simple

The Nothing Phone (4a) Pro wants to be different in the mid-range. We have tried it on the street and not everything is so simple

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If you are thinking of buying a mid-range mobile phone and are looking for something different, with personality and that design point that sets it apart from the rest, the Nothing Phone (4a) Pro It may have easily slipped onto your list. It is no coincidence: its proposal plays precisely in that field, that of offering something recognizable in an increasingly homogeneous segment. The question, as always, is whether this difference is accompanied by a good day-to-day experience. This is where our usual approach comes in. While Ivan Linares has been in charge of analyze the device in depth, Ana Boria has taken it one step further: it has been taken out of the controlled environment for a real test. The result is the latest video from Xataka’s YouTube channelwhere he tests the terminal in everyday situations and draws conclusions with context. Let’s get to it. When the cell phone takes to the streets: a real test in Lisbon The chosen scenario is not coincidental. Lisbon serves as a perfect test bed for evaluate a mobile phone in real conditions: outdoor photos, intensive use during the day, navigation, content consumption… This is where a device stops being a technical sheet and starts to show what it is made of. And in this case, as usually happens in the mid-range, there are lights and shadows. In the performance section, the approach is clear from the beginning. We are not looking at the latest Qualcomm processor, but that does not imply a bad experience. The Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 complies with solvency in daily use, something that Ana sums up bluntly: “I have not noticed any type of problem or performance, fluidity or anything.” A statement that points directly to what matters most in this range: stability and consistency. The software is another point that makes the difference. Nothing OS 4.1 is committed to a clean experience, without unnecessary additions, and that is noticeable from the first power on. “You don’t know how much pleasure it gave me to turn on the phone for the first time and not see anything at all. no bloodwarenot a single social media advertising app that I wouldn’t be interested in being there.” In a market where bloated software is still common, this approach carries weight. When we move to the camera, the analysis becomes more nuanced. The main sensor offers solid results, especially in favorable conditions, with “photos with adequate sharpness” and where “in general the white balance is correct.” It is not a revolution, but it is a reliable foundation. Of course, there is also room for improvement in certain scenarios, something that Ana hints at during the video. Beyond the camera, there are two elements that define the experience: battery and screen. They are the ones that accompany the user throughout the day and those that, ultimately, determine whether the mobile phone convinces or not. In the video they are put to real use that allows us to better understand how far the device goes in this area. And, of course, there is the most recognizable element of the phone. The rear with Glyph Matrix is ​​not only an aesthetic issue, it also introduces a customization component that is unusual in this segment. “There are different types of light designs to assign to different applications, but you can even upload images to create custom designs.” It is, in a way, the materialization of that initial idea: to offer something different. The complete analysis of the Nothing Phone (4a) Pro It is now available on the Xataka YouTube channel. If you want to understand how it behaves beyond the technical sheet and keep Ana’s final assessment, it is worth watching it calmly. Remember that you can also leave us your comments both on this article and on the video. Images | Xataka In Xataka | Poco X8 Pro Max, analysis: one of the largest batteries on the market arrives with a SoC that also has a lot to say

More and more Spanish bars refuse to let you pay at the table. Its objective is very simple: greater rotation

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“To pay, at the cashier.” It doesn’t matter if you live in the very center of Madrid, the most touristy area of ​​Barcelona, ​​next to Malagueta, in Vigo or a remote town in Bierzo, it is most likely that at some point in the last few months you have heard that phrase when you ask a waiter to please charge you. To pay for the coffee you just had, you must get up and go to the checkout yourself. Or what is the same, you do not have the option of being charged at the table. It seems like a minor issue, but this decision is not accidental: it responds to a logic that seeks to speed up the rotation in the premises and get the most out of them. “Excuse me, can I have the bill?” In Spain there are some 87,000 restaurants and food stalls, almost 163,400 drinking establishments and 270,200 “food and beverage services”, according to INE datawhich gives a pretty clear idea about how we live in Spain: we like (a lot) to go out for coffees, beers and tapas. Therefore, no matter what region you live in, chances are that in recent months you have sat at a table in a bar or restaurant. And that’s also why you’ve probably noticed that it’s becoming more and more common that when you want to pay and ask for the bill, answer the same: “To pay, at the cashier.” Unraveling the mystery. The question is obvious. Why the hell are they asking us to pay at the cashier? Are we not hindering the passage of other customers like this? Does it have any advantages over the option of paying the bill directly at the table? The mystery was cleared up a few months ago Jairosanbor, a tiktoker that usually publishes on his account videos related to the world of hospitality. And the answer is quite simple: although several factors come into play, everything is limited to a simple question of rotation in the premises. In other words, make a business profitable and get the most out of it. Time and agility. The logic is simple. If the customer receives the bill at their table, pays and the waiter charges them, even having to return to the bar to get change, a process is lengthened that could be simplified if the payment is made at the cashier. It may be a matter of minutes, but over the course of an entire day, a week, a month or a year (even more) that time can translate into higher turnover. More rotation. More clients. Higher income. “A little trick”. “What you get is that the customer gets up without any problem and leaves you the table free so that someone else can automatically sit down. If you had him here waiting for you to bring him the bill, charge him, he leaves and comes, in the end more time is wasted,” comments Jairposanbor in his TikTok video, of just 30 sure. “It’s a little trick for the rotation.” Personnel issue? The “little trick”, as the hotelier defines it, may seem simple, but it has given rise to a good number of articles about the themein the pressand some debate in the comments of the video. There are those who relate it, for example, to the greater or lesser availability of waiters in the establishment. “Another trick: add more staff and if the customer leaves happy that they don’t have to wait, they’ll probably come back,” comment a user. Another adds that charging cash may increase turnover and profitability of the establishment, but it can have a negative effect: it places more workload on the employee behind the bar. Cash vs card. They would come into play more keys. For example, although it is increasingly common for restaurants or cafes to allow payment by card, especially in large chains, in those cases in which the business only accepts cash, the “collection at the counter” rule simplifies the process quite a bit. No picking up cashround trips between the bar and the table to look for change or for the money to ultimately pass through several hands within the business. Useful, not infallible. Of course the tactic can be useful, but it is by no means infallible. First because, as some users also comment on TikTok, there are customers who do not like being sent to the bar to pay for their drinks. Second, because rotation is not 100% guaranteed either. As another remembers tiktokerthe trick fails when there is more than one person at the table, only one gets up to pay and then returns to his seat to continue chatting. A sector in change. César Sánchez-Ballesterospresident of the Tourism and Hospitality Federation of the province of Pontevedra, Feproturprovides some extra keys. Tricks like the one shared by Jairoposanbor seek greater optimization, but that is not the only way that hoteliers follow to achieve it. For years the group has opted for new strategies, such as online reservations, letters with QR codeapps that allow you to make orders and pay… Until reaching extreme examples such as experiments of McDonald’s in the US, with stores where there is hardly any interaction with staff. Of orders, payments… and personnel. “We see more and more examples of optimization,” comments Sánchez-Ballesteros, who remembers in any case that the client always has the last word, as has been made clear in the comments of TikTok: he is the one who decides what compensates him, what practices he considers good, what bothers him or the services he is not willing to give up. Against this backdrop, there is another factor that conditions work in restaurants and bars: the shortage of qualified personnel, which further reinforces the urgency that businesses have when it comes to polishing internal processes. It’s nothing new. For years the hospitality industry has been pointing out on a recurring basis the shortage of professionals, a deficit that becomes especially visible in times of … Read more

Your t-shirt from 15 years ago is better preserved than the one from last summer for a very simple reason: the yarn

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Among the things that are no longer what they were cotton t-shirts take center stage. That’s because we have physical evidence: almost all of us have some cotton garment from years ago with better look than a newly purchased one. Why is this happening? For technological development. Like any industry, the textile industry seeks to be more efficient, to achieve more with less. What is sacrificed in the process is quality. However, all is not lost and those great t-shirts from before can still be found, if you know what to look for (and when you finish reading this article you will). In the case of cotton fabric, quality is determined by two variables: The raw material. The spinning process. Let’s start with the raw material. The best varieties of cotton are Sea IslandEgyptian, Egyptian American and pima. Its fibers exceed 32 millimeters in length, and are fine and resistant. Despite this, its production volume is ridiculously low in proportion to international volumes: only 3%. The problem is that it grows slowly and its harvests are small. 90% of world cotton production belongs to the type American Upland. Within this variety there are different levels of quality, depending on the thickness and length of the fibers, but these do not usually exceed the 25 millimeters. The problem is the yarn Depending on the quality of the fiber, one spinning process or another is used, causing the fabrics to improve or worsen greatly. The vast majority of advertising t-shirts or brand t-shirts fast fashion They use a yarn called “open end”. What does it consist of? It is a technology developed in the ’60s. in Czechoslovakiacreated specifically to take advantage of low-quality, short-fiber cotton. It is very similar to the manufacture of cotton candy: the fibers spin in a giant drum and if you start pulling on a rope, they wind around it, creating the thread. (Keagan Henman/Unsplash) A T-shirt made with “open end” cotton has a less soft touch, breaks faster and pills after a few washes. The explanation? If we greatly enlarge the photo of such a thread, we see that it looks like a tangled skein, with many ends sticking out. It is precisely these ends that form the balls. The problem is not only the use of short-staple cotton. In addition, in the process it is damaged even more: with the rotation of the drum, any imperfection on its surface functions as a bladechopping up the fibers. To improve the quality of this yarn, surgical steel drums have begun to be used. Its surface is very smooth, which reduces breakage. This is how, for example, t-shirts are made. Fruit of the Loom marked with the Belcoro seal. Improving the “open end“ The next level of quality is the threads ring spun. In its manufacture, medium-length fibers and an older technology are used, which imitates manual spinning: the cotton is carded to eliminate impurities and to align the fibers that are then twisted and stretched. The result is a smooth, uniform thread, with few protruding ends. A fabric made with these threads is much more resistant, hardly pills and has a pleasant touch. It is used by brands such as Gildan, Russel or Anvil. But the maximum level of quality in t-shirt fabrics is ring spun combed cotton. For this type of fabric, the highest quality fibers, the longest, are reserved. In addition to following ancient spinning technology, this cotton includes an additional step after carding, combing. In this process all the shorter fibers are removed, discarding up to 15% of the cotton. A fabric of this type is resistant, has a smoother and more uniform surface and is softer to the touch. They are easy to identify, because the inside label usually says “combed cotton.” However, a loss of 15% of cotton cannot do anything other than make the material more expensive, so they are also the most expensive. (Jason Leung/Unsplash) The brands that use this type of fabric are American ApparelSol’s, Bella & Canvas. Even so, it is advisable not to blindly trust brands. Not all t-shirts from a producer are made with the same cotton. What is not very relevant to the quality of a t-shirt is the information that many of us use: the weight of the fabric. A thick, heavyweight, knit t-shirt open endit will be of poorer quality and will last less than a thin combed cotton t-shirt. Comparing the weight of the fabric makes sense only within the same quality. So if you are looking for a cotton t-shirt like the ones before, the ideal is to ask about the type of cotton it uses. If they say “combed cotton”, it is the best you can find. If they say “ring spun”, you will get a much higher quality than what you are used to. If they tell you: “What cotton? 100% cotton”, you will be able to provide all this information and differentiate between poor quality t-shirts and those that will last a lifetime. Image | https://unsplash.com/es/fotos/variada-ropa-hung-en-perchero-3JAOcgZ_ZXU In Xataka | Converse sneakers were once the symbol of the millennial generation: now they have been in free fall for years In Xataka | France had maintained the monopoly on luxury perfumes for centuries: Arab countries are taking it away

How to create simple Claude Skills to have your personalized version of artificial intelligence

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Let’s explain to you how to create your own Claude Skilland thus have a personalized version of the artificial intelligence from Anthropic. The Claude’s Skills They are a series of instructions that you can upload to a chat so you don’t have to repeat them every time you want to give a specific compliment. Let’s start the article by reviewing what exactly the skills of Claude. And then, we are going to tell you step by step how to create a skill in the simplest way possible. What exactly are Claude’s Skills? Skills or abilities are a system with which you can create Claude customizations. With them, you can add a command layer to the generic versionand thus be able to use a version of the AI ​​adapted to what you want. A skill is an encapsulated procedurethe way to tell Claude how to perform specific tasks, under what conditions and with what rules you want him to do it, without having to repeat these instructions in every conversation. Imagine that you use Claude to repeatedly do specific tasks. Every time you want to do one of these tasks in a new chat you will have to describe what you want, something that can be tedious, especially when the instructions are longer and more complex. Skills allow you to encapsulate these instructions, so that when you activate one, these instructions are implicit in what you ask of it. When you write the prompt, Claude will first read the ability and take into account what you ask of him there. For example, imagine that you like to analyze the SEO of something you write about. So, every time you go to ask for this analysis you have to give the instructions to Claude, but If you load a Skill you do not need to give the instructionsand you can simply activate it and write the text you want to analyze. How to create your own Skills To create your own Claude skill, you need to open the AI ​​and click on the section Personalize that you have in the left column. Remember that Skills are a paid function. When you click on Personalizeyou will access two different options. On this screen, you must click on the option Skills that will appear next to the connectors. You will enter the Skills page, where by default you will see several examples of those created within Claude himself. Here, click on the + button above, and in the menu that opens choose the option Write the instructions for the skill to create one in the simplest way. This will take you to the screen where you will have to fill out the three fields necessary to create your Skill. You will have to give it a name, instructions and a knowledge base in the event that the latter is necessary. Three fields to define your new Skill The first thing you have to do is give your skill a name. This is the distinctive name it will have, and with which it will appear in your list of created Gems. It is recommended that it be a clear and distinctive name. The name will appear as if it were a file, with hyphens instead of spaces and in lower case. Then you will have to specify description. It’s a short description that will appear overlaid when you mouse over it in the skills list. Therefore, you have to write a short summary of what you do. Claude will look at your skills in each prompt you write, to use it in case he detects that you have referred to one of them with the task you have asked of him. That is why it is important to have useful and direct information in the name and descriptionso that both the AI ​​and you can distinguish what each one is for. Then comes the most complex part, because you will have to write detailed instructions of skill. This is the most important step, because it serves to define the role, tone and rules that this automation must follow. You have to specify everything you can when you are going to write these instructions. These are some of the most important aspects to include in the instructions when you go to create your Skill: Personality: You will have to say what their role is, the character they should play and the tone they should use. For example, you can ask them to act like a rigorous but friendly college professor, or a light-hearted, Reels-focused content writer. Whatever you want, but this personality is important to define to establish behavior. Objective and rules: It is also equally important to specify what the main task of the Gem is, and what rules to use. For example, you can say, “Your job is to review the texts to find spelling and grammar errors and improve the structure,” for example. You can also say things like “Never talk about topics other than…” to make him focus on that specific task. Format: This is optional, but you will also be able to define the structure of the answers. For example, you can ask that I always start with a summary and then list in several points, or whatever you think is necessary. In the end, the point is to define a response structure that is useful and in line with the tasks you want this Gemini customization to perform. If you don’t clarify by writing the instructionsyou have the option of using Claude himself to help you write them. To do this, open the AI ​​in another browser tab, and in a chat ask it to generate instructions for creating a Skill, adding a couple of instructions from which to start. And that’s it. Once you have created a Skill, all you have to do is choose it from the menu from Claude’s new chat. You will have to press the + button, go to Skills, and choose yours. Once … Read more

With this VPN it is very simple and you can use it on all your devices

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Privacy and more security while browsing the Internet. That’s just what it can give us a VPNwhich is generally activated in just a few seconds. Although there are free options that can be useful for a specific moment, in the long run it is worth investing in a paid one. Especially when you can get a quality one like Surfshark for 1.88 euros per month. And be careful: because with an account, you can use it on all the devices you have. Surfshark Starter Subscription – monthly The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Cost-benefit, it is worth it (and a lot) to invest in a paid VPN With free options, why pay for a VPN? As we say, for very specific use, a free VPN can get you out of trouble. Now, the problem that these types of free tools have in common is that They are not as safe as they promise. That’s exactly where the payment options come in and where There are very economical alternatives such as Surfshark. If you are traveling somewhere and have to use the WiFi of a cafe or a hotel, one of these VPNs can be great for you. By activating it (something that takes just a few seconds), you will be passing all your Internet traffic through a secure tunnel to which no one will have access. This gives you an extra layer of security and privacy that, as we say, allows unlimited devices with a single account. Not all VPNs offer this. All this in exchange for a very affordable price. Its price is 1.88 euros per month if we opt for its two-year modality. That, doing the math, implies that 24 months of this VPN costs us a total of 50.76 euros, a quite attractive figure. To this, we must add two things: The first is that we will have three extra monthsso we will actually enjoy this VPN for 27 months. If we take into account the cost-benefit of this VPN, the truth is that It is worth it if you are looking for a good tool of this type. Some of the links in this article are affiliated and may provide a benefit to Xataka. In case of non-availability, offers may vary. Images | surfshark In Xataka | Best VPNs 2026: guide with the 17 best services to protect your online privacy In Xataka | Why it is dangerous to connect to public Wi-Fi and what you should do to protect yourself

If the question is how to survive the tsunami of information in the age of AI, the answer is simple: learning not to read

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This morning I counted the open tabs on Day, my browser. Twenty-five. There was a Counterpoint analysis there that I opened five days ago to read “as soon as I can” but that I haven’t touched yet. A very good looking thread from X. Three newsletters to medium scrollwaiting for me like half-done homework. And so on a few more things. I’ve been writing about technology for fifteen years. My job is literally to read, filter and think about what I read. And yet, or precisely because of that, it is increasingly difficult for me to distinguish when I am informing myself from when I am simply moving my eyes. We have been treating reading as a virtue in itself for centuries. “Read more” has always been the universal advice, the automatic response to almost any shortcoming. AND tmade sense when the problem was the scarcity of sources. But the problem began to be different and we continued the same, with the same reflection. The mistake is that we have transferred the respect and moral inertia that we had for a good book to formats that do not deserve it. We read an endless thread of X, a marketing PDF or a newsletter inflated feeling that passing your eyes over that text is a meritorious act by default. It is no longer. Or at least, not always. I know this goes against me. AI has broken the equation in a way that borders on absurd comedy. Today anyone generates a ten-page report on any topic in three minutes. Any creator inflates an idea of ​​a paragraph until it fills a thousand words without adding a single new piece of information, just trash. And the great paradox is something we saw coming a long time ago: Our best defense is to use that same technology. We live in a loop where A machine lengthens a text to make it seem important, and we use another machine to summarize it for us in three bullets and thus save us the procedure. Some give the badge and others neutralize it. The amount of text available is no longer related to the knowledge it contains. There are more words than ever because it is easier than ever to generate them, but It is not at all clear that there are more ideas. What is growing is the pressure to consume them all. I feel like, often, that fear of being left out seems like intellectual curiosity when what’s underneath is simple FOMO. Traditional functional illiteracy consisted of deciphering the letters but not understanding a word of what they said. The new one looks more like the opposite: We understand each text perfectly, but we have lost the ability to decide if it deserves to be read.. We don’t filter. We do not rule out. We don’t say “this is bullshit that doesn’t give me anything.” Not enough. And we don’t do it because discarding information is something that we continue to feel like a loss, like an act of laziness that gives us away. But it is just the opposite. The ability to not read (identify in three seconds that something is not worth your next ten minutes) is today an act of intelligence that contributes almost as much as reading itself. And for that you need to develop your own red flag. In my case, if a text promises a revelation but the first paragraph is pure introductory nonsense, get out. If I sense grandiloquent adjectives and filling robotic structures, out. If there is not a single piece of data before the first scroll, on the run. I don’t even mention the monoline structure so common in X and LinkedIn. There, it directly catapults. When ChatGPT arrived, many of us thought that the risk of AI was that people would stop reading. It may be worse: that you read more than ever without thinking more than ever. Let it process without digesting. Accumulate information like someone who accumulates open tabs, with the vague promise of returning to them. We know he won’t. We never go back. I know this because I haven’t closed those twenty-five tabs all week and in the end I will close them all at once, without reading them, with a mixture of relief and guilt. But I have begun to understand that closing tabs suddenly after having selected the most interesting thing is a very healthy practice. In the end, the new functional illiterate is too much like my browser this morning: overloaded with tabs, full of promises to read, and completely unable to process a single more idea. In Xataka | There is a generation working for free as a documentarian of their own life: they are not influencers but they act as if they were. Featured image | Xataka

If the question is how Seat has lost 100% of its profit in its best year, the answer is simple: Chinese electric car

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The electric car continues to be Seat SA’s great debt. The company that houses Seat and Cupra could be popping the champagne with record numbers, but a decision has destroyed its profit margin despite billing more than ever and selling more cars than ever. The numbers. Seat SA has presented results. The company that houses Seat and Cupra has made public its 2025 numbers with record figures that invite optimism: 15.3 billion euros in turnover (5.1% more than the previous year) 586,300 cars delivered (5.1% more than the previous year) More plug-in hybrids sold than ever, with a growth of 62.9% More electric vehicles sold than ever, with a growth of 65.9% But the figures are obscured when we talk about benefits. And the company barely retained 40.9 million euros of net profit, 92% less than the previous year. And the data on its operating profits is even more dramatic. Seat indicates a million euros with a drop of 99.8% but that figure is subject to IFRS (international financial standards). Seat reports in its results note of -93.1 million euros as a result of exploitation with Spanish financial standards, along with a cash flow of -431 million euros after investing 1,300 million euros in CAPEX and R&D, which add up to a total of 6,200 million euros invested in this item since 2020. A strategy that works. In 2022, with Wayne Griffiths at the helm of the company, Seat SA took a turn in its strategy. The then CEO said that “Cupra is not the end of Seat. Cupra gives Seat a future and the future is electric. The future is Cupra.” Three years later, Cupra has sold 328,800 units, 56.1% of Seat SA cars, with a growth of 32.5% compared to 2024. So, Seat SA had just lost more than 450 million euros in two years. The company has managed to refresh its image and move customers towards more expensive models that leave a greater profit margin. It is never good news to sell fewer cars (Seat sold 257,400 units in 2025, 17% less than the previous year) but the company has managed to compensate for this decline by selling more expensive cars. And not only that, increasing sales. The electric car. In addition, the company has achieved a substantial increase in sales in its most electrified models. However, if Seat has lost relevance in the market it is because its offer, right now, is anti-competitive where electrification is demanded. In fact, the ECO label (and in mild hybridization versions) will have to keep waiting in models like the Ibiza or the Arona. Markus Haupt, new CEO of Seat since Griffiths leftalready made it clear a few months ago that It was impossible to launch an electric car with the Seat logo right now. The problem, he pointed out, is that it was too expensive and that prevented a positioning aligned with the role that Seat is currently playing within the Volkswagen Group. From Germany they understood that that affordable electric role had to be covered by Skoda and Seat will be relegated to an access brand to the motor market, with cars that are already veterans in the market and very little electrified engines. Cars in which no money has been invested but they continue to report profits despite the fact that their sales have been declining. Looking at the volume of electric sales in Europe, it seems that it makes sense not to continue loading up on models that can be cannibalized within the Volkswagen Group. And the Tavascan. Seat SA’s commitment to electric cars was to come with the Cupra Tavascan. The car was sold as a turning point for the brand with the aim of making it clear that we were facing a new image and that Cupra was not only seen as the sports version of Seat. Cupra aimed to make itself in a journey that had already begun with the Born. The Volkswagen Group decided early that for him Cupra Tavascan was competitive it had to be taken to China. But with production already committed, The European Union imposed harsh tariffs on carssince it has the participation of SAIC. The base 10% soared by another 37.6%. That has eaten into any kind of profit generated with a car that had this as its primary objective. These tariffs have not had to be paid by the Skoda Enyaq, Audi Q4 or Volkswagen ID.5, all produced in Europe. Last February, the European Commission confirmed that had reached an agreement to withdraw tariffs on this car as an exceptional case. Cupra has promised not to lower the price and to comply with an export quota. Both figures are, however, confidential. at losses. Although Cupra has promised not to lower the price, it is highly unlikely that the company would have opted for this once the tariffs had been lifted. And it is that the Cupra Tavascan was being sold at a loss despite exceeding 40,000 euros per unit. Aware that it was impossible to sell the car at a price that would allow them to make money with such high tariffs, Cupra preferred to eat that cost and lose money with each car sold. The strategy may make sense because the production commitments in China are maintained and it has helped the company to put the car on the street, make it visible and invest in brand image. Already in 2024 the brand expected to lose 500 million euros with the sale of the Tavascan. An optimistic view. The good news for Seat is that, at last, they have managed to get their Tavascan to start generating profits for the company instead of eating them. But also that Cupra remains strong with its electrified bet. The Cupra Born has been recently renovated and the Raval will arrive in 2026, made in Martorell. The company’s goal is to achieve, by 2030, a profit margin of 6%. To do this, they say, they will focus on cost … Read more

If the question is why the US has not yet attacked Kharg Island, the answer is simple: fear of the second later

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With the US and Israel attacking thousands of targets Iranians, including shipsdefense systems and oil facilities and supply, Kharg island It is a paradox in itself. Most analysts agree that it is the great Achilles heel of the Islamic Republic, a point at which Washington could cause considerable damage to the ayatollah regime. However, despite this strategic value and the intense US and Israeli offensive, after more than a week There is no record of Kharg being damaged during the war. The question is obvious: Why? On a distant island… Iran may be in a privileged position to control the Strait of Hormuzplace of passage almost 20% of the planet’s crude oil and gas; But on a geographic level, Tehran also has some disadvantages. The main one, its coast. It is not the best for maritime traffic. It is too silty and lacks the draft necessary for docking oil tankers. More than six decades ago, this handicap led Iran, with the help of the American company Amoco, to create a huge oil terminal on the neighboring island of Kharg. Although it is a tiny island, just over 20 km2its waters are deep enough to accommodate large ships. Since registering its first major shipment, in 1960Kharg has been gaining weight in the Iranian oil industry until it has become its nerve center. The island of black gold. The “nerve center” in this case is more than justified. Despite its small size, Kharg has been equipped with an enormous infrastructure, with loading docks, oil pipelines and warehouses, which allow it to channel about 90% of Iran’s oil exports. It is estimated that they pass through the island every day between 1.3 and 1.6 million of barrels of crude oil, although it has capacity for much more. JP Morgan estimates that in February, when war drums were already sounding, Tehran increased the flow to three million barrels a day. There are those who say that if he put his mind to it he could reach seven million. Added to them are its reserves, estimated at another 18 million. A perfect target. With such numbers, Kharg has become two things. A central piece in Iran’s oil network. And a perfect target for the US and Israel. A certain blow would come to cause considerable damage to the island and, consequently, to the finances of the Islamic Republic, contributing to its destabilization. Its strategic value is so clear that Israeli politician Yair Lapid recently insisted in the advantages that a direct offensive would have. To be more precise, Lapid has advocated for “destroying all of Iran’s oil fields and energy industry on Kharg Island.” “That is what would cripple the Iranian economy and topple the regime,” he reasoned. In the last days Tel Aviv has hit the country’s oil infrastructure, damaging deposits and crude transfer centers in Tehran and Alborz. However Kharg remains intact. And that on Saturday Axios wakefulness that Israel and the US have discussed the possibility of controlling the island as part of a greater deployment in Iran. Why don’t they attack her? That is the question that several analysts have asked themselves over the last few days, including Dan SabbaghDefense and Security editor of Guardian. The advantages of attacking Kharg are evident for the US and Israel (it would hit the heart of Iranian industry, destabilizing their regime), so… Why does the island seem immutable, at least today? To understand it you have to handle several keys. Some geopolitics. Other economic ones. About the latter was pronounced on Monday JP Morgan, which reminds that an offensive on Kharg would cause an earthquake in the oil market. Not only for hitting the Iranian industry. It could also trigger a violent response from Tehran that extends to the Strait of Hormuz and the oil infrastructure of other neighboring Gulf countries. It’s not crazy. Iran has already punished them. “A direct attack would instantly halt most of Iran’s crude oil exports, likely triggering severe retaliation in Hormuz or against regional energy infrastructure,” the bank warns. Beyond oil. “We could see the $120 per barrel price that we saw on Monday rise to $150 if Kharg were attacked,” warns Neil Quilliam, from the Chatham House think tank. “It is crucial for global energy markets.” It may sound exaggerated, but it is worth remembering several facts. Iran is not just any country. It occupies one of the top positions in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and pumps 4.5% of supply world. Much of its production goes to China, but if its supply were knocked out, the shock wave would spread to the entire market, influencing prices. Especially at a time of deep instability in Hormuz. We’re not just talking about oil. As remember In France24 Sonia Martínez-Girón, ITSS analyst, its market is closely connected to other very sensitive economic sectors, such as transport or food. And then… what? That is the other question that analysts ask. If Kharg is hit, the Iranian regime is hit, but… What comes next? What would be the next step? Richard Nephew, of the Center for Global Energy Policy at Columbia University, recognize that attacking the island would represent an escalation in the war, especially since it could require a ground deployment. “The US and Israel are aware that, if they attack it, they run the risk of Iran attacking the oil infrastructure of the Gulf countries,” warns. Not only that. Rebuilding Kharg would take time, so the coup would affect any hypothetical new Iranian regime, complicating the country’s stability. “Kharg Island is so important to the Iranian economy that destroying its facilities would mean abandoning any pretense of waging war to create a better future for Iran,” points out in Guardian Lynette Nusbacher, former British Army intelligence officer. Added to this handicap is the cost it could have within the US, where Trump’s interventionist is already causing a fracture of the MAGA movement in the middle of an election year. Images | POT, Natalya Letunova (Unsplash) and … Read more

China claims that having its own ASML is not that difficult. At the end of the day “ASML is a simple integrator”

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China is advancing at a fearsome speed, but they are their own critics. A group of scientists and industry representatives has published an analysis very critical in which they describe their semiconductor industry as “small, dispersed and weak.” For these experts, the problem is that they do not have their own ASML, so they propose creating one, and the curious thing about it is precisely that: that they do not see it as difficult to do. Not authors, authorities. Among the authors of the study are Wang Yangyuan —co-founder of SMIC— or Chen Nanxiang —director of the YMTC NAND chip manufacturer—. Both they and the rest of the participants are recognized personalities in the field of semiconductors. That makes it clear that this articlepublished in the magazine Science and Technology Review China is valuable to understand the state of this industry. The US veto works. This article indicates that the United States has managed to contain China’s advance in three areas: electronic design automation (EDA) used in chip design, the manufacture of silicon wafers, and the creation of chip manufacturing equipment, especially those with extreme ultraviolet (UVE) photolithographic technologya segment that is absolutely dominated by the Dutch ASML and that China has not yet managed to match despite its efforts. There are many companies, but they are too small. The study analyzes in depth the situation of the Chinese semiconductor market, which they describe as small, dispersed and weak. And to prove it they give a significant fact: there are 3,626 domestic chip design companies in China, but “the total value of the industry’s output was 646 billion yuan (approximately 91 billion dollars). In other words: the total sales of these 3,626 companies were less than the sales of NVIDIA alone.” Smartphone chips are doing well. Of course, these experts point out that several Chinese companies have managed to reach “the world’s leading edge” in terms of chips for smartphones. They mention HiSilicon Semiconductor and Unisoc, which occupy the first and second place among the largest smartphone chip designers in China, with market shares of 20 and 10% respectively. And the “mature” chips, too. Something similar happens with chips with much more mature technologies, such as those manufactured with 28 nm photolithography or higher. That problem is already solved in China, which does not have to depend so much on foreign manufacturers. In fact, China now represents 33% of global production in this segment, and design and manufacturing processes are not limited by internal restrictions. Too dependent. Despite its many advances, China remains the world’s largest importer of integrated circuits. It invested $385.79 billion in 2024 in these components, even exceeding its oil imports ($324.7 billion). Here China has a big problem of dependence on chips from third-party foreign manufacturers, and this is especially noticeable in automotive chips (95% of them import) and memory chips (90%): all of them depend on imports. There is a clear bottleneck in high-end integrated circuit production. In search of Chinese ASML. The document also addresses competition with ASML but not as a direct commercial rivalry, but as a strategic challenge of technological sovereignty. The Dutch company is described as “a simple integrator” that coordinates more than 5,000 suppliers to manage the 10,000 components of an EUV machine. The suggestion of the study is precisely to create a Chinese ASML that unifies the advances made by different companies. But. Although progress has been made In this ambitious objective of creating SVU machines, “integrating them with a national effort is a problem that must be resolved during the 15th five-year plan” that concludes in 2030. To do this, these experts assure, there must be financial support and human personnel is required. We already knew that China I was trying to copy ASMLbut for now it is going badly. The document talks about developments such as promising Flip-FET technology (FFET) of Peking University. This advance allows us to reach 3-2 nm nodes without depending exclusively on EUV machines, but it remains to be seen if this method ends up being successful or not. In Xataka | Holland has just declared war on China in the most important battle of the century: control of semiconductors

Finding the cheapest gas station in your area is very simple thanks to this very powerful tool

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We have been very attentive to fuel prices for a few days. It is no wonder, since since the conflict between the United States, Israel and Iran has exploded to the point of leaving the Strait of Hormuz in a compromised situation, oil has ended up skyrocketing and gas stations have already begun to notice the impact on their shelters. While the Government study what measures you can applyMany drivers go to those gas stations that have the cheapest fuel. And for this there are tools that the State itself offers. The Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge made it available to any citizen quite some time ago, the Geoportal from Gas Stations, a free tool that allows you to know the price of fuel at all service stations in the country, so you can filter by the cheapest one in your area. It also has another very useful function: knowing how much has the price changed at every gas station. We tell you all the details below. What is the Geoportal and why is it worth it? The Gas Station Geoportal is a web application of the Ministry that collects the prices of all service stations in Spainupdated every five minutes. What you see on the screen is practically the real price of the moment. The tool has been available for years, but in situations like the current one, or like the one that happened with the outbreak of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, its use makes special sense. Currently there are gas stations in large cities and in the main corridors that They already exceed 1.70 euros/liter in gasoline or 1.80 in diesel, while others remain below average. With a 50 liter tank, choose carefully where to refuel can mean quite significant savings. How to find the cheapest gas station from the GeoPortal To enter the Geoportal, all you have to do is enter this link. There is also a free mobile application for Android and iOS. It is called Route-E, and it is developed by the Ministry itself. In addition to gas station prices, it includes information on charging points for electric vehicles. When you enter the website you will see a map of Spain with marked service stations. On the left are the filters. The process is simple: Select “Service Stations” as search type. Choose your province and town. The map will automatically center on that area. You can refine it even further with the zip code if you live in a large city. Choose the type of fuel. You will find everything from the usual ones (gasoline 95 E5, gasoline 98, diesel A) to alternative options such as natural gas, bioethanol or hydrogen. As soon as you select one, the map will show the price of each station along with its schedule and operator. Mark “Sale to the public”. This excludes gas stations belonging to agricultural cooperatives or closed groups that are not open to any driver. Check the list ordered by price. When you have clicked ‘Search’, just below the map the tool generates a list of stations. Filter by price and the cheapest ones in the area should appear first, and you can export the list in CSV or Excel format if you need it. As extra information: yes you hover over any station on the map, you will directly see its price, schedule, rating and operator without having to click. There is an additional filter: “Discount plans”. If you activate it, the search engine shows gas stations with current promotions, either because they belong to a specific chain or because they offer discounts to groups such as transporters, farmers or taxi drivers. Mobile Apps If you prefer not to use the Ministry’s website, there are several free applications for iOS and Android that offer a similar feature. At Xataka we already talked about them a while ago, among which are GasofApp, GasAll, Gasolineras or GasOnline, among others. They all draw on the same official data and allow you to locate the cheapest stations near your location in real time. In addition to all of them, there is also Ruta-E, which is the one we mentioned before, but the rest of the apps offer (in our opinion) much faster and easier navigation. How to see the price history of any gas station Knowing the current price is good, but if you are curious about how the price of a specific station has evolved over time, you can also do it from the Geoportal. For that, just enter this page and complete the form that appears on the screen. You have two options to check the evolution of prices: through the price history or through a timeline per gas station. To do this you must: Selectr the interval of time. You can choose between daily, weekly, monthly or yearly views, and set a start date and an end date for the period you want to analyze. Heegir data series. Below in the form will be where you can decide if you want to see the evolution of the average price of all of Spain, of an autonomous community, of a province, of a municipality or of a specific gas station. Select the fuel. The menu includes all available: 95 E5 gasoline, 98 gasoline, diesel A, diesel B, LPG, natural gas, hydrogen and many more. Choose the type of graph. You can view the data in a line or bar graph, depending on what is most comfortable for you. The result is a graph that shows the evolution of the price in the chosen period. With it you can see, for example, how much diesel cost at the gas station in your neighborhood before the situation with Iran became tense and how much it costs today. Cover image | Geoportal and engin akyurt In Xataka | Cuts are coming for the most used Cercanías line in Spain. The reason: more capacity and driverless trains

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