skyrocketing

The prices of RAM and SSDs are skyrocketing everywhere, but there are alternatives to avoid spending a fortune

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It’s no longer just that the price of RAM memory is through the roof (which also): that of SSDs has followed the same path. Upgrading a PC right now is complicated if you don’t want to spend a fortune trying, but there are alternatives to spend less. The AliExpress Summer Promo has very powerful offers (on mobile phones especially), but also in PC components: you have this 1 TB Netac SSD for 114.80 euros if you use the coupon ‘XATAKAES20‘and pay with PayPal. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Speaking of coupons, AliExpress has right now lots of assets to save on your purchases. We leave them here so that you have them on hand in case you want to make any additional purchases (remember that the coupons cannot be combined). Discount minimum purchase coupon 1 coupon 3 coupon 4 COUPON 3 euros 15 euros XATAKAES03 WEBEDES03 ESSS03 SSES03 6 euros 39 euros XATAKAES06 WEBEDES06 ESSS06 SSES6 10 euros 69 euros XATAKAES10 WEBEDES10 ESSS10 SSES10 20 euros 139 euros XATAKAES20 WEBEDES20 ESSS20 SSES20 30 euros 209 euros XATAKAES30 WEBEDES30 ESSS30 SSES30 45 euros 319 euros XATAKAES45 WEBEDES45 ESSS45 SSES45 65 euros 459 euros XATAKAES65 WEBEDES65 ESSS65 SSES65 110 euros 650 euros XATAKAES110 WEBEDES110 ESSS110 – Upgrading a PC without spending a fortune is still possible Is it a good price? Let’s analyze how the price of SSDs is currently with this one from the Forgeon brand as an example, similar in features. The lowest price for it, also with 1 TB capacity, was 61.95 euros last September. Since then it has done nothing but rise and right now it costs 189.95 euros (reduced from 234.99 euros). In that sense, it is clear that we are looking at a good price with this one from the Netac brand. It is about a NVMe PCIe 4.0 SSD able to reach speeds of up to almost 7,400 MB/s read. Of course, a small note: it is necessary that your motherboard is compatible with it. If your board only has PCIe 3.0 connectors, you can also use it, although it will not take full advantage of all its speed. The SSD is sold by the brand itself through AliExpress and shipping is free (delivery is estimated between June 7 and 15). It should also be noted that it is an SSD also compatible with PlayStation 5. DDR4 RAM can still be an interesting solution What if what you need is RAM memory? DDR5 RAM has very inflated prices, but we can find DDR4 RAM at good prices, which remains an interesting option for many usersespecially if your processor and motherboard are a few years old and you don’t want to change them. This Netac RAM memory can do you very well there: two modules of 8 GB of RAM each come out 75.45 euros with the coupon ‘XATAKAES10‘. DDR4 Netac RAM memory at 3,200 MHz (2 modules of 8 GB) The price could vary. We earn commission from these links As we say, they are two separate modules, so we will have a total of 16 GB of RAM in total. If we take a look at PcComponentes and look for something similar, it is difficult to find the same amount of memory with similar characteristics below 120 euros. 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 | Andrey MatveevAliExpress In Xataka | DDR4 or DDR5? What RAM to choose so as not to pay even more than necessary in the middle of the price crisis In Xataka | Faster (and more expensive) is not always better: the big difference between buying an SSD and an HDD for backups

Cases in young people are skyrocketing and science points to our lifestyle

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When we think of patients with colon cancerour mind can automatically go to a middle-aged person with different risk factors behind them. However, epidemiology is documenting a radical change in statisticssince more and more young people are being diagnosed with this type of cancer, which makes us reflect to look for the ‘why’. The experts. Winette van der Graaf, professor of Medical Oncology at the Netherlands Cancer Institute (NKI), points to this new reality and states that “I would never have imagined that I would be seeing patients with colorectal cancer at the age of 19” as collect The Country. With this phrase he gives voice to a global trend that epidemiological studies continue to confirm, since cancer is no longer a disease almost exclusively of old age, and the incidence is growing at a rate four times faster in young people than in older people. An explosion. Data supports the medical concern through multiple international macro studies, such as the one published in 2024 in The Lancet. Here, 50 countries were analyzed and showed that early-onset colorectal cancer (between 25 and 49 years) is increasing in 27 of them. But the most revealing data is in 20 of those 27 territories, where the increase in cases is exclusive to young people or is advancing much faster than in the adult population. The fastest pace is taken by countries such as New Zealand or Chile, growing at 4.0% annually, and Puerto Rico with 3.8%. Furthermore, in 14 countries, including Spain, the United States and the United Kingdom, cases are increasing in young people while remaining stable in those over 50 years of age. Among the youngest. The figures here are scary, since, according to the data From the CDC, data on colorectal cancer among adolescents tripled between 1999 and 2020. If we go into detail, in the 20 to 24 year old group they grew by 185%, while in the 10 to 14 year old age group the growth was 500% as the incidence went from 0.1 to 0.6 cases per 100,000 children. The Spanish case. Here, a study based on real data from the Virgen de la Victoria Hospital published in JCO Global Oncology in 2024 analyzed more than 24,500 patients and found that 22.2% had early-onset cancer, being present before the age of 50. And we can go further, by making a list of the types of cancer that have increased the most in our territory: Sarcoma: increased by 43.4% in young people compared to 28.6% in older people. Kidney: rose 27.8% in young people compared to 20.1% in older people. Testicle: grew by 16.3% in young people, while its incidence fell by 13.1% in older people. Because? Here experts point to a combination of very diverse factors that try to explain it, although none of them is definitive. One of these is an inadequate diet with an increase in the consumption of red meat and calcium-deficient diets that is complemented by a tendency toward a sedentary lifestyle. But in addition, the excessive use of antibiotics could be severely altering our intestinal microbiota, added to the impact of bacterial infections during childhood. And it even goes further by considering the role of the exposure we have since childhood to chemical elements such as pesticides or pollution in general to give it an explanation. Images | brgfx on Magnific Julia Koblitz In Xataka | Neither cure nor die: why the next great revolution against cancer is to make it chronic

Quietly, a mobile phone manufacturer is skyrocketing in Spain. One that hits right in the nostalgia

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There was a time when it seemed that consumers only had eyes for Xiaomi when looking for an affordable mobile phone. Things are starting to change. The data of Omdia For the first quarter of 2026 they show a significant drop compared to 2025 for the Asian manufacturer, with Motorola taking center stage. The numbers. The European phone market grew 2% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2026, with Samsung as the big name. The company, according to data from the consulting firm, already has a 38% share, its best number in years with a growth of 3%. But Apple. The good global results of the iPhone 17 They already left us a clue about what could happen in Europe. Apple grew 9.9%, thanks to relatively affordable price models such as the iPhone 16e and the commercial success of its new models. Apple remains in second place, but with a striking fact: it sold 8.8 million iPhones compared to Samsung’s 12.6, and still grew at three times the rate of its rival. Samsung depended largely on the Galaxy A16 4G to sustain their numbers. Xiaomi. The Chinese company maintained third place, although its fall was the most pronounced. Xiaomi falls no less than 15% in Europe, although the numbers have fine print: the company sold fewer phones, but the ones it did sell were more expensive. Xiaomi’s average price (ASP, Average Selling Price) rose by 21%, mainly after the launches of the series Xiaomi 17 and the good sales of the Xiaomi 15T. It is a strategy that is working for them: although they sell fewer units, they sell much more expensively. Mainly, the markets in which these ranges worked the most were France, Germany and… Spain. And Motorola arrived. Motorola has been obsessed with the Spanish market for some time. It knows that we like quality-price phones, and that the buyer still has a certain nostalgia for a brand that always had a good product. Thanks to its expansion in Spain and Portugal, the company has grown 17% year-on-year, with almost two million units sold. A quick look on Amazon makes it easy to understand what’s going on. Motorola has a barrage of phones available at competitive prices, clean software that does not generate any type of friction, and an acceptable update policy. to stay. Motorola has a clear market strategy in which Spain is a fundamental market: affordable and accessible mobile phones. For its part, Xiaomi is turning towards Be increasingly premium to improve your margins. A golden opportunity for a manufacturer that once flooded Spain with Moto G, to once again travel the path of commercial success. In Xataka | Motorola Edge 70 Fusion, analysis: putting 7,000 mAh in such a thin mobile phone seemed like magic. The trick is under the hood

If the question is how to deflect projectiles without skyrocketing military costs, China has found the solution: crocodiles

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In recent years, the US military has even tested fibers inspired in spider silk for future bulletproof vests. The reason was simple: some natural materials achieve absorb impacts and deform better than many modern artificial compounds. The idea of ​​using animals. The search for more effective shielding has been inspired by natural solutions for decades. Since the Second World War, different armies have studied biological structures capable of absorbing impacts, distribute energy or resist attacks better than expected. China has just joined this tradition with a peculiar proposal: armor inspired by the crocodile scales. The logic behind the project is simple. Instead of relying solely on making armor thicker, heavier and more expensive, researchers are trying to modify the way projectiles hit the surface to force them to deflect, lose stability and fragment before passing through. How it works. The Ningbo University team replaced the traditional hexagonal plates used in many armors composed of small rhomboidal ceramic pieces placed at 45 degree angles. The arrangement imitates the irregular, overlapping structure of crocodile scales. During testing, the design was able to more effectively reduce the residual velocity of hardened steel projectiles and increase fragmentation of the ammunition upon impact. The objective is not only to withstand the shot, but to alter the physical behavior of the projectile at the moment of contact so that part of its energy is lost before reaching the main armor. The obsession with reducing costs. The most relevant thing about the project is not only the additional protection, but the attempt to make it cheaper. Chinese researchers they insist in that any structural improvement that allows the same materials to be used with better results can greatly reduce the manufacturing cost. There is no doubt, this obsession makes a lot of sense in modern warfare. Shielding vehicles, helicopters or troops against increasingly powerful ammunition requires enormous amounts of advanced materials and gigantic budgets. From that perspective, if a relatively simple geometric modification achieves better results without increasing weight or industrial complexity, the economic impact can be enormous on a large scale. Logic born of recent wars. If you like, the Chinese research also reflects a broader change that is already seen in Ukraine and other recent conflicts: it is increasingly important economic efficiency of weapons and defenses. For years, military innovation was dominated by extremely sophisticated and expensive systems. Now many countries are looking for solutions that are sufficiently effective, easy to manufacture and sustainable in long wars. In this sense, Russia already demonstrated how relatively simple glider bombs could cause enormous problems at low cost. Ukraine responded with cheap drones capable of destroying much more expensive equipment. The shielding crocodile inspired fits perfectly into this new logic: trying to unbalance the relationship between cost and effectiveness without having to resort to futuristic technologies that are impossible to mass produce. Future battlefields. For now, the Chinese system remains in the experimental phase and still needs much more demanding tests, including multiple impacts and firing from different angles. Still, researchers believe it could end up being used in armored vehicles, helicopters, ships and even light aerospace structures. What is interesting is that China does not present the project as a spectacular technological revolution, but rather as a pragmatic improvement based on simple principles. geometry and materials. An idea that pretty well sums up where part of current military innovation is heading: less obsession with creating impossible weapons and more interest in find smart ways and relatively cheap to survive in an environment where each projectile and each armor cost more and more money. Image | David Shackelford, PXHere, Unsplash In Xataka | China is manufacturing missiles at an unprecedented speed. And the final objective is not Taiwan, it is another island 3,000 km away In Xataka | China has made a science fiction dream come true: an electromagnetic cannon capable of reaching 3,000 shots per minute

The wealth gap between young and old in Spain is skyrocketing and we have a suspect: housing

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Just look at the list of greatest fortunes in Spain of the last two years to realize that not only have their assets grown, but even among the wealthiest a gap has been created increasing among the rich and ultra-rich. This wealth gap is not an isolated phenomenon among the richest 1%, but rather has permeated to the entire population, leaving a worrying generational scar to which they have already put a figure: 340,000 euros. That is the difference in assets that today separates a person under 35 years old from someone who is between 65 and 74, according to a report which has just been published by the Santalucía Institute. A generation that starts from scratch. The data from the report maintain that the median wealth of those under 35 years of age in Spain has plummeted by 76.7% in the last 18 years. Not only do they accumulate fewer assets than their parents at the same age, but a growing proportion of young people “lack significant assets, which limits their financial stability and their ability to undertake long-term vital projects,” the report notes. The participation of young people under 35 years of age in the country’s total net wealth went from representing around 8.2% of the national wealth in 2002 to just 2.1% in 2022. For their part, those over 75 years of age, in the same period, went from representing 8.3% of total wealth to 18.3% in 2022. wealth transfer that has been redesigning the economic map of the country. This means that, although the net wealth of Spanish households has grown by 80.9% in the last two decades, this growth has mainly benefited those who already had a certain initial wealth, making the balance of wealth growth lean more towards the older (and more wealthy) population. The brick that only rose for a few. The report from the Santalucía Institute assures that the heritage in Spain rests almost completely in the homethus explaining the origin of the wealth growth of the oldest segment of the population. More than 80% of household assets are real estate. That has favored those who bought properties when prices were affordable. Those that came laterToday’s young people have found a market where buying a home is little less than a utopia. The property rate among those under 35 years of age has fallen from 35% in 2023 to 30% in 2025, continuing with a clear downward trend. Without home ownership and with skyrocketing rents At historic highs, the assets of young people have no basis on which to grow. Added to this is the job insecurity that characterizes this age group, which further reduces their savings capacity, closing a circle of which it is increasingly difficult to escape. The generation gap in figures. According to data from the ‘Family Financial Survey‘ conducted by the Bank of Spain, the gap between generations reached its historical maximum in 2022 and rose an additional 3% in 2024, the last year for which the entity’s data is collected. People between 65 and 74 years old accumulate on average more than 425,000 euros in deposits, investments and real estate assets, compared to the 83,000 euros that, on average, those under 35 have available. The distance between generations, estimated at 340,000 euros, has never been so great. Beyond the gap between generations, a report Prepared by FEDEA economists based on data from the Bank of Spain, it confirms that wealth inequality in Spain has grown constantly in the last two decades. The richest 1% concentrates around 21% of the country’s total wealth, while the poorest half barely reaches 7%. The Gini index, which measures this inequality, has risen from 0.57 in 2002 to 0.69 in 2022. Income also distances. The problem for the youngest is not only the accumulated wealth, but also in the income they receive every month. The median income of households between 65 and 74 years old already reaches 34,700 euros per year, this is 2,700 euros above what households headed by those under 35 years of age earn. The most striking thing is the speed at which this change has occurred since, in 2022, that difference was just 500 euros per year, but in just four years that difference has multiplied by five. Young households already have 8% less income than older households. Less income, less savings, less assets. The Santalucia Institute report, just as the OECD for yearswarns that this model points to structural inequality that will have direct implications for housing, the ability to save (and consume), and the redistribution of wealth. In Xataka | How wealth inequality has changed in the world since 2008, explained with a simple graph Image | Unsplash (Towfiqu barbhuiya, Brayn Ramos)

AI data centers are skyrocketing your electricity bill

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data centers They consume a lot of electricityfrom there arise proposals as crazy as that of take them to space either submerge them in the sea to reduce its consumption. Technology companies face a problem of shortage of electrical energy, but the real problem is something else: data centers are causing the electricity bill to rise for all citizens. Now three US senators want to investigate it thoroughly. A political question. They say in the New York Times that three Democratic senators have announced that they are going to investigate big technology companies for their role in increasing the electricity bill. Senators have sent letters to Microsoft, Google, Meta, Amazon, CoreWeave and other companies asking them to detail exactly what their data centers consume. The bill increases have become a political issue and have played an important role in elections in several states. In the case of Virginia, where the largest number of data centers in the world are concentrated, Governor Abigail Spanberger’s campaign included proposals to require data centers to “pay their fair share.” The problem. For the past 20 years, the US electricity system had been stuck with stable energy demand or very modest increases. Data centers have seen very abrupt growth. In 2023, data centers consumed 4% of all electricity in the United States and this is estimated to increase up to 12% 2028. This abrupt increase in demand has forced electricity companies to modernize the network. The technology companies assume part of the cost, but not all, and the way to recover that investment is through the bill of all network users. The discount trick. The technological ones, such as Amazon ensures that its data centers are not raising the bill and that they assume all the costs, contributing to improving the network for everyone. What they don’t say is that they benefit from enormous discounts, like the one they Amazon itself requested regulatory authorities in Ohio in 2024, where they are building a data center, a discount on the electricity rate. The problem is that the agreement is opaque and we do not know how much that discount was, but it is estimated that it could be 135 million per year, over a period of 10 years. Who really pays? In many cases, technology companies pay for the infrastructure necessary to expand the network, but what about these discounts? According to a paper published by the Harvard Electricity Law Initiative in which they reviewed more than 50 regulatory cases, it is very common for electricity companies to offer subsidies to attract technology companies and the way to compensate for these discounts is to pass them on to all network subscribers, which ends up increasing the bill. Unaffordable increases. According to the United States Energy Information Administrationin September electricity increased 7% compared to the same period of the previous year. Things change if we go to the cities near the data centers, where the increases have reached 267%, unaffordable figures for many citizens. Proposals. There are states that are already legislating to prevent network customers from ending up paying the bill for data centers. This is the case of Michigan, which has put special rules for data centers. Companies must sign a contract of at least 15 years, face fines if they cancel before and pay at least 80% of the contracted power even if they do not use it. In addition, they must pay all the costs of the lines and services that are built to serve them. However, these proposals could encounter difficulties due to the executive order that Trump signed and that prevents states from enacting laws that could stop the advance of AI, all to win the battle against China. Image | Google In Xataka | The United States may win the AI ​​race, but its problem is different: China is winning all the others

We know that the price of housing in the Balearic Islands and the Canary Islands is skyrocketing because neither the British nor the Germans can afford it.

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The price of housing in highly stressed tourist areas, such as the Balearic Islands and the Canary Islands, has reached levels so high that neither the British nor the Germans, traditionally the most active foreign buyers and wealthy people on the islands, can afford to continue acquiring properties at the rate of previous years. As and how they collected in Express this trend well supported by the latest data of the General Council of Notaries, in which a very relevant change can be seen in the Spanish real estate market, especially on the islands, where international demand has always been noted as part of the problem. Fewer houses are sold. According to the log data Notaries, during the first half of 2025, the Balearic and Canary Islands have experienced a real turnaround in the home buying and selling market. The percentage of home sales by foreigners fell by 7.7% in the Canary Islands and 6.8% in the Balearic Islands during the first half of 2025. In the same period, only two territories showed a behavior similar to the islands: Valencia, which fell by 3.6% and Navarra, which reduced the number of purchase and sale operations with foreigners by 3.7%. The reason: too expensive housing. It is enough to continue reviewing the data provided by the College of Notaries to find one of the reasons that could have caused this. drop in trading volume: prices have skyrocketed. The figures show how the traditional appeal for British and German buyers is declining. The data reveal that the average price paid by foreigners in purchase and sale operations in Spain as a whole was 2,417 euros per square meter, which represents an increase of 7.6% compared to the price in 2024. Non-resident foreigners continue to pay higher amounts for their homes (€3,126/m2) than resident foreigners (€1,912/m2) and nationals (1,809 €/m2). In the Canary Islands the average price rose by 14.1%, far exceeding the national average, while in the Balearic Islands the average increase was up to 9% compared to 2024. Source: General Council of Notaries Foreigners continue buying in Spain. The data indicate that the volume of foreign sales operations in Spain has not decreased in the territory as a whole, where the total number of homes bought by foreigners increased 2% compared to last year, reaching 71,155 operations. This variation in the volume of operations on the islands, together with the increase in their price, leads us to suspect that price pressure is differentially affecting the most touristic and stressed areas, especially those that, as in the case of the islandsthe options to expand the surface area for residential housing are very limited. That is to say, it is not that foreigners are buying less, but that they are doing so in less tense and with more reasonable prices. Who buys in Spain? Despite the drop in sales from the islands, the British continue to lead the list of foreign buyers in Spain, with 5,731 registered transactions, followed by Moroccans (5,654 transactions) and Germans (4,756 purchases and sales). However, operations carried out by foreigners represented 19.3% of total sales, a slightly lower proportion than that registered in 2024 with 20.3%. This loss of prominence is felt above all in the islands, where the British and Germans clearly dominated the statistics. The end of the “Golden Visa”. Besides, the advertisement of the elimination of the so-called golden visas or “Golden Visa”“, which allowed you to obtain residency in Spain in exchange for investing a certain amount of money in real estate, has also conditioned the decline in demand. In the first six months of 2025, foreign residents accounted for 60.9% of the purchases made, which represents 6.4% more than the previous year. On the other hand, non-resident foreigners who were affected by the elimination of the ‘Golden Visa’ and had to assume new tax limits, they reduced their purchases by 4.1%. In Xataka | Hoteliers dream of hanging the sign full in 2025. The rent that their employees must pay is their worst nightmare Image | Unsplash (Boris Busorgin)

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