Year

I’m not leaving Easter this year without an eSIM on my mobile: these are the ones I’m considering

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I’m going on vacation for a few days at Easter and the last thing I want is worries. Not having Internet on your mobile is something that can be avoided by arriving at your destination and using roaming, public WiFi or buying a SIM from a local seller. What’s happening? That the first thing can cause a scare on the mobile bill, that the second may be unsafe and the third, a torture. Because I want to avoid this (and also because I admit that I like to have everything tied up before getting on a plane), I’m going to get an eSIM these days. It is installed on the mobile in just a few minutes and in a simple way, without using any skewer. Besides, you can leave it configuredto and, when you arrive, have Internet on your mobile to take a look at Google Maps or to use WhatsApp, for example. {“videoId”:”xa0p3mw”,”autoplay”:true,”title”:”How an AI DEVICE saved me 1 month of taking notes: This was my experience with PLAUD NOTE PRO”, “tag”:”Webedia-prod”, “duration”:”1611″} I’m still not sure which one I’m going to choose, but I can show you. the eSIMs that I have on my radar right now. eSimFLAG This company offers unlimited data plans at quite attractive prices, especially now that it has an active promotion. Using the code ‘XATAKA’, we get three days of free unlimited data by signing up for four days or more. A practical example: six days of eSimFLAG in Argentina have a price of 21 euros, but if we use the code above, the final amount remains at 10.50 euros. Saily Another top option is offered by Saily, a company owned by NordSecurity (which is also behind NordVPN, one of the best VPNs). That translates to being a very secure and easy-to-use eSIMbut it also offers very good prices. Here we must keep in mind that Saily does not offer unlimited plans, although the ones it offers are very interesting, especially if we are going to be away for a long time. For example, thirty days of eSIM in Argentina costs 5.29 euros (with 3 GB of data). Air it Airalo is an option halfway between the previous two in terms of plans, since it allows us to choose if we want a fixed amount of data or prefer unlimited data. That makes it versatile.plus it is also easy to install. Returning to Argentina, for a 7-day trip, having an eSIM with 3 GB of data costs 9 euros. If we prefer unlimited data, then the price is 31.50 euros for the same period of time. Hellofly One of the most popular eSIMs for travel is Holafly, which also offers unlimited data. It is an interesting alternative if you plan to spend a lot of data, watching videos, for example. It is also quite configurable, being able to choose the number of days and the number of days we are going to travel. Repeating destination, seven days in Argentina of unlimited data come out 33.90 euros (that is, 4.84 euros per day). In Compradicción El Corte Inglés offers a 50% discount on the coffee maker with integrated grinder that fits in any kitchen 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 | FreePik, eSimFLAG, Saily, Airalo, Holafly In Xataka | From eSIM to SIM: how to go back to the physical card if you regret the change In Xataka | How to request an eSIM from each operator in Spain: in which cases it is free and application methods (function() { window._JS_MODULES = window._JS_MODULES || {}; var headElement = document.getElementsByTagName(‘head’)(0); if (_JS_MODULES.instagram) { var instagramScript = document.createElement(‘script’); instagramScript.src=”https://platform.instagram.com/en_US/embeds.js”; instagramScript.async = true; instagramScript.defer = true; headElement.appendChild(instagramScript); – The news I’m not leaving Easter this year without an eSIM on my mobile: these are the ones I’m considering was originally published in Xataka by Juan Lorente .

A year ago, the blackout caused the Spanish data network to collapse. The CNMC believes it has the solution

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In April 2025 Spain suffered a zero energy of which, precisely now, we are going to begin to pay some of its consequences. I remember quite clearly being cut off, not being able to call or send messages via data connection. However, when I changed locations and arrived at my relatives’ houses, some of them could do it. The fall of telecommunications It was uneven in Spainand the CNMC has published a document with preventive measures in case a similar situation occurs again. What happened. The energy blackout that left Spain plunged into darkness resulted in a large part of the population being cut off from communication. However, some operators They managed to keep their mobile network active for hours. Backup generators, generating sets moved to each area, backup systems… The challenge for operators to maintain coverage in Spanish territory was a titanic challenge, quite dependent on internal logistics, the state of the reserve batteries (some of them run on fuel), and the network infrastructure itself They were variables that influenced such unequal conditions to be experienced. A single network. In its statement, the CNMC proposes that the four giants of the Spanish territory put roaming plans at the service of the population in emergency cases. The experience of other countries shows that it is viable to incorporate roaming plans between operators in case of emergency. In this way, in areas where this was necessary due to the unavailability of service in an operator’s mobile network, the networks could be prepared to quickly enable the basic telecommunications services of the affected users through roaming in the networks of other operators. According to the regulator, this is an “ideal measure to strengthen resilience”, but it is not so easy to apply. Yes, but. What the CNMC proposes is a cross-roaming service between Telefónica, Vodafone and MásOrange, something that requires coordination and agreement between the three giants. The best example is Sweden where, after two years of preparation, any mobile phone can connect to any operator. Go deeper. In addition to this proposal, the CNMC requests the mandatory nature of the alert system HANDLE in those cars with DAB+ radio receivers (the evolution of FM radio). Although DAB+ works via antenna (like AM and FM radio), its signal is digitally encoded. The ASA system allows you to automatically activate a DAB+ radio connected to power, being able to quickly launch alerts. At the moment, there is a distance from proposal to fact. In Xataka | Europe has a million reasons to fear an increase in the price of electricity. Spain has something else: renewables

We have been talking about “time immemorial” all our lives as if it were a remote past. Well it’s a specific year

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You’ve heard it a thousand times. Someone is talking about a custom, a tradition, a deep-rooted habit and suddenly, to underline that idea, they pompously claim that it dates back to “immemorial times”. You, too, have probably uttered that phrase more than once. What you may not know is that “immemorial times” does not take us back to a very distant and diffuse past of which there is no written record, but to a date very specific and not so remote: the summer of 1189. That is, just under 840 years ago. To understand it you have to travel to medieval England. Of laws and customs. It’s easy to forget when you get a fine, but living in a world regulated by clear laws is a fortune. For example, if you believe that your neighbor has taken something that belongs to you, you know exactly what to do: find a lawyer, go to court and appeal to legislation that applies equally to everyone. In medieval England the thing was more complicated. Justice was dispensed, but in a way that would seem rudimentary to us today. “Until 1275 law in early medieval England was constantly evolving and was based largely on the idea of ​​long usage, custom and royal decrees,” explains Amy Irvine in Histoy Hit. “The legal framework was decentralized, with no unified or systematic legal code for the entire country. Individual regions and communities had their own local courts and were governed by customary laws developed over time. These rules were often unwritten and passed down from generation to generation.” putting order. Over time that framework evolved. An important change came with the ratification of the Magna Carta of 1215, which placed certain restrictions on royal authority. Another (key) was completed in 1275, with the Statute of Westminstera document that codified the laws in force throughout the kingdom. Throughout his 51 chapters The statute addresses issues such as criminal legislation, the rules that regulate commerce or an issue that may seem minor to us today but in its day played a fundamental role: consolidated rights. As Irvine recalls, during the reign of Henry II (1154-1189), as the legal system consolidated, more and more people began to defend their rights, claiming legitimacy over plots or grazing areas. What arguments were they using? The custom. Often those who claimed a right relied on the fact that they had enjoyed it for a long time. The problem was how to prove it. The Statute of Westminster wanted to clarify that point with an ingenious solution, one that played with the idea of ​​’memory’. “Immemorial” times. Basically what the statute of 1275 did was divide history into two large blocks, at least for legal purposes. What divided them? The ‘legal memory’. On the one hand, there was the vast period that came to be considered ‘time immemorial’. On the other hand, the valid ‘memory time’. Today it may sound far-fetched to us, but it made sense in the eyes of medieval Englishmen. At that time one of the arguments usually used in property trials was oral tradition transmitted from one generation to another. That is, someone claimed a piece of land arguing that their father, grandfather, great-grandfather… claimed that they already farmed on that plot of land. The Statute of Westminster wanted to put some order in this mess, establishing a time of ‘legal memory’, a border between an oral company and another regulated in writing. What exactly did he do? “It became the date of legal memory,” explains Russell Sandbergprofessor at Cardiff University, in statements reported by IFL. That is, he established a framework that anyone who wanted to defend that something had happened “since” time immemorial “had to adhere to.” The change also had important advantages for English landowners, who until then had to go back several centuries, until the norman conquest of 1066, to demonstrate the validity of their property titles. One year: 1189. The next question is obvious: What barrier separated ‘immemorial’ time from the time of legal memory? What year made the difference? The answer is 1189, the year of the coronation of King Richard I of England, better known as Richard the Lionheart. Taking into account that the Statute of Westminster dates back to 1275, this means that legal memory was limited to 86 years, a reasonable time to use the testimonies of parents and grandparents. ‘Immemorial time’ thus became limited (at least in the eyes of medieval English law) to any time prior to the summer of 1189. When exactly? It is not easy to define it. There are those who set the exact border July 6 1189, the day of Richard I’s accession to the throne after the death of Henry II. Others delay it until his coronation, September 3 of that same year. Laws… and something more. That 1189 was chosen as the temporal border also has a symbolic reading: by choosing that date, Edward I paid tribute to his predecessors, the monarchs Henry II and Richard I, which in a way also served to reinforce his legitimacy on the throne. The truth is that the formula worked and still today is used frequently the concept of “time immemorial”, although those who use it do not always have Richard I and medieval legislation in mind. For the RAEFor example, “immemorial” is that time “so old that there is no memory of when it began.” Images | Andrik Langfield (Unsplash) and Wikipedia In Xataka | In the Middle Ages it was common to sleep inside wooden closets. The big question is why we stopped doing it.

Psychology says that the best time of year to set resolutions is not January 1: it is now in spring

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It is a classic among many people: reach January 1 and resolve to go to the gym, eat better, learn a language or quit smoking. But in many cases by mid-February this purpose has already been abandoned and waiting for a new year to start the cycle again. We usually blame our lack of willpowerbut science has a much more compassionate and practical explanation, since, according to experts, winter it’s not the best time to change life. The real mental and biological “reset” happens now, in spring. It has a name. The basis of this phenomenon is known in psychology as the “fresh start effect.” Here our mind does not perceive time as an uninterrupted continuum, but as a book divided into several chapters, so the change of season, birthdays or the beginning of the month act as temporal milestones in which we seek to make this change in a lifestyleFor example. Because? Having a temporal milestone for the brain has an interpretation, and that is that it creates a psychological barrier that allows us to disconnect of our “imperfect self” from the past who, for example, smokes or doesn’t go to the gym. This is something that was demonstrated in 2014 in an investigation where it became clear that these symbolic dates such as birthdays restructure our temporal perception. Precisely in one of their experiments they compared how participants reacted to the same date presented in two different ways. The results. Based on this study, they compared two different dates: The first day of spring, since we are facing a temporary milestone and specifically 25.6% of respondents chose to set reminders to start new goals right here. In comparison, a normal day of any day was used, such as Thursday, where only 7.2% of participants showed motivation to make a habit change. That is why, comparing this data, it was seen that such a simple change of perspective can quadruple the intention to pursue healthy goals, causally validating that emphasizing a milestone as a “new beginning” triggers our motivation. The spring. Here the question we can ask ourselves is if the new year is also a temporal milestone because we begin a new year… Why is spring superior? The answer lies in biology and the environment. And while in January we are coldshort days and the dreaded economic downturn, in spring we have a progressive increase in sunlight. An environmental factor that joins a series of physiological advantages. When we talk about spring ‘altering blood’, we are not telling lies because it has been seen that sunlight raises serotonin and dopamine levels, drastically improving mood, increasing energy and a willingness to make changes. Furthermore, the end of winter eliminates physical and psychological barriers such as external cold and frees energy to begin investing it in creating habits. Motivation is not enough. Logically, we talk about factors that help, and seasonal change gives a boost to people. Psychologists here explain that the new seasons offer us the ideal mental framework to “evaluate” and plan fresh strategies without the weight of guilt from previous failures. However, there is a warning backed by scientific consensus: although symbolic dates are excellent psychological catalysts for starting a habit, the initial motivation always wanes. That is why, for the habit to last beyond the spring fever, it is strictly necessary to accompany this “rush” of energy with a solid structure, realistic routines and repetition systems. Images | Mink Mingle In Xataka | Three morning habits that will help you be happier and more productive at work, according to science

A robot rental industry has been created in China that has plunged prices in a year, but it has an asterisk

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From spring 2025 to winter 2026, renting a humanoid robot for a business event in China has gone from costing between 10,000 and 20,000 yuan a day to being listed at 1,796. Robot dogs already cost 78 yuan a day in JD.comless than 10 euros. A drop of 80% in twelve months. Why is it important. Beyond the price war, this is the first real scale laboratory in the humanoid robot business, and what happens says a lot about the real state of an industry that moves a lot of money in financing but still needs a human behind each machine. In figures: Between the lines. The most interesting number in this matter is not any of the above, but this: every robot deployed today arrives with a human engineer behind it. This technician assumes transportation, calibration, live operation and unforeseen events. The actual model is not ‘Robot as a Servicebut rather ‘Robot + Person as a Service’. The logic of SaaS (marginal costs that approach zero when scaling) does not apply here. Each new unit in the catalog implies a new payroll. The bottleneck is therefore not in the supply of machines, but in the supply of people capable of operating them. The context. Qingtianzu, the platform controlled by Zhiyuan Robotics and backed by Hillhouse Capital, connects more than 200 suppliers with companies that need robots for presentations, inaugurations or weddings. like a marketplace. During the Chinese New Year, their orders grew by 70% and exceeded 5,000 orders in one week. JD.com saw searches for “robot” increase 25-fold. The demand exists, the problem is the cost structure. Yes, but. Rent has fallen by 80%, but operating costs have barely budged: transportation, engineers, insurance, logistics… Everything remains basically the same.. The payback period cited by operators (about six or eight months) assumes about ten monthly orders at 2,500 yuan on average. But that works during peak demand. Outside of the holiday weeks, that rhythm is broken. The big question. 65% of orders are for entertainment and marketing: robots that dance or parade at fairs and those types of cute but short-lived acts. Intermittent uses by definition. To have a stable base, the sector needs to enter factories, hospitals and logistics. But experts have already warned: the majority of current humanoids are in the “cerebellum” phase, executing instructions without autonomous decision. That jump, according to the most optimistic estimatesit will take about five years. The panoramic. In a matter of months, China has built an industry with funded platforms, distributed logistics and real demand. It is the first country that has brought humanoid robots to the mass market, even if it is to perform in shopping centers and shake hands in dealerships. TrendForce foresees more than 50,000 units shipped in 2026, 700% more. The sector has its own precedent: drones for shows, which did not take off for their industrial uses but for the shows nightlife in cities across China. Robot rental can follow the same script. The difference is that an autonomous drone no longer needs a pilot. The humanoid robot still does. In Xataka | There is a Chinese startup creating the most amazing robots of the moment. It’s called X Square Featured image | Andy Kelly

The question is not whether 2027 will be the warmest year on record, the question is by how much. And the answer lies in El Niño who is approaching us.

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Not one, not two; but three independent forecasts They converge on the same idea: 2027 is being given the face of a record. And in recent days, events have happened very quickly: The Child is at the doors and, from what we know so far, it may be a historic event. This means that next year has a very good chance of becoming the warmest year ever recorded, surpassing 2024 and exceeding the 1.5 degrees of the Paris Agreement. But let’s start with El Niño. ENSO (English acronym for El Niño-Southern Oscillation) is a cyclical, although irregular, climate phenomenon that has large effects on the global climate. Great, in fact. If we exclude the stations, it is the most important source of annual climate variability from all over the planet. During the warm phase (which will now affect us), the lack of trade winds that cool the surface of the equatorial Pacific causes the temperature to skyrocket. And so, through different atmospheric teleconnectionsdisrupts all of Earth’s weather systems. The effects in terms of precipitation change depending on the region (“drier than normal conditions in certain parts of the world, while in others it causes more precipitation. Some countries have to deal with major droughts and others with torrential rains”, says AEMET); but no one escapes from the temperature. What is happening with him? That between the forecasts for December 2025 and those for March 2026, everything has accelerated radically. Although La Niña is officially with us, the chances that we will end up with a strong or very strong EL Niño continue to grow. Above all, since researchers discovered this massive surface heating of the equatorial Pacific caused by Kelvin waves and which has already hopelessly eroded the cold pocket of water that we associate with La Niña. This is the most interesting because, as pointed out by Severe Weather Europe and Climate Impact Companythe parallels with other superChildren They are more than patent. What does all this mean? That, barring a miracle, temperatures are going to skyrocket until they exceed the red lines that we had set for ourselves. Each and every one of the last three years have surpassed 1.4 degrees over the pre-industrial period: 2026 will continue along the same lines, but 2027 has everything “in its favor” to settle above 1.5 degrees. That, translated into natural language, means ‘problems’. Issues? ENSO is a highly variable phenomenon and, in general terms, each phase is unpredictable in terms of intensity, duration, time of year and various interactions. However, the effects are sharp. On the one hand, El Niño causes flooding in California, Central America, northern Peru, Ecuador and large areas of northern and southeastern South America; torrential rains in the eastern-central Pacific islands and central Asia. On the other, is synonymous with droughts in southern Africa, the Sahel, Southeast Asia and, apparently, the Valley of Mexico. In Spain, in addition to the temperatures, it usually coincides with a small increase in rain. Could this rapid warming be indicative of something else? But beyond all this, there is something that worries researchers: that this sudden warming is a symptom of changes between the three phases of El Niño that are faster than they have been until now. Nothing is clear, obviously, but the mere possibility makes experts from half the world nervous. Meanwhile, Image | Climate Realanyzer In Xataka | We don’t know anything about El Niño at this time of year. That’s a meteorological mystery… and good news

in one million euros a year

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Inditex has just presented the best results in its history. For the first time in its history, the company founded by Amancio Ortega has reached 6,220 million, with a turnover that was close to 40,000 million euros. In that context of historical numberswhat its top managers earn draws attention…and not precisely because they are modest figures. Marta Ortega, president of the company and youngest daughter of Amancio Ortega, has been in office for four years and her remuneration has not moved a single euro since it stabilized at one million a year. Meanwhile, the CEO, Óscar García Maceiras, has just raised his salary for the third consecutive year. The CEO who rises while the president remains still. As reflected in the Annual Corporate Governance Report 2025 of Inditex, García Maceiras closed 2025 with a total remuneration of 11.55 million euros, which represents an increase of 3% compared to the previous year and a cumulative increase of 38% since he assumed the position of CEO in November 2021 after the departure of Pablo Isla. Their remuneration is broken down into a block of 7.4 million euros in cash which includes a fixed salary, short-term variable percentage and long-term variable percentage. As and as usual In senior management positions, remuneration is completed with a package of shares or other financial instruments valued at 4.1 million euros. These new shares are added to the 118,329 titles which he already has. This salary growth for the CEO caused the total amount allocated to the board of directors to also increase, going from 14.28 million which they registered in 2024 to 14.5 million euros in the last financial year. One million euros a year: the price of presiding over Inditex. Martha Ortega became president non-executive of Inditex in 2022 and since then her salary has always followed the same line. In his first year he received a salary of 834,000 euros. However, in the following three years and unlike the rest of the directors of the Zara parent company, his salary has remained unchanged at one million euros. Neither the company’s record results nor the increase in dividends to shareholders have moved that figure. Now, that million is not the only income that Marta Ortega receives from her ties to the group. According to published Digital EconomyIn addition to her remuneration as president of Inditex, she receives remuneration for her participation in the boards of directors. of Pontegadea Investments, Partler 2006 and Pontegadea GB 2020, the companies with which the Ortega family controls the textile group and manages the rest of your investments. In addition, its shareholding percentage also brings some dividends, although without reaching the levels that this year Amancio Ortega will receive. A top management that also wins. García Maceiras is not the only one who has seen his income grow after the company’s good results. The joint remuneration of the 19 executives who form Inditex senior management It amounted to 139.5 million euros in the last financial year, compared to 132 million the previous year. That is, an increase of 7.5 million distributed among that select group of managers. In contrast, the average Inditex employee he earned around 40,000 euros in 2025, 5.26% more than the previous year. The difference between what the CEO earned and what a standard employee of the company receives exceeds 280 times. It is a gap that does not go unnoticedespecially in a year in which the company has broken all its historical profit records. ​Amancio Ortega does not care about his salary. There is a surprising fact when the remuneration of the Inditex leadership is broken down. Amancio Ortega, the man who founded the group and who remains its main shareholder with control of more than 59% of the capital through family officehe repeated in 2025 with an allocation of just 100,000 euros per year as a member of the council. Without a doubt, this is a figure that, compared to the 3,234 million euros that it will receive in the context of the dividends that correspond to its participation, has more symbolic than practical value. In Xataka | Marta Ortega has inherited something more than a textile empire: Amancio Ortega’s taste for big logistical bets Image | Wikimedia Commons (Nemigo), GTRES

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

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

We already know how much laptop prices are going to rise this year: absolute nonsense

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If you were waiting until 2026 to renew your equipment, trusting that interesting offers would appear, we have bad news. The laptop market prepares for a perfect storm that threatens to burst retail prices. A reasonable budget until now of about 900 euros will very soon become one of 1,300 euros, and it will do so without the product being better than last year’s. damn memories. The first big culprit of all this is the DRAM memory crisis and NAND storage chips. Supply and demand have remained absolutely unbalanced with the rise of AIand that has caused a tragic situation for end users. If previously these components represented 15% of the manufacturing cost, in 2026 they will represent more than 30% of those costs. Making a laptop is simply much more expensive today than it was yesterday. Intel doesn’t help. As if this were not enough, processors are also rising in price. Intel has already made a move by increasing the cost of its entry-level and previous generation CPUs by more than 15%. In fact, it is likely that things will not stop there: it is expected that by the second quarter of 2026, its mid- and high-range processors will also follow the same path, which will further suffocate manufacturers’ margins. And of course that will end up having the same impact: even more expensive equipment. The dictatorship of profit margins. Manufacturers are governed by elementary but unassailable financial mathematics: profit margins. So that both brands and stores continue to earn the same, the increase in costs ends up being passed on entirely to end users. The result is devastating: a 900 euro laptop could see its price increase by 40%. And here it is not that brands want to earn more: it is that manufacturing that laptop costs 58% more just in CPU, memory and storage. Manufacturers and stores therefore assume part of the impact, but of course most of it is received by users. According to TrendForce, the combined price increase of memory, SSDs and CPUs will cause the “bill of materials” for manufacturers to increase by 58% compared to 45% in the first quarter of 2025. Source: TrendForce. Technological eviction. For months we have been talking about how this fever for AI data centers has caused DRAM and NAND chip manufacturers to completely change focus. Before they manufactured for humans, now they do it for machines. This has caused a “technological eviction” effect in which chips for PCs and laptops are left without room in factories. The offer is reduced to the minimum expression because what is really profitable now is Micron, SK Hynix or Samsung is to make memories for AI chips. Small brands in danger. This crisis does not affect everyone equally. Large manufacturers can negotiate better prices and secure inventory thanks to their purchasing volumes, smaller and local brands are suffering especially. They face volatility that could leave them without inventory or with prices so high that they would be out of the game against large manufacturers. AMD is no longer the refuge of yesteryear. Historically, when Intel rose in price or had stock problems, AMD emerged as an even more relevant alternative. Now the situation is so critical that the shortage is also affecting the firm led by Lisa Su. It is true that AMD has gained market share thanks to its competitiveness, but there are already reports of lack of supply in its entry range. The uncertainty continues. The TrendForce study is clear: the coming quarters will be decisive to be clear about how this unique segment will turn out. With weak demand and skyrocketing production costs, the consumer is faced with an unsustainable situation: buy what’s left in stock now, or accept that the “standard” laptop may have risen in price forever? The era of the cheap PC could have come to an end, although there are striking surprises, such as the one Apple has proposed with the MacBook Neowhich goes just against the grain: it is modest, yes, but also an affordable option at a time when users are most stressed. Good play by Cook and his boys. The alternative: used equipment and components. Faced with this situation, users can resort to a plan B that is not ideal, but that offers them a certain escape. This is where refurbished products could make more sense than ever, and where the second-hand market may mean that users may prefer not to go for the latest of the latest – from this year – and opt for the latest of the latest – from last year. If many do it, of course, there is the other danger: that even those reconditioned and second-hand products also rise in price. In Xataka | RAM manufacturers have grown tired of technology companies buying “just in case.” So they got serious

It only costs 16 euros a year

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If you like to take photos and videos non-stop, it is very possible that your phone’s storage is shivering. Of course, you always have the option of pulling a portable SSD or even have an HDD as a safe photo album at home. But if you want to be able to access your files from everywhere, the ideal is a cloud storage service. Google Drive, iCloud and other US services reign there, but there are real alternatives in Europe. As there are more and more users searching depend as little as possible on services from this countryEuropean services are beginning to gain popularity. One of them is Interxt Drive, a cloud storage of Spanish origin that, among many other things, has a quite attractive price: with the code ‘XATAKA‘ you have 1 TB of storage per 16 euros per year. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Cloud storage that even comes with VPN The price we indicate above corresponds to the most economical Internxt modality, which is called ‘Essential’. With it we will have 1 TB of storagea figure that is not bad at all. Although this is the most notable, we cannot ignore that it is a quite attractive price if we take into account, among other things, that it comes with two extra tools: VPN and antivirus. Let’s now talk about the service itself. We have pointed out above that with Internxt we would be betting on a cloud service that does not depend on large US companies, but that is not the only incentive that the platform gives us. It is also very secure, since it uses ‘Zero Knowledge’. What does it imply? That, despite the fact that their servers are going to store our files, Internxt cannot access them. Privacy is important for this service. In fact, It is open sourceeitherso anyone can access and audit it. Thus, it is practically impossible for it to hide any type of back door or secret route so that your data ends up in the hands of third parties. Transparency above all, something that, added to its end-to-end encryption, also makes it a secure option. If we want more capacity, we can jump directly to their ‘Premium’ plan, which offers 3 TB of capacity and costs 31 euros per year. Not only does it have more room for your files, but it also adds some extra features like ‘Version history‘. This allows you to go back to previous versions of files, which is ideal to avoid losing data if you overwrite them by mistake. 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 | Internxt In Xataka | Google Drive alternatives: the best cloud storage services for your files In Xataka | Best VPNs 2025: guide with the 17 best services to protect your online privacy

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