time

Apple has chosen to be the Microsoft of the 90s. They are good and bad news at the same time

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They are late for the AI ​​revolution, but compensate Apple Intelligence in Invisible and indispensable infrastructure. There was a particularly revealing moment in the Keynote of the WWDC 2025: While the technological world lives its greatest revolution since the arrival of the Internet, Apple dedicated fifty -two seconds to talk about Apple Intelligence. The rest of the time spent talking about things such as the new telephone app or personalized funds for Imessage. Then they spent more time talking about Foundation Models and integrations, but the most explicit Apple Intelligence for the user was relegated. It is as if in 1996, in the middle of the Internet explosion, Microsoft had focused its Keynote on improving the Windows Paint and lonely. The analogy is not accidental because Apple is repeating part of the Microsoft strategy of the nineties: Arrive late to a technological revolution and compensate with deep integration what they lack in pure innovation. When the Internet began to change the world, Microsoft did not create the best browser, protocols or web servers. But Internet integrated so deeply in Windows that it became impossible to avoid. They did not lead that technology, but made it indispensable within their territory. Apple is executing the same pattern, although with a nuance of the size of Alicante: they have developed their own models for Apple Intelligence. And now they translate into new specific functions: Machine translation. Calling spam. Personalized sports motivation. Your Foundation Models gives developers direct access to that local intelligence. But when you need real conversation, complex reasoning, advanced creativity … there they turn to Chatgpt. The Current Siri Without Openai remains the usual: appropriate for basic commands, but it is lost as soon as you leave the script. For the conversational and productive jump that defines this era, Apple depends on others. Your strategy is intelligent: Controlling the everyday and routine where integration matters more than gross power. Subcontracting the advanced where they still cannot compete. They do not sell as a product, but make it a kind of digital oxygen. You breathe it without realizing it. Google, Openai or Anthropic compete to create the best chatbot and surround it with functions that underpin it. Apple opts to integrate intelligence in each basic interaction of its devices. You do not need to open chatgpt to translate a message, it simply occurs. You don’t look for an app to filter spam calls, your iPhone takes care of that. It is the difference between selling electricity and selling appliances that work with electricity. Amazon executed a similar strategy when he arrived late to the conversational. They cannot compete with chatgpt in headlines, but they are making Its AI is the easiest option for companies that already live in AWS. They do not define the future of AI, but they do domesticate it within the infrastructure they live. The problem is that This defensive strategy comes with expiration date. The Microsoft of the nineties had serious problems when it lost the train that took him from the PC to the mobile. His domain by integration evaporated as soon as the dominant platform changed. Apple did manage to reinvent himself with the iPhone and with the Wearablebut AI is moving much faster than previous transitions. The PC Revolution → Mobile took a decade, the AI ​​revolution is happening in less than a five years. Apple Silicon took another decade of internal development to Apple. To lead the conversational that defines this era they would need a similar investment in research. The question is if they are ten years old. The window closes every time Openai presents a more capable modelevery time Google Integra Gemini more deeply in Androidevery moment they lose defining what the conversational means for the end user. Apple, for the moment, is playing the perfect letter for the short term. Its integration is superior, its most credible privacy, its most polished experience. They control infrastructure and experience, but they subcontract the intelligence that really differentiates this era from all the above. It’s like perfectly controlling iPhone’s hardware but depending on Google for apps that people really want to use. And this is especially paradoxical coming from Apple, A company that has invested decades and billions in controlling fundamental technologies: They developed their own operating systems so as not to depend on Microsoft or Google. They created Apple Silicon not to depend on the cycles and limitations of Intel. They are developing their own modems so as not to depend on Qualcomm and The C1 already debuted with the iPhone 16E. Apple understands better than anyone who controls base technologies controls the future. But with the generative AI they have chosen to be the best integrators instead of competing frontally for creating the best models in the world. It is a conscious resignation to that ‘big’ competition that defines the technological ages. “ Apple Intelligence works, and it works better the less explicit it is. It shines in the subtle, in the rear layer. But the history of technology teaches us that defensive strategies have limits. Microsoft dominated the nineties with superior integration, until a platform came where that integration no longer matters. The question is not whether Apple can continue to be the best integrator of others. The question is yes, when the redefine completely how we interact with technology, it will be enough to have been the perfect host of a revolution that others wrote. In Xataka | Four AI companies are monopolizing the intellectual future of humanity. They are not good news Outstanding image | Apple

measure exactly the time they eat, according to scientists

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Overweight is no longer an exclusive problem of adults or an isolated issue in childhood. Between improvised lunches and late dinners a serious problem is emerging. To follow the current inertia, a study Posted in The Lancet He has warned that Spain could be placed as the fourth country in the world with the highest prevalence of childhood obesity in 2050. And the answer is not only in what is eaten, but when. Looking beyond the plate. For decades, the nutritional debate focused on calories, Fats, sugars and Tags. But a key question had been out of radar: does the time it is eaten? Here the discipline of the Chrononutrition. This discipline analyzes how food schedules can directly influence our health. More technically, it is about biological watches (adjusted by factors such as light, sleep, physical activity and food) are closely linked to metabolism through the so -called circadian rhythms. Therefore, dinner late, that in Spain it is a usual tonic, it could be taking its toll. Not only does digestion hinder: it can also imbue metabolism, make insulin work worse and, over time, favor overweight, even if the dish seems healthy. Under that premise. A group of researchers from the valuenut project, from the Complutense University of Madrid, It was proposed to respond to that theorybut focusing on the little ones. To do this, they gathered 880 schoolchildren between 8 and 13 years old, from five Spanish provinces: A Coruña, Barcelona, ​​Madrid, Seville and Valencia. The goal was not just to know what children ate, but also what time they did. The study focused on three concrete aspects: breakfast, dinner and the “food window”. This little known concept refers to the time between the first meal of the day and the last to know how daily intake is distributed. The criteria? They considered late breakfast that occurs after 8:53 am, and late dinner that is taken from 9:10 p.m. If the difference between the two exceeded 12 hours, there was talk of a prolonged food window. The results. Unlike what They have suggested Some studies in adults, in this case there was no direct relationship between eating late or lengthening too much time between the first and last meal of the day, and neither was a greater risk of obesity in the children analyzed. However, the metabolism did give signals of change, such as the schoolchildren who had breakfast later presented lower levels of glucose and LDL cholesterol (the one known as “bad”), and higher in HDL (the “good”). A fact that revealed the thread that had to be thrown away. There was the pattern. When the late dinners or very prolonged food windows were analyzed, a different pattern emerged: the quality of the diet got worse. Less planned meals, more improvised and with less nutritional value. On the other hand, it was also given that there were children who ate the days for more hours, that is, with a longer window. These showed unavailable values ​​at glucose and cholesterol level and indices to develop cardiovascular diseases in the future. But there is more. And to this equation an additional factor was added: the dream. The study revealed that 60 % of these children also slept less hours, which could further enhance the negative effects on their metabolism. Less rest, more mismatch in food schedules and a lower quality diet: a silent, but potentially harmful cocktail. Synchronizing times. In the light of the results, the researchers launch a clear message: it is not enough to eat well, you also have to eat on time. From the study itself has clarified that the recommendation is to shorten the daily window, that is, that all meals are concentrated in a period of less than 12 hours. Of course, in the case of Spain, where late dinners are deeply rooted to culture, so the challenge is not less. However, if you want to stop childhood obesity, the “when” must occupy a place as relevant as the “what” and “how much”. The research also raises new lines of work: what role does the child’s chronotype play? What happens if this data is combined with sleep quality? What if it is also taught to better plan meals? Understanding how the internal clock works from childhood can be key to preventing this problem from growing with them. Image | Pavel Danilyuk Xataka | Mexico has given an ultimatum to schools: they have six months to throw all the “junk” food of the menus

China is moving whole buildings at the same time to build underneath. Because? Because it can

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In China The buildings are. Literally. No matter how heavy and large that they are or if it is delicate brick and wood constructions raised a century ago. When it is necessary, the country’s engineers manage so that their houses are “lifted” and begin to “walk” slowly through the streets. It sounds crazy, but it is a technique that They have been polishing and allows them something key: respect their assets without stopping the development of parkings or commercial areas. The last example has left Shanghai, who has managed to walk A group of buildings which occupies 4,030 m2 and around 7,500 metric tons. Open step to the building. Chinese media, like People Daily, China Daily either Xinhuathey have been publishing these days a video and photos at least curious: in them it can be seen how a group of buildings, almost an apple, moves in block throughout several meters, just like in a huge game of tetris. Moveing ​​buildings is nothing new. In Spain it is also done. But the usual thing is that the architects are responsible for listing, disassembling and re -assembling the facades, do not displace entire buildings as if they were on a tape. Click on the image to go to Tweet. A figure: 7,500 tons. The block in question is formed by old Shikumen buildings Raised in Shanghai a century ago and their data give an idea of ​​the enormous logistics and technical challenge that involves moving them in a piece: According to the Chinese pressthe complex, known as “Huayanli” and which is composed of three brick and wood structures, measures 4,030 m2 and weighs 7,500 tons. The construction is found in Zhangyuan, in the Jing´an district, Shanghai. What have they moved for? To build under the ground. Chinese authorities decided to relocate that mole to facilitate the works of an underground three -story complex Zhangyuanan ambitious project, of just over 53,000 m2, which will include commercial and cultural areas, a parking lot with a hundred parking spaces and connections with several lines of the Shanghai meter. It is not the first time that China moves large buildings from one point to another. In 2024 We already told you which was displacing Shikumen housing raised in the early twentieth century in Jing´an. One of those blocks came to “travel” the a whopping 230 m, much more than other similar operations carried out before in the country, such as the temple of the Jade Buddha of Shanghai, which, which 30.6 m movedor the Hankau Yiyong Fire Association building, which 90 m slide On rails. But … why move them? That is the million dollar question. If the objective is to look for new locations or temporarily comply with the buildings while the operators work in the area, as is the case of the houses of Jing´an, why move them from a piece? Why don’t they disassemble stone by stone? Logistic, preservation and separate time issues, there is a fundamental element: Huayanli is built with brick and wood, in the line of the Shijumen buildingsan architectural style that emerged around the 1860s, closely associated with Shanghai and combines Western and Chinese elements. The idea of ​​engineers is to “lift it” without causing damage, move it and then return it to its original location, an operation that It is ready to complete. The key: 430 small robots. At this point the question is obvious … How have Chinese engineers manage to move a block of 7,500 tons houses? The key are 432 small robots. The company responsible for the work resorted to drilling devices that can be handled at a distance and move through narrow spaces, which facilitates work in the foundations. To avoid scares with collision points or structural problems, the team also handled Construction Information Modeling (BIM) and scan of points clouds, which allowed him to work based on 3D planes. I walk slowly, walk safe. Another of their resources was to use robots designed for the movement of land and endowed with folding mechanical arms that allow them to work in very small spaces, less than 1.2 m wide, also distinguishing clay or different obstacles. When it comes to displacing the constructions, the experts designed different routes. The task, of course, is not suitable for impatient: since May 19 Huayanli has mode 10 m per day. Image | Xinhua In Xataka | In China there are scratching size ships sailing thousands of kilometers from the sea. All thanks to your cranes

Tariffs have made Temu an economic experiment in real time: see how far their clients endure

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Trump tariffs have turned Temu into an interesting behavioral economy laboratory. When the tariffs rose to 145%, the Chinese platform did something unheard of: Show exactly why prices uploadedbreaking down the price and explaining the origin of each extra charge. Why is it important. This radical transparency avoided a total collapse. Although Daily users fell 58% and the GMV (gross merchandise value) was reduced by halfTemu managed to retain 40 million users when some predictions talked about a collapse. Honesty over tariffs has transformed a debacle into a manageable crisis. In Xataka China’s rare land block is very delicate for Europe for another reason: high -power magnets In detail. Temu’s strategy is brutally direct. Instead of hiding the increases, they explain: “Imported articles may be subject to import positions. These charges cover all customs -related processes and costs.” A mobile cover went from $ 1 to $ 1.50. It looks like a rise of “only 50 cents”, but it is 50%. It is difficult to resist such a percentage increase. However, $ 1.50 remains a much lower price than American equivalents. The context. Trump eliminated the exemption “of Minimis” which allowed shipments from China without tariffs for packages of less than $ 800. Initially it applied 145% tariffs, then reduced them to 54% for 90 days. 90% of Temu’s business depended on this model that took advantage of the legal lagoon. When it disappeared, the company had to reinvent itself. Yes, but. The experiment has limits. Temu eliminated 3.4 million products from its catalogleaving only 150,000 sent by boat. 20% of vendors went to other platforms or markets. The company reduced its advertising expense in the United States and redirected resources to Europewhere his advertising investment has multiplied by twelve. {“Videid”: “X8RH2E2”, “Autoplay”: False, “Title”: “A very fast air fryer but is not for everyone”, “Tag”: “Webedia-Prod”, “Duration”: “489”} The partial resistance of consumers says a lot about price psychology. When Temu showed total transparency on tariffs, many buyers interpreted the increases as something external to the company, not as Temu’s greed. This perception of “we against the system” translated into an unexpected loyalty between the hard core of users. TeMU is transforming its business model on the fly. Launched the “Model Y2“That allows Chinese merchants to send directly without storing inventory in the United States. The “local to local” model is expanding where American sellers sell locally stored products. Its objective: that 80% European sales come from local vendors to avoid tariffs. The big question. What does the US consumer say that 40 million remain willing to pay almost double for Chinese products? Trump wanted to kill Chinese electronic commerce, but has ended up airing the existence of a huge group of consumers for whom the equation-value equation of Chinese products is still irresistible. Even with 145%tariffs. In Xataka | China has made a drastic decision and unpredictable consequences: prioritizing “its” technology, even worse Outstanding image | Alain G. ShumbushoTemu (Function () {Window._js_modules = Window._js_modules || {}; var headelement = document.getelegsbytagname (‘head’) (0); if (_js_modules.instagram) {var instagramscript = Document.Createlement (‘script’); }}) (); – The news Tariffs have made Temu an economic experiment in real time: see how far their clients endure It was originally posted in Xataka by Javier Lacort .

The capacity descended for the first time in months

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In recent months we have witnessed rainy episodes of great intensity that led to beating various brands. They have also led the reservoirs to reach levels that we had not seen in years. Now we have the summer ahead, and we do not know what will hold us. Exceeded the beak. The reservoirs reached at the end of May the best filling figure so far from 2025 and, with it, their best figure in several years, after a long one he continued that he left many swamps to the edge of the disappearance. Now, the Last data of the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge indicate A slight descent In the reservoir water that suggests that we are already past the spring time of bonanza. (Almost) all basins in setback. The Recent figures of the Ministry indicate that the water reserve is 43,038 cubic hectometers (HM³), which implies 76.8% of its capacity. It is therefore slightly below 43,412 hm³ (77.5% of its capacity) with which it had The previous week. TO Basin levelall large peninsular basins have registered descents except for the Basque internal basins, which remain 100% of their capacity, and the Catalan internal, which reached 554 hm³, 81.8% of their capacity after accumulating 4 hm³ more than the previous week. The most pronounced decrease occurred in the basins of the Galician coast, which went from 75.7% of its capacity to 73.7%. The end of spring. The arrival of meteorological summer implies that the average level of the reservoirs has already begun to descend after reaching its peak and will continue to do so until the arrival of the autumn rains. After a week of intense heat and atmospheric stability, rainfall and storms That the last days have affected the north of the peninsula could moderate this decrease for now, but weather forecasts affect that summer is already over us. Forecasts that, in the short term speak of the return of anticyclonic and heat time, with The threat of 40º Celsius again present. In the medium term, predictions also seem to confirm that we are in the middle of summer. The State Meteorology Agency (AEMET) estimates that the next three weeks will be slightly dry than usual for these dates but also provides for them somewhat warmer. Thermal anomalies are planned that could exceed 3rd during the first weeks in some areas, but with positive thermal anomalies in almost the entire country throughout the next three weeks. Uncertain summer. If the forecasts are met, the month of June will be slightly dry but, above all, warmer than usual. From here there is little that we can anticipate without falling into the speculative. The summer of 2024 was Very warm and very humid In most of the country, with 1st Celsius temperatures above the usual in peninsular Spain and rainfall 17% above the usual in the same region. The 2024 was the sixth wettest and most warm summer of the 21st century, and also the most warm sixth of the historical series. We will have to wait to know if the 2025 follows any of these patterns to find out how this affects the swamps of the Iberian Peninsula. In Xataka | Spain has gone from being yellow to green: the impressive impact of the rains, seen from space Image | DronepilotsPainnieto Nieto Granado

“Ready to eat” are sweeping supermarkets. It is because we no longer buy products, we buy time

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Juan Roig He said it And half Spain was thrown on him: “In the middle of the 21st century there will be no kitchens.” Discussing whether it was a prophecy or a simple interested provocation, eight million Spaniards were already giving him right. Those who were buying prepared dishes, according to someone so little suspicious of having an interest like the EFE agency. Not that Roig is a visionary guru, he was simply reading the data that others wanted to ignore. The numbers speak for themselves: the consumption of dishes “ready to eat” bought in supermarkets (or in that genius of Naming‘Merchants’) It has grown 48% in just two years. Mercadona has this section In 1,260 storesbut Lidl also launched its own rangeAlcampo sells Up to 200 different dishes according to the store and Day has 180 products like this. Even Ikea has climbed to that car: to sell, more than ingredients, solutions. AND We are not talking about junk food or commitment solutionslike those packaged potato tortillas that made Belcebú cry. Now we see paellas, homemade croquettes, lentils, lasagers or potato tortillas themselves that know exactly what we hope they know. The trend goes beyond the supermarket: in the last twenty years the consumption of this type of dishes has multiplied by five. Supermarkets are simply integrating it into their offer and taking advantage of the fact that they are a usual place of passage, not a concrete destination such as the food houses. The nuance that explains this boom is that We are not buying exactly food, we are buying time. It is a symptom of change of our priorities. We are not stopping cooking for lazy, but by exhausted. Maybe also because we have more options what to do with that time recovered. Our parents had three television channels and the bar dominoes; We have platforms of streamingvideo games, Yoga online classes, cheap Ryanair tickets, establishments oriented towards “experiences” and an infinite offer of stimuli competing for our attention. It may simply Let’s be less willing to give up those two hours of kitchen when we know everything we could do with them. If we add the paid work, the domestic, the displacements and the care, the royal days exceed the 60 hours per week, according to the National Survey of Working Conditions of the INE. What we buy with each prepared dish is not just food: it’s a break. Returned time. A truce. And that’s why they succeed. In Xataka | Spain has become a country addicted to something that some years ago enjoyed little prestige: the white brand Outstanding image | Mercadona

We have been creating whale bones to tools for a long time. Before even learning to hunt them

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For centuries, whale hunting was a weight sector in the coastal areas of the Gulf of Bizkaia. Everything took advantage of this animal, or almost everything: the meat served as food and fat served as oil to enliven the flames of the lamps before electricity and oil. His bones have also been A valuable resource Throughout history. Now we know that also during prehistory. Prehistoric tools. A group of researchers, including scientists from the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology of the Autonomous University of Barcelona, He has discovered Tools made of whale bone. The analysis of De Ha throws an estimated age of between 19,000 and 20,000 years. The 83 tools were found In various deposits Distributed by the coast of the Gulf of Bizkaia, including the Cantabrian coast and points in southern France. To these tools you have to add another 90 unrelated bones found in the Cave of Santa Catalina, Located in the Biscay town of Lekeitio. The bone remains would have belonged to specimens of at least five different species, including species such as the sperm whale, the common whale and the blue whale that can still be found in the waters of the Gulf and the gray whale, already disappeared from that environment with a more restricted habitat to areas of the northern Pacific and the Arctic Oceans, explains the team Investigating what and when. For the identification of the species and dating the tools, the equipment resorted to the mass spectrometry techniques and radiocarbon dating. Thus they managed to find the origin of the tools in the five species mentioned above. It was also like the team determined that it was, In words of the Jean-Marc Pétillon group “some of the oldest known evidences of human use of whale remains as tools.” “Zooms is a very powerful technique to investigate the past diversity of marine mammals, especially when there are missing diagnostic morphometric elements in bone remains and objects, something common in artifacts made of bones,” explained in a press release Krista McGrath, co -author of the study. Chemical analysis. The study also involved a chemical analysis of the sample. Thanks to this, the team was able to find out data on the eating habits of the whales, which “differed slightly from those of their modern counterparts.” This implies possible changes in the behavior of cetaceans, or in the marine ecosystem itself. The details of the study were published In an article In the magazine Nature Communications. 20,000 years hunting whales? The conclusion that the human being has 20 millennia hunting whales is tempting, but the team responsible for the study considers it “extremely unlikely.” The most likely hypothesis is that the Pleistocene hunters would have taken advantage of the arrival of stranded whales to the coast to obtain their bones and manufacture from them “It is extremely unlikely that these species would have been accessible to the hunters collecting European pelistocene in another way that were not through passive acquisition methods, such as the opportunistic acquisition of stranded whales or the arrival on the coast of corpses,” says the article. “There is no evidence (…) that the collection hunters of the European Pleistocene had the necessary technologies to hunt these species, such as navigation (…).” Change of sea level. Study coastal life in glacial ages since the present coastline is relatively Far from the coastline typical of the last glaciation, although the extension of the lands flooded after the end of the last glacial era differs between area and area. Within the Gulf of Bizkaia, for example, we can appreciate a greater area flooded on the French coast and therefore a greater decline of the coastal line in contrast to the Cantabrian coast. In any case, the coastal recession implies the loss of valuable coastal deposits now flooded by the Atlantic waters. Deposits that could hide countless data that could help us to know better these life modes of the millennium coastal peoples behind in time. In Xataka | The history of the last whale hunted in Spain, on October 21, 1985 Image | ICTA-UAB/Alexandre Lefebvre

How to eliminate several at the same time with this new function

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Let’s explain How to use the function of administering subscriptions in Gmailan option that is beginning to reach all users of the web version and mobile apps. Some users are already coming, and it is only a matter of time that we can all use it. It is a screen that collects all emails that belong to subscriptions, and allows you to unsubscribe with a pulsation on that screen. It is a much faster process than one by one to each email and look for the option to eliminate the subscription that appears in it. How to Manage Subscriptions in Gmail The process of being unuscard of several emails is at the same time simple. Both on the web and in mobile apps, you have to open Gmail’s left lateral menu. In the menu, click on Further To show all options, and click on the option Manage subscriptions that will appear under the bin. If you don’t appear, you will have to wait a few days until you activate. This will show you a list of All directions that send you subscription emails that Gmail has detected. In each of them, you will see below the address of mails and the amount of them that has recently sent you, in order to distinguish the most annoying from the least send you. Now, simply click on the unuscard button that are to the right of each of the emails. This will show you a dialogue asking if you want to do it, and you will simply have to click on Unsubscribe To confirm. And so, without leaving this screen you can do it with everyone you want. In Xataka Basics | Change gmail or outlook for a European alternative: step to follow and what you should take into account

It is the ideal time to get the famous Sony console

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If you have been thinking for a while PlayStation 5the time has come to do it at a good price. Now, Sony has decided to reduce all the versions of its famous game console. You can buy the standard PS5 (with record reader) for 449 eurosthe Slim model by 399 euros and the most top model, the PS5 Pro for 749 euros. PlayStation 5 Digital console Slim model * Some price may have changed from the last review PlayStation 5 standard Slim model console * Some price may have changed from the last review * Some price may have changed from the last review The supervent console now at an irresistible price The PS5 Slim Digital Edition is the cheapest console model of the Japanese firm when coming without record reader. Incorporates with A dualsense command1 TB SSD storage, Ray Tracin HDR technology and allows you to enjoy 4K at 120 fps graphics on screens that have HDMI input 2.1. You also have the Model with record readerwhich is ideal if you have many games in physical and not a PlayStation online service subscription. As for characteristics, it has the same as the digital model. On the other hand, the Ps5 pro It is the most top model of the Sony console. The most characteristic of this model is that It has PSSR (PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution), a new technology for re -scanning images. It comes with 2 TB of storage and does not bring record reader. Although you do not worry, because you can always buy it whenever it is available, because the stock is usually limited. You may also be interested in these accessories PS5 Nexigo – Delgado Horizontal Support with silent cooling fan * Some price may have changed from the last review Powera Dual fast charger for 2 x dualsense wireless controls * Some price may have changed from the last review Some of the links of this article are affiliated and can report a benefit to Xataka. In case of non -availability, offers may vary. Images | John Tones and Juan Carlos López (Xataka) and Sony In Xataka | PlayStation 5 Pro vs PlayStation 5: These are all the differences between the two Sony consoles In Xataka | Two years ago I bought a PS5. I wish someone would have told me that I also needed these accessories

Mercadona has fired its benefits but has also closed stores for the first time in years. The reason: the “stores 8”

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For the first time in decades, Mercadona reduced its physical network while firing benefits 37% to 1,384 million euros. No other Spanish chain approaches that figure. The paradox has a name: “Stores 8”, a format that can double profitability but forces to close establishments incompatible with it. What is happening. The chain went from 1,681 stores in 2023 to 1,674 in 2024, closing 49 establishments compared to 42 openings. It is not crisis: it is strategy. “8” stores “need spaces of 1,500 square meters to be efficient, impossible in much smaller stores, why they will work decades ago. “We are a assembly chain and the less variability it has, the better it works,” said Juan Roig in the presentation of 2024 results, according to Valencia Plaza. A well -located store 8 absorbs customers from several nearby small stores, concentrating traffic at more profitable points. It is a calculated cannibalization. In figures: 1,431 stores already function as store 8 (85.5% of the total). 10,000 million invested in 7 years of transformation. 3.88% record marginup to foreign chains such as Walmart (2.88%) or Costco (2.95%). 419 million allocated in 2024 only to adapt stores to the new model. The context. “8” stores “are diaphanous spaces with large corridors, advanced technology and new sections such as” ready to eat. ” They reduce energy consumption by 40% and improve purchase experience, but demand specific locations with good accesses and parking. Roig admits to make “frequently unpopular decisions” closing stores due to “small size, access problems or lack of profitability.” The model prioritizes operational uniformity over territorial capillarity: better few perfect stores than many mediocre. Yes, but. Nor are they “perfect stores.” Roig himself says it And his own name says: they are called that because “to get to 10 they must still incorporate new elements and services demanded by customers.” Deepen. Mercadona is changing its commercial map by store. The objective is to complete the 100% transformation in 2026, sacrificing less efficient establishments to concentrate investment in Premium locations. Operational perfection has become its competitive advantage, even if that means leaving some neighborhoods without a merchant as hand as before. Outstanding image | Mercadona In Xataka | Juan Roig believes that cooking at home has no future. There are eight million Spaniards who are already giving the right

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