Sending

We are so hooked on smartphones that Gen Z has found its own “detox”: sending letters again

by

I remember perfectly the first letter I wrote. My best friend had moved to a town in Ciudad Real and the distance, back then, was measured in the time our parents allowed us to use the telephone line. We couldn’t spend hours on the phone, so we decided to tell each other our lives by email. Every week, a letter. That exchange of envelopes lasted as long as it took us to have a computer tower and internet access. Then the great migration arrived: Messenger, Fotolog, Tuenti, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp… Today we send photos to each other in real time and make video calls. If someone had told those two girls that technology would be the glue of their friendship, they wouldn’t have believed it. In the middle of 2025, history seems to be closing an unexpected circle. We live in the era of immediacy, where WhatsApp messages coexist with saturated emails that ask for mercy under the tagline ASAP (as soon as possible). The saturation is such that the phone’s storage warns every so often that there is no space, while the messages are interspersed with alerts, reminders and the white noise of a hyperconnected world. Faced with this “uncontrolled beat of the digital rush”, Generation Z has rescued the habit of being penpals or pen pals. Stamps.com Data reveal that almost 48% of this generation sends physical correspondence at least once a month, breaking the myth of the young person unable to tear themselves away from the screen. On Instagram, the hashtag #penpal already exceeds 1.3 million of posts, while TikTok becomes a catalog of calligraphy and sealing wax. It’s not about sending a text; It is a “slow ritual” where both the content and the container count. Neuropsychology explains this return with crystal clear clarity. According to psychologist Noelia Barroso, interviewed by El EspañolWhile digital notification triggers a rapid and volatile dopamine pulse, waiting for a letter activates multisensory processes that generate much more stable oxytocin peaks. The weight of the paper and its aroma link deep memories that the pixel simply ignores. This phenomenon is, in essence, a measure of mental health. The Tunheim report points out that 44% of young people have reduced their screen time out of sheer exhaustion, searching through the mail for a necessary “digital detox.” The expert Victoria López, in Hello magazinedefines it as a form of “constant presence”: a physical object that lives on a shelf and that, unlike a chat, has a mass and texture that make it indestructible against oblivion. A love of the tangible This “historical nostalgia” for times they did not live in is an emotional compass towards the authenticity that the algorithm has worn away. The impact is such that the market is transforming. Pinterest Predictions 2026 indicates that searches of “beautiful stamps” have risen 105% and that letter writing will be considered a “performative art.” However, the road is uneven. While in the United States 31% of young people trust the email for securityIn Europe we are experiencing radical contrasts. Denmark has stopped delivering letters after 400 years due to extreme digitalization, but even so, young Danes send three times more letters than the rest of the population through private companies, according to The Guardian. Even the connection with our own future has changed. Tools like FutureMe either Letter to Yourself They allow you to send messages to yourself ten years from now. It is an exercise in “realistic optimism” to connect with the present and relativize the current crises, a way of “leaving a mark.” In the end, Generation Z is not technophobic; They are simply the first to understand that technology is a means, not an end. According to sociologist Narciso Michavila in La Vanguardiathey look for the physical because hyperdigitization no longer surprises them; It is its natural state and, therefore, it lacks the value of the extraordinary. This need to touch the memory has crystallized into another practice that is sweeping networks: junk journaling. It’s not just collecting papers; is, as WeLife explainsthe art of turning recycling into a personal diary to reconnect with yourself. The New York Times collect how young enthusiasts They rescue everything from traffic tickets to museum tickets or bread wrappers for their aesthetic value. “It’s a challenge to find things you would normally throw away and use them in a fun way,” its practitioners explain. In a world consumed by screens, the junk journal forces hands to still and embrace the silence of cutting and pasting, creating physical time capsules that, unlike the cloud, do not depend on a server to exist. In a context where generative AI can write thousands of emails in seconds, human handwriting is positioned as the last bastion of the unrepeatable. The handwritten letter has ceased to be a formality and has become an object of resistance against the attention economy. Some things don’t go out of style, they just wait for us to need them again. Today, in 2025, it seems that Gen Z has found in a sealed envelope the calm that fiber optics failed to give them. Image | freepik Xataka | Harvard bought a cheap copy of the Magna Carta in 1946. They just discovered they had a treasure worth a fortune

Netflix decided to kill sending content to the TV. Apple has taken advantage of the gap to score a great goal

by

Netflix decided to start the month of December by eliminating one of the most basic and useful functions of its mobile application: the ability to send content (cast) from our smartphone to any television with Android TV either Google TV. An essential tool to find content quickly on your mobile and send it to your TV. What we did not expect is that, in less than two weeks, Apple has responded indirectly by bringing its Apple TV for Android the feature that Netflix has decided to kill. Better late. Goodbye to Netflix Cast. It was easy to realize this. At home I have a Google Chromecast with Google TV and a Google Nest. Every time I wanted to send content from my mobile to my television… only the Google Nest appeared. That’s when I read the confirmation of the disaster: Netflix had loaded the Cast without any explanation. The exceptions. In the Netflix support page An exception is specified to continue using the Cast function: having a third-generation or earlier Chromecast device. In other words, versions without remote control. The second, have a plan without ads. If you don’t pay, you can’t send content to TV. Cast icon on Apple TV, make a wish. Given the gap in the squad, great goal. Since yesterday, a couple of weeks after Netflix’s move, the Apple TV application for Android is compatible with Google Cast, a function that was missing since the launch of the app at the beginning of the year on the rival platform. It is necessary to have the app updated to version 2.2 to be able to send our content to the television on any Chromecast. Apple being less Apple. Apple has had to respond to Netflix in the face of an undeniable reality: its service is a minority within the ecosystem of streaming platforms. Netflix is ​​the absolute king, followed by Prime Video and Disney+. And one of the reasons was one that we know quite well: using Apple is using a product tied to its ecosystem. Despite this, Apple TV+ is dangerously close to HBO Max, about to take fourth place in the ranking, according to data from JustWatch. In this context, the introduction of Cast goes beyond a minor function: It is a surrender (more) from Apple towards a more open ecosystem. And this works in your favor Allows Apple TV+ to sneak into homes with Android phones and tablets Reduces friction of use Reduce dependence on Apple’s hardware ecosystem What are you doing to win in Spain. Apple’s strategy to continue growing in Spain is clear: swim against the current with a strategy that does not introduce advertising in the app, a small catalog but with a large presence of proposals (expensive) and own and, now, simplifying the use of its app to reduce friction that had been artificially introduced. It won’t be enough. We told it a year ago and the numbers reaffirm it: there is hardly any war in streamingsince most of the content is converging on Netflix. The post-pandemic stage forced platforms to fight to distinguish themselves, while Netflix went public at the end of December 2024 at pre-pandemic levels. Be that as it may, given the growth of Apple TV in 2025, fight head to head against an HBO focused on quality It is great news for the company. Image | Xataka In Xataka | The best streaming platforms 2025 | Comparison of Disney+, Netflix, HBO Max, Prime Video, Movistar Plus+, Filmin, Apple TV, SkyShowtime and Rakuten TV: catalog, functions and prices

China is sending drones to an island 100 km from Taiwan. The problem is that Japan and the US are filling it with missiles

by

The small Japanese island by Yonagunilocated just over 100 kilometers away from Taiwan, has gone in a matter of months from being a remote enclave with a modest self-defense detachment to becoming one of the most sensitive points of the strategic balance in Asia. The United States, China and Japan itself are carrying their disputes to the small enclave. An island as a front. The intensification of chinese drone flights over the island and the strait, intercepted on two consecutive occasions by Japanese fighters, has reinforced the perception in Tokyo that the first island chain is entering a phase of chronic instability. Japan, aware of the real possibility of a conflict around Taiwan, has decided to turn Yonaguni into a defensive node fully integrated: a place where operates a FARP American that extends the range of Marine Corps helicopters, where capabilities are consolidated electronic surveillance and where the installation of air defense missiles is progressing like the Type 03 Chu-SAM. Weapons and more weapons. This system, capable of tracking one hundred simultaneous targets and shooting down twelve of them with Mach 2.5 missilesimplies that Japan is beginning to give teeth to a position whose mere proximity to the democratic island makes it an advanced platform to detect, deter or even respond to a possible Chinese attack. For Tokyo, reinforcing Yonaguni is not a provocation but a life policy national: any attack on Taiwan, as as stated the new Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, would constitute an existential threat to the archipelago. Yonaguni Beijing’s reaction. China, which interprets any Japanese defensive measure as one more step in a strategic siege promoted by the United States, has reacted with increasing hardness. From historical comparisons to veiled threats, including the summoning of the Japanese ambassador and the suspension of economic exchanges, Beijing frames the installation of missiles in Yonaguni as an “offensive act” that violates the spirit of the bilateral normalization of 1972. The rhetoric has gone in crescendo after Takaichi’s words about the possibility of Japan intervening militarily in the event of an attack on Taiwan, something that China considers a space invasion diplomat reserved for Washington. The climate has deteriorated to such a level that a Chinese diplomat even published (and removed) a direct threat against the prime minister, while the central government canceled meetings, stopped imports and called for boycott trips to Japansinking the influx of Chinese tourists who represented almost a third of foreign visitors. In parallel, China has intensified its military demonstrations, spreading videos YKJ-1000 hypersonic missile destroying Japanese targets, a message designed to emphasize that any expansion of the Japanese military footprint will be met with a response. The strategic dilemma. Far from backing down, Japan has adopted a tone unusually firm. Under the leadership of Takaichi, the political heir to Shinzo Abe’s strategic nationalism, Tokyo has made Yonaguni the tangible manifestation of a doctrinal turn: accept that Japanese stability requires preventing China from dominating the Taiwan Strait. from there the proliferation of radar installations, electronic warfare capabilities and additional plans that contemplate systems such as US Patriots, US Army Typhon, HIMARS and the NMESIS equipped with NSM missiles, capable of denying access to Chinese ships around the Taiwanese eastern coast. USA discreetly supports this redesign: approved sales of NASAMS and spare parts to the Taiwan Air Force, deployed CH-53E helicopters in Yonaguni (an unprecedented milestone) and coordinates with Japan a doctrine that assumes that, in the event of an outbreak of hostilities, the Marines must operate from the lethality zone itself of Chinese missiles. All of this positions Yonaguni not only as an advanced observatory, but as a critical point whose defense and survival would determine the first stages of any crisis in the strait. Yonaguni Taiwan’s hardening. While Japan reinforces the front line, Taiwan assumes that time to prepare is running out. President Lai Ching-te has announced a massive increase in military spending, raising it by $40 billion until 2033, with a roadmap that will place it at 3.3% of GDP in 2026 and with the declared ambition of reaching 5% before 2030. What Taipei is proposing is not a simple rearmament, but a comprehensive redesign: new missiles and drones, integrating AI into existing systems, protecting against infiltration operations, dramatically improving procurement (often delayed in the United States), and measures against transnational Chinese repression targeting Taiwanese abroad. For Lai, the most dangerous threat is not a Chinese landing but internal erosion: that Taiwan “gives up” due to psychological or economic pressure. It flatly rejects the “one country, two systems” model and affirms that the only way to maintain peace is to make an invasion too costly for Beijing. The United States, through its de facto representation, has described the decision as a crucial step to strengthen deterrence. A strategic powder keg. The juxtaposition of Japanese military movements, Chinese threats and unprecedented rearmament of Taiwan produces a “traffic” that raises the risk of calculation errors. The experts warn that a poorly calibrated comment, a overflight unreported or a maritime incident could accelerate a spiral that is difficult to contain, especially when Beijing tries to use its contacts with Washington to simultaneously pressure Tokyo and Taipei. In this context, Yonaguni becomes symbol and detonator: too close to Taiwan to be irrelevant, too exposed to be invulnerable, and too strategic for either side to relinquish control or influence. Plus: the island is both within immediate range of Chinese missiles and within the American concept of advanced distributed operationsmeaning it could be both a multiplier of Allied defense and a priority objective in the first minute of a war. A fragile balance. In short, China hardens his stanceJapan resignation definitely to ambiguity, Taiwan accelerate the shielding of its sovereignty and the United States consolidates its role as operational guarantor. In the midst of all this, Yonaguni emerges as a microcosm where the resistance of that regional order is tested. An enclave of barely 1,700 inhabitants that, due to its geographical positionhas become a thermometer, border and barrier. Its immediate … Read more

Sending this 320 dollar goal from Japan to Spain costs $ 29. Sending it to the US costs 2,000, and it is not a typographic error

by

For international vendors, Sending certain products to the United States makes no senseso to avoid these sales they are going to a singular technique: not touch the price of the product, and instead raise shipping prices to absurd amounts. It is an infallible method and a curious response to Tariff policy restrictive imposed by Donald Trump. 2,000 dollars to send a product of 320. A Japanese eBay seller called Ninjacamera.japan sells an objective for Olympus cameras that It has a price of $ 319.99. So far everything is fine. The surprise is carried by those who want to ask for that product from the US, because sending it there costs 2,000 dollars, when shipping to countries like Spain costs $ 29. In Xataka we have checked the data, and it is indeed so. Because. The reason is simple. As soon as he started his presidency, Donald Trump initiated a tariff war with everyone, but also ended the exception “of Minimis”. This exception allowed packages with value below $ 800 could enter the US without paying taxes. It is something that Companies like Temu or Shein They took the opportunity to “exploit” commercially in the North American country, but now that commercial shortcut has disappeared. Result: Send “cheap” products to the US is too expensive. The US online buyers have it raw. This exemption ceased to be active for China and Hong Kong in May 2025, and for the rest of the world the exemption was definitively eliminated at the end of August. The change especially affects US online buyers, especially those who take advantage of foreign online stores to acquire all kinds of cheap products. Sellers have an easy solution. As they point out in 404 mediaFor foreign sellers it is much easier to raise the shipping price to absurd amounts – like those 2,000 dollars for the photographic objective – than to erase their inventory products to exclude them from their sale in the United States. Goodbye to negative criticism. Not only that: impose on buyers the theoretical cost overrun to which the new tariffs would make them see how that goal of 320 dollars would cost them much more expensive and the rest of the users do not. If they do not know the situation well with the tariffs, they would probably punish the seller with online criticism of all kinds. These sellers avoid this problem to a large extent with the simple technique of raising shipping prices. Another example. As indicated In The Wall Street Journala customer bought a 77 dollar shirt from a Swedish brand and in addition to the shipping costs of $ 30, another $ 42.35 were charged for tariffs. The shirt was actually manufactured in China: while Sweden products have 15%tariffs, If they come from China that figure rises to 54%. Another bought components from Canada worth $ 640 to fix an oven and charged him no less than $ 1,192.12 for “government charges”, in addition to an intermediation commission of $ 128.17. An unsustainable situation. For American buyers the situation is really complex, and buying products of all kinds that come from abroad can end up getting extraordinarily expensive. The big messaging companies operating in the US —Fedex, DHL and UPS – indicate in WSJ that US consumers are still confused by the situation Despite its FAQand they don’t just understand the implications of tariffs. At this step the confusion will become something else. Tariffs continue to negotiate. The commercial war between the US and China remains at a delicate point. After an escalation almost comical Of the tariffs that one and the other were going to activate, both countries They signed a truce At the end of May and special conditions were also granted for semiconductors and electronic products. All these terms still do not materialize, but China has many more assets to negotiate than Europe, whose agreement with the US was A disaster for EU countries. Spain (and the rest of the world) are fought for now. This type of extraordinary uploads of shipping prices or “government taxes” surcharges only affect US buyers. That is the reason that the prices we see in all types of electronic commerce platforms have not triggered at the moment, but tariff policies and the delicate commercial balance could cause Notable prices changes that consumers pay when buying products abroad. In Xataka | China has found the formula to avoid reciprocal tariffs with the US: “dropshipping” of semiconductors

After the demonstration of China’s force, the US moves a card sending its new missile platform to Japan

by

China is celebrating. The country commemorates the 80th anniversary of victory over Japan and the end of the Second World War. Within that framework, on September 3, Beijing converted the Tiananmen Square In the center of a demonstration from outside as few have seen to date. More than 10,000 military personnel participated in a parade that lasted about 70 minutes and that the authorities themselves announced as something unpublished for a reason: they were going to present armament that the world had not seen until now. At least in his possession. On the margin of ballistic missiles, the vision of Chinese defense passes through drones, directed energy weapons, New generation combat fighters, Purtive aircraft and A great maritime power which served as a message to the world about the military self -sufficiency from the country and how They can change order in the Pacific. And so without taking into account what we have not seen. Being an extremely sensitive area, especially for Recent encounters with Japan And above all, TaiwanIt is something to take seriously. The United States response has not taken long to arrive: They have confirmed that they will deploy their avant -garde Typhon missile system on Japanese soil within exercises Resolute Dragon. And it is something that China has liked anything, but neither does Russia. Resolute Dragon and the Typhon missiles in Japan Allied forces perform joint exercises. In them they focus on the coordination for the defense of areas in the event of an open war, and those that the United States and Japan do jointly are called Dragon Resolute. The 2025 exercises will be held from September 11 to 25 and will focus on the defense of remote islands of the Japanese archipelago. Thus, the terrestrial self -defense forces of Japan and the United States marines will test their response capacity to an attack, and The great contribution of the United States for the year Resolute Dragon This year is the Typhon missile platform. Also called MID-RANGE CAPABILITY, or MRC, it is a mobile shuttle in standard containers, but that is able to shoot so much Tomahawk missiles like the SM-6. The Tomahawk are subsonic missiles with a flush flight profile capable of conducting precision attacks against terrestrial or naval objectives in a range of between 1,500 to 2,400 kilometers. SM-6 are less striking, since they have a range of 240 kilometers and are more focused on aerial defense, anti-man-and defense against ballistic missiles. The Typhon system can be deployed in heavy vehicles and can be transported by land, sea and air, and although it is not planned that any missile will be launched, its presence alone It has been taken as an attack by China. As we read in Reutersit was a spokesman for the Japanese forces who confirmed that the US will deploy Typhon during the exercises, and the response has arrived by Guo Xiaobing, director of the Center for Weapons Control Studies of China. In a releasesays that, although Japan and the US affirm that the deployment is temporary and will be removed after exercise, you must not trust. The reason? The same said when Typhon deployed In similar exercises in the Philippines during the past year and, according to China, the system has remained there since then. “These movements not only increase the surveillance of neighboring countries, but also represent hidden dangers for Japan’s own security – Guo Xiaobing The manager considers that it is a movement that “directly undermines the legitimate security interests of other countries and raises a real threat to regional strategic stability.” In addition, he affirms that, if a war against the United States explodes, it is likely that “The system becomes a tool that drags Japan towards turbulent waters”and he has not lost the opportunity to remember that “this year 80 years of the end of World War II, something that should cause a deep reflection and a good neighborhood policy, but Tokyo seems anxious to break the armament policy exclusively oriented to the defense.” This, by the way, is not new, since in 2023 we count how JApon broke with seven decades of demilitarization by considerably increasing your military budget. That China has not fun this announcement is a fact, but as we read in Business InsiderRussia does not see it with good eyes either. Maria Zakharova, spokesman for the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, described the maneuver as “another destabilizing step within Washington’s strategy to increase the potential of short and medium -sized land missile missiles”, adding that Typhon’s presence in Japan “It represents a threat direct strategy for Russia”. Until now, as we say, Typhon had only been deployed in logistics maneuvers in the Philippines in April last year, as well as in Australia in July of this 2025. The particularity of the deployment in Australia is that Yes, a shot was done Real of an SM-6 against a maritime objective, demonstrating the anti-mock capacity of the system from the mainland. In Xataka | Something unprecedented in Ukraine is happening: combat drones do not need humans to coordinate and attack

We have been sending our location to space for 75 years without realizing it. It is now detectable in more than 120,000 stars

by

Deliberate attempts for Contact extraterrestrial civilizations, Like the famous Arecibo messagethey have not received an answer. But what takes the dream of a group of cosmologists are not our well -intentioned messages, but those who send without realizing all the airports in the world. An incredibly powerful beacon. We have been shouting at the cosmos for decades without even pretending, betraying our existence in more than 120,000 nearby star systems. A new investigation presented in the Royal Astronomical Society It reveals that the combined electromagnetic leakage of all our airports form a very powerful beacon. According to the study, the signal is so intense that a civilization with technology similar to ours could detect it at a distance of up to 200 light years. Civil and military aviation radars. Researchers at the University of Mercanster simulated how radar signals that are used to control air traffic spread in space. The conclusion is amazing: the combined power of civil aviation radars adds 2 × 10¹⁵ watts, a sufficient figure for a radio telescope to capture hundreds of light years. But the thing doesn’t end there. Military radars, although they have a accumulated power of less than 1 × 10¹⁴ watts, create a pattern that sweeps the sky like a lighthouse. This signal will seem clearly artificial for anyone who observes from interstellar distances. In fact, it can be up to 100 times more powerful than the background signals, depending on the location of the observer. Our accidental technofirma since 1950. While the detection potential is 200 light years, these radar systems only emit with a similar intensity Since the 1950swhich means that our unintentious signal has expanded for now about 75 light years in all directions. Our technofirma has already reached nearby star systems as next centauri (4 light years), the star of Barnard (6 light years) and au microscopii (32 light years), but we still have to wait another 125 years to spread to the maximum and be detected in a radius of 200 light years. There are two ways to take this. On the one hand, we are sending the entire neighborhood an unequivocal sign that there is intelligent life on Earth. Figures such as astronomer David Brin have been Very critical of the idea of “shouting to the cosmos” without first establishing a global consensus. It is an arrogant decision, he argues, because he could end up affecting all humanity. On the other hand, the study gives us an important clue to The search for extraterrestrial life: If there are other civilizations such as ours, perhaps the easiest signs to locate are not their messages, but the radars of their airports. Image | Masterphoto-Dk (CC by 2.0) In Xataka | What is Fermi’s paradox and why the atomic bomb architect took a turn to the extraterrestrial life search

Sending to you WhatsApp messages yourself is an idea that works. But it has a great “but”

by

A few years ago we began to detect that many people had a WhatsApp group of a single participant (themselves) and used it as a personal notes. The practice was extended so much that in 2022 WhatsApp allowed Send yourself to oneselfwithout the need for false groups. That has increased this practice, that of convert WhatsApp into a personal homework and manager. Comfort is undeniable: in countries like Spain, WhatsApp is religionand in a touch we can park a fleeting idea, that important link or that photo of the restaurant menu. The friction threshold is minimal, access is immediate. And that is why it works well as an emergency solution, as a content warehouse to consult in a short time and have very very hand. But We confuse convenience with productivity. This began as an informal solution, but for many people it has become an improvised personal management system. There are those who even have several groups with themselves, organized thematically: “ideas”, “purchases”, “work” (!!) … a productive architecture built on sand. WhatsApp is a good messaging tool, but it is not a management tool. It is a patch that gives us the illusion of control, not a real solution. How to try to get a career just used post-ps. The problem starts WhatsApp turns everything into flow. Information that passes, accumulates and is lost in the Scroll infinite. There is no structure, nor hierarchies or states. A “pending task” looks identical to a completed one already discarded. Or an urgent reminder. You can’t export anything – or yes you can, but not decently-, there are no limit dates, there are no Checklists. It is the triumph of immediacy over the organization, of the impulse on the method. Seduction is that We eliminate friction of the moment at the expense of multiplying it exponentially after. That note that you sent you a month ago between memes and irrelevant links. That brilliant idea that sounded important now is only a line of text without context in a sea of fragmented information. Using it as a sporadic notes of notes does make sense. Living in it and believing that it is a system is to cheat, and it is happening. We apply messaging logic to problems that require management. No surgeon operates in hammers. Systems exist For something. It can work to some extent, and in fact it works as quickly to accumulate post-psbut the consequences will be paid later, when we need to locate or structure that information. Comfort, when it becomes independence, ceases to be an advantage to become a limitation. In Xataka | Every time someone tells me that his mobile is slow, I know where to look: the “paper” of WhatsApp Outstanding image | Xataka with Mockuuuups Studio

Sending electricity without cables seemed to the future. Darpa has done it again, and the test has gone better than expected

by

What are 800 watts? More or less what a microwave consumes running at medium power. And 8.6 kilometers? It is an approximate distance between the stations of Atocha and Chamartínin Madrid. It is actually somewhat lower, but it serves to get an idea. That is the scale of Darpa’s last experiment: a system that managed to transmit real energy with a laser, in a straight line, without cables and with a receiver that turns the light into usable electricity. It may seem little, but it is not. The important thing was not the amount, but the test. And it worked. What exactly Darpa has done. The United States Advanced Defense Research Projects (Darpa) has successfully completed The first phase of a program called Power, designed to explore new ways of transmitting long distance energy. In their most recent test, carried out in New Mexico, they managed to send a laser beam that delivered about 800 watts for 30 seconds to a receiver located 8.6 kilometers. The figure is important because it exceeds the previous records: until now, the best documented result was 230 watts at 1.7 kilometers. Although the agency has not revealed how much power it was originally issued, it is known that the system was able to maintain energy flow for periods even longer than those officially reported. According to those responsible for the project, it was not about demonstrating efficiency, but viability. The essential thing was to check if it was possible to build a functional system in a short time. And they did it in just three months, from the initial design to the final execution. The receiver was developed by Technc Technologies and uses commercial solar cells already available in the market. The objective was not to optimize performance to the maximum, but to prove that this technology can be launched with accessible components and without complex manufacturing processes. How this technology works. The idea behind the experiment is simple to understand, although technically complex: send energy through the air with a beam of light, and that when it arrives it can be used as electricity. The DARPA system is based on an infrared laser that points directly to a receiver composed of a conical mirror and solar cells. The mirror captures the ray and redirects it towards the panels, which convert light into electrical energy. Part of the equipment used during the test The interesting thing is that no exotic components or photovoltaic cells were used to measure, as in many laboratories. Commercial cells were used, ready to use, which reinforces the idea that this technology can be viable out of paper. As we say, the performance, for now, was not the priority. Receiver efficiency is around 20 %. The Power Receiver Array Demo system achieved a new record by transmitting laser energy with more power and greater scope than ever During the test, diffractive optics were also used, an unusual resource in this type of transmissions, and an integrated cooling system was implemented directly in the optical parts, manufactured with additive printing techniques. None of these innovations was scheduled at the beginning. They were solutions that arose on the march, as they faced the challenges of the experiment. Why do it with laser and not with radio waves. Transmitting long distance energy is not a new idea. For decades it has been investigated how to do it with radio or microwave waves, but these technologies have physical limitations that include their effectiveness. As IEEE points outto work, they need large antennas and systems of Beamforminga technique that allows the signal to be concentrated in one direction. The longer the distance, the greater the issuer must be, and the more difficult it is to focus the beam with precision. Compared to radio waves, the laser can focus much better: a narrow beam can be created almost without dispersion, at least in ideal conditions, According to Eric YeatmanVice President of the College of Science and Engineering of the University of Glasgow. Of course, not everything is advantages. The lasers also disperse with fog, clouds or dust. In adverse atmospheric conditions, microwaves remain more reliable. But for certain applications, especially if we talk about aerial networks or transmissions in clear environments, the laser is difficult to match. For the Power project leader in Darpa, Paul Jaffe, if it does not work with optics, it will not work in any way. What does this advance mean (and what is not). Darpa’s experiment did not solve all the challenges of wireless energy transmission. Efficiency remains low, the system is not yet prepared to operate in adverse conditions, and the transmitted power, although notable, is far from what a commercial infrastructure would need. But that was not important. The important thing was to demonstrate that technology can work outside the laboratory, with accessible components and in realistic terms. Images | Darpa (the main image shows an earlier test in 2019, at a lesser distance) In Xataka | Antimony under another flag: the Chinese mineral that continues to enter the US disguised for Thai or Mexican export

People hate meetings. So they are sending their secretaries to take notes

by

Last month Clifton Sellers attended a meeting by video call at his work. Everything seemed normal until he noticed the list of the attendees. Of the 16 who went to the appointment, Only six were human beings. The rest were sent to transcribe the meeting, take notes and summarize it. The surprising thing is that what happened to Sellers is no exception: the rule is increasingly. To this meeting I come with my chatbot of AI. Some of the people who attended that meeting made it accompanied by AI chatbots to take notes and transcribe that meeting. And without warning, as if it were something totally normal. However, other chatbots of AI came alone on behalf of other employees. Those bots could only listen, not intervene. And yet we have a problem. “I want to talk to people”. Sellers explained In The Washington Post How this type of meeting caused him rejection because “I don’t want to talk to a group of bots that take notes.” The situation is ironic, because he himself had sent to a bot to take notes to any meeting in the past. The situation is worrying, especially since video calls are deriving dangerously. More meetings than ever. Pandemia caused Zoom, Teams or Meet to become the ideal alternative to physical meetings, and over time the phenomenon has transformed our way of working. According to Pumbleafter the pandemic there are 12.9% more doors per person and 13.5% more than meetings attendees. The video calls have caused, yes, that the meetings are much shorter (20.1%), but it is also happening something else. Goodbye to social norms in video call. This predominance of virtual meetings through video calls is causing changes in the “label” of these meetings. In many work video calls employees Now they usually join without turning on the camera and with the silenced microphone. The second is more normal: that everyone has the activated microphone can end up causing distortions and annoying echoes while another person speaks. The camera is more delicate, although it is traditionally associated with that recent phenomenon baptized as “zoom fatigue” (“Zoom Fatigue”). People are even using Gitlab recorded video calls To pretend that it is busy. The AI ​​boom for video calls. The big platforms to make video calls (Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet) offer automated notes options using AI. There are also third -party solutions as Otter.AI that also enable these functions and raise a future in which meetings end up being very different from the current ones. And soon, meetings with digital twins. Eric Yuan, CEO of Zoom, explained Recently that your company wants to offer the possibility that your “digital twin”, an IA assistant who can not only attend those meetings in your place, but also can intervene in it as if it were. Everything you say will be recorded. This intrusion of AI at meetings has caused a new concern for attendees. Everything they say will be registered, recorded and transcribed. That can restrain freedom when expressing points of view or opinions, especially since those statements can then end up playing against who made them. Allie K. Miller, CEO of Open Machine, explained in Wapo how in her meetings her bot of AI to take notes until there are five minutes left to finish because that “people open more and the real questions come to light.” Machine, gather for me. 55% of managers Recognize That has too many meetings a day, and 27% of employees share that opinion. There are more and more meetings – many They could have been an email– And the AI ​​can help soften its impact, but we go to a future potential in which no one goes to meetings in person except who must explain any topic. Who knows if in the end not even that person comes and everything is meetings full of bots. Image | Surface In Xataka | Not only meetings kill productivity: notifications eat half of our day

Sending an email to a low employee has cost 1,500 euros to a company: it doesn’t matter if you respond or not

by

The Superior Court of Xustiza de Galicia (TSXG) has marked a before and after in the protection of the right to digital disconnection of workers in Spain. For the first time, a company has been convicted of sending electronic jobs to an employee who was on a medical leave. The sentence is considered a pioneer because, although other countries Like France and BelgiumThey have already legislated on digital disconnectionGalician justice has taken another step by sanctioning not only the obligation not to respond, but also the duty of the company of Do not send communications Out of working hours. What happened? According to details the sentencethe affected worker was in a situation of temporary disability due to an “anxiety disorder”, apparently “motivated by the emotional wear that implies the current situation of excess work, realization of overtime continuously and labor responsibility, which has led to the appearance of relational insecurity with respect to their environment.” In that context of medical disabilitythe employee continued to receive electronic emails related to her work during the entire low period. The company recognized the facts, but argued that the emails to the complainant were part of a thread created above and whose content was aimed at other people of the team. In addition, he claimed that they were not asked for “an immediate response.” In Xataka 40,000 euros for a croquette: Mercadona dismissed an employee for eating a croquette and must now compensate him The TSXG got serious with disconnection. In its resolution, the Superior Court dismissed the company’s arguments and was overwhelming in its ruling. The magistrates considered that the company not only breached their duty to refrain from communicating with the worker during his temporary disability, but also attempted against his moral integrity. According to the sentence, the Right to digital disconnection “It demands that communications from the company are not received outside the work time”, and warns that “that right is not fulfilled due to the fact that the working person does not have the duty to respond to the communications received outside the work time more or less immediately.” That is, and here the Importance of this resolutionthat the right to digital disconnection does not only refer to the interpretation of the urgency of the communications received, but “carries with it an obligation by the employer, and of dependent or linked persons, of abstention in the communications of labor order or linked to the provision of services outside the working time.” In Xataka Some employees sued their company for cutting the salary. The supreme has responded that being unpunctual is not a job Vulnerability situation. The TSXG highlights the special importance of the right to digital disconnection when the worker is in a situation of temporary disability by A psychic ailment. In the sentence, the Galician Court emphasizes that emails in these circumstances “uneasy the receiver, and also reifted it and undermined their dignity” and places the worker in a state of permanent availability incompatible with her right to recover without pressures. The right to digital disconnection in Spanish law. The right to digital disconnection is included in article 88 of the Organic Law 3/2018 and reinforced with the arrival of the call Distance Labor Law of 2021. According to the regulations, “all workers and public employees will have the right to digital disconnection in order to guarantee, outside the legal or conventionally established work time, respect for their rest time, permits and vacations, as well as their personal and family intimacy.” This right allows workers not to answer mails, calls, video calls or any other digital communication out of work hours. The law does not differentiate between the size of the workforce or the public or private nature of the company, so the protection is universal for all employees in Spain. With the TSXG ruling, the prohibition is not limited to the fact of “not answering” but its interpretation is expanded to “not receive.” {“Videid”: “X919SE0”, “Autoplay”: False, “Title”: “The AI ​​and the future of our work Silvia Rivela | 100 years, 100 visions Ep.3”, “Tag”: “”, “Duration”: “2630”} Symbolic condemnation, but pioneer. The process reached the TSXG as a result of a previous sentence in which, in addition to the violation of the right to digital disconnection of workers, compensation for violations of the right to honor and physical integrity were requested. In this case, the new resolution revokes these last two concepts because it has not been damaged physically or its honorability has been affected. However, it imposes compensation of 1,500 euros “for damages” for violating the right to digital disconnection because the company “was not guaranteed” of this right and points out that “pretending that it is available at any time of its life, including temporary disability, prevents the free development of personality and hinders the exercise of the field of intimacy of personal life of personal life.” In Xataka | 55,245 euros for eating a sandwich and a beer: Mercadona must compensate an employee for unfair dismissal Image | Unspash (Brian J. Tromp), Wikimedia Commons (Caronio) (Function () {Window._js_modules = Window._js_modules || {}; var headelement = document.getelegsbytagname (‘head’) (0); if (_js_modules.instagram) {var instagramscript = Document.Createlement (‘script’); }}) (); – The news Sending an email to a low employee has cost 1,500 euros to a company: it doesn’t matter if you respond or not It was originally posted in Xataka by Rubén Andrés .

Log In

Forgot password?

Forgot password?

Enter your account data and we will send you a link to reset your password.

Your password reset link appears to be invalid or expired.

Log in

Privacy Policy

Add to Collection

No Collections

Here you'll find all collections you've created before.