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Samsung is ahead of the presentation of the Galaxy Z Fold8 by showing the design change of the foldable. At last

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There are a few days left to see Samsung’s new folding phones, but the South Korean company has decided that the speculation is over. In a series of videos, they have begun to show what the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold8 will be like, but they have done so in a rather peculiar way. Instead of showing the design like others do (Google with the Pixel before presentations, for example), they have decided indirectly show the most important change of the new folding: the form factor. With phrases like “A new way” and strange videos, Samsung makes one thing clear: we must welcome passport-style foldables. As a curiosity, one of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold8 and the foldable iPhone It seems like they will have quite a bit in common. And I say “one of the Galaxy Fold” because everything indicates that we will have two versions: the true successor of the Galaxy Z Fold7 and the one who for a time It was known as Galaxy Fold Wide. The design change of the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Of all the videos that Samsung has shared, there are three in which this idea of ​​design change is clearly explored. From a traditional elongated format since the first Fold, it seems that we will move to a more square one both when the mobile is folded and when we unfold it. There are three videos that show this design change and they are quite revealing: There is another one cutting out a photo and another in which instead of a puzzle it is a chocolate bar. As I say, the three explore the idea that we are preparing the body for a design change, and the leaks have not been long in coming. While it is expected that there will be a Galaxy Z Fold8 with an elongated format (surnamed Ultra, perhaps), these Samsung videos seem to confirm that we will have a simply squarer Fold8. The leaks talk about a mobile phone with a 7.6-inch interior screen with a more square aspect ratio of 4:3. The external screen will be compact, with 5.5 inches and a 16:10 aspect ratio. To get an idea, the Fold7 had a 6.5-inch external screen with an 8-inch internal one with aspect ratios of 21:9 and 6:5 respectively. The translation is that the Galaxy Z Fold8 will be much more compact when closed, and when opened, it will practically be square. Very similar, as we say, to a passport. What has been leaking about the supposed iPhone Fold (or whatever it ends up being called) is very similar, with a more compact format that would share lines with Samsung’s. Obviously, neither one nor the other has been presented, so this is all speculation, but what we do know is that, in 2025, Apple chose to Samsung as the supplier of flexible OLED panels for its foldable iPhone. Thus, and as happened when the iPhone made the leap to OLED screens, there will be two competing mobile phones that will have the same screens and the changes will be calibration between one brand and another. It makes perfect sense for Samsung to take advantage of the fact that it has developed a panel with a new aspect ratio for Apple to create a third foldable (the other would be the Flip) that would mount that panel to compete, directly, against its historic great rival. In the end, it will be up to the consumer to decide whether they prefer Android or iOS, but they will have to choose two foldables with a very similar (if not identical) form factor. And it seems like a change that makes complete sense to me. ‘Passport’ foldables = the best foldables Now, this design is not new and, in fact, has been in place for years. In Spain, the book-type foldables that are most seen are those that share a form factor with Samsung’s: elongated when folded, small tablets when we open them. They are not the most comfortable to use with one hand when they are folded and we are walking down the street, really. It’s not official, but this is supposedly what the iPhone Fold will be like But then there are the Pixel Fold with an external aspect ratio of 17.4:9 or my favorite of all foldables: the Oppo Find N. The screen of the latter is 5.49 inches 18:9, and they are form factors more similar to what these two new folding devices from Samsung and Apple are estimated to have. The translation is that using a mobile phone like the Oppo Find N on the street is extremely comfortable because, in practice, It is as if it were a compact mobile. In fact, if the leak that the external screen will be 5.5 inches is true, we would be talking about diagonals that we have not usually seen for years, when the Zenfone 10 With its less than 6 inches it was considered a compact mobile. It’s already a few years old, but if you want to imagine what this new batch of foldables will more or less be like, take a look at the video we published about the Oppo Find N: That one-handed operation was the detail that we highlighted the most at the time and what represents a real change compared to the rest of the foldables on the market because we still have a large screen when opening it, but if we don’t want to do so, we have a very manageable external one in which the thumb covers the entire diagonal with ease. Now, will the market accept that design? In the case of Samsung, if the rumors are true, the consumer will have three options to choose between the Flip and the Square Fold8 and the more traditional Fold8 Ultrabut in the case of the iPhone, Apple will only have one bullet. In any case, as we have already mentioned, they are rumors (especially in the case of the … Read more

the graph showing which countries suffer the most from FIFA schedules

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I don’t know about you, but there are sports broadcasts that I have saved in the calendar of my mobile phone, like the Barcelona Masters Finals of paddle tennis or the Tour de France. There is one that is much longer, more variable and also almost obligatory viewing: the World Cup. Although it is essentially always played on these dates, the venues change and that is sometimes a real chore… if you want to see it live. This 2026 edition is played in the United States, Canada and Mexico and that means it takes up my afternoons, but there are places in Asia and the Middle East where it is literally stealing their sleep: if they want to watch the games live, it is better to leave sleeping for another day. Is the “dream fee” to pay if you like football. When FIFA awarded the 2026 World Cup to North America, it implicitly set prime time in the Eastern time zone of the United States. That is equivalent to between 00:00 and 04:00 in the Maghreb, between 01:00 and 05:00 in Saudi Arabia and between 02:00 and 06:00 in Pakistan. As we have already suffered in our flesh, such as in the last finals of the King’s Cup in Spain, the schedule of the host state is taken into account and the rest of the global audience there manages. That the World Cup headquarters is traveling is a way to publicize football throughout the planet, but also to make a profit from a lucrative business in addition to sports tourism: broadcasts (there is another indirect one in the impressive infrastructures that are built). According to the official FIFA financial report For the 2023-2026 cycle, total income from television rights amounts to $4,264 million. And in that scenario there is a clear winner: Europe is the most valuable individual market with nearly 1.4 billion. It is followed by North America, which exceeds 1,000 million. Both regions concentrate more than 60% of the total, according to SVG Europe with data from the consulting firm Caretta Research. So someone on Reddit has decided to calculate that “Sleep Tax” with the 48 teams participating in the World Cup ordered by the cost of sleep that their fans will accumulate during the group stage. From FIFA match schedulethe IANA time zone database, WikipediaPython and little else. The result is what you see below these lines: The sleep rate of the 2026 World Cup. tohigh12 via Reddit How have you calculated it? This sleep rate assigns a weight to each minute of the game based on which time zone it is in, taking into account the start time in the local time of each team’s fans and using a visualization model that takes into account the start of the game + 120 minutes. Thus, the minutes between 22:00 and midnight are worth 1x, between 0:00 and 02:00 they are worth 2x, between 02:00 and 06:00 they are worth 3x and between 06:00 and 08:00, 1.5x. Those periods in which most people sleep are worth more (although it is a simplification, because maybe I go to bed at 11 p.m. and you at 1 a.m.): the more points, the less you sleep. The final score is obtained by dividing the weighted minutes by 60. An example: a match that starts at 23:00 local time accumulates 3 points: 60 minutes at 1x plus 60 minutes at 2x. It is true that this Sleep Tax method has obvious limitations such as assuming that the fans follow the three group stage matches, it does not distinguish between work days and holidays and that fixed window of 120 minutes may fall short between overtime and the pre-match, but it is a clear, transparent and reproducible methodology. Which country is sleeping the least following its team in the 2026 World Cup The longer the bar, the worse the fans sleep: Their matches fall at late night or early morning hours. Algeria leads the ranking with 18 points and seven countries, including Mexico and Canada, have 0.0: they do not lose a minute of sleep. But this is not something new: without going any further, the last World Cups steal those hours of sleep in other latitudes. Thus, in Brazil 2014 those who paid this most expensive fee were the fans from Asian countries. In Qatar 2022, geographical concentration benefited Europe and Africa, which followed the matches in the evening. Sleep deprivation has real and measurable consequences: executive functions deteriorate if there are lack of hours of rest, something that we pay in decision making, impulse control, behavior or memory, which affects our day-to-day tasks such as driving, working or interacting. In fact, according to the study Sleep Duration and Executive Function in Adultscognitive impairment after a single night of poor sleep is equivalent to having a blood alcohol level comparable to the legal limit for driving. Stringing together a couple of weeks of early morning matches is more than a sacrifice: in a football country that is also excelling in the tournament, it can become a public health problem. Who wins and who loses. Thus, the big dream losers of this edition of the 2026 World Cup are the countries of North Africa and the Middle East: Algeria (18.0), Tunisia (14.5), the Czech Republic and Scotland (12.0), Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Norway and Iraq (11.0). Spain obtains a 6.0, with a match starting at 02:00 peninsular time. The hosts Mexico and Canada, along with Ecuador, Panama and South Korea, score 0.0: they play at schedules completely aligned with their daily lives. In Xataka | Where you can watch the 2026 World Cup depending on the operator you have In Xataka | The good news is that there is a World Cup this summer. The bad news is that the exams are going to be worse Cover | Data is Beautiful

Microsoft has funded a report showing that Windows laptops are better than the MacBook Neo. There are many questions

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Almost two months after the launch of the MacBook NeoApple’s cheap laptop continues to surprise. To Apple the firstwhich had sales forecasts that they had to fold because it seems that the model has taken off very well in the market. In fact, so well that can be a problem for the company itself. It has also caught walking changed to a segment of Windows laptops that compete in potential, but show that there are sections in which the smallest of the Apple family has no rival. The competition is being tough and something that shows that the Neo is the most successful MacBook in recent years is that Microsoft has supported a report to compare several Windows laptops against the MacBook Neo. And of course, controversy has broken out because the report does not point to key sections that make the Neo so interesting for certain sectors of users. All vs the MacBook Neo Microsoft dominates the laptop landscape. Although there is a recent movement to move to Linuxespecially after Microsoft’s latest actions filling your operating system with ‘junk’ which makes PCs slower (something the company’s CEO himself has acknowledged, stating that they are going to relax their foot on the accelerator of AI), Windows is THE computer operating system. It is accessible, it has been very easy to use for many years and if you buy a PC, it will most likely come with its license. In the highest range they have competition from MacBooks, but for less than 1,000 euros there is no discussion. A laptop for office use, one as a second computer or one for studying is Windows almost yes or yes. There are also Chromebooks out there, but sometimes not even Google remembers them. But of course, a MacBook Neo has arrived with a very attractive price, especially in the United States where, with the student discount, you can get it for $599. As we say, it seems that is entering that segment like a sharp knifeor even for those who already have a Mac and want a simpler one for other types of tasks. And Microsoft is not interested in having market share eaten away. Therefore, as we read in Wccftechhas financed a report to Signal65 to compare certain Windows laptop models against the MacBook Neo. What models? On paper, all four models have better features in many aspects such as storage, RAM, ports or the power of the processors. These are the points where the MacBook Neo falters the most (especially in storage) because its SoC is the A18 Pro of the iPhone 16 Pro with a totally different philosophy. If we look at the Signal65 comparison tables, it is evident that Windows laptops have an advantage over Apple’s. The problem is when you start reading the fine print. For example, in the performance tests, they were all done with the power adapter and here it is important because, while Windows laptops perform better with the adapter, Apple laptops do not distinguish between being plugged in or not (unless they are in power saving mode). On the other hand, comparative tables show certain biases such as pointing out that a larger screen (15.3 inches versus 13 inches) is better for the mere fact of being larger when the MacBook’s has more resolution and pixel density. The battery test has also sparked controversy because yes, one on the list, the IdeaPad Slim 3x, has 56% more battery, but the MacBook’s screen is brighter and, while the IdeaPad has a 60 Wh battery, the MacBook’s is 36.5 Wh. And then the issue of price. While the IdeaPad Slim 3x starts at $449, being a very aggressive device in this sense, the HP starts at $599, the Yoga 7i at $1,099 and the Omnibook at $949. In addition, two of them are convertible, so they are directly in another category. What is overlooked in the comparison is that the MacBook Neo, although it is true that it is not the most powerful, It has a design and build quality that a manufacturer with Windows cannot match for that price, nor can the screen and autonomy in a mobility environment in which you are not always with maximum brightness. It also does not address the efficiency of one system versus the other because, in the end, it is not an analysis, but rather a comparison that does not aim to honestly measure the devices. All five are very interesting and all five have their place in the market, but from the moment you compare pears with apples is when things start to not add up. Asus’s own financial director already pointed out that the launch of the Neo was a blow to the market, stating that all PC manufacturers should look carefully. In the end, the real problem is not how each team performs in the comparison, but rather that it is not a serious analysis either because of the choice of opponents or, above all, because of that great “financed by Microsoft” that shows that Asus’s financial director is not misguided and that the industry must take this Apple product seriously. That Microsoft has funded a biased comparison is important because it enhances the value of independent analyzes and, above all, because if the MacBook Neo is really harming the Windows laptop sector, they will surely respond with products that can stand up to it at the same price and users will win. The bad news is that both the Neo and any type of competition arrive at the worst time, being in the middle of a crisis with no end in sight and that is causing all manufacturers to offer worse RAM and storage configurations… and that is hard impacting even an Apple which has stopped offering some versions of its products. And something important in the background in the comparison: there are sectors in which things are not so much about specifications as about experience, and with the current Windows the experience … Read more

Alzheimer’s leaves its mark decades before showing its face:; keeping vitamin D at bay is already a promising shield

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Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia remain one of the most complex medical puzzles of our era, standing out above all for the absence of treatments that completely stop the disease or even reverse it. But science continues to advance and has now focused on a preventive factor that could be in our hands from a young age: vitamin D. It keeps moving forward. The main study that has sparked interest was published at the beginning of this month of April in the magazine Neurology. And the objective of this was none other than to shed light on how our brain behaves decades before the classic symptoms of dementia appear. To get here, a total of 793 participants from the renowned Framingham Heart Study with an average age of 39 years were monitored. From here, the serum vitamin D of the patients began to be measured between 2002 and 2005, and then, at the age of 16, they underwent different scans to check the state of the brain. What was seen. In conclusion, the study pointed out that maintaining higher levels of vitamin D, greater than 30 nanograms per mL, during the ages of 30 to 40 is associated with less subsequent accumulation of the tau protein in the brain. Because it matters. The relevance of this discovery is crucial and to understand it, you just have to know that Alzheimer’s occurs because two factors mainly come together: Beta-amyloid protein plaques, which accumulate outside neurons. Neurofibrillary tangles of tau protein, which form within the brain cells themselves and are closely linked to neuronal death and cognitive decline. In this way, the effort of science right now is focused above all on blocking the formation of beta-amyloid plaques around neurons or preventing the tau protein from accumulating in our neurons. Although it is something really complicated. There is a nuance. Interestingly, the study found no association between midlife vitamin D levels and beta-amyloid accumulation. The protective effect is limited exclusively to the tau protein, especially in the brain regions where Alzheimer’s usually strikes its first blows. This is good news, as it narrows down the biological mechanisms involved and suggests that vitamin D could play a specific role in the pathways that regulate how tau is produced or eliminated over the years. There is small print. As they warn in the press release itself, this is a simple observational study. This means that it is true that people with higher vitamin D in middle age accumulated less tau protein, but the study cannot categorically state that vitamin D destroys tau protein on its own. Furthermore, the authors of the study themselves are categorical: this finding is not a medical prescription. There is no current evidence to justify that massively supplementing with vitamin D pills at age 40 will protect the brain against dementia. This simply paves the way for future research to truly test this relationship in a clinical trial and lead to new treatments. Images | catalyststuff freepik In Xataka | More than half of the population in Spain has a vitamin D deficiency. Now a study questions the benefits of supplementation

Europe is looking for a place to put its AI gigafactory. Spain and Portugal are showing all their renewable plumage

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There is a concept that should be familiar with: technological sovereignty. The United States is looking for her in terms of semiconductors so as not to depend on Taiwan. China wants her with the same goal and with the intention of strengthen your industry. And Europe is also pursuing it. Within this search is the idea of ​​strengthening European sovereignty in artificial intelligence by building AI gigafactories. And Spain and Portugal are clear about one thing: they want to be that node of European AI. InvestAI. Within this search for independence, the truth is that Europe has a long way to go. On the world stage, they depend on the Dutch ASML to create cutting-edge chipsbut Taiwan and China are the world’s factory and the United States has been a key partner both in software as in space matter. Seeing the recent course of the United StatesEurope has realized that it cannot depend so much on foreign alliances and that its key systems are not European, and it is going to dig deep into its pockets. 200 billion euros is what the European Commission’s InvestAI initiative has to invest in programs focused on the development of artificial intelligence. Within it, there are another 20,000 million saved to build gigafactories. GigafactorIA. Its name is quite revealing and it is about huge data centers with capacity for hundreds of thousands of chips with the objective of both training and inferring artificial intelligence models. The plan was launched a few months ago with the reconversion of seven European data centers in data centers for AI and with one objective: that European companies stop turning to foreign ones. For example, the French Mistral signed with Microsoft to be able to use its systems to train Le Chat. The idea is that this be done ‘at home’. It is estimated that one of these gigafactories may have more than 100,000 state-of-the-art AI processors and they are expected to be optimized to have low consumption, reuse of resources such as water and be a strategic node close to other companies, universities and serve to attract talent. Strategy. Spain has been for a few months tempting American companies to build their data centers in the national territory. Aragon has become one of those strategic pointsbut also Madrid either Tarragona. Now, there are other municipalities that oppose it (something that not only happens in Spain). Within this strategy of European technological sovereignty, Spain has two aces up your sleeve: Mora la Nova in Tarragona and San Fernando de Henares in Madrid. They are the two municipalities that could host one of these AI gigafactories and that would take advantage of the technological and energy infrastructure in the area to accelerate the projects. The information is not new, but now Portugal joins in. As detail From Moncloa, both countries are going to carry out a series of bilateral efforts to be at the energy and technological head of Europe, doing emphasis on the coordination of artificial intelligence projects. Because Spain wants the European gigafactory and Portugal too. The neighboring country is already developing a data center in Sines, and the two countries are playing their cards. Energy. Portugal plays the card that Sines has a good connection with the Atlantic submarine cables. Spain also has a powerful argument: if Europe wants AI gigafactories to be energy efficient, the country has a renewable infrastructure that can help make AI independent of gas or coal. Through the agreement between the two, the intention to collaborate to take advantage of the complementary capabilities and synergies between both countries is put on the table. Problem. There are several. On the one hand, the energy ones. Although Spain is one of the Europe’s powers in terms of renewable energyartificial intelligence demands a lot, a lot of energy at peak times. So much so that not only Big Tech have private projects to open nuclear power plantsbut it has been shown that it is necessary turn to coal to meet demand. Because AI needs sustained energy, but above all fast and immediately accessible in the most stressful moments. And there renewables only comply if there are huge batteries involved. On the other hand, Europe is now building its infrastructure… and it is the worst time. If you want gigafactories to have the latest generation chips, it means buying NVIDIA’s H200s. The problem is that these chips, which are currently leading the way, will be surpassed in the short term by a new generation. NVIDIA is already working at full capacity on Vera Rubinand it is not a more powerful chip, but a paradigm shift. This game of being at the cutting edge of AI is slow because the infrastructure has to be built. But, above all, it is expensive. In any case, the results on which countries will host the gigafactories are expected to be published this spring, and we will see if the Spain-Portugal candidacy convinces the Commission. Images | Moncloa, chaddavis In Xataka | Spain has a plan to capture more data centers than anyone else: “shield” them from energy costs

A Moroccan sued a real estate agency for not showing him an apartment just because of his origin. Now they will have to pay 10,000 euros

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The story sounded so strange, so much like an ‘improvised excuse’, that Hamid Hmata decided to do an experiment. In January 2024after seeing how the umpteenth real estate company closed the door on him after finding out about his Moroccan origin, Hamid asked a co-worker to help him out. His friend (with a Spanish name) called the same agency asking about an apartment in Mataró that Hamid had been interested in shortly before. He had no problem. They confirmed that the home was available, gave him information and scheduled an appointment. Shortly before, Hamid had been told the opposite, that it was already rented. The story could have stopped there, but what the agency probably did not take into account is that Hamid has been battling discrimination in access to housing for some time. Now that episode of 2024 has led to a pioneering sentence by “real estate racism”. a dozen complaints. The statistics They suggest that Hamid is not (far from it) the only immigrant who encounters obstacles or outright racism when looking for housing. His case is different in something: this man of Moroccan origin, father of two minor children and with the necessary income to pay for a rental house, has been denouncing real estate racism for some time. And he has also done so in an active way, calling out against various agencies and presenting a dozen complaints before the Mataró City Council. “For being a migrant”. His case was revealed ago just a month and a half the DESCA Observatory, one of the entities that has accompanied Hamid in his peculiar real estate crusade. At that time, the platform explained that the man had been looking for an apartment for four years, a long period during which he had dealt with “great difficulties.” The reason? Everything indicates that its origin. “Different real estate agencies, allegedly, would have covertly avoided providing him with their services (showing him the apartment, evaluating his candidacy, managing a contract, etc.) due to the fact that he was a migrant,” details DOWNLOAD From office to office. Despite his efforts, most of Hamid’s claims were unsuccessful. Their complaints to the City Council ended up being filed and they undertook a “bureaucratic journey” by different organizations, such as the Housing Agency of Catalonia, the Consumer Agency and finally the Office of Equal Treatment and Non-Discrimination. Almost all of Hamid’s complaints ended up being dismissed, but last month DESCA recalled that there were still three live files: two “in the administrative procedure phase” and another “in the preliminary proceedings phase.” And the big surprise came. We have now known the next chapter in Hamid’s real estate odyssey. a few days ago DESCA revealed that the Office of Equal Treatment and Non-Discrimination (OITND) of the Generalitat of Catalonia has imposed a fine of 10,001 euros on a real estate agency in Mataró for, the association claims, “a case of real estate racism in access to rentals.” The reason would have been the episode with which we started this article. Same floor, different answers. In 2024 Hamid was interested in an apartment for rent, so he contacted the real estate agency that owned it to visit it in person. He couldn’t. A day and a half after requesting the interview they told him that it was already leased. The explanation did not convince Hamid, who asked a colleague (in this case with a Spanish name) to call the agency to inquire about the home in question. Same agency, same apartment… different answer. Him, ensures DESCAYes, they made an appointment for him. Click on the image to go to the tweet. “True, but it has nothing to do with it.” Determined not to let the matter go, Hamid attended the visit scheduled by his friend to ask the head of the agency for explanations. Specifically, I wanted to know if the problem was that the owners of the apartment did not want to rent it to a person of Moroccan origin. “The administration admitted it: ‘That, that’s also true, but it has nothing to do with that. It’s reserved,’” reveals DESCA. The phrase is reminiscent of the one he received recently as well. another moroccanin this case from Irún, who was looking for a home. Mosqueado recorded the explanations of the head of an agency that had slammed the door: “The owner doesn’t want anyone from outside.” A figure: 10,001 euros. Hamid’s experience demonstrates several things. To begin with, proving an episode of “real estate racism” is not easy (he has denounced a dozen agencies). The second is that when it is detected it is expensive. DESCA explains that, in this case, the OITND has fined the agency a fine of 10,001 euros, although that is only part of the punishment. For one year you will not be able to receive any public aid or subsidies, nor establish contracts with the Generalitat Administration. “The OITND resolution recognizes that the reported facts consist of a case of discrimination in access to housing for ethnic-racial reasons and/or origin, which according to Law 19/200 on equality and non-discriminatory treatment is a serious infraction,” argues the observatory. The standard to which the platform refers clearly states in its section 14.3 that real estate agencies and their clients “must respect” equality and not discriminate. Why is it important? For several reasons. The first, the pioneering nature of the sanction. At least in Catalonia, where according to the RAC1 chain There is only one similar precedent. In 2022, Barcelona City Council revealed that the court had ratified a fine of 90,001 euros which he had recently imposed on “a real estate agent” for “excluding a group of people from access to housing due to their origin.” On that occasion the trigger was an advertisement for an apartment that only accepted Spanish tenants. The fine that the OITND has just imposed is interesting for another reason. There are studies that suggest that real estate racism is far from being a one-time phenomenon. In … Read more

The world’s rare earth reserves, laid out in this graph showing the brutal dominance of a single country

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The rare earths They are neither earth nor are they rare. It is a set of 17 chemical elements that have become the lever that moves both geopolitics like practically any technology and energy sector today. As important as knowing how to produce it is knowing where the reserves are, and in both things there is a name that dominates the international scene: China. And in this graph we can see which countries have the upper hand. Or “the country”, rather. China, prominent name. Prepared by Visual Capitalist from the data of the United States Geological Survey -USGS-, the graph is very clear when it comes to visualizing the estimated rare earth reserves. China has more than twice as much as the next on the list, which in turn has three times as much as the third. The Asian giant would have reserves of 44 million metric tons, Brazil with 21 million and India with 6.9 million. Far on the list are countries like Australia (5.7 million), Russia (3.8 million), Vietnam (3.5 million), the United States (1.9 million) and Greenland (1.5 million) if we take into account those that exceed one million. The crazy thing is that the world total is estimated at about 92 million metric tons, so China has approximately 50% of the reserves. Importance. Rare earth elements are present in practically anything we can imagine. From the most subtle things such as smartphone elements or the magnets in the headphones that we use every day to the most complex things such as space telescopes, aerospace technology or guidance systems for military radars and advanced weaponry. They are also crucial to manufacturing the elements of energy change: batteries both of electric cars as accumulators for renewable energy and the internal systems themselves of both solar panels like wind turbines. And there’s something important here: you can have reservations, but if you don’t process them, those reservations are worthless. Rare earths as a weapon. The problem is that these rare earth elements do not appear isolated in nature, but rather attached to other minerals. It is necessary to separate them, something that is done through an extremely expensive and, above all, polluting refining process. Due to Western environmental policies, for years we relegate that task to a China with a more lax regulation (although it has been changing recently), and with the tariffs imposed by Donald Trump To the Asian country we have seen how China has taken advantage of his position. Same as with Soy. They have the technology and knowledge for processing rare earths, and they have been responding to the new tariffs, cutting off the supply of metals and elements that the west needs to create weapons or to make that technological paradigm shift through renewables. The West, for years, financed its own strategic and technological vulnerability. Even the western mines, such as Mountain Pass in the United Statessent his material to China to refine it there. Examples of affected productions? Suzuki had to stop production of the Swift due to a shortage of components, the European automobile industry has also shouted to the sky and Elon Musk does not have the money to manufacture his robots. making friends. As China has turned rare earths into its most powerful lever of power, the West has had to move and different countries have undertaken missions to search for new rare earth deposits. It is a strategy that is bearing fruit, finding promising deposits in Spain, Norway, Greenland either Japan. It is also being studied how to restart the rare earth producing arm in the West, although the difficulties are there both due to the technique and, above all, due to the restrictions on emissions. Searching under the stones. And that is a big problem that In Spain we are experiencing first-hand. There are several deposits found in our country, but due to this problematic and polluting extraction, mining projects have encountered opposition from neighborhood platforms and city councils. An example is Torrenueva, in an important site found in Campo de Montiel. And that is why there are several projects and research underway that are not favoring the refining of rare earths, but the recycling of these elements to, as far as possible, stop depending so much on a country that has a monopoly both for reserves and production capacity and for contracts with the most powerful mines on the other side of the world. For example, that of Serra Verde that sells exclusively to China until 2027. In Xataka | Sweden believes it has the largest reserve of rare earths in Europe: one more step towards our independence from China

How to create a trip animation with a plane going from one point to another and showing photos at each destination

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Let’s tell you how to create a video with a travel animationin which you can jump from one point to another, and showing at each destination a photo of that place. This is an animation that you may have seen on social networks, and that you can easily do with an online service. For this, you will be able to use a website called Mult. You can do it all with a free accountalthough as always happens, the website will suggest you become a paying user to be able to export the final video with higher quality or to be able to add more than 10 photos. Create the animation of your trip The first thing you have to do is enter the website of mult.dev. In it, you have to create an account or log in in one of them, something that is totally essential to be able to use the service. You can use your Google, GitHub or Apple accounts, or create an account with an email. Now, go to the option to create a new trip. In it, you will have to add each destination point on the timeline. To do this you can search for the name or coordinates of the point, or directly upload a photo to use the coordinates of its metadata. In the free account the animation will only be shown with a plane to take you from one place to another. However, if you use a paid account you can choose other means of transportation so that the animation is done with them, and also change the route to get from one point to another taking this means into account. The paid Pro version starts at $5.99. When you have added your locations, to the right of each one you have a three-dot button, which displays several options. You can add photosbut also edit the name or change the location. By choosing to upload photos, you can upload them from your computerbut also from files, or even search them on Google Maps or generate them by AI. The free plan allows you to upload up to 10 photos. Once you upload one for a location, select it to add it. As you add photos, they will appear in each location. You can make all the adjustments you want, although you will not be able to see a preview here. And when you have it to your liking press the button Export which you have at the top right. In the export options, you can choose whether you want the video to be square or horizontal and vertical. You can also choose the frames per minute. Here, you can click on the button Preview to see the result and be able to make some changes before. Then, just click on the button Export to download the video and then be able to use it wherever you want. In Xataka Basics | Google Travel: what it is, what you can do with it and how to install it on your mobile

The Xiaomi CEO came out in a video showing a new product and sold out in minutes. It was a cat carrier

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To exhaust products in minutes is something that Xiaomi has enough experience. More than a decade ago already They got it with their mobiles And currently your star product are cars; They recently sold 200,000 units of Xiaomi Yu7 in three minutes. The last product that have exhausted just put it on sale has not been technological, but something much simpler: a cat carrier. Exhausted. They tell it in Following The Yuan. After the publication of A video in which we see Lei Jun showing the cat bagThe brand had to hang the exhausted poster in just a few minutes. The bag-transport cost only 199 yuan, which to the current exchange is about 23 euros, and was put on sale as an accessory for the company’s SUV, the company, the Xiaomi Yu7. Designed by cat owners. In the video, Lei Jun tells that the transport has been designed in collaboration with brand employees who have cats. It emphasizes that it has a spacious interior, ventilation grilles on both sides and a transparent window at the top. It also has a pocket on the side. The truth is that, although the design seems very careful, it has nothing super -revolutionary, it is a fairly normal cloth transport. It doesn’t matter, that has not prevented them from running out. For the car. As we said, Xiaomi has promoted this new cat bag as an accessory for Xiaomi Yu7. The car has the possibility of activating a “pet mode” which consists in the installation of a camera in the rearview mirror that allows us to control pets and also has a speaker so that we can talk to them. In addition, by activating this mode the air conditioning continues to work so that they do not pass heat (or cold, it depends). It is not the only brand that offers something like that, others like Tesla either Mercedes They also have it. Pets like target. We have more and more pets and also They occupy a more privileged position in families. China does not get rid. To the current rhythm, it is expected that by the end of the decade Pets exceed children under 4 years. Given this, more and more technological companies that enter the growing segment of pets. Xiaomi launched The connected feeder and source that we already analyzed in Xataka And we have seen other connected products such as this curious Cat quantifying bracelet. Image | Douyin / Amparo Babyloni In Xataka | Communicating with our cats has always been a complex task. A study has discovered the key: flashing

They are showing us how they think

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When Chatgpt appeared, that seemed magical, but also scared a little, especially because we didn’t know how he did what he was doing. Not even Openai himself knew it, and in fact created a tool to discover it In May 2023, a few months after its launch. In spite of everything, the situation did not change too much, but in 2025 we have discovered something important: we love to know what the machines are thinking. Tell me what do you think and I will tell you what model of AI you are. Deepseek R1 Not only did he impress us to be a free, capable and open source reasoning model: he also showed at all times what he was thinking. Although it takes longer to generate the answers, you can see “what is machine at all times” and that has been a peculiar advance. Human crutches. They point it out In The Washington Postwhere they indicate how this staler model indicates how the question or problem to end up giving the final rspiente. In fact, the language used by showing this thought process is close, because the chatbot introduces crutches such as “wait”, “hmmm” or “ajá”. Chatbots a little closer. Reasoning models such as Deepseek R1, O1 either Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking They also have the advantage that they review their answers, which makes them mistake less than traditional chatbots. When “reasoning” also shows a communication that simulates what a human being could use and that makes us look less … distant. Empathy. The result is that showing us how they think, these models get us to feel some empathy towards them, say experts such as Ethan Mollick, a professor at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Others, such as Subbarao Kambhampati, professor of Arizona State University, warned: it is not known if those “chains of thought” that these models show when reasoning really reflect how the information processs the models. Nothing happens if they wander. This expert also points out that this reasoning chain seems to be too precise, without wandering or erratic moments. Companies that develop these models are noticed that the answer is correct that in the fact that the reasoning process is consistent. For Kambhampati, this anthromorphization “of reasoning should be dispensed with, which is not especially useful. Chatbots with personality. This curious characteristic of reasoning models seems to show that the tone with which chatbots answers clearly influences our way of perceiving them. When Elon Musk and Xai launched their first version of Grok, it was clear that They were looking for a sarcastic tone That was less “robotic.” The problem is that chatbot was not especially precise in its answers, but that has improved in Grok 2which is now accessible to all users. The Virtual Avatars of Replika They try to analyze the tone and context of users to answer them in a close way. Chatbots of the future may precisely try to take advantage of all these tools and techniques so that empathy towards machines grow, and Deepseek R1/O1 are a first interesting step in that direction. Image | Beata_73601 With Midjourney In Xataka | The EU regulatory obsession raises a world in which AI will have two speeds. And Europe will lose

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