Plaion CEO steps down 31 years after co-founding Koch MediaDeputy CEO Phil Rogers will assume leadership News by Vikki Blake Contributor Published on Jan. 8, 2025 Plaion CEO Klemens Kundratitz is stepping down 31 years after he co-founded the company then known as Koch Media.From April 2025, Kundratitz will move into a strategic advisory role for Embracer as he "moves away from day-to-day operations" to "take a step back and spend more time with his family."Deputy CEO Phil Rogers will assume leadership."I'm delighted to be handing over my CEO duties to Phil," Kundratitz said. "I know he will do an outstanding job, as he has the perfect leadership and vision to build out Middle-earth & Friends, continuing Plaion's excellent momentum."It has been an absolute pleasure to build this company, and I am honored and thankful to have worked with our fantastic teams worldwide," he added. "I could not have asked for a more exciting and rewarding role in the entertainment industry and I am proud of what we have achieved together."Phil Rogers said: "Klemens has dedicated so much of his life to Plaion and has built an incredible legacy, a cornerstone of the European entertainment industry. I am excited to begin working closely with Plaions leadership team as we create our new business unit Middle-earth & Friends."Kundratitz and co-founder Franz Koch founded Koch Media as a software distributor in Germany, Austria and the UK in 1994 and is responsible for franchises like Metro, Dead Island, and Kingdom Come: Deliverance. It now employs over 2000 people in 15 countries after it was acquired by Embracer Group in 2018.

Bluetti has two new flagship energy storage kits for the home and beyondBluetti has two new flagship energy storage kits for the home and beyond / The Apex 300 is a portable DIY solution, while the EnergyPro 6K requires professional installation.By Thomas Ricker, a deputy editor and Verge co-founder with a passion for human-centric cities, e-bikes, and life as a digital nomad. Hes been a tech journalist for almost 20 years. Jan 8, 2025, 8:00 PM UTCShare this storyTwo Apex 300 units with several expansion batteries. Image: BluettiBluetti just took the wraps off its EnergyPro 6K and Apex 300 energy storage systems. The EnergyPro 6K is a fixed whole-home backup solution, while the modular Apex 300 is designed to provide portable power when at home, at an off-grid cabin, at a job site, or during an RV trip. Both systems can scale in capacity and power to support your individual needs.The launch is all part of Bluettis rebranding around three series of power solutions: EnergyPro products that require professional installation, Apex systems for advanced energy demands, and the smaller Elite lineup of portable power stations and solar generators for more casual use.The Apex 300 features 3840W of max AC output and 3072Wh of LFP battery storage. It can be combined with the companys B300K, B300, and B300S batteries, including future expansion batteries yet to be announced. The Apex 300 has an idle power draw of 20W, according to Bluetti, which is pretty efficient for such a large inverter that can simultaneously support both 120V and 240V loads.The Bluetti Apex 300. Image: BluettiMultiple Apex 300 units can be linked in parallel to increase the maximum output to 11.52kW enough to power just about any home device or EV. Storage capacity can be expanded to 58kWh with three units and 18 battery packs to keep an entire home running for a few days in the event of a blackout, or much longer if youre only powering critical devices like the fridge, HVAC systems, and water pumps. It supports up to 30,720W of solar input and is expected to be available in April in the US.Two worry-free owners of a pair of EnergyPro 6K units connected to an AT1 Smart Distribution Box. Image: BluettiBluetti bills the EnergyPro 6K as a reliable, affordable and cost-effective home energy solution ideal for small to medium-sized homes. It can be configured with 5.8kW to 29kW of power output and between 7.68kWh and 38.4kWh of LFP battery storage. Its designed to integrate seamlessly into existing rooftop solar systems. It can be paired with a Bluetti AT1 Smart Distribution Box to provide whole-home backup to critical circuits and automatic cutover to a standby generator when needed. Bluetti is also teasing an EnergyPro 13K system, offering 13.2kW to 39.6kW of output and between 9.6kWh and 57.6kWh of storage capacity.The company says that the EnergyPro 6K is expected to be released in Q2 of 2025.No prices were given as part of todays announcement, but you can expect both systems to start in the low thousands, or even tens of thousands if youre looking at a fully specced installation.Most PopularMost Popular

One of the biggest announcements in Nvidia CEO Jensen Huangs CES keynote was the small Project Digits AI supercomputer, and if you want to get an idea of just how tiny the $3,000 machine is in real life, we snapped a couple photos of the device under glass today at the show.Take a look: weve captured the front of a Digits computer in the photo at the top of this post, and below this paragraph is a photo of the back featuring the computers ports. I really like the textured design. Photo by Sean Hollister / The VergeThe Digits computers will come with Nvidias GB10 Grace Blackwell Superchip, which offers a petaflop of AI computing performance for prototyping, fine-tuning and running large AI models, according to Nvidias press release. It also includes a GPU built with Nvidias Blackwell architecture, 128GB of unified memory, and up to 4TB of NVMe SSD storage.This isnt a computer for most people; Nvidia says that Project Digits is intended to provide AI researchers, data scientists and students worldwide with access to the power of the NVIDIA Grace Blackwell platform. It definitely isnt something I will ever buy.But it is impressively tiny given its capabilities small computers have been on a tear lately!

TODAY, An hour agoLauren FeinerMark Zuckerberg is in Threads replies defending his content moderation changes.The Meta CEO is pushing back on critics who say the company is only making its content policy changes because its too hard for people to leave. Zuckerberg shot back that hes counting on these changes actually making our platform better, and while some may leave for virtue signaling, most users will enjoy the changes.TODAY, An hour agoLauren FeinerMetas third-party fact checking contracts will reportedly end in March.The ten fact-checking organizations will continue to receive payments until August, and those who havent signed 2025 contracts could get severance, Business Insider reports. Meta told members of the International Fact-Checking Network that their partnerships were ending just 45 minutes before it publicly announced sweeping changes to its content moderation and fact checking policies.Meta fact-checkers called an emergency meeting. We got inside. Here's what happened.[Business Insider]Here are some of the horrible things that you can now say on Instagram and Facebook Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty ImagesMeta overhauled its approach to US moderation on Tuesday, ditching fact-checking, announcing a plan to move its trust and safety teams, and perhaps most impactfully, updating its Hateful Conduct policy. As reported by Wired, a lot of text has been updated, added, or removed, but here are some of the changes that jumped out at us.These two sections outlining speech (written or visual) are new additions:Read Article >Meta is leaving its users to wade through hate and disinformation Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge; Getty ImageExperts warn that Metas decision toend its third-party fact-checking programcould allow disinformation and hate to fester online and permeate the real world.The company announced today that its phasing out a program launched in 2016 where it partners with independent fact-checkers around the world to identify and review misinformation across its social media platforms. Meta is replacing the program with a crowdsourced approach to content moderation similar to Xs Community Notes.Read Article >Mark, Meta welcome to the party.X CEO Linda Yaccarino commended Mark Zuckerbergs move to ditch third-party fact-checking in favor of a Community Notes-style moderation (inspired by X) onstage at CES. It couldnt be more validating, Yaccarino said. Mark and Meta realized that its the most effective, fastest fact checking, without bias.Mark, Meta welcome to the party, she added.Trump says his threats probably made Meta change its policies.Poor Mark Zuckerberg. Imagine calling the 2024 election a cultural tipping point for prioritizing speech and then the guy who got elected starts bragging about how he threatened you into self-censorship. At least Trump wont throw him in jail?Jan 7Jay PetersZuckerberg says hes moving Meta moderators to Texas because California seems too biased Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge; Getty ImagesAs part of Metas sweeping changes to content moderation announced today, CEO Mark Zuckerberg says that the company will also be moving its content moderation teams from California to Texas to help remove the concern that biased employees are overly censoring content, he wrote on Threads.Were going to move our trust and safety and content moderation teams out of California, and our US-based content review is going to be based in Texas, Zuckerberg says in a video about the changes. As we work to promote free expression, I think that it will help us build trust to do this work in places where theres less concern about the bias of our teams.Read Article >Oversight Board to Meta: hey, remember us?The Meta Oversight Board a semi-independent body that interprets Metas rules and suggests changes has responded to the recent dissolution of the companys third-party fact-checking system. Its statement contains a series of gently worded reminders to Meta that it exists and would very much like to continue existing in the future, pretty please.Oversight Board to Engage with Meta on its Fact-Checking Replacement | Oversight Board[The Oversight Board]Metas fact-checking changes are just what Trumps FCC head asked for Image: Cath Virginia / The VergeI have to commend Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his new policy chief Joel Kaplan on their timing. Its not hugely surprising that, as the pair announced early today, Meta is giving up on professional third-party fact-checking. The operator of Facebook, Instagram, and Threads has been backing off moderation recently, and fact-checking has always been contentious. But its probably smart to do it two weeks before President-elect Donald Trump takes office and nominates a Federal Communications Commission head whos threatened the company over it.Trumps FCC chairman pick (and current FCC commissioner), Brendan Carr, is a self-identified free speech defender with a creative interpretation of the First Amendment. In mid-November, as part of a flurry of lightly menacing missives to various entities, Carr sent a letter to Meta, Apple, Google, and Microsoft attacking the companies fact-checking programs.Read Article >Jan 7Jess WeatherbedMeta abandons fact-checking on Facebook and Instagram in favor of Community Notes Laura Normand / The VergeFacebook, Instagram, and Threads are ditching third-party fact-checkers in favor of a Community Notes program inspired by X, according to an announcement penned by Metas new Trump-friendly policy chief Joel Kaplan. Meta is also moving its trust and safety teams from California to Texas.Weve seen this approach work on X where they empower their community to decide when posts are potentially misleading and need more context, and people across a diverse range of perspectives decide what sort of context is helpful for other users to see. Meta said. We think this could be a better way of achieving our original intention of providing people with information about what theyre seeing and one thats less prone to bias.Read Article >

Microsoft has open-sourced Phi-4, a compact and efficient small language model, on Hugging Face under the MIT license. This decision highlights a shift towards transparency and collaboration in the AI community, offering developers and researchers new opportunities.What Is Microsoft Phi-4?Phi-4 is a 14-billion-parameter language model developed with a focus on data quality and efficiency. Unlike many models relying heavily on organic data sources, Phi-4 incorporates high-quality synthetic data generated through innovative methods such as multi-agent prompting, instruction reversal, and self-revision workflows. These techniques enhance its reasoning and problem-solving capabilities, making it suitable for tasks requiring nuanced understanding.Phi-4 is built on a decoder-only Transformer architecture with an extended context length of 16k tokens, ensuring versatility for applications involving large inputs. Its pretraining involved approximately 10 trillion tokens, leveraging a mix of synthetic and highly curated organic data to achieve strong performance on benchmarks like MMLU and HumanEval.Features and BenefitsCompact and Accessible: Runs effectively on consumer-grade hardware.Reasoning-Enhanced: Outperforms its predecessor and larger models on STEM-focused tasks.Customizable: Supports fine-tuning with diverse synthetic datasets tailored for domain-specific needs.Easy Integration: Available on Hugging Face with detailed documentation and APIs.Why Open Source?Open-sourcing Phi-4 fosters collaboration, transparency, and wider adoption. Key motivations include:Collaborative Improvement: Researchers and developers can refine the models performance.Educational Access: Freely available tools enable learning and experimentation.Versatility for Developers: Phi-4s performance and accessibility make it an attractive choice for real-world applications.Technical Innovations in Phi-4Phi-4s development was guided by three pillars:Synthetic Data: Generated using multi-agent and self-revision techniques, synthetic data forms the core of Phi-4s training process, enhancing reasoning capabilities and reducing dependency on organic data.Post-Training Enhancements: Techniques such as rejection sampling and Direct Preference Optimization (DPO) improve output quality and alignment with human preferences.Decontaminated Training Data: Rigorous filtering processes ensured the exclusion of overlapping data with benchmarks, improving generalization.Phi-4 also leverages Pivotal Token Search (PTS) to identify critical decision-making points in its responses, refining its ability to handle reasoning-heavy tasks efficiently.Accessing Phi-4Phi-4 is hosted on Hugging Face under the MIT license. Users can:Access the models code and documentation.Fine-tune it for specific tasks using provided datasets and tools.Leverage APIs for seamless integration into projects.Impact on AIBy lowering barriers to advanced AI tools, Phi-4 promotes:Research Growth: Facilitates experimentation in areas like STEM and multilingual tasks.Enhanced Education: Provides a practical learning resource for students and educators.Industry Applications: Enables cost-effective solutions for challenges like customer support, translation, and document summarization.Phi-4s release has been well-received, with developers sharing fine-tuned adaptations and innovative applications. Its ability to excel in STEM reasoning benchmarks demonstrates its potential to redefine what small language models can achieve. Microsofts collaboration with Hugging Face is expected to lead to more open-source initiatives, furthering innovation in AI.ConclusionThe open-sourcing of Phi-4 reflects Microsofts commitment to democratizing AI. By making a powerful language model freely available, the company enables a global community to innovate and collaborate. As Phi-4 continues to find diverse applications, it exemplifies the transformative potential of open-source AI in advancing research, education, and industry.Check out Twitter and join ourTelegram Channel andLinkedIn Group. Dont Forget to join our60k+ ML SubReddit. Asif RazzaqAsif Razzaq is the CEO of Marktechpost Media Inc.. As a visionary entrepreneur and engineer, Asif is committed to harnessing the potential of Artificial Intelligence for social good. His most recent endeavor is the launch of an Artificial Intelligence Media Platform, Marktechpost, which stands out for its in-depth coverage of machine learning and deep learning news that is both technically sound and easily understandable by a wide audience. The platform boasts of over 2 million monthly views, illustrating its popularity among audiences. [Recommended Read] Nebius AI Studio expands with vision models, new language models, embeddings and LoRA (Promoted)

It's that time of year. On January 22, Samsung will host its biannual Galaxy Unpacked Event, where they will announce their new line of 2025 Galaxy S smartphones. This is also when preorders go live. In advance of the event, you can place a reservation online in order to get it on some early bird perks if you end up placing a preorder. These include:A bonus $50 Samsung creditUp to $1,250+ in additional savings (most likely from trade-ins)A chance to even their sweepstakes for $5,000 in Samsung creditIf you're even slightly interested in getting your hands on the new 2025 Galaxy S25 smartphone, there's no reason not to reserve. Since this isn't a pre-order, you don't have to place any kind of deposit, and there's no commitment to buy.Reserve the Upcoming Samsung Galaxy S SmartphonePreorders go live on January 22.See it at SamsungAlthough Samsung is tight-lipped about the details, we can infer that the new Galaxy S phones will be dubbed "S25" (last year's series was the S24) and will very likely come in its usual three variants: the Galaxy S25, S25 Plus, and S25 Ultra, with a potential fourth model - the Galaxy S25 "Slim" - being unveiled as well. The Galaxy S24 Ultra was our favorite Android phone of 2024. In our Galaxy S24 Ultra review review, Jacqueline Thomas wrote that "The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra is an incredible smartphone. It might look like yet another Galaxy device, but its titanium chassis and powerful processor makes this a durable gaming phone that can outrace the best of them."The less expensive Galaxy S24 Plus was also a solid winner in our books. In our Galaxy S24 Plus review, Mark Knapp wrote that "The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra is the best Android phone you can buy right now, but at $1299, it really needs to be. This is not only the fastest gaming phone you can buy today, but with its premium Titanium chassis, it might just be the most durable. Samsung is sweetening the deal a bit by adding a huge variety of AI tools, but many of them will probably be forgotten after you've been using the phone for a while. Still, don't let that get you down: if you want a premium Android phone in 2024, it's hard to imagine getting anything else.Since the Galaxy S25 will be Samsung's new flagship phone, we expect improvements across the board. Galaxy S phones are well noted for their excellent build quality and premium aesthetic, powerful components, and a best-in-class camera. The incorporation of AI has been at the forefront of CES 2025 and I expect Samsung to follow suit with its own Galaxy AI algorithm. Rumors abound but concrete details are still wanting. We will all find out soon enough, and if the phone beats expectations, you'd be glad that you reserved in advance.For more big tech news for this month, check out our CES 2025 hub for all of the latest updates.Why Should You Trust IGN's Deals Team?IGN's deals team has a combined 30+ years of experience finding the best discounts in gaming, tech, and just about every other category. We don't try to trick our readers into buying things they don't need at prices that aren't worth buying something at. Our ultimate goal is to surface the best possible deals from brands we trust and our editorial team has personal experience with. You can check out our deals standards here for more information on our process, or keep up with the latest deals we find on IGN's Deals account on Twitter.Eric Song is the IGN commerce manager in charge of finding the best gaming and tech deals every day. When Eric isn't hunting for deals for other people at work, he's hunting for deals for himself during his free time.

If you're looking for Squid Game X codes in Roblox, IGN's got you covered! In this article, you'll find a list of active and working Squid Game X codes in January 2025 that you can redeem for free rewards, including money to spend on outfits in the in-game store.The Squid Game X codes below have been tested as working at the time of submission. However, codes with unknown expiry dates may stop working at any time. Spotted a new code or one has expired? Let us know in the comments!Active Squid Game X Codes (January 2025)Here are all the active Squid Game X codes in January 2025 and the free rewards you get for redeeming them:PENTA: $35 (NEW!)150KLIKES: $55 (NEW!)UPDATE11RELEASE: $75 (NEW!)MINGLE: $45 (NEW!)$100K$: $50 (NEW!)All Expired Squid Game X CodesThe following Squid Game X codes no longer work and can't be redeemed as of January 2025:UPDATE7RELEASE$100M$BAXTRIX_2*100KLIKES*^100MIL^+80KLIKES+75MIL20KCONCHow to Redeem Squid Game X Codes in RobloxFollow the steps below to redeem Squid Game X codes and claim free rewards in the Roblox Experience:Open the Squid Game X Roblox Experience.Once in the dormitory, you'll see a group of tiles on the left side of your screen.Click on the blue bird icon underneath the shopping basket icon to open the Codes menu.Input your code into the "Enter Code" field, double-checking for typos.Press Enter and if active, your code will be redeemed.Why Isn't My Squid Game X Code Working?If the Squid Game X code you're trying to redeem isn't working, it's likely because of one of the following reasons:The Squid Game X code is expiredThere's a typo or accidental space in the codeWhen inputting a Squid Game X code into Roblox, ensure it's spelled correctly and that there are no accidental spaces before or after the code. We'd recommend copying and pasting codes straight from this page to ensure they're correct as we've tested and verified them.If the Squid Game X code still isn't working, it's more than likely expired and can no longer be redeemed.How to Get More Squid Game X CodesOutside of bookmarking this article, the best way to get more Squid Game X codes as soon as they become available is to join the redifi Roblox Community. The creator posts new codes there the second they're released. Meg Koepp is a Guides Editor on the IGN Guides team, with a focus on trends. When she's not working, you can find her playing an RPG or making miniatures.

In the Lost Lands, a film adaptation of a George R.R. Martin short story starring Dave Bautista, has received a wild official trailer.Guardian of the Galaxy actor Bautista stars alongside Milla Jovovich while Resident Evil director Paul W. S. Anderson directs. In the Lost Lands is based on a short story of the same name and the trailer lists a theatrical release "this winter," though Martin himself said March 7 in his latest blog post."A Queen sends the powerful and feared sorceress Gray Alys to the ghostly wilderness of the Lost Lands in search of a magical power, where the sorceress and her guide, the drifter Boyce, must outwit and outfight man and demon," the synopsis reads.Jovovich plays Gray Alys while Bautista plays Boyce, and the trailer shows plenty of action on both sides as well as a handful of meetings between the two.In the Lost Land - Official Trailer StillsThe film has been floating around for almost a decade having been announced in 2015, with Jovovich incredibly cast that early too. It grew dormant for several years before finally emerging again in 2021, and four years later is finally ready for release.The film likely has a lot of pressure behind it given Martin's previous adaptation, Game of Thrones, has become one of the most successful entertainment franchises of all time.Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.

Tiny heroes, huge drama! A REAL BUGS LIFE is back for a thrilling second season thats bigger and bolder than ever. Inspired by the world of Disney and Pixars A Bugs Life, the Disney+ original series from National Geographic takes us on another extraordinary adventure into the micro-bug world where the forces of nature play out on a completely different scale and miniature creatures rely on amazing superpowers to make it through each day.Check out an exclusive clip from the series before its release on January 15!Just a little over a week before the movie drops, Universal decided to reveal the appearance of the titular The Wolf Man in their upcoming horror movie.Awards season is heating up, which means the Gloden Globes have come and gone. Here are the winners from the show this past Sunday, highlighted by The Brutalist and Shogun.The 82nd Golden Globe Awards are well underway tonight, with Nikki Glaser hosting the annual ceremony at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles. Emilia Prez leads the film category with a total of 10 nominations, becoming the most nominated comedy or musical film in Golden Globes history, while FXs The Bear leads the TV category with five. Ahead of the ceremony tonight, Viola Davis and Ted Danson were presented with the Cecil B. DeMille Award and the Carol Burnett Award, respectively.Read more at HypeBeastSpeaking of awards season, SAG announced their nominations for the ceremony.The 2025 SAG Awards nominations have been revealed. Wicked leads this years film nominations with five nods, followed by A Complete Unknown with four nods and Emilia Prez and Anora with three nominations each. All four films are nominated for the SAG Awards top prize of best cast, along with Conclave, which landed two nominations, as did The Last Showgirl.Read more at THRThe NFL Playoffs are this weekend! Discover all you need to know to stay up-to-date with the final 14 teams alive for the Super Bowl.After the Detroit Lions victory over the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday night, all six wild-card matchups for the 2024 NFL playoffs are set. The Lions are the 1-seed in the NFC, while the Kansas City Chiefs are the 1-seed in the AFC. Both teams have byes to the divisional round and home-field advantage throughout the postseason.Join our mailing listGet the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox!Read more about the NFL Playoffs here

If youre experiencing issues sending or receiving money with Apple Cash today, youre not alone. Apple says its Apple Cash service is experiencing a multi-hour outage on Wednesday. The outage is seemingly only impacting Apple Cash, which is Apples peer-to-peer payment platform akin to Venmo, Zelle, and Cash app. If you try accessing your Apple Cash account, youll see an infinitely-spinning loading wheel. The Wallet app may suggest that you need to Set Up Apple Cash, even if youve used it without issue before. Meanwhile, Apple Pay, the contactless payment platform, appears to be functioning normally.Apple Cash users have taken to social media to complain about issues with the service. Apples System Status webpage says there has been an issue with Apple Cash since 10 a.m. ET/7 a.m. PT today.Apple Cash Issue Today, 10:01 AM Ongoing Some users are affected: Some users may experience issues with this service. Theres no word on when this outage will be resolved. Have you had any issues with Apple Cash today? Let us know down in the comments. Follow Chance:Threads,Bluesky,Instagram, andMastodon.Add 9to5Mac to your Google News feed. FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.Youre reading 9to5Mac experts who break news about Apple and its surrounding ecosystem, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Mac on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Dont know where to start? Check out our exclusive stories, reviews, how-tos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel