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What is Gemini Spark, what you can do with it, how it works and who can use it

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Let’s explain to you What is Gemini Spark and how does it work?the new function of artificial intelligence integrated within the application Gemini. This is a response by the company to OpenClaw and others AI agentsbut aimed at helping us manage our digital life. The idea is not so much to do things for us on the computer as to be able to carry out online tasks autonomously, and even when our mobile phone or computer is turned off. We are going to explain this concept to you so that you understand it well, and then we will tell you how it works. What is Gemini Spark Gemini Spark is an artificial intelligence agent created by Google, and integrated into the Gemini application. AI agents are artificial intelligence systems capable of carry out actions autonomously. You ask them to do a task, and they carry out all the steps interacting with third-party services without the need for your supervision. Come on, it’s like a secretary who does tasks for you. In the case of Spark, it will be able to reason based on what you ask of it and the information it obtains from your connected applications. With this, then will take actions on your behalf interacting with these services. With Gemini Spark you can assign it a task and it will start working on it autonomously, even with your phone and computer turned off. And as one of the aspects that always worries security agents, Google assures that Spark is designed to consult you before taking important actions. Come on, you will have the final decision in these things. Spark can be working in the background 24 hours a day, seven days a week when you ask it to do something. It runs on the Gemini 3.5 model, uses the Antigravity harness, and integrates with Google Workspace tools such as Gmail, Slides, Docs, and all the tools in the company’s office suite. The difference with the normal Gemini is the following. AI chatbots require you to have it open for it to do things. Then, you ask them to do something, they respond and do it, and that’s it. The session ends there. Spark for his part maintain a persistent presence in your apps and digital environment, when you give it the order it can work in several steps and continue doing it in the background while you do other things, or while you sleep. How it works and what you can do with Gemini Spark Gemini Spark doesn’t live inside your device, but on dedicated Google virtual machines. This is what makes keep running in the background even if you close your laptop or lock your mobile. It connects to Gmail, Docs, Slides, and other Workspace tools with structured API integrations, making it more predictable than agents navigating the desktop pixel by pixel. This agent can connect natively with Gmail, Calendar, Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides, YouTube and Google Maps. It is important that you know that these connections are disabled by defaultand you will be the one who decides which of them you want to activate to work with Spark. Spark can use a remote browser to leave the Google ecosystem. This way, they can enter a website and interact with it to perform tasks such as adding products to a shopping cart on your behalf. This tool will be able to do complex jobs for you. You can set recurring tasks to be done as often as you decide, teach it new skills, and let it execute multi-step jobs on your behalf. You can also organize your Google Drive files, even adding them to a spreadsheet by adding tags and notes. It can also automatically extract data from emails, create folders in your Drive cloud, etc. You can also teach it personalized behaviors or “Skills” to repeat, such as reading your last 50 emails sent, generating a style guide with your writing style and applying it when you ask it to write an email, and more. Another thing you can do is configure schedules to organize tasks with schedules or when conditions are met. For example, you can ask that every Monday at nine in the morning scan your inbox and summarize your emails, propose a list of priority tasks, or block gaps in your work calendar. You will also be able to create written documents or presentations from a prompt in tools such as Docs or Slides. It can review events, respond to invitations or schedule calendar meetings, convert email chains into a travel plan, record expenses in a spreadsheet, analyze past bills to anticipate future household payments, add recurring reminders, browse websites and compare options, help you complete reservations, and much more. The most important thing is that all this is going to do under your supervision. It’s as if Spark were an employee, who will send you updates on steps it deems critical, and will require your explicit approval to perform high-risk actions, such as sending emails. Who can use Gemini Spark Gemini Spark is part of the Google AI Ultra subscription. This means that if you want to use it you will have to go for the most expensive subscriptionwhich in Spain means paying a minimum of 100 euros per month. Additionally, Spark can only be used in the United States at the moment, because It is a tool that is still in beta phase. There is still no confirmation on when it will reach other languages ​​and countries, although when it finally arrives it will be able to be used on Gemini websites and apps of Android and iOS. They also plan to integrate it directly into Chrome in the future. In Xataka Basics | 64 free courses for AI with Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini and Copilot created by your own companies

They have asked 1,600 experts how the Universe works. They don’t agree on almost anything

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We continually read news about new findings that they defy the known physics of the Universe. This may lead us to ask ourselves something: do we know so little about the Universe that absolutely everything challenges it? To answer this question it is important to give a little context. Yes, a lot is known about astrophysics, but when we talk about something as immense as the Universe, even that “a lot” can fall short. Furthermore, much of this information is based on hypotheses that have been accepted as consensus, but not on absolute truths. Therefore, it is not strange that in the largest survey ever conducted It has been proven to astrophysicists and astrophysics fans that there is a lot of disagreement on almost everything related to the cosmos. The largest survey. In 2024, during an astrophysics conference in Copenhagen, a survey was carried out in which 85 experts participated. All of them had to answer a series of questions about some of the best-known theories in astrophysics. With this survey it was seen that there is a lot of disagreement, even in those theories in which there is supposed to be a great consensus. In order to check whether these disagreements were a result of the sample size, a new survey was carried out in 2025, this time with 1,600 people who had to answer 11 questions. Some participants were experts from the American Astrophysical Society. Others were amateur readers of Physics Magazine. With a larger sample, the results were very similar. There is very little consensus. From hypotheses to certainties. Science in general, and astrophysics in particular, is built on hypotheses that evolve as scientific advances are made. For this reason, it is often more full of probabilities than certainties. It is important to differentiate different branches of science. In health sciences, there are certainties. For example, we know that antibiotics attack bacteria and are not useful against viruses, no matter how many people insist on taking them for the flu. We also know that their abuse can be very harmful, since it contributes to the development of resistance in bacteria. Those are certainties, although logically there is also information that evolves over time. In astrophysics, hypotheses accepted by consensus often outnumber certainties. There are very clear certainties, such as that the Earth is not flat or that it revolves around the Sun. But also some hypotheses with which not even experts agree. Cosmic inflation wins. The issue on which there was the greatest consensus in the 2025 survey, the results of which were recently published, was cosmic inflation. That is, the hypothesis that points to an exponential expansion of the Universe which began in its first moments, after the Big Bang. 51% of respondents agreed that this theory explains many problems in cosmology at once and therefore has a high probability of being true. Talking about the Big Bang. The existence of the Big Bang was another of the theories with the greatest consensus in the survey, although the truth is that the figure is nothing to write home about either. 25% of the participants agreed that this event gave rise to the Universe 13.8 billion years ago. On the other hand, there were 68% of people who indicated that the Universe was born at a time when there was a large increase in temperature and density, but they did not indicate when that occurred. Disagreements with dark matter. Gravitational behaviors that do not respond to the observed mass have been observed in the Universe. That is, it seems as if there are massive objects exerting a gravitational attraction on others, but these objects are not detected, not even large accumulations of atoms. There is nothing. 27% of those surveyed consider that this can be explained by the existence of dark matter. However, there are 12% who believe that all this may be due to changes in the behavior of gravity on cosmic scales. That is to say, when we talk about the immensity of the Universe, the gravity exerted by objects is not the same. On the other hand, there are 5% of people who consider that the key is in primordial black holes. Although here we must emphasize that one of the hypotheses about the origin of dark matter is that it is formed in part by primordial black holes, so they would not be denying its existence. String theory to solve incompatibilities. The theory of general relativity was proposed on large, cosmic scales. On the other hand, quantum mechanics talks about the behavior of matter on a subatomic scale. Both questions seem incompatible, but to understand the Universe we need to work at both scales. Therefore, for a long time there has been thought about a theory that helps unify both issues. This, for 19% of those surveyed, is string theory. In it, subatomic particles, instead of being treated as points, are considered vibrational states of a more basic extended object, called a string. Normally, when we try to calculate the energy of a particle by considering it a mathematical point, without extension, we get closer to it eternally. We can do a kind of infinite zoom. On the other hand, when the points are replaced by strings with a minimum length, a result must necessarily be obtained. It does not tend to infinity. On the other hand, in string theory gravity, which not normally considered on a quantum scalearises naturally. Another hypothesis. The point is that, in the survey we are talking about, there are 12% of people who consider that string theory does not solve the problem, but that another theory does: that of loop quantum gravity. This, basically, acts in a completely opposite way. String theory emerges with quantum mechanics as a starting point and tries to find ways to make gravity make sense. On the other hand, the theory of loop quantum gravity starts from the General Theory of Relativity and attempts to quantize it in a way that … Read more

Already in Lidl this two-in-one cordless vacuum cleaner that works both dry and wet and does not cost more than 85 euros

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Perhaps we still do not have these types of products associated with Lidl, but the truth is that in this store we can find a lot of different devices. A few days ago we told you how there was even a Kärcher KHD 3and now we are going to continue a little with the path of cleaning with a 2-in-1 battery-powered handheld vacuum cleaner from Silvercrest: It is available on the Lidl website for 84.99 euros. Unfortunately, it will not reach physical stores. 2 in 1 handheld vacuum cleaner with battery The price could vary. We earn commission from these links If it runs out or you are simply looking for an alternative that also arrives directly to your home, You have two options on Amazon at a similar price: Cecotec Conga Rockstar RS50 X-Treme by 89.90 euros. A very similar alternative that comes with an LCD screen so we can check autonomy or the mode it has active. Dreame R10 by 129 euros. A little more expensive, but with greater autonomy, suction power and LED lights to better see the dirt. DREAME R10 Cordless Vacuum Cleaner, 20000 PA / 120 AW Cordless Stick Vacuum Cleaner, 60 Min Advanced Filtration, Multi-Surface Brush, LED Light, Suitable for Cleaning Pet Hair, Dust The price could vary. We earn commission from these links A versatile vacuum cleaner with many accessories This 2-in-1 vacuum cleaner is an interesting option if you are looking for a cordless vacuum cleaner that can be used for both the floor and the sofa or even for vacuuming car seats. It has, as we say, double function: Vacuums dry and also acts as a wet mop. And it comes with a lot of accessories, which will help us reach the most complicated areas. It has a variable suction power depending on the mode we use: from 6,000 Pa in Eco mode up to 9,000 Pa in Turbo mode. There perhaps lies the biggest defect of this handheld vacuum cleaner, since its autonomy suffers in this last mode. Despite this, it is an interesting economic alternative if you don’t want to spend too much. ⚡ IN SUMMARY: Lidl 2-in-1 handheld vacuum cleaner ✅ THE BEST A very economical option: It is a simple cordless vacuum cleaner that costs less than 85 euros and can be great for you both at home and in the car. It is a 2 in 1 vacuum cleaner: It vacuums dry and is also a wet mop, making it a versatile device. ❌ THE WORST It does not have much autonomy: If we use its Turbo mode, we will barely have battery for a couple of rooms. Available only on the Lidl website: This vacuum cleaner will not reach physical Lidl stores, so we can only buy it online. 💡 BUY IT IF… You are looking for a cordless upright vacuum cleaner that is versatile and, above all, does not take up much of your budget. ⛔ DON’T BUY IT IF… Do you prefer a more powerful option or one with more autonomy for a large house, such as the Dreame vacuum cleaner that we showed you above. You may also be interested DREAME R10 Pro Cordless Vacuum Cleaner, 20000 PA/150AW Powerful Suction, 20000 PA, Cordless Vacuum Cleaner with Multi-Surface Brush and LED Lights, Ideal for Home and Car Cleaning, Lightweight The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Dyson V8 Cyclone – Cordless Vacuum Cleaner – 150 AW, 60 min autonomy, Motorbar brush with anti-tangle technology, Multifunction corner accessory The price could vary. We earn commission from these links 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 | Lidl, Shopping addiction In Xataka | Best upright vacuum cleaners. Which one to buy based on use and six recommended models In Xataka | Best robot vacuum cleaners in quality price. Which one to buy based on use and six recommended models

An Atlassian engineer was fired. He then published a video on YouTube explaining how the company works

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“I was recently affected by layoffs made by Atlassian and wanted to take some time to reflect on the time I spent working there.” This is how it begins the video that Vasilios Syrakis shared on his YouTube channel. The video, titled “I have been fired by Atlassian” seems to be a criticism of the company. It’s something much better. What has happened? On March 11, Atlassian, the company behind software like Jira or Trello, announced that it was going to reduce its workforce by 10%which translates into about 1,600 street workers. The reason, of course, was AI. In the company’s words: “Our approach is not that AI will replace people, but it would be dishonest to pretend that AI does not change the mix of skills we need or the number of roles required in certain areas.” One of those roles was that of Vasilios. The answer. Instead of recording himself criticizing the company’s decision, this engineer opted for something different. What he did was publish a detailed, 38-minute description of everything he built during the eight years he worked at the company. Your video is a masterclass on How the architecture of a company of the stature of Atlassian works and it serves two objectives: it turns your experience into a common good and at the same time it is a letter of introduction for future jobs. what he did. Vasilios did not have a minor role at Atlassian, but for eight years, he worked on the invisible “plumbing” that connects millions of users to Jira and Confluence. In the video he details how Open Service Broker works, the internal platform he built so that Atlassian teams could publish their services on the internet with one click; also the Sovereign system, which acts as the “brain” of the more than a thousand proxies; and how it rebuilt security so that all internal services inherited the same authentication and attack security without having to write it one by one. The context. In the announcement, Atlassian admits that it is achieving very good results. In February 2026 they published their resultsin which they boasted a 23% increase in their total revenues, which reached 1,586 million, and a 26% growth in cloud revenues. Despite the fact that the company is doing very well, 10% of its staff ended up on the streets, including engineers with roles as important as Vasilios’. As mentioned in the Experienced Devs subredditVasilios is careful and in the video he does not seem to mention confidential information about the company, but instead limits himself to talking about the design of its systems, so it does not seem like they could sue him. At the time of writing, Atlassian has not commented on the video, which already has almost a million views. Image | Vasilios Syrakis, YouTube In Xataka | “They blame AI for layoffs they would do anyway”: Sam Altman confirms that AI has been used as an excuse to lay off

the idea is reminiscent of how macOS works

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The speed of an operating system is not always noticeable when we export a video or open a demanding game. Many times we perceive it in much smaller gestures: a menu that appears instantly or a window that responds without delay. It’s a hard feeling to sell on a spec sheet, but easy to notice when it fails. Microsoft has been trying to convey for months that it wants to improve Windows 11and one of its next adjustments goes right into that area where fluidity is gained or lost in tenths of a second. Low latency profile. Microsoft is testing what is known as low latency profile. The idea is to ask the processor for an additional boost of speed at specific times, such as when opening the Start menu, an application, or certain context menus. We are not facing a function announced as a great novelty for all users, but rather a setting present in test builds. Secure Windows Central who has already tested this profile and has observed an appreciable improvement in speed and response compared to the current public version of Windows 11 25H2. It’s not magic, it’s latency. The reference to macOS does not point to a specific Apple feature, but to a principle that, according to Scott Hanselman, vice president of Microsoft and GitHub, modern operating systems share. “All modern operating systems do this, including macOS and Linux,” wrote in X. Their argument is that this is not “cheating,” but rather a common way to make applications appear faster: temporarily raising the CPU speed and prioritizing interactive tasks to reduce latency. In other words, Windows 11 would be trying to react better in those seconds in which we most notice if the system is accompanying or lagging behind. Spot power. At first glance it may seem contradictory that asking more from the processor also helps to take care of consumption. But reality goes the other way: many modern chips are designed to exert intense effort for a very short period and then return to a low-power state. Applied to Windows 11, the goal would not be to keep the CPU accelerated, but rather to take advantage of a specific push when the system needs to respond to the user. The key is that this impulse does not last longer than necessary. The test has not convinced everyone. Some users criticized on social networks that Microsoft resorted to this type of CPU boost, understanding that it could increase consumption and reduce autonomy, or that the company was leaning too much on the hardware instead of better optimizing the software. Now, Microsoft does not present this adjustment as the only answer to the fluidity problems of Windows 11, but as one more piece within a broader work. Windows 11 also needs convincing. The interesting thing is that Microsoft isn’t just talking about making an animation go a little faster. The company has begun to publicly organize its progress around a very specific idea, its “commitment to Windows quality”, with posts tracking the status of several changes in testing, including a less loaded Widgets view, lower RAM usage, adjustments to the Windows Insider program, and more leeway to decide when updates are installed. The timing is not coincidental either.. All of this comes as Microsoft tries to push users and businesses towards Windows 11, with Windows 10 still installed on just over a quarter of the world’s Windows PCs, according to StatCounter. When I finish that free year of extended security updatesanyone who wants to remain protected will have to update the system, change equipment if their hardware does not meet the requirements of Windows 11, or pay for more support. For companies there is a little more margin, but not infinite: they will be able to purchase one or two additional years of updates, with a cost that will increase each year. Images | Nicholas Worrell In Xataka | The big bet for the future of Android is not just Android 17: it is Gemini Intelligence and your mobile phone doing things on its own

From today you can pay with Bizum in stores, this is how it works

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Let’s tell you How Bizum payments work in stores physical. This is the long-awaited function with which the Spanish application begins to compete with the American Visa, Mastercard, Apple or Google to take over our mobile payments. The deployment of this function will be progressiveand it will be each banking entity that will decide when to implement it. So, the technology already works as of now, but since Bizum is implemented directly in your bank’s app, it will be up to you when to add the touch payments feature. How this feature works This new function is used to pay with Bizum at the establishments’ dataphones. Businesses will not have to change their POS terminals, since the financial institutions themselves will be the ones to enable this new function in the terminals they already have. All this so that the implementation of this function is quick and easy. Currently, when you pay with your mobile phone in a store, you open your wallet application, choose the card and bring your mobile phone closer to the POS. The NFC chip in your mobile phone and the dataphone establishes the link between them and that’s it, you’ve paid. Now, You can do this from your bank’s app without having to configure the mobile wallet app. In addition to this, An app called Bizum Pay is also going to start arrivingwhich will be like a Bizum wallet application with which to make the payment easier, just as if you did it with Google Pay or Apple Pay, and without having to enter your bank app. The Bizum system will have the same security guarantees as the rest of the mobile payment options. You’ll have to unlock your device to pay, so it’s safer than paying with a card that others can use. Bizum currently has 39 participating banking entitiesamong them the most important banks in Spain, but also many neobanks. Therefore, if you are going to pay for your mobile phone, you can do so with this Spanish alternative instead of resorting to the American ones. The way it works will be exactly the same. When can you pay with Bizum in a business When your bank wants. This is the quick answer. From now on, it will be up to each bank to implement this technology in their mobile applications for customers and in the POS terminals of businesses. Each bank will have its own rhythm, that is, it will arrive progressively. In any case, you will have to pay attention to notifications from your bank’s appthe one you already use to send money with Bizum, because that will be when you will be told when you can start using this. In Xataka Basics | Bizum in 2026: everything that changes (and what does not) in transfers with this system

This is how the ‘twin’ car scam works

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The second-hand vehicle market does not stop growing. They don’t do it either the traps that lie in wait. Among all of them, there is one that stands out for its sophistication and the consequences it can have for those who fall for it: the twin car scam. And this fraud is not only limited to making those who fall for it lose money, but it can also leave them without a car, with an active debt and, in some cases, with criminal charges. What exactly is a twin car. With the word “twin” one can imagine what it could be about. Basically it refers to a stolen vehicle which has been assigned the identity of another car completely legal. Criminals locate a vehicle in circulation (of the same model, color and year as the one they have stolen) and copy its chassis number, the VIN. With that information, they create a false license plate, falsify the documentation and put the stolen car up for sale as if it were their legal twin. The result is a vehicle with a new identity that, in the eyes of any bona fide person who is only looking to buy a second-hand car, appears to be in order. In this way, the buyer, unknowingly, acquires a stolen car that has the same number as another one that circulates perfectly on the street. Two cars with the same chassis number. The VIN, which is the 17-digit number that we see under the windshield, stamped on the chassis, or on the driver’s door frame, uniquely identifies each vehicle manufactured in the world. This number contains the manufacturer, the technical specifications, the year of production and is used to track the complete history of the car, from license plates and warranties to theft and claims to insurance companies. As it could not be otherwise, its manipulation is expressly prohibited by law in all countries. In Spain, the Penal Code classifies the falsification of this type of document as a crime with penalties of up to six months in prison. The problem is that when cloning is done well, it is extremely difficult to detect with the naked eye. How it operatesn the scammers. The sale of twin vehicles is usually carried out by organized networks that are responsible for the theft, counterfeiting and sale of the car. First they steal the vehicle, usually without an active alarm or tracker. Then they “cool it” (they hide it for a few days so that it does not appear on radars) while they look for an identical car to copy the VIN from. Then they create false documentation, They advertise at a striking price on online platforms and disappear as soon as they get paid. According to Marco ArbanDirector of Business Development in Europe at CARFAX, “fraud in the used car market is increasingly complex and difficult to detect, often hidden behind seemingly normal behavior.” Cases. The FBI document a case in Tampa, Florida, in which more than 1,000 cloned cars were sold to buyers spread across twenty states and several countries, with estimated losses of more than $27 million among consumers, insurers and other victims. In Argentina, where the figure of the “twin car” has been established for years, the NGOs Defendamos Buenos Aires and Defendamos la República Argentina estimate that there are circulating more than 80,000 vehicles with modified documentation, and that approximately 80% are trucks, SUVs and pick-ups. In Europe, the phenomenon is growing as the second-hand market expands at a rapid pace, favored above all by the increase in the cost of new cars. What can happen to someone who buys one. If authorities discover that the vehicle is stolen, they can confiscate it immediately. The insurer can cancel the policy upon detecting fraud. And the buyer could even inherit outstanding debts associated with the legitimate VIN that was cloned. But there’s more: the buyer could face charges of possession of stolen goods, even if they had no knowledge of the fraud. And the owner of the car with the stolen identity does not come out unscathed either: he may receive traffic fines that do not correspond to him or, in extreme cases, be linked to criminal investigations for activities he has never committed. Many of these vehicles usually start out as scrap or total wrecks, which means that their safety systems (airbags, brakes, steering) may have been modified or assembled incorrectly, also increasing the risk of serious accidents. Warning signs. The good news is that, with a little attention, there are signs that can give away a twin car before it is too late. The first thing to do is check the VIN in all the points where it appears on the vehicle: on the dashboard next to the windshield, on the driver’s door frame, in the engine compartment and on the documentation. If there are numbers with different fonts, new rivets, sanding marks, recent welds or repainted areas around the engraving, there may be tampering. It is also a good idea to look at the price: if it is well below the market, if the seller is in a hurry to close without a contract, it is better to walk away. What to do before closing any purchase. The most effective tool available to anyone in Spain is the DGT report. The General Directorate of Traffic offers several types of report on any vehicle registered in Spain: from a free one with basic data to a complete one, for about 9 euros, which includes the ITV history, the recorded mileage, the number of previous owners, possible charges or seizures and the legal status of the vehicle. If the VIN that appears in that report does not exactly match the one that appears on the car, there is a serious problem. For vehicles with international history, services such as CARFAX or carVertical expand the query to databases from dozens of countries. And if you have a trusted mechanic on hand who can take … Read more

This is how your AI camera system works

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The new DéporTienda, the same as Deportivo de la Coruña, is not a simple store merchandising with a facelift. It is a case study of how spatial analytics, computer vision and predictive models can impact the retail sports. And a club from, for now, the Second Division has done it. RC Deportivo celebrates its 120th anniversary immersed in a modernization operation that goes beyond what happens on the pitch: museum, hospitalitysports city… But there is a project that says more about the direction the club wants to take than any signing or renovation of the stands. It’s your store. La DéporTienda has just reopened in its historic location next to the Abanca-Riazor stadium after two months of works. And more than just the furniture or decoration has changed. The nervous system of space has changed: it is now monitored, analyzed and, according to those responsible, it is capable of anticipating decisions before they are made. The cameras watch The project started with an observation phase of at least four months in the old store. The company responsible for the technological layer is Noumena Group, a Barcelona company founded in 2011 and specialized in spatial analytics with computer vision and Machine Learning. Its CEO, Aldo Sollazzoexplains that the system they have implemented in Riazor has the same DNA as the one they developed for Barcelona City Council in the analysis of Superapples and the green axles: cameras that process images to understand how people move through a space. Material for sale, and in the background, the wave made of PETG. Image provided. “It works through cameras connected to a brain based on edge computing“explains Sollazzo. “Each camera converts the input visual in a string text that guarantees anonymity and complies with the GDPR and the European AI law. We do not store images: we store spatial data,” he explains to Xataka by phone call. The system maps movement flows within the store, segments visitors by estimated age ranges and gender, generates heat maps and cross-references all this with product distribution and sales data. So far, descriptive analytics. What Noumena proposes as differential is the predictive layer. Predict before moving a shelf “The difference with other systems is that our data are not numbers disconnected from space,” says Sollazzo. “They are linked to the built environment. And that allows us to train models to predict what would happen if we redistribute the product, move the furniture or relocate the payment points.” In practice, this translates into decisions such as estimating whether an alternative display arrangement maximizes product exposure. Or whether relocating cash registers based on traffic reduces queues on busy days. Or calculate how many staff the store will need for a specific event. All this without the need for trial and error in the field. Heat maps on the store floor (top-down view). They represent the distribution of visitor flows in three different scenarios or moments, probably different furniture configurations or different temporal moments (normal day, match day, special event…). The most intense areas indicate a greater concentration of people, the dark areas are cold areas where few people pass through. It is clearly seen how the traffic distribution changes depending on the scenario: in some configurations there are obvious bottlenecks at the entrance and next to certain exhibitors, while in others the flow is distributed more homogeneously. The numbered white elements are the furniture and display modules. Image provided. Three-dimensional visualization of the same flow data as in the previous image. Instead of a flat heat map, occupancy data is represented as volumetric columns that “grow” from the floor: the higher the column height, the higher the traffic density at that point. The isometric perspective allows you to see the store as a built space (you can sense the walls, the modules) with superimposed spatial data. It is the representation that connects analytics with architecture, which is the point that Sollazzo emphasizes as differential: the data is not abstract, it is anchored to the physical environment. Image provided. Panel with a comparison of key indicators: net sales, visitors, items sold, conversion rate, average ticket… All within the framework of an event day, with a specific anniversary that drives attendance and purchase. Image provided. This tab crosses spatial data with sales data by product. The graphs show the ranking of suppliers, where Kappa logically dominates as it is the technical brand of the club; the interactions by exhibitor or the comparison of interest versus sales by supplier, where it is seen that Kappa generates a lot of interest and many sales, while Soricastel and Texprint (merchandising, not technical clothing) generate interest but convert less. This type of data is what allows us to decide if a supplier needs a better location, better price or less space. Image provided. Thanks to this research, the club has increased its working square meters by 10% and enhanced product exposure by 15%. For a football club store next to a stadium, where on match days the footfall can multiply by twenty (a figure declared by the club), those margins matter a lot. The system, furthermore, cross internal data with external variables: weather forecast, events in the city or at the stadium, mobility data in the surrounding area… “In celebration of the 25th anniversary of the League We had 250% more occupancy compared to a normal day,” recalls Sollazzo. “Without this technology it would be impossible to anticipate how much stocks “Do you need, how much workforce, how to redistribute the points of sale so that the queue does not block the flow of the store.” What is measured and what must be demonstrated The KPIs that the club will monitor are those expected in any serious operation of retail: average ticket, conversion rate, average stay time, number of visits, distribution of flows by module and visitor profile. The return on investment, according to Sollazzo, is expected in one year. The idea, in theory, is to sell more, of course, but also to make better, … Read more

It is not that Germany is promoting the four-day work day, it is that it is the country that works the fewest hours per year

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In May 2025 and through the Eurostat dataa reality was confirmed that sometimes confuses a story: the myth that says that Germans work harder than Spaniards did not stand with figures in hand. The key, as we comment thenwas in the quality of the labor market: a good part of German workers work fewer hours per week in part-time jobs, but they did so for more years than Spanish workers. And now the OECD has arrived to put Germany in your place. Work identity crisis. Germany, traditionally associated with discipline and productivity, today faces a paradox: according to the OECDis the developed country where fewer hours worked per year, just 1,331 compared to the 1,898 of Greece or the 1,716 of Portugal. The situation represents a symbolic blow for a country that just a decade ago imposed austerity policies on southern countries, stigmatizing them as not being hard-working. The drop in workload is combined with a economic deterioration palpable: unemployment has exceeded three million people For the first time in a decade, the economy has contracted for two consecutive years and the GDP is already lower than in 2019, while Spain and Greece are growing at rapid rates. greater than 2%. The debate about work. we have been counting. The reduction in hours worked has become on central theme in German politics. Chancellor Friedrich Merz warns that four-day work weeks and an overemphasis on “life balance” will not sustain the country’s prosperity. The data they are striking: German workers enjoy longer vacations than the legal minimum, numerous holidays and an average of 19 sick leave a year, compared to 16 before the pandemic, a change that experts attribute more to culture than health. Scandals like that of a teacher on leave since 2009 receiving full salary have reinforced the perception that labor laxity is unsustainable. The roots of the phenomenon. They counted in the Washington Post that specialists maintain that it is not about laziness, but rather structural barriers. Almost half of German women work part-time, a figure that exceeds 65% in the case of mothers, which translates into one of the largest gaps in full-time equivalent employment in the entire EU. Historical factors also weigh in: in West Germany, working mothers were stigmatized like “crow mothers”while in the East, under the socialist model, full-time employment was promoted with daycare from an early age. Currently, cultural differences and a child care system with short hours persist that prevent many families from holding full-time jobs. Proposals and resistances. The experts match in which expanding daycare centers and extending their hours would be decisive, but technical solutions collide with politics. Changing the tax system from joint to individual filing could add the equivalent of half a million jobs full-time, but it is perceived as “anti-family” and difficult to approve. For their part, businessmen they claim less bureaucracy and more immigrationwhile some researchers advocate for simple reforms that free up hidden work hours. However, government responses have been considered timid and insufficient, and the feeling of postponement persists. The four-day elephant. Paradoxically, while political leaders call for more work, more and more companies are experimenting with shorter work weeks. In 2024, 45 companies will test the four day week with equal salaries and reduced hours, with positive results: higher productivity per hour and more satisfied employees. The majority of these firms plan to maintain the model, consolidating the trend in favor of free time. Thus, Germany moves between two poles: a productive system that suffers stagnation and pressure to lengthen working hours, and a society that increasingly values ​​life outside of work, drawing a clash of visions that puts not only the economy, but the identity of the country at stake. Image | International Tr In Xataka | Germany seeks a revolutionary change in its labor system: making working more hours profitable In Xataka | Germany tried working four days a week: seven out of 10 companies no longer want to work five days a week A version of this article was originally published in September 2025

They believed they had found jobs in large companies. In reality they were being deceived: this is how the trap works

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Looking for a job is already hard enough without having to be suspicious of every message that arrives in your inbox. And yet, that is exactly what the campaign that has warned about proposes. NordVPN: a trap set up to look like a real opportunity. We are not talking about a clumsy email or a sloppy website, but rather something much more refined, with names like Meta, Disney, Coca-Cola or Spotify as a claim. That’s the key to everything: they play with the illusion of those who believe they may be on the verge of an interview or a new job, when in reality they are entering into a fraud. The investigation alerts of a campaign of phishing specifically aimed at job seekers. The attackers have set up an attack chain in several phases that impersonates large brands and seeks to take the victim to a very specific point: a false login screen with which they intend to keep their Facebook credentials. Let’s see in detail the strategy of these cybercriminals. The mechanics behind fraud that imitates real selection processes It all starts with cold recruitment emails, carefully written and with a professional tone that seeks to resemble real human resources communications. It is not a minor detail that some of these shipments are made through legitimate services such as Google AppSheetbecause not only can that help you avoid spam filters, it also helps make the scene more believable to the person on the other end. The trap, at least at the beginning, is not presented in a crude way, but with a very careful appearance. From there, one of the most peculiar pieces of the entire chain appears: the so-called “HUB” domains. According to the investigation, these are pages that do not show their most sensitive content to anyone who enters directly. If a security analyst or an automated system visits that domain without coming from the specific link included in the email, what they find is a generic website, with hardly any visible activity. The truly important part is only activated when the visit arrives from that specific reference, which acts as a key and reveals the next step of the deception. The next move of the campaign is to give the victim exactly what they expect to see after a convincing recruitment email: a website that looks like a job portal. The research explains that, after that first access, the user lands on a intermediate domain which simulates a legitimate job offer portal and where you can consult positions that seem real and associated with the company whose identity they are impersonating. The more the scene resembles a normal job search, the easier it is for the person to interpret everything that comes after as a logical part of the same process. Campaign replicates legitimate job pages and uses Facebook login as hook The decisive moment comes when the victim clicks on “Request” or “Send request”. That click does not open a job form or a next phase of the supposed selection process, but rather a phishing page that asks you to log in with Facebook to continue. That’s where the trap stops insinuating itself and begins to execute its true purpose. All of the above was designed to lead to that exact point, one in which the request may seem like another simple verification within the application, when in reality what is being delivered are the account credentials. The supposed job opportunity was nothing more than the decoration of an operation with a much more specific purpose. According to the research, the final objective is steal Facebook credentials and thus obtain access to the victim’s account, with the possibility of also compromising other services connected to it. That’s why it’s a good idea to stick with a practical idea: before entering any credential, you should check the URL carefully, check that you are on the official domain, and be wary of any strange login. Images | Xataka with Grok | NordVPN In Xataka | AI is crucial for the US military. So he’s naming OpenAI and Palantir leaders as lieutenant generals

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