With wind speeds falling, firefighting reinforcements arriving from out of state, and more water sources online, authorities now have a critical window to take control of the situation.

In a conversation with AfD leader Alice Weidel on X, Musk concurred with her assertion that Adolf Hitler was a communist and pushed disinformation about migrants coming into the US.

Its no secret at this point that launching as a PS5 exclusive ended up hurtingFinal Fantasy 7 Rebirthssales, but Square Enix is finally set to bring the open world action RPG to a larger audience soon with a PC port. Ahead of its release, the publisher has released a new trailer that highlights some of the upcoming versions platform-specific features.As previously confirmed, in addition to a variety of visual enhancements (including improved lighting, textures, and more), on PC, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirthwill also feature support for DLSS, be able to run at up to 4K and 120 FPS, feature three different graphical presets (on top of plenty of individual options), as well as support for keyboard and mouse controls or, alternatively, the DualSense controller. Check out the trailer below for more details.Final Fantasy 7 Rebirthlaunches for PC on January 23. Check out its full system requirements through here, and read our review of the PS5 version through here.

Following its early access launch in 2022, it didnt take long forV Risingto become an instant sensation, and since then, it has continued to sell at an impressive pace. In fact, in the aftermath of its long-awaited 1.0 release and PlayStation launch in 2024, Stunlock Studios acclaim survival game has hit yet another major sales milestone.The indie studio has announced thatV Risinghas now sold over 5 million units worldwide. Thats up from 4 million units sold as of last April, so clearly, it has maintained steady momentum. Doubtless, the games extensive post-launch support which also included an elaborateCastlevaniacrossover expansion will also have contributed to its enduring success. And according to Stunlock Studios CEO Rickard Frisegrd, theres more still on the horizon.Hitting 5 million sales isnt just a number, its a testament to the passion and dedication of our team and our incredible community, Frisegrd said in a press release. Our players enthusiasm drives us to push boundaries and deliver even more unforgettable experiences. Were excited to build on this success and deliver thrilling new experiences and content in 2025.As per Stunlock,V Risingsnext major update will add a new biome, new faction, revamped progression, additional PvP options, customizable castle arenas, and more.V Risingis currently available only on PC and PS5.

After two days of dealing with wildfires that have burned thousands of acres, residents across Los Angeles County received a wildfire evacuation alert on Thursday afternoon that was a mistake. Shortly after, officials sent a follow-up alert saying that the notice was intended only for people near the Kenneth Fire in Woodland Hills.Los Angeles County shared a message on X explaining what happened: An evacuation order for residents near the Kenneth Fire currently burning in West Hills was mistakenly issued Countywide. This alert was only intended for residents of Calabasas and Agoura Hills.CBS News quotes a local official who said that the alert, which included a broken URL, was sent due to a technical error.This is the alert to disregard the other evacuation warning. Image: The VergeMany wildfires are burning in the LA area, and officials have confirmed at least six deaths, CNN reports. LA County has a population of nearly 10 million people, which is the largest population of any county in the nation, according to the countys website.

Apples weird iPhone alarm problems are still happeningApples weird iPhone alarm problems are still happening / Some iPhone owners are still complaining about alarms that fail to go off on time, nearly a year after Apple said it was working on a fix.By Umar Shakir, a news writer fond of the electric vehicle lifestyle and things that plug in via USB-C. He spent over 15 years in IT support before joining The Verge. Jan 10, 2025, 12:09 AM UTCShare this story Image: SatechiApple acknowledged issues with the reliability of the iPhones built-in alarm feature last April after a report by NBCs Today morning show and said it was working on a fix, but some people are still having trouble. Android Authority points out this Reddit post by bryanlolwut in the r/iPhone subreddit from Wednesday with a picture of an iPhone with an Alarm set for 10:30, but the alarm goes off at 12:42 instead the time displayed on an Apple Watch.Late into Thursday, many Reddit users are still commenting on the thread, saying theyre having similar issues.My morning alarm was displaying as going off while making no sound and no haptics for 40 minutes, said Slawek_Zupa. Another post says their alarm went off at 5PM when it was supposed to go off at 7AM.The reports in the thread today include people still using iOS 17 and others who have updated to iOS 18 with Apple Intelligence.Some say theyve tried turning off Apples Attention Awareness Features, which can reduce the alarm volume when it goes off if the iPhone detects your face. However, it hasnt solved the problem for many, and you lose out on features like seeing full notifications on your lock screen.Weve asked Apple if theyre still looking into this problem, but we have not received a response yet. Personally, Ive also noticed my iPhone sometimes doesnt make sounds or vibrate in the morning, but it does drop down a lifeless notification as if it did. Luckily, Ive got a Google Pixel 8 Pro as a backup that usually gets me going, and Im trying the Nintendo Alarmo, too, but my wife has had enough of Zelda yelling at Link to wake up.Most PopularMost Popular

Micro maker of those electric bubble cars found in some European cities has a new Microlino especially for Americans. The all-electric Microlino Spider is dubbed the anti-pickup truck and is meant to be a golf cart replacement. No, not for use on fairways, but at expansive resorts and so-called golf cart communities where well-heeled urbanites can retire in the relative safety of walkable villages with low-speed roads.Americans dont just drive large cars. In fact, the US is the worlds biggest market for golf carts, where theyre often used for personal transport within neighborhoods, says Wim Ouboter, founder and chair of Switzerland-based Micro. Thats exactly why we created the Microlino Spider.Consider it the antithesis to massive electric pickup trucks not built for the 5 percent of trips where you need to haul a lot, says Ouboter, but for the 95 percent of trips where you are alone.The Microlino Spider features an open-door and roof design to make it easy to jump in and out from the sides. Thats a marked departure from thehighway-legal Microlino Dolce I reviewed last year, or the slowerLite versionthat only requires a moped license both of which you enter through the vehicles hinged face to the delight of onlookers.For the moment, Micro is calling the Microlino Spider a concept, but says its intent on bringing the micro car to the US as a more stylish and safer alternative to golf carts, ideal for personal errands or commuting. Its now gauging interest from partners such as dealer groups, leasing companies, and other entrepreneurs interested in bringing this new vehicle category to the country.Unfortunately for Micro, Americans are increasingly drawn to larger and more dangerous vehicles. Just about every truck and SUV sold today is bigger than they were 20 years ago. And those behemoths make up about 80 percent of vehicles sold in the US. Experts have warned that the bigger the vehicle, the bigger the risk to pedestrians and cyclists of injury or death. Micros anti-pickup truck may not solve this particular problem. But more small car options is undeniably a good thing in a society overrun by rolling land yachts.

Multilingual applications and cross-lingual tasks are central to natural language processing (NLP) today, making robust embedding models essential. These models underpin systems like retrieval-augmented generation and other AI-driven solutions. However, existing models often struggle with noisy training data, limited domain diversity, and inefficiencies in managing multilingual datasets. These limitations affect performance and scalability. Researchers from the Harbin Institute of Technology (Shenzhen) have addressed these challenges with KaLM-Embedding, a model that emphasizes data quality and innovative training methodologies.KaLM-Embedding is a multilingual embedding model built on Qwen 2-0.5B and released under the MIT license. Designed with compactness and efficiency in mind, it is particularly well-suited for real-world applications where computational resources are constrained.The models data-centric design is a key strength. It incorporates 550,000 synthetic data samples generated using persona-based techniques to ensure diversity and relevance. Additionally, it employs ranking consistency filtering to remove noisy and false-negative samples, enhancing the quality and robustness of the training data.Technical Features and AdvantagesKaLM-Embedding incorporates advanced methodologies to deliver strong multilingual text embeddings. A notable feature is Matryoshka Representation Learning, which supports flexible embedding dimensions. This adaptability allows embeddings to be optimized for different applications, ranging from 64 to 896 dimensions.The training strategy consists of two stages: weakly supervised pre-training and supervised fine-tuning. Over 70 diverse datasets were utilized during fine-tuning, covering a range of languages and domains. Semi-homogeneous task batching further refined the training process by balancing the challenges posed by in-batch negatives with the risk of false negatives.KaLM-Embedding also benefits from its foundation on Qwen 2-0.5B, a pre-trained autoregressive language model. This architecture enables effective adaptation to embedding tasks, offering an advantage over traditional BERT-like models.Performance and Benchmark ResultsKaLM-Embeddings performance was evaluated on the Massive Text Embedding Benchmark (MTEB). It achieved an average score of 64.53, setting a high standard for models with fewer than 1 billion parameters. Scores of 64.13 on Chinese-MTEB and 64.94 on English-MTEB highlight its multilingual capabilities. Despite limited fine-tuning data for some languages, the model demonstrated strong generalization abilities.Ablation studies provided additional insights. Features like Matryoshka Representation Learning and ranking consistency filtering were shown to enhance performance. However, the studies also highlighted areas for improvement, such as refining low-dimensional embeddings to further boost effectiveness.Conclusion: A Step Forward in Multilingual EmbeddingsKaLM-Embedding represents a significant advancement in multilingual embedding models. By addressing challenges such as noisy data and inflexible architectures, it achieves a balance between efficiency and performance. The open-source release under the MIT license invites researchers and practitioners to explore and build upon this work.With its robust multilingual performance and innovative methodologies, KaLM-Embedding is well-positioned for diverse applications, from retrieval-augmented systems to cross-lingual tasks. As the need for multilingual NLP solutions continues to grow, KaLM-Embedding serves as a testament to the impact of high-quality data and thoughtful model design.Check out the Paper, Models, and Code. All credit for this research goes to the researchers of this project. Also,dont forget to follow us onTwitter 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)

At CES 2025, we had the chance to see everything new Razer was showing off which ran the gamut from practical to extravagant. Some new products are refreshes like the updated Razer Blade 16 laptops outfitted with the upcoming Nvidia RTX 5090 mobile GPUs, and some are proofs of concept that are in the far future like the in-game AI coach called Project Ava. Here's a rundown of our hands-on experience with Razer Blade 16 Laptop (2025) with RTX 5000-series GPUsWith the announcement of Nvidia's new RTX 5000 series GPUs, Razer also revealed the updated models of its Razer Blade gaming laptops. We were able to see the Blade 16, specifically, in action and got a breakdown of all the notable changes. One big shift is that this lineup is moving from Intel to AMD for the CPU; top-of-the-line models will be using the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370. This is said to help power efficiency without losing performance, which makes room for the slight increase in power draw of the new RTX 5000-series GPUs.At just 0.59 inches in thickness, this refresh is also 32% thinner than the previous model. However, the keyboard has upped the travel distance to 1.5mm to feel closer to a low-profile desktop keyboard. As for memory, the RAM will be soldered to help keep the form factor slim; you'll be able to get the new Blade with 16GB, 32GB, or 64GB of memory. The Blade 16 still rocks the OLED display with a 2560x1600 resolution (QHD+) and 0.2ms response time. The new Razer Blade laptops will be available sometime in Q1 2025 and prices will vary depending on the model and configuration of specs.Laptop Cooling Pad and HyperBoost for Blade LaptopsRazer has been showing the Laptop Cooling Pad for a while now, but now we got to see the final design. It's akin to an elevated laptop stand with a large high-velocity 140mm fan underneath it. There are three different frames that magnetically snap into place on top of the Laptop Cooling Pad to properly handle the airflow and internal cooling solution of various laptops. Razer also showed off HyperBoost, which is preset in the Razer software that will keep Blade laptops (2023 models and on) running at peak performance as the Laptop Cooling Pad works at max capacity to prevent overheating. There is also an input hub that includes three USB-A ports and separate buttons that control fan speed and Chroma RGB lighting manually.The Laptop Cooling Pad launches on January 30 for $149.99 and is available to pre-order on the Razer Store.Gaming Handheld Device DockRazer Gaming Handheld Dock - PhotosWith so many handheld gaming PCs hitting the market beyond the Steam Deck and Asus ROG Ally, accessories such as a dock (akin to what the Nintendo Switch has) are increasingly useful. Razer is coming out with a universal dock for PC handhelds that is able to prop-up your device of choice, charge it with its 100W passthrough, and output to an external display. The stand is adjustable and able to angle your handheld regardless of the device's size. It connects to handhelds via USB-C and acts as a hub with multiple ports: gigabit ethernet port, four USB ports, and HDMI out.Project Ava: In-Game AI Coach and GuideWhat's arguably the most interesting thing Razer showcased was Project Ava, a voiced in-game AI assistant and coach. We saw it in action alongside a MOBA and it's able to analyze in-game situations in real time and provide insights on the spot. It's also able to look at your performance afterward and breakdown the things you did well and the ways you can improve with post-match analysis; you can think of it as an esports coach via AI. We asked Razer about the ethical boundaries when it comes to the possibility of providing an unfair advantage, and a Razer representative stated that Project Ava has built-in boundaries so it's not able to pull data that players aren't privy to or tell the player what to do based on probability analysis. Razer said it's conscious of abiding by terms of service agreements to make sure Project Ava is compliant across different games.The PC and small server unit running Project Ava.Project Ava isn't just for competitive multiplayer games; it's also built for single-player games to act like a real-time game guide. We saw it working with Black Myth: Wukong and Project Ava guided the player through a boss battle by mentioning the visual cues for enemy attacks, phase changes in the fight, and advising on the best windows to attack. Those are early examples of what Project Ava can do, and it'll evolve as it's applied to more games. A beta for Project Ava is planned for sometime this year.Project Arielle: Gaming Chair with Hot-Cold AirflowAnother early concept Razer was showing off was Project Arielle, which is a mesh gaming chair with heating and cooling fans built into it. Project Arielle works off the Razer Fujin Pro chair for its mesh design and uses bladeless fans around the frame of the chair to create airflow of up to 30C for heat, or cool things down by 2C to 5C according to Razer. There's a control panel on the right side along the seat to control the chair's settings. We were able to experience Project Arielle with the model that was at CES 2025, and the difference in temperature settings were noticeable and the mesh upholstery with the lumbar support was comfortable for the short period we used it.PC Remote Play (Beta)Razer had a live demo of its PC Remote Play, which is exactly what you think it is. Through the Razer Nexus app, you can set a home PC to be the host machine and access your entire library on any Android or iOS device with the Razer app. While there are other programs that have similar capabilities like Parsec, Razer said it's focusing on wider compatibility and seamlessness with your game library while also providing full resolution and fidelity with minimal latency. Chroma Reactive Lighting and Immersion EcosystemIn one of the more extravagant demos, we were able to play Dune: Awakening in an entire room outfitted with Chroma Reactive Lighting, including the new Aether Standing Light Bars. The room featured Razer's Aether lighting products with light strips around the walls and reacted to the color palette that was on-screen in real-time. There was also THX spatial audio and Razer Sensa haptics on the Freyja chair and Wolverine controller to round out the experience. It was an impressive display of what Razer products are capable of when all working in unison, although I would say it's impractical for most people. Aether lights are powered through USB-C and connect to devices via Wi-Fi for customization on Razer's apps.Chroma Monitor Stand and Input HubLastly, we saw the Chroma Monitor Stand, which is one of the more straightforward accessories Razer had on display. Aside from Chroma lighting for a bit of aesthetic flair, it can also act as an input hub (connecting to your PC via USB-C) featuring two USB-A ports, two USB-C ports, and an HDMI 2.0 to connect to another external display. The stand itself can hold up to 44 pounds (20kg) and has rubber pads on the bottom for stability. At 19.7 inches long, it's able to house a full-size keyboard underneath it in case you want to save desktop space when it's not in use.Everything at CES 2025

Throughout the ongoing wildfires, California officials have relied on emergency alerts to communicate with citizens. This system is an important way for officials to communicate with citizens instantly across iPhone and Android devices. On Thursday evening, however, a wildfire evacuation alert went out to everyone in Los Angeles even though it was only meant for a subset of residents. Shortly after 4 p.m. PT on Thursday, an emergency alert was sent to all iPhone and Android users in Los Angeles County instructing people to evacuate: NEW: This is an emergency message from the Los Angeles County Fire Department. An EVACUATION has been issued in your area. Remain vigilant of any threats and be ready to evacuate. Gather loved ones, pets, and supplies. Continue to monitor local weather, news, and the webpage alertla.org for more information.The alert quickly caused chaos on social media, with LA County residents questioning the legitimacy of the evacuation order. Around 20 minutes after the alert was sent, Los Angeles County took to X to say it was only meant to be sent to residents of Calabasas and Agoura Hills: An evacuation order for residents near the Kenneth Fire currently burning in West Hills was mistakenly issued Countywide. This alert was only intended for residents of Calabasas and Agoura Hills. After 22 minutes, an updated emergency alert was sent to all LA County residents: Disregard last evacuation warning. It was for Kenneth Fire Only. According to CBS News, the mistake was due to a technical error. Officials urge residents to visit the LA County website for the most up-to-date information on wildfires currently burning.This isnt the first time a false emergency alert has caused panic. In 2018, people in Hawaii woke up to a terrifying emergency alert on their iPhones about an inbound ballistic missile threat. This alert ended up being due to a failed drill. Lead image via Elana 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