegedly developed his “Teleforce” electrostatic machine after studying the Van de Graaff generatorand according to what he said, he used a moving belt to accumulate large amounts of electrical charge inside a hollow sphere. This technology would allow electrical impulses to be launched capable of destroying anything, from ground infantry to ships or airplanes within a 400 kilometer radius. Days after his death in January 1943, US Intelligence seized two trucks full of his belongings from his home. The FBI would later deny having any of these documents, but in one of the documents declassified last year we can see a narrative of who did it and how. Tesla’s documents, notes and materials were of total importance, especially after the descriptions that had been made of that death ray in the press. For example, in some media was defined like a weapon 60 million voltsdeath and extermination 400 km away, capable of eliminating an army of a million men. The electrical wave that this beam emitted through the air would also be capable of detonating enemy explosives at great distances. Tesla defended its scientific value beyond the battlefield, insisting that it could be used to maintain world peace based on weapons power. In this declassified letter to John Edgar Hoover, the first director of the FBI, reference is made to a New York Times article about this Death Ray. “If based on proven facts, it should be of vital importance to our War Department as well as other nations now controlled by crazy dictators,” the letter says. It is also recommended to constantly monitor Tesla to prevent foreign forces from kidnapping and torturing him to obtain his secrets. Hoover responded to thank him for the information, assuring him that his proposal would be taken into consideration, although without clarifying whether it ended up being carried out or not. The attempted sale to the United Kingdom Many media have published about the FBI’s interest in Tesla’s invention, but hidden among the hundreds of documents there is another very interesting which speaks of an attempted sale by Tesla to the United Kingdom. This document mentions the “death ray” as a weapon to defend any country, no matter how small, also describing how the discovery of “fireballs” generated through electricity was. It talks about how Tesla discovered this phenomenon almost by chance during his experiments. in Colorado Springs during 1899and who continued to develop it later. It also explains how after tried to sell it to him to the United Kingdom government for thirty million dollars. The declassified document also says that, during the negotiations, Tesla had stated that someone had broken into his room and examined all his papers, although those thieves or spies had left empty-handed. The inventor claimed that there was no chance that his invention had been stolen because he simply had not written it down yet. It was all in his memory, and there it stayed until his death. The fact that the FBI took a large amount of material belonging to Tesla has fueled conspiracy theorists for decades, with dozens of theories about how the United States could have learned how to use the Death Ray. But today gunpowder is still what we use in wars, so it seems that if such a weapon really existed, Its secret died at the same time as its creatorwhich since it never manufactured it, nor did it patent it. In Xataka | Nikola Tesla already imagined drones in 1898, both for deliveries and for combat In Xataka | In 1982 Seiko created a watch for making calls and watching television. His only problem was arriving too early In Xataka | The microprocessor that advanced the Intel 4004 was not in a computer, but in a secret place: an F-14

“The less complex the car, the easier it will be to manufacture and the cheaper it will sell”

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The year 1914 had just begun when Henry Ford dropped the bomb: would share half of the profits achieved in one year among all its workers. The figure, it was expected, would amount to about 10 million dollars at the time. The next day, his factory had collapsed due to the number of people waiting to enter the assembly line. The move was as bold as it was essential for the company. In those years the factories had a serious problem with absenteeism and Henry Ford was very clear about his ideas. He knew that mass production would make the production of his cars cheaper, but he needed a lot of sustained labor. It is what we know as the Fordismfrom which large-scale chain production emerged, with the consequent cost savings. And the more copies of the same product are sold, the cheaper it is because the faster the fixed costs are amortized. That is why Henry Ford did not complicate things in the slightest: “Any customer can have a car painted any color they want as long as it is black.” once said about the Ford T. The phrase was more sly than anything else but it explained well what he wanted to do with his cars. However, Ford left many other phrases related to his method of producing cars that were just as interesting. Some of them, in fact, can be applied today although, curiously, part of the original philosophy of that production process that made the Ford T the first mass car has to be adapted. From Ford T to the future electric car And when it comes to winning the market, Henry Ford was very clear that you had to pay attention to what was important: “the less complex an article is, the easier it will be to manufacture and the cheaper it will be sold”, as stated in the book My life and work of Henry Ford himself. He aim is different, the simplification of the product facilitates simpler production and reduces productive times. Therefore, it can be manufactured faster and cheaper so you can play with the price when selling the product on the street. This is exactly what according to some expertsthey have obtained from China. BYD and Tesla are simplifying their products as much as possible to save on production costs and thus be able to compete against the extremely well-oiled and efficient machinery that is Toyota. The problem for this last company is that This way of working completely rethinks your own quality standards but, above all, it forces you to rethink your entire production system. And an electric car is not manufactured the same as a combustion car. That is why there are consulting companies that have pointed out to Toyota that it is not acting correctly if it simply thinks of both technologies in a very similar way. At Ford they have been thinking about this idea for a long time. The company has acknowledged that Chinese cars have been taken to their facilities to dismantle them and understand what makes them different. Ford’s fascination with vehicles from this Asian country is such that Jim Farley, CEO of the company, He has admitted that he did not want to get off his Xiaomi SU7. To catch up, at Ford they have joined that trend that says that an electric car cannot be produced like a combustion car. With this we will escape from the single line, from the path on which the Fordism but the final goal is the same: reduce production costs. Follow the maxim of making the product the simplest possible object because that, in practice, makes production cheaper and allows you to sell cheaper. They do it by opting for tree manufacturing, which they have called “Ford’s new universal production system for electric cars”. Instead of assembling the car on a single line, Ford has devised another system that is based on three subassemblies that end up joining together almost at the end of the production process when the car should already be very close to leaving the assembly line. Thus, we have three individualized spaces: one for the front of the car, another for the rear and a last one that includes the battery, seats and console. According to the company, the new system allows them to produce their electric vehicles 40% faster at the Louisville Assembly Plant factory where the company has invested almost 2 billion dollars to renew it in depth and remove its “medium-sized electric trucks” from there. That is, electric pick-up and large SUVs that in Europe you would consider large. With this new system, they assure, it’s easier to be efficient in the design of the electronics and the installation of the cables, which represents a saving in weight and, above all, in money that must be invested in wiring. A maxim that we have already seen in other models on the market such as the BMW iX3. According to Ford data, they will need 50% fewer electrical connections, 50% fewer cooling installations and 20% fewer parts. In addition to all this, the plant will have WiFi-7 and a private 5G system for sending data which, according to Ford, will allow them to carry out more exhaustive quality controls at any point in the production process. This means finding any type of defect sooner and remedying it as soon as possible. That is to say, the company’s intention is to reinvent itself for the future but following the premises that its creator already set for them more than 100 years ago. Via | L’Automobile Photo | Wikipedia and Bram Van Oost In Xataka | Ford has been slow to adapt to the electric car, so it is going to start manufacturing batteries for… data centers

Google has plenty of chips to sell. He prefers to keep them so as not to be left behind in the AGI race.

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reach the AGI (General Artificial Intelligence) is one of the great goals of Big Tech at the moment. Although expectations have been lowered regarding this concept of governing AI that does everything, Alphabet, Google’s parent company, does not want to be left behind in this race, and therefore has made the decision to reserve the computing power of its TPUs (Tensor Processing Units) to achieve this goal. The clasee is in a term medio. For years, the cloud business has been measured by the ability to sell infrastructure to third parties. Now, with the AI ​​race fueling demand for specialized chips, Google has opted to serve itself first, according to they count from The Register. And this is a sign of the extent to which Big Tech considers AGI a strategic objective and not just a marketing label. In detail. The confirmation came during the presentation of results of Alphabet’s second quarter, according to the media. Goldman Sachs analyst Eric Sheridan I asked directly how the company distributed its TPUs among the customers who want to buy them and its own internal needs. “Our first priority is to ensure that we are allocating what we need to compete on the frontier of AGI development,” responded Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google. “That is the basis of everything we do,” he continued. Asked again by another analyst, Mark Shmulik, of Bernstein, about how computing capacity is distributed between search engine, cloud and model training, Pichai insisted in the same idea of ​​prioritizing this goal and, then, distributing it between Search, YouTube, its corporate cloud (Vertex), and other areas such as data analysis or cybersecurity. The cloud business. That Google reserves chips for itself does not mean that the business of selling cloud is limping. Quite the opposite. Google Cloud billed $24.75 billion in the quarter, 82% more than a year before, with a profit of $8.8 billion (a growth of 214%). The company attributes this push to the strong demand for infrastructure and AI solutions, and still has a pending order book of $514 billion, that is, contracts already signed that its clients have not yet consumed. Nor has the search engine been harmed by the emergence of generative AI, as some analysts feared. Search revenue has grown by 17% and YouTube advertising revenue has grown by 13%. Pichai defended that he AI Modede Search is, in fact, generating “more searches”, and thanks to technical improvements the company has managed to “reduce the cost of each response generated with AI” to its lowest level since that tool was launched. And now what. Google’s appetite for chips is such that its own is not enough. And the financial director, Anat Ashkenazi, explained that the company will raise its investment forecast in AI infrastructure for this year to a range of between 195,000 and 205,000 million dollars, above the previous range of 180,000 to 190,000 million. The reason is what Ashkenazi herself described as a “supply-constrained environment,” which will force Google to turn to third-party capacity during the third quarter as a bridging solution while it expands its own infrastructure. Pichai justified this additional expense as a long-term bet to not lose its large cloud clients, even if it means assuming specific losses for a few months in exchange for multi-year contracts that are very profitable in the long run. However, not even these record figures have prevented a fairly significant setback. And Alphabet’s free cash flow has closed the quarter in negative, -5.9 billion dollars, something that has not happened since 2004. As expected, investors have not received this news with enthusiasm, so the company’s shares fell 4% at the close of the market. In Xataka | When Google looked into the abyss of AI, the abyss looked back: today its search engine is more addictive than ever

Omoda and Jaecoo already sell more cars than Citroën, Nissan or Ford in Spain. And they are very clear that their secret is not in the price

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In the first half of 2026, Omoda has sold 13,208 cars according to data from Anfac. Jaecoo has placed 6,590 units on the market. Between both companies there are only six cars on the market (the Omoda 5 and Jaecoo 5 have electric versions) but their numbers are higher than those of Citroën, Ford or Nissan, companies more than established in our country and that have been great bestsellers. AND Francesco Colonnesevice president of Omoda&Jaecoo Iberia, is very clear about why. Shot. “This year we will reach close to 40,000 units.” That is the objective they have within Omoda&Jaecoo for our country, according to Colonnese who has expressed his reading of the market in The Country. The numbers, of course, point to this because in the first half of the year they already touched 20,000 units, already close to just under more than 25,000 units with which they closed last year. The situation of Omoda and Jaecoo is just the certification that three Chinese companies have arrived in Spain to occupy a relevant position in the market. Its cars are the basis of the almost 14,000 units that Ebro has put on the market so far this year. BYD has already registered 22,860 units (double than last year). MG, the leader, is in a technical tie with last year, signing 25,137 units. And in Europe, which was still resisting Chinese brands, BYD already sells more cars than Citroën. “They have to get their act together”. The reasons why Colonnese believes that Chinese manufacturers are gaining ground in Spain are very clear: “European manufacturers have to step up. When someone arrives who raises the level of quality and technology in cars, you have to try to provide the same service; you can’t stay with what you have because, suddenly, you go from being super modern to super old, from technological to analog…” In his words, the vice president of Omoda&Jaecoo Iberia defends that price is not the only reason why its cars are growing at a devilish rate. “It’s not that the customer buys from us for 3,000 euros less, but because we provide double the electric range. Until the Chinese arrived, until we arrived, (the plug-in hybrids) had 40-50 kilometers of electric range, now they have 150 kilometers.” a good business. This defense of the plug-in hybrid makes a lot of sense for the company. At this time, Omoda has sneaked in the Omoda 7 and to Omoda 9 among the 10 best-selling cars with this technology in Spain. Cars that, as we told you in these tests (previous links), we liked for their low consumption and high technological load. Yes, but. Although Colonnese assures that its customers buy them for “the quality of our cars, which have technology everywhere, something that was not common in the sector”, the truth is that Omoda&Jaecoo, like the rest of the Chinese brands (five of the 10 best-selling plug-in hybrids in Spain are Chinese), offer products much cheaper than the competition. Equal equipment, as we tell in this BYD Seal U testthere is no possible comparison with other models. But part of this advantage in the market comes because Chinese cars with combustion engines, unlike electric cars, do not pay the extra tariffs that were imposed in 2024. They have become, as we already warned, the Trojan horse with which to quickly gain market share. The times. What is indisputable is that Chinese manufacturers are monetizing investments and arrival in our country in record time. Their cars offer a more technological image that quickly adapts to current customer tastes. That, in a world that advances at a devilish pace, is key because a car has been designed for a decade if we add the development time and the time that this car had to be on the market. From Chery (owner of Omoda&Jaecoo) they have long defended that That ability to adapt and solve problems is key. Instead of launching a car that is as refined as possible but developed over years, what Chinese manufacturers prefer is to launch a very solvent product and apply subtle changes if necessary in record time. These very short development times are what are dynamiting the industry and putting traditional manufacturers on the ropes. At Toyota they are clear that they need to be more agile to compete and The Renault Twingo has been designed in China to have it on the market as soon as possible. Photo | In Xataka | Europe has focused on stopping Chinese electric cars. The real threat is in its cars with combustion engines

“Microsoft built the concept of office work because they wanted to sell more software”

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For many, the office work and spending eight hours a day in front of a screen is little less than a unnatural torture for the human being. In fact, this type of “knowledge work” is a relatively recent inventionwhich has been evolving as an adaptation of technology to the world of work. Aravind SrinivasCEO of Perplexity has gone a little further by ensuring that office work is an invention by Bill Gates to carry out his plan to bring a PC to every desk. Srinivas developed his hypothesis during his interview at the Joe Rogan Podcast and even left the presenter confused. “Microsoft built the concept of office work because they wanted to sell more software.” Gates’ dream Srinivas links the creation of office jobs directly to the Microsoft founder’s historical obsession with putting a computer in every house and on every desk. “That idea of ​​putting a PC on every desk and making you glued to it was Bill Gates’ vision,” explained the Perplexity CEO. It’s no secret. Gates himself has repeated that same idea for decades: he wanted a computer in every house and on every desk. In fact, his vision of the future of computers was published in the specialized press of the time even before Microsoft sold its first BASIC. Rogan, in his direct style, summed up the merit of Gates’ plan with a powerful phrase: “Wow, genius. What an achievement, because they certainly nailed it.” The truth is that it is difficult to contradict him. Few business strategies have changed the daily routine of billions of people as much as the arrival of computers and office automation in the world of work. A masterstroke from Microsoft Srinivas’s thesis is that the 9 to 5 job in front of a screen was not a natural evolution of employment, but a Microsoft business plan so that people used computers all day. The more hours and more people worked in front of a screen, the more software licenses were sold. According to the manager, the office routine was designed to create a daily dependence on Word and Excel, starting in schools, so that companies would then pay for these licenses. The juiciest part of the interview is the contrast between the two founders. According to Srinivas, Microsoft’s goal was never design. “It was not about making computing beautiful, as Steve Jobs conceived it,” he said verbatim, marking the difference with Apple. Jobs was pursuing something else: machines almost obsessive in their aesthetic care, which he himself defined as ‘insanely great‘. Microsoft, on the other hand, sold hardware to put software on top of. The more time you spent in front of the screen, the more licenses you needed. Microsoft’s business was not about creating a beautiful product, it was about generating dependency of your tools to sell licenses. Microsoft invented Office, not the office Despite Srinivas’ shocking statements, Bill Gates did not invent the eight-hour day nor office work. Its history comes from long before, from workers’ struggles of the 19th century and laws like Fair Labor Standards 1938 in the United States. What is true is that, as Rogan pointed out, “this type of lifestyle is something very recent that we have come to accept as normal.” The scientific evidence testifies that, with the arrival of computers and technology, the productivity at work skyrocketed. That Microsoft won that game by contributing to the increase in that productivity It is undeniable. Word, Excel or PowerPoint have been training entire generations since school. When these students arrive at their first job, they already know how to use those tools and companies pay for the license without thinking twice. In Xataka | Companies have returned to the office to improve productivity: a McKinsey study is not so clear Image | Unsplash (Jan Baborak), Flickr (European Parliament), Xataka

sell more cars than Citroën in Europe

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It is no secret that Chinese car brands They are conquering Europe. For a few years now, the streets have been filled with cars from companies such as BYD, Omoda, Jaecoo, Leapmotor, MG and many others. And it makes perfect sense, since they have come with their entire arsenal at truly competitive prices and loaded with technology. You have to go to last review of the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA) to really see how much they have achieved in a very short time. And in the case of BYD, the firm has registered more cars than Citroën during the month of May in Europe (specifically in the group formed by the European Union, the EFTA countries and the United Kingdom). According to the agency’s data, the Chinese manufacturer registered 32,380 units compared to 31,665 for Citroën. The difference is small, but it has symbolic weight, since it is the first time that a Chinese brand overtakes such a historic name in European motorsport. In detail. He BYD growth It is being truly groundbreaking, especially outside its domestic market. And in May of this year, its registrations shot up by 136.6% compared to the same month in 2025, raising its market share in the EU+EFTA+UK region to 2.8%, compared to 1.2% a year ago. Citroën, on the other hand, closed the month with a decline of 1.6%. Of course, it should be said that the bypass occurs in the EU+EFTA+UK region, because if we look only at the figures for the European Union, Citroën is still ahead, with 29,227 registrations compared to BYD’s 26,017. But the distance has shortened considerably compared to last year. The driving force behind this expansion has been above all in Italy, France and Germany, where BYD has multiplied its sales, while in the first five months of the year the Chinese brand already has 135,307 cars registered in this region, 145.2% more than in 2025. And BYD is not the only one. Chinese brands as a whole reached a market share of 10.7% in Europe in May, their all-time high, according to data from Automotive News. Chery has skyrocketed its registrations by 244.1% and Leapmotor, backed by Stellantis, has multiplied them by more than five, with a growth of 465.1% in the EU+EFTA+UK region. Even Tesla, although it is not Chinese, has benefited from that same push towards electrification, with an increase of 107.9% thanks to the arrival of the new Standard versions of the Model 3 and the Model Y. Although the tariffs that the European Union imposed on Chinese electric companies in 2024, something that has partially stopped this offensive, Chinese brands continue with overwhelming growth. And now what. The context in which this surprise occurs is that of a European market in full transition towards electrification. According to ACEA data, between January and May 2026, battery electric cars already represent 20% of registrations in the European Union, compared to 15.3% a year ago, while hybrids continue to be the most popular option with 37.8% of the market (in the latter it must be taken into account that the microhybridswith more prominence of the gasoline engine than the small battery as a whole). On the other hand, the sum of gasoline and diesel has fallen to 30.1%. And on this board, increasingly favorable to electrified vehicles, BYD and the rest of the Chinese manufacturers have an advantage due to their specialization in these technologies. Cover image | BYD and Citroën In Xataka | On July 1, buying on Shein, Temu or AliExpress will be more expensive: Europe imposes a fixed tariff of three euros for small packages

HBO Max brings to Spain an advertising system that identifies the clothes they are wearing on the screen to try to sell them to you

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You have already gotten used to paying a cheaper rate on your subscription in exchange for watching ads. That model is about to take a new turn: artificial intelligence to detect which objects are “saleable” from what appears in the series you watch, to try to sell it to you. Similar to Prime Video advertising that leads to the corresponding sale on Amazon, but a step further in terms of sophistication. What does it consist of? Warner Bros. Discovery announced on June 19 that HBO Max will launch in Spain and other European countries, such as the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and the Nordic countries (in addition to Brazil and Mexico in America), before the end of 2026, a new advertising format called Moments. The system uses artificial intelligence to detect the objects that appear on the screen during a series or movie and inserts advertisements linked to those objects in real time: if the protagonists use a bicycle, the advertisement can be for that bicycle, or an equivalent one. If the scene takes place on a flight, the following commercial break may carry an airline commercial. Those responsible. The system is developed by the American company KERV.aiwhose technology already works with different applications for Disney, Hulu, Paramount, NBCU, ESPN, Samsung Ads or Vevo. Its proposal is object-by-object analysis of audiovisual content: it not only identifies the general theme of a scene, but also the specific visual elements that appear in it, with sufficient precision to correlate them with specific advertiser products. 25,000 moments. According to Warner, the system has already identified 25,000 moments in the HBO Max catalog where these types of ads can be activated. Thematic categories available to advertisers include cooking, fashion, beauty, luxury goods, fitness or well-being. In the United States, where Moments is already active, Warner has recorded a 19% increase in viewer engagement and a 13% increase in purchase intent compared to conventional advertising formats. Juicier than product placement. The fact that a brand pays for its car to appear in a movie or its soft drink to be on the protagonists’ table requires a prior agreement between the brand and the production team, negotiated before filming. It is effective, but expensive (also at the organizational level). Moments, however, works on top of existing content. The AI ​​detects the item and makes it part of advertising inventory. It is very attractive for advertisers and the platform: content shot five years ago can generate advertising impacts today. All this theoretically, of course: no one has signed in blood that the series and films are not going to begin to modify their future content to try to get closer, precisely, to a 2.0 version of the product placement traditional, which worked with the same premise: what you see can be bought. Amazon arrived first. In May 2025, Amazon announced in its annual presentation to advertisers a format of pause ads contextual for Prime Video. Amazon’s AI analyze the scene at the exact moment the viewer presses pause and generates in real time an ad with dynamic copy adapted to what appears on the screen. The difference with HBO is obvious, and in favor of Prime Video’s business: jumping from an ad to Amazon does not pose any problem for the viewer: according to company data88% of Prime Video viewers in the United States have purchased from Amazon, allowing you to introduce purchasing habits data into the equation. No cookies. Warner, in fact, sells just the opposite. Moments’ press release highlights that the system uses “contextual signals instead of personal data”, meaning it uses a “privacy-first” design. Warner lacks the personal data that Amazon has, so it embraces this advantage for the user: it does not require tracking the user between sessions or building a profile. Moments doesn’t know who you are, only what you’re seeing at any given moment. Advertisements on platforms streaming It is, increasingly, a very juicy business. According to studies As of August 2025, 45% of Netflix’s consumption in its ad-supported markets was already occurring from the ad-supported plan, up from 34% a year earlier. HBO Max recorded an increase of ten percentage points in the same period. That is, the proportion of viewers who watch streaming with advertising it does not stop growing, and Moments arrives at a time when this advertising inventory is crying out for more sophisticated ways to cajole the viewer. In Xataka | All streaming platforms are including ads in their programming. And they reveal a great crisis in the sector

apps that don’t sell anything

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There are few guilty pleasures as satisfying as online shopping: that exciting moment of searching until you find what suits you best and then put it in the cart. You’ll enjoy it later, when it reaches your hands. Or not, because in reality the process itself is almost more enjoyable than the product in question. Not to mention something obvious: to buy you need to have money in your account and not need it for other purposes, such as paying rent or eating. If you can’t afford the real experience, South Korea’s youth has found a way of tricking the brain into releasing that dopamine from shopping: apps that sell nothing. Fake it until you make it. What is happening. He Korean Times collects the phenomenon of dopamine sites and its operation in two types of apps: those for food delivery and those for smoking breaks, in which you have a virtual cigarette with other people with that banal conversation typical of the occasion. Thus, you can consult menus, select items to add to the cart and know delivery times or restaurant ratings without closing the transaction. And you can also say, if you prefer, something like “Tuesday, you’re sick of shit” in a virtual room. Kim Heon-sik, a professor at Jungwon University, connects these apps that do not sell anything with the culture of Muk Bangin which people watch other people eating tremendous amounts of food. Curiosity, voyeurism and satisfying the gluttony of whoever is on the other side of the screen without having to put anything in their mouth. The vicarious satisfaction at its finest. Tap to go to the post Why is it important. On the one hand, these dopamine sites function as a snitch on the mental health of a generation: in South Korea, digital exhaustion and smartphone dependence are already public health problems. documented with a star risk factor: anxiety. On the other hand, they reveal a disconnection between two worlds: the economic and the neurological. Delivery and ecommerce apps have been refining their interfaces and experience for years to enhance the impulse to buy: infinite scrolls, exclusive offers for a limited time (spoiler: they never end), incessant dripping of notifications… the “technology of persuasion” that coined Tristan Harrisformer Google designer. The result is that according to neurosciencedopamine is released in anticipation, not upon receiving the order. Dopamine sites do exactly the same thing, but at zero cost, something ideal for a generation that cannot afford that expense. Context. That deliberate design of apps and the release of dopamine can lead to a shopping addiction… if you have the money. The point is that Korean youth do not have it: a recent report from Bank of Korea portrays their dangerous situation. Every year that a young person spends without work reduces their future salary by 6.7%, their debt has increased and the proportion of them living in precarious housing went from 5.6% in 2010 to 11.5% in 2023. OECD confirms that the Korean youth employment rate is below average and that they practically wait in line to access large companies or the public sector. This structural problem already has a name: Sampo generationwhich refers to the three renunciations of this youth, love, marriage and being a father or mother, caused by unstable jobs and high educational debts. In detail. The psychological mechanism behind those apps that sell nothing It is well documented: The brain does not distinguish well between the process of asking for food and the simulation of asking for it, so dopamine acts mainly in that search and anticipation phase, not when receiving the reward. That’s why the fake app works: it gives the reward system what activates the process without having to swipe the card. Regarding smoking break apps, more of the same: this study on loneliness in Korean adults found that those young people most exposed to the digital environment reported significantly higher levels of loneliness than previous generations. Seeing that there are more people online at the same time, even if they are complete strangers and you don’t talk to them, activates the feeling of social presence, which reduces anxiety. Yes, but. The Korean Times report echoes few testimonies about this phenomenon, but there is no data on how many people use these apps or how frequently. Even if it were a trend, the million-dollar question is what effect these apps that sell nothing have: it is true that they have no impact on the wallets of those who use them and that they occasionally provide relief, but also that they do not help solve the problem behind: anxiety, loneliness and dependency linked to a precariousness of their life expectations. In Xataka | A Ferrari ‘on the go’: the trick of Generation Z in Japan to have a supercar In Xataka | The new fashion trend among Gen Z comes from South Korea and is called “Acubi”: a subversive minimalism Cover | Fish Huang and Gemini

China had not updated its EREV standards for nine years. Now that they sell a million a year, they are going to catch up

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The EREV (extended range electric vehicles, for its acronym in English), are beginning to have a lot of prominence in China. So much so, that in the country they have changed the regulations, publishing a complete review of their technical standard. This new revision, QC/T1086-2026, replaces a 2017 regulatory framework and will come into force on November 1. And it is that with more than 1 million units sold Every year in the country, the Chinese market begins to assimilate this type of vehicle that, outside of this region, is still relatively unknown to us. Why does it matter? The previous standard, in force since 2017, described the requirements in a mostly qualitative way, since the manufacturer defined its own specifications and the regulatory framework barely provided specific figures. Nine years later, the market has changed a lot. And according to industry data collected by CarNewsChinasales of EREVs in China exceeded one million units in 2024 and reached 1.2 million in 2025. So with those figures, it is logical to think that the regulations had to be revised. What the change consists of. Until now, the rules were somewhat vague, so this regulation aims to take a closer look at some EREV specifications and standardize them. An example is how much energy the gasoline engine delivers in each millisecond. And to give us an idea, now in the smallest generators (up to 67 HP), the maximum margin of error that will be allowed when delivering energy will be just 1.5 kW. For the most powerful engines, the deviation may not exceed 3%. That is, the motor must deliver energy to the battery more precisely and efficiently. According to CarNewsChinathe thresholds have been set based on real production data from manufacturers and suppliers, with the aim that all major manufacturers on the market can meet them without difficulty, but that lower-performance designs are left out of the standard. EMC and noise. One of the most relevant new features of the standard is the introduction of specific electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) and noise and vibration (NVH) tests. The first extended range cars were basically standby generators that started when the battery was depleted. Today’s systems now have integrated energy management components that work in constant coordination with the battery, electric motors and vehicle control systems. This greater integration requires more demanding standards in electromagnetic interference and acoustic comfort. In fact, more recent models like the Aito M9which HIMA launched last May with up to 890 HP, or the IM Motors LS8 EREV, with 430 km of electric range, already reflect these changes, and are examples that have served to develop this new regulation. Durability for long term use. The standard also introduces two durability tests: a test of 750 hours with alternating load and another of 100,000 start-stop cycles. Both were developed with real-world usage data and damage equivalence models, and are designed to simulate approximately 300,000 kilometers of real-world driving, including urban conditions with frequent starts. Who is driving the market. The ecosystem of manufacturers that has driven this revision in the regulations includes both established brands and newer manufacturers. Li Auto, Seres, Deepal and Leapmotor have expanded their EREV offerings, while premium models such as the Aito M9 have helped position the technology in high-priced segments. Zeekr, Geely’s electric brandhas gone even further with the Zeekr 9X and 8X, since the former exceeded 50,000 accumulated deliveries in a few months after its launch and is scheduled to be exported to the Middle East, Central Asia and Europe during 2026. Cover image | HIMA In Xataka | This Aston Martin DB9 was sold for $57,000, but the craziest thing is not its price: it is the two flamethrowers it hides

Young people are stopping drinking beer like crazy. That’s why Mahou wants to sell you water as cosmetics

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On May 28, social networks in Spain woke up flooded with pink, lychee and promises of beauty. That day YUZZ saw the lightthe new business adventure of the influencer María Pombo in alliance with the brewing giant Mahou San Miguel. Under the motto Here You Glowis presented not as a simple drink, but as a revolutionary concept of fun skincare: a soft drink that “takes care of you on the inside so that you shine on the outside”, formulated with hyaluronic acid and vitamin C. The deployment was massive: the strategy started with mystery videos, a WhatsApp channel that was fuming with thousands of followers looking for clues and culminated in an experience pop-up in the heart of Madrid. However, beyond the indisputable success of the call, the launch uncovers a striking contradiction: that of an industry traditionally linked to nightlife and beer trying to bottle the idyllic universe of health, cosmetics and well-being. Why does a brewery sell beauty? Beer is beer you might be thinking. However, the alcoholic beverages sector is going through a moment of profound transformation in the face of the decline in consumption among new generations. This is where they make the leap towards functional soft drinks, since it responds to an unstoppable global trend. In fact, the wellness market It already moves 480,000 million dollars in the United States, with annual growth of up to 10%. Europe follows in the same wake, and Mahou is looking for its piece of the pie. But to connect with Generation Z and millennials It is not enough to launch a product; a narrative is needed. This is where María Pombo comes in. The industry is witnessing an evolution of influencer marketing, it is no longer about paying a well-known face to hold a can, but rather a “shared business model” based on co-creation. Pombo has been involved from day one, sharing the development process organically with her more than four million followers. This drastically reduces the consumer’s natural resistance to conventional advertising. The label under the magnifying glass. While marketing works perfectly, the scientific community has raised eyebrows when analyzing the list of ingredients. Can you really drink cosmetics? According to Dr. Emiliano Grillo, specialist in Dermatology, is blunt in the magazine Cuore: “There is no way for you to eat the skincare“. The expert warns that, for oral hyaluronic acid to have a real impact, it would require much higher doses than those anticipated in this type of recreational formats. But the biggest problem with YUZZ is not what it promises, but what it hides: sugar. Although the brand prides itself on being a low-calorie drink without sweeteners, nutritionist Paola Sánchez explains in the same medium that each can contains about 10 grams of sugar, the equivalent of two cubes, from the concentrated apple juice that serves as a base. The pharmacist Mencía Hermosa goes one step further and points out the paradox of the product: the consumption of sugars is directly involved in the glycation process, a mechanism that damages collagen and “contributes to skin aging.” That is, the soft drink could be torpedoing the effect it promises to generate. For her part, the pharmacist and disseminator Lena de Pons dissects the formulation in Infobaedenouncing that “the narrative sells more than the evidence.” De Pons clarifies that YUZZ is governed by food regulations, not cosmetics. Legally, they can only claim that it helps collagen because it covers 15% of the Nutritional Reference Value (NRV) of vitamin C, a tiny amount. “A fruit salad has more antioxidants,” says the expert ironically, also regretting that the word “science” is used in the campaign without providing independent studies that support the bioavailability of its formula in the body. The undeniable triumph of narrative. At the end of the day, the reality of YUZZ depends on the lens through which you look. If we evaluate it under the rigor of dermatology, trying to replace a cream with a soft drink is nonsense. As a timely and recreational alternative to a mixed drink with alcohol or a traditional soft drink loaded with artificial additives, it is an option that the experts themselves consider acceptable. But in the corporate field, the move is masterful. How to conclude Article 14in a saturated market where attention is the rarest commodity, getting an entire country to debate about your brand is the greatest success. Mahou and María Pombo have made the initial impact. Now they face the real challenge: to demonstrate that this cross between a brewery and skincare It has enough commercial history to survive on the shelves once the noise of social networks has died down. Image | instagram Xataka | It’s cheaper and less anxiety-inducing: ‘solo-maxxing’ is Generation Z’s answer to the stifling dating industry

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