81.4% of households with at least one member between 16 and 74 years old have some type of computer (desktop, laptop, tablet …), which represents an increase of 0.5 points compared to 2019.

This is how It emerges from the latest Survey on Equipment and Use of Information and Communication Technologies in Households corresponding to 2020, which has just been made public by the National Institute of Statistics (INE). By type of device, 76.2% have desktop or laptop computers and 58.4% have tablets.

The mobile phone is present in almost all households (99.5%, with an increase of one point compared to 2019). For its part, the landline continues its decline and it is available in 71.1% of households, 3.8 points less than in 2019.

More than 15.5 million households with at least one member between the ages of 16 and 74 (95.3% of the total, compared to 91.2% in 2019) have access to the Internet by fixed and / or mobile broadband.

The main type of broadband connection is through fixed modes (fiber optic or cable network, ADSL…), which is present in 82.1% of households (regardless of whether they also have a mobile connection). For their part, 13.2% only access the Internet through a mobile connection (3G or 4G…).

The mobile phone is already present in almost all householdsn (in 99.5%)

The percentage of households with fixed broadband increases the larger the size of the municipality. Thus, it reaches 85.5% in those with more than 100,000 inhabitants or provincial capitals, compared to 73.7% in those with less than 10,000 inhabitants.

For their part, households with higher incomes have a fixed broadband connection to a greater extent than those with lower incomes. While the latter have a higher percentage of access only by mobile devices.

96.2% of households with a net monthly income of 2,500 eurosor more have fixed access and 3.6% do so only through mobile. On the contrary, among households that earn less than 900 euros, the percentages are 62.7% in fixed access and 23.2% only through mobile.

More and more minors with mobile
The use of new technologies by minors is, in general, very widespread. Computer use is very high (91.5% of minors compared to 89.7% in 2019) and even more so is Internet use (94.5%, 92.9% in 2019).

Almost 70% of kids between the ages of 10 and 15 have a mobile phone, three points more than in 2019

On the other hand, 69.5% of the population aged 10 to 15 has a mobile phone compared to 66.0% in 2019. By sex, girls use new technologies to a greater extent. By age, the use of ICT grows as the age of minors increases, especially after 13.

93.2% of people aged 16 to 74 have used the Internet in the last three months (2.5 points more than in 2019). This represents a total of 32.8 million (with an increase of more than one million users).

By frequency of use, 91.3% connect at least once a week (3.6 points more than in 2019), 83.1% daily (5.5 points more) and 81.0% several times a day (6.1 points more).

The activities most carried out in the last three months by the population aged 16 to 74 have been: using instant messaging services, such as WhatsApp (by 89.5%, 85.1% in 2019), searching for information on goods and services (78.3%, 72.9% in 2019) and telephoning or making video calls over the Internet (77.7%, 54.9% in 2019).

64.7% of the population aged 16 to 74 have participated in the last three months in general social networks (such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter or YouTube). This percentage is 6.1 points higher than in 2019. The most participatory are students (93.8%) and young people between 16 and 24 years old (93.0%). By sex, the activity of women (66.4%) is higher than that of men (62.9%).

The average estimated cost per buyer ‘online’ reaches 274 euros, nine euros more than last year

Almost 19 million people, 53.8% of the population aged 16 to 74, have bought online in the last three months for private reasons, compared to 46.9% in 2019. 62.6% have bought in the last 12 months (58.0% in 2019).

The average estimated cost per buyer reaches 273.8 euros , an increase of 9.1 euros compared to 2019. In total, 93.6 million purchases are made. 51.2% bought some product in physical format; 30.2% clothing, shoes or accessories (bags, jewelry), 16.1% deliveries from restaurants, fast food, catering and 14.0% sporting goods.

During the last 12 months, the products most purchased on the Internet were clothing, shoes or accessories (39.6% of the population purchased them), computers, tablets, mobile phones or accessories (24.2%) and sporting goods (the 22.0%).

On the other hand, 35.7% of people aged 16 to 74 have downloaded a product or subscription over the Internet in the last three months , 18.6% software (including updates), 15.6% movies or series in streaming and 11.3% games online or downloaded.

The father of the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee, has proposed to redirect his little offspring so that “users have control of their data.” An adventure that he launches with his ‘startup’ Inrupt through the Solid platform.

Through this tool, Berners-Lee wants to force large organizations and governments to build applications that respect privacy and give citizens the power over their data. The one that gave rise to the web is now seeking to make a 180 turn to that model where the technology giants offer their services.

“As we have all discovered, this has not been the best for us,” Berners-Lee has repeated on more than one occasion in the past.

This open source platform and developed by the MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) is underway since this week for governments and companies to give a total update to the web and control return to citizens. Solid will be “a fundamental change that will not only restore users’ confidence in their data, but will help them improve their lives,” Berners-Lee explains on his personal blog.

The idea of ​​returning to a more just and decentralized internet has been in the head of the father of the web since 2018. “Every once in a while a large social network drops a large amount of private data,” he says.

“We have assumed in the past that we have to use these social networks because the world works that way, but that idea is being challenged on several fronts,” he points out.

This initiative, says Berners-Lee, “is not just about privacy, but about access.” The objective of the Solid platform is not to bring together all the data in one platform so that they are more accessible to companies, but rather that citizens are able to control them and see what access they have to them.

It is, according to its creators, a large warehouse distributed by personalized blocks baptized as pods. “The big difference with other similar web or mobile communication proposals is that it is the user who decides who can access this information and the owner of the application must ask the user for permission to view it,” they say.

Ahead of this week’s big launch, Solid has already been working in the shadows with companies and executives. The British BBC, the UK National Health Service and the Flemish Government in Belgium have already been Solid and Inrupt’s first testing grounds.

At least from theory, the pandemic has been an obstacle to dating or simply to relate to other people. It has never been an easy task but now with masks and required distances it is a challenge.

The dating applications are a good way to meet people and in recent times, many who have shown their commitment to the development of new tools that make the safer experience .

Tinder and Badoo were pioneers in offering security functions for women and now the Spanish startup Kiki, in addition to putting a price on meetings, implements an SOS button to guarantee the safety of its users.

To ensure security, the user must verify their identity and can share their location during meetings. In addition, it has the SOS button in the app, which connects directly with the national emergency number.

The application, which was launched in Spain in April 2018, differs from others in that it shares a fee with its users. The person who wants to meet another, pays him a small amount in KiKi Coins in order to guarantee the meeting and, in return, the one who accepts it, wins up to 70% of those virtual currencies that he can invest in experiences with other users in establishments with which they have agreements.

30% keep the app. The appointment is guaranteed from the moment it is paid and does not depend on the reciprocity of the ‘matches’.

«We share the benefits with users, monetizing their free time. Users usually buy the 150 KiKi Coins package, with which they can make up to 15 invitations ”, says Rubén Juan, Co-Founder and CTO of the platform.

You have to register, with a photo, and enter basic information (name, age, tastes and hobbies). It works by geolocation, so you have to activate that option. The interface of the application is similar to that of any other of this type.

The platform offers the user several plans with different fixed rates: for example, have a coffee (5 euros), go to the cinema to see a movie (10 euros), have a drink (15 euros), share a dinner in a restaurant (20 euros) and even travel to another city (100 euros).

Fertility treatments involve many visits to the clinics to be able to do all the monitoring of the process. Or they entailed, since one of these specialized centers has designed a new formula to allow those procedures to continue to be performed without the need to go in person.

Although there are no official figures, the covid-19 pandemic has led to a significant decrease in cases in the field of assisted reproduction. Several estimates made from surveys carried out in these centers, at national and European level, calculate that one in three treatments is no longer carried out.

Juana Crespo, a doctor at one of these fertility clinics, considers in any case that “what is really important is to find a balance between those women who cannot hopelessly wait” on the path of becoming mothers. For this reason, he has devised a new system so that patients can follow up from home.

“The process guarantees that the follow-up of the cycle is similar (saving physical distances) to what would be done in the event that the patient had to come to the clinic,” he explains. The objective is to reduce face-to-face trips to one or two, and that the rest of the treatment is carried out at home.

“With only three ultrasounds we can monitor the patient’s stimulation process, and with two we can know if she is perfectly prepared for transfer”, defends Crespo.

With this system, the clinical history of the patient is made by phone or video call. The results of other medical tests (such as laboratory tests) can also be sent without having to go to the center.

Regarding the gynecological examination and the follow-up of the cycle, the clinic explains that they provide the necessary tools so that the patient can undergo a guided gynecological examination at home and assessed remotely by her gynecologist in real time.

When the gynecologist considers that the patient is ready for the ovarian puncture, it will be the first moment in which she has to go to the clinic. Later he will return for the transfer of the embryos.

The objective is to limit the face-to-face visits of the person who is undergoing the fertilization process to a minimum «Beyond the consultation itself, which is covered by a gynecologist at all times, it is about bringing the clinic closer to the patient, putting the whole team and our work at her home through different telematic means “, argues this doctor.

Juana Crespo recognizes, however, that not all cases can – at least, at present – be monitored remotely. “We are working to try to make them the maximum number,” he adds, also stating that the results are “exactly the same as we would get if the patient came to the clinic.”

Covid-19 has destroyed families, has blown up the way of living and relating to practically the entire planet and has ruined millions of businesses. In Spain, the hospitality industry is a true reflection of the damage caused by SARS-CoV-2.

The hospitality industry is made up of more than 300 thousand establishments that employ 1.7 million people and has a sales volume of 123,612 million euros, with a contribution of 6.2% to the GDP of the Spanish economy. That’s before the pandemic, since restrictions have put 25,000 people in the service sector laid off in November.

The limited capacity and hours, the arrival of the cold or the forced closure of bars and restaurants has caused the goodbye of historical establishments, but also the reinvention of many. Digitization is the key tool for the survival of many of them.

“There was already a great run run in the hospitality sector with digitization, but sometimes you need an electroshock to accelerate that process,” says Carlos Gómez, CEO of Cheerfy, to this newspaper.

According to the Juntos por la Hostelería platform, made up of the Hospitality Industry of Spain, FIAB and AECOC, more than 40,000 restaurant businesses have already closed; and this figure is expected to rise to 65,000 establishments by year-end.

Many establishments have reinvented themselves and have opted for take-out or home delivery. Two solutions that have allowed to avoid the blows of the crisis derived from Covid-19.

“It is true that there is no clear vision that this is going to be a long-term strategic bet,” says José de Isasa, director of institutional relations at ElTenedor. “For some, for example, it is temporary,” he points out.

The emergence of these two new lines of business and the inability to go to the restaurant, “has accelerated the arrival of technology to the restaurant,” says Gómez. However, on many occasions those requests have been entered by hand and all valuable information has been lost in the age of big data.

“There is a lot to do,” the Cheerfy CEO tells this newspaper. This startup, born simultaneously in the United Kingdom and Spain, works as a customer loyalty platform for the hospitality sector, through the personalization of non-intrusive experiences. “We have been working with the sector for 15 years and we have more than 1,000 tools that help to have a more efficient management,” he says.

Now, together with ElTenedor, they join forces “to continue supporting the catering sector in these difficult times.” Both companies have reached an agreement to offer an attractive solution for the client, very easy to implement, that integrates seamlessly with their management systems and that allows them to efficiently process customer orders from start to finish, including the shipping process.

“The Spanish restoration is tremendously heterogeneous in terms of digitization”, details the director of institutional relations of ElTenedor. “It is very fragmented and there is a great digitization deficit,” he adds.

This agreement will allow to reach more than 12,000 establishments and that they can optimize resources. “The agreement with Cheerfy responds to what restaurants are demanding at the moment: personalization of their proposal, transparent integration with their administration and management systems, a simple and cost-efficient solution and a transparent migration for the restaurant business”, he says in a statement Marcos Alves, CEO of ElTenedor.

The irruption of Cheerfy in the market comes with the aim of “creating a loyalty platform for the hospitality industry”, comments Carlos Gómez. “We wanted to detect the customer, profile him and give him a personalized service.”

The arrival of the covid-19 closed the rooms and the business moved to home delivery. This 180 degree turn also changed, in part, the objectives of the startup. Reduce your customer commissions and data ownership.

According to Gómez, Cheerfy’s proposal offers two differential advantages: we provide much more profitability through our own channel compared to the marketplace, 10 points less in the average ticket, and because we do not offer a solution whereby customer data remains in the hands of the restaurant themselves.

This agreement with ElTenedor offers restaurants a personalized customer experience with the restaurant’s brand and hosted on their own website and “above all an attractive solution for the customer that allows them to efficiently process customer orders from start to finish.

In addition, thanks to this collaboration, the restaurants associated with ElTenedor that hire Cheerfy Shop will benefit from a 25% discount on the start-up of the service.

A year has passed since the first confirmed case of a ‘strange disease’ that the Government of China located for the first time in the province of Hubei: COVID-19.

Twelve months later, the SARS-CoV-2 virus, the pathogen that causes this disease, has claimed the lives of more than one million 417 thousand people and has infected more than 60 million around the world, according to data from the University Johns Hopkins.

This month, the first signs that the world may soon have an effective tool to fight the pandemic came with the publication of results from Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca , which showed that their doses against the new coronavirus work at different percentages.

And while these results offer hope for the end of the pandemic, there are those who think about when the next could come … yes, pandemic. One of those people is Bill Gates.

The Microsoft co-founder this month started a series of podcasts with actress Rashida Jones (which you can listen to on this link ) called Bill Gates and Rashida Jones Ask Big Questions.

In his first podcast, Gates estimated that the next pandemic to hit the world may be quite close. “If we do well, it will come in 20 years, but we have to assume it could come in three years,” he said.

Gates assured that if this were to happen, the next pandemic will have a less destructive effect than that caused by COVID-19 thanks to the experience of recent months.

“Most countries will respond like Australia and South Korea, with extensive testing and quarantines. Our testing tools will be much better. We will not be so stupid on that occasion,” he added.

Every time a report is published on the level of innovation in European countries, Spain appears as the student who receives the report card and a “needs to improve” is reflected. Last November, the European Union published the “European Innovation Scoreboard” (EIS for its acronym in English) and Spain is a “moderately innovative” country.

However, the latest EIT Awards 2020 granted by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology, the center in charge of promoting excellence in higher education, research and innovation within the European Union, has made it clear that Spain innovates.

“Spain was one of the countries with the most representation among the finalists in the EIT Awards”, explains to this newspaper Andreu Climent, Ramón y Cajal researcher at the ITACA Institute of the Polytechnic University of Valencia and founder of Corify.

Indeed, one of those finalists and ultimately the winner of the EIT Award 2020 is Climent himself with his medical project Corify. “In Spain we are innovators”, he points out as soon as he receives the recognition of the European institute.

“It is true that we are not a country where there are many facilities, among other things because all this requires many resources and it is difficult to get them,” he points out.

His latest work started ten years ago in a study between the Polytechnic University of Valencia and the Gregorio Marañón Hospital in Madrid. Now, Corify Care, as the startup born from this research is called, gives a new impetus to its journey.

“Many resources are required, because in the end the research phase, being complex and expensive, is almost the cheapest of all,” says Climent. One of its funders is the EIT itself, which now adds 50,000 euros more with the award, “We have managed with private capital to start part of the development, although we need more funds,” he details.

The work of Climent and the entire Corify Care team focuses on curbing cardiac arrhythmias.

This pathology affects more than 10 million people in Europe and statistics indicate that one in three adults will suffer an arrhythmia throughout our lives. “In Spain there are about a million people who suffer from chronic cardiac arrhythmia,” says the recent winner of the EIT Award 2020.

A figure that may be small, but in which “our health system spends more than a billion euros a year just on hospitalizations and maintenance of people with a pathology that, on top of that, dividing their life expectancy by two”, he adds.

The main problem is that for more than half of the patients there is no effective treatment. Patients transition between drugs, defibrillations, and multiple invasive interventions, and in approximately 50% of cases without success.

There are a large number of cardiac mapping systems on the market, but the vast majority are invasive and require introducing catheters into the heart before knowing if the treatment will be effective.

The work of a decade of the team led by the Spanish researcher is reflected in a technology that only by recording 128 electrocardiogram signals and with a 3D reconstruction of a patient’s camera, «is capable of reconstructing the volume inside the patient as if we could see the heart and see what is happening within it, “he detailed to this newspaper.

“We are the only company in the only company that has the patents and that has developed that technology. This allows us, for the first time, to be able to teach clinicians what is happening in the heart without inserting a catheter or without the need for surgery.

At the moment, the Corify Care device is being tested in several Spanish hospitals and is also being tested and awaiting validation at Stanford (United States).

There are a large number of cardiac mapping systems on the market, but the vast majority are invasive and require introducing catheters into the heart before knowing if the treatment will be effective.

However, the interventions are complex, expensive, not without danger, and can only be offered to a very small number of patients (3-5%), and what is worse, their long-term efficacy rarely exceeds 65%.

“I like the application of engineering within in biology and we have always been working very closely with patients,” says Climent. “When you are working in the operating room you realize how sometimes up to half of cardiac surgeries are not effective and patients have to repeat the surgery without it working.

You realize that technology is needed, that before making the decision to introduce a patient to an operating room, it can help a clinician to see if it will work.

Now, they are awaiting clinical validation in 2021, “but we need to be audited by regulatory agents.” So they do not wait for approval “until the end of 2021 or the first half of 2022,” he says.

Being an astronaut renowned with space missions in the Discovery and the International Space Station has not served the Minister of Science and Innovation, Pedro Duque (Madrid, 57 years old) to lead the A gency European Space (ESA, its acronym in English), a position for which he announced his candidacy last July.

The Spanish minister has not managed to gather the necessary support against the Austrian Josef Aschbacher, current head of ESA’s ground observation programs, who has taken advantage of the minister.

The name of the Austrian candidate, engineer by profession and doctor of natural sciences,It has been circulating for days among the specialized press of the sector and has even reached social networks, although the Agency maintains that the process is still open.

“The ESA will not reveal any details until the process is closed,” said sources from this body. Although the final decision will be known tomorrow, at the end of November the evaluation committee decided to “nominate” Aschbacher, which already indicated the preferences of this intergovernmental organization dedicated to the research and development of space programs.

The representatives of the 22 countries that make up it will be in charge of voting tomorrow for the new general director who will replace the German Jan Wörner, in office since 2015 and whose mandate ends in June next year. However, the current head of the Norwegian space agency already congratulated the Austrian yesterday on Twitter.

With this blow to Duque and Spain, the third international defeat of the Government in this type of candidacy is certified . Before that, there was already the defeat of the Minister of Economy Nadia Calviño to preside over the Eurogroup, and Arancha González Laya resigned to opt for the position in the World Trade Organization.

In his Twitter account, the president of the Popular Party, Pablo Casado, said that given the information that points to Aschbacher as the next director of the Agency, “Spain continues to lose international weight with the Government of Sánchez.”

resident Andrés Manuel López Obrador presented on Thursday the ethical guide for the transformation of Mexico, a document designed to, he said, strengthen the values ​​in the country.

“It is a similar document, although in light of the new times, to the document that Alfonso Reyes drew up at the time, the moral primer,” he added.

The committee in charge of preparing the document is made up of Jesús Ramírez Cuevas, spokesman for the Presidency; José Agustín Ortiz Pinchetti; Verónica Velasco Aranda; Pedro Miguel Arce Montoya; Enrique Galván Ochoa, and Margarita Valdez González.

In this regard, Ramírez Cuevas pointed out that monitoring of this document is not mandatory.

“The adoption is voluntary. This document is a reference, it is not a law, it is not a norm; it is a document for debate and reflection,” he stressed.

These are the 20 principles and values ​​set out in the guide.

1. Respect for difference . Let’s avoid imposing ‘our world’ on the world of others.
2. Of life. There is nothing more valuable than life, liberty and security of people.
3. Of dignity . No one should be humiliated.
4. Of freedom . Peace and freedom are inseparable. No one can be at peace without freedom.
5. Of love . Love of neighbor is the essence of humanism.
6. Of suffering and pleasure . There is no greater joy than the happiness of others.
7. From the past and from the future . Those who do not know where they come from hardly know where they are going.
8. Of gratitude . Gratitude is the greatest virtue of a good person.
9. Of forgiveness . Forgiveness liberates whoever gives it and whoever receives it.
10. Of redemption . Evil must not be faced with evil.
11. Of equality . Good law must moderate opulence and destitution; there can be no equal treatment between unequals.
12. Of the truth, the word and the trust . Do not lie, do not steal, do not betray.
13. Of the fraternity . To be fraternal is to make the problems of others your own.
14. Of laws and justice . Outside the law, nothing; above the law, nobody. All for reason and law; nothing by force.
15. On authority and power . Power only makes sense and becomes virtue when it is put at the service of others.
16. From work. There is no greater satisfaction than having a job and enjoying it.
17. Of wealth and the economy. The richest is not the one who has more, but the one who is more generous.
18. Of the agreements . The commitments are fulfilled.
19. From the family. The family is the main social security institution in Mexico.
20. Of animals, plants and things . By taking care of water, air, land, plants, animals and things, we all take care of ourselves.

How will the guide be distributed?
López Obrador stressed that the document will be printed “in a considerable quantity” as it will be distributed to the more than eight million older adults who receive government support.

“So that they are the ones who, voluntarily in their free time, can transmit and analyze with their children and grandchildren what is said in this guide,” he added.

The Bitcoin and other digital currencies tumbled on Thursday, a fall likely stoke speculation about the durability of the boom criptomonedas.

The digital currency falls 10.94 percent, to 17,273.16 dollars, this at 7:48 am in Mexico City.

The Bloomberg Galaxy Crypto Index fell more than 6 percent at one point.

“There is a massive overbuying of conditions and they are heading for a correction,” said Vijay Ayyar , head of business development at Singapore-based crypto exchange Luno. “So I don’t think it’s unusual, frankly.”

Even with the pullback, bitcoin has gained more than 100 percent this year and was until recently approaching the record high of $ 19,511, set in 2017.

Cryptocurrency fans point to purchases by retail investors, institutions and even billionaires , as well as seeking hedging against the weak dollar from the pandemic, as reasons the boom may last.

Skeptics argue that the famous volatility of the cryptocurrency heralds a repeat of what happened three years ago, when a bubble burst in spectacular fashion.

Some see signs that retail investors are concentrating to take advantage of momentum and make quick profits.

Concerns about the possibility of stricter U.S. cryptocurrency rules, as well as profit-taking, help explain the price drop in most major digital assets, said Ryan Rabaglia, global head of operations at OSL brokerage. Hong Kong.

“It is also not unusual to see a short-term pullback after periods of significant and accelerating advances as traders look to take profits, before settling back when volatility subsides,” he said.

“Once the dust has settled, we will go back to business as usual, with all the medium and long-term bullish indicators there.”

Proponents of digital assets indicate that the current attention on cryptocurrencies compared to three years ago is different, due to growing institutional interest, for example, from companies like Fidelity Investments and JPMorgan.

This week, Van Eck Associates has released an exchange-traded Bitcoin note on Deutsche Boerse Xetra. In October, PayPal announced that it would allow its customers to access cryptocurrencies.

There is also noise around ethereum, the world’s most widely used blockchain, which is going to undergo a network upgrade that would allow it to process a similar number of transactions to Mastercard and Visa . The change to the new system could curb the supply of ether, whose price has quadrupled so far this year.

Luno’s Ayyar pointed out that he expects bitcoin to stabilize and reach all-time highs. But that would be followed by a bigger drop in the cryptocurrency, he noted.